Jd Greear Quotes

When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it.

My identity and my security are not in my spiritual progress. My identity and my security are in God’s acceptance of me given as a gift in Christ.

Faith is not the absence of doubt; it is continuing to follow Jesus in the midst of doubt.

Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts

It is one thing to understand the gospel but is quite another to experience the gospel in such a way that it fundamentally changes us and becomes the source of our identity and security.

Likewise, we continue to follow Jesus as we struggle with sin. Repentance ushers us into a life of greater struggle, not out of one.

Often the strongest evidence of my growth in grace is my growth in the knowledge of my need for grace.

Salvation is not a prayer you pray in a one-time ceremony and then move on from; salvation is a posture of repentance and faith that you begin in a moment and maintain for the rest of your life.

Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another.

Without love even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to Him. Let me make sure that sinks in… You can gain all the spiritual gifts in the world. You can take the most radical steps of obedience. You can share every meal with the homeless in your city. You can memorize the book of Leviticus. You can pray each morning for four hours like Martin Luther. But if what you do does not flow out of a heart of love - a heart that does those things because it genuinely desires to do them - it is ultimately worthless to God.

What would your prayers look like if you believed that the cross really was the measure of God's compassion for someone?

The Gospel Prayer In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less. Your presence and approval are all I need for everlasting joy. As You have been to me, so I will be to others. As I pray, I'll measure Your compassion by the cross and Your power by the resurrection.

If repentance were perfection, none of those people repented. Repentance, however, means recognizing Jesus' authority and submitting to it, even though you know your heart is weak, divided, and pulled in conflicting directions. Repentance includes a plea for God to change your inconsistent divided heart. (Psalm 86:11; Mark 9:24)

Awe combined with intimacy is the essence of Christian worship.

Repentance is belief in action.

The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life and when seeing His kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy than anything we could own. When we see Jesus as greater than anything the world can offer, we’ll gladly let everything else go to possess Him.

As we see the beauty of God and feel His weightiness in our hearts, our hearts begin to desire Him more than we desire sin. Before the Bible says, "Stop sinning," it says, "Behold your God.

The Holy Spirit did not go into such detail about the Pharisees in the New Testament just so we could understand a group unique to the first century. Pharisaism is a poisonous weed that grows in every garden of orthodox religion. Pharisaism is every bit the threat to the orthodox today that it was then.

There is One who remains faithful even when we doubt; One who is a firm foundation when our steps falter; One who holds on even when we let go. Keep your eyes on Him. He is faithful. He said, “It is finished.

A Christianity that does not have as its primary focus the deepening of passions for God is a false Christianity, no matter how zealously it seeks conversions or how forcefully it advocates righteous behavior.

Repentance is not subsequent to belief; it is part of belief. It is belief in action-choice that flow out of conviction. Repentance literally means "a change of mind" (in Greek, metanoia; meta-"new", noia="mind") about Jesus. Repentance is not merely changing your action; it is changing your actions because you have changed your attitude about Jesus' authority and glory.

Repentance Is Not the Absence of Struggle; It Is the Absence of Settled Defiance

We are changed not by being told what we need to do for God, but by hearing the news about what God has done for us.

Unless we are actively preaching the gospel to ourselves daily, we fall back into “works-righteousness.

Wanting to repent is the sign God hasn’t abandoned you. It is God, after all, who puts in us the desire to come to Him.

Once saved, always saved but also, once saved, forever following.

Paul said that it is only as we are overwhelmed at the glory of Christ's sacrifice for us that we are transformed into glory ourselves-the glory of people who serve God because they crave God and who do righteousness because they love righteousness.

God doesn’t need you! Never has. Never will. For anything. Ever.

The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life.

In a post-Christian, skeptical age, love on display is the most convincing apologetic.

Looking back, I see now that I’ve come to know God more in the pastures, and wildernesses, and white spaces, and valleys than I have on the mountaintops.

The Christian life is a call to risk. You either live with risk or waste your life.

Faith that looks anywhere else but Christ will find not assurance but incessant doubt. Only by resting entirely in his finished work can the troubled soul find peace.

The Spirit inside of us is greater than even Jesus beside us.

It’s not that I didn’t understand or believe the gospel before. I did. But the truth of the gospel hadn’t moved from my mind to my heart. There was a huge gap between my intellect and my emotions. The Puritan Jonathan Edwards likened his reawakening to the gospel to a man who had known, in his head, that honey was sweet, but for the first time had that sweetness burst alive in his mouth.

The Gospel Prayer “In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less.” “Your presence and approval are all I need for everlasting joy.” “As You have been to me, so I will be to others.” “As I pray, I’ll measure Your compassion by the cross and Your power by the resurrection.

