Gospel Centered Quotes & Sayings

That gospel message should both humble and lift the believer up at the same time. It teaches us that we are indeed self-centered sinners. It perforates our illusions about our goodness and superiority. But the gospel also fills us with more love and affirmation than we could ever imagine. It means we don't need to earn our self-worth through incessant service and work. It means also that we don't mind so much when we are deprived of some comfort, compliment, or reward. We don't have to keep records and accounts anymore. We can freely give and freely receive. — Timothy Keller

The product of a true, growing, gospel-centered nature is often gentleness. — Timothy Keller

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

It is one thing to have a ministry that is gospel believing and even gospel proclaiming but quite another to have one that is gospel centered. — Timothy Keller

The greatest threat to Christ-centered witness even in churches that formally affirm sound teaching is what British evangelical David Gibson calls 'the assumed gospel.' The idea is that the gospel is necessary for getting saved, but after we sign on, the rest of the Christian life is all the fine print: conditional forgiveness. — Michael S. Horton

The weekly worship service can be very effective in evangelism of non-Christians and in edification of Christians if it does not aim at either alone but is gospel centered and in the vernacular. — Timothy Keller

If you go on a mission to preach the gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, looking for this and that, and to learn what is in the world, and not having your minds riveted - yes, I may say riveted - on the cross of Christ, you will go and return in vain ... Let your minds be centered on your missions, and labor earnestly to bring souls to Christ. — Brigham Young

People who've been hit with the gospel respond naturally with radically changed lives and hearts. The church and the ministries of the church are gospel centered when they flow from hearts that are afire with wonder at the glory and grace of God, revealed in the person of Jesus. — Daniel Montgomery

We live in a culture of reductionism. Or better, we are living in the aftermath of a culture of reductionism, and I believe we have reduced the complexity and diversity of the Scriptures to systematic theologies that insist on ideological conformity, even when such conformity flattens the diversity of the Scriptural witness. We have reduced our conception of gospel to four simple steps that short-circuit biblical narratives and notions of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven in favor of a simplified means of entrance to heaven. Our preaching is often wed to our materialistic, consumerist cultural assumptions, and sermons are subsequently reduced to delivering messages that reinforce the worst of what American culture produces: self-centered end users who believe that God is a resource that helps an individual secure what amounts to an anemic and culturally bound understanding of the 'abundant life. — Tim Keel

The miracle centered gospel is making people to look out for somebody who will bless them. — Sunday Adelaja

Miracle centered gospel promotes laziness. — Sunday Adelaja

Without a gospel-centered approach to productivity, we can easily fall into a law-based approach to the Christian life that kills our joy and freedom — Matt Perman

Miracle centered gospel brings about the culture of indolence and insolence upon the country. — Sunday Adelaja

In other words, ongoing peace of mind comes through faith in Christ expressed in day-to-day life. This is the kind of peace that can endure even when everything is going haywire and we are simply unable to keep up with things. Why? Because it is not based on us. Just as we do good works from justification rather than for justification, we are also to do good works from peace rather than for peace. With gospel-centered productivity, peace comes first, not second. — Matt Perman

Our churches must be fully centered on Jesus and His work, or else death and emptiness is certain, regardless of the worship style or sermon series. Without the gospel, everything in a church is meaningless. And dead. — Matt Chandler

Miracle centered gospel has reduced humans to the level of animals. — Sunday Adelaja

The miracle centered gospel gives rise to a generation of people that believes that they don't need to be good, better than anybody else but just want to pray and get favor. — Sunday Adelaja

I've been challenged by the action-oriented approach to Scripture proposed by Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the United States Senate. I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again? There are aspects of the Gospel that are puzzling and difficult to understand. But our problems are not centered around the things we don't understand, but rather in the things we do understand, the things we could not possibly misunderstand. Our problem is not so much that we don't know what we should do. We know perfectly well, but we don't want to do it.19 — Mark Batterson

If groups are not gospel-centered and gospel-fueled, they are merely a social outlet for people, and they lack the power for transformation. So — Matt Chandler

We could help the pulpit to understand that the miracle centered gospel is letting our values and culture down. — Sunday Adelaja

Miracles centered gospel makes our people to be superficial and light. — Sunday Adelaja

A church without a gospel-centered purpose is no longer a church at all. — Thom S. Rainer

The next generation is caught between two possible destinies - one moored by the power and depth of the Jesus-centered gospel and one anchored to a cheap, Americanized version of the historic faith that will snap at the slightest puff of wind. Without a clear path to pursue the true gospel, millions of young Christians will look back on their twentysomething years as a series of lost opportunities for Christ. — David Kinnaman

The miracle centered gospel breeds up a mentality of people that think they could go through life without doing their best. — Sunday Adelaja

that He is committed to meeting our needs, but not our wants. That concept comes in reaction to those who have taken the wonderful Gospel and made it a self-centered lifestyle, in which we use the name of God, along with His principles, to get what we want. While that is a tragic misuse of Scripture, so is the concept that God cares only for our needs. He is not the director of an orphanage, guaranteeing us three meals a day and a cot to sleep on at night. He is a Father who delights in His children by becoming involved in their dreams. He fulfills dreams and desires out of His nature. It is who He is. — Bill Johnson

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. Do you want a cross centered life? A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days. — C.J. Mahaney

Miracle focus messages compels masses to think that the process of production is not necessary for prosperity — Sunday Adelaja

The gospel, centered profoundly for Jesus in the announcement that the reign of God is at hand, is eschatological in character. It pulls back the veil on the coming reign of God, thereby revealing the horizon of the world's future. The gospel portrays the coming of Jesus, and particularly his death and resurrection, as the decisive, truly eschatological event in the world's history. — Darrell L. Guder

