Mark Driscoll Quotes & Sayings

Married life can seem as if it's only five days long. The first day you meet, the second day you marry, the third day your raise your children, the fourth day you meet your grandchildren, and the fifth day you die first or bury your spouse to go home alone for the first time in many years. — Mark Driscoll

Spirituality, without the Holy Spirit, is demonic. — Mark Driscoll

I know who made the environment and he's coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV. — Mark Driscoll

To conquer your biology, stop seeing people sexually and start seeing them as family. In our day, we have really a perverted notion where it's like strangers and potential sexual objects. — Mark Driscoll

Now more than ever God's people must be committed to being gospel centered. Jesus can no longer be out there somewhere on the horizon as we look to culture, religion, politics, spirituality, or morality for our true north. — Mark Driscoll

Did think you were here to kill time listening to Christian music until you go to heaven? We've got work to do. — Mark Driscoll

Because we worship our way into sin, ultimately we need to worship our way out. When Christians commit sin, they do not cease worshiping. Rather, their worship is directed away from the Creator and toward created things. Repentance is the act of turning from sin and returning to God by trusting in Jesus Christ who is the perfect worshiper. — Mark Driscoll

In marriage we have a duty to God, our spuses, the world, and future generations. But we are sinners. A husband and wife need to acknowledge that when the Bible speaks of fools, it is not just speaking about other people, but about them as well. Even the wisest among us has moments of folly. So God gives us spouses to serve as wise friends by praying with and for us, attending church with us, speaking truth, and providing Scripture along with good books and online classes, lectures, and sermons to nourish fruitfulness in our lives. — Mark Driscoll

You know what I find amazing is within Christianity it is not uncommon to find [married] people who don't have sexual intimacy, don't have emotional intimacy, don't have spiritual intimacy, don't pray together, don't do their life together, don't put their schedules together, don't put their budgets together, but they don't get divorced. So they can pat themselves on the back and say, 'We're good Christians.' They're divorced in everything but the paperwork. — Mark Driscoll

One of the most astonishing things about Jesus is that as God he actually chose to come into our fallen, sick, twisted, unjust, evil, cruel, painful world and be with us to suffer like us and for us. Meanwhile, we spend most of our time trying to figure out how to avoid the pain and evil of this world while reading dumb books about the rapture just hoping to get out. — Mark Driscoll

In treadmill religion, we have to work hard and perform at a high level for God to take notice of us.
The problem with treadmill performance religion is that it leads to either pride or despair. If you keep the rules of your religious team, you become arrogant. Conversely if you fail to keep the rules of your religious team, you despair. Justifying grace gives us full assurance that God will love us no more if we perform well and love us no less if we perform poorly. By justifying grace, our acceptance before God and the grounds for our righteousness are solely Jesus' works of sinless living, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection and therefore are not in any way contingent upon what we do or do not do. — Mark Driscoll

Jesus and Paul were serious dudes. They had teeth missing. Jesus was a carpenter, Paul was in prison. These guys didn't eat tofu dogs and bean sprouts. They didn't play tennis. If there were trucks back in their times, they would have been doing driveway lube jobs on a Saturday afternoon. Same thing with King David. Yeah, he might have played a lyre, but he slaughtered thousands of guys. — Mark Driscoll

The church was custom built by Jesus, and we are all works in progress. We do not expect people to get their sin in order before attending church any more than a hospital expects people to get healed before they show up. — Mark Driscoll

The only thing worse than dying is living a boring life. — Mark Driscoll

You're either selfish, or you're a servant ... but fundamentally selfish people are terrible friends, terrible lovers, terrible spouses, terrible Christians, terrible parents. They leave a terrible legacy. Will you be selfish? Will you be a servant? ... A good marriage is a servant and a servant. — Mark Driscoll

Three, Christians who practice repentance should be the only ones allowed into church membership and leadership. — Mark Driscoll

