True knowledge of the true God – John Macarthur

I am listening to this sermon ( true knowledge of the true God.) right now…

John Macarthur:

”In fact, like the Greeks, we have placed an idol in the place of the true God and we ignorantly worship him. I suppose the question can be asked, “Has God created man and revealed Himself, or has man created God and revealed himself?” I think the latter would be pretty much true of the popular God of our country and even of the so-called church. God has become a kind of projection of our own minds, of our own will, of our own tolerances. We have designed a God that is comfortable for us. We have violated Psalm 50:21 which says, “You thought that I was all together like you?” Well indeed that’s the case….”

Read the whole sermon here

”Improving the Gospel”

I am reading ”Proclaiming a Cross-centered Theology”, the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference, in a book!

A great book! As you can see in this short excerpt from page 105, Mark Dever on the ”Social Gospel”:

”May the local church be involved in good works? Yes, but it should be as a reflection of and an attraction to this gospel of Jesus Christ. If alleviating material poverty is taken as a responsibility of the congregation because doing so is part of the gospel, then many younger Christians may choose to serve there and not in evangelism. This could well be the choice of less mature Christians, more nominal Christians, those who would rather do things that the world around them recognizes and values instead of the evangelism that the world rejects and scorns. Your congregation may well continue to do both for a season, but I fear that those who follow you will not. Such a social gospel will slowly but surely lose its supernatural awkward corners and be smoothed to be acceptable to sinners all around. It’s the story of countless churches in our own land. Walter Rauschenbsch and his early twentieth-century followers are instructive for us here. Evangelism will never be appreciated by the world. It is our special task, pastors, to protect the priority of evangelism.”

I love that!

Here, if you are still wondering who Walter Rauschenbsch is…

”Yes, but they are well-intentioned…”

This morning, I was thinking about this, you know when you share the Gospel with non-believers and they give you their idea and opinion on God, Origins and all of that. Often, the question of sincerity will come up, they say that if they have a sincere heart, God will understand them and save them because they were sincere…

We would answer that we’re not questionning their sincerity but their beliefs. We tell them that they should know and accept the truth of the Gospel of Jesus-Christ.

We proclaim the truth of the Word. We share what God teaches in the Bible and what He has done in our lives.

We do not leave them thinking that as long as they are sincere they will go to heaven when they die.

That would be false and unbiblical…

I hope that this is still true of evangelism but I am not even sure…

Notice the shift in evangelism in the past few years? Diluted ”feel-good” Gospel or, sometimes, no Gospel at all, business-like churches led by ”CEO Pastors”, questionable doctrines and methods, ect…

And let’s say you notice some of these issues and try to share your concerns, what happens?

They listen? They change? They tell you that they want to focus on people and not doctrine? They tell you that they are missional and don’t have time to argue about methods?

In other words, truth of the Word is not important anymore, because they mean good…

But, do they really mean good when they do evangelism without sharing the Gospel and, in the end, people are not exposed to the Truth of the Word and they don’t get saved because they do not hear the Word of Christ? ( Rom. 10)

They are well-intentioned…  But that’s not the point…

My favorite Preacher is Chris Rock

If we could teach Chris Rock to insert a couple of Bible verses in his show, we would have the perfect preacher….  Lots of jokes, entertaining, curse words, F-Word, cleverness, funnny, everything you need…  Simply great!

He is nothing like the old typical ”Outdated/irrelevant” preacher we use to have in our churches…

Ask Chris Rock to read a text from Scriptures and then on with the show. Have him say a ”God bless you, have a good week at work” at the end and… Voila! You have a relevant sermon and something that seekers will finally enjoy at your church!

I hope this doesn’t sound too familiar. Most important, I hope that you’re not shouting ”Amen! That’s what we need!”

I am afraid that this is becoming the standard in more and more churches. A Short funny sermon is more preferable than a long, more ”conservative” one…

Of course, we’ll read a text from the Bible and pray at the beginning to make our sermon ”biblical” but what we say after ”Amen” has almost nothing to do with the text we just read…

Instead of preaching and exposing the Word of God, we preach… Actually, we don’t preach. Preaching is not considered an important part of the service anymore.

We love worship, fellowship with others, ect…. But preaching?… ”Please, can’t we keep singing instead?”

Oh! You’re thinking ”I just want people to understand what I say when I preach.” or  ”I want to contextualize the Word.” or ”If they don’t understand that old Christian stuff they won’t believe and get saved”

First, it is the work of the Holy spirit to convince ( John 16:8)

Second, faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ ( Rom. 10:17)

Third, unbelievers don’t understand the Word, because they cannot. The natural man understands not the things of God because they are foolishness to him. ( 1 Cor. 2:14… Read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2 for a better understanding of this)

It takes a miracle from the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word for someone to get saved…

Please stop asking yourself ”What can I say to convince them?”…. Not your job… Your job: Preach the Word!

