Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Money and Your Faith

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

If we live a big life of faith, how will it show itself in the most specific and particular daily lifestyle details?  The writer of Hebrews shows us the lifestyle of a person of faith. If circumstances and events and troubles no longer have the mastery over us, if we instead master them, what kind of people will we be in the way we live? We will be characterized by a lifestyle of openness and generosity.  There are three kinds of openness and generosity that are mentioned in this passage: 1) living space, 2) social situations, and 3) your finances. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 6, 1994. Series: The Nature of Faith. Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-6. 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.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. How do you live a life of stability in a world full of uncertainty? This month, Tim Keller is exploring the Book of Hebrews and looking at how genuine faith rooted in the work of Christ empowers us to live with courage, hope, and poise, even in difficult circumstances. Music Hebrews 13, 1-6. Hmm. Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so, some people have entertained

angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said never will I leave you never will I forsake you so we we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me? That's God's word. Now you know we've been

looking at the book of Hebrews, we've been looking at Hebrews 11 all fall. Our subject this fall has been this question, how can you live a life of power so that circumstances and events and troubles don't master you, but rather you master them? How can we live a life in such a way that circumstances and events and troubles don't master you, but that you master them? Now, everybody wants to live that kind of life. The Bible, however, calls that a life of faith. And we've been looking at the principles of this life of faith.

Now, here in chapter 13, the author begins to apply those principles to very, very specific and concrete lifestyle issues. In other words, the question we come to this text with is, if we have this big life like Abraham had, we've been looking at him for the last three weeks, if we have this greatness of life, this mastery of life, this life of faith that Abraham had, for example, how will it show itself in the most specific and particular lifestyle daily details? And that's what the writer gives us. And he shows us the lifestyle of a person of faith. Now, when we look at these few verses,

we see three forms of what I will call openness. A life of faith, if circumstances and events and troubles no longer have the mastery over us, if we instead master them, what kind of people will we be in the way we live? We will be characterized by a lifestyle of openness and generosity. And there's three kinds of openness and generosity

that are mentioned here. Let's look at them. The first one is hospitality. You see, boy, we don't know what this word means. The word hospitality makes you think of tea and crumpets, I know, but it says, do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it. Now the word entertain strangers is the word hospitality. In other translations, we'll say hospitality. It's a Greek word, and it's an interesting Greek word. Many of us nowadays have heard the Greek word xenophobic. What does it mean to be xenophobic?

It means to fear those who are different, to fear those outside of our family, outside of our circle, outside of our race, to fear those outside. But the word that Paul, that the Hebrew writer uses here, the word that is translated to entertain strangers is a Greek word philozenon, which is the exact opposite of xenophobia. It means the love of strangers. And literally, the writer is saying to the Christians, if you live lives of faith, you will practice love of strangers. Now the word means you will open your home and you will open your life to those who are different. You won't be like a typical New Yorker, little privatized

lives. Don't keep your cards in close to your chest. Don't let them see you sweat. Never ask them in. Don't be generous because somebody might take you. Instead, a person who's not afraid of life anymore, a person who is living a life of faith, a person who is not pushed around by circumstances, you are open with your living space. Now the reason I keep saying living space, that's what hospitality is, is because in New York, there's not a, probably, I'm looking at, you know, several hundred of us here, there's probably not a lot of guest rooms out there in our living space, is there? And so you see the original meaning of hospitality, hospitality means to let somebody in, put them up, bring them in to feed them.

But you see there's a principle here which even goes deeper than that, because in many cases there we practice, you know, you're living in closets, I know it, I've seen some of them. But the more important principle here, a person of hospitality, a person with the love of strangers is a person who welcomes new people heartily. And you let them into your living space. That means you open your schedule, it means you open your pocketbook, it means you take them out to eat, but most importantly, it's with your spirit It's with your face. You show that you're willing to let them in. You're

You're clearly interested in them They can sense that you're accessible. You're not always giving people busy signals. I'm too troubled I'm too self-absorbed. I'm too suspicious to deal with you unless somebody I really know introduces me to you. See, that's the New York style, and that's utterly repugnant, because it shows circumstances are mastering you instead of you mastering them. A person of faith is a person of hospitality. I know a church that for a brief period of time, they worked so hard at this, there was a brief period of time in which for a number of months, maybe even a couple of years,

no one ever visited a Sunday morning service in that church without being vigorously and sincerely asked home to eat by somebody who already went to that church. It was a church of hospitality. Now that's going to take a different form here, but this principle's the same. You open your life, your living space. That's the first mark of this kind of lifestyle. The second mark, and it's even more profound, is not only is there supposed to be an openness and a generosity with your living space and your schedule and just your demeanor to new

people, outsiders, people outside. But secondly, there's got to be an openness and a generosity with regard to your social associations. And it says here, we've read it, the next verse after verse two, it says, Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Now, again, we have to look at this pretty carefully. There's both an application of a principle and a principle here. The application comes first. Remember those in prison as if you were in prison yourself.

