Tim Keller's 9/11 Remembrance Sermon

Few pastors have influenced me more deeply than Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Listening to Tim Keller has challenged me to preach the Gospel from every passage, to speak to believers and unbelievers at the same time all the time, to reach out without dumbing it down, to speak to the head and heart, to talk WITH people instead of AT and OVER people.

A couple weeks back, Tim Keller had the opportunity to speak at the Service of Remembrance and Peace for 9-11 Victim's Families. President Bush was in attendance. Apparently some of the White House staff liked the message so much that they had it transcribed. I found it on a blog written by two of Keller's sons. Check it out and tell me what you think...

Name Pending

In addition to great gospel preaching, Keller includes a couple of gem quotes on suffering that I will definitely be using, one from John Stott...

I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it.

and one from Dostoevsky. . .

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; and it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify what has happened.

Is that not what Christian hope is all about?

For more on Keller, also check out this interesting article in the New York Times . . .

Preaching the Word and Quoting the Voice - New York Times

Here's a great Keller quote to lure you into that article. . .

If you seek power before service, you'll neither get power, nor serve. If you seek to serve people more than to gain power, you will not only serve people, you will gain influence. That's very much the way Jesus did it.

Thank you for everything, Tim Keller! God bless you and keep you!