”This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Cor. 2:13-14

”Capture attention by adding sermon features” – Rick Warren

From Pastors.com:

”That’s why I use what I call sermon features, which are special segments you add into your sermon to capture the attention of your listeners. I’ve found you can hold people’s attention much longer when you interweave a variety of features into your sermon.

Here are a few of the sermon features we often use at Saddleback:

• Testimonies: When someone hears me say it, they may dismiss me as the paid spokesman. But when they hear it through a testimony, it’s from a satisfied customer. For non-believers, the personal testimony has much more credibility.
• Skits or dramas: If your church has a drama group, this would be a great way to break up your sermons. It also gets more people involved in your worship service.
• Interviews: You can use interviews three different ways. They can be live, by video, or by telephone. Obviously live would be best, but each of these can work well. A “man on the street” is another great option.
• Film clips: There are several good sites on the Web that can provide you with illustrations from movies on most topics. Using movies is a great way to speak the language of your listeners.
• Songs: At Saddleback we call this the point and play service. It’s a regular part of our Christmas and Easter services.  It breaks the service into smaller segments and we’ve found it maintains high interest. Sometimes the songs are performed by a soloist or a choir, and other times we sing congregational songs. Putting a song at the end of each point often adds a powerful emotional punch that helps push the truth past any defense mechanisms and into a deeper level with the congregation.
• Tag-team preaching: When we do this, I’ll either share a point with another pastor or trade points back and forth. Another example, my wife and I have done messages together on marriage and other topics. Sometimes just having a different voice shakes things up. ”

I understand what Pastor Warren means but I think we open the door to no preaching at all.

If you think about it, the ”boring” part of such a sermon would be the actual sermon…

Donald Miller ( Blue like jazz) ask a similar question on his blog… He actually goes a step further… How about no preaching at all for a certain period of time…

As if preaching was optional or something that ”Theologians” or ”conservatives” made up…

Rick Warren tries to ”capture the attention” and Donald Miller took the next step…

Let’s keep in mind what the Bible says on preaching:

”The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”  – 1 Peter 4:7-11

”It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” – Eph. 4:11-13

”Preach the Word…” – 2 Tim. 4:2

Where ”Contextualization” and ”being relevant” can lead you…

I came across this post from Phil Johnson this weekend.  You’ll see, it is scary and very sad at the same time…

I am not the biggest fan of Mark Driscoll, because of his ”in your face” and almost vulgar behavior in the pulpit… But this, it is far worst, at least what is coming is far worst than that, if we believe what Pastor Sam D. Kim is saying…

I’ll admit that what we see in this clip is worst than what we’ve heard so far from Driscoll. Or is it?

But I have to believe that what brought Sam D. Kim to that point is a motivation to become relevant and that he must have started where, or somewhere near, Driscoll is.

By the way… Using the ”f-word” won’t convince anyone that they sinned against God and that they need Christ for their salvation…

More thoughts on Rick Warren’s ”Preaching like Jesus”

Rick Warren believes that ”Christlike preaching is always attractive” I think that idea is foreign to Scriptures. I commented on that earlier

Also, being a Christian is not something attractive…

”Dear friends, do not be surprised at the PAINFUL TRIAL you are SUFFERING, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate IN THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are INSULTED because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. IF YOU SUFFER, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However,IF YOU SUFFER AS A CHRISTIAN, do not be ashamed, but PRAISE GOD THAT YOU BEAR THAT NAME. ” – 1 Peter 4:12-16
We’ll suffer and be persecuted for living like Christ, but our teaching on the Christian life and on Christ will be attractive??

In Acts 5:28-34a,

”We gave you STRICT ORDERS NOT TO TEACH IN THIS NAME, he said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.Peter and the other apostles replied: “WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When THEY HEARD THIS, they were FURIOUS and WANTED TO PUT THEM TO DEATH. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel…”

I guess they were not attracted that much…Good thing Gamaliel was there….

In Acts 17, Paul was in Athens, we read on verses 32 and 33:
”When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, SOME OF THEM SNEERED, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council…”

Is Christlike preaching always attractive? I should think it is not… We have to ignore too many passages from the Bible in order to say something like that…

You’re not even a Christian…

Here’s John Macarthur on Doug Pagitt:

”He’s not a pastor; he’s not a Christian; that’s not a church. When you call yourself a Christian and you call yourself a pastor and you say you have a church, all of that has to be—to be legitimate—defined biblically. And if it’s not, that’s not a church and you’re not a pastor and you’re not even a Christian.” Read the rest…

I certainly agree on Pastor Macarthur on this one. If you are going to call yourself a christian, you have to define what you mean biblically.

You can pastor a christian church only if the Word of God is your only authority and if Christ is the Lord and Savior of it.

