Time of Reflection Quotations

“Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come:
‘tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

~John Newton, “Amazing Grace”

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”

~Vince Lombardi, American football coach

“You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?”

~Gandalf to Bilbo, in The Hobbit

“The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe [eucatasrophe], the sudden joyous ‘turn’ […] is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatasrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance […] Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”

“For I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears […] the Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and it produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one.”

~J.R.R Tolkien, English writer and academic

“What we like to do is we try to protect ourselves from ever having to go through the valley of the shadow of death. […] But if Jesus really is your shepherd […] wouldn’t you kind of want to go through the valley of the shadow of death? […] There ought to be this side [of us] that’s actually excited about it and going, ‘Okay, this is going to be cool. I’m going to see God come through in some ways where he wasn’t coming through. I’m going to see this other side of the shepherd that I didn’t see by the still waters.’”

~Francis Chan, American pastor, on Psalm 23

“We can’t outrisk His faithfulness”

~Ocean and the Ghost, “Can’t Outrisk”

Sermon Passage

Psalm 124 (NIV)

¹ If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
² if the LORD had not been on our side
when people attacked us,
³ they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger flared against us;
⁴ the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
⁵ the raging waters
would have swept us away.
⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
⁷ We have escaped like a bird
from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Exodus 13:17-18, 14:1-4 (NIV)

¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. […] ¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp […] ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.’

Romans 5:6 (NIV)

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“We all are born into the world looking for someone looking for us, and…we remain in this mode of searching for the rest of our lives.”

~Curt Thompson, psychiatrist and author

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

~Mary Oliver (1935-2019), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

“What you pay attention to shapes what you care about. And what you care about shapes what you become.”

~Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor at New York University

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

~Augustine (354-430), North African theologian

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “The Weight of Glory”

“There is no duty we so much underrated as the duty of being happy.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish writer

“…if we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious to us and is pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him only through and after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false god…. [God] has promised His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace, and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.”

~Martin Luther (1483-1546) in his “Treatise on Good Works”

“God wants so much to be trusted.”

~David Wilkerson (1931-2011), Christian leader & founder of Teen Challenge

Sermon Passage

Psalm 67 (NASB95)

Psalm 67 (NASB95)

¹ God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
² That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
³ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.

⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
⁵ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.

⁶ The earth has yielded its produce;
God, our God, blesses us.
⁷ God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

Numbers 6 (NASB95)

²² Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
²⁴ The Lord bless you, and keep you;
²⁵ The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
²⁶ The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’
²⁷ So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”

~ D. Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), Welsh minister and medical doctor

“Every week I preach justification by faith to my people, because every week they forget it.”

~ Martin Luther (1483-1546), German theologian, author and hymn writer

“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.”

~ Jerry Bridges (1929-2016), American author and speaker

“The older I grow, the more I am drawn to preach much concerning the person, the atonement, the glory of the Savior, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. There are other truths, important in their places, but unless beheld through the medium of the cross, they have but a faint effect.”

~ John Newton (1725-1807), Anglican clergyman and abolitionist

“The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.”

~ Tim Keller (1950-2023), American pastor and author

Sermon Passage

Psalm 103 (ESV)

Of David.

¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! ² Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, ³ who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, ⁴ who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, ⁵ who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. ⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ⁹ He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. ¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. ¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴ For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; ¹⁶ for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. ¹⁷ But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, ¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. ¹⁹ The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! ²¹ Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! ²² Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.”

~ Garrison Keillor (1942-present), American author, radio personality

“We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist, theologian and Christian apologist

“To be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.”

~ Martin Luther (1483-1546), German professor of theology, author and seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation

“Forgiveness transcends finite human reason. The mere thought that one’s entire sin account can be utterly eradicated is staggering. Yet it is quite clear that the forgiveness of sins strikes at the very core of human need and experience. It speaks of guilt gone, remorse removed, depression disappearing and emptiness of life eradicated. What power there is in forgiveness! And it all comes abundantly from the gracious hand of God.”

~ Lewis Drummond (1926-2020), American minister and professor

“How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!… You drove them from me, You who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, You who are sweeter than all pleasure.”

~ Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian author, theologian and philosopher

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

~ Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) Anglican author and theologian

Sermon Passage

Psalm 32 (CSB)

Of David. A Maskil.

¹ How joyful is the one
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered!
² How joyful is a person whom
the LORD does not charge with iniquity
and in whose spirit is no deceit!

³ When I kept silent, my bones became brittle
from my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah
⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not conceal my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

⁶ Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately.
When great floodwaters come,
they will not reach him.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah

⁸ I will instruct you and show you the way to go;
with my eye on you, I will give counsel.
⁹ Do not be like a horse or mule,
without understanding,
that must be controlled with bit and bridle
or else it will not come near you.

¹⁰ Many pains come to the wicked,
but the one who trusts in the LORD
will have faithful love surrounding him.
¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice,
you righteous ones;
shout for joy,
all you upright in heart.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“What are you really living for? It’s crucial to realize that you either glorify God, or you glorify something or someone else. You’re always making something look big.”

~ Ken Sande, Contemporary engineer, lawyer and minister

“Be not lax in celebrating. Be not lazy in the festive service of God. Be ablaze with enthusiasm. Let us be an alive, burning offering before the altar of God.”

~ Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer and philosopher

“The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars…praise almost seems to be inner health made audible…I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation…Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer, professor

“Misplaced affection is the root problem behind all conflict. Preoccupied with the streams, we are blind to the fountain of joy. We will not seek the presence of God. Blind to God’s beauty and to his pleasures, we seek to satisfy ourselves with pleasures of the flesh that are too trivial to sustain hungry souls.”

~ Tony Reinke, contemporary author and journalist

“O think, that he who was master of all heaven’s majesty came down to be the victim of all man’s misery!”

~ C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), English minister and writer

Sermon Passage

Psalm 146 (ESV) 

¹ Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
² I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³ Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
⁴ When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
⁷ who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;
⁸ the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Trust thyself […] Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher, in “Self-Reliance”

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

~ William Ernest Henley, English poet and writer, in “Invictus”

“I have got so much to do and life is so short, I am going to hustle.”

~ Thomas Edison, American inventor

“The opportunity cost of going to sleep is too high. If you go to sleep, you won’t be with your 20 AI coding agents.”

~ Marc Andressen, American venture capitalist and entrepreneur

“The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.”

~ W.C. Fields, American actor and comedian

“Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign.”

~ John Piper, American Baptist pastor and theologian

“We are able to have children because our hope is in God, who makes it possible to do the absurd thing of having children. In a world of such terrible injustice, in a world of such terrible misery, in a world that may well be about the killing of our children, having children is an extraordinary act of faith and hope. But as Christians we can have hope in the God who urges us to welcome children.”

“Christians, single and married, are parents. ‘Parent’ names an office of the Christian community that everyone in the community is expected faithfully to fulfill. […] God has not willed the church to be reproduced through biology but through witness and conversion.”

~ Stanley Hauerwas, American theologian and Christian ethicist

Sermon Passage

Psalm 127 (ESV), Psalm 127:1-2 (NLT)

Psalm 127 (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:1-2 (NLT)

1 Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. 2 It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self, and into the spacious world of God.”

~ Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), American pastor, author

“It is a sweet compound of faith that knows God to be my Father, love that loves Him as my Father, joy that rejoices in Him as my Father, fear that trembles to disobey Him because he is my Father, and a confident affection and trustfulness that relies upon Him, and casts itself wholly upon Him, because it knows by the infallible witness of the Holy Spirit, that Jehovah, the God of earth and heaven, is the Father of my heart.”

~ Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), English pastor, writer

“Thou didst seek us when we sought Thee not; didst seek us indeed that we might seek Thee.”

“Thou hast created us for thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”

~ Augustine of Hippo (354-430), The bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa

“One design you are to pursue to the end of time – the enjoyment of God in time and in eternity. Desire other things so far as they tend to this; love the creature, as it leads to the Creator. But in every step you take, be this the glorious point that terminates your view. Let every affection, and thought and word, and action, be subordinate to this. Whatever you desire or fear, whatever you seek or shun, whatever you think, speak, or do, be it in order to your happiness in God, the sole end, as well as source, of your being.”

~ John Wesley (1703-1791), English minister

Sermon Passage

Pslam 27 (NIV)

Of David

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
² When the wicked advance against me
to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
who will stumble and fall.
³ Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident.
⁴ One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
and set me high upon a rock.
⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
⁷ Hear my voice when I call,
LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.
⁸ My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Savior.
¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
¹¹ Teach me your way, LORD;
lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.
¹³ I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self, and into the spacious world of God.”

~Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), American pastor, scholar, author

“Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.”

“Knowing God is more than knowing about him; it is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you.”

~J.I. Packer (1929-2020), a British-born Canadian writer, professor

“God doesn’t want me to play with religion. He doesn’t want me to dabble in church. He wants me—body and soul.”

~R.C. Sproul (1939-2017), American pastor, theologian and writer

“It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.”

~John Calvin (1509-1564), French theologian, pastor, writer

“The prayer preceding all prayers is ‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.’”

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be… It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British scholar and writer

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

~John 17:3 (NIV)

Sermon Passage

Psalm 139 (NIV)

1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together
in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Time of Reflection Quotations

Sermon Passage

Romans 8:1-17 (ESV)

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh warring against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the master? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification.”

~ J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), author and first Anglican bishop of Liverpool

“The marker of those who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ is that, when they stumble and fall, when they screw up, they run to God and not from him, because they clearly understand that their acceptance before God is not predicated upon their behavior, but on the righteous life of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death.”

~ Matt Chandler (1974-present), contemporary pastor and author

“This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way; the process is not yet finished, but it has begun; this is not the goal, but it is the road; at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified.”

~ Martin Luther (1483-1546), German theologian, writer, reformer

“To teach us how to pray, Jesus told stories of weak people who knew they couldn’t do life on their own. The persistent widow and the friend at midnight get access, not because they are strong but because they are desperate. Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life.”

~ Timothy Keller (1950-2023), American pastor, theologian, writer

“God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.”

~ Jerry Bridges (1929-2016) American author and speaker

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

~ Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) Anglican author and theologian

Sermon Passage

Romans 7:4, 12-25; 8:1-2 (CSB)

Romans 7

⁴ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God….

¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. ²¹ So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. ²² For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, ²³ but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Romans 8

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, ² because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.