Adrianisms: Inspirational Quotes from Pastor Adrian Rogers
Pastor Rogers' quick wit and exceptional wisdom were tools that he used effectively to share the good news of the gospel. This created powerful quotes that became synonymous with Pastor Rogers and his teaching style.
Some favorite Adrianisms from Pastor Rogers
If you’ve ever heard a message by Adrian Rogers, then you are keenly aware of his quick wit and exceptional wisdom. But neither his wit nor his wisdom ever overpowered the message of the Gospel; rather, it complemented it.
These inspirational quotes were a tool—a gift—he used to effectively tell others of Jesus, to break down barriers, to bring the point from an intellection level to a personal one, and to diffuse even the most antagonistic arguments. Over the years they have become identifiable with, almost inseparable from, him. They have become “Adrianisms.”
Let’s look at the some of these Adrianisms along with life application, scripture reference, and related messages for each on this page.
You can also get a beautiful printed book of Adrianisms with an accompanying scripture card set in our store.
"Adrianisms" from Pastor Rogers
Adrianism: “Trials are sent by God to cause us to stand. Temptation to sin is sent by the devil to cause us to stumble. One is meant for our maturity. The other is meant for our misery.”
Life Application: Are you facing a trial or a temptation right now? Pray and pass the test of life. Count it as joy, build endurance, grow, and enrich your life as you look for God’s way out.
Related Scripture: James 1:2-4, 1 Corinthians 10:13
Related Message
Adrianism: “If your religion hasn’t changed your life, you’d better change your religion because you don’t have the Bible kind.”
Life Application: Do you need to work on listening more, talking less, and controlling your spirit? Pray for God’s guidance and wisdom as you practice tuning in, toning down and sweetening up today
Related Scripture: James 1:18-20
Related Message
Tune In, Tone Down and Sweeten Up
Listen NowAdrianism: "You ought to have a know-so, not a hope-so or a maybe-so salvation.”
Life Application: Take a second to evaluate your religion. Is it superficial or is it supernatural? Take some time today to repent of the superficial parts of your religion, and delight in the supernatural power of Jesus Christ
Related Scripture: James 1:26-27
Related Message
Superficial or Supernatural
Listen NowAdrianism: “Man is saved by faith alone but the faith that saves is never alone.”
Life Application: After examining the autopsy of a dead faith, can you say for certain that yours is alive? How are you living out your faith today through works? Show compassion to others today. Spend some time in prayer today, and share with someone how your faith has changed your life.
Related Scripture: James 2
Related Message
The Autopsy of a Dead Faith
Listen NowAdrianism: “The Lord came to make you a wise man, not a wise guy.”
Life Application: Do you have true wisdom from above? Does the wisdom in your heart urge you to obtain knowledge, that you may glorify God with your mind? 1 Peter 1:13 says, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” Take those long, flowing robes of indiscipline and laziness and carelessness and run for all your worth. Apply your mind, love God with all of your mind.
Related Scripture: James 3:13-18
Related Message
Wisdom, Wise, or Otherwise
Listen NowAdrianism: “The blood supplies the right to come but the Spirit supplies the power to come."
Life Application: Spend some time today in prayer.Ask God to teach you how to pray in the Spirit; let the Spirit minister to you, so that it might minister through you as you pray for others.
Related Scripture: James 4:5
Related Message
How to Pray in the Spirit
Listen NowAdrianism: “You can do wrong by doing wrong and you can also do wrong by not doing right.”
Life Application: Have you made some grand plans without the counsel of Almighty God? Submit everything to Him, today: your life, your plans, your dreams. Ask Him what He would have you do. And worship Him through your obedience.
Related Scripture: James 4:13-17
Related Message
The Sad Case of the Boastful Businessman
Listen NowAdrianism: “A joy is not a joy until you share it. Love is not love until you give it away and wealth is not really wealth until it is circulated.”
