Sunday, June 2, 2019

From 2009 - Everyone Is Buzzing about the Rick Warren Workshop

Did the MLC boys learn from this photo?
These idiot poses never go away. Ask Rick Warren, DMin (Fuller) By the way, Warren is a Baptist, though he hides it, the way Andy Stanley does. Both leaders are bit deals for the Shrinkers in WELS and the LCMS.


Radicalis - 2009

Rick Warren is having a confab of confabs at his Saddleback Church. Mrs. Ichabod stopped at Saddleback and went in to listen to him speak to addicts. She got me in for free - we found Warren to be a boring, silly clown.

Church and Changers will be there, fur shure. Look at the speaker list:

Speakers


Andy Stanley
Author and Pastor,
North Point Community Church

Brad Powell
Senior Pastor,
North Ridge Church

Buddy Owens
Teaching Pastor,
Saddleback Church

Dave Holden
Training Director,
Purpose Driven

Dino Rizzo
Author and Pastor,
Healing Place Church

Doug Fields
Author and Pastor,
Saddleback Church

Gerald Sharon
North American Director,
Purpose Driven Network

John Baker
Founder and Pastor,
Celebrate Recovery

Kay Warren
Pastor’s Wife and Author

Kerry Shook
Senior Pastor, Woodlands Church and Author

Mark Driscoll
Ex-Senior Pastor, Ex-Mars Hill Church and Author


Perry Noble
Senior Pastor, NewSpring Church

Pete Scazzero
Senior Pastor,
New Life Fellowship Church

Rick Muchow
Pastor of Worship,
Saddleback Church

Rick Warren
Senior Pastor & Author,
Saddleback Church

Steve Adams
Children’s Pastor,
Saddleback Church

Steve Gladen
Pastor of Small Groups,
Saddleback Church

Tom Holladay
Teaching Pastor,
Saddleback Church

Absolute Surrender, Sacrificial Lifestyle, Authentic Christianity...
A Radical Experience

Rick Warren and his team invite you and your team to attend Radicalis, February 9-12, 2010

Radicalis is really ten conferences in one that makes it possible to bring your entire church team for individual learning experiences.
Radicalis is a unique hands-on, comprehensive experience that will enhance each member of your team’s role in your church and build and inspire them to serve God in your community and the world. Rick Warren, the Saddleback Team and leading national pastors will challenge, develop, and expand your vision to be a moving force for God in today’s world.
They’ll help you understand the paradigm, learn the process and build relationships for expanding your ministry. They’ll enlarge your understanding of what “church” and “ministry” mean to enable you to affect positive, purposeful change for God. Imagine what would happen in your community, in your church and in our world if your church team collectively shared an experience guided by the Spirit of God in which we saw His calling and His will for your ministry.

Check out the TEN Individual Learning Experiences that will be at Saddleback's Radicalis February 2010:

  • Purpose Driven Church & The
    P E A C E Plan
  • Preaching for Life Change
  • Purpose Driven Youth Ministries
  • Purpose Driven Children’s Ministries
  • Purpose Driven Small Groups
  • Worship
  • Leading Through Change
  • Developing Emotionally Healthy Leadership
  • HIV/AIDS/Orphan Care
  • Celebrate Recovery

Special Featured Conference

  • Life as a Pastor's Wife


Exaudi - The Sunday after the Ascension, 2019. John 15:23-16:4



Exaudi, The Sunday after the Ascension, 2019
The melodies are linked in the hymn name. 
The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.
The Hymn # 9            O Day of Rest                       
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       
The Gospel              
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #629      Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds

The Spoken Word to Children
            
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #261                    Lord Keep Us Steadfast                   

In Our Prayers
  • Our country's leaders.
  • Glen Kotten, in the hospital, Minnesota.
  • Baby Andrea, awaiting surgery in California.
  • Our Philippine mission, finishing their church.
  • Elizabeth Mior, young mother with cancer, friend of the parish.
  • Those in therapy and those looking for better jobs.
 Graphic by Norma A. Boeckler


1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:  27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.  2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.  3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.  4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Prayer
Lord God, heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee, that through Thy Holy Spirit Thou hast appointed us to bear witness of Thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: We beseech Thee, inasmuch as the world cannot endure such testimony, and persecutes us in every way, grant us courage and comfort, that we may not be offended because of the cross, but continue steadfastly in Thy testimony, and be found always among those who know Thee and Thy Son, until we obtain eternal salvation through the same, Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.



Background for Sermon

The series of texts from the Fourth Gospel are important because Jesus taught so much on this singular topic - the Spirit at work in the Word.

