Rick Warren
This session made me incredibly excited for the learning track I’m in on “Preaching for life change.” His princples for preaching are in bold.
Here are some notes from Rick’s part:
- What do we do when God’s word seems to be returning void? It isn’t the message, it has to do with the way we are delivering it.
- The basis for radical preaching is the great commission
- The goal of radical preaching is obedience
- It is not enough to know the word of God
- The more knowledge you have, actually increases your judgment
- Knowing the word of God is not the same thing as doers
- Teach them to obey
- 2 Timothy 3: The purpose of the Bible is action
- The result of radical preaching is a serving disciple
- Our problem is we are teaching too much, because people tend to think that when they hear it they know it
- We don’t give people enough time to do what we tell them to do
- It is not enough to apply it personally, you also have to answer the question, “What does this mean to us as a church?”
- Preaching should lead to action, obedience, practice
- Jesus and every NT preacher preached for action
- You only believe the parts of the Bible you do
- Titus 2:1
- Radical preaching is preaching for a response
- Preacher’s need to pray “Lord, who is coming and what do I need to say?”
- Preaching needs to answer the “why question” but also the “how question”
- All behavior is based on a belief
- What you believe affects how you behave
- If you want to change how people act, change what they believe
- Behind every sin is a lie I am believing
- When you sin, at that moment you are doing what you believe is the best thing you could do
- When you look at your congregation, you can see their behavior, preaching needs to figure out the lie beneath the behavior and then preach on that
- Change always starts in the mind
- Romans 12:2
- To help people change, we must first change their beliefs
- Why do I do something? Why do I not do something?
- Trying to change people’s behavior without changing their beliefs is wrong, backwards
- The auto pilot in your life is your belief system, it is why you are not able to change
- You cannot just change behavior, you must change the mindset
- It is not hard to obey when your mind is renewed
- If you want to see lives changed, you must get to the root of their sin
- Maturity is not always doing what you feel like doing
- The Bible term for “changing your mind” is repentance
- Repentance doesn’t mean stop doing bad things, it means, to change your mind
- Most preaching is about changing what you do, when it needs to be about changing how we think something
- It’s a paradigm shift
- Ezekiel 36:26
- You don’t change people’s minds, the applied word of God does
- Zechariah 4:6
- 2 Corinthians 10:4 – 5 (Capture every thought and make it give up)
- The goal of preaching is life application and obedience
- Changing the way I act is the fruit of repentance
- Matthew 3:8
- Deeds are the proof of repentance
- The deepest preaching is preaching for repentance
- Life application preaching is not shallow preaching
- Shallow is preaching doctrine without applying it to life change, the sins of your people and the things that need changing
- Matthew 3:2
- Mark 1:15, 4:17, 6:12
- Acts 2:38
- Repentance is our fundamental message, changing from this thought to that thought
- To produce lasting life change, you must enlighten the mind, engage the emotions and challenge the will
- There is an element of feeling, thinking and doing in radical preaching
- You have to encourage, challenge, build up and send them out in your sermons
- Hold up, build up, fire up
- Most preachers are afraid to stand up and call people out and challenge them
- Every sermon comes down to 2 words, “Will you?”
This was a great session, can’t wait for the learning track I’m doing on preaching!