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After he broke his promise to Jesus, Peter wept bitterly. Peter was an absolutely broken man in the profoundest possible way, and yet within weeks he was poised as the leader of a new movement, about to become one of the most influential leaders in the history of the world. What broke Peter like this, and then what restored him so quickly? The answer is the same: promises. Promises are the reason he was broken, and promises are the reason he was restored. And the case of Peter tells us more about the power of commitments than, I think, any other incident in the Scripture. Let’s look at what Peter learned: 1) how promises make us, and 2) how we can make promises. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 12, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Matthew 26:69-75. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In sixth century B.C., Nebuchadnezzar was the absolute monarch of the Babylonian empire. He’d built maybe the most incredible city in history. He was at the pinnacle of power, and his life fell apart anyway. And here’s the incredible part: he’s glad it happened! He praises God for having done it. Do you know why? Because he says, “There was a spiritual cancer in me. There was something in me that was so bad, it was so dangerous, it had poisoned my soul so deeply that even as drastic as the treatment was, it was worth it to get it out of my soul.” What was it? Pride. Spiritual pride. Could it be that we need to know the same lesson he learned? This text teaches us four things: it tells us about 1) the sleep of pride, 2) the heart of pride, 3) the outcome of pride, and 4) the healing of pride. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 5, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Daniel 4:24-37. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jeremiah is speaking at a time when his society was literally falling apart—politically, psychologically, socially and culturally. Everybody was asking, “What’s wrong?” And the answer of God through Jeremiah, was, “It’s not the economy. It’s sin.” The Bible shows us that sin is a dislocation of the soul. The soul should be centered on God, and all of our problems come from our unwillingness to center on him because we don’t want to lose control. So what happens? What are the effects of centering on something else? Jeremiah gives a metaphor of us falling in love with other gods, meaning these other things we center our lives on. And he shows that there are two major consequences: 1) our lover gods will always enslave us, and 2) our lover gods will always leave us empty. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 29, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Jeremiah 2:19-32. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In Jeremiah, the people of Israel were calling out and saying, “What’s wrong with us? Why are things falling apart?” And God came through and said, “Let me tell you what’s wrong.” In Jeremiah 2, we have the first sermon by the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel. It’s a sermon to show them why their lives are falling apart, why their culture is falling apart, why their psyches are falling apart, why their families are falling apart. And it’s a sermon on sin. There are three things that we learn from this passage about the nature of sin: 1) sin is denial, 2) sin is a disposition, and 3) there is a solution. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 22, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Jeremiah 2:2-13, 19. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s acceptable now to say, “I am spiritually searching.” But it’s not really acceptable to say you’ve found anything. But the Bible says you can find God. Not just search for God, but find God. And the famous passage about the burning bush, where Moses finds God, is very important—it gives you all of the basic principles for truly finding God. And until the same three things that happened to Moses happen to you, you can’t find God. Looking at this passage, we can see three stages: 1) the burning bush is a disrupting event, 2) when Moses gets closer he sees it’s an unmanageable power, and 3) in the midst of the burning bush, there’s an angel. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 4, 1998. Series: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. Scripture: Exodus 3:1-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The Ecclesiastes writer says, “I have sought to construct meaning in life.” He takes the view of a practical secularist—that we don’t know for sure if there’s a God, and that this life is all there is. And then he asks, “If this life is all there is, does that make life meaningless?” He tells us in Ecclesiastes that he tried to construct meaning by being a cause-based person who fought injustice. He tried to construct meaning by seeking pleasure and beauty. And next, he tries a work-based life, making career and achievement the organizing principle of life. In exploring a work-based life, he finds three things: 1) a life of work is not worth it, 2) why it’s not worth it, 3) what is worth it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 27, 1998. Series: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17–26, 4:4–8. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When you go on a spiritual search, there are problems people always run into. One of them is the problem of pain. But there’s also the problem of pleasure. I don’t think I’ve ever really talked to anybody who said, “I have trouble believing in God because of pleasure. Why is there pleasure in the world?” But my thesis, and the Ecclesiastes writer’s thesis, is that it should bother you, because pleasure is a huge problem. The Ecclesiastes writer teaches us three things about pleasure: 1) what pleasure promises, 2) why it fails, and 3) how it points beyond. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 20, 1998. Series: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:1–11, 3:10–14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you’re on a spiritual search, there’s no better place to go than the book of Ecclesiastes. In the entire Bible, it’s the only book written from the viewpoint of a skeptic. The writer of Ecclesiastes asks, “If this life is all here is, what meaning is there in life?” To explore that, he looks at several questions we all have to answer in some way. The first of these is how we deal with the injustice and suffering we see in the world. How do you deal with injustice? The Ecclesiastes writer 1) refuses to let you avoid the question of injustice, and 2) gives us clues to two answers for how to deal with injustice. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 13, 1998. Series: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:2–16. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When you’re young, there are probably things you’re sure would never happen to you, or things you’re sure you or friends would never do. But usually, as we get older, we begin to wonder whether there’s any rhyme or reason to life. Scientifically, they now say life is chaotic, that there is nothing but disorder. That’s both the practical and the intellectual perception. But Christianity has the most wonderful, the most sophisticated, and the most decisive answer to that perception: Jesus is King. When we see our lives and history looking chaotic, the Bible comes and says to us, “Calm down. There’s an explanation.” Let me show you how the two aspects of the kingship of Christ make up this most wonderful answer: 1) Jesus Christ has a kingdom coming, and 2) Jesus is King right now of history. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 30, 1994. Series: Understanding Jesus. Scripture: Ephesians 1:9–12. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus Christ carries out his office of King in two different ways. He carries it out spiritually in the hearts of his people, and he carries it out cosmically in history. We’re going to look now at the first of these: how Jesus Christ approaches the human heart. And 2 Corinthians 10 describes this approach in an interesting way. Let’s look at this passage to see 1) what it’s describing implicitly, and 2) what it’s describing explicitly. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 23, 1994. Series: Understanding Jesus. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 10:1–6. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.