Life Application: What is it that you have that you're not investing for the Lord Jesus Christ? Get it out, use it. An unused well becomes stagnant. A tool that is not used will rust. A sponge that is not used will harden. It pays to serve Jesus. May we learn to live for eternity.
Related Scripture: James 5:1-8
Related Message
Is Your Pocket Book Converted?
Listen NowAdrianism: “The prayer that gets to heaven is the prayer that starts in heaven."
Life Application: Are you or a loved one facing an illness and need God’s supernatural healing? First, recognize the potential cause of the sickness: is it rooted in sin, or could it be for God’s loving purpose? Then, seek out Biblical healing. Call upon the elders of your church, let them anoint your head with oil, and gather a prayer team. If it is God’s will to heal you, let it be done!
Related Scripture: James 5:10-15
Related Message
The Bible and Bodily Healing
Listen NowAdrianism: “The man who can kneel before God can stand before any other man.”
Life Application: When is the last time you prayed for your friends with fervency? Start today. Get alone withGod, in holy reverence; knees to the earth, with passion and persistence. Praying for them is the strongest influence you could have on them
Related Scripture: James 5:16
Related Message
How to Pray for Friends and Influence People
Listen NowAdrianism: “Christianity is not truly a religion. It is a vital relationship with Jesus Christ."
Life Application: Are you loyal to the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you a faithful Bride of Christ? Don’t flirt with false religion; be true to Jesus Christ.
Related Scripture: Revelation 17
Related Message
Beauty and the Beast
Listen NowAdrianism: “You will never have your deepest heart thirst satisfied until you’re satisfied with Jesus.”
Life Application: Are you ready for Jesus’s return? Have you made the choice to come to Him? Do you believe the infallible Word of God? Do you have that hope? Consider these things
Related Scripture: Revelation 22:6-21
Related Message
The Lamb Has Overcome
Listen NowAdrianism: “God is the God that answers by fire, by power, by grace, by love.”
Life Application: Have you ever limited the Lord’s work in your life? Have you chained Him with unwillingness, unconcern, unreasonableness, cleanliness, or unbelief? Examine your heart and your life today and choose to unleash God’s limitless power in your own life
Related Scripture: Genesis 18:13-14
Related Message
Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?
Listen NowAdrianism: “The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.”
Life Application: Are you at peace with God, or are you at war with God? Tell someone about your faith. The days are growing dark... gloriously dark.
Related Scripture: Revelation 19:11-21
Related Message
The Signposts on the Road to Armageddon
Listen NowAdrianism: “The Gospel is not something to save civilization from wreckage. The Gospel is God’s plan to save men from the wreckage of civilization.”
Life Application: What does this mean for us now? Our major responsibility in this day and age is to prepare men for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ by the preaching of the Gospel
Related Scripture: Revelation 20:1-10
Related Message
The Golden Age
Listen NowAdrianism: “Pessimists go around and see a difficulty in every opportunity. But a Christian sees an opportunity in every difficulty.
Life Application: Are you or your church experiencing some growing pains? Embrace it; turn your problems into possibilities for growth. Acknowledge the issues and pray for God-given solutions
Related Scripture: Acts 6:1-7
Related Message
How to Turn Problems into Possibilities
Listen NowAdrianism: "Jesus is not a good way to heaven. Jesus is not the best way to heaven. Jesus is the only way to heaven.”
Life Application: Do you know that Jesus is alive? Does your life reflect this? Stay in the presence of Jesus. Like an iron in the fire, let there be a holy boldness about you. Tell someone about Jesus today
Related Scripture: Acts 4:1-20
Related Message
The Conquest
Listen NowAdrianism: “A Christian is not just somebody who has become nice; he’s become new. He doesn’t just turn over a new leaf; he receives a new life."
Life Application: Have you been made new in Christ? Does your life show that you have a new Lord, life, liberty, love, and labor?
Related Scripture: Acts 9:17-22
Related Message
All Things New
Listen NowAdrianism: “The root of all sin is refusing to bow the knee to your rightful king."
