← Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
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Each year we make a special free resource available during the season of lent for the 40 days from Ash Wednesday through Good Friday. Gospel and Life would like to send you a daily devotional Sign up to receive this daily email@gospelandlife.com lent. Now here's Dr. Keller with today's teaching.
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The passage on which the teaching's based, it's rather familiar to you. We're reading it each week because we're looking at the Lord's Prayer, and each week we're looking at another part of it. And today I'll read it one more time. Jesus said, this, then, is how you pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. This is God's word. Now we finally get to a particular kind of prayer in which people are very interested. We've been looking at the Lord's Prayer, and we see that as you move through it, there's different kinds of prayer. There's adoration and praise. There's thanksgiving, there's submission. But now we get to what the theologians call the technical word is gimme prayer. It's give us this day, our daily bread. We finally. That was a joke. We finally get to the place where Jesus says prayer is a way to change circumstances. Prayer is work. Prayer works. Prayer makes a difference. You can come to God and say, give me. Give us this day, our daily bread. Now, people are extremely interested in this kind of prayer. This is the reason why most people even get involved in it. This is the reason why most people even do it, because they have a need and they want God to meet it. They've got a situation and they want God to change it. But notice that Give us this day, our daily bread, happens dead in the middle, dead smack in the middle of the Lord's Prayer. It is surrounded by all sorts of other statements and ideas and concepts. You cannot understand how what we call. And this is the term petitionary prayer, petition prayer. You don't understand how petitionary prayer works unless you see give us this day our daily bread in all of its relationships to the rest of the prayer. In other words, petitionary prayer does work. Prayer does change things, but it only works if you understand the instructions, Jesus gives us petitionary prayer here in the Lord's Prayer, filled with instructions. What are those instructions? Petitionary prayer will only work if you. Okay, get confident, get perspective, get humble and get reconciled. Four things. That's too many points. I know it's better to be complete than it is to be comprehensive. It's better. You're going to get a misunderstanding unless I at least make all the points, even if I can't go into them like I'd like to. I think the Lord's Prayer tells us petitionary prayer only works if you get confident knowing his power, if you get perspective knowing his glory, if you get humble knowing his wisdom, and if you get reconciled knowing he's God and let him be God number one. Petitionary prayer only works if you get confident knowing his power. In other words, you don't get to give us this day our daily bread until you go by the place where it says, our Father who art in heaven. You have to know who you're coming to. There's a confidence that should be there. If you understand who you're coming to, you're coming to a heavenly Father. The Bible is filled with astonishing promises about prayer. In James it says, you have not because you ask not many places. There are many places where Jesus says. And I know this because over the years people have come to me as a pastor with a kind of grumpy tone of voice saying, why does it say right here? Whatsoever you ask in My name, I will give you. What does that mean? And I say it means that God promises all through the Bible. God promises to bring into your life astonishing, mind numbing blessings and prosperity through prayer. God has all kinds of tremendous things that he wants to give you through prayer. It says in James chapter one, no good thing does he withhold. He it says, God gives liberally and begrudges us no good thing. Which means there is not a good thing you've ever asked for that God has ever refused to give you. There's not one thing that was good for you that you've ever asked for that God refuses to give you. And that's never happened. It says in Isaiah 65, it says, before they call, I will answer. That's incredible. You have a picture of a father running with presents behind his back to see his child and he knows the desires of the child's heart and he's just hoping the child will ask for that which the father is just ready to shower on the child. Because if the child asks, then the delight will be Greater both for the Father and the child. The Bible is filled with all sorts of statements. It says God wants to bless us through prayer. He will bless us through prayer. He'll send things down on us through prayer. We have not is because he's a heavenly Father. As a father I know something. Being a parent means that your heart is bound up with the joy of your children. It's bound up with the joy of your children. You find you can't be happy if they're unhappy. Now, under the influence of sin, this very natural and wonderful thing that happens, your heart's bound up with the joy and the success of your children. Under sin, you know what happens. Parents will be and are continually tempted to live their life out through their children. We can't get into that subject. The real question is, where does that come from? Where does that automatic binding of your heart to the prospects of your children, the joy and the success of your children, why does that happen? Because we're made in the image of the Heavenly Father. Do you know what that means? The passage that Jeff read earlier says, which one of you, if your child asks for