God Our Friend

Summary

Podcast Summary: "God Our Friend"

Podcast: Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
Host/Speaker: Tim Keller
Episode Date: June 19, 2026

---

Main Theme Overview

In this sermon, Tim Keller explores the biblical image of God as a friend, focusing on Exodus 33–34 and the unique relationship between Moses and God. Keller unpacks why friendship with God matters, what it truly means, how it transforms us, and how it is made possible through Christ. The episode challenges listeners to consider whether they relate to God as an abstract concept or as a personal friend—highlighting that genuine, transforming faith is marked by intimacy with God, not merely knowledge about Him or utilization of His blessings.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Is Friendship with God Important?

• False Religion vs. True Relationship
  • Many settle for a form of religion where God is accessed only in times of need, much as the Israelites initially settled for Moses as an intermediary (05:18–09:01).
  • "This is the religion that people want—God’s power, God’s success, and not actually have to deal with God right smack in the middle of your life…" – Tim Keller (07:58)
• Moses' Plea for God's Presence
  • Moses refuses blessings, guidance, or success if the people can’t have God’s presence among them (09:01–10:04).
  • "You can keep your success, you can keep your power... If we don’t have access to your presence... we don’t want anything else." – Tim Keller (09:34, paraphrased)
• Knowing God Personally
  • Keller ties this yearning for God’s presence to a famous verse from Jeremiah 9:24:
    • "Let him who glories glory in this: that he knows me, personally. Not just knows about me, knows me." – Tim Keller (11:21)

2. What Is Friendship with God?

Keller outlines three hallmarks of godly friendship—paralleling human friendships—with illustrations and biblical texts (13:07–26:12):

a. Friends Often Come Around (Presence)

• Friendship with God requires actively seeking His presence, not just knowing about Him (14:17–16:52).
  • The Hebrew word for “presence” is “face”—real friendship means face-to-face engagement.
  • Illustration: The example of Jonathan Edwards’s encounter with God where “things that you knew about become real to you and he becomes real to you.” (18:01–19:48)
  • "The presence of God is when and where he fills up your senses... things you just knew about come down on your heart." – Tim Keller (16:54)

b. Friends Always Let You In (Transparency)

• True friends share secrets and are vulnerable with each other.
  • Abraham and Moses both exhibit remarkable honesty with God—sometimes challenging Him, always being real (20:42–22:29).
  • "You’re not a friend unless both of you are telling secrets to each other. That’s... friends tell secrets." – Tim Keller (20:47)
  • God also “lets you in” by sharing His secrets: Psalm 25:14 – "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him." (23:09)
  • Friendship thrives on mutual openness—God reveals Himself through His Word, made alive by the Holy Spirit.

c. Friends Never Let You Down (Loyalty/Steadfastness)

• God shows steadfastness by promising to stay with His people.
  • True friends don’t give up on each other in hard times, and friendship with God means sticking with Him even when He seems absent (25:31–26:25).
  • "If you’re God’s friend, you stick with him even when it looks like he’s abandoned you." – Tim Keller (25:54)
  • Over time, those who trust find God never truly abandons them.

3. How Do We Get Friendship with God?

• Moses Longed to See God Fully, but Needed a “Rock” as Mediator (27:29–28:01).
• The ultimate mediator and friend is Jesus Christ (28:01–30:02).
  • Christ the Ultimate Friend
    • Jesus “came around” (incarnation), “let us in” (vulnerable even to death), and “never let us down” (remains faithful at the cross).
    • "Jesus’ arms were open to us. They were nailed open. How much more vulnerable do you want to get?" – Tim Keller (29:32)
    • "Because Jesus Christ was our ultimate friend, we can be friends with God." – Tim Keller (30:06)

4. Friendship with God and Within Community

• Deep connection between spiritual friendship with God and authentic friendships with others (30:19–32:19).
  • "99 times out of 100, you find God through other friends… you generally won’t find the ultimate friend except through friends." – Tim Keller (30:23–31:00)
• Small groups and community are vital for spiritual growth—going beyond sermons to real relational discipleship.

