David > David's Quotes

“My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is, "How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?" I wonder if the abundance of opportunities to explore today is doing less to help make well-rounded disciples of Christ and more to help Christians avoid long term responsibility and have less long-term impact.”
― Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will

“Listen to Mr. Complacency long enough and he'll convince you that what you really, really need is a nap.”
― Alex and Brett Harris

“Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a a drain in the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things it as they might be. "Good enough" becomes days today's watchword and tomorrow standard.”
― Alex and Brett Harris

“Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity.”
― Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

“Membership is the church's corporate endorsement of a person's salvation.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“But it must be said that maturity is not merely something you do with your mind. No, maturity is about how you live your life. It is possible to be theologically astute in yet very immature. It is possible be biblically literate and in need of significant spiritual growth.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Mr. Beecher used to say that the first thing for a man to do, if he would succeed in life, was to be careful to "choose a good father and mother to be born of.”
― John C. Carlile

“For students who have not been required to confess that it is easier to learn theology then live it, it is tempting to think maturity is more a matter of knowing in a matter of living”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“I have talked with many pastors whose real struggle isn't first with the hardship of ministry, the lack of appreciation and involvement of people, or difficulties with fellow leaders. No, the real struggle they are having, one that is very hard for a pastor to admit, is with God. What has caused ministry to become hard and burdensome is disappointment and anger with God.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Foolishness is more than being stupid, that deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance.”
― Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change

“I have talked with many pastors whose real struggle isn’t first with the hardship of ministry, the lack of appreciation and involvement of people, or difficulties with fellow leaders. No, the real struggle they are having, one that is very hard for a pastor to admit, is with God. What is caused to ministry become hard and burdensome is disappointment and anger at God.

We have forgotten that pastoral ministry is war and that you will never live successfully in the pastorate if you live with the peacetime mentality. Permit me to explain. The fundamental battle of pastoral ministry is not with the shifting values of the surrounding culture. It is not the struggle with resistant people who don't seem to esteem the Gospel. It is not the fight for the success of ministries of the church. And is not the constant struggle of resources and personnel to accomplish the mission. No, the war of the pastor is a deeply personal war. It is far on the ground of the pastor’s heart. It is a war values, allegiances, and motivations. It's about the subtle desires and foundational dreams. This war is the greatest threat to every pastor. Yet it is a war that we often naïvely ignore or quickly forget in the busyness of local church ministry.

When you forget the Gospel, you begin to seek from the situations, locations and relationships of ministry what you already have been given in Christ. You begin to look to ministry for identity, security, hope, well-being, meeting, and purpose. These things are already yours in Christ.

In ways of which you are not always aware, your ministry is always shaped by what is in functional control of your heart.

The fact of the matter is that many pastors become awe numb or awe confused, or they get awe kidnapped. Many pastors look at glory and don't seek glory anymore. Many pastors are just cranking out because they don't know what else to do. Many pastors preach a boring, uninspiring gospel that makes you wonder why people aren't sleeping their way through it. Many pastors are better at arguing fine points of doctrine than stimulating divine wonder. Many pastors see more stimulated by the next ministry, vision of the next step in strategic planning than by the stunning glory of the grand intervention of grace into sin broken hearts. The glories of being right, successful, in control, esteemed, and secure often become more influential in the way that ministry is done than the awesome realities of the presence, sovereignty, power, and love of God.

Mediocrity is not a time, personnel, resource, or location problem. Mediocrity is a heart problem. We have lost our commitment to the highest levels of excellence because we have lost our awe.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Christ who is your life,' (Col 3:4): This identification reflects the relentless Christological focus of Colossians.”
― Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary

“Success in ministry is important, but when I assume it is all-important, I have made it an idol . . .It is possible to make such an idol of success that you prize it more than God.”
― Brad Bigney, Gospel Treason: Betraying the Gospel with Hidden Idols

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“But the fact is that the gospel demands everything of all of us. If someone thinks the gospel has slotted into their life quite easily, without causing any major adjustments to their lifestyle or aspirations, it is likely that they have not really started following Jesus at all.”
― Sam Allberry, Is God Anti-gay?: And Other Questions About Homosexuality, the Bible, and Same-Sex Attraction

“That government is best which rules least," quoted in Torbet. Leland was a Baptist spokesman and pastor who knew Thomas Jefferson, circa 1760. No, I did not know him personally.”
― Robert G. Torbet, History of the Baptists

“It is true that we need to make a one time decision to follow Jesus. But a true one time decision is followed by the every day decision to follow Jesus.”
― Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian?

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“I long for a church that understands the dangers of entertainment and sees it for what is is: a lion crouching at the evangelical door, ready to devour us. We need a culture of evangelism that never sacrifices to the idolatry of entertainment, but serves up the rich fare found the gospel of Christ.”
― J. Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus

“. . . once people stop believing in the God of the Bible, they don't believe in nothing--they begin to believe in anything.”
― Alistair Begg, Name Above All Names

“God is willing and able to turn his judgements into joys . . . Don't ever think that the sin of your past means there is no hope for your future.”
― John Piper, A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God

“. . . the story of Ruth . . .was written to give us encouragement and hope that all the perplexing turns in our lives are going somewhere good. They do not lead off a cliff. In all the setbacks of our lives as believers, God is plotting for our joy.”
― John Piper, A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God

“The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.”
― Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness

“When the glory of God is the treasure of our lives, we will not lay up treasures on earth, but spend them for the spread of his glory. We will not covet, but overflow with liberality. We will not crave the praise of men, but forget ourselves in praising God. We will not be mastered by sinful, sensual pleasures, but sever their root by the power of a superior promise. We will not will nurse a wounded ego or cherish a grudge or nurture a vengeful spirit, but will hand over our cause to God and bless those who hate us. Every sin flows from the failure to treasure the glory of God above all things.”
― John Piper, Preaching the Cross

“The Apostle “Paul’s antidote for wimpy Christians is weighty doctrine. . . .everything that exists—including evil—is ordained by a holy and all-wise God to make the glory of Christ shine more brightly. We don’t make God. He makes us. We don’t decide what he is going to be like. He decides what he is going to be like. He decides what we are going to be like. He created the universe, and it has the meaning he gives it, not the meaning we give it. If we give it a meaning different from his, we are fools. . . . our eternal joy and strength and holiness depend on the solidity of this worldview putting strong fiber into the spine of our faith. Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead.”
― John Piper, Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ

“[For the genuine believer] There are moments in life when God's pursuit of us seems like that of a persistent mosquito, constantly buzzing around our heads and causing us pain, and we are utterly powerless to shake him off.”
― Iain M. Duguid, Esther & Ruth

“Choosing the way of Christ not only means identifying with Christ, however; ‘it also means identifying with the stubborn, recalcitrant, and frequently offensive flock that he calls his own. . . .Yet as flawed as the people of God are, if the Lord is to be our God then his people must be our people too.”
― Iain M. Duguid, Esther & Ruth

“. . . the symptoms and effects of the life of faith are totally unspectacular. . . .true covenant faith is expressed by concern for others. . . .this concern is expressed by loving actions that promote the next person’s well-being and by verbal expressions of prayer for the next person. Block, Book of Ruth, p. 612. See also James 2:17.”
― Daniel I. Block, Judges, Ruth

“Jesus came for us, but that doesn't mean he came to please us. Jesus came for us, but he does not answer to us. Jesus came for us, but he will not subject himself to our agenda . . .”
― John Koessler, The Surprising Grace of Disappointment: Finding Hope when God Seems to Fail Us

“. . .your tolerance is not love. It is unfaithfulness.”
― Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?