Today, we're pleased to share with you an audio essay written and read by Matt Smethers

entitled The Most Powerful Message Tim Keller Ever Preached. Matt is the author of Tim Keller

on the Christian Life, The Transforming Power of the Gospel from Crosswind.

The most powerful message Tim Keller ever preached,

written and read by Matt Smithurst.

Tim Keller's teaching shone brightest

when the topic was the darkest.

But it wasn't just his teaching that glimmered in the dark.

Ultimately, it was his life.

In May 2020, two months after the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic,

Keller was diagnosed with a particularly invasive and lethal form of cancer.

The following year, in an essay for the Atlantic titled Growing My Faith in the Face of Death,

he gave powerful voice to his sadness in his unshakable hope.

He began by recalling the immediate aftermath of receiving the news.

One woman with cancer told me years ago,

I'm not a believer anymore. That doesn't work for me.

I can't believe in a personal God who would do something like this to me.

Cancer killed her God.

What would happen to me?

I felt like a surgeon who was suddenly on the operating table.

Would I be able to take my own advice?

Facing such a serious diagnosis,

...