5. Illustration – “The Bride of Frankenstein”

• Keller uses a scene from the movie to portray human longing for acceptance and wholeness through friendship.
  • Our self-image, he posits, is a Frankenstein’s monster of others’ opinions, but a friend’s love gives us a coherent, healed identity (32:32–34:45).
  • "What you need is a friend who will come along with the power of his love, tell you who you are… A friend whose love will completely overcome all those other verdicts and give you a coherent human face." – Tim Keller (34:30)

---

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Transactional Religion:
  • "You pay professionals like me to go meet with [God] and come back and tell you what to do... But you yourself never have a sense that you’re really meeting him, really conversing with him, really touching him." – Tim Keller (12:28–12:52)
• On the Value of Friendship with God:
  • "O rich, O mighty, O wise, that’s nothing compared to what it’s like to know me." – Tim Keller (12:03)
• On Jesus’ Vulnerability as Ultimate Friendship:
  • "Jesus’ arms were open to us. They were nailed open. How much more vulnerable do you want to get?" – Tim Keller (29:32)
• On Community:
  • "Basically, it won’t happen without friends... You won’t be a great friend till you have the ultimate friend. And you generally won’t find the ultimate friend except through friends." – Tim Keller (31:00)
• Closing Reflection:
  • "If I could just find the friend, then I’d be okay. Well, here he is." – Tim Keller (34:49–34:54)

---

Important Timestamps

• [04:35] – Structure of Sermon: Why friendship with God matters, what it is, what it brings, how to get it.
• [07:58] – Keller critiques “religion” that keeps God at arm’s length.
• [11:21] – Reference to Jeremiah 9:24 and the importance of knowing God personally.
• [13:45] – The three marks of friendship: comes around, lets you in, never lets you down.
• [18:01] – Illustration from Jonathan Edwards’ journal about experiencing God’s presence.
• [23:09] – Psalm 25:14: “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.”
• [25:54] – “If you’re God’s friend, you stick with him even when it looks like he’s abandoned you.”
• [29:32] – Jesus’ vulnerability on the cross as ultimate friendship.
• [30:19] – Friendship with others as the main channel for finding God.
• [34:30] – The “Frankenstein” metaphor for self-image and the need for a healing friend.

---

Summary Flow and Tone

Keller’s style is warm, thoughtful, and gently challenging. He uses clear analogies, biblical exposition, and contemporary stories, always aiming to stir longing for authentic relationship with God. The tone is both pastoral and intellectually engaging, inviting listeners to move beyond religious routine to the life-transforming intimacy of being God’s friend.

---

Takeaways for Listeners

• Evaluate: Are you settling for a distant or transactional relationship with God?
• Pursue: Genuine friendship with God is available—marked by presence, transparency, and steadfastness.
• Receive: Jesus makes friendship with God possible through His ultimate act of love and loyalty.
• Connect: Spiritual community is not optional—real growth happens in honest, vulnerable friendships.

---

For more sermons and resources: gospelinlife.com

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

You're listening to the Gospel in Life podcast. What kind of relationship does God actually want to have with us? The Bible uses many images to describe how God relates to us as a father, a friend, a spouse, and a king. Today, Tim Keller takes a closer look at one of these dimensions of God and how it helps us see the depths of his grace and love more clearly.

[Tim Keller]

We're going to read the scripture reading. It's a long scripture reading, and it's about friendship. And because of the friendship between Moses and God, there's a dialogue in the middle of it. And so we're going to read this long piece in a dialogical way. Shel and I will read it with you together. Exodus chapter 33, verse 7, all the way to 34. 8. Now, Moses used to take a tent and pit it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the tent of Meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide, Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent.

[Reader (Narrator)]

Moses said to the Lord, you have been telling me, lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.

[Tim Keller]

The Lord replied, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

[Reader (Narrator)]

Then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?

[Tim Keller]

And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.

[Reader (Narrator)]

Then Moses said, now show me your glory.

[Tim Keller]

And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name. The Lord in your presence, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock when my glory passes by. I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen. The Lord said to Moses, chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there, on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.

[Reader (Narrator)]

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him. And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving, wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers. To the third and fourth generation, Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.

[Tim Keller]

This is God's word. Thank you, Moses. We're doing a brief series on who God is. The thesis of the series is that God is a complex character, like any real person. And the Bible says he's father and friend and lover and king. And if we elevate any one of these images, any one of these metaphors that God himself uses to describe Himself. If we elevate one to the exclusion

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

of the other, or even one in,

[Tim Keller]

to even to greatly favor one over the other, we end up with a one dimensional God, a cartoon God, a God we can't really have personal engagement with. Now today we're looking at this fascinating spot in verse 11 where it says the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. What's friendship with God? Why would God dare call himself our friend? And let's ask the question of the text like this. Why is friendship with God so important? So why, why is it so important then? Secondly, what it is.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And thirdly, what it brings.

