Pastors: We are not masters or lords. We are stewards. The authority we have isn’t ours. It doesn’t belong to us. It’s derived. It’s ministerial. It’s declarative authority to declare God’s authoritative truth. We are stewards of the Lord, not authoritarian domineering masters.
Most people assume they're good with God, so sharing just a portion of the good news of Jesus Christ without the bad news about sin, hell, and God's wrath just confirms their self-deception.
One of the greatest characteristics I most admire in a man is empathetic kindness, particularly kindness that is authentically shown to others who cannot do anything for him in return.
The deeper we go in theology, the deeper our preaching, the deeper our understanding, the deeper our faith, the deeper our worship, the deeper our reverence, the deeper in our humility, the higher our praises.
Of course, you see the sin, weakness, and failures of others more clearly than you see your own. Sin blinds and guess who it blinds first?
Liberalism begins with a heavy imperative: be, do, live. Christianity begins with a magnificent indication: Christ has risen. J Gresham Machen
A man who says “I’m not going to die on that hill” but never fights on any hill is not a man you can trust to fight for anything that really matters.
A crowd of people in a building isn't necessarily a community. The real community exists where we don’t need to wear masks, where true friends bear our burdens, and where we can confess our biggest sins and our church family still loves us.
Unbelievers don't read the Bible, they read us.
We gather for worship not only for ourselves because we need it, and not only for others because they need us and we need them, we gather for God not because he needs it but because he desires it so that he would be glorified by those whose greatest need is to glorify God.
Just because there's a church building on every corner doesn't mean the gospel is preached on every corner.
…for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world.…Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow." —
Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick"
Truth doesn't have to try to be cool or popular.
When you hear the word "ministry," do you first think of power or service?
Humility and gratefulness are their closest companions, and entitlement is their greatest enemy.
You can’t have peace in the church without doctrinal purity in the church. True peace comes on account of the truth, not through compromise.
One of the more loving things Jesus did was preach about hell and the wrath of God.
If your heart doesn't hurt for people who don't know Christ, you likely don’t know Christ yourself.
When someone asks if you’re going to heaven, saying “I hope so” isn’t humble, it’s arrogantly believing that your salvation is resting on your works. But if you respond, “Yes, I’m certain,” isn’t arrogance, it’s humble assurance because you’re resting on the works of Christ.
I have often observed that those who hurt most for others are those who have been most hurt by others. Misery breeds empathy.
In order to understand the incarnation of God we must first understand the wrath of God. Only then can we truly understand the love of God.
Comments