Posted on 08/16/2008 7:07:42 AM PDT by Gamecock
If you ever want to see what Rick Warren's vision for Purpose-Driven Preaching looks like in practice, then all you would need to do is watch or listen to Saddleback's sermons on-line. Over the past couple of years the sermons preached at Saddleback have covered such topics as Knowing Your Purpose, Thirty Days to a No Regrets Life, Leaving a Legacy, Deepening Relationships that Matter, Setting Financial Goals, Managing Your Time, Learning the Ancient Secrets From God's Word for a Less Stressed, More Relaxed, and Lighter, Freer Lifestyle, The Secrets of Staying Power - How to Always Give Yourself Fully to the Work of the Lord, and Breaking Free from Desperate Hidden Lives.
Every one of these sermons was teeming with 'good advice' and practical 'how to' information that could be applied to your life the same day that you listened. All of these sermons were heavy with God's law but sadly had nothing to offer me. For you see, my problem can't be fixed with 'good advice' and practical 'how to' applications because I am a wicked and sinful man.
It is too late for me to have a 'no regrets life'. Even though I have been a Christian for nearly all of my life, I have committed terrible sins for which I have deep regrets.
As for managing my time, I have struggled with procrastination my entire life. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have squandered my time doing unimportant and wasteful things when I should have been working on a project, doing homework, spending time with my wife, playing with my kids, visiting my grandparents etc. The correct way to describe me when it comes to time management is selfish. Even that doesn’t even correctly describe the depths of the ugliness of my sin when it comes to time management. In order to rein this sin in I’ve been to Franklin Covey time management seminars, read books and attended classes. Everything that I’ve tried has petered out over time. Overall, there has been some improvement but even when I am doing what I should be doing in my heart I want to be doing something else.
When it comes to financial management I have sinned so terribly that I deserve God’s wrath and punishments both in this life and the life to come AND I AM A CHRISTIAN.
I don’t need good advice, I need good news.
Am I going to burn in hell for all of the sins that I’ve committed? Can God forgive me for all of these sins? Will God forgive me for them or is there a limit to God’s grace? What if there is a limit and I have exceeded it? I’ve already asked God to forgive me for these sins tens of thousands of times. Can God forgive me the next ten thousand times I ask him to forgive me?
I am sick with sin. I don’t need good advice I need good news.
Don’t even get me started on the other areas discussed in these sermons. I am so depraved and sinful that I don’t even know what it means to be heavenly minded and prioritize my life accordingly. Yet, I read the Bible through several times a year. My priorities are so far out of whack compared to what God would have them be that they could only be described as wickedly selfish. As for offering forgiveness to other people, that is always so difficult. My first inclination when someone has wronged me is to knock their block off. But, according to God’s perfect law, that inclination is sinful and murderous. As for living as if it were my last day’s on earth, you’ve got to be kidding me. I am a selfish and wickedly sinful man. My obedience is pathetically weak and shot through with sin. If I were told that I had 30 days to live then the ONLY thing I could count on is sinning for 30 more days.
I don’t need good advice, I need good news.
I confess that I do NOT love God with all of my heart, I HAVE taken the Lord’s name in vain, I have NOT kept the Sabbath, I have NOT honored and obeyed my parents, I HAVE murdered, I HAVE committed adultery, I HAVE stolen, I HAVE lied and I HAVE coveted everything that belongs to my neighbor including his wife, his car, his clothes, and is entertainment center.
All of these sins I have committed since becoming a Christian. All of these sins I have committed THIS WEEK and every time I break even one of the commandments the Bible says that I am guilty of breaking the ENTIRE law.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
I am sick with sin through and through. I don’t need good advice, I need good news.
I am desperate because God’s word says that I deserve His wrath, punishment and hell for all eternity for the sins that I have committed and I am terrified because I know that God is just.
I don’t need good advice right now. I need good news.
Telling me to repent, change my mind and be more obedient just won’t cut it. I already know and believe that all of these things that I have done and continue to do are sinful and wrong and contrary to what the one true and holy God expects and demands from me. It's too late, the cow is already out of the barn for me. I can’t go back and undo these sins and ‘trying harder’ and 'doing better' is just not going to be enough.
So I don’t need ‘good advice’ right now.
Does Rick Warren or any Purpose-Driven Preacher have any good news to offer me?
I believe it was Machen who said "I have heard your exhortations, but do you have any good news."
Author Chris Rosebrough of Extreme Theology has been a frequent guest on the “Issues, Etc.” radio/internet program.
Why does John Osteen keep coming to mind? I’m all for a “positive” message but doesn’t a “preacher” have an obligation to preach “The Word of God” once in awhile?
What’s with all this “motivationsl speaker” stuff? Well, I guess, now days, that’s how you build a 30,000 member congregation.
Yeah, nowadays you teach psychobabble and throw the word “God” in it and you are all of a sudden a “Preacher”.
I think that you mean Joel Osteen. Best put any pie in the sky preacher out out your mind and life.
It is sad... plain old sad that Rick Warren is now preaching a social/ self motivational gospel. He has a huge following and it is like a false shepherd herding sheep down a path of destruction.
Bring on the Gospel, of Jesus Christ dying to save us from what we couldn’t do ourselves!!!!The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The brother has confessed his sins, and that’s good. He’s confessed them to us, the readers, and that’s part of the healing of his soul (James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much).
But the real good news he’s searching for is that if he will confess directly to Christ, and mean it, there is wonderful forgiveness, and the power to move on to the next test (John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness).
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more”. Did she? Nobody knows. It is unlikely; for, as the writer pointed, we are fundamentally flawed in the flesh. But Jesus’ words still represent the benchmark. And the best news in that regard is stated by Paul, who said in Philippians: “He that has begun a good work in you will perform it to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ”; and, in I Thessalonians 5: “Faithful is He that calls you, who also will do it”. Ah, there’s an abundance of good news today. However, I’m not a so-called purpose-driven preacher; I’m not that easily categorized.
Greetings Brother,
Thanks for posting this.
Earlier this summer when Chris and Bob Dewaay went to meet with the PDL pope, there was something about Rick’s schmoozy ways that disturbed Chris, and knocked him offline for a few weeks. I was glad to see him return.
He has a new radio station
http://www.live365.com/stations/crosebrough33
or
http://www.piratechristianradio.com/
and here is the link to his websites...
Fighting for the Faith
http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/
and A Little Leaven
http://www.alittleleaven.com/2008/08/the-fruit-of-pu.html
5 Solas to you!
***Ah, there’s an abundance of good news today.***
There is indeed. But it isn’t in all churches.
Oops! My bad. John Osteen was Joel’s dad and a pretty good preacher.
Both actually. John Osteen was Joel's father, and one of the 'lesser lights' of the prosperity preachers (CopelandHagin, et al)
Here’s the good news for the Christian Sinner:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I see what he refers to as PDP, and “Inclusiveness”, as the two major corruptions of God’s Word in play today.
Question One, for the First Sabbath:
What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I, with body and soul, both in life and death am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from the power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation; and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live for him.
I am just WAITING for Warren to give Obama a free pass on everything tonight at the forum. I hope you’ll be able to see it where you are.
I'm not sure this could ever happen. I suspect that with them it's not the Bible but themselves that is front-and-center.
Rick is loves the press. He says he lives on 10% of what he takes in. This just increases the that 10%.
For about 5 minutes I watched Rick Warren talking to Obama. Rick’s question was how do we stop sex trafficing in the world? I would have thought he would have understood the root cause and how to correct that. Obama certainly doesn’t have the answer.
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