Proverbs of Pastor Adrian Rogers
illustrative of his wit and wisdom.
Taken from Sermon Notes of Connie Snow
March, 1973-February, 2005
We can't deal with our ancestors but we can deal with our dependents.
Getting saved is the front end of our troubles.
Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.
We'll find God right where we left Him.
God doesn't have favorites but He does have intimates.
A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted.
Mercy is sympathy with legs.
God doesn't love all of us - He loves each of us.
Home is the university of life with parents as the professors,
children as students and life as the lab.
Don't set goals for your children - have desires for them.
Anytime you see a "therefore" in the Bible, stop and see what it's there for.
Study the Bible to know about God. Obey the Bible to really know God.
Wisdom is seeing life from God's point of view.
Discipline says, "I need to."
Duty says, "I ought to."
Devotion says, "I want to."
Fear is a dark room where negatives are developed.
Faith is praise turned inside out.
The weakest ink is better than the best memory. Study with pen in hand.
When Dad's shoot straight, the kids will hit the mark.
The joy of the Lord isn't there to remove the pain;
the joy of the Lord is there to help me bear it.
Impression without expression leads to depression.
CHRIST + I AM NOTHING = CHRISTIAN
To be completely known and still be loved is the goal of marriage.
Satan wants to cripple me and then blame me for limping.
Worry is the interest I pay on borrowed trouble.
The will of God won't take me where the grace of God can't keep me.
The Pastor quoted Billy Sunday, who said,
“If we could take it with us, it would melt where some of us are going.”
Define the Trinity and you'll lose your mind. Deny it and you'll lose your soul.
Repentance and faith are heads and tails of the same coin.
If something has no head it's dead.
If it has two heads it's a freak.
God's two greatest gifts are Jesus and time.
The two sides of Satan's sword are doubt and discouragement.
When I get where I'm going, where will I be?
If I reach my goals, what will I have?
Is what I’m living for, worth Him dying for?
Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.
We're to love people and use things - not love things and use people.
I may know Him better but there's nothing better than knowing Him.
There are those who can preach the Gospel better than I can,
but there is nobody who can preach a better Gospel than I can.
Good things become bad things when they keep me from the best things.
Jesus never had to modify a statement, ask advice, apologize, ask for prayer or justify His actions.
A church should be pastor led, deacon served, committee operated and congregationally approved.
We're to be divided by truth - not united in error.
Reformation without transformation leads to greater degradation.
Nothing occurs to God.
Doubt is to my spirit what pain is to my body.
The Bible is a supernatural, spiritual, sovereign, surviving,
sustaining, supercharged book about my Savior.
God the Father is all there is. Holy Spirit is all we will feel. Jesus is all we will ever see.
God only wants for us what we would want for ourselves, if we were smart enough to want it.
Where God guides, God provides.
God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense
Forsaking
All
I
Trust
Him
The Bible is God’s road map.
Our great need is to discover that Jesus is all we need.
Faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first.
He died to claim us as Lord. He lives to control us as Lord.
He's coming again to be crowned as Lord.
If you can have it and not know it, you can lose it and not miss it.
The church is a society of sinners who finally admitted it.
Jesus became as we are so that we might become as He is.
Satan tells us how to get right with God in the wrong way.
Man isn't a sinner because he sins; he sins because he is a sinner.
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
Pray and doubt, you'll do without. Pray and believe, you will receive.
Grace says, "I love you" reaching down.
Faith says, "I believe you" reaching up.
The way to understand the part of the Bible you don't understand is to obey the part you do understand.
Someone has said, “Life is short, death is sure. Sin is the cost, Christ is the cure.”
We spend the first half of our life wasting our health to get wealth;
the second half of our life we spend our wealth to get our health back.
Prophecy is history pre-written.
Spiritual success is what we become in the light of what God designed us to be.
Salvation is not a plan - it's a Man.
If the Devil never bothers you, it's because you're both going in the same direction.
A Christian should not get all he can and can all he gets.
Justification - just as if I had never sinned.
We should pray as if it all depends on God and then work as if it all depends on us.
Not only should I be a witness, I ought to be part of the evidence.
Alka Seltzer Christians fizzle for a little while and disappear.
When we get saved, God cleans house but doesn’t move out.