Moving away from that is, indeed, very dangerous…

Ask yourself, is it the Word of God that we’re studying at church? or a ”christian book” labelled as a ”tool”…

Ask yourself, are we proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus-Christ and the salvation through Him alone? Or was that Gospel replaced with social works as a mean to ”reach people”

Ask yourself, when preaching ( or listening), are you exposing the full truth of the Word? Or did you ignore passages that are more difficult for the hearers, because you didn’t want to ”offend” the congregation?

This is serious stuff, you might see your church moving from ”Christian church” to just being a ”church” and then, eventually, to just be a ”group of people” with no Christ, no Lord, no salvation, no Bible…. No God…

”Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” – Heb. 10:23

Rick Warren’s preaching ”like Jesus”

I read this article from Rick Warren The title ”A primer on preaching like Jesus” is a strong one and we should have great expectations from such a title.

Pastor Rick begins with verses that shows that the crowds were reacting positively to Jesus’ teachings. Suposedly because Jesus was addressing the needs of the People. He quotes Matthew 7:28 but doesn’t include verse 29 which says:

”When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” – Mat. 7:28-29

Please, feel free to look up any references in the article and see if any have to do with Jesus’ cleverness or hability of addressing the people’s felt needs… Actually, do it, just to be sure, you get the point of this post…

Pastor Warren continues with Luke 4:18-19, again he silences the verse 29 and 30 ( I am guessing, it would not help to prove his point…) they go like this :

”They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” – Luke 4:29-30

Talk about connecting to people!

Then, he continues the article and is basically saying that our message should be attractive to unbelievers. We have to tell them ”good news” and ”connect with their felt needs”.

A note here, after he started the article with a questionnable use of Scripture as we saw earlier, he doesn’t use Scripture except for one other occurence where he quotes Ephesians 4:29, in part of course… Here’s what he says : ”Ephesians 4:29 says, …[speak] only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Notice that who we are speaking to determines what we are to say (this has nothing to do with compromising the message and everything to do with understanding the needs of your listeners).”

Here’s Ephesians 4:29 in full:

”Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” – Eph. 4:29

Here, in the context of Ephesians 4, we’re talking about christian living and how we ought to act as christians. It has nothing to do with preaching…

Again, you noticed that quoting half a verse was convenient for Rick Warren…

The rest of the article is pretty much a psychological approach to preaching… Actually, the complete article is…

One last quote from Pastor Warren: ”Unfortunately, it seems that many pastors determine the content of their messages by what they feel they need to say rather than what the people need to hear.”

That is completely false… Preaching what you feel and preaching what the audience needs to hear are two wrong approach to preaching. The responsibility of the preacher is to speak for God, to preach His Word, to expose it, to explain it. Preachers are not called to meet the felt needs.

Jesus spoke with authority the truth about Himself and God. The Apostles in the book of Acts preached the Gospel, They preached that God created the universe, that Christ is the Messiah and that He is the only way to God. In the Epistles, we see a call to obey God’s Word and to preach it faithfully.

You’ll never read the Apostle Paul say something like ”make sure you understand the felt needs of your congregation”

Honestly, I have a hard time finding anything biblical in what Rick Warren is saying…

Is Rick Warren my pastor?

Did anyone notice how Pastor Warren is literally taking control of thousands of churches around the world. Books and booklets are being bought by the thousands, ”Purpose Driven” DVD are being watched in prayer meetings in churches and houses around the world!

Over 30 Millions copies of the Purpose Driven Life were sold worldwide!

They are everywhere. Translated in many language. Here in Canada, we have it in french and a friend of mine goes to a church where they watch a DVD for their bible study…

I read the book and many reviews on it and I must say, there are a lot of different opinions on Pastor Warren.

First thing I want to make clear, I believe that Rick Warren loves the Lord and His Word and that he loves the church. He wants to see as many person as possible commit to the Lord and walk in His ways. I believe that’s what he aims for.

I, personally, do not agree with everything that Pastor Warren writes or say and that’s normal, I think. My goal is not to writes a review or a critique about Rick warren or his ministry. My concern is more about the churches that use those books and teachings, a couple of questions come to mind:

- Why are they using them?
- What is their goal?
- Why is it not the pastor of the church that prepares the bible study?
- Do they accept everything that Rick Warren says without questioning it?
- Is church growth their goal?
- Do they want to have ”great stats” for small groups attendance?
- Is it because pastors don’t have time to prepare an adequate sermon?
- Is it because it ”worked” in other churches?

We should ask ourselves these questions and and be really honest in our answers. We also need to remember one thing, nothing will replace the preaching and study of the Bible (along with prayers and the work of the Holy Spirit in the hart believers) when it comes to growing in the Lord and being transformed by Him. No book can replace the Word of God.

May we love the Word of God more and more everyday…

”All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17

”Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
- 2 Timothy 4:2