The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with passion for God and love for others.

Being converted to Jesus is learning to so adore God that we would gladly renounce everything we have to follow Him.

Abiding in Jesus means understanding that His acceptance of us is the same regardless of the amount of spiritual fruit we have produced.

God steers moving ships — ships driven by the winds of worship, gratefulness, love to God for what he’s done, and compassion for those he cares about.

Knowing he engraved my name upon his heart engraves his mission upon mine (Isa. 49:15 – 16).

True worship is obedience to God for no other reason than that you delight in God.

Peter Drucker says that the worst kind of failure in business is success in the things that don’t matter.

Fullness of the Spirit and depth in the gospel are inseparable, and one always leads you to the other.

Satan’s primary temptation strategy is to try and make us forget what God has said about us and to evaluate our standing before God by some other criteria.

Our mission, according to Jesus, is not to gather audiences, but to grow disciples.

The vibrant Christian life is a union of clarity in the Word and openness to the Spirit.

If you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then devote yourself to the Word of God.

We want a God who will restore us to peaceful equilibrium, take away our stress, and promise us a blissful afterlife. Most Christians haven’t rejected God; they have just reduced him.

His love is the soil in which all the fruits of the Spirit grow. When our roots abide there, then joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control grow naturally in our hearts.

The Hebrew word for “glory” (kabod) literally means “weight.” To give something glory in your life (or, to worship it) is to give it so much weight that you couldn’t imagine doing life without it.

That’s why growth in Christ is never going beyond the gospel, but going deeper into the gospel. The purest waters from the spring of life are found by digging deeper, not wider, into the gospel well.

The Spirit points to Jesus’ words and works, not his own (John 16:14). In fact, there is a certain irony in how the Spirit operates; whenever he is really present, you are not thinking about him, you’re thinking about Jesus.

It sounds so spiritual to say something like, “We should only worry about the depth of our ministries, and let God worry about the width.” But disregarding the width of your ministry is blatantly unfaithful to the Great Commission.

Our feelings can quickly deceive us—a weakness our Enemy loves to exploit. He loves to approach us in the midst of a temptation, or in a time of spiritual defeat or depression, and tell us that if we really belonged to Jesus we would not feel this way. He tries to use our feelings to get us to doubt our faith. “Feelings,” however, are the fruit of faith. They should never be its source. Around our church we say, “Don’t feel your way into your beliefs; believe your way into your feelings.

In the same way, there are points you can never pass spiritually until you are confident that Jesus will support the full weight of your soul. There are sacrifices you’ll never make and commands you’ll never obey unless you are convinced of their eternal value.

There are times, even now, when I look at my heart and wonder how I could possibly have been “born again.” Moments in which I care more about what’s coming on TV that night than I do the spread of the gospel in the world. Moments when God feels distant, almost like a stranger. My emotions for Him are lukewarm, if not downright cold. I don’t jump out of bed hungry for His Word, and my mind wanders all over the place when I pray. Or I fall to that same old temptation again. For the thousandth time. Or moments I doubt God’s goodness, even His existence. It’s not how I feel all the time, or even most of the time, but it is how I feel some of the time. And then the question hits me again: Wait a minute . . . Am I really saved? How could I be, and still have feelings like this? What do you do in that moment? Pray “the sinners’ prayer” again? Should I call my old church and have the pastor warm up the baptismal waters? The answer is relatively simple in that moment: keep believing the gospel. Keep your hand on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how you feel at any given moment, how encouraged or discouraged you feel about your spiritual progress, how hot or cold your love for Jesus, what you should be doing is always the same—resting in the gospel. Rest in His finished work. That’s all you can do. It’s all you need to do. It’s all God has commanded you to do.

the word abide is much more straightforward than that. The Greek word meno means literally “to make your home in.” When we “make our home in” His love—feeling it, saturating ourselves with it, reflecting on it, standing in awe of it—spiritual fruit begins to spring up naturally from us like roses on a rosebush.

Planting always involves risk. We release control of something we need in the hopes that it will come back to us in multiplied measure. But once we let go of it, we forfeit any ability to use it for ourselves. Seeds you plant you can no longer consume. Yet without the act of planting, there will never be a harvest.

True religion is when you serve God to get nothing else but more of God. Many people use religion as a way of getting something else from God they want-blessings, rewards, even escape from judgement. This is wearisome to us, and to God. But when God is His own reward, Christianity becomes thrilling. Sacrifice becomes joy.

