Sermon Quotes: "A Moving Farwell"

“Texts have meaning, and texts have tone.” John Piper

“If we read Acts 20:17-38 with a sterile detachment, we deprive ourselves of the life and resulting benefit of the passage.” Kent Hughes 

“In an age when many are searching for different ways to attract people to church and make an impact on their society for Christ, it is salutary to recall Paul’s formula, both for evangelism and the nurture of believers.” David Peterson

“So far as our bodily health allows, we should aim to be found running the last lap of the race of our Christian life, as we would say, flat out. The final sprint, so I urge, should be a sprint indeed…The image of running was central to Paul’s understanding of his own life, and I urge now that it ought to be the central focus in the minds and hearts of all aging Christians, who know and feel that their bodies are slowing down. The challenge that faces us is not to let that fact slow us down spiritually, but to cultivate the maximum zeal for the closing phase of our earthly lives…Zeal means priority, passion and effort in pursuing God’s cause” J.I. Packer

“I, for one, am not a self-replenishing spring. My bucket leaks, even when it is not pouring. My spirit does not revive on the run. Without time of unhurried reading and reflection, beyond the press of sermon preparation, my soul shrinks, and the specter of ministerial death rises. Few things frighten me more than the beginnings of barrenness that come from frenzied activity with little spiritual food and meditation.” John Piper

“If the church was worth his blood, is it not worth our labor? The privilege of serving it is established by the preciousness of the price paid for its purchase.” John Stott 

“The elders should prevent false teaching at all costs.” Darrell Bock

“If grace ceases to surprise us, it ceases to be known for what it is.” Derek Kidner