"Rick Warren Sermon" Sent to my Mom??"

[cocopea9052]

Hi RR,

So my Brother sent this to my Mom and she sent it to me and my other two sisters. Background: My Brother attends Joel's church in TX and seems borderline Emergent/Old School Southern Baptist.....

My Mom, use to attend the Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, CA. And while she may not know much about RW, she was one that listened to the Joyce's, Joels, Bennys, etc. But I have shared and exposed her to a lot of Apostasy/Emergent teachings, and her eyes had begin to open up. She attends CC- Diamond Bar with me now and a Baptist church in NM where she lives. She seems to have gotten away from the TBN worship.

Now I don't really see anything wrong or harmful in this message (I bolded the parts that made me raise a brow). And to be fair, if the part about the book and his wife been omitted and this sent anonymously, I would have thought it could have come from almost any wealthy Pastor (please let me know if I failed to discern anything)... however it is that subtle, "sound real good and seems real right message" that someone like my Mom could pick up on real easy, unaware of the purpose behind a "purpose driven Church and Pastor".

And I am sorry to hear of his wife's cancer, possibly not new news, but I had not known. And thus-- I cannot vouch for when this sermon was presented or what the original source was that my brother received it from. So I apologize in advance if anything is incorrect.

So, do I say anything to my Mom about this email from my Brother, or should I just consider it a message he was passing on to his Mom that may have have brought her some encouragement and also comfort in the fact that he shared it with her?

Thanks All & God Bless.

************************************************** *****
From My Brother:
Hi Mom,
This is my sermon for the day! Let it minister to you in person, and when it has; endeavor to share with others!

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: "In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72..
-First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
-Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
-Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
-Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings".

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD..


"BLESSINGS"!

[His Bride]

Typical RW style. Cocopea, he never mentions the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, sin, repentance. He loves to preach that it isn't about you, but then actually shows that it really is about you. RW preaches a social gospel that does not lead to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I read an article this week where he stated that Christians need to stop studying their bibles and instead get involved in missions...or something to that effect. Stop studying our bibles? Since when? Isn't that how we get to know God and find our relationship with Him, which will then lead us to doing His Will? The man is a snake.

[cocopea9052]

Typical RW style. Cocopea, he never mentions the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, sin, repentance. He loves to preach that it isn't about you, but then actually shows that it really is about you. RW preaches a social gospel that does not lead to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I read an article this week where he stated that Christians need to stop studying their bibles and instead get involved in missions...or something to that effect. Stop studying our bibles? Since when? Isn't that how we get to know God and find our relationship with Him, which will then lead us to doing His Will? The man is a snake.

Oh thank you HisBride, God bless you, you're the only one who responded...

And yes, that was my concern. And so I found a round-bout way of bringing it up actually using the other article about his advising to stop studying the bible, and my Mom was like..... .....My Mom is a daily faithful bible reader and she is also our Pray Warrior offering up scripture to all her kids on a daily basis to speak to each person's circumstances. So, I feel pretty confident she will not be embracing RW's teaching. And with regard to his statements about "service", my Mom and I both agree, there are many many.....too many ways we serve the Lord daily....not just in the church....and many of us know those who "serve" at the church and provide service to the church family, then go home only to neglect their own family and treat them like crap.


But I tell ya, this battle is really becoming hard because not only are we trying to witness to those who don't believe anything, but we are also having to look out for our fellow believers to make sure they don't fall by the wayside.

[His Bride]

The battle is getting more difficult, cocopea. And it's coming from all sides, and from within.

I think part of the problem with Christians is that we have been raised, since childhood, to respect our elders and our leaders, whether they be political, educational, in the church, whatever. Now, I tend to be a bit of a rebel who believes that no one should have a free pass and that we need to question authority. As far as the Church goes, we must always, and I stress, ALWAYS, check everything with the Word of God. Paul has said that the Bereans were most noble for checkig the Scriptures. We must do no less. But many people believe that their pastors know best. And that's just not always true.

Sometimes we can worn down by what we see happening. And really, God knows all about it and we can find times of refeshment in His Word and prayer or with other believers.

I'm really grateful for the members and mods, and Todd, of RR. I know you are too!



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[HisJewel]

How interesting. My brother has been forwarding this stuff to MY mom too, and she's been forwarding it to ME!

It's sad how many in my family are deceived. They think I am such a "fundamentalist".