Life Application: All sin is due to be punished. Who will bear the punishment... you or Jesus? Today, ask God for His forgiveness of your sins. Thank Jesus today for wearing the crown of thorns. Bow the knee to the rightful King.
Related Scripture: Matthew 27:26-31
Related Message
The Crown
Listen NowAdrianism: “When there is pride in your heart you are a sitting duck for the devil. Pride, more than anything else, makes you putty in the devil’s hands.”
Life Application: We are saved by grace, but one of these days we will face the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for how we stewarded our lives. If you’re a child of God, sin in your life is more serious than sin in the life of an unsaved person. Be careful that you do not lie to the Holy Spirit.
Related Scripture: Acts 4:36-37
Related Message
God's Warning to Pretenders
God's Warning to Pretenders (1239)Adrianism: “There is always joy when there is revival."
Life Application: Have you been ensnared by the dangers of false religion? Do you need to repent of the sins of the spirit? Repent; stand on the word of God
Related Scripture: Acts 8:5-24
Related Message
The Devil's Religion
Listen NowAdrianism: “This world will never settle the sin question if it ignores the Son question.”
Life Application: God wants us to be saved so much that He gave many illustrations of salvation before thefullness of time. Do you understand the story, and believe it?
Related Scripture: Genesis 37
Related Message
Joseph: A Portrait of Jesus
Listen NowAdrianism: “The only thing we carry to heaven is what we've given away.”
Life Application: Would you consider yourself to be a church member of your pastor’s dreams? Are you anencourager like Barnabas—a load lifter, friend finder, bridge builder, disciple developer and afailure fixer?
Related Scripture: Acts 4:36-37
Related Message
The Church Member of My Dreams
Listen NowAdrianism: “The man molds the idol and then the idol molds the man."
Life Application: Do you have any idols in your life that need to be dealt with? Repent and follow God with awholly devoted heart.
Related Scripture: Acts 17:16-18
Related Message
Three Challenges to the Cross
Listen NowAdrianism: “One of the greatest tests of life is this: Not how you react when you’re punished for doing wrong, but how you react when you’re persecuted for doing right."
Life Application: Are you in a season when nothing seems to make sense? Remember, as Adrian Rogers says, “Serve Jesus and never quit. Give Him your heart... your life. And don’t ever lose your dream.
Related Scripture: Acts 27:20
Related Message
When Nothing Seems to Make Sense
Listen NowAdrianism: “A problem is really an opportunity in disguise"
Life Application: Visualize until God gives you a burden; agonize until you know that you've confessed your sins and made a commitment; then organize and get to work. Ask God for His permission, provision and protection.
Related Scripture: Nehemiah 1:1-3
Related Message
How to Turn Your Problems into Possibilities
Listen NowAdrianism: “The same God who has called you is the God who’s equipped you"
Life Application: Are there fallen spiritual walls in your life? Let us arise and build! Start in your own heart, in your own life.
Related Scripture: Nehemiah 2:11-20
Related Message
Let Us Arise and Build
Listen NowAdrianism: “The devil will bring you down to keep you there. The Holy Spirit will bring you down to lift you even higher"
Life Application: Do you have a relationship with Jesus that is built on the Word of God? Until you know Jesus, you won’t understand His Word. And until you understand His Word, you will never truly live
Related Scripture: Nehemiah 8:1
Related Message
Building on the Word of God
Listen NowAdrianism: “We’re known not only by the friends that we make. We’re also known by the enemies that we make"
Life Application: Our reaction to ridicule is clearly outlined in Nehemiah 4:1.
- Practically consider the ridicule.
- Prayerfully speak your concern to God.
- Get to work!
Related Scripture: Nehemiah 4:1-6
Related Message
Reacting to Ridicule
Listen NowAdrianism: “It costs to love, but it’s worth it to love."
Life Application: Are you dealing with discouragement today? As Adrian Rogers says, “Be sober; be vigilant. Let's stay on our knees and keep our face in the book. Let's keep loving one another and be deathly afraid of sin. Let's keep on the whole armor of God. Let's not be careless, not play loose; let's stay together. Let's love, let's believe God, and together God’s people will see great things done.
