Andy Stanley Quotes

The best sermon is preached by the minister who has a sermon to preach and not by the man who has to preach a sermon.

I used to tell people when I preached at a church, 'If you want a great sermon, be a great audience.'

All Scripture is equally inspired, but not all Scripture is equally applicable or relevant to every stage of life.

What we realize is number one, people want to know what the Bible says. In their heart, they want to know the Bible but it is just hard to understand the big picture of it. And number two, they want to know where they plug in.

Preaching is the most original thing I've ever done. There's nothing familiar about it. You have to be brave.

I want to help people understand how to study the Scriptures with other people, to give them an overview of Scripture and assume that by understanding the Scriptures better, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the right stories, the right teachings.

I am no theologian. I am a layman. I am among those who are preached to, and who listen. It is not for me to preach. I should not willingly forego being a listener, a man who reads the Gospels and then listens to what others say that our Lord meant. But sometimes a listener speaks out, and listens to his own voice.

One thing that helps to stretch me is to listen to other preacher's sermons. Every year, I will listen to at least ten other preachers, both to hear God speak to me, and also to evaluate their preaching to see what I can learn and how I can improve my own preaching.

I want people to hear what I have to say, and I want to be able to get a lot of points across.

I found that there were things that God could reveal to me that I could never get myself physically.

If you want to convey a message, you must do so in an enjoyable format.

I want to be a good steward and make sure what's in my heart is what God wants, and then once it's done and released, at that point it's up to God and what he does on the back end.

One of my passions is helping people understand the Word. I think the most important thing we should be thinking about is who created us and how we were created to live. So I thought that I want to spend a lot of my time actually studying God's Word.

I'm not a pastor. I'm not a man of the cloth, but I have my own calling.

There are different pastors that are good at different things, but one of the things I love is everything I do as a pastor is centered around helping people to understand what God has said in his word, so I don't have to come up with a bunch of new stuff to say.

The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

I just wanted to get the message that God had put into my heart into another form, because I knew the print media would reach a different group of people.

With the gift of the Holy Ghost comes the ability to develop a powerfully sensitive capacity to make the right choices. Cultivate that gift. As the Lord has said, that is accomplished by consistent, righteous living. As you enhance your capacity to sense the direction of that infallible influence, you will avoid disappointment, discouragement, and even tragedy.

Read the Bible for the salvation of your soul, not the solution to your problem.

When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, "It is talking to me, and about me".

All Christians have the Spirit of Christ, but not all Christians have the mind of Christ.

Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.

If we once get above our Bibles and cease making the written Word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.

Here's the grey rule: embrace things that lead you closer to Jesus, and reject things that lead you away from Jesus.

Jesus said, 'Go ... and make disciples,' not converts to your opinions.