Another term for becoming engaged is being on the verge of the urge to merge.
The way to find the right person is to be the right person.
The only thing between sinning man and judgment is time.
Jesus was either liar, lunatic or Lord.
Faith is God’s cure for fretting.
Delight is God’s cure for depression.
Commitment is God’s cure for concern.
Rest is God’s cure for resentment.
He became as I am so that I might become as He is.
If you deny the past, you’ll distort the future.
Decision determines destiny.
God isn’t your Father just because He is your Creator.
Holiness is not the way to Christ – Christ is the way to holiness.
If a person is concerned about committing the unpardonable sin, he hasn’t committed it.
If your religion hasn’t changed your life, you had better change your religion.
Confession is faith turned inside out.
Repentance made in the time of storm may sometimes mean nothing in the still waters.
God uses the ax the Devil sharpens.
Where God doesn’t rule, He will overrule.
Everything over my head is under His feet.
Evangelism is as much caught as it is taught.
God is never late or never in a hurry.
Jesus saves the best for last.
The church is not a showboat – it’s a battleship.
Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.
Someone has said,
“We buy things we don’t want with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve.
Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve.
Justice is God giving us what we do deserve.
You’ll see how rich you are when you add up everything you have that money can’t buy and how much you have that death can’t take away.
The only way to live above sin is to have a room over a pool hall.
People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.
You can give without loving but you can’t love without giving.
I have been saved from the penalty of sin.
I am being saved from the power of sin.
I will be saved from the possibility of sin.
Do your givin’ while you’re livin’,
Then you’re knowin’ where it’s goin’.
Some people sing like a frog with a man in its throat.
Repentance is a divine change of mind over my sin.
I’ve never seen a bride that wasn’t beautiful.
I have seen some that just made it.
Epitaph on tombstone of Mr. Solomon Peas –
This ain’t peas,
It’s just the pod,
Peas shelled out
And went to God.
There are two classes of people – saints and aint’s.
Satan is a decided fact, a destructive force and a defeated foe.
Death is a comma to a Christian - not a period.
Until you know the restraint of the Spirit, you’ll never know the release of the Spirit.
To know Him is to love Him.
To love Him is to trust Him.
To trust Him is to obey Him. To obey Him is to be blessed by Him.
We need gumption to function with unction.
Christ won’t transform my problem until I transfer it to Him.
Don’t drink from your own cup of pity.
“Fear not” is mentioned 365 times in the Bible – once for each day.
The stone wasn’t rolled away to let Him out.
It was rolled away to let the disciples in.
Eternity is a breath away.
It is better to be frightened into Heaven than lulled into Hell.
Difference between Christ and Anti-Christ – one gives me a number and the other gives me a name. When Jesus comes, will my name be called or will my number be up?
You always reap what you sow, you reap later than you sow and you reap more than you sow.
God supernaturally works through natural things.
God’s delays aren’t God’s denials.
Yesterday and tomorrow need to be taken out of my calendar of concern.
We are to have instant confession and continual obedience.
I’m not always what I think I am. I am what I think.
I’m either a soul winner or a backslider.
We’re not in a race – we’re in a pilgrimage.
Someone has said, “To dwell there above with those that we love will be glory.
To dwell here below with those that we know – well, that’s another story.”
Character is what we are in the dark.
Sin is an abuse of something that is good.
It’s just as bad to be a Baptist and a half than it is to be a half Baptist.
A Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an unbeliever with an argument.
The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
What I’m full of is what comes out when I’m jostled.
We’re not fighting for victory but from it.
You don’t need more until you claim what you already have.
The church is not a museum for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners.
He died to claim me as Lord. He lives to control me as Lord.
Faults in others I can see But praise the Lord, there’s none in me.
If we could know God in some way other than faith, the smart guys would have a head start.
God is America’s biggest threat and our only hope.
The Pastor quoted Jim Elliot who said,
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
The problem with Christians today is that nobody wants to kill them anymore.
I have all of God I want.
It’s my duty to defend, extend and attend my church.
I am the visible part of the invisible Christ.
He is the invisible part of the visible me.
God will have the last laugh.
Jesus was as much man as if He weren’t God and as much God as if He weren’t man.
Prayer is the greatest Christian privilege.