When I began studying the efficacy of the Word, I already knew that Luther taught this Biblical concept consistently, from the beginning. Also - I knew that Calvin taught against the Word always connected with the Spirit. Calvin declared that any given worship service could be entirely without a visit from the Spirit and therefore accomplishing nothing. When I tested the concept that the Spirit always works with the Word and never apart from the Word, I found the Biblical concept throughout the Old and New Testaments. 

In fact, the concept has its own word in Greek, which transliterates as en-ergy (in-working). That word-group in the New Testament is used quite extensively, but the concept is taught apart from that word group. That is is the same as saying the Trinity is taught all through the Bible, even though the actual term was used as a shortcut about 500 years after the ministry of Christ.

The big shock for me was discovering that no academic was very interested in the New Testament word group. I imagined finding long articles on the word-group, but the material was sparse. But of course - those who broke with Luther were those who denied the Spirit-Word connection. Sadly, the Lutherans have been heavily influenced by Pietism and Calvinism in the last few centuries.

As Luther said so clearly - breaking the Spirit/Word connection is the root of all false doctrine, all paganism, all heresies. If the teaching cannot be derived from the Scriptures, it is Enthusiasm. Luther also compared the Enthusiasts to bees circling and stinging. Therefore, no doctrinal claims are valid apart from the Scriptures being used to define them and to show errors exposed by the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

That is why I call the Book of Concord (1580) a special one-volume commentary on the Scriptures. That is the style of the entire book, which includes the early Creeds, the Reformation confessions, and the Formula of Concord to establish ongoing harmony (concordia) among Biblical Christians.

If someone has a question about Justification, he can look up the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, and the Third Article of the Formula of Concord. Article III points the readers back to Luther's Galatians Lectures for all the Biblical support for Justification by Faith.

Also, if someone has a question about what works in the Christian Church, the Spirit/Word connection is always valid. Gimmicks, entertainment, hooks to grab attention, watering down, sugar-coating - all are invalid. Those who rely on them may get results, but they are not spiritual (Spiritual) results but carnal or fleshly results.  

The Scriptures are always the work of the Spirit, and the Spirit teaches us better than any man-made book.

Faith Brings Opposition, Persecution

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

In the Nicene Creed, we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. However, in the Bible, the Spirit is necessarily less emphasized than the Father and Son because He witnesses to the Father and Son.

Every so often there is a reaction where the Spirit is taught to the exclusion of the Father and Son - nothing is too bizarre when it comes to error. We even have a prosperous church like that within walking distance.

The other reaction is to ignore the Spirit's work, which ends up in glorifying man, man's cleverness, man's schemes, man's human reason.

These Promises of the Spirit's work are to build the faith of the disciples and us, knowing that God's work continues in the absence of the visible presence of the Savior. First of all, He governs His Church from His throne in heaven, though He is not locked up there (as the Calvinists imagine). Secondly, the Spirit is at work in us (sealed in our baptism) and in the Word and Sacraments. Thus everything good that happens comes from the divine power of the Spirit, which should humble us.

The Spirit bears witness through the Word of God, and guides us in what express about the Christian Faith.  It is this Spirit-breathed Word that moves people to faith and strengthens their faith through the Means of Grace.

27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

And so it is God's will, that fragile and frail human beings bear witness to the Holy Trinity, the disciples first because they were carefully trained for three years with Christ Jesus. As we can read in these extensive Promises, the Spirit brings to mind what took place and inspired the Word when it was written down, an extension of the Old Testament Gospel.

First we have the Promise of the Savior, given to the orchard thieves of Eden, Genesis 3:15. Then the books of the Old Testament renewing that Promise and adding details until the  knowledge of the coming Messiah was written, read, and believed on.

Then we have the books of the New Testament, the Gospel accounts filled with sermons and miracles, warnings and blessings. And we have the history book - Acts - and the teaching letters, the Epistles of Paul, John, Peter, etc.

Because the disciples were with Jesus at the fulcrum of time, the pressures were greater upon them and thus they paid the price, because they witnessed to the truth.

16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended [GJ - not fall into the trap].

The disciples were warned, unlike today, so that they would not be shocked and bewildered by opposition to the Gospel.  Today they even print brochures claiming that joining a church will mean more friends, more time, and other "felt needs." In other words, upon taking a survey and asking people what they needed in a church, some clever people decided they would attract people to that church by appealing to their "felt needs."  Woe unto anyone who made fun of this approach.

