Sermon Quotes

Discovering the will of your parents or…

Brian Mavis — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:54:52 +0000

Discovering the will of your parents or a friend or a coworker is one thing. But discovering God’s will is completely different. First of all, God is not in the advice business. He’s in the Lordship business. So if you really want to get personal and get God’s take on your situation, you’ll discover that He requires something up front first: control. More than He wants people who make good decisions, God wants hearts that are surrendered to Him.

God has an uncanny way of knowing where we stand on this issue. And often, He will withhold information about His will until He detects a willingness on our part to follow through on what He says regardless.

So do you really want to know God’s will? Are you truly ready for what He’ll say? Or are you just looking for another angle on your situation, another opinion to consider before you make up your mind? Your answer may determine how well you hear His.

— Excerpted from Discovering God’s Will by Andy Stanley

To be always relevant…

Brian Mavis — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:40:40 +0000

To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal.

– Simone Weil

It is curious that people who are filled…

Brian Mavis — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:42:36 +0000

It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear that story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all.

- Dorothy Sayers

God, as we know Him, is a gift to us from Christ.

Brian Mavis — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:55:42 +0000

God, as we know Him, is a gift to us from Christ.

– A. J. Gossip

Zeal without knowledge is always less

Brian Mavis — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:17:42 +0000

Zeal without knowledge is always less effective, less useful. Often it is found to be very harmful. Wherever zeal is most fervent and the spirit most vehement, there the need for knowledge’s oversight is all the greater. Knowledge restrains zeal, tempers the spirit, orders charity.

- Bernard of Clairvaux

Heroes are not giant statues…

Brian Mavis — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:41:13 +0000

Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better. Interweave all these communities and you really have an America that is back on its feet again. I really think we are gonna have to reassess what constitutes a ‘hero’.

- Studs Terkel

From my many years experience I can…

Brian Mavis — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:45:15 +0000

From my many years experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear the cross.

– Sadhu Sundar Singh

The union of a sect within itself is a pitiful charity…

Brian Mavis — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:41:01 +0000

The union of a sect within itself is a pitiful charity; it’s no concord of Christians, but a conspiracy against Christ; and they that love one another for their opinionative concurrence, love for their own sakes, not their Lord’s.

– Joseph Glanvill

Political ideology is a cause…

Brian Mavis — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:27:22 +0000

Political ideology is a cause that regularly competes with Christ for the souls of men and women.

– from Spiritual Profiling by Tom Hovestol

Once in seven years I burn all my sermons…

Brian Mavis — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:00:44 +0000

Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame, if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.

— John Wesley