Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Discipline of Desire 3

January 6, 2023

How do we know what real spiritual experience of God is? And then how do we have it? How do we actually move toward it?

The Psalms are a journal—almost a kind of instruction manual from the inside—with people who are experiencing God and explaining and describing it. And Psalm 63 is one of the greatest at showing us these things. 

We’re going to look at 1) three marks of spiritual experience, and 2) two very key and different disciplines in order to experience God. 

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Scripture: Psalm 63.

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.

Featured Offer

How to navigate life’s biggest milestones
 In How to Find God, Tim Keller shows us how we can face the key milestones of Birth, Marriage, and Death with God’s help. When you give to Gospel in Life this month, we’ll send you this collection of three short books as our thanks for helping us share the Gospel with more people. 

Archives

What does experience of God actually consist of? How does it happen? And how do I know if I’m experiencing God? Psalm 63 shows several principles of what a real experience of God is and consists of. Each principle can be used as a test on your own heart. And each principle is also a discipline—a practical handle for what to do to draw near to God. We’re going to look at two of these principles: 1) you develop a spiritual appetite and, 2) you are capable of a new sense of God. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Scripture: Psalm 63. 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.
January 4, 2023
We have a tremendous hunger for spiritual experience. But how do we experience God? And how do we know we’re experiencing God? The Psalms are an amazing resource, because in the Psalms you have someone describing their experience of God from the inside. Psalm 63 shows us features of authentic Christian experience—and each feature is both a test and a discipline.  Let’s look at the first feature: 1) the way you know you’ve found God is that you develop a spiritual appetite. In other words, the way you know you’re really moving toward God is you feel you’re too far from him. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Scripture: Psalm 63. 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.
January 2, 2023
If you want to get the gist of who Jesus is, you have to look at a whole number of encounters Jesus had with individuals. The gospels are filled with encounters Jesus has with all sorts of people: with the powerful person, with the powerless person, with a man, with a woman, with a Jew, and with a Gentile.    In Luke 19, we get to a guy named Zacchaeus, and we’re told two things about him: that he’s a chief tax collector and he’s wealthy.    This teaches us two different and important things: 1) anyone can approach Jesus, but 2) money is always an issue when coming to Jesus. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 19:1-10. 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.
December 30, 2022
Some people dwell on Christ’s power and authority and majesty, and other people dwell on Christ’s vulnerability and tenderness and grace. But it’s critical not to, because of our own temperaments, screen out one side of Jesus as if it’s incompatible.   This passage shows us that the power of Christ is caring power, and the care of Christ is powerful caring. Jesus Christ, the little, tender, meek and mild baby, is the Lord of the storm.   This tells us four things about the power of Christ: 1) the reality of Christ’s power, 2) the magnitude of Christ’s power, 3) the divinity of Christ’s power, and 4) the compatibility of the caring power of Jesus with storms. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 5, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Mark 4:35-41. 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.
December 28, 2022
This text tells us something that’s easy to ignore, that’s often missed: that Jesus is the final word. Jesus claims a finality here, and because he claims his salvation is completely by grace through him, the Pharisees and the Herodians get together and want to kill him.   This teaches us not only how radical Jesus’ way of salvation is, but that if you really hear it, it will create all sorts of division in your own heart. Whenever the real Jesus is revealed, there’s a juxtaposition of both attraction and revulsion. They both happen together.    This passage shows us 1) that Christ is offensive, 2) to whom he is offensive, and 3) why he is offensive. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 26, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Mark 2:23-3:6. 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.
December 26, 2022
Of all the passages that are read at Christmas, Luke 2 is perhaps the most famous. And in this most famous passage, the most famous word is peace. What is Christmas all about? Peace on earth.    When Jesus Christ was born as a baby, he was born to bring this peace.   But what is this peace on earth? We’ll look at 1) what it is not, 2) what it is, and 3) how you receive it and live it out. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 22, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 2:10-14. 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.
December 25, 2022
The message of Christmas is the message of the gospel. It’s the essential message of Christianity. And in Luke 1, we have one person’s response to that message. At Christmastime you’ll be hearing this message. The question is, “How should you respond to it?”  The message is that the Most High has become the most low. God has become human. Let’s look at three things that this means: 1) God is far greater than we thought, 2) we are more sinful than we thought, and 3) God is more loving than we think. Then we’ll look at one person’s, Mary’s, three-stage response to this message. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 15, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 1:26-38. 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.
December 23, 2022
We’re looking at the life of Jesus. Not at his words and teachings, but at his deeds and his life—the things that happened to him and the things he did. Of course at the very beginning is his birth.  The birth of Christ has one wonderfully big word attached to it: the word “incarnation.” The birth of Jesus is the incarnation of God. Incarnate means God comes in. He comes in our flesh. He comes into our humanity, into our vulnerability, into our history, into our reality. God comes in.  We’ll look at the incarnation in this way: 1) what it is, 2) what it means, and 3) how we can connect to it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 3, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Matthew 1:17-25. 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.
December 21, 2022
We’re looking at the Sermon on the Mount. It is very famous because in it, Jesus says, “This is what God wants from you. This is the law.” We learn that Jesus really demands things that no other founder of any religion has ever demanded. But when you look at this passage as a whole, you see that the law of God is filled with grace. As Jesus expounds it, we see that the law is grace and that it drives us into grace.  Let’s look at three aspects of the law of God that show us his grace: the pain of the law, the premise of the law, and the profile of the law.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 20, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 5:1-10, 17-20. 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.
December 19, 2022
The gospel of Matthew is famous for having long discourses of teaching. Matthew 11 is the best single place where Jesus explains how to receive him; Matthew 5 through 7 is the best single place where Jesus explains how to follow him. He teaches us what it means to become a Christian and how to live the Christian life. If you go through the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse, you learn a tremendous number of details about what it means to be a Christian, but we’re going to look at it as a whole and we’ll begin to see larger themes. First, Jesus tells us what we are to do in the Christian life; secondly, why we are to do it; and thirdly, how we are to achieve it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 20, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 5:1-10, 17-20. 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.
December 16, 2022
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Featured Offer

How to navigate life’s biggest milestones
 In How to Find God, Tim Keller shows us how we can face the key milestones of Birth, Marriage, and Death with God’s help. When you give to Gospel in Life this month, we’ll send you this collection of three short books as our thanks for helping us share the Gospel with more people. 

About Gospel in Life

Gospel In Life is a ministry that features sermons, books, articles, and resources from Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, and Redeemer City to City. The name reflects our conviction that the gospel changes everything in life. In 1989 Dr. Timothy J. Keller, his wife and three young sons moved to New York City to begin Redeemer Presbyterian Church. He has since become a bestselling author, an influential thinker, and an advocate for ministry in cities and to secular people.

About Tim Keller

Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons.  For 28 years he led a diverse congregation of young professionals that grew to a weekly attendance of over 5,000.

He is also the Chairman & Co-Founder of Redeemer City to City (CTC), which starts new churches in New York and other global cities, and publishes books and resources for ministry in an urban environment. In 2017 Dr. Keller transitioned to CTC full time to teach and mentor church planters and seminary students through a joint venture with Reformed Theological Seminary's (RTS), the City Ministry Program. He also works with CTC's global affiliates to launch church planting movements.

Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 2 million copies and been translated into 25 languages.

Christianity Today has said, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”

Dr. Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as the pastor of West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, and Director of Mercy Ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America.

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