Our Evangelical Leaders' Niceguy Routine - Tim Keller

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Alright, well, happy Friday. Happy Friday. I hope you had a good week. I know I sure did. It's not quite over yet, so we'll see how it ends up.

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But anyway, did you see my video yesterday? Yeah, it was a good video.

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I think it's one of the best videos I've ever done. And if you prefer podcast form, it's available right now on the

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Fight Left Feast Network app and also the website for CrossPolitik. But yeah, it compares

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John McArthur and Tim Keller. It compares what they're up to right now. They're both very influential

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Christians. They've got huge followings, and they're both getting up there in age.

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And so we're kind of seeing how they're sort of ending their time here on Earth.

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And I tried to make the comparison of which man's life is more consistent with what we see the prophets of old.

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What are the prophets in the Bible, what are their lives typically like? And I would argue that they tend to be troublemakers.

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They tend to be people that the world and the powers that be aren't very fond of.

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You look at the life of John the Baptist. He certainly was that kind of a guy. He doesn't strike me as a very winsome kind of a guy.

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And yet Jesus Christ calls him the greatest of all men, besides himself, of course. And so, you know,

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I think the video makes a really interesting point, because you see on the one hand, John MacArthur is at odds with the world, no question about it.

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And then on the other hand, you see Tim Keller seemingly doing everything in his power to sort of make friends with the world.

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And it's just kind of like a very interesting contrast. I mean, just read the Bible. You know, you don't need a concordance.

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You don't need your pro tools. Pro tools, not pro tools. You don't need your Bible tools.

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You don't need to buy a subscription to that hipster

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Bible app, Logos. You don't need a subscription to Logos. Just read it. It doesn't matter what version.

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You can get a King James version, whatever you want. Just read the Bible and look at the prophets.

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Look at the people that are speaking the words of God. Look at the people that the Bible talks of as great men, people that had faith and all of that kind of thing.

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And look at what their lives look like. And I just don't see how you could tell me that like winsomeness and like this sort of nice guy routine is something that really tends to typify sort of what a

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Christian ought to be like, what a man of God ought to be like. I just found this out. This is a company, my goodness gracious.

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Somebody ought to prank call these guys. Hey, listen, don't do that. Definitely do not prank call these guys.

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I'm not suggesting you do that. But this is a company called Docent Research Group. And, you know, apparently if you pay them, they'll do your sermon research for you.

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They'll write position papers for you. They'll do a lot of your job for you if you pay them.

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And, you know, some people might have a problem with this. As a pastor, you know, you should probably do your own work.

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But, you know, whatever. Intrepid businessmen here. But listen to this. This is one of their services.

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Ready? It says this. It says, we craft biblically faithful and winsomely worded position papers to guide your leaders through difficult, tense, cultural minefields.

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Like, could you imagine John the Baptist being described as a winsomely worded person to navigate cultural minefields?

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Like, it just wouldn't happen. Like, again, just read the Bible. You don't need any commentaries.

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Just read what the prophets were like. Read what men of God were like in the Bible. And I just don't see how you'd come out with this idea that you need to make friends with the world.

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And it's really, it's kind of pathetic. Big Eva is like the nice guy. Do you know anything about nice guys?

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Like, I would suggest going on YouTube and just typing in nice guy. All one word.

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Or two words. I mean, whatever. And just see the, there's so many videos about reading stories on Reddit about nice guys.

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And if you know what a nice guy is, nice guy is the guy who thinks he's going to win the girl. Like, he's in love with a hot girl.

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And he thinks he's going to win the girl by making friends with her, like being best friends with her. And the girl, we've all been there, right?

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We've all seen this either in ourselves or with a friend where they just think that if they're just nice enough, they'll get the hot chick.

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Like, that's how the nice guy thinks. And what happens is the nice guy is always there for the girl when she breaks up with her boyfriend or she just has a fight with her boyfriend.

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Like, typically the stereotype is it's like the Chad. You know what I mean? It's like the jock.

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Her boyfriend's the jock and he's the nice guy. And he's always there for her when her boyfriend does something boneheaded or breaks up with her.

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The nice guy's always there to take her out to dinner. And he'll pay, too. He'll pay for dinner. And he thinks that eventually he can, if he does this enough, that eventually he'll get to date the hot girl.

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That's what the nice guy thinks. And it's the wrong approach because the nice guy doesn't understand that you actually need to demonstrate value.

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And when you're always available to them, you're always available when no matter what, you'll take them out to dinner a couple times when their boyfriends mean to them and stuff like that.

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When you're always like that, the woman actually doesn't see that you have value. She just is using you for a shoulder to cry on, right?

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Because this is what happens with the nice guy. Like the nice guy's there to comfort the girl when the boyfriend breaks up with her or whatever.

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And the girl will always tell the nice guy, you know, why can't I find a nice guy just like you? Why can't

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I find a nice guy just like you? And the nice guy thinks, well, I'm a guy like me. And he thinks he has a chance.

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And it's just like if you've ever had a friend like that or if you've ever been that guy, you know that you wish you could go back in time and be like just like slap that guy around a little bit.

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Like, dude, wake up. It's not going to happen. Like you can't do this. You can't just always be available just right there.

