Quotes from 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.

Fear is vision without hope.

Fear is not always a sin but it always is an opportunity.

Forgiveness is both a decision and a process.

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.

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.

Are you letting culture, not scripture, determine your sexuality, how you date, how you present yourself, how you engage in certain relationships with members of the opposite sex? We need to be very clear that the way we do life is different than the rest of the world.

Stop looking for the path of least resistance and start running down the path of greatest glory to God and good to others, because that's what Jesus, the Real Man, did.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When you are lying in bed angry with your backs turned towards each other, imagine Satan sleeping in the space between you.

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.

Once we determine in our souls that God's glory is our goal, we then stop taking the path of least resistance and start taking the path of most glory to God

Repentance keeps sin from condemning us because Jesus died and scorned the shame.

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

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

We don't name God; God reveals His name to us. We don't have the right to exercise authority over God. God copyrights, He trademarks, He patents His name.

You aren't what's been done to you but what Jesus has done for you. You aren't what you do but what Jesus has done. What you do doesn't determine who you are. Rather, who you are in Christ determines what you do.

If we truly believe that God appreciates our service, we can stop boasting and start encouraging. When we boast, we use people for appreciation. When our appreciation comes from God, we can start loving people, sharing the ways both God and we appreciate them. Paul demonstrated this by encouraging others, •

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.

We need to avoid the ditch on the left, where we don't call sin a sin, as well as the ditch on the right, where we are angry culture warriors battling unbelievers instead of evangelizing them.