“When you see Jesus Christ never let you go no matter what came down on him, that’s how you know. That’s the only way you really know absolutely certainly that no matter what you do inside, …” 1/2

“Some years ago, I heard a minister say, ‘Here’s what’s so hard about repenting. Here’s what’s so hard about becoming a Christian. All you need is nothing, but most people don’t have it’” Source: Born Again (Sermon)

“No matter how good you are, no matter how religious you are, no matter how great your pedigree, you must be born again. And it doesn’t matter how bad you are, how messed up you are, how shameful your background, you can be born again” Source: Born Again (Sermon)

“Here’s the great irony about the human nature. We want love. We want love more than anything else. That’s what makes our life meaningful, we know that … And yet at the same time, we’ve got something in us that says, ‘Me first. You serve me.’ That’s the end of love” Source: The Word (Sermon)

“If you want to understand who God is and what God is like, then you have to start to imagine the time in your life when you felt the most loved. Now multiply that by a trillion, trillion, trillion” Source: The Word (Sermon)

“In the Bible it’s never either/or. Never. From the beginning to the end, in principle and in practice, it’s always that you are free and your choices matter and you’re responsible for your choices and no one is forcing you to make those choices, …” 1/2

“You are underqualified for the job of being master and commander of your own life. So is every other human being as well”

“When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink” Source: Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

“‘Religion is what you do with your solitude’—William Temple. I.e. the things we daydream about most readily and instinctively when nothing else is occupying our thoughts reveal what we live for and serve”

“Rightly so, at Christmas, people who are suffering want to know, ‘Why should I be merry? What basis do I really have for joy?’ The answer is that if Christmas really happened, if God really did open a cleft in the pitiless walls of this world, …” 1/3

“The image of God and 'common grace' means non-Christians are never as bad as their wrong beliefs would otherwise make them. Remaining sin means Christians are never as good as their right beliefs should make them. So, Christians should not act and feel as superior as many do”

“The sabbath is about restoring the diminished. It's about replenishing the drained. It's about repairing the broken. It's NOT just an off day”

“When you lose all humility, you are out of touch with reality” Source: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

“Because Jesus will be the infallible judge, we don't have to be. We can let our grudges go and our revenge die”

“Instead of trying to shape our desires to fit reality, we now seek to control and shape reality to fit our desires” Source: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

“Evil and sin is not something that just acts upon us from the outside, nor is it something that comes into us temporarily and camps out and, if you know what you’re doing, you can shoo it away. It is at home in us ...” 1/2

“There is a single point toward which all of history is flowing, at which everything sad will become untrue. Everything will be purged. Everything will become new, and everything will dance, and everything will be in fullness and wholeness” Source: Perfect Freedom (Sermon)

“When you meet the real Jesus, you’ll find he wants much more from you than you ever thought, and he offers far more to you than you ever dreamed” Source: Greed: The Case of the Rich Young Ruler (Sermon)

“The Bible does not equate lust with sexual desire. It likes sexual desire. God invented sexual desire. The Bible does not say, ‘Squelch your passions,’ nor does it say, ‘Follow your passions.’ It says, ‘Channel them’” Source: Love, Lust and Liberation (Sermon)

“Until God has the proper place in my life, I will always be complaining that my spouse is not loving me well enough, not respecting me enough, not supporting me enough” Source: The Meaning of Marriage

“If our greatest treasure—communion with the living God—is safe, of what can we be afraid?”

“What if this life is actually a relatively small part of your entire life, your entire life on earth is only a small part of your entire existence?” Source: Wisdom: How to Get It (Sermon)

“To each is given a gift. You are God’s workmanship. There are certain things you and only you alone can do. And if you in God’s providence are here, then the rest of us need you or you wouldn’t be here. God doesn’t waste people” Source: The Gifts of the Spirit (Sermon)

“Alvin famously began his institutes with the words, 'nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves’”

“It's one thing to be grateful; it's another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do”

“The Holy Spirit’s job is to take all the things God is doing, all the things God has done in Christ, all the things you are in Christ, and communicate this to you in order to make it so true to the reason of your mind and so real to the deepest emotions of your heart that …” 1/2

“The Holy Spirit will not stop until you become the glorious person you should be. He is going to oppose anything in your heart that will scuttle you, and he’s not going to let you go …” 1/2

“To be filled with the Spirit is to have your life transformed by an acute consciousness of the glorious person who lives permanently within the walls of your life” Source: Who Is the Spirit? (Sermon)

“Love is an action that leads to a feeling, not a feeling that leads to an action”

“No matter what your problem with self-control is, if when you’re being tested the Scripture just comes right to mind, it’s an amazing help, because it automatically turns your heart to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” Source: Self-Control (Sermon)

“The observer of beauty always gets a passion to share that beauty with others. The praise completes the enjoyment (C.S. Lewis). You always talk about what you love. What do you love talking about most? What do you tend most to think about and dwell on when free to do so?”

“It is possible to think you are 'madly in love' with someone, and yet it is really just an attraction to someone who can meet your needs”

“This is what the gospel is: Jesus Christ was treated the way we deserve, so now when we believe in him we are treated the way he deserves to be treated … Jesus Christ, who had true glory, emptied himself so we could be full …” 1/2

“You cannot work on humility directly. It’s a byproduct of something else … Humility is a by-product of wanting something more than wanting to be humble, because if you want to humble, it’s all about you” Source: Humility (Sermon)

“God is active beneath the surface of things, even when he seems absent at the time”

“Because Jesus will be the infallible judge, we don't have to be. We can let our grudges go and our revenge die”

"Discipleship is not just a matter of bending your will to Jesus’ will; it’s melting your heart into a whole new shape. A disciple is not someone who simply sets a new priority; a disciple finds a new identity” Source: The Call to Discipleship

“Sin isolates. Grace draws near” Sin isolates us and tells us we're alone. Grace meets us in the wreckage—it refuses to leave us defined by the damage. Healing begins not in shame but by telling the truth Source: What is Wrong with the World?

“All money, talent, health, power, and pleasure in the world are God's. But the greatest treasure he can give us is life in his presence”

“Christian peace is not that you stop facing the facts, but you get something in your life, a living power that comes into your life, that enables you to triumph over those facts, lifts you up, over, and through them” Source: Peace (Sermon)

“Ultimately only God's opinion counts”

“Almost all of us have parts of our lives we really want to see changed, but change is really hard. And it’s very possible to mistake a morally restrained heart for a supernaturally changed heart …” 1/2

“Hope in the Bible is life-shaping certainty of something you’re going to have, but you don’t have yet” Source: Real Joy (Sermon)

“Though a supernaturally changed heart will always lead to a life of service, we have to remember you must not identify with a life of service, because you can have a life of service without having a supernaturally changed heart” Source: Love and the Fruit of the Spirit (Sermon)

“God alone is the fountain of the life and love I have looked for in other places, to my misery”

“See what you've been avoiding. Face it with grace” Source: What is Wrong with the World?

“Calvin famously began his institutes with the words, 'nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of god and knowledge of ourselves’”

“If God looks down at this world and sees how we’re treating each other, and sees how we’re living, and sees how we’re treating him … If God looks down at this world and is not furious, he is not a father” Source: How Sin Makes Us Convicts (Sermon)

“God’s anger in the Bible is not like our anger usually is. It’s not crankiness. It’s not ill temper. It’s not ego. It’s not explosion. It’s not out of control. It’s a settled, fixed, implacable, irrevocable, incorruptible opposition to injustice and evil, …” 1/2

“When Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, what was holding him there? His love for you. Nothing else. Nothing else at all” Source: Indestructible Truth (Sermon)