[Tim Keller]

And lastly, how we get it, why it's important, what it is, what it brings, how we can get it. Now, number one, why is it important? One, you have to understand this incident here where Moses goes out to the tent of meeting and gets. Gets things from God. You see, for example, it says whenever Moses would go out, all the people rose and stood at the entrance to the tent. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would ask Moses, and then, you know, Moses would go into the tent. What is this all about? It's very simple.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

When God first brought the children of

[Tim Keller]

Israel to Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the plan for the tabernacle. And the tabernacle was to be a tent, the dwelling of God in the

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

midst of the people. All of the, the tents were around, was right in the midst of the people. And the cloud, what is this cloud? This cloudy pillar? It's the glory of God. At day it looked like.

[Tim Keller]

In the sunlight, it looked like a cloud.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

At night it looked like a fire, pillar of fire. And it was the signification of the presence of God. And it was supposed to be right in the midst of the people.

[Tim Keller]

But when Abraham comes, pardon me, when Moses comes down from the Mount Sinai, he finds the great feast of the golden calf.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And, and God says in the beginning of chapter 33, right before this passage, he says, I've got an alternate plan. He says, you're stiff necked. You're too stiff necked for friendship. You're too stiff necked for me to

[Tim Keller]

dwell in your midst.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You don't have the loyalty and you

[Tim Keller]

don't have the heart that is necessary for access to my presence. So here's what I'm going to do.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

He says, first of all, and this is in chapter 33, right before this printed section.

[Tim Keller]

It's not printed.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

He says, I'm going to send an angel with you to Canaan. And I'll drive out your enemies.

[Tim Keller]

I'll make you successful, I'll give you military power. I'll give you economic prosperity. And he says, if you want to know something from me, if you want

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

guidance on some personal problem, if you

[Tim Keller]

want, if you need what is the right way to do something, if you

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

need ethical guidance or personal guidance, very simple. Go to Moses. Moses will pitch a tent outside the camp.

[Tim Keller]

Not in the middle of the camp, see?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And that tent will be a place where he can meet with me.

[Tim Keller]

He can have the access to the glory cloud. He can have access to my Presence.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

So if you've got a need, you

[Tim Keller]

talk to him and he'll tell you, now, this is incredible.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

This is exactly the religion we've all been waiting for. First of all, on the one hand, right, everybody says, this is what I want. First of all, God says, I'll give you power. I'll give you prosperity, I'll give you success. And I'll give you a religious professional to deal with me so that you

[Tim Keller]

don't have to deal with me personally.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

In other words, I won't have. I won't be right in the middle

[Tim Keller]

of your life, you know, where you have to kind of arrange everything around me.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Oh, no. When you need me, you can get me. When there's a crisis, when there's a bind. Moses, a religious professional. So it's his job, you know, to

[Tim Keller]

be meeting with me all the time.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

So if you have a need, you go to him. And this is. This is the religion that all kinds of people want. This is a religion that people want God's power, God's success, and not actually have to deal with God right smack

[Tim Keller]

in the middle of your life, where you're always having to deal with him all the time. Instead, God, when you need him.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And there's a professional, Moses, he can get in touch with Superman when we really need him. And so there it is. And what's the response? What's the response? Moses comes in verse.

[Tim Keller]

Look at 14 and 15.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You have to read it carefully.

[Tim Keller]

The Lord replied, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But who's the you, Moses? The presence, the glory, the cloud, the meeting, you'll have it.

[Tim Keller]

And Moses comes back in verse 15

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

and says, if your presence says, great,

[Tim Keller]

great, great, great, presence goes with me, but if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. You see, if you read you in verse 14 as a plural, then verse 15 makes no sense. If he says, my presence will go with you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And then Moses turns around and says,

[Tim Keller]

but if your presence won't go with

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

us, see, if the you in verse

[Tim Keller]

14 is plural, verse 15 makes no sense. But if the you in verse 14 is singular, then it makes perfect sense what Moses is saying.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Here's what Moses is saying.

[Tim Keller]

You can keep your success, you can keep your power, you can keep your

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

guidance, you can keep the whole thing. If we don't have access to your presence, if the whole people of God don't have friendship with you, if they don't all have access to your presence

[Tim Keller]

smack in the middle of Their lives.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

If they don't all aren't. If they're not all actually able to meet you. Meeting, meeting, the tent of meeting. We don't want anything else.