Performance is done for the sight and approval of others. Service is done knowing that God is watching and approving whether or not anyone else is. Performance causes us to be enslaved to others' opinions, unable to say no, and prone to being overworked. Service frees us to do what God wants, thereby saying no as needed. Performance presses us toward perfectionism, where we seek to do everything just right so others will praise us. Service allows us to do our best, knowing that God's appreciation of us is secure regardless of our performance. Performance causes us to focus on the "big" things and only do what is highly visible or significant. Service allows us to do simple, humble, and menial tasks - the "little things" - knowing that the peasant Jewish carpenter we worship equally appreciates them both. — Mark Driscoll

There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God's grace, it'll be a mountain by the time we're done, — Mark Driscoll

Women will be saved by going back to that role that God has chosen for them. Ladies, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up it is because you are fighting your role in the scripture. — Mark Driscoll

Anxiety is not to be managed it is a sin that needs to be repented of — Mark Driscoll

Part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Once you get married, however, a good defense is frequency and freedom. — Mark Driscoll

Sometimes prayer moves the hand of God, and sometimes prayer changes the heart of the person who is praying. — Mark Driscoll

A reporter asked Barth what was the single most important theological discovery he'd made. After stopping to consider his answer carefully, Barth said, "Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so." Indeed, we can never outgrow that one great, majestic, and simple transforming truth. — Mark Driscoll

Gentleman, it is a terrifying thing for a woman to trust a sinful man. — Mark Driscoll

The cross is the great jewel of the Christian faith and like every great jewel it has many precious facets that are each worthy of examining for their brilliance and beauty. — Mark Driscoll

I am not ashamed of the Gospel. — Mark Driscoll

Some will tell you that there are multiple worldviews. The Bible says we have only 2: the Truth and the Lie. — Mark Driscoll

Everyone is in a tribe, and the sooner we realize we are not each unique, like a snowflake - a special, one-of-a-kind person, just like Mama said - the sooner we will make sense of ourselves and the spiritual cul-de-sac we call home. You are likely not unique, particularly special, — Mark Driscoll

We will take a few moments and make fun of religious people, and we do this in love. No, we do, because we love to make fun of religious people. — Mark Driscoll

A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin, but she may not be helping him either. — Mark Driscoll

I felt God had conned me by telling me to marry Grace, and allowed Grace to rule over me since she was controlling our sex life. I loved Grace, but in the bedroom I did not enjoy her and wondered how many years I could white-knuckle fidelity. — Mark Driscoll

Don't cohabitate. Don't fornicate. Don't look at pornography. Don't create a standard of beauty. Have your spouse be your standard of beauty. This is one of the great devastating effects of pornography: you lust after people and compare your spouse to them. It's impossible to be satisfied in your marriage if you don't have a standard that is biblical; that standard is always your spouse. — Mark Driscoll

A pacifist has a lot of difficulty reconciling pacifism with scripture. — Mark Driscoll

Most Christians are sheltered within their own groups and are too busy arguing with other Christians to notice the sad state of Christianity in a broader sense. — Mark Driscoll

If you're not a Christian, you're going to hell. It's not unloving to say that. it's unloving not to say that. — Mark Driscoll

You don't need to beat yourself up in order to make God love you. Jesus already took your beating. — Mark Driscoll

Everything may not be OK but if God is with you, you will be OK. — Mark Driscoll

Ladies, use a loving voice, use a respectful voice, use a godly voice, but don't lose your voice. — Mark Driscoll

Any religious person who says he does not really need human friends because God is his Friend is calling God a liar because He's the One Who says we also need human friends. — Mark Driscoll

It is not uncommon to meet pastors' wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness, — Mark Driscoll

Tribes must be our homes, not our prisons. — Mark Driscoll

Back in high school, once she suspected that I was probably not a Christian, she did not break up with me as she should have. — Mark Driscoll

To live is Christ, and to die is gain.[213] — Mark Driscoll

Avoid participating in any religious community where the clear truth-claims of Scripture are ignored while contemplative and mystical practices are favored simply for their spiritual experience. Be careful of any church or ministry wherein acts of mercy and environmental stewardship are devoid of a theology of the cross and wind up being little more than the worship of created people and things. And be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing for that is a bad thing. — Mark Driscoll

