Should I Not Love that Great City? – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

let's take a look at the passage in the the bullet note where's the teachings based Jonah chapter 4 this is the end of the Book of Jonah which we've been looking at for several weeks Jonah chapter 4 verses 1 to 11 but Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry he prayed to the Lord Oh Lord is this not what I said when I was still at home this is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love a God

who relents from sending calamity now O Lord take away my life for it is better for me to die than to live but the Lord replied have you any right to be angry Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city there he made himself a shelter sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the vine but

at dawn the next day God provided a worm which chewed the vine so that it withered and when the Sun rose God provided a scorching east wind and the Sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint he wanted to die and said it would be better for me to die than to live but God said to Jonah do you have a right to be angry about the vine I do he said I am angry enough to die but the Lord said you have been concerned about this vine though you did not tend it

or make it grow it sprang up overnight and died overnight but Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well should I not be concerned about that great city this is God's Word so we're looking for the last time at the Book of Jonah we come to the end of the story and maybe now we can ask ourselves a question what's the story about I mean what is the story about the story story has to have a protagonist and antagonist the a protagonist who is

the protagonist who's the one who agonizes TRO for the good and who's the antagonist who's the one who agonized us against the good the antique and agonist you know and the answer is it's not Jonah it's nots protagonist and the fish isn't the protagonist it all comes down to this last question in the last question God says should I not be concerned and that's a word that means to be moved with pity or compassion should I not have compassion should I not love that great city and that's an argumentative question and so here this is

what the story is about it's about God here's the protagonist seeking to bring grace and love and mercy into a big city and the antagonist is the religious moral people who believe in God and who obey His commandments it's us it's City disdaining city phobic religious moral good people we're the antagonists and God is the protagonist and the and the book is about God's love for a big unbelieving unjust violent pagan city so what do we what is was to learn then about the city from this book that's the last question we have to ask

as we look through it and I would just suggest we learn three things here we learn about God's call to the city God's view of the city and God's love for the city now first of all the first thing we learn and it's remarkable but it's there it is it's God's called to the city what unites this book together is three times three I used to think it was two but now I realize it's three times three times God calls Jonah to what he calls Nineveh that great city chapter 1 verses 1 & 2 he

calls him to go to Nineveh chapter 3 after the fish incident I he's called again to go to Nineveh that great city and here at the very end again but now if anything it's clearer than ever over and over and over and over again God says to his prophet I want you to go to and I want you to love that great big huge danger city you say what he's doing is he's calling Jonah out of a homogeneous place where everybody looked like him and believed like him into the big city he's calling Jonah out

of a safe place a comfortable place a familiar place into the big city over and over he does it that's the call of God go to the great city love the great city now somebody says well okay now wait a minute are you generalizing this this is for Jonah hey Jonah is a prophet and Jonah had a particular purpose and gods it plan and God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh it was Syria that but that's just Jonah is it not well we have to have a balance here we stand back and look what the

Bible says here's what we learned first of all this is by no means a unique kind of call 2 2 3 very sad centuries later after this the Jews are captive they've been conquered by the great Empire of Babylonia and they're taken to the next big world-class city that was to come after Nineveh which is Babylon and if you want to read what happened in jail in Jeremiah 27 28 and 29 we read that the exiles came and they came to the outskirts of Babylon and they stayed there and they said well this is terrible

we've been taken to Babylonia but with that doesn't mean we have to go into Babylon itself and in chapter 27 28 29 what we see is that the Exile said well let's stay out here let's stay away from the city let's form our own little community outside the city so that we can be free from the violence and the gen and the doctrinal and moral cultural pollution of the city let's stay outside shockingly God writes them a letter through Jeremiah which you can read in Jeremiah 29 and there he says no I want you to

move into the city I don't want you just move in I want you to settle in the city I want you to buy homes and build homes and raise your families I want you to settle in this city I want you to make its life your life and he says I don't want to just you to prosper your own little blue your little you know see believing community inside he says I want you to pray for and seek the Shalom the the health of the whole city I want you to I want you to bless

it I want you to make it whole in all of its functions and all of its aspects astounding and they said no no we want to stay out here we were in there it's polluting it's bad it's evil it's wicked it's heretical it's violent it's unjust God says go and then not only that years later the book of Acts and if you read the book of Acts carefully especially in the last 20 years a lot of sociologists and historians have been you will see that the early missionaries the the first messengers with the gospel that