[Tim Keller]

And if you think that's just Moses idea, you have to again, you know, the passage was so long as it was, I had to show you the whole thing. But if you go immediately before, in verses 4, 5 and 6, you'll see all the people when they heard God,

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

when they heard God say, I'll drive out your enemies. I'll make you successful. I'll give you Moses to answer your

[Tim Keller]

questions, but my presence will not go with you. They all mourned and threw off their ornaments. Now, you know, the children of Israel are kind of like the apostles, the children of Israel in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New Testament are sort of like the three stooges, the keystone cops. They never get it right. You know, the apostles are always, duh, you know, all the time.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And the children of Israel are always

[Tim Keller]

being foolish and they learn a lesson and one day later they've forgotten it and they're just going back and forth.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

So they're, you know, they're not spiritual giants, right? And yet they know

[Tim Keller]

than to have God's power, than to have God's teaching,

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

to have all that and not have his friendship, to not actually know him personally. It's not to have anything.

[Tim Keller]

Now let me ask you a quick question.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Do you see even the children of

[Tim Keller]

Israel at this stage in their life

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

and certainly Moses know there's nothing more important than this than knowing God personally, meeting him. Jeremiah 9:24. Famous place where it says, let not the mighty man glory in his might.

[Tim Keller]

Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. But let him who glories glory in this. That he knows me, that he knows me personally. Not just knows about me, knows me. And what's that mean? God is saying there in Jeremiah 9:24, if you win five Olympic gold medals, the mighty man or woman, if you are, if you, you know, your Wall street partner, you're making 30 million a year, year after year after year after year after year after year after year. Rich man or woman.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

If you're the great public intellectual of

[Tim Keller]

the country and you're, you know, professor

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

at large at all the Ivy League

[Tim Keller]

universities, and the president's asking you to

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

come in and reads your books and asks your advice. Think of the approval, think of the

[Tim Keller]

honor, think of the satisfaction. And God says, oh, rich, oh mighty. O, you know, oh, Wise, that's nothing compared to what it's like to know me. Now, let me ask you a quick question. Have you settled for this kind of religion?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

The kind of religion that the children of Israel rejected? Have you settled for a God that you only need when you're in trouble?

[Tim Keller]

That's when you go get him. He's not in the middle of your life. More than that, have you settled for a God?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You follow his teaching, right? You study, you try to do the best thing,

[Tim Keller]

and you pay professionals like me to go meet with them and come back and tell you what to do.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But you yourself never have a sense that you're really meeting him, really conversing with him, really, really touching him. Is there an exchange? Do you feel like you're personally dealing with him? Do you have a personal interaction with him?

[Tim Keller]

Have you settled for the kind of.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Do you see why it's so important? It's so important, it's astounding. What is Moses saying? He says, if we don't have access to you, if we don't have friendship with you, if we don't all have

[Tim Keller]

friendship with you, you can take all

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

your money and all your power and all your success and everything else. You just have it. We don't want it. That's amazing. Now, secondly, what is it? If that's so important, what is it? Well, there's three things. You see here what's interesting, and you

[Tim Keller]

can take out, you know, a lot of principles, but I'm only going to give you three. Verse 12 and following this dialogue. One of the reasons we read it

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

is an example of verse 11.

[Tim Keller]

11 says, God spoke to Moses face to face. They were friends.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And verse 12 and following is a case study of friendship. And here's what we learn. Three things.

[Tim Keller]

There's a deep analogy between human friendship and divine friendship. Human friendship and divine friendship works very similarly. Not completely, of course, but very similarly. Friends. Here's three principles for building a friendship with God or anybody, actually. Friends often come around, always let you in, never let you down. Often come around, always let you in, never let you down. Okay, let's go through those three.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

First of all, often comes around Moses. Whole issue is, I want your presence. But every place the word presence is

[Tim Keller]

used, every place God says, my presence will go with you. And then Moses says, but if your presence does not go with us.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And Moses says, I've got your presence. I can go to the tent of

[Tim Keller]

meeting and get your presence.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

They can't. I want them to have the presence. What is this word?

[Tim Keller]

In Hebrew.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

In Hebrew, it's always the same. It's the word panim, which means face. Every place in the Hebrew scriptures where

[Tim Keller]

you see the word presence, it's just the Hebrew word face.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

God is saying, I've got a face.

[Tim Keller]

Now, one of the things that's very important to realize is that if you want to have a friendship, you've got to actually be face to face sometimes

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

you've got to come around.