fish, you'll give him a snake. If your child asks for an egg, you'll give him a scorpion. He says, now if you want to give your children good gifts and then three words, how much more will your heavenly Father give? Now listen, this is saying something pretty mind numbing. It says there is no parent on earth and there never has been a parent on earth who has wanted joy for his or her child the way God wants joy for you, for his children. The Bible says how much more. It means if my heart is bound up with the joy of my children, how much more is God's heart bound up? Don't you see? And the difference between me and God is that God's omnipotent here you've got a father who is driven, if I can say the word reverently, he's driven by a greater passion for the joy and fulfillment of his children than any parent on earth has ever been. And that's pretty amazing. And yet this parent is an omnipotent parent. This father is an all powerful father. This Father is a heavenly Father. And that means if you understand that he's a heavenly Father, when you come asking, give us this, their daily bread, there'll be an enormous confidence. James says you have not. For you ask not. I have been deeply convicted about this the last two days as I've been preparing to talk to you about it. We are not asking. We do not believe that things will happen. We're not asking, Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring for his grace and power are such none can ever ask too much. The great John Newton hymn, thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring for his grace and power such none can ever ask too much confidence knowing give us this day our daily bread comes after Heavenly Father. So there should be confidence. Okay, you should use it like that. You should come in like that. But secondly, that's not all. Oh my. That's not all. Secondly, you not only have to get confidence by seeing his power, you have to get perspective by seeing his glory. Now, I can make this point short because in a sense, the last two Sundays, that's what I've really been talking about. And yet you will not understand petitionary prayer unless we at least make a quick recapitulation. You do not get to give us this day our daily bread until Jesus says, you work your way through. Our Father who art in heaven. Holy, sacred, ultimate is your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven. Now, what we've been saying for two weeks, I'll say again, before you ask for anything, you must understand that your perspective on the things you want needs to be healed. Jesus says you mustn't run to give us this day our daily bread. You have to work through who God is and who you are and how he's ultimate. And you have to work through all of that before you get to give us this day. Because the very model of the Lord's Prayer, the petition, comes after adoration. The very model of the prayer shows that our deepest needs are inside, not outside. Our deepest problem is really a matter of perspective, not circumstances. It's our perspective as the reason that we're worried. It's the perspective is the reason that we're so anxious and so upset. Not so much the circumstances. There has to be a healing of perspective on the needs you have before you ever ask for them. We had, when I lived in Philadelphia, we had in our basement a washer. And we really couldn't afford to get it fixed. Well, we didn't know how to fix it. We certainly couldn't afford to get a new one. But here's what the problem would be. When it went onto its spin dry cycle, sort of all the laundry very often would somehow get moved over onto one side of the the barrel and it would get off balance. Instead of being centered around the center, it would get off balance. And what would happen is you start to hear the basement. In the basement, it would sound like there were three or four timpanis going on. There'd be this incredible banging. You'd run downstairs and you'd see the thing moving around like this. And it would be knocking over furniture and it would be starting to smoke itself, you know, because it was destroying its own motor. And what you. Whenever, as soon as you heard bang, bang, bang, you'd have to run down the steps, open up, you know, turn it off real quickly, and you have to. You had to put all the laundry back around the center. You had to make sure it was centering on the center. Now, the Bible says when you worry and you're just so deeply worried about something and you want to run in and say, give me first. The Bible says, remember, God is the most important thing, hallowed be thy name. Why are you so worried? Maybe because you are treating your own worry, your own wisdom. Excuse me, your own wisdom as more important than God's. Why are you in such despair? It's maybe because you're treating some object as more beautiful than God is. If you can't forgive somebody and you're going to pray, oh, Lord, why can't I forgive this person who upset you? Because he or she ruined your reputation. It's because your real center is your reputation. Your real center is your wisdom. Your real center is your object. And unless you decenter those things that you're ready to pray about, you're ready to say, lord, I'm guilty. Help me the Lord, I'm worried. Help me, Lord, I'm afraid. Help me. You've got to decenter those things. You gotta take the laundry of your life and you gotta put it back around the center of God. You've gotta say, the reason that I'm in this terrible distress is because my perspective is off. And you know, you can almost feel the pus coming out of your soul. Adoration lances the boil and you start. You're not supposed to get to give us this day. Till you go through and say, lord, I forgot how great you are. I forgot how loving you are. I forgot these things. I forgot. If I have you, I have all I need. I forgot these things. There's