went out of the Mediterranean especially Paul and his strategy that the strategy of the all the early Christian ministers and missionaries was completely urban centric when they went into any region they went to the very very biggest city and then after they'd planted to Christian communities in there they left they ignored the village that they ignored the countryside and as a result by the three year 300 AD or so fifty percent roughly of the populations of the urban centers of the greco-roman world were Christian whereas the countryside and the villages were all pagan in fact

the word pagan we think comes from the Greek word pagana switch means the command of the country a rural man and of course but we all know that as a as the cities go the culture goes as cities go the society goes and because God called the early Christians to be urbanites and to be in the city as a result the Roman Empire was really just swept through by the gospel now you have to put that alongside of the fact that they're individuals to don't go to the city for example I was reading recently in

Genesis 13 a place where lot and Abram you know they both been called in a sense really by God to walk before him but lot goes to the city and he's hearts filled with greed and avarice and he goes to the cities of the plain and there he falls and Abram stays out of the cities and he he walks with God as a rural person as a man of the country and what this simply means on balance what does it mean what it means is simply this there's no biblical warrant to say that every Christian

is called a live in a city absolutely no warrant for that but we have to say is the church qua Church the church institutionally though I hate that word but let's just say the church institutionally is called by God to give a great if not the greatest part of its metabolism and its power and its resources and its concerned to the city it has to be God calls the city now he's got two reasons for it that we see here why does God call the city why does God have this this strong called the city

there's a head reason and a heart reason the head reason is interesting very interesting but the heart reasons even more anything the head reason is every single time God calls Jonah to the city he never just says I want you to go to Nineveh the city he says I want you to go to Nineveh the great city right every time that great city even here should I need not be concerned about that great city now all the Hebrew scholars say that this word has two sides to its meaning it has a lexical you know has

a lexical range with two aspects to it and the one aspect is it means big inconvenience it's very large lots of people but the other aspect of the word it also means important that's kind of one of the reasons why and it's a good idea that the English translators to try to get the both together translate this great because great can mean big and it can also mean important but what God's really saying is I want you to go to the strategic city and as we just mentioned a minute ago it's common sense if we

have a message the gospel that many many people are blind to but that we believe with all our hearts has within it the beauty and the joy the strength the healing that everyone wants everyone's looking for and if you believe that's what the Gospel message is what are you supposed to do with that message you don't take that message with you because you know you know you've got it you're one of the Bears of the gospel so what are you going to do with it you don't take your treasure off into some little comfortable corner

of the world how dare you you go to the city why do you want to go to the city it just makes sense in the village you reach individuals but in the city you reach the culture you know in the village you might reach the artist but if you want to eat art worldís in the city in the village you might reach the lawyer but if you want to reach the legal profession it's in the city and also in the village or in the Ruhr you always have generally racial homogeneity but in the city you

have a Bible study and you got five different people from five different continents and your city it gospel runs through all the various language groups and tribes it just makes sense there's a head reason why go to the city well because that as the cities go so goes the society but there's a heart reason and it's intriguing you see what God does Jonah decides he doesn't want it we'll get back to this Jonah does not want to live in that he doesn't wanna be in that city what does he do he moves out look see

what it says in verse five Jonah went out from the city to watch still hoping something bad would happen to it okay he goes out he leaves he goes out from the city still hoping that God was gonna do something bad but what he does is he sets up a place and he has a shelter now there is such a thing by the way as a vine that grows overnight in that part of the world and what you have there is of this beautiful vine that grows up and it's leafy and it's beautiful and he

he notice he was very glad for it of course why not shade and green it must have been a lovely little place but at the very end here's what God says and look at the logic here he says and he used the same word but the Lord said you have compassion you have been concerned about this vine see you have affection you love the vine that you did not tend it or make it grow it sprang up overnight died overnight but Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left

should I not have compassion now look what he's saying look look at the logic it's extremely emotional he's saying 120,000 people who don't know which way to turn spiritually look at the size of that look at the depth of that but that's not all that he's doing he's contrasting Jonah with a plant and himself with a city and you know what years ago a man named Bill Crispin put this in perfect relief for me this logic and he put it this way I know you're going to laugh I laughs but he didn't laugh and I'll