Now, this is a particular application of the principle. We'll get to the principle in a second. But we know from, if you read the entire book of Hebrews, one of the problems was that this church that the author was writing to was beginning to fall under persecution. And almost for sure, the people that this author is thinking about when he uses the word prisoners

are Christians who have been thrown into prison by authorities who are trying to stamp out Christianity. Now if you are not well known as a Christian so you haven't been arrested, if you're not well known as a Christian and therefore you haven't been persecuted, what the author is saying is you're in a safe position, come out of that safe position. Go see the person in prison, bring them food, bring them clothing, bring them friendships. In other words, identify yourself with the person who has been marginalized so that you too

will participate, you will identify, you will come out of your safety zone to be in solidarity with that person. Now that is the, that's just the application in this one instance but then right after that safety zone to be in solidarity with that person. Now, that's just the application in this one instance. But then right after that, the principle is laid down, and it comes to us all. It says, and to those mistreated, now literally, literally, this is where the translation, again, kind of

muffs over it a bit. It says, and visit those who are mistreated. Remember those who are mistreated. Literally, it says, for you yourself are also in the body. You're physical as well. There's a guy out on the West Coast. He's a very big preacher at a big church and his name is John MacArthur. Some of you may have heard of him. He's a very conservative guy and that's why I quote him. He has a commentary on Hebrews and he says this verse proves to us that we've got to watch out that we don't over-spiritualize

Christianity because because the author says remember those who are mistreated for you are also in the body. MacArthur says this is a way of saying find the people who are hungry, find the people who are oppressed, find the people who are hurting, find the people with material needs and physical needs, and come out of your safe and prosperous situation. Go be with them, go work with them, go move about with them, which means going into unsafe neighborhoods, which means making yourself vulnerable because people will be hitting you up for money now. It means coming out, in some cases, living among them. This lifestyle says that a Christian, somebody who's no longer mastered by circumstances,

but now lives a life of mastery, is not afraid to identify with the marginalized and the oppressed, the people who have less power and less than you have. Now, how do we apply that here? Let me give you one application. Look at yourselves. Do you know who you are? People know who you are. When you walk in the door, people right away, they know what Redeemer is. Redeemer is a bunch of young people, generally. Sorry, for those of us who are my age and older, I don't want to make you feel too bad, but Redeemer is a bunch of young people and they're on a track to become part of the cultural leadership of the country. Who are the cultural elites?

Nobody likes to be called a cultural elite, but they're there. Who are they? They're the people who teach at the universities. They're the people who run the foundations. They're the people who produce the plays and produce the books and produce the movies, you see, and produce the newspaper reports. They're the people who lead the cultural institutions. They're the people who lead in business. And yeah, Redeemer is filled with people who are on that track. We've got that inside track. We've gone to those schools. We're on our way. Most of us aren't there, but we're on our way.

What kind of cultural leaders will you be? If you take this passage seriously, you will be utterly different than what America sees now. And I'll tell you what America sees now. To some degree, some of the cultural leaders are what I'll call, painting with a broad brush, conservative types. In other words, you look at the people, the hoi polloi, the masses, and you say, well, there's not much we can do for them. And most of the cultural elite and leaders are what

you call liberal secular people, and they give lip service to the masses, but they actually despise their values. Who am I talking about? Get on a subway. On the subway, full of people, not the people who are doing, on the track for cultural leadership, but the people who are going back to their homes uptown and out in the boroughs. You see a whole lot of poor and working poor people, generally very young, and they're trapped. They're trapped in a cycle of bad schools, of bad economic prospects, of deteriorating families, of criminal records. And as a result, they're trapped. What is the attitude of the cultural leaders to them? I'll tell you. The conservative types tend to say, they're irresponsible, we can't do much for them, let them rot. And the liberal types, they say, oh, we're for them, but you despise them. You know why they despise them? Because these people are

religious people. The poor say, praise the Lord. The poor, we know this, the poor are for 10 commandments. The poor seek God. And the liberal cultural leader really despises that. In other words, when the liberal cultural leader sees the poor people, you know, raising their hands saying praise the Lord, they say, well, it's a shame you didn't have as much education as I had. If you'd only gone to my college, you would know that nobody knows about these things. Nobody can be sure that there's meaning in life. You have to decide for yourself what's right and wrong. I know that you're very conservative and traditional in your values, but you can't help it. You're the poor oppressed proletarian.

