{"id":45159,"date":"2009-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tim-keller-on-self-centered-giving\/"},"modified":"2009-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T00:00:00","slug":"tim-keller-on-self-centered-giving","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tim-keller-on-self-centered-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Keller on Self-centered Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his book <em>The Prodigal God<\/em>, best-selling author and pastor Timothy Keller offers the following story to illustrate self-centered giving:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. So he took it to his king and said, &quot;My Lord, this is the greatest carrot I&#39;ve ever grown or ever will grow. Therefore I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.&quot; The king was touched and discerned the man&#39;s heart, so as [the gardener] turned to go the king said, &quot;Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift so you can garden it all.&quot; And the gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king&#39;s court who overheard all this. And he said, &quot;My! If that is what you get for a <em>carrot<\/em>&mdash;what if you gave the king something better?&quot; So the next day the nobleman came before the king and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, &quot;My lord, I breed horses and this is the greatest horse I have ever bred or ever will. Therefore I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.&quot; But the king discerned his heart and said thank you, and took the horse and merely dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed. So the king said, &quot;Let me explain. That gardener was giving <em>me<\/em> the carrot, but you were giving <em>yourself<\/em> the horse.&quot;<\/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":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3543,4057,4065,4100,4191,4435,4488,4552,4869,4909,4913,4914,4917,4918,4923,4924,4925,4927,4930,4931,4936,4937,4938,5077,5164,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45159","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-capital-campaign","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-gluttony","tax_ctp_tags-greed","tax_ctp_tags-humiliation","tax_ctp_tags-materialism","tax_ctp_tags-money","tax_ctp_tags-obedience","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-self-centeredness","tax_ctp_tags-self-deception","tax_ctp_tags-self-denial","tax_ctp_tags-self-esteem","tax_ctp_tags-self-exaltation","tax_ctp_tags-self-image","tax_ctp_tags-self-importance","tax_ctp_tags-self-indulgence","tax_ctp_tags-self-love","tax_ctp_tags-self-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-self-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-selfish-ambition","tax_ctp_tags-selfishness","tax_ctp_tags-selflessness","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship","tax_ctp_tags-tithing","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"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}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tim Keller on Self-centered Giving - 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-on-self-centered-giving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tim Keller on Self-centered Giving - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book The Prodigal God, best-selling author and pastor Timothy Keller offers the following story to illustrate self-centered giving: Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. 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