show you why he says I he was an inner-city minister and I said why are you in the city why do you stay in the city he says very simple he says in the country you have more plants than people and in the city you have more people in plants and since God loves people far more than plants he loves the city far more than the country that's exactly what he God is saying here and let me press it to you as beautiful as a tree is you know you know that's but I think I

shall never see a thing as lovely as a tree wrong because everybody I don't do everybody I don't care what you believe in your head in philosophy 101 you know there that a tree is nowhere near as precious and as beautiful and as amazing as a human being you know that if a boulder is coming down the mountain and there's a person and a tree there what do you do how are we gonna save the tree no I mean it'll be a horrible tragedy I love trees godless trees that's you know you'll save the person

and here's what God is saying he says there's nothing more amazing there's nothing more beautiful there's nothing more astounding there's nothing we're precious than a person look at the city every subway car is chock full of the most beautiful thing on the earth every block is crammed with the most beautiful thing in the earth the city is filled with beauty our calendars don't think so you know my calendar has all these wonderful you know January February March no people you know trees and hills and vines no subway cars crammed with people you know the one

two three train the four five six you know at rush hour oh no that's not beautiful that's because our hearts don't work like God's heart it says why in the world are you attracted to cities the cities are crammed with beauty those beautiful thing there is what does it matter with you I don't know what is the matter with us in this amazing the call to the city now the second thing we learn here it's not just that God calls us to the city but the God has a really weird unique view of the city

when I say it's really weird and unique on the one hand I'm gonna draw on what we've seen so far on the one hand what God does is he is he seems very moral you know he sends he says to Jonah go and preach against Nineveh for its wickedness has come up against me he says that in Chapter one and then when the Jonah comes in Jonah denounces their violence their injustice and he says forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed so God is saying repent Nineveh you're wicked you're evil you're unjust you're violin

I'm going to I'm going to overthrow you whatever that would have been in 40 days and so he sounds rather conservative doesn't he God sounds sort of like what we would call in New York a kind of traditional values guy a very moral person conservative moral person but then there's other places in this book where God acts seems to act like what any conservative would call the most bleeding-heart liberal possible see not first of all as we saw last week why does God relent why is Jonah so freaked out over the fact that God has

refused as de pez relented he's not going to punish Nineveh as we mentioned last week when the Ninevites repent they don't use Yahweh's name they don't they don't call on the Lord they're not going to in it or not entering into a new covenant with him they're not converting but they're simply saying is maybe you're right maybe we've been too violent we're really sorry we're really sorry please don't hurt us and God relents but we know from history and therefore certainly God knew that though most probably sincere and heartfelt it was superficial they didn't relent

they didn't stop it so here's Jonah why is he freaked out and he says God you know in this in chapters 4 2 & 3 God you bleeding-heart liberal he says he says you'll forgive anybody he says the most embryonic little half-hearted look in your direction and you give him a second chance what's the matter with you I can't take your tolerance they didn't convert he's just he's just being patient with him but not only that here's an interesting place here where God says but Nineveh has more than that you can understand most of this

question except one little piece can't you says Nineveh has 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle and you were saying what's that and I'm sure God is an animal lover but that's not the point here that's not the point I'm sure it's not the point I mean some people tried to make it that the real key you have to realize is where how big is your money you know your money is so tiny you get a little bit out of the ATM machine but almost all your money on

these little toys and little tiny pieces of cyber script on little microchips and computers in various places that's it but back then your money was a little bigger was hairier it took up more space I need to be fed 2 or 3 times a day and because the livestock is the economy of the city and here's God see I've heard people say this good religious moral Christian people come to a place like New York and they say you know they write home and they say what a dark awful place this is what a terrible place

this is but I'm here to win some poor souls to Christ it's a filthy terrible dark godless place but somebody has to be here and share the good news with these poor people is that concerned for the city it's a concern for the individuals but you don't give a rip about the city God concerned about the city the Shalom of the city the city the economy Oh City the safety of a city the housing of the city that's what he was saying in Jeremiah 29 he's not just filled with love for the individual Souls he

sold love for the city so now is he a conservative or a liberal here is he a god that's thundering you better repent and trying to get people to convert and talking about their wickedness or is he somebody concerned about the social system and willing to live and work with religiously diverse people and and tolerate them and listen to them which is it isn't it weird no wonder Jonah can't handle him can you can I the only reason he's got this incredible view is because he's simply reflecting what the whole Bible tells us about the

very nature of human history and we tell you what the nature human history is well you want to know who my teacher has been about the the theological underpinnings of what is showing us here in this view a guy named Saint Agustin who wrote the City of God and he's rather relevant let me show you why everybody here is thinking about sub 10 or 11th right that was the big day the day the world shook but Mike back then there was another day back in the ancient times was another day August 24th you know with