In other words, all the cultural leaders in this country, by and large, despise those folks. If you're Christians, you're going to be different. There's no greater hope for you today than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, His resurrection is the key to understanding the whole Bible and the greatest resource we have for facing the challenges of life. Discover how to anchor your life in the meaning of the resurrection by reading Tim Keller's book, Hope in Times of Fear, The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter. Hope in Times of Fear is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share Christ's redemptive love with people all over the world. Just visit

gospelinlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. You know how you're going to be different? On the one hand, you're going to come out of your safety zones and be willing to work and move among them and not be afraid to go into their neighborhoods and not be afraid to spend your money in their neighborhoods and not be afraid to partner with them and try to rebuild the city. But on the other hand, you will worship with them as brothers and sisters.

And you will actually admire, you won't just pity them, you'll admire the fact that they pray better than you do. You will look up to their faith. Don't you see? You will be brothers and sisters with them. And you'll even learn from them even as you're helping them. They'll help you as you're helping them. You will have an utterly different approach to them because you will be open in your social relationships. Identify with those who are oppressed. Identify with those who are marginalized as if you were yourself because you're a sinner and you know they're sinners.

You don't look down your nose, ah, they're not educated, they're religious, like the cultural elite. Nor do you look down your nose, ah, yes, well, they're not hardworking like me, like the cultural elite. Nor do you look down your nose, ah, yes, well, they're not hardworking like me, like the conservative elite. Instead, you'll say, they're sinners saved by grace like me. You'll be utterly different. I look forward to the day the Redeemer starts to churn out those kinds of cultural leaders.

The third way in which you're supposed to be open, there's an openness of living space. There's an openness of living space, there's an openness of social associations, but of course, finally, there's an openness with your finances. In verse four and five it says, and it's so fascinating, it says, marriage should be kept pure. The marriage bed should be kept pure. And then it says, keep your lives free from the love of money. Now what the early Christians had in complete opposition to the pagan culture was they juxtaposed the place of sex and money.

See what it says, the marriage bed must be undefiled. It's a word that means kept unprofaned. Where on the other hand it says, you must not treat money as sacred, you mustn't bow before, you mustn't love it, but you must treat sex as sacred. See the pagan culture of the time, and our modern, especially New York culture today, puts those two things in opposition. For us today, sex is just a means to an end. It's not a holy sacred thing, so you do it with whomever. But money is very, very sacred, so you don't share it with anybody.

But you see, Christians are the opposite. Because in Christianity, sex is seen as a holy thing in itself. Something that you don't share with anybody but your spouse. But money is not that big a deal. You share it with whomever. Christians are promiscuous with their money, not with their bodies. You see, they've changed everything. The way this tells us that a life of faith changes your attitude toward money violently,

vigorously. You're no longer, you don't love it. Now, how do you know if you love money? Either you love to spend it on yourself, or you're always worried about it, so you're never spending it. You see, to either be a miser or to be a spendthrift shows that money, you love it. Well, somebody says, how do I know if I've actually got this life of faith and I've changed my attitude toward my money? Well, it's fairly simple. The one thing, clearly, is generosity. In the Old Testament, we know that the Old Testament believers were required to give away 10% of their annual income

and give it away to God's work and to the poor and so on. But everything we know from both pagan and Christian historical texts, everything we know from the New Testament and early Christian historical texts, and even pagan historical texts, is that the early Christians went way beyond the tithe. They went way beyond the tithe. They went way beyond 10%. And as a result, the pagans had never seen anybody this promiscuous with their money. They'd never seen people give their money away in such proportion. And worse than that, they'd never seen people give it away with joy.

And here's the reason why. Christians don't worship money. You know how you worship money? When money makes you feel important or or money makes you feel desirable, because you spend it on yourself in a certain way, or money makes you feel safe and in control of your life. And Christians know only in Christ am I in control. Only when I lose control of him am I free.

Only in Christ am I attractive. Only in Christ have I got power. And so money becomes nothing that big a deal. It loses its holiness. It loses its sacredness. And the way you can tell that it has is the second part of that verse in verse 5, where it says, be content with what you have. There's a guy I listened to on tape not too long ago, and I know the man.

