I used to tell young preachers, in order to preach you’ve got to have the power of God on your life. Now I tell them, in order to tie your shoes you’ve got to have the power of God on your life.
We as Americans are the wealthiest Christians who ever walked on the face of the earth. We are the most protected Christians that ever walked on the face of the earth, and yet we are the emptiest Christians who ever walked on the face of the earth.
When will we realize that one of the greatest mission fields in the West is the pews of our churches every Sunday morning?
The evidence that you truly repented long ago when you said you did is because you’re still repenting now and even to a greater degree. The evidence that you believed a long time ago is that you’re still believing now and ever more believing in greater and greater degrees.
If we judge our lives by what we know or by what we say, we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we are something we are not; it is wiser to evaluate ourselves by the amount of truth we actually live. This is very humbling.
We deal five minutes with a person and their conversion and then we spend the next fifty years trying to disciple a goat into a sheep. I’m not saying this because I’m angry. I’m saying this because countless people are being deceived.
It’s not comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians. Compare yourself to the Scripture.
When preachers teach biblically and clearly about the judgment of God and the dangers of hell, men begin to see that their greatest need is to be saved from eternal condemnation, and the more “practical” needs of this present age become trivial in comparison.
To fight against pride, it is wise to surround ourselves with those who know us and love us enough to speak into our lives with words of correction and rebuke.
You have Jesus and Jesus has you or you are barren and wasted and lost!
You love to listen to the very same things that nailed your supposed Savior to the tree?
If the devil walks in and starts pointing out all kinds of things about you, you yawn. And you go, ‘You don’t even know the half of it.’
Idolatry is when you become the source of your own joy. Poverty of spirit is a wonderful thing.
Possessing a correct interpretation of each individual doctrine is not sufficient; we must also learn to hold each doctrine in harmony with the others.
Tell them that everything in their life is going to have to bend to His will. Repent and believe.
Maybe that is why there are not a whole lot of problems between the church and worldly culture today, because we are not confronting the culture around us.
The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out, it’s a life being lived out.
If you give them a God made in their own image, I guarantee they’ll accept Him. But He won’t be the God who saves.
The person that I most admire is Jesus Christ. He is the only perfect Person. There is simply no comparison. The difference between Him and all other men is not merely quantitative, but qualitative. He is in a category all to Himself.
You cannot learn doctrine well until you follow the doctrine you learn!