August 24th 4:10 that was a day that Alaric and the army of the Goths came over the wall and sacked Rome and they came over the wall for just three days and they burned and they plundered and they killed but they did not invade and occupy it I mean what years ago just this last month I really realized this years ago I've ever reading about the sack of Rome and all that kind of thing but you know I did not realize that what they did was they came over the wall for the first time in

a thousand years Rome was sacked by the barbarians you see impossible how could this be but they came over the wall and they plundered it and they wasted it and then they left they didn't invade they didn't occupy they left almost as if it was to say Oh superior civilization look what us barbarians can do we just want you to know what us barbarians can do they swooped in they wasted part of the city and they left and there was an enormous shock wave that went through the entire intellectual cultural and social and emotional world

as a result on the one hand what people were saying is if Rome is not safe what's safe if Rome can fall we can all fall but it wasn't just simply a financial physical thing people were saying if the impossible has happened the unthinkable has happened see this was unthinkable if the unthinkable has happened how do I know I'm thinking right about anything else everything was thrown into uncertainty everything was up for grabs relevant don't you think and the Christians were every bit as shattered as the pagans and the reason for that was in the

last hundred years before the fall of Rome Christians have been starting to move up David starting to move up into the city up into the up into the the circles of power in Rome they were moving up into the areas of influence and of government and business and so on and everybody said this is the way God's gonna do it if we win Rome and we're winning roll we're winning run if we were in Rome we've won the world this is how God is going to do it this is how God is going to is

going to spread the gospel through the world but now why is God abandon us what's going on why did God let this happen and into this vacuum came Augustine who wrote a book called the City of God the greatest of his books most remarkable of his books the longest by far of his books and the hardest to read of his books and in it he says two great things he studied the Bible he looked at Rome he looked the situation and he said three two things first of all one of the reasons why you're all

absolutely freaking out is that you have confuse this the Eternal City Civitas Teeter noticed that's what Rome call itself with the City of God there is no eternal human city is there's only one city that cannot be broken there's only one say that cannot be torched there's only one city that cannot be bombed there's only one city it's a city of God if you remember the City of God you're absolutely safe you see if there's a if you kill the members of the city of Earth an earthly City the city's gone but he says if

you kill the members of the City of God all you're doing is moving them to better quarters in the city the more you kill the City of God they'll let you can't kill a city got its gonna come it's coming on psalm 46 which we love and augustine use where it says there is a stream there is a river the streams whereof make glad the City of God what's it talking about a city with a river going through it can't be besieged right you see you would besiege a city and you'd starve them out and

that's how you get you weaken them and then you went in because they were starving and they were eating each other and it was terrible and there was no no food there was no water but you can't pass age a city with a river going through it because they would always have water and they'd always have food and as a result what he's saying is the city of there is one city and there's only one city you're safe and if you were freaking out it's because you think you're what real wealth is in this earthly

City but there is no eternal city on earth there's no human city but here in the Mid City of God you're safe that is a city that has to triumph will triumph nothing can stop it and you know what augusten was absolutely right because rome did break down it did not recover Society for good for centuries became all we became really broke down became disordered and partly because a Gustin helped with giving the church a theological vision what happened the City of God continued you bear that little book the Irish the safe civilization is just

that it's just that just a little piece of this what happened was the church is not just a bunch of individual scatter the church as a counterculture it's an alternate city it it's a city and what that city did was when everything else was falling apart the Christian community went forward it kept learning alive it kept aren't alive it kept justice it kept peace alive it kept love alive it's it stayed it did see I mean what do you think the months I mean there's a row were a lot of reasons to have monks and

