The Struggle for Love - Timothy Keller [Sermon]
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- Опубликовано: 9 авг 2015
- Tim Keller sermons via Gospel in Life: In dealing with inner emptiness we often hope for “one true love.” Jacob and Leah have that hope after the failure of their lives. When their dreams are achieved, their hopes are dashed. Leah eventually achieves inner peace by placing her hope in God, who alone can deliver.
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This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 11, 2001.
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That was probably the BEST message I have ever heard and I’ve been in church my entire life.
Aww ❤
The most amazing thing about Tim Keller’s sermons is that you’ll find yourself saying that about all of them. I know I certainly do.
I completely agree!!
"The hole in your soul is as big as God Himself." Difficult, but true. - We need him more than we know.
This is why Tim was the goat. So much rich biblical teaching out of one simple story.
Oh crap. Explains my whole life. But Jesus is now my first love, so there's that! 🤗
"Though you may look like Leah, to God through Jesus Christ you look like Rachel."
This has to be the greatest sermon given by any pastor ever. I can't stop listening to it.
Rest in peace Tim, you were a tremendous servant of God and your life deserves to be celebrated. I hope one day we can meet on the other side!
“In the morning is alway Leah.” So liberating
so enlightening indeed
I felt like Lea, and the timing of this is perfect. Thank u God and thanks to everyone who’s making this possible 💕
Tim Keller's sermons always strike a cord with me.
I love Jesus with my whole heart,i lost my husband 9 years ago,he went to be with Jesus and I have been crying out to God for a godly man who I can love and will love me and someone who would want to do it Gods way which means not living together!!!!!!
Prayers for a GODLY husband if you don’t already have one. I heard this sermon years ago and recently revisited it. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
One of my very favorite sermons!!!!!!!! ❤
Now I understand my ex-husband, why I wasn't enough. I was enough, it was him that was seeking in the wrong places. Thank you so much.
Going through the same thing right now … 💔🙏
. . . When Jesus was the true love all along. What suffering I would have saved myself if I had realized that when I was younger.
Yes it was all his fault.
41:45-42:50 is gold dust...Thank you Yahweh for your grace and mercy.
My fourth time listening to this. I love this sermon.
This is one of my favorite messages
Haha yay!
Jabelle Micu same. I always come back to this sermon.
Me too
my second.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be given to you. Such an important reminder.
Darla Baltazar,
For all things, above passage has to be read. 😊
Amen!
Man that was such a a good sermon! It pulled at my heartstrings.
I cannot understate how great cs Lewis is. It’s as if I have a friend who feels just how I feel about the most important things in life. It’s beautiful.
Tim Keller is right up there as well.
you mean you ‘cannot overstate’ how great Lewis is…
This is a great sermon. God should be our first love. So many times we look for the real fulfillment of true love in other human beings. If we do not allow God to be our all in all we will continue to search for an elusive dream which can only gained through Christ.
The struggle is real.
Tim Keller has got the ability to lay out the Word with different perspectives. So applicable, I am so blessed by this sermon.
This message explains alot of aspects of why relationships are the way they are today. I really liked it, it was very enlightening! I've realized that it's important to seek God first and learn to love him and understand just how much he loves us, then allow him to bring us to a spouse that loves us!
Incredibly inspiring and beautiful. Thank God for Tim Keller
What an eye opening implication of Leah. I feel I was at the similar stages in my life but I finally made it to Judah, having surrendered my focus from my "Jacob" to my True passion, our True Bridegroom. Thank you Pastor Keller, for the wealth of God's Words explained in modern terms.
My goodness this teaching is so good! Praise God for the wonderful gifts he gives to mankind 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Pastor Tim Keller is perhaps my favorite Christian teacher . I so love that God put this message on his heart and that it would be waiting for me 20 years down the road when I was in such a dark place emotionally. This renewed me ❤️❤️❤️
Only God can fill that void.
What a fantastic sermon. Thank you Father for helping us to understand your word through these Godly men. Thank you for loving me . This has really helped me to see what I need to do in my marriage. Too long I have been so frustrated at my husband and feeling ugly. Thank you Father that you love me and I am beautiful to you.
wow!
Leah, Love and Liberation.
This sermon TRULY blessed me today. It really blew my perspective on things wide open. I love the way the story of Jacob, Leah and Rachel has been interpreted here. Wonderful job! Thank you, Holy Spirit!
38:06 most of us don't even consciously know thats what we're doing. It leads to depression, such deep heart break, so much wasted time... This is what most of us fundamentally need to do..