We can do more than pray after we’ve prayed
but we can do no more than pray until we’ve prayed.
There is no sin in my life but what prayer could have prevented.
When God opens the door of Heaven to bless us,
the Devil opens the windows of Hell to blast us.
Faith is divine in conception, unique in character, complete in unity.
Marriage is divine in establishment, supreme in relationship and unconditional in commitment.
Peace is not the subtraction of problems. It is the addition of power to meet those problems.
Jesus gave Himself for me so He could give Himself to me so He could live His life through me.
God makes me want to work and then He does it for me.
When we humble ourselves, God will exalt us.
When we exalt ourselves, God will humble us.
We should live on the sunny side of Hallelujah Avenue where Glory Road intersects.
God should be our first thought and not our last resort.
God’s promises are not mottos to hang on the wall –
they are checks to take to the bank.
Gambling is wrong because no one can win unless someone else loses.
Life is lived in depth – not length.
The greatest sin for a Christian is silence.
It’s not freedom to do what we want but it’s the power to do what we ought.
Works don’t lead us to Heaven - they follow us to Heaven.
He is the Christ of destiny, derision, decision, delight and disclosure.
The Holy Spirit is the substance of my life, strength of my life, secret of victory, seal of security, source of knowledge, and sustainer of faith.
Worship is doing everything in the name of Jesus and giving God thanks for it.
If you have the right to want something, you have the right to pray for it.
Sow a thought – reap a deed.
Sow a deed – reap a character.
Sow a character – reap a destiny.
The seven last words of churches today might be,
“We never did it that way before.”
His wisdom is our wisdom.
His joy is our joy.
His sorrow is our sorrow.
His friends are our friends.
His enemies are our enemies.
His purpose is our purpose.
His authority is our authority.
His future is our future.
When you can’t tell where a man stands, you already know.
God doesn’t love us because we’re valuable. We’re valuable because God loves us.
Someone has said if you can keep your head when those about you are losing theirs, it is a sign you don’t understand the situation.
Seen by the Pastor on a bumper sticker –
“Tithe if you love Jesus – anybody can blow their horn.”
Don’t be looking for grass when you should be praying for rain.
When we pray for rain, we ought to carry an umbrella.
Man is saved by faith alone but the faith that saves is never alone.
What you think and do should agree with what you say.
Salvation is getting God out of Heaven and into man.
He came as He was to be what He was.
He came as He did to do what He did.
Get rid of good things that become bad things when they keep us from doing what we ought to do.
If you marry a child of the Devil, you get the Devil for a father-in-law.
Faith is like a roll of film – it develops best in the dark.
Christ is my inheritance. Heaven is the safe deposit box.
If God didn’t mean what He said, why didn’t He say what He meant?
I’m tuned into A.M. or F.M. – the Anti-Christ message or the Father’s message.
Give God the chance to provide an item before you buy it.
A soulwinning Christian does more work by accident than social gospelers do intentionally.
If there is no Hell in the pulpits, there will be plenty in the streets.
Man needs more than soap and soup – he needs salvation.
Where my mind is, my feet will follow.
Hell is paved with good intentions.
Some people can’t find Christ for the same reason a thief can’t find a cop.
Anything God orders, He will pay the bill for.
Many things are opened by mistake and none more frequently than the mouth.
I don’t find the will of God. The will of God finds me and I respond to it.
Victory is not achieved by fighting – it is achieved by faith.
The prayer that gets to Heaven is the prayer that starts in Heaven.
Every child of God is a chip off the old Block.
I sin all I want to – I just don’t want to.
We will never be over until we are willing to be under.
Many of us talk a good religion.
We’re like the young man who called his girlfriend and said, “Sweetheart, you are so precious to me.
I love you so much I’d fight wild beasts to be by your side.
I’d tread on broken glass to hold your hand….
And if it doesn’t rain, I’m going to come over and see you tomorrow night.”
It is safer on the waves with Jesus, than in the boat without Him.
The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
You can’t be right with God and be wrong with a brother.
Worry is an admission that I’m putting something before God.
If you commit suicide you won’t lose your salvation but you will lose your inheritance.
Patience doesn’t grimly wait for the end – it radiantly waits for the dawn.