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Like anything you want. Like, oh, you want to meet for coffee? I'll go to coffee with you. No, you don't. If you want the girl, you have to actually do things that demonstrate your value as a man and as a potential mate for life kind of thing.

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Like being always available to pay for her dinner when she's angry or upset is probably not that thing.

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So it's just like, you know, it's just that's how big Eva is, though, like with the world. Like they're trying to get a hearing with this world.

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And they're like, I want to be on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough, please invite me on. And Joe Scarborough will invite you on.

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He'll let you come to MSNBC every now and then when he needs a shoulder to cry on, when he needs something from you.

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He'll invite you on to MSNBC. Yeah, you'll get to write an article for Washington Post like once a year.

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Like once a year, they'll throw you a few crumbs. And they know that it doesn't matter how poorly they treat you.

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It doesn't matter how poorly they treat the church. It doesn't matter how much negative Christian, negative propaganda they put forward towards Christ and Christians and all that kind of stuff.

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The New York Times knows that they can say whatever filth they want about Christ and about the church.

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And when they call Tim Keller to write an opinion piece, he will drop everything and write an opinion piece for them.

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He is like the nice guy when the girl wants him, wants to be taken out to dinner and be treated like a princess for a night.

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Because her Chad boyfriend is being a jerk and wanted to play video games that night instead. Like this is the thing.

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It's just so pathetic. Are any of the prophets able to be described as a nice guy that I've just described?

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You know, the one that gets friend -zoned. Are any of the prophets like that? No, none of them are like that.

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And so why are so many of our leaders like that? That they're willing to settle for the crumbs. Like they want to make friends so that that way the next time you need an opinion piece or you need a guest on your

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MSNBC show, they'll give you a call. Well, maybe they'll give you a call. Sometimes they don't even call.

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You know what I mean? But maybe they'll give you a call. And it's just like the nice guy who's like, I'll be there for you no matter what.

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And he thinks that you're going to fall in love with him because you're always available. You're always there. You're always ready to pay for her dinner when she's feeling sad because her

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Chad boyfriend broke up with her. That's not the way to do it, guys. Because if you're a young man and you're listening to this, because I look at my demographics, most of the people that watch this show fall into a certain demographic.

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But there's a certain amount of young men that watch this show too, maybe people that are single. And here's just a news flash, something that I wish

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I knew before, that that's actually not how to win the girl. And likewise, it's actually not how to win the world either.

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If you want to do the work of Christ, you're going to have to learn how to speak boldly when people don't like you.

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You're going to have to learn how to be unpopular. Because John the Baptist, he wasn't trying to make friends with Herod when he told

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Herod that he couldn't have his brother's wife. He was just like, this is just what

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God says, and so I'm going to say it. And I just don't get the impression that John the

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Baptist was trying to find— I don't think he was trying to— If Docent Research Group existed back in the day,

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I'm pretty sure John the Baptist wouldn't have called them up and said, okay, what's your fee to craft a biblically, winsomely worded, faithful position paper that I can send to Herod?

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I just don't think he would have done that. He just was a straightforward guy. He said, look, this is what the law says.

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This is what you're doing. You can't do this. This is actually a grievous sin against God. Seriously, guys, these are your leaders, and they don't look anything like the prophets of old.

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They don't look anything like the apostles. They just don't sound like them. They don't preach like them.

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They don't speak like them. Why are you continuing to follow those men? I just have a hard time with that because I get criticized a lot for my tone.

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And listen, I'm sure there's things that are criticizable about my tone, but I'm pretty sure if you look at my tone, and then you compare it to Jonathan Lehman's tone or someone like that or Tim Keller or someone like that, and then you compare it to the scripture,

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I'm pretty sure mine is going to sound more similar to what you find from the apostles and from John the

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Baptist or from Isaiah and from Jeremiah and stuff like that. And I'm not trying to, like, humble brag here.

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I'm doing my best to follow the example that I see in the Bible. I'm doing my best to follow the example that I see in Christ, and I just really don't see that.

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There's an imbalance here with the nice guys that lead Big Eva, and it's just very sad and pathetic.

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Like, guys, if you have friends that are these nice guys and they're trying to win a girl by always being there,

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I'll talk to you all night. When your boyfriend makes you upset, I'll be there to talk to you all night. Like, it's not how to do it.

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I know it worked in the office with Jim and Pam, but that's a fantasy. Okay, that's not how it really works in typical life.

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You know what I mean? Maybe someone will get lucky every now and then and be able to find the great girl by being the nice guy.

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But the reality is, even in the office, Jim eventually did find his cojones and just, you know, kissed

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Pam that one time. You know what I mean? And by the way, I've been using a lot of Office references these days because I'm watching Office, like, almost for the first time a lot of these episodes with my wife.

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So anyway, I thought that you might find that interesting. If you want to laugh, go to YouTube and type in nice guy and find people that read

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Reddit stories from nice guys. It's sad, but it can also be a lesson for you for the future, not only with girls, but also, like, we don't, like,

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I just don't see the Bible telling us that the way to win people to Christ is to, like, soothe their conscience to do all kinds of sin and just backpedal it and soften it and hire a docent research group to craft for you a biblically faithful yet winsome worded position paper.