Some of you are sitting at home saying, 'I don't need a church to love God,' and I am here telling you that you are so wrong.

Without action and fruit, all the theology in the world has little meaning.

Churches we build only by our own efforts and not in the strength of the Spirit will quickly collapse when we don't push and prod people along.

If God cared only about religious activities, then the Pharisees would have been heroes of the faith.

It's incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace. No one wants to ditch God's plan of redemption [the cross], even though it doesn't make sense to us. Neither should we erase God's revealed plan of punishment because it doesn't sit well with us. As soon as we do this, we are putting God's actions in submission to our own reasoning, which is a ridiculous thing for clay to do.

When we become overly concerned about our appearance, our spiritual reputation, our coolness, and our acceptance, we are living as citizens of this world rather than as ambassadors.

People who are obsessed with God are known as givers, not takers. Obsessed people genuinely think that others matter as much as they do, and they are particularly aware of those who are poor around the world (James 2:14-26).