Not we but God alone is the Judge of all the earth. Yet what He condemns, we also are obliged to condemn. But first in ourselves, only then in others.

Anxiety is a disabling state of mind that is the polar opposite of faith. When we get obsessed with the weight of our circumstances we get overwhelmed; when we look to the promises of God in our circumstances, we overcome.

Our tendency in hearing stories is to identify ourselves with the hero - to say, ‘I like that guy he reminds me of me.’ But if our lives were told on film or in a book, we would likely despise our characters. The good news is that the Bible is not about you! It’s God’s revelation of Himself to His people through which He reveals His character and goodness and His rescue of us through His Anointed King!

Resist following the gold. Seek the glory of God. Stop chasing after things. Remember the Thing: serving Christ. Refuse to sell your soul for short term gains that produce no long term returns.

One usually cannot know how much another person prays; what is more discernable are those who never or rarely pray.

To seek the praise of man and to find the praise of God is mission impossible.

In its Biblical sense, love is a moral virtue accessible only to regenerated persons in whom the power and presence of the Holy Spirit dwells. For the unregenerate to tout ‘love’ as their moral standard, apart from either, is an arch example of mission impossible leavened with moral hypocrisy. Without Christ no one can get there from here.

In a culture that calls us to have it all and to have it our way, the idea of surrender can be foreign and uncomfortable. However, Jesus Christ calls us to surrender all that we are, everyone we know, and all that we have if we are to be His disciples. This is not to suggest that our goals, relationships, and possessions will literally be taken away in following Christ, but that when conflict arises between following Jesus and having it our way; we will choose to follow Jesus.

A choice quote shared with me last Sunday by one of our members: “Sin will take us farther than we ever expected to go; it will keep us longer than we ever planned to stay.”