I preached last Sunday night… we’re still in Proverbs… preaching it thematically…

I got the topic of Repairing Relationships… which is ironic at best. But it was good to use lots of resources collected on the topic of Forgiveness, lots of Keller influence who’s just very helpful at explaining and applying the Proverbs…

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We’re preaching through Proverbs at church… we did 1-9 expositionally and now we’re doing the rest thematically. I got to kick this off with the theme of Words. Most of the thinking is gleaned from Tim Keller… he’s pretty helpful.

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I’ve speaking at BSMS CU on Monday, that’s the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Christian Union to you… they’re studying parables at the moment, and have been asked to speak on Matthew 18, the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

Fortunately, I’ve already preached on this, earlier in the year, so have most of the talk ready. But I’ve been listening to some Tim Keller to help stimulate my thoughts afresh… by well of illustration he uses the story of Corrie Ten Boom, put in a concentration camp by the Nazis for sheltering Jewish refugees. She tells this story about forgiveness in her book ‘The Hiding Place‘:

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Well you could use the TK way… that’s the “Tim Keller Way”… who tends to be quite insightful on the subject of preaching and idols…

Here’s a little video about his latest book:

At Cornhill we’re doing some stuff about the theory of preaching. Much of the latter stuff on application comes from Tim Keller’s stuff on ‘Preaching to the heart‘ from his lectures at Oak Hill last year.

The good news is that this teaching is also going to be made available in book form as the guys at Cornhill get going on some editing for it. I’ll let you know if and when this book comes to be published, should be a good resource.

Also, there’s another Tim Keller book coming out now called ‘Counterfeit Gods’ all about the false promises of idols. It’s available from Amazon, hardback for less than £9 – pretty good deal me thinks.