God is tolerant in that He asks everyone to repent. — Mark Driscoll

The goal of Christian dating is not to have a boyfriend or girlfriend but to find a spouse. Have that in mind as you get to know one an- other, and if you're not ready to commit to a relationship with the end goal of marriage, it's better not to date but simply to remain friends. — Mark Driscoll

We need more Spirit-empowered Christians who take seriously their call to witness to God's work in this world, and to do so in unity with other Christians, even if they don't agree on some secondary matters. — Mark Driscoll

older generation accounts for only 19 percent of the national church, they give 46 percent of the donations. — Mark Driscoll

Fear is vision without hope. — Mark Driscoll

Many modern Christians will take the best programs from every church while committing to no church. They even have a name for it: church shopping. — Mark Driscoll

I study the Bible all week, pray to the Lord, and then I speak from my heart. It's all about brutal honesty. — Mark Driscoll

Even a cursory reading of the book of Ecclesiastes shows that culture is a stationary bike that each generation climbs on in hopes of getting somewhere only to die and fall off so that the new young stud can take his turn peddling and, like a fool, make pronouncements about his progress. We would be wise to see postmodernity as simply the new guy on the old bike and not mistake cultural change for kingdom progress. — Mark Driscoll

Everyone is sinning, so it's no longer rebellious to sin. You're just a conformist if you're drunk; and naked; driving around in a loud motorcycle; smoking cigarrettes; breaking commandments; getting pregnant out of wedlock. Everyone's done that. That's so tired! — Mark Driscoll

If my words don't flow out of a heart that rests in God's control, sovereignty, then they come out of the heart that seeks control so I can get what I want. — Mark Driscoll

I have noticed that people tend to stop maturing when they start self-medicating. Everyone has very tough seasons of life, but by persevering through them we have an opportunity to mature and grow as people. Those who self-medicate ... often thwart maturity as they escape the tough seasons of life rather than face them. — Mark Driscoll

Corporate worship is to be seeker sensible. — Mark Driscoll

Marriage includes a spouse, and often children. But the goal, center, and purpose of marriage is not self, spouse, or children. The ultimate goal of marriage and family is the glory of God. Only when marriage and family exist for God's glory - and not to serve as replacement idols - are we able to truly love and be loved. Remember, neither your child nor your husband (or wife) should be who you worship, but instead who you worship with. — Mark Driscoll

You can't meet Jesus and not change. If you haven't changed, you haven't met the real Jesus. — Mark Driscoll

If you can't take a nap, if you can't take a day off, heaven's going to drive you nuts. — Mark Driscoll

There are some women who are a good time and there are some women who are a good legacy. — Mark Driscoll

Much of spirituality today is an effort to change God to suit us. But he's not going to become more like us, we need to become more like him. — Mark Driscoll

If you really want to be a rebel get a job, cut your grass, read your bible, and shut up. Because no one is doing that. — Mark Driscoll

All of the modern counseling vernacular is really not dealing with the root issue of idolatry. Someone or something's preeminent rather than God. — Mark Driscoll

Faith only grows through suffering. — Mark Driscoll

Sin is not just action. It's life direction. — Mark Driscoll

Ultimately I think the difference between reading the Bible and studying it is making the connections between who Jesus is and what he's done. — Mark Driscoll

The questions today are different, and if people don't get answers from pastors and parents, they will find them in dark, depraved places. — Mark Driscoll

Faith is not just what we believe internally. It's how we behave externally. — Mark Driscoll

We want to state this carefully: a spouse who is evil, distant, cruel, unloving, or abusive should not use this information to demand more sex from his wife without first dealing with his sin. — Mark Driscoll

Shame exists where there is sin, and so feeling ashamed, particularly when we sin, is natural and healthy. Therefore, shame is not bad, but unless the underlying sin that causes the shame is properly dealt with through the gospel, then the shame will remain, with devastating implications. — Mark Driscoll

Our identity is not in our joy, and our identity is not in our suffering. Our identity is in Christ, whether we have joy or are suffering. — Mark Driscoll

Past: Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin. Present: He saves us from the power of sin. Future: He will save us from the presence of sin. — Mark Driscoll