In the morning, it's always Leah. So lovely and true
I so relate to this story.... there is no one true love. The Lord's love 💘 is eternal and that is one true love.
This is very eye-opening. God is answering the prayer at the end of the sermon for all of us listening.
An 11/11/01 Sermon: That’s what caught my eye.
O listen to this sermon over and over.
❤❤❤❤
The deep wisdom behind this sermon can only come from God's Spirit.
Message me on watsapp for prayer request,seed sowing and deliverance. +1 (609) 536-3187
One of my favorite messages. So amazed at how Jesus loves us so much!
My new favorite from Tim Keller. Never heard the story of Leah described / elaborated this way....
This sermon speaks right to my soul. Praise God for your wonderful resources Pastor Tim.
Our lives are comprised of choices and desires
Very sad right now because I'm horrible at trying to be in a relationship and don't know what I'm doing but this helped clear me up.
Isaac McDaniel you are not alone brother. (I know this is late)
Awesome exposition. See you soon Dr. Keller! 🙏♥️🙏
This Sermon blow my mind
This sermon was just for me. Thank you Keller. Gods servant.
Me Too, at least 4, I listen to all Keller's bible teaching's over and over again. Maybe I will get to travel across the country to join a service someday.
Absolutely beautiful.
Just listening to this now and this is a very timely sermon for me. Thanks so much.
What do you do with the cases where you wake up and feel that your pursuit of God is Leah?
So blessed by this insightful message. Wonderful. Than you so much
I can't get enough of this! Thank you.
13:22 - 14.16... Amazingly perceptive
thank you Pastor
love this sermon
Sooo good!
What in the world was this? This truly described me. Praise the Lord. Great sermon.
Message me on watsapp for prayer request,seed sowing and deliverance.. +1 (609) 536-3187
Love this
This is so deep. Thank you.
Praise God! Thank you Ptr. Tim.
Amazing. So good.
wow this is real good !!!!
10/10
I get Leia..beautiful message
Excellent sermon! So glad I found this. And glad you were able to get the grit of this perspective and also application
We are all eventually Leahs but Rachael at the core.
Bring him back to Chicago to fill in for lonzo
Awesome.. Worth listening
Wow.
There is freedom only in the Bridegroom
best to specify that that"s Jesus.
In the morning there is always Leah. What if we see Jesus instead of Leah every morning?
Heard this sermon years ago and recently revisited it. What an awesome comment! Yes and Amen
Robert Allter
I still think it was a dirty deal for Jacob
that's not what its about though.
This is a great sermon, and the main point is wonderful, but I'm very confused about your point about Leah no longer having children after Judah and is no longer seeking her husbands approval, since the passage seems to clearly go on to say that though she was barren for a while later on she has two more children and gives her servant over to her husband for her husband's favor.
"9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad.[f] 12 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.[g]
14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.[h]
19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.[i] 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah."
This is one of my favourite sermons by Pastor Tim but I’ve never thought to look at the rest of Leah’s story!
I first heard this sermon when my husband and I were having marriage problems. I was not loved and I could very much relate to Leah. It was a turnaround in my life when I heard this because God showed me how I had put family before him on so many occasions. I had a beautiful revelation of God’s love for me and it carried me through those dark days.
My marriage was restored by the grace of God but number one in my life was now God.
Perhaps Leah also had that revelation after the birth of Judah. Once her relationship with God was restored maybe her marriage was healthier too. I’d like to think so.