The challenge for us is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between "full-timers," "part-timers," and people with secular employment in our team and leadership structures. We need non-full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel-centered, missional living. It means thinking of our workplaces, homes, and neighborhoods as the location of mission. We need to plan and pray for gospel relationships. This means creating church cultures in which we see normal, celebrating day-to-day gospel living in the secular world and discussions of how we can use our daily routines for the gospel. — Tim Chester

If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right. — Howard W. Hunter

The miracle centered gospel leads to getting something from nothing. — Sunday Adelaja

We need relationships that are so shaped by the gospel that we will exhort and encourage one another to trust Jesus every single day. We need gospel-centered discipleship. — Jonathan K. Dodson

Miracle centered gospels cripple the present and generations to come. — Sunday Adelaja

The nation suffers as a result of the miracle centered gospel. — Sunday Adelaja

The gospel teaches us that though we may have lost a battle or two, the war is not yet over. With the Lord's help and the hope of the gospel, we can win out in the end. Truth ultimately triumphs over falsehood. Evil is overwhelmed by goodness. Sin, however extreme it may have been, can give way to cleansing and refreshing forgiveness. This is the great hope of the gospel, centered as it is in the life, mission and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. — David S. Baxter

And what we learn in the Song of Songs is that a marriage shaped according to this gospel of grace, forged over years of hard-earned trust and forgiveness, can be an unsafe place for sin but a very safe place for sinners. In a gospel-centered marriage, when two souls are mingled together with the Holy Spirit's leading, we find confirmation after confirmation that grace is true, that grace is real - that we can be really, truly, deeply known and at the same time really, truly, deeply loved. — Matt Chandler

Our miracle centered gospel is what has turned our people into scammers. — Sunday Adelaja

In a discussion of this kind our interest should be centered not on the weight of the authority but on the weight of the argument. Indeed the authority of those who set out to teach is often an impediment to those who wish to learn. They cease to use their own judgment and regard as gospel whatever is put forward by their chosen teacher. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The miracle centered gospel gives people this mentality that they could have their way without being their best. — Sunday Adelaja

One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept, and love abounds. — Richard G. Scott

A man centered gospel never speaks of Christ yet manages to leave a congregation screaming for more. This is strange to behold. — Casey Johnson

When we present the gospel, we try to answer one question: How do I keep from going to hell? After that question is answered, we stop asking questions about God. With the American church being so concerned about converts, we don't take the time to present the God-centered universe to people. We don't try to dig deep into the truth of God. We need to learn the attributes of God before we know what He is like. — Francis Chan

There is more evil than good when we preach the miracle centered gospel instead if the kingdom gospel. — Sunday Adelaja

To worship God 'in spirit and in truth' is first and foremost a way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (Hebrews 8:13). Christian worship is new covenant worship; it is gospel-inspired worship; it is Christ-centered worship; it is cross-focused worship. — D. A. Carson

Miracle centered gospels do more damage than good to the listeners and nation. — Sunday Adelaja

There is a big evil and danger in miracle centered gospel. — Sunday Adelaja

With gospel-centered productivity, peace comes first, not second. the mistake we often make is to make peace of mind the result of things we do rather than the source. — Matt Perman

The gift of faith is a priceless spiritual endowment ... Our faith is centered in God our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. It is bolstered by our knowledge that the fullness of the gospel has been restored to the earth; that the Book of Mormon is the word of God; and that prophets and apostles today hold the keys of the priesthood. We treasure our faith, work to strengthen our faith, pray for increased faith, and do all within our power to protect and defend our faith. — Neil L. Andersen

God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated churches where the gospel is cherished - these are the birthplace of the kind of racial harmony that gives long-term glory to God and long-term gospel good to the world. — Bryan Loritts

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

The gospel is: a Christ-centered story to be told a hope-filled message to be proclaimed a revealed truth to be defended a new status to be received a transformed life to be lived a divine power to be celebrated.12 — Jonathan Leeman

Christianity is word-centered because God rules through his gospel word. — Tim Chester

The Bible does not deny that we were various things - addicts, homosexuals, hateful, prideful, pornographic masturbators - but that is what we were (past tense) (1 Cor. 6:9-11; Titus 3:3-5). The emphasis in Scripture is on what we are and what we are called to be. The Christian does not say, Hello, my name is _ and I am an X Y or Z." The Christian says I was dead, but now I am alive. The Christian says I am a struggling sinner, yet I am a saint. The Christians says I am a new creation; I am transformed. — Paul O'Brien

Jesus came to show us that the gospel explains success in terms of giving, not taking; self-sacrifice, not self-protection; going to the back, not getting to the front. The gospel shows that we win by losing, we triumph through defeat, we achieve power through service, and we become rich by giving ourselves away.
In fact, in gospel-centered living we follow Jesus in laying down our lives for those who hate us and hurt us. We spend our lives serving instead of being served, and seeking last place, not first. Gospel-centered people are those who love giving up their place for others, not guarding their place from others
because their value and worth is found in Christ, not their position. — Tullian Tchividjian

Godliness has 'promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' But the only way one can enter into godliness is by turning to God as a repentant sinner and receiving the Saviour He has provided in the Gospel. Therefore the crying need of our degenerate times is for a revival of true old-fashioned, Christ- centered, Bible preaching that will call upon all men everywhere to repent in view of that coming day when God will judge the world in righteousness by His Risen Son. — Henry Allen Ironside