That is where faith meets opposition, the most opposition coming from the religious. The scandal of the Gospel is not disgrace and embarrassment, but the trigger of the trap that sends people into disbelief and despair. Oddly enough, the current fad is to warn people about being triggered, which is what this verb suggests. The opposition from the great and wise, from the works-saints and works-salesmen, could trigger unbelief and shock if the warnings were not given.

The warnings are clear. Jesus - "They hated Me, so they will hate you, too." Hatred from the pillars does not mean error, necessarily, but comes from teaching the Word as it is. Even more so, distinguishing truth from error will fire up the rage in their hearts as the Spirit acts upon them.

One New Testament professor said glibly to a room full of LCA ministers, "More were converted by the sword in early Christianity than by the Gospel."

I said to him in front of the group, "You are completely wrong. The Gospel spread throughout the known world in the first generation, through the preaching of the Word."

He, a ThD from Harvard, said, "How did I get it wrong."

I said, "You went to Harvard. That is why you got it wrong." Pastors laughed nervously. This seminary professor went to me afterwards and wanted help for his disbelief. My response triggered remorse rather than hatred. Later he told me about how his most liberal church members were shocked at what the LCA was doing.  I said, "It is just beginning."

1. Beloved, you have heretofore heard much about faith. Today you hear also of the witness of faith and of the cross that follows. Paul says to the Romans, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Romans 10:10. If one be pious, he must begin in his heart and believe. That serves only unto godliness; it is not enough for salvation. Therefore, one must also do what the Christian life requires, and continually abide in that life.

Hence, Paul adds: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, thou shalt be saved,” It is these two things that constitute our salvation, faith and the confession of faith. Faith rescues from sin, hell, Satan, death and all misfortunes. Now, when we have this we have enough. We then let God live here that we may reach a hand to our neighbor and help him.

2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Opposition is good because it causes people to think about the truth. The Steadfast Lutherans blog (managed by Matt Harrison and Paul McCain) erased comments teaching Justification by Faith. The senior editor said of those faithful to the Reformation, "I have had enough of you morons." Much of that was hidden later, because the opponents realized how ridiculous they looked, attacking Lutherans for teaching the doctrine of the Reformation. It is better, the false teachers think, to blend truth and falsehood, leaving everyone a bit bewildered but content.

When the French Protestants (my kin) were slaughtered on St. Bartholomew's Day, the Pope hosted a celebration mass in Rome. They were indeed doing God a great favor, so they thought. That slaughter strengthened the faith of Protestants all over the world and weakened France for good.

3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 

Believing God and knowing God go together, because a false concept shows a lack of knowledge and also acting on ignorance. The disciples of Walther never stop sharing their word about God, but they are afraid of God's Word, which condemns their unbelief.

The opponents only know the pain of having their errors refuted, so they feel obligated to give that pain to the ones who triggered their anger.

4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

This is not easy, but the lessons add up. Many people shirk dealing with the truth because of feared opposition.  Later, that becomes a badge of honor, though it is not offered that way. What follows is shunning, banning, vengeance, and all kinds of opposition. They play the crazy card, and so forth. I read one giant historical book which stated, "I will not even deal with Luther because he was too emotional." That is some great history there! 

People bemoan the way things are, but that comes from at least a century of retreat. This is ironic, because our era has taken the easy way while praising (faintly) the Reformation, when people were burned at the stake and driven away for their faith.

2. Thus, faith must be exercised, worked and polished; be purified by fire, like gold. Faith, the great gift and treasure from God, must express itself and triumph in the certainty that it is right before God and man, and before angels, devils and the whole world. Just as a jewel is not to be concealed, but to be worn in sight, so also, will and must faith be worn and exhibited, as it is written in 1 Peter 1:7: “That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire,” etc.

3. Now, by confession I must take upon myself the load of Satan, hell, death and the whole world — kings and princes, pope and bishops, priests and monks. By faith, everything falls that reason can or ever has devised for the salvation of the soul. It must chastise the apish tricks of the whole world, and its jewel alone must be praised. The world cannot endure this, therefore it rushes in, destroys, kills, and says: “It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not,” as Caiaphas says in John 11:50. Thus, the confession must break forth, that God alone is the Savior; and the same confession brings us into danger of losing our lives. As the Lord says later to the disciples: “They shall put you out of the synagogues.”

We have to see these days as an opportunity for darkness to turn into light. So many have abandoned the old institutions because those institutions chose to honor their Father Below rather than their Father Above. 

The first things I heard in WELS were - "Don't criticize ELCA and isn't Fuller Seminary a font of wisdom!"

What happens is not our concern, because God's will is the result of God's Word. If we plant and scatter the living seed of the Word, God will bring the harvest.