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Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

The Power of Generosity

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Spirituality

4.815K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why is it that we celebrate Christmas with gift giving? We don’t do that at Easter. We don’t do that at Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. At anniversaries and birthdays, we give one person gifts, but at Christmas everybody gives everybody gifts. Why? I’m not actually looking for a literal answer. I’m asking as a rhetorical question, “Why is it that everybody gives gifts to everybody else at Christmas?” I’m here to say it’s profoundly appropriate, because it gets at the theological heart of Christmas: that Jesus Christ is the only human being who wasn’t just born but was given. Everyone who knows something about the Bible will say that 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is the longest, most involved, and explicit passage in all of the Bible on the subject of generosity. We’re being told 1) there’s a problem with regard to giving and generosity, 2) what will happen if we don’t solve that problem, and 3) how we can solve it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 13, 2015. Series: What We Are Giving: The Dynamic of Grace. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:8-15; 9:6-12. 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Believe in Christianity doesn't automatically change your life.

0:05.9

For example, you may believe God loves you, but often we're easily discouraged or self-conscious

0:11.2

and it can be hard to see how your life has been transformed.

0:14.7

So how do we experience actual change?

0:17.5

It's through regular Christian practices or spiritual disciplines.

0:21.5

Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues a series on the practices or disciplines that

0:26.2

help and still beliefs into your heart, resulting in real transformation.

0:31.0

After you listen, we invite you to go online to Gospel and Life.com and sign up for our email

0:35.8

updates.

0:36.8

When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles from

0:40.3

Dr. Keller as well as other great Gospel-centered resources.

0:44.2

Subscribe today at Gospel and Life.com.

1:12.2

So that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

1:16.4

And here's my judgment about what is best for you in this matter.

1:20.6

Last year, you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so.

1:26.6

Now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion

1:32.4

of it, according to your means.

1:35.3

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not

1:40.2

according to what one does not have.

1:42.9

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there

1:48.1

might be equality.

1:50.7

At that present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn, their plenty

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