No man who is morally wrong has the ability to govern.
A woman is infinitely superior to a man at being a woman
and a man is infinitely superior to a woman at being a man.
Getting into the Bible prompts us to pray.
Intercession means you take another’s sorrow as your own sorrow.
Christ is the source, subject, standard, song, satisfaction and supply of my life.
When I cease to be better, I cease to be good.
What God says to me is more important than what I say to Him.
I accept His acceptance – faith
I accept myself – peace
I accept you – love
You accept me – fellowship
A church is to be stability in motion.
In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people.
In the New Testament, God has a people for His temple.
Nothing is politically right that is morally wrong.
Get with Him in the morning. Don’t tune your violin when the symphony is over.
Sin that used to slink down the back alley now struts down Main Street.
Plan your work and work your plan.
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
The Gospel is simply glorious and gloriously simple.
A Christian who doesn’t witness is a contradiction in terms.
We don’t have to agree. You have the right to be wrong if you want to.
I wouldn’t give up Christ for twenty-four hours for a million dollars because Christ might come back in those twenty-four hours and because I wouldn’t deny my Lord for all the money in the world.
Jesus couldn’t have proven Himself innocent without proving me guilty.
God is searching our hearts in order to supply our deepest need.
When I pray for the wrong thing, the Holy Spirit intercedes and makes a prayer request for me.
Don’t let your conscience be your guide unless God guides your conscience.
Atheists really mean they don’t want God, rather than that they believe there is no God.
If Christ is not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all.
Learn to glance at your problems and gaze at your Lord.
The great ability I need is availability.
Temptation is a legitimate hunger to satisfy a desire in an illegitimate way.
Tithing is not God’s way to raise money. It’s His way to grow Christians.
Jesus is the only One who ever has or ever will live the Christian life.
We don’t need isolation from evil – we need insulation from it.
Don’t put your faith in faith. That would be like looking at the telescope and not through it.
I should forgive you because He forgave me.
Self-pity is “ingrown eyeballitis.”
The difference between failure and success is the word “nevertheless.”
I’ve been to Calvary for conversion but have I been to Pentecost for power?
If you need encouragement, give it. If you need love, give it. Whatever you need, give it away.
The Holy Spirit never leaves a surrendered vessel unfilled or unused.
Receive the Word of God with reflective spirit –
Is there a promise to claim?
Is there a lesson to learn?
Is there a blessing to enjoy?
Is there a command to obey?
Is there a sin to avoid?
Is there a new thought to carry with me?
How to understand a Bible passage –
Read it through.
Think it clear.
Write it down.
Pray it in.
Live it out.
Pass it on.
We should want to be surprised by joy and not anticipate trouble.
We shouldn’t surrender to preach, teach or do anything. We should surrender to God.
The Holy Spirit is to a Christian what instinct is to an animal.
Work is to be the temple of my devotion and platform for my witness.
Sorrow is a clean wound. Guilt is a dirty wound. Time and the grace of God will heal sorrow.
When I exhaust all my possibilities, God will start to work.
We’re to be spiritually distinct and socially segregated.
The Devil has more power than I do but I have more authority.
Failure is not final.
He will supply what He demands.
The Christian life is my response to His ability.
Humility is knowing what I am, acknowledging that God made me
that way and giving Him glory for it.
The truest thing about me is what God says about me.
I’m not in competition with anyone to be myself.
I’m no better than my devotional life.
I read other books – the Bible reads me.
Some people are so arrogant they can strut sitting down.
God deals with the Devil’s crowd on credit and with Christians on a cash basis.
There is no one so bad they can’t be saved and no one so good they need not be saved.
Joy is important in winning people to Christ.
Don’t go around looking like an advance agent for the undertaker.
My fear of God should not be that He will put His hand on me but that He will take it off.
We’re to be brothers without being twins.
We’re not to believe something – we’re to receive Someone.
God’s throne is not a duplex.
Unless you’re providentially hindered,
you should come back tonight with a smile on your face,
Bible in your hand and friend by your side.
We’ve come to the end of another perfect day for it has ended in the house of the Lord.
We’ve met together, fellowshipped together, studied God’s Word together, laughed together, and wept together.
Now go home and put your head upon your pillow and sleep well,
“For He that watcheth over Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
