{"id":34027,"date":"2025-06-23T16:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T16:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tim-keller-practiced-humility-he-preached\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T16:10:00","slug":"tim-keller-practiced-humility-he-preached","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tim-keller-practiced-humility-he-preached\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Keller Practiced the Humility He Preached"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The late pastor and preacher Tim Keller truly lived out the teachings in his popular book, <em>The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy<\/em>. In other words, he demonstrated true humility and teachability.<\/p>\n\n<p>For instance, in 2011, Pastor Tim Cox had accompanied Keller on a trip to South Korea. Cox reflected on the trip later and wrote:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I traveled with Tim to Seoul. Tim was speaking at a conference for pastors, and Tim kept saying &lsquo;Look at what Jesus has done for you! If you see that, you will be changed!&rsquo; At one point I asked Tim if even that could be a legalistic thing. That I&rsquo;m not looking hard enough at Jesus, so I just need to pull up my socks and try harder. When in reality, the Holy Spirit does that for me.<\/p>\n<p>Tim told me, &lsquo;Yes, of course, only the Holy Spirit can do that!&rsquo;<\/p>\n<p>That was the end of our conversation. The next day, Tim got to the part of his talk where he said &lsquo;if you look at what Jesus did for you . . .&rsquo; and he looks straight at me, &lsquo;then by the power of the Holy Spirit, you&rsquo;ll change!&rsquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3366,3557,3962,3964,4156,4157,4158,4159,4371,4449,4541,4938,5054,5122],"tax_ctp_topics":[382,384],"class_list":["post-34027","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abundant-life","tax_ctp_tags-change","tax_ctp_tags-family-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-famous-preachers","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit-filling-of","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit-indwelling-of","tax_ctp_tags-holy-week","tax_ctp_tags-life-in-christ","tax_ctp_tags-meekness","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-selflessness","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-life","tax_ctp_tags-teachability"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tim Keller Practiced the Humility He Preached - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tim-keller-practiced-humility-he-preached\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tim Keller Practiced the Humility He Preached - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The late pastor and preacher Tim Keller truly lived out the teachings in his popular book, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy. In other words, he demonstrated true humility and teachability. For instance, in 2011, Pastor Tim Cox had accompanied Keller on a trip to South Korea. 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