nuns there's a lot of reason if sisters and brothers bad ones as well as good ones but I mean don't you see how the city works well even when the city the earthly city around you is falling apart what happens is a hundred monks get together they say I tell you what let's live together in simplicity and community and let's let's follow the teachings of Christ and let's consume 10% of what we produce and share the other 90% with the towns around and that's the City of God working and so far first of August and

said if you're freaking out it's because you have over identified you have confused the city of man with a city of God but then he says on the other hand now if you stop there you're gonna make a mistake because a Gustin is not saying therefore this battle we could city who needs it bad old Rome who cares about it not at all because at the end of the book of the Bible what do we read at the end of the Bible it says and I saw the holy city hmm coming down out of heaven

from God like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband in the middle of the city was a throne of God and of the Lamb where's what what's going on at the end of the world at the end of time at the end of history what goes on not we go out of the world into some ethereal place but the City of God this city that cannot be broken the city that cannot be burned the city that cannot be stopped is coming down to cleanse and to purify and to renew and to heal the cities of

the world it's coming down we're not leaving to go to it's coming down and what and what what Agustin says is here's how you know you are really a citizen of the city of God you are the very very best citizens in the city of this world the best not bad say my goodness he says Christians if you say let's all go out of the desert butts get away from the city of man you know we're gonna have out there in a desert another city of man because that's your men and women you're human beings

the City of God is not the good people next to the bad people the City of God is them is the Spirit of God you in the gospel of the kingdom changing the political community of this world which is built on self-interest in power and turning it more and more into a political community of God which is based on the concern for his name service love not taking but giving not accruing power but serving that's the City of God and to make a perfect case for this he makes reference to this and I'm gonna make

reference to it as well do you know about the two great plagues that happen before Augustine happened the reason why there was critical mass the reason why the Christians were growing is this there was a huge plague in 165 AD that went through and and killed off at least a quarter of the people in all the cities huge numbers of people dying and then a 100 years later it was another horrible plague and this is what happened this is in Rodney Starks book the rise of Christianity here's a pagan writer witness to what happened he

said the doctors were quite incapable of treating the disease equally useless were the prayers in the temple the people became afraid to visit anyone and as a result thousands of people died with no one to look after them indeed there were many how in which all the inhabitants perish through lack of any attention the bodies of the dying were heaped up one on top of the other and half dead creatures could be seen staggering about in the streets the catastrophe was so overwhelming that we became indifferent to every role of morality many push sufferers away

even their dearest often throwing them into the road before they were dead hoping to avert contagion as for the gods they seemed not to matter when one saw the good and the bad dying indiscriminately you see what they're saying good religious people pagans they're good people okay when they tried to obey the gods and follow the gods but when all this showed up they said what good is there in being moral or being good the good people are dying with the bad people and they freaked they ran they dropped their beloved's in the streets but

this is what the Christians did and this is also an eyewitness account written by a guy named Dionysius most Christians not all by the way most Christians in the plague showed unbounded love and loyalty never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another heedless of danger they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ and many departed their life serenely happy for they were infected by their neighbors and they cheerfully accepted their pains the best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner and a number of

elders - biological terror Krishna stayed put knowing they'd stay put but they gave their lives nursing both Christians and pagans who were dying why because they were citizens of the City of God they were the very very very very best citizens of the earthly City that's how you know you are a citizen in the City of God and that amazing so I guess since if you believe in the two cities that every city is two cities and a Christian is a citizen of both if you over identify or under identify if you detach like Jonah

go outside wait for its condemnation you know good riddance you'll be a conservative or a liberal but if you believe in the theology of the Bible you're a citizen of both cities in fact your citizenship in the City of God makes you the very best that is in the city of man now somebody says how can I do that I don't believe it I mean okay that's very inspiring it's very heroic but you know what we're actually thinking about biological terror aren't we this isn't this is not see the unthinkable has been happening so you

ready nobody's his knife not me I could never do that I could never do that I beg to differ with you look at what look at Jonah's opposite and look at Jonah's response what do you mean by that look at Jonah's opposite Jonah goes outside the city to condemn it right because that's how the city hoping bad things will happen there was another prophet who years later went outside the city and we read about him in Hebrews 13 now Jesus also suffered outside the gate to make the people holy through his own blood and here