32:40
aaaqgggh!!!! 😣
I have a question concerning this brother. I always thought it was God's fault not to be offensive on here. I grew up thinking it was. In my head I always thought well Rachel and Leah are siblings and they share the same parents. Any siblings would pretty much share some similar features here and there but bible describes them as being complete opposites. Bible describes Rachel as the modern day what would be a model beautiful in appearance and figure and her sister not really well we get the picture. If anything I tell myself, sure God did bless Leah and made up for the deep rejection she faced but isn't God the first to be at fault here because we all know he made the two sisters polar opposites Rachel was lovely and beautiful and Leah was that person that gets overshadowed and seen as the less then the one that gets compared to her sister. What did God expect? Pretty much this would happen and Leah knew this is the kind of treatment she would receive from people. She knew she wasn't pretty she knew she was the shadow of her sister and this is the expected reaction and treatment from her dad and people with the two women. Why couldn't God make her lovely not the same but beautiful but different surely I don't think she would have no one at least any wanting to marry her and see her for who she is so that she wouldn't have her be put in this deceptive scheme by her dad to get married with Jacob because no one wanted her. What did God expect. Did Leah ask to be a Leah she didnt. And yes he made up for it but he was the first responsible maybe he didn't have to do her in that way why should their be Leah's in this world they hurt bad nobody has to question their value or feel less than but reality is not all women are created the same. Some women are beautiful and attractive physically and can love Jesus and be beautiful on the inside to in their character they can have grace for all we know not only is Rachel very beautiful attractive, stunning but maybe she also has a stellar personality, there's women loving Jesus and just as attractive on the inside and then there's also people like me who are very ugly and unattractive for a woman and in all honesty I felt like I had no redeeming qualities I am also ugly if not more on the inside just as I am on the outside. The thing is we can't control this things and it hurts. Leah couldn't control that she had to be Leah eitherz more than anything I don't think it's just the fact that she was unloved, rejected, overshadowed, unheard of but also she didn't love herself at all and my prediction too that she didn't feel like she was a woman, didn't feel like she Could get herself to like her. I could be writing longer here but I think I'll stop here. Maybe I'm wrong for blaming God but that's how I feel. Please let me know your comments. Thank you
Get it, girl! YOU ARE the BEAUTIFUL Leah who God wants to bestow His incredible love on. Rachel was buried by the side of the road. Leah was buried in the tomb of Jacob’s ancestors, where he was eventually buried. GOD LOVES YOU and so do I! And I know your pain! Hold your head high!! You are the daughter of the KING. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
ouch
I hope Tim is listening in. I tried to find a way to contact him through the website to no avail. If this msg doesn't reach him, maybe it will reach a listener. Are you teaching repentance and obedience as our gifts back to the Father and Messiah? Knowing His Name and his sons Name? Are you teaching obedience to the biblical Sabbath? Or do you teach pagan sun worship? Are you keeping the Father's feasts (appointments) or do you keep the pagan holidays? Are you teaching that the commandments have been done away with yet keep the tithe? (Which christian preachers twist). All of the eloquence in the world mean nothing if you are decieved and deceiving others. The Messiah's message is " Repent for the kingdom is at hand". My prayer is that if this doesn't convict you, someone listening will awaken and do their own diligence. Seek the truth.......
Christianity is about grace through faith in Jesus. Check yourself.
Did you miss the portion where he talks about the gospel towards the end? It's in there. Just listen.
I'm glad there are more and more people who realize Tim Keller preaches a false gospel and are now rejecting his Marxist theology. Keller hid his anti-gospel message for a long time but now he can't help himself.
His lie of making charity into a justice issue by insisting the poor have a claim on the wealth of others turns the true Gospel on its head. Instead of charity being a picture of God's grace to us, Keller turns charity into something we owe the poor. This paints the picture of the Gospel being something God owes us.
Keller promotes the sin of partiality when he preaches the lies of systemic racism and white privilege. By insisting whites benefit to the tune of $1,000,000 because of their skin color and they received that benefit from people who committed injustice, therefore white people owe non-white people, Keller again turns the Gospel on its head. Instead of allowing Christ to impute His righteousness onto whites, Keller imputes the sins of others onto whites.
Keller preaches a false gospel. Paul said in Galatians 1:8 that if anyone preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed. This Scripture applies to Tim Keller.
I think he's reading too much into this story and incorrectly. It's not Rachel's fault she's beautiful and Leah deserved to be unloved as she married a man who loved someone else. so she can't be too disappointed and desire he love her...does that mean only the ugly people are more significant in Gods eyes? Very disappointing sermon
Sophie Tsafcas I think you might be misunderstanding. Women during that time didn't get to choose their husbands. Leah did not have a choice in this situation.
I believe you might be focusing too much on their appearance versus the point of the sermon, which is that we are all seeking deep love and acceptance from things that can't possibly fulfill those needs. Only God can.
Sorry but your comment makes no sense. Everyone whether they picked their spouse or was arranged deeply desires to be loved and accepted. The sermon seems to imply that we should some how feel sorry for Leah but as you said she had no choice in the matter yet is disappointed that Jacob loves Rachael. Thats why polygamy can't work. Its nit about appearances but the truth is we all want to feel a physical attraction to our partners which is not wrong or means we dont find all our joy and love in Jesus alone and he can only supply us with everything we need.
The point that the sermon is making is that both Jacob and Leah are looking for satisfaction in the wrong places, which in this case is romance/marriage.