got to be a decentering. There's got to be a healing of perspective. You've got to get perspective before you get to give us this day. Otherwise, there won't be confidence, there won't be power, there won't be peace as you pray. There won't be. In fact, I go so far as to Say this unanswered prayer is one of the best ways for you to get to know who you are. Because when you find a prayer is an answer and you say, well, Lord, that's up to you. You know what's best, that's one thing. But if, when your prayers aren't answered, you say, what good is it to be a Christian? What good is it to live? How could this happen to me? God is showing you that the laundry is off center, that you are orbiting around something else that you need a healing of Perspective. Get perspective. Decenter those things. Learn to reflect on yourself before you go to God. Don't just say, here's my worries. Say, why am I so worried? Don't just say, here's why I hate myself. Say, but why do I hate myself about this. Think. Reflect. Okay, get confidence, number one. But secondly, you got to get perspective before you get to give us this day. Thirdly, you got to get humble. I said, you get confidence by seeing his power. You get perspective by seeing his glory, which is a catch all for everything that comes before in the Lord's Prayer. But thirdly, you've got to get humble by seeing his wisdom. You've got to not, you cannot understand, give us this day our daily bread unless you see that you're praying to our Father, not the genie of the lamp. Those are two very different models for prayer. You see people, people continually say, if God makes these great promises and if he's got all this power, why is it that I'm not getting the things I ask for? And the Bible says it's because prayer only works. Petitionary prayer only works if you understand it on Father child terms. Therefore, prayer has to have a safety catch.
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When you pray to God, is it more like a chat or are you really connecting with him in a deep and meaningful way? We'd like to help you establish a stronger, deeper and more personal prayer life. Tim Keller's book, Prayer Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God offers biblical guidance as well as specific ways to pray in certain situations, such as dealing with grief, grief, loss, love and forgiveness. In the book, Dr. Keller helps you learn how to make your prayers more personal and powerful through a regular practice of prayer. Experiencing awe and intimacy with God is our thanks for your gift to help us reach more people with the life changing power of the Gospel. Request your copy today@gospelandlife.com give. That's gospelandlife.com give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.
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See, one of the things that'll Happen. Jeff was referring to the fact that a lot of you are having children and a lot of you are having children for the first time. One of the things you'll find out is that your apartment isn't safe. Won't be long before, you know, very often you go to see a brand new set of parents and you sit down, the kid, of course, can't move around yet, you know, and all that. And you look around the apartment and you know, I look at my wife and I say, boy, this is not a very baby proof place. This is not a safe place for a kid. There's all sorts of ways in which you've got to put safety catches on the appliances around you. You have to put them up. Microwave ovens, for example, are, I think, largely because of kids. Though of course it's also true for us stupid adults. But largely for the sake of kids. They are set in such a way that it's almost impossible to abuse their power because they will not keep beaming as soon as you open. When you open the door. Once the door is open, it stops. You can't make it go on if the door is open. That's part of the big why it has to be a safety catch. Because microwaves are so powerful. Because children think they know what they're doing and they don't. Because children ask for things they think will be great, but they don't. What would be more awful than to give a five year old kid Aladdin's lamp? Just think about it. Aladdin's lamp. The genie has to do what you ask. There's no safety catch. You see, the genie of the lamp model is prayer. Without a safety catch. I'm going to ask. I know what I need now. You wouldn't. Boy, if, if I was anywhere near a five year old with an Aladdin's lamp and I saw a little five year old rubbing it and out comes the genie, I would get as far away as I possibly could. I would say, oh my gosh, this child might ask for the worst things in the world. You know, at a certain level we're doing this all the time. We're continually saying, aha. We've developed a new pesticide to destroy an insect that was eating a crop. And after we, you know, dust everything, we destroy that insect, we suddenly realize, hmm, that insect was a natural predator for something else. And we've totally screwed up the cycle of nature in that region. And the cure is worse than the disease. We're doing it all the time. How much worse would it Be if we had Aladdin's lamp, you'd get away from a five year old. How about a ten year old? No, no, no, I wouldn't be good. You get away from a 10 year old because 10 year olds will still ask for things that are unwise, that have counterintuitive ramifications and so on. How about a 15 year old? Oh, no, no, not a 15 year old. Ah, you say, but when you're 25, you don't want things that are bad for you anymore. You understand exactly how things ought to go in life. When I was in my early 20s, I desperately rubbed prayer as if it was a lad's lamp. And I desperately wanted God to get particular woman to fall in love with me so I could marry her. And it wasn't the right woman. And what