But this kind of motivation never lasts. Guilt produces a dramatic, knee-jerk reaction, but the human spirit has mechanisms for getting beyond guilt. We assuage it by comparing ourselves positively with others. We rationalize our indulgences. We numb ourselves to others’ pain. “Smacking” us with guilt never produces sustained generosity.

We’re not continuing to write the Bible — that is complete — but what Jesus “began” to do in his three-year earthly ministry and “continued” through his church in Acts he continues through us today. We are the next episode. We’re still in the same season, and the finale is still to come. Every believer now has a part of the story to write. The

Where the gospel is not cherished, the Spirit will not be experienced. And, on the flip side, where the Spirit is not sought, there will be no deep, experiential knowledge of the gospel. The two always go hand in hand. Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63, emphasis mine). Spirit and Word, inseparably united.

Another reason God often leads us through dark, silent valleys is that he wants to purify our hearts. Why do we want to be close to God? Is it because of what he gives us, or is it simply because we want him? What is more valuable to us: God or his blessings? Sometimes God withholds everything from us except his promises in order to make us ask ourselves, “Is this — his promise — enough for me?

This means that when someone claims to be filled with the Spirit and yet spends most of his time talking about his own experiences with the Spirit, you have reason to doubt whether he really is filled with the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit speaks through someone, you tend to forget about the person speaking. You don’t even really think about the Holy Spirit. You find yourself thinking about Jesus.

Make the gospel the center of your life. Turn to it when you are in pain. Let it be the foundation of your identity. Ground your confidence in it. Run to it when your soul feels restless. Take solace there in times of confusion and comfort there in times of regret. Dwell on it until righteous passions for God spring up with in you. Let it inspire you to God-centered, death-defying dreams for His glory.

Most people hope that they are “good enough” to earn God’s approval, to get on His “A-list.” Comparatively speaking, they think, their sins have not been that bad. So as long as God grades on the curve they’ll be fine. But this is direct defiance of “the testimony” God has given about Jesus. If we could have been “good enough,” would Jesus really have had to die? What kind of God would have done that to Jesus if there were another way?

we think that we have spiritual life in ourselves—that we are worthy of God’s acceptance, or that we can be good enough to earn God’s approval if we just try a little harder, or that God knows we are doing our best and will accept our good intentions—we reject God’s testimony about the indispensability of Jesus and call Him a liar. The testimony is that we are hopelessly wicked, spiritually dead, and without hope apart from God’s intervention.

Even after we have been saved our sinful flesh craves unrighteousness. In fact, the presence of the struggle itself can be affirmation that God’s Spirit is at work within you. Before God’s Spirit came into you, you didn’t struggle against sin—you ran toward it eagerly! An unbeliever might “struggle” with sin, but typically they are struggling only with its unwanted consequences or the feelings of guilt and shame that accompany it. A believer’s struggle is much deeper.

Even after we have been saved our sinful flesh craves unrighteousness. In fact, the presence of the struggle itself can be affirmation that God’s Spirit is at work within you. Before God’s Spirit came into you, you didn’t struggle against sin—you ran toward it eagerly! An unbeliever might “struggle” with sin, but typically they are struggling only with its unwanted consequences or the feelings of guilt and shame that accompany it. A believer’s struggle is much deeper. Their struggle is with the wickedness of the sin itself and the grievousness of its offense to God.

As I noted at the beginning of this chapter, a perversion of the doctrine of eternal security has become common in evangelical circles. This perversion presents salvation as a contract “signed” with God that God can never get out of, no matter what you do. Once you’ve signed the contract and prayed the prayer, you’ve got God trapped. Scripture does not present salvation that way. Salvation is a posture of repentance and faith toward Christ that you adopt at your conversion and maintain for a lifetime. If you permanently abandon that posture later in life, your faith was likely not saving faith.

If I’d had a good week—a real “Christian” week”—I felt close to God. When Sunday came around, I would feel like lifting my head and hands in worship, almost as if to say, “God, here I am . . . I know You’re excited about seeing me this week.” If I’d had a stellar week, I loved being in God’s presence and was sure God was pretty stoked about having me there too. But the opposite was also true. If I hadn’t done a good job at being a real Christian, I felt pretty distant from God. If I’d fallen to some temptations, been a jerk to my wife, dodged some easy opportunities to share Christ, was stingy with my money, forgotten to recycle, kicked the dog, etc. . . . well, on those weeks I felt like God wanted nothing to do with me. When I came to church, I had no desire to lift my soul up to God. I was pretty sure He didn’t want to see me either. I could feel His displeasure—His lack of approval. That’s because I didn’t really understand the gospel. Or, at least I had forgotten it.