In the culture they live in, a woman is only seen as worthy if she's married and have children, so Leah, being so unwanted and suitor-less that her father had to trick people into wedding her just so that she can be married at all must have harmed her self-esteem.
She's trying to win Jacob's love, presumably to show that she's "worthy" of the position to be his wife when they're already married, but in the end she was only able to find happiness when she stopped being too concerned about Jacob's affections for her, and realizing that she is already favoured by God. (and this is probably why she's seen as the "hero" in the sermon, since she's the only one out of the three who experienced this "character development", so to speak)
Yes, people deserve to experience love, affection and intimacy with our partners (or other people in general), but human feelings are so fickle, that as long as we value other people's opinions on us rather than resting on the fact that God already loves us, we can't feel any sense of security, or, ultimately, happy.
I realize this comment section is now 2 years old, but I was looking through the comments searching for something like this! I'd really like to have a discussion on this with people, so thought I'd give it a go - I'm really trying to get to the bottom of how to interpret this passage.
The first time I heard this sermon something didn't quite sit well with me either, and I'm not satisfied with with some of the other people's comments here. I've listened to it again today, and some of the things Keller says sound very 21st century and I'm not quite sure that you can really extract it from the text.
For starters, this whole introspective look into Jacob's emotional life about how he's looking for acceptance, I mean there can certainly be truth to it, but I'm not convinced that it's there to the extent Keller is emphasizing or that Bible is really making that point (I'm especially sceptical, because our generation is obsessed with feelings - whereas Jacob's probably wasn't - it's the inheritance that seems to be the much bigger issue, and people's preferences for who should be the heir). And it's not at all clear to me that him saying to Laban he'd like to lie with Rachel is out of character - there are several times in the Bible when we see that lying with someone was simply the sealing of the marriage covenant. As well as this, this is something Jacob asks after 7 years of waiting for Rachel - is it really so strange he'd be impatient? There is also the verse which Tim kind of sees as evidence of Jacob's imbalanced love, the fact that the 7 years seemed like nothing to him because of his love for Rachel. But to me that verse never gave the impression Jacob was loving Rachel in a bad way - in fact it sounds rather poetic if anything. I'm not saying Jacob wasn't at fault - clearly he was drunk and didn't think very much before going into bed with Rachel, but still, I don't think his love for Rachel per se was just outright idolatry.
In terms of Leah's innocence and her being the only one who realizes God's love is the best here - I'm not entirely convinced of this either. Firstly, Rachel also praises God when He remembers her and gives her a son. Second, I'm not sure Leah is at all innocent when it comes to the deception - we may think she had no choice but to go along with her father's plan, but if we flip back to just a generation earlier, when Abraham's servant comes to ask for Rebecca's hand (and we are talking about the same family here), her family asks her if she wants to stay for 10 days or go straight away with the servant. Women may have had less say in some ways those days, but I don't buy that they had 0 autonomy given that passage where the family clearly care about Rebecca's opinion. That to me leaves at least a small possibility that Leah agreed willingly to the plan.
There are other smaller things, like the suggestion that Laban replying to Jacob with 'It's better that I give her to you' somehow is him not really saying yes - that to me sounds like a very 21st century movie plot device kind of thing. Surely a clear and straight-forward reading of the text is that what Laban is saying simply means 'yes'. Just because he doesn't say 'yes', doesn't mean he's not striking a deal.
I love Keller, he has given so much to this generation. But I feel quite confused on this passage, and I feel he's putting a narrative into the text that's a bit too embellished. When I read these passages, the much clearer theme to me is God's faithfulness despite human sin. Jacob deceives Isaac, but God remains faithful to the prophecy. Laban deceives Jacob, but God remains faithful to the promise (also with the story about the different flocks after this). Jacob does not love Leah, but God remains faithful to Leah. God then also sees Rachel's barrenness and remains merciful and opens her womb. And then God goes onto multiply Jacob's family, his herds and everything he does - and Laban can't interfere with the blessing, as much as he tries to. That to me seems to be the point of the passage. If anything, the greatest antagonist seems to be Laban, who tries everything to hijack God's blessing for himself - but fails.
They're all sinners, but God remains faithful.
I realize this is a massively long comment, and probably no one will reply. But it'd be great, I'm struggling to decide if I'm correctly sensing something off here or if Keller is in fact right and I should just accept it haha...
I think you'd do better if you invited the Holy Spirit to open up the depth of this passage to you.
Wow this was beautiful...I needed this!