[Tim Keller]

You often have to come around, you

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

often have to hang out. Email is nice, but I've heard many

[Tim Keller]

people say, I met somebody online, now

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

I want to meet them personally. Oh, what's the difference? Why is phoning, why is emailing, why is letters as nice as that is? Why is it nothing like face to face?

[Tim Keller]

And here's the reason why.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Face to face relationship engages all the senses. The other person is someone who fills your site literally, because you're face to face fills your site. See you hear, you see, you touch, you can hug, you can, you can kiss, you can shake hands.

[Tim Keller]

You see?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Whereas every other, every other way of relating to somebody, they're okay, they're good.

[Tim Keller]

In fact, they're very important for maintaining friendships.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But they only ever engage one sense, right? Email, you know, or phoning. Even television might have, you know, if

[Tim Keller]

you have the, eventually you have the video phones.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You can't hug, you're gonna hug the monitor, but it won't work. So what are we talking about here? First of all, you're not going to

[Tim Keller]

really have friendship if you never see each other.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

There has to be physical proximity. You've got to often come around.

[Tim Keller]

You've got to often come around.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But what we learn here is that God though, he is everywhere, right? God is everywhere. And yet God has a face.

[Tim Keller]

God has a face. Now this boggles the mind a bit because since God is a spirit, it's not a physical face. We say, what other kind is there?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

All right, well, here's. Just think about it what we just said. Why is face to face relationship so

[Tim Keller]

much better than any other kind?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Because when you're face to face, all

[Tim Keller]

the senses are engaged and the relationship moves ahead so much faster than any other way.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

What is the presence of God? Well, God is a force. He is everywhere and yet he's also a person, which means he has a face. It means that God has a presence where you can relate to him. What is that?

[Tim Keller]

Let me put it like this.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

The presence of God is when and where. The presence of God is when and where he fills up your senses. The presence of God is when and where things that you were just intellectual see things that you just knew about come down on your heart, touch your heart, press down on you.

[Podcast Host]

Marriage is one of the most significant human relationships there is, but is also one of the most difficult and misunderstood. In the Meaning of Marriage, Tim and Kathy Keller offer biblical wisdom and insight that will help you understand God's vision for marriage. Whether you're single, considering marriage, or have been married for a long time, the Meaning of marriage will help you face the complexities of commitment with the wisdom of God. The Meaning of Marriage is our thank you for your gift this month to help Gospel and life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy [e-mail] give that's gospelandlife.com give now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Now see, for example, I have 40

[Tim Keller]

or 50 good examples of this, but my favorite is this one. And some of you have been around. You've heard it before. If you haven't been around, you need to hear it. Here's something from the journals of Jonathan Edwards. He says, once in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, I walked around for divine contemplation and prayer as I usually did. Now listen, he says, but on that one time, I had a view that

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

for me was extraordinary. The glory of the Son of God appeared so calm and so sweet. He appeared so great above the heavens. It overwhelmed me.

[Tim Keller]

And I continued in this state, near as I can judge, for an hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Now, what happened? He saw. He says it appeared.

[Tim Keller]

Did he have a vision? If you know Jonathan Edwards, no, he did not have a vision. I don't think he believed in visions. Well, what is he talking about?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

What is he talking about is this. He got into the presence of God. The presence of God is the place where things that you knew about, like the glory of God or the grace of God or the holiness of God, you sense. Now what do you mean, sense? We don't know exactly. You have to use sensory language to describe it. In other words, it's one thing to know that sugar is sweet. It's another thing to taste it, right? To sense it.

[Tim Keller]

It's one thing to know that somebody's strong. It's another thing to feel him lift you up with one arm, right?

[Reader (Narrator)]

Wow.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

It's one thing to know God's holy. It's another thing to Meet him to sense his holiness on your heart and on your life. And there's no other way to put it. The Bible talks in that language all the time, and that is the presence of God. There is a place, there is a means, there is a situation. There's a situation in which things you knew about become real to you and

[Tim Keller]

he becomes real to you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You're talking with him face to face. Now, the first thing is, if you are a friend of God, you know that there's such a thing as the presence of God. See, what's the difference between a friend of God and just a general person

[Tim Keller]

who believes in God, comes to church, gets us religious professionals to tell them the truth and all that.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

What's the difference? Friends of God know that he has a face. Friends of God know that there's the presence. Friends of God do everything they can to get into that presence. You can't always have it. Just like friends can't always be with you, right? Friends are not always with you all the time. Not usually, right? Friends often, though, come around in the same way.