Related Scripture: Nehemiah 4:7
Related Message
Dealing with Discouragement
Listen NowAdrianism: “Prayer is not bending God's will to fit our will, but prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it."
Life Application: What do you do when your prayer seems unanswered? Check to make sure you are seeking the glory of God. Then pray without ceasing.
Related Scripture: Luke 1:13
Related Message
When Prayer Seems Unanswered
Listen NowAdrianism: “You don’t say prayers... you pray prayers"
Life Application: Adrian Rogers says, “We don’t bring our shabbiness to God. When we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus.” When you pray today, call Him Father; express His nature, expect His nurture and exalt His name.
Related Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13
Related Message
When We Say "Father"
Listen NowAdrianism: “God wants for you what you would want for yourself if you had enough sense to want it."
Life Application: Have you surrendered to the will of God? As you pray today, consider praying this simple, yet powerful, declaration: “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done."
Related Scripture: Matthew 6:9-10
Related Message
The Coming Kingdom of Christ
Listen NowAdrianism: “Prayer is the way that God gets His will done on earth."
Life Application: When you pray for God’s daily provision, are your priorities aligned with His? Have you asked for His providence? Are you prepared to work for what you’re asking for? Are you thankful for what He’s given you today?
Related Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13
Related Message
How to Pray for Our Daily Bread
Listen NowAdrianism: “Forgetting is never the means of forgiveness. It is the result of forgiveness"
Life Application: Do you have guilt and bitterness in your life? Have you repented and accepted the forgiveness of God? Have you forgiven others?
Related Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15
Related Message
The Freedom of Forgiveness
Listen NowAdrianism: “Christianity is not a legal relationship, it is a love relationship."
Life Application: Is your quiet time with God meaningful to you? Have you properly prepared and set yourself up for a fruitful time with the Lord? Consider these steps today, and talk to God.
Related Scripture: Psalm 119:97
Related Message
How to Have a Meaningful Quiet Time
ListenAdrianism: “God does not destroy evil... He defeats evil."
Life Application: Are you going through a season of suffering? Remember the bondage of yesterday’s curse and the liberty of tomorrow’s conquest so that you can know the hope of today’s comfort
Related Scripture: Romans 8:18-23
Related Message
How to Make Sense of Your Suffering
Listen NowAdrianism: “I can teach truth, but only the Word of God can impart truth."
Life Application: Have you learned these three things you cannot learn in school? Let the Holy Spirit minister to you and impart these things in your heart.
- "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"
- The Holy Spirit of God teaches us that our only hope is Jesus Christ.
- Only the Holy Spirit can teach us that Satan’s cause is a lost cause. There’s no contest out there: truth is mightier than error, love is stronger than hate, holiness is higher than sin. And our Lord has won the victory.
Related Scripture: John 16:8
Related Message
Three Things You Cannot Learn in School (Audio)
Listen NowThree Things You Cannot Learn in School (Video)
Watch NowAdrianism: “To be lost is to be minus God."
Life Application: We are temples of God. Every day is a holy day. Every place is a sacred place. Considering your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost of God, how are you living differently? Are there sins you need to repent of?
Related Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:19
Related Message
My Heart-God's Home
Listen NowAdrianism: “Your light is to glow, not to glare; they are to see the light, not the lamp."
Life Application: Understanding that we are not called to a rat race, but a pilgrimage, there four things to remember when you go to work tomorrow:
- Don’t brag; do away with self-righteousness. Your light is to glow, not to glare.
- Don't nag; no one has ever been talked down into a relationship with Jesus.
- Don’t lag; carry your part of the load... in fact, work harder than anybody else.
- Don’t sag; uphold your Christian faith in the workplace.
Related Scripture: Ephesians 6:5
Related Message
Turning the Rat Race into a Pilgrimage (Audio)
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