if I had a genie instead of a father? I shudder to think. Now, the Bible tells us that you're never, never, never in a position where Aladdin's lamp is good for you. You never will be. See, when you're 25, you say, what an idiot. When I was 15, but now I know. When you're 35, you say, what an idiot I was when I was 25, but now I know. And on and on and on. You're always an idiot, the Bible says, and that's why the prayer starts, our Father, you can't go to give us this day our daily bread without going by Father. Now, right away people have a couple of objections to this. And they say, oh, I know what you're trying to do to me, preacher, you're trying to get off the hook. So there's two objections that come up. The first objection that comes goes like this. What about all those places where Jesus says, whatever you ask, I'll give you, huh? And you just told me that God doesn't always give you things because fathers, mothers, they don't always give the things that children ask for. But what about that's a contradiction. It's only a contradiction if you think of prayer in genie terms instead of father terms. Because good parents always distinguish between the need and the child's interpretation of the need, which is what the request is. You see, when you go to your parents, a little kid goes to the parents and asks for something, the request. You think the request and the need is identical. That's because you're a kid. But parents realize that the child is making an interpretation. In other words, the child's bored. So what does the child do? Says, gee, Daddy, let's throw knives at each Other. I think that would be fun. Well, what do you say? Well, no, honey, I don't think that would be a good idea. But you're bored. Let's do this instead. Now what are you doing? Good parents don't respond to unwise proposals. But they always still discern what's underneath. They discern the desire of the heart, the condition of the heart, the need. In Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 7, one of the most telling verses in the Bible, if you ever want to understand anything, you go to Jesus. If you want to understand prayer, you go to Jesus. It says in Hebrews 5. 7 that when Jesus Christ was on earth, he went to his father with loud crying and tears and asked to be delivered from death. Now we know where that happened, probably more than once. It says, with loud crying and tears, he asked for his father to deliver him from death. And you know how the verse ends? Hebrews 5. 7. It says, and he was heard for his reverent submission. Now, you know, if you're reading on by that, you might say, okay, yeah. Then think. What do you mean he was heard, he was turned down? Well, only if you believe in a genie of the lamp thing. He said, delivery from death. It sounds. Well, God says, no. Do you understand? Parents will take a request, even a request that's actually wrong at the moment. And if you give him that request, even though it seems like it dies in their hands, good parents will always bring out a resurrection. The father was there for Jesus. The father worked through the submission that Jesus gave to that look, what looked like an unanswered prayer. God took that submission and brought it into a resurrection. You know, when a little. Here's what very often happens. A little kid says, daddy, I'm bored. I want to go do this. And if you say, that would be very dangerous or it's not a good time, but tomorrow we can do this. Very often, what the child does is this. The child says, I don't want anything. Then nothing. Because the child understands that his interpretation of his request. His request, his interpretation of his need and his need are the same thing. But the father looks underneath, you see, or the mother looks underneath. The parents look underneath. And they say, if you are willing to die to this request, I can give you something far greater than what you imagine. Richard Sibbes, the old Puritan, says, God will very well if you go to him, he will always give you the value of what you ask, but not always in kind. You might go for a thousand dollars worth of gold, and he might give you a Thousand dollars worth of diamonds. Here's two times where the disciples are caught in a boat, in a storm, and they pray. They say, lord, save us. Why? Because they're afraid of dying and they're sinking. They ask not only for value, which is salvation, but they ask for kind. They say, get rid of the storm. One time Jesus gets rid of the storm. The other time he gives them the power to walk over the waves. One time he gives them both value and kind. One time he gives them value in a different kind. Paul said he prayed three times that God would take some kind of thorn out of his life. We don't even know what the thorn was. We don't know what it was. It was some problem. It could have been a physical problem. It could have been something else. And Paul says, I won't be effective if I have this. You see, there was his desire. I want to be effective. I want to have power. I want to do the things that you've called me to do. And then he had the interpretation of how that need would be met. He said, get rid of this. And what does God say? My strength is made perfect in weakness. He says, paul, you want to be strong. And you think the way to be strong is to get rid of this thorn. I'm telling you the way to be strong is to keep it. I will give you what you wanted, but in a different way, I'll respond to that which is underneath. Now, there's another way to put this. And we often. I often use this as a pastor. Another way I say it is God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows, knows. God always gives you what you would have asked for if you know everything he knows. In other words, there's a sense in which God always answers. He always answers. He always responds. He's a perfect