[Tim Keller]

Number one, if you're a friend of God and he's your friend, sometimes you sense his presence, sometimes you meet him, number one. Number one. Number two, friends often come around, right? Number one. Number two, always let you in

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

transparency. You're not a friend unless both of you are vulnerable to each other.

[Tim Keller]

In fact, you're not friends unless both of you are telling secrets to each other. That's. Friends tell secrets.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

On the one hand, there's two men

[Tim Keller]

in the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament that are called friends of God, Abraham and Moses.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And in both cases, you have these spots, both of these. You have spots where you see Moses and Abraham going at God a little, you know, in some amazing ways, being extremely frank, being respectful, but being very frank. You know this place right here where Moses comes and says, I am not

[Tim Keller]

satisfied with this situation.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Where does he get that kind of frankness, huh? Go back to Abraham, who is another

[Tim Keller]

one who's called friend of God.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And we have an astounding example of this where.

[Tim Keller]

Where he knows that God is on his way to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham says, well, you're not. You wouldn't judge Sodom and gomorrah. There were 50 people, you know, 50 godly people there, would you? And God says, no, I wouldn't.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

How about 45?

[Tim Keller]

No, God said, I wouldn't do it for 45.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

What about 40? How about 30? How about 20? That's in Genesis. 18 and you go, what is this? What kind of prayer is this? It's a prayer of friends. See, here's the thing. When you go to a friend, you don't have to be too varnished, you don't have to be too polished. You trust your friend to accept you. You trust your friend to put the very, very best construction on what you're doing, don't you? When you see Abraham and you see Moses, they don't know how a holy God could love them this much and accept them this much. But they are utterly secure before the face of God. Utterly enormous security, complete frankness. They're vulnerable. They let it out. But on the other hand, you're not a friend if you are the one

[Tim Keller]

who's always talking and your friend listens. And that's all that ever happens. You've got to listen. You've got to listen.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And the Bible tells us, you can see it right here.

[Tim Keller]

Where does Moses get his understanding of who God is?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

He doesn't just think it up. He listens to the word of God. He goes after the prophetic word of God. And in Psalm 25:14, if you look

[Tim Keller]

at it in most modern translations, it won't go literally. Like in the NIV translation, it says that God confides in those who fear him.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But literally In Hebrew, Psalm 25:14 says, the secret of the Lord is with

[Tim Keller]

those who fear him.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

What that means is if you fear,

[Tim Keller]

which means, don't forget this.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

If you come before him in awesome wonder and you submit and say, I'm going to listen to you. I'm going to accept what you say, God will tell you secrets. What does that mean? Well, something like this. When do you really feel you've met somebody?

[Tim Keller]

If you've ever had a talk with

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

a friend, have you ever felt when there was an amazing connection, a deep connection? It's not usually only when you, you

[Tim Keller]

sit down and you tell a secret, you say, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. And the other friend says, sits there

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

and goes, ah, well, you know, accepts you, but doesn't say anything back.

[Tim Keller]

It's not a real connection.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

I mean, you might feel a little better that, gee, this is great, this

[Tim Keller]

person didn't come down my throat very warm and all that.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But where the real deep connection is when your friend, after you've revealed something

[Tim Keller]

about who you are, your friend reveals something about who he or she is.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

When your friend says, well, let me show you something about me, and what a connection. And it's exactly what you needed to hear. And meet. It speaks right to your point of need. And that is what happens in real friendship with God. In friendship with God, you are completely honest. You repent. You're open. You just lay it out. And when you listen through the Holy Spirit, the word of God turns on, lights up, and God shows you secrets. What secrets? Well, they're open secrets, of course, but they weren't these things you saw before. The language of someone who is really

[Tim Keller]

engaged with God at the moment goes like this.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

You're reading the scripture and it lights up and you say, how did I ever see? If he's like that, why am I worried? If he's like that, why am I angry? If this is true, why am I scared? If this is true, why am I tempted? If this is true, why am I despondent? And why haven't I ever seen this before? He's telling you secrets. He's showing you things that are secret to you. You've never seen them before. So the second part of friendship is you tell each other things. You're completely open with each other, and he speaks back through his word.

[Tim Keller]

And thirdly, we said there's three things. Friends what often come around, always let you in. Completely vulnerable, open up, and never let you down. Now, that's interesting.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

People never let you down.

[Tim Keller]

Here's God, and God is doing what

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

he says.

[Tim Keller]

Okay, I'll stick with you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

All right, I will go with you.

