Who Do You Think You Are? Quotes

“Performance is done for the sight and approval of others. Service is done knowing that God is watching and approving whether or not anyone else is. Performance causes us to be enslaved to others’ opinions, unable to say no, and prone to being overworked. Service frees us to do what God wants, thereby saying no as needed. Performance presses us toward perfectionism, where we seek to do everything just right so others will praise us. Service allows us to do our best, knowing that God’s appreciation of us is secure regardless of our performance. Performance causes us to focus on the “big” things and only do what is highly visible or significant. Service allows us to do simple, humble, and menial tasks—the “little things”—knowing that the peasant Jewish carpenter we worship equally appreciates them both.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“You aren’t what’s been done to you but what Jesus has done for you. You aren’t what you do but what Jesus has done. What you do doesn’t determine who you are. Rather, who you are in Christ determines what you do.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“If we truly believe that God appreciates our service, we can stop boasting and start encouraging. When we boast, we use people for appreciation. When our appreciation comes from God, we can start loving people, sharing the ways both God and we appreciate them. Paul demonstrated this by encouraging others, •”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“While this may look loving, when we struggle with an idol of dependence, we’re in fact not loving people as much as we’re using them to fulfill our need to belong, be liked, and be desired. This explains why some friends and family members can be so demanding, smothering, and needy. It also explains why we’re so easily inflated by praise and deflated by criticism. It’s as if others have the ability to determine our identity for that day based on a word or even a glance”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“A father is not to act harshly in word or deed toward his children, goad them to frustration and anger, discourage or demean them, neglect them, or harm them in any way. He is instead to be a blessing from the Lord to his children by taking responsibility to raise them rather than leaving it to the mother and various institutions, such as schools, churches, foster care systems, adoption agencies, and prisons. In short, fathers are supposed to be Pastor Dad, actively involved in the development of every aspect of their children’s growth with love, humility, and wisdom.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“To make this as simple as possible, let me say it this way: justification is all about Jesus. Jesus’ work, not our works, saves us. Jesus’ life, not our own life, is our hope. Jesus’ death, not our religious works, is our payment. Jesus alone forgives sin. So, we’re to repent of our sin to Jesus. Jesus alone gives righteousness. So we trust in Jesus for our justification. Our justification is not accomplished in any part by our own work, morality, or religious devotion. Justification is accomplished by Jesus plus nothing, and Jesus plus anything ruins everything.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“If you’re a Christian, then you’re on God’s predestined path to relationship with him. God has chosen to know you, love you, seek you, forgive you, embrace you, and befriend you!”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“In what ways has God changed you to become more holy because of Jesus’ blessing? How is God inviting you to make further changes in your life to live at greater levels of obedience and holiness to reflect Christ more?”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“The absolute worst place to begin constructing an identity is you, which is precisely where most counseling begins. The absolute best place to begin constructing an identity is Jesus Christ, which is precisely where Scripture begins. Knowing Jesus and being saved by him in faith is the key to your identity and the defeat of your idolatry. It’s not about you. It’s all about Jesus.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“a reporter asked Barth what was the single most important theological discovery he’d made. After stopping to consider his answer carefully, Barth said, “Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Indeed, we can never outgrow that one great, majestic, and simple transforming truth.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“Life is a war against a spiritual enemy we cannot see. We can’t win on our own, but the God who sees all gives us courage, perseverance, and wisdom to win an otherwise unwinnable war.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“Apart from Christ you are farther from God than you feared. In Christ you are nearer to God than you hoped. Through faith in the truth about who God is and who he’s made you to be, you’re reconciled to God in Christ.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“We say no to sin because we are holy in Christ. We endure the criticism of those who hate us because God loves us in Christ. We endure ostracism from others because God welcomes us in Christ. We are not what we do. We do what we are. Our identity determines our activity. This was true for Jesus, and it’s true for those who are in Christ. Our identity as new creations in Christ is the key to our victory like Christ.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“Sometimes we’re so focused on our desired blessings that we fail to stop and thank God by remembering the blessings we already have in Christ.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“Here is the truth: God made us with our eyes open in his “likeness,” which is our true identity. But Satan and people like him, with the same sinful motives (much like Leonard’s friends in Memento), lie to us about who we are in order to serve their own plans. And here is the lie: we will be “like” God if we’ll base our identity upon someone or something else other than God and the grace God bestows upon us.2 Adam and Eve fell for it. Rather than simply believing that they were already “like God” because God made them in his “likeness,” our first parents disbelieved their God-given identity and instead sought to create their own apart from him. The result was the first sin and the Fall.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“You were created by God, are on the earth to image and glorify God, and when you die, if you are in Christ, you will be with God forever, imaging and glorifying him perfectly in a sinless state.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

“The “who” question does not seek answers from God as much as it seeks God himself. The one who asks who seeks to grow in deeper understanding of who God is and who we are, because when we’re suffering, what we need more than answers—even helpful, biblical ones—is God and an assurance of our identity in Christ.”
― Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are?: Finding Your True Identity in Christ