father. And you know what the irony is? Coming to God with confidence because you see his power coming to God with perspective, because you see his glory. But that's not enough. You got to come to God with humility because you see that he is a father. He's wise, and you're a child. Here's the irony. If you have a bunch of kids, the kid whose heart your parental heart goes out to most is the one who most knows he's a kid. Now, I only have he's. That's the reason I keep using all these masculine illustrations, by the way. I've only got he children. But here I have three sons. And at various times in their life, one of them usually is more aware of his childishness. The child who most knows I'm a child doesn't get all bent out of shape when you try to sort of redirect them and try to get them to be more wise. A child who says I am a child, I don't know everything, this is what I want, but maybe you know best, tell me if I'm doing it the right way. The child who most acknowledges that he's a child, ironically is the most mature, is the least a child. The child who most acknowledges I am a child is the one who's growing fastest out of childishness. The more childlike you are, the less childish you are, spiritually speaking. And the more my parental heart goes out to that kid and the more humble the child is, the more the child doesn't demand things and say this is the way it's got to be, this is the way it's got to be. The more the child comes and says, this is the desire of my heart nevertheless, not my will. Abba father, but thine be done. The more that happens, the more I want to give, the more it's safe to give to to the child. Do you see that? The more it's safe, the more my heart goes out to that child and the more my mind says I can go out to that child. I mean, when a child says Dad, a 17 year old child says dad, you know, I want to go to this great college, but it's going to cost 23,000 a year, what do I do? How do I get that? And here's another child that 17 year olds that comes and says dad, meaning in life for me is to get a $23,000 red sports car. What am I going to do? Where am I going to get the money for that? Well, your fatherly heart reacts very differently to those two kinds of things because the more the child comes and says, I want your will, I want to see that I'm a child, I want to be more like you. The less the child demands things, the more a child acknowledges that he's a child, the more explosively all of my power and love goes out toward that kid. Petitionary prayer will work if you not only see his power and you get confidence and see his glory and get his perspective, but if you see his wisdom and you start acting like children, the more you see you're a child, the more you acknowledge that you're a child, the more his fatherly power explodes into your life, the more he answers your prayers. Hey, there's one last Thing. There's people here who say, you know, I don't know if I even believe in God. You just gave me an entire prayer, entire sermon that is of no relevance to me. That's not really true. I don't believe. Look carefully. The very phrase, give us this day our daily bread. Jesus doesn't say, come to me every so often. Doesn't say, give us this day our weekly bread. Give us this day our monthly bread. Jesus says, I want a transformation of consciousness in you. I want you to see that you are absolutely dependent on God for everything. Everything. I want you to see that you are not in charge, that you have to come to me every day, every minute, not just for the big things, but for even bread, even the most basic needs that you have. And until you are reconciled to the fact that you are a dependent creature and you are not God, until you are reconciled to that, none of this will work. I'll put it to you this way. Prayer is the way you get reconciled to you being really human. If you live your life saying, I can find my daily bread, but every so often I need to come to God, if you go out into the world thinking, that I'm really competent to live my life, you haven't gotten the point. Why are there no atheists in foxholes? Why is the people who say they're not religious when they're out, when they're lost at sea, they come back and say, I prayed and prayed and prayed. It's a reflex of the heart. When you actually get in touch with your humanity, when you actually get in touch with the fact that you are not in charge of your life, when you actually come to see your frailty, when you actually come to see your mortality, when you get into touch with the fact that you're human and not God, you pray. It's a reflex of the heart. And that will show you what your heart was built for. That deep down you know that you're human and that you need Him. Petitionary prayer will work. If you get confident, if you get perspective, if you get humble, if you get reconciled to the fact that he's God and you're not. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would help us to see through your son, Jesus, what it really means to be a child. He was heard for his reverent submission. You work mightily in his life because he came to you for everything. Help us also to see you as our help. Help us also to see you as our strength. Help us to see. Help us also to see you is is our all in all. We pray this in Jesus Name. Amen.
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Thanks for listening to Today Today's Teaching by Tim Keller here at Gospel and Life. We want to share a special free resource with you that we provide during the season of lent for the 40 days from Ash Wednesday through Good Friday. Gospel and Life would like to send you a daily Lent Devotional. Sign up to receive this daily email@gospelandlife.com lent that's gospelandlife.com lent today's sermon was recorded in 1995. The sermon and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.