[Tim Keller]

Now, I know a lot of people who complain and say, well, God didn't stick with me. God did not stick with me. You know, I prayed for this and I prayed for that, and he abandoned me. Well, let me tell you a secret about friendship with God.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

If you're God's friend, you stick with

[Tim Keller]

him even when it looks like he's abandoned you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Haven't anybody ever? What if you have a really close friend and you hear something very negative about your close friend, what do you usually do? You say, that doesn't sound like my friend at all. You doubt it? You doubt it.

[Tim Keller]

Of course, friends are imperfect.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Human beings are imperfect. But you doubt it. Why? You're friends. You want to find out for yourself. It doesn't square with what else you know about. If you're a friend of God, you stick with him even when he seems like he's abandoned.

[Tim Keller]

And you will find eventually that he's not abandoned you a bit.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

The only way to find out that he's really stuck with you perfectly is

[Tim Keller]

for you to stick with him, even imperfectly.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

That's a friend.

[Tim Keller]

Now go to the end Here. Lastly, and I'm only going to do the last point. That's why it's so important, and that's what it is. What is friendship with God.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Friends of God know there's a presence. They completely open up because they know he accepts and they listen submissively to His Word and through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows you who he

[Tim Keller]

is and relates it to who you are.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And then you sense your meeting, and then you sense you're there.

[Tim Keller]

And friends stick together and he sticks with you. In fact, one of the biggest parts of being a friend is over the years to see that if I really, really assume that he's not abandoned me, I'll find that he has not at all. If I assume he's abandoned me, if

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

I don't stick with him, I won't

[Tim Keller]

see the things he's doing in my life and my friendship with him won't grow.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Now, how do we receive it? Let me tell you.

[Tim Keller]

Moses says, I want to see you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

I want your glory.

[Tim Keller]

Now, you know, somebody's going to ask me or you're already thinking, how come in verse 11, it says, they spoke face to face. And in verse 20, God says, Nobody can see my face and live. And the answer is, he had partly, he had some access, but he didn't have the real thing. He didn't have the whole thing. And God says, because I'm holy, you can't be my friend, but I'll put you in the rock and I'll let my glory pass by, and then you'll be safe.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

So what gets the heat and what gets the light? What strikes you know, what protects Moses? What bears the brunt of that consuming

[Tim Keller]

fire of God's glory? The rock. And The Bible says, St. Paul says

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

that in the wilderness, that means the rock of Moses was Christ. And Christ actually is therefore not just a rock, but the ultimate friend. And here's why. The Bible tells us Jesus Christ did not come as a teacher and save

[Tim Keller]

us with his teaching. If Jesus Christ had just come and said, do this, this, this, and this,

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

this, that wouldn't have saved us, would it? Because we could never live up to that. So Jesus did not save us with his teaching. What did he save us with? He saved us with his friendship. Because Jesus did the three things in the ultimate way. First of all, Jesus came around. He was incarnate. He was born in a major. He had to come to us. Okay, number one. Number two, Jesus let us in. He was utterly vulnerable. In fact, he's the. We have the only Religion. Christians have the only religion that even claims that God became vulnerable, that even claims that God became weak, that even claims that, you know, all around the

[Tim Keller]

world, when you come like this toward an enemy, what does this mean?

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Friendship. It's a token of friendship. Why? Because you've made yourself vulnerable. If you walk toward an enemy like this, you are saying, I want friendship. But the only way you're going to

[Tim Keller]

show them that you want friendship is you make yourself vulnerable.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Right? They could nail you.

[Tim Keller]

They could nail you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Jesus arms were open to us. They were nailed open. How much more vulnerable do you want to get? Jesus saved us with our friendship because he came to us personally in the flesh. He was vulnerable for us and he stuck with us on the cross. Charles Spurgeon says Jesus Christ looked at the people he was dying for.

[Tim Keller]

He looked at them jeering him and he looked at them laughing at him. And he looked at him fleeing and

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

denying him and betraying him.