Yes. But ceasing sin is the by-product of seeing God. As we see the beauty of God and feel His weightiness in our hearts, our hearts begin to desire Him more than we desire sin. Before the Bible says, “Stop sinning,” it says, “Behold your God!” Think of it like a balloon. There are two ways to keep a balloon afloat. If you fill a balloon with your breath, then the only way to keep it in the air is to continually smack it upward. That’s how religion keeps you motivated: it repeatedly “hits” you. “Stop doing this!” “Get busy with that!” This is my life as a pastor. People come on a Sunday so I can “smack” them about something. “Be more generous!” And they do that for a week. “Go do missions!” And they sign up for a trip. Every week I smack them back into spiritual orbit. No wonder people don’t like being around me. But there’s another way to keep a balloon afloat. Fill it with helium. Then it floats on its own, no smacking required. Seeing the size and beauty of God is like the helium that keeps us soaring spiritually.

But here’s where something amazing happens. By staying at home in Him—by soaking up the reality that His acceptance of you is the same regardless of however much spiritual fruit you produce—that’s how you receive the power to become truly fruitful. Where

Just as Jesus’ command to the lame man to “get up and walk” had in itself the power to obey the command, so the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection has in itself the power to make dead hearts new.

Thus, if you are not where you should be spiritually, the answer is not simply to get busier for Jesus. It is not just to get more radical in your devotion to God. It’s not only to seek greater spiritual gifts or even to learn more about the Bible. It is to make your home in God’s love given to you as a gift in Christ.

Be absolutely convinced at every moment of every day of the goodness of God in your life. That’s

What you prize most is shown by what you pursue the hardest.

something to make ourselves more acceptable to God.

The Word is God’s revelation to us, profitable for rebuke, for correction, for training and instruction in righteousness, capable of making us complete, sufficient for any and all good works (2 Tim. 3:16 – 17).

The Spirit takes God’s timeless truths and makes them come alive in us. He helps us understand them, shows us how to implement them, and empowers us to accomplish them. He transforms task lists into a relationship.

The first and best of what you are has to be laid in surrender at Jesus' feet. Only then will it bring life to the world.

Imagine being able to live with a sense of purpose so compelling that even your darkest days of struggle brim with that hope, confident that the day will come when you look back over every difficult circumstance, every dark chapter, and say worth it.

The great irony of life without God is that you usually don't end up enjoying the things you pursued in his place. It's only by having him in the right place that you develop the right relationship with all the second-place things.

The more we stand assured of this heavenly promise, the less terrified we are of earthly loss. Losses in life, though painful, are light and momentary.

It's not fair for those of us who have heard so much to do so little to get the message about a God who has done everything to those who have heard nothing at all.

Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, it's not about the abilities you bring to the table, but the willingness you lay on the table. God doesn't call the equipped; he equips the called. What makes you capable of extraordinary things is not extraordinary gifts, but an extraordinary willingness to be used by God.

Here's how I'd summarize pursuing the will of God in your career: whatever you're good at, do it well to the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God.

Not all Christians go overseas, but all live sent.

Be the best you can possibly be at your career. Get good at it. Your skills might very well be the thing God uses to place you before kings. And when you are there, tell them about Jesus. Slogging your way through law school or grinding through a grueling internship might not feel godly, but it might be the very thing God uses to put you in a place where people have no choice but to listen to you. Few things adorn the gospel as much as a fervent work ethic.

The law of the harvest states that you can only reap what first you sow. Planting involves risk. If the rains don't come, you are left with nothing. But if you never take the risk, you will never see the harvest.

Most of us tend to think about wickedness only in terms of egregious sins. And we can certainly be wicked that way. But, according to Jesus, failing to risk our lives to their fullest potential for his kingdom is just as wicked in God's eyes as the most egregious violations of his laws.

My service for God was fervent, but my passions for Him were cold. I certainly didn’t desire to know Him more.

Spiritual “fruit,” you see, is produced in the same way physical “fruit” is.

Religion, then, can tell you what to do—namely, to “love God with all your heart, soul and mind” and “to love your neighbor as yourself”; but the gospel alone gives you the power to do it.

The gospel produces not just obedience, you see, but a new kind of obedience3—an obedience that is powered by desire. An obedience that is both pleasing to God and delightful to you.

As Tim Keller says, the gospel is not just the ABCs of Christianity, it is the A–Z; it is not the first step in a stairway of truths, it is more like the hub of God’s wheel of truth.

The gospel turns that drudgery into delight. It changes us from being slaves who have to obey God to sons and daughters who want to obey God.

He actually became my sin so that I could literally become His righteousness.

The moment we take our eyes off of the gospel, those rodents of self-righteousness and self-condemnation spring back up.