I give God so much thanks for your online media ministry that is touching lives all around the world. I am one of those lives. I live in Nelson, New Zealand, and was introduced to Tim Keller through my home church (Hope Community Church) that regularly uses theological snippets from his books and writings, in Sunday’s sermons.
I was brought up in a Christian family and church and had several periods in my life when I showed great interest and desire to know God but my approach was always focused on what I did or tried to experience as a way of being sure He was real or I was good enough. Yes I had heard the gospel! Many times but it had never taken root, amongst many reason like never grasping how sinful I really was I think also because intellectually I never really knew if Jesus and his life,death and resurrection were all true or not. Of course…. After each of my periods of showing some spiritual interest, I drifted away, abandoning the faith altogether and eventually I became very fearful of what I thought was Christianity because of an unsettling experience. That was probably 17 years ago.
...suddenly I could grasp that the gospel was true, that Jesus really was who he said he was…
About 3.5 years ago my life went through an overwhelming and major crisis and I was greatly supported during this time by a longtime Christian friend who had known me for many years. Through her and her family I was brought along to Hope Community Church NZ, which surprises me to this day that I open to even going along! But it was there where I instantly felt like I’d come home and was captivated by the teaching.
On Hope’s website there was a page of ‘gospel resources’ of which one resource was a link to Tim Keller’s ‘prodigal sons’ sermon. All I can remember is listening to this (and again!) and being absolutely floored…Gobsmacked… Speechless. It blew me away and it was instantly and completely apparent to me that I’d never understood the gospel before and had spent my life living out various episodes of ‘younger brother’ and ‘older brother’ behavior but had never come home to my Heavenly Father. From there I found myself searching for more sermons online by Tim and God brought me to your ‘Redeemer Core Values‘ page on your old site, where the first sermon was an open forum titled “who is this Jesus“… This was exactly the sermon I needed to hear, the sermon that changed my life forever, suddenly I could grasp that the gospel was true, that Jesus really was who he said he was and this was wonderful wonderful GOOD NEWS for my life and for the world. I was undone! Completely! … I believed! And I leapt into my Saviour’s arms.
Since then I’ve gone on to listen to oodles of Redeemer’s online sermon resources and to pass them on to others who have been equally captivated. And read most of Tim and Kathy’s fantastic books.
Thank you thank you Redeemer Presbyterian Church for helping me to know Christ and to love him like I’ve never thought was possible. May God continue to use you to change the world by His gospel of grace!