He's a very, very, he's a Christian businessman, and he's really well off. And he was sharing, and he does share this, that he and his wife give away to God's work and to the people in need, 70% of their income annually. And when he says that, everybody, their jaws drop. And then he says, we have to understand, if a person making $30,000 a year gives away 10%,

that's a sacrifice of lifestyle. But we're making out very well. He says, my wife and I give away 70%. And that's not a sacrifice. All that does is keep us from escalating our lifestyle. And that's the mark. That's the mark. The way you can tell that you're satisfied with the basics,

that the lavish and the luxurious no longer have that control over you, you're not getting your sense of importance, your sense of safety, or your sense of desirability anymore out of money, is that as your income grows over the years, your lifestyle, see, as your income grows over the years, your lifestyle, see, as your income line goes like this, your lifestyle line goes like this. Be content with what you have.

Now, lastly, think about this. There's the lifestyle, but where does it come from? Well, all along I've been saying it's a life of faith. But, you know, the Hebrew's writer reminds us, he says, you will be able to live like this because God has said, the last verse, because God has said, in the end of verse five, excuse me, never will I leave you nor forsake you.

Now here's what that means. Do you understand that verse? Do you understand that promise? Do you understand that promise? If you say, I could never be that open with my living space, I could never be that open with my social associations, and I could never be that open with my wallet, it's just too hard. You haven't taken this one promise

into the center of your heart. It hasn't caught fire there. You know what it is? I will never leave you nor forsake you. You know what that means? There's a negative and a positive side. You know what the negative side is? Everything else will leave you and forsake you.

Everything. That's the negative side of this. If you understand it, everything else will leave you and forsake you, everything. How are you, remember Abraham? He realized that nothing here had foundations. You put your money into universities, they will crumble. You put your money into your looks, it will fade. You put your money into clothes, they wear out. You put your money into homes,

they fall apart. What can you put money into that has foundations? Remember Abraham? He realized that nothing here had a foundation. Nothing here was secure. Now if you understand that, everything will desert you. You say, well I'm putting my money...you know, anything you put yourself into, even a good family, they grow up and they leave you. Even friends, they go on. Even best friends, they die. What can you put your money into that will last, that has foundations, that will never go away? People in the image of God and the truth of God and the work of God. Do you realize how stupid it is? Could you imagine going to somebody's house and the house is a hovel except the foyer?

The first four feet when you walk in the door, the place where you kind of kick the mud off your shoes, it's gold-plated, sapphire-studded, diamond studded. It's incredible. You walk in and they didn't put any money into anything else, just the foyer. What's the matter with you? You say you're not living in the foyer. And that's what happens to you when you put your money into your clothes, when you put your money into your home, when you put your money into your lifestyle.

You're going to live for billions of years. Don't you want to do with your money something that has foundations? And then lastly, the positive side. What's the positive side? I will never leave you or forsake you. Where do you see Jesus saying that to us? On the cross. On the cross, he stayed. Even though the Father forsook him, he stayed.

Now, are you afraid that if I give a lot away, I won't be secure? Look at him saying, I will never, never, never, never, never leave you. Do you really think that someone who loves you like that, if you give an obedience to what he says, he's going to let you down? Do you really think, how, having spared not his own son, will he not also, together with him, freely give us all things we need? That's what it says in Romans 8. Or are any of you just selfish? That's the reason you like to spend your money.

How can you be selfish when you look at him up there saying, I will never forsake you. Look what I'm doing for you. Look at how I spend myself on you. Do you want to live a life of greatness? God says, look what happened to my son when he opened his hand and let go of his life. Look what I did with him. Look what I can do through him.

Will you open your hand? And will you let go of your living space? Will you let go of your social associations? Will you let go of your privacy? Will you let go of your money? Will you let go of your living space? Will you let go of your social? Associations will you let go of your privacy will you let go of your money? Will you let go of your time? Where do you see what I can do? I? Won't forsake you test me trust me look at me on dying on the cross Will you let's pray. Thank you father for assuring us That because your Son gave all but he was plundered if we give all we will not be let down by you.

In fact, oh Lord God, when Abraham did hospitality in Genesis 18 he found that he was really letting angels in and we know that the more we open up the more we will find great things coming in hospitality in Genesis 18, he found that he was really letting angels in. And we know that the more we open up, the more we will find great things coming in, angels, the Holy Spirit, you yourself. The more we open up and give, the more we'll be filled. Help us to all know that and practice that. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life Podcast. we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit www.gospelandlife.com slash partner. That website again is www.gospelandlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 1994. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel

in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.