[Tim Keller]

And in the greatest act of friendship in the history of the world, he stayed.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Could have left, but he stayed. Jesus saved us through the ultimate friendship. Because Jesus Christ was our ultimate friend. We can be friends with God. And as a result, let me tell

[Tim Keller]

you why you need to be in a small group.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Because. Because Jesus saved us with friendship, not with his teaching. The main way in which you grow into God, in fact, the main way in which you meet God is through friends. There's a deep symbiotic relationship between human friendship and divine friendship. What do I mean by that? Well, on the one hand, 99 times out of 100, you find God through other friends. Philip brings Nathaniel right to Jesus. Andrew brings Peter to Jesus. Anybody practically in this room who ever

[Tim Keller]

found Christ or is in the process of finding Christ probably is doing it through friends.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

I'm a teacher, I'm help. But basically it won't happen without friends. In fact, if you don't have friends to help you process the stuff I'm saying week in and week out, you're not going to get to God. But not only that, not only does friendship bring us to God, but God brings us to friends. Because how are you going to be a great friend? How are you going to be transparent when you're scared what they think of you? But what if you have the ultimate friend who loves you no matter what, no matter what, Then you have the freedom to be transparent. You don't need their approval. Do you see when people look, when people kind of let you down, are you a fair weather friend or do you stick with them? Well, how can you do that unless you say you have the ultimate friend who never will let you down? So then you, you have the freedom. You know, you're not as needy as you were before. You won't be a great friend till you have the ultimate friend. And you generally won't find the ultimate friend except through friends. And, you know, as good as worship

[Tim Keller]

is, you've come to hear the paid

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

professional, Moses has gone to the tent

[Tim Keller]

of meeting and comes out and tells you what you need to hear.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

But I'll tell you where you're really

[Tim Keller]

going to learn friendship with God.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

It's with other people in a group in which you can talk about how has. How has the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, spoken to who you are with who he is? How has that happened for you? Friendship is very personal. Friendship is very deep. Friendship is something that you work on

[Tim Keller]

and you learn from other friends, not just through great teaching from the professional who has come out of the tent of meeting and says, you know,

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

interesting.

[Tim Keller]

Let me just tell you one interesting thing.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

The second of the old Boris Karloff

[Tim Keller]

Frankenstein movies, there is an amazing. In the second one, it's the Bride of Frankenstein. There's an amazing passage that I saw, amazing scene I've never seen before. And it's really odd. Frankenstein monster, of course, he's walking on through and he's on his way and he's growling and that's all he ever does is all the time. And he's running away from all the people who are after him. And he comes into this very remote part of the woods and he sees a cottage, and in it a blind man is living. And the blind man is on his knees praying to God, saying, oh, Lord, please send me a friend in my terrible loneliness.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

And in comes the monster. He can't see the monster, and all he hears is, grr. He says, oh, you have an affliction. So do I. We can be friends. And he starts to love the monster. And he sits them down and makes things for him and gets him some soup. And the monsters never experience the love of a friend. And there's a brief period, it's like a three minute thing. It's a three minute scene where he. You, for the only time you see in all of the movies, he smiles, he starts using English language. A couple places he says food. He says, good. He starts to humanize.

[Tim Keller]

And then, of course, what happens is some hunters come along and they walk in, they see the monster and they begin to try to kill it. And the monster, you know, knocks down of course, you know, some oil lamp. And next thing you know, the whole cottage has gone up in flames and the blind man is dead and everybody's

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

dead and the monster is groping out back into the cold, monstrous again, saying, friend, friend. Now, you know, if you could see

[Tim Keller]

your self image, if you actually saw your self image, if it was made visible, it would look kind of like a Frankenstein monster. Because you get your self image from what everybody says about you. Your family, your friends, your parents, your coaches, your teachers, you know, society, various forms of society, and you, you.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

It's not coherent, it's kind of contradictory, you know, just like a Frankenstein monster, all these incident pieces have been sewn together. What you need is a friend who

[Tim Keller]

will come along with the power of

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

his love, tell you who you are. As Moses says, you know me by name. A friend whose love will completely overcome all of those other verdicts and give you a coherent human face that you'll

[Tim Keller]

see in the mirror.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

So we're all like this guy groping

[Tim Keller]

through the woods, saying, friend, friend.

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

If I could just find the friend, then I'd be okay.

[Tim Keller]

Well, here he is. Let us pray. Our Father, when we go to the Lord's Supper, we ask that you would help us meet you. This is a table of meeting, a table of meeting. Just like the tent of meeting. This is the place where the bread and the cup make your death real to us, Lord Jesus, make your face real to us. We ask, Lord, that you will help us during the Lord's Supper to find you and sense you and to go on from there. We pray this in Jesus name.

[Podcast Host]

Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life Monthly partner. Your partnership helps connect people all over the world with the life giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelandlife.compartner. that website again is gospelandlife.com partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 2000. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church,

[Tim Keller's Teaching Assistant or Co-speaker]

Ra.