we do not have any enduring city but we're looking for the city that is to come Jonah went outside the city that spared his life to condemn it but Jesus was dragged outside the city weeping for it and died for its salvation not for its condemnation now what difference does that make I left a little piece out of the of that piece I Dionysius the the witness to what how the Christians lived I left a little piece out let me tell you what let me go back to it and let me put it back in

he said he'd list of danger they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ and many departed their life serenely happy for they were infected by their neighbors and Cheerilee cheerfully accepted their pains many in nursing and curing others transferred their death to themselves and died in their neighbor's stead many of the Christians cheerfully took their neighbor's death on themselves by nursing them back to health but in the process died in their stead where would you get an idea like that and don't you see the pagan people

were good people but remember what the pagan author said he said when we saw the good and the bad dying together we said what the heck what good is morality what good is God huh that's because they believed in salvation by works means they're good moral people they don't understand the gospel the gossip at the heart of the gospel is a man who lived the best life possible and he had a terrible life but he had a terrible life for you and me and you see what that does is it changes everything religion does not

have the intellectual structure to deal with suffering it says I've lived a good life they live bad lies why are we all dying together I don't get it okay Christianity says but we know that we're not to say because we're good we're saved only because we're willing to admit were not good and we know the only good person who ever lived suffered for us therefore why can't we suffer for others if in his suffering he brought healing to the world maybe in my suffering I can just do a little bit in his name to show

other people what he's done for me besides that I'm safe now and say that's the other thing religious people never know they're good enough they're never sure that if they die they'll be with God but the gospel says that your relation with God is not based on how good a performance you've done this week or last week or last month or last year but Jesus performance he lived the life you should have lived that he died the death you should have died when you put your faith in Him you know you're there and that's the

reason why you can be like George Herbert the great Christian poet who said death used to be an executioner but now the Gospels made him only a gardener I used to be scared of death but now he looks at death and say go ahead give me your best shot all you're gonna do is make me something really great secularism moral religious people we're not able to handle social breakdown biological terror and a Christians word because citizenship in the City of God made them the very very best possible neighbors and citizens in the earthly City why

not because they were trying hard because they looked at the antigen oh is the the opposite of Jonah the one who went out not to condemn the city but to save the city and then lastly look at you look at Jonah's response you say you know this is all very nice but I just don't believe it's gonna happen to me I don't believe I could ever have that kind of certainty and joy I could never had that kind of sense of safety that you say the gospel brings I just don't believe it I don't think

I could possibly do the things that those Christians did well I don't think you're right even can change you say well how do you know Jonah changed isn't the end frustrating do you see what's interesting you get to the very end and this is the last time God comes to Jonah he says look John I'd to ask you once and you blew it and I put you into a fish and I ask you twice and you blew it now I'm asking you one more time will you come with me in my project of spreading the

City of God into the human city spreading the city of love and service in the city of power and selfishness will you come with me in doing that and we don't know what Jonah did yes we do it's brilliant isn't it yes we do how do we know all this stuff about Jonah how do we know that Jonah was such an idiot how do we know he was such a racist how do we know he made that unbelievably stupid I hate the God of Love speech in the beginning of chapter 4 how do we the

only possible way would know is if Jonah told us and what kind of man would let the world see what an ass he has been except someone who is so joyfully secure in God's love who finally accepts the fact that he's simultaneously sinful but completely accepted someone who finally gets the gospel that's the only possible reason we didn't know any of this stuff if he can change Joe he can change you love the city and here's what's so ironic love New York City but don't mistake New York City for the City of God because if

you do you won't be a good lover of New York City you won't be the best possible lover of New York City the best way to really love New York is to know it's not the City of God is to recognize its shortcomings to recognize what it needs but if you remember the City of God then you can love the city of New York like nobody else really love the city and fear no darkness let us pray give us father what we need to take these things and put I don't know okay to really inhabit

them to really live into them the there these are inspiring ideas when we see them in print and as we hear them proclaim but what we really need father is for you to show us how to make them real to us and how to live them out and we asked that in these next days where we really asked everything will go well in our city we asked for safety we pray for protection we pray for a complete return to health and to safety into economic and political stability we pray for all of that but we

also know Lord that we want to be ready for anything and we ask that you would make us that we want to be the best possible citizens of the city of New York by loving your loving your salvation we pray this in Jesus name Amen for more of this series and other resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church please visit you