On the Sabbath day, we are remembering that my relationship with God did not begin with what I've done, it is not sustained by what I do, and it is not guaranteed to the end by my effort or work. I'm saved from beginning to end by Jesus' work. — Mark Driscoll

The Gospel of Mark revealed a Jesus who was anti-thetical to the "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild" sung about in Wesley's famous hymn. The portrait of Mark agrees more easily with that of former-major-league-baseball-player-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday who said, 'Jesus was the greatest scrapper who ever lived. — Mark Driscoll

Corporate worship is to be intelligible. — Mark Driscoll

Everything in the service needs to preach - architecture, lighting, songs, prayers, fellowship, the smell - it all preaches. All five senses must be engaged to experience God. — Mark Driscoll

Idols tend to be good things that you have turned into god things, which therefore become bad things — Mark Driscoll

Fathers need to be tough and tender ... you be tough for your family, be tender with your family. You protect them, and you be a safe place. — Mark Driscoll

No one can remain neutral regarding Jesus' resurrection.
The claim is too staggering,
the event too earthshaking,
the implications too significant
and the matter too serious.
We must either receive it or reject it as truth for us.
To remain indifferent or undecided is to reject it. — Mark Driscoll

Corporate worship is to be God-centered. — Mark Driscoll

A lot of people are using the Church, but not a lot of people are loving the Church. — Mark Driscoll

I want to live with autonomy. That's the essence of sin. — Mark Driscoll

While it only takes one spouse to be friendly, it takes both spouses to be friends. When both spouses are unfriendly, the marriage is marked by conflict and coldness. When one spouse is friendly and the other is unfriendly, the marriage is marked by selfishness and sadness. But when both spouses each make a deep, heartfelt covenant with God to continually seek to become a better friend, increasing love and laughter mark the marriage. — Mark Driscoll

We need to pay attention to the questions non-Christians are asking, and the conversations that Christians are having. — Mark Driscoll

You have to laugh at yourself. Otherwise you'll waste all that great material. — Mark Driscoll

We have to be known for who and what we are for more than who or what we are against. If we fail, Christianity will have a funeral rather than a future. — Mark Driscoll

I'd go home to a wife whom I was not sexually enjoying. — Mark Driscoll

We believe that the local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and that the universal church is all of God's people in all times and places. — Mark Driscoll

The world has enough politicians; it needs more prophets. — Mark Driscoll

The truths of Christianity are constant, unchanging, and meant for all people, times, and places. But the methods by which truth is articulated and practiced must be culturally appropriated, and therefore constantly translated ... if doctrine is constant and practice is constantly changing, the result is living orthodoxy. — Mark Driscoll

Seattle has unleashed this weird phenomenon on the world called the coffee shop. And the coffee shop, thanks to Starbucks, is the place where socially isolated, lonely, needy people gather together to ignore one another. — Mark Driscoll

Those who only seek friends without seeking to be a good friend are selfishly needy and demanding. And those who only want to be a good friend but do not wisely seek good friends are bound to be taken advantage of, abused, neglected, and suffer from their foolish friend choices. — Mark Driscoll

As a pastor, I recognize that in theological terms, narcissists want to be the center of attention, like a god, and have people worship them by paying attention to them, buying the products they promote, and emulating their behavior. — Mark Driscoll

Being single is not easy. But neither is being married. They are just difficult in different ways as God uses everything in our life to make us more like Jesus, who happened to live a perfect life while single. — Mark Driscoll

Singles, fornicating is an internship for adultery. — Mark Driscoll

Who you think you are is what compels you to do what you do! — Mark Driscoll

What happens if you walk into a church and try to find out what a man looks like? — Mark Driscoll

Religious people are not fun ... So, Jesus shows up and kids run around Him, want to be with Him. You know why? He's fun ... God's a Father who likes His kids to have fun, so when Jesus shows up, the religious people get jealous because Jesus gets invited to parties and the religious people don't. — Mark Driscoll

Everyone has something to teach you if you are humble enough to learn. — Mark Driscoll

Fear is not always a sin but it always is an opportunity. — Mark Driscoll