Bryan Chapell > Quotes

“The reality of the ordinary progress of Christian understanding should not escape our notice: early believers "know no answers"; immature believers "know all the answers"; and mature believers "know the limits of our answers.”
― Bryan Chapell, Ephesians

“Repentance is not about earning grace but entering it; not about quenching his wrath but quieting the accusations of our hearts; not about unlocking his mercy but releasing our sin-sick sorrow to the Savior, who already rejoices to receive it.”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“Jesus designed the Lord's prayer to reveal His desire to give us more fully, graciously, and suitably the very things we most want but seek elsewhere. He does not want to deny us our desires but helps remove the false objects of our affections so that we will have the greater blessings he longs to lavish on us.”
― Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name

“Somehow proper prayer must put more trust in God’s will than in human wants; otherwise failure to get the things we want will force us to doubt either the power of prayer or the ability of God.”
― Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name

“We sin not because we do not love Christ at all but because we don’t love him above all.”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“Jesus loves us not because we are good but because he is.”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“Our preaching should reflect the uniqueness of our personalities, but our lives should”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“What a difference it makes in my life and yours when we believe that the trials as well as the accomplishments, the difficulties as well as the joys, are not simply the products of brute forces in the universe but actually are all part of God’s eternal plan for his glory and our good. Do we have any assurance that such astounding truths do apply to us? Yes.”
― Bryan Chapell, Ephesians

“Success in the pulpit can be the force that leads a preacher from prayerful dependence on the Spirit.”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“We do not proclaim grace so that anyone will make light of sin or of our duty to resist it. We herald God’s amazing mercy in order to join with the Spirit in stirring up in his people such a love for God that, when the day of evil comes, they will gladly put on the full armor he provides. Then, despite the hardships and the pain God’s people may face in the battle, they will stand strong in the power of his might.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“The healthiest congregations with the most thoughtful worship engage in an eclectic mix of worship expression that keeps faith fresh, serves multiple generations, stays rooted in the past, blossoms toward the future, stimulates childlike love, strives for excellence in presentation, bridges cultural barriers, and encourages ever-greater understanding.”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice

“…The identity I tried to establish by obedience to the Law is dead, the life Jesus lived to fulfill the Law is mine.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“The inevitable consequence of obedience without delight is the erosion of holiness.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“John Calvin said he constantly “studied to be simple.”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“I do not stop being a child of God because I am a problem child.”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“Spiritual change is more a consequence of what our hearts love than of what our hands do.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“Our identity determines what we do; what we do does not determine our identity.”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“As expository preachers, our ultimate goal is not to communicate the value of our opinions, others’ philosophies, or speculative meditations but rather to show how God’s Word discloses his will for those united to him through his Son. Truths of God proclaimed in such a way that people can see that the concepts derive from Scripture and apply to their lives preoccupy the expository preacher’s efforts. Such”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“Our efforts before God will never earn us entry into his kingdom, or obligate him to love us.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“When we grasp the wonder of how conduct can flow from love rather than secure it, then the gospel has the power profoundly to affect every relationship in our lives.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“All that we require for growing in godliness, our God provides. In themselves our works provide no basis for boasting, no foundation for comparison to others, and no claim on heaven’s blessing. Though it flows through us, the righteousness that sanctifies us before God originates in him. We strive in the strength that he generates, reach for him with the love that he instills, and trust him with the faith that he provides. We are engaged in the battle against sin and Satan, but the victory is the Lord’s.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“To put the issue succinctly: since the message was first addressed to the ancient church, it requires explication; since that message now needs to be addressed to a contemporary church, it requires application.”17”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“Without an ultimate authority for truth, all human striving has no ultimate value, and life itself becomes futile. Modern trends in preaching that deny the authority of the Word6 in the name of intellectual sophistication lead to a despairing subjectivism in which people do what is right in their own eyes—a state whose futility Scripture has clearly articulated (Judg. 21:25). The”
― Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

“One way of testing whether we are offering a diet of grace sufficient to nurture humble, grateful, and loyal believers is to ask, "Would the message I just taught from God's Word be acceptable in a synagogue or mosque?”
― Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life

“When voices become so shrill in a righteous cause that they are indistinguishable from the sounds of hatred, then the righteousness advocated gets lost in the din of rhetoric.”
― Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You'll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for Tragic Times

“It is true that those who have no real love for the Savior can seek to take advantage of the grace that they presume exists for them. However, those who are truly in union with Christ increasingly have the desires of the Author of that union, since his heart beats within them.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“We are united to God not on the basis of our good deeds but on the basis of faith in what he has done for us in Christ. Even this faith is not a work of merit but is a gift of God’s grace, so that we can be assured that our relationship with God does not lie in our human performance or resolve (cf. Eph. 2:8-9).”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“There is a danger in preaching a kind of grace that is only a reaction against legalism and gives no thought to licentiousness. Grace protects from both errors by keeping us from the despair of believing that we must merit God’s love, and from the danger of thinking that God has given us no guidance for how to love him and one another.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength

“There is a natural human inclination to take advantage of grace in order to excuse sin.”
― Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength