Rick Warren And The Goal Of...

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and we are today here in beautiful downtown Burbank. I wish that was the case, although it's about 40 degrees here in Massachusetts today in central Mass, just north of Worcester.

And for all of you who would like to know how to say Worcester, don't use your GPS. Worcestershire. I think that's like the sauce that you put on the Worcestershire. See, they can't do it. So Worcester.

The Communion Burger and the Loss of Reverence

Today across my desk has come this piece of paper. It's actually kind of a nice piece of paper. Color, I didn't need it to be color, but somebody printed it for me, is the Communion Burger in Poor Taste, October 3rd, 2013, CNN Belief Blog.

Believe it or not, allegedly. By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog co-editor. And, you know, once you abandon real truth, true truth, as Francis Schaeffer would say, and objective things about Christianity and people's faith systems, then this is the kind of stuff that you write about, which is going to lead me into a discussion about the transcendent nature of God, His holiness.

One called to another and said, these are seraphim singing, saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. The earth is like Cape Canaveral. It's a launching pad to show forth the glory of God.

This is a transcendent picture of who God is. And see, once the transcendent nature of God is gutted, jettisoned, it is thrown overboard like an anchor, except the anchor's not attached. This is the kind of stuff that you get, sacrilegious, irreverent, common, guttural.

It's just, there's one other word that I'm looking for. I cannot find it in my mind. Do you ever look around in your mind? What file cabinet did I put that word in? And so, here CNN writes about a Chicago restaurant that, actually, I'm glad that Daniel Burke says, pushing the boundaries of bad taste with its October burger of the month.

Now, first of all, no compromise radio, I want you to know that we are pro-burger. Burger meister, meister burger. This has nothing to do with vegan, vegetarian, wheat belly. It doesn't have anything to do with any of these things.

You eat whatever you want. You look at Romans 14 and 15 and 1 Corinthians chapter 8, 9, and 10, and I will say that if you have a problem with food, days, feasts, legalism, liberty, that Paul would say, he wouldn't say it quite like this, but this is what he has said.

If you look at Romans about righteousness, we don't have any in how we are given God's son's righteousness, imputed through faith. The problem with justification or with legalism is you don't understand justification.

If you're declared righteous based on the work of another, what you eat or don't eat can't make you more holy. So if you want to be vegan because you like to be vegan, that's fine. I basically have to starve myself and I'm always thinking about food.

It's bad. So it says here, oh, and I was going to say, I know of a place in Santa Cruz and it's called Burger. I think it's down on Mission Street or someplace. You can get a Luther burger there, by the way, and it's not Martin Luther King Jr.

My kids were saying something the other day at school about Martin Luther and they're like, oh, Martin Luther King Jr. Yeah, Memphis and all that. No, Martin Luther, Luther. You can get a Luther burger there and you have that burger served on a glazed donut in lieu of bun, in lieu of a wheat belly bun.

I haven't tried it, but man, I'm dying to have a burger right now. These lean cuisines are killing me. I just got all my tests back, my blood tests for my physical, whether it would be cholesterol or glucose, or I guess they measured sodium.

Carbon dioxide they also measure. I don't know how they measure that. At least it's better than carbon monoxide. And I was glad that between thyroid, cholesterol, lipids, everything else, at least those tests, they all were within the norm.

But you know, my problem is it's probably like the retooling of the standards for waist sizes in jeans. You know, the new 36 is the old 38. That's the way that works. Kuma's Corner, a heavy metal themed joint with an eat beef, bang your head ethos, says its new burger is an homage to Ghost, a Swedish band that performs satanic songs in Catholic clerical garb.

See, this is all I need. Ghost Burger features a communion wafer garnish, a white unleavened disc bearing the imprint of a cross in a crown. The Ghost new album comes complete with grape juice and mock communion wafer.

Not coincidentally, the communion burger at Kuma's comes with a red wine reduction. For those unfamiliar with the Christian sacrament, see, isn't that amazing? It reminds me of my friend Bob here, a helper on No Compromise Radio, and his daughter did a public school presentation on a book that she read, and it was on Lady Jane Grey, and how Lady Jane Grey had memorized Psalm 51, and she was on her way to the scaffold, or at the scaffold, about ready to die for her faith, and she recited Psalm 51, and it was when she recited Psalm 51, and one of the kids, or four of the kids, raised their hands at La Rita's school and said, what's the Bible?

What's the Bible? This commemorates Jesus' Last Supper. The bread represents his body, Jesus says in the Bible, and the wine his blood. In many Christian traditions, a priest or minister will consecrate the wafers and wine before sharing them with the congregation.

So, if there's a God, he said, the owner or director of operations at Kuma's, if there's a God, I'm sure he has a sense of humor. There you have it. Along the same lines, probably just as bad, CP Opinion, the Christian Post, it has an opinion section, and there's an article written, January 3rd, 2014, by a guest contributor.

And you might all want to know who that guest contributor is, and I'm going to tell you. That guest contributor is, well, you know what, I won't tell you quite yet. He writes an article. Let's think about the facts first before personalities and personhoods get involved.

The aim of preaching is, and then let's stop right there. Okay, what is the goal of preaching? Now, you might say to me, Mike, you know, there are a lot of goals to preach in preaching, and the goal might be to teach the congregation the Bible.

The goal might be to give a pep talk. The goal might be to give somebody enough backrubbing, enough backrub theologically, spiritually, to get people through the week. I just need something today to get me through the week.

It's going to be a bad week, a horrible week, and I need to get through the week. So, let's start off on a good foot. The goal might be, I'd like to have the word wash me and cleanse me. The goal might be, what is the goal?

I mean, I've got a few other goals that I'm not telling you that I think take priority. But right now, I'm just asking the question because this is give and take, no compromise radio. I should do one of those never changing, no compromise things that if you click here, then it takes you to a different path, and then you can kind of create your own no compromise radio show.

Too harsh, make it softer, click here. More controversial, click here. Name names, click here. Positive encouraging, click here. The aim of preaching is, according to this man, life transformation. Now, what goes through your mind when I say that?

The goal of preaching, the aim of preaching is life transformation. Is that my goal? Well, let's use a different realm, and then we'll move back here. What's the goal in evangelism? What's the goal of your marriage?

What's the goal of your work? Well, if the goal of evangelism is salvation of souls, and the goal of your marriage is happiness and children, and home is where the heart is, I don't know. The goal of work is to make money and get a career and increase your 401k.

What's the ultimate goal? Let's just think about God and who He is. Back to that scene in Isaiah chapter 6, and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Remember, King Uzziah dies, and if memory serves, 52 years he was around, and he was, from a human perspective, a good king. There was safety, peace, prosperity. You have someone who is, again, morally good, at least if we're looking at the bell curve of society, and you're singing, happy days are here again, and this king dies.

You have a king, 52 years of stability, and then you have a king. And so, what does Isaiah need? Isaiah needs a vision. Isaiah needs to see and to know that God, the king, is much greater. If you want real stability, real peace, real ruling and reigning, you need to see God, the king, because He's a king that doesn't die.

He's a king that can't be replaced. He's a king that doesn't get weak. He's the king that always gives good wisdom. He's the king that always judges justly. And so, in the year that King Uzziah died, it's not very common in prophetic literature to say, this is a marker, a year marker, this is the year that King Uzziah died.

But see, it's important for all the reasons I just mentioned. I saw the Lord, not Yahweh, but L-O-R-D, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. You see a woman who's going to get married, and she has a long train on her bridal dress, and it just speaks of majesty and beauty.

It's the same thing back in those days, to emphasize how great this king is. He has a train of His robe that fills the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim, and you would have all kinds of attendants back in those days.

Each had six wings, with two they covered their face, two covered feet, two covered, and with two they flew. One called to another, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy. The goal for evangelism, or in evangelism, is God to be glorified.

The glory of God in evangelism. Of course you want people saved, but the main goal in evangelism is the glory of God, and God receives much glory when you talk about His Son, and His Son's life and death and burial and resurrection, and soon return, virgin birth, fully God, fully man, Son of man, Son of God, and the list goes on, king, prophet, priest.

So we want to preach for the glory of God. What is the main goal of preaching? And see, theologically, once you get that in your mind, then you'll figure out your way. If you say, well, the goal is life transformation, then everything in my message has to be bowing to that very thing because I've got to hit that goal of life transformation.

How do I get these people transformed? How is their life transformed? You say, well, that doesn't sound so bad at the beginning, but let's hear me out. If I say the goal of evangelism is the glory of God, as I speak well about His Son, then I don't tamper with the message so that people will believe, at least partially believe, believe something false, believe something faulty.

I just let the chips fall where they may. I want to be kind, I want to be gracious, I want to speak the truth in love, but I just tell them, and they don't have to worry about, well, how can I close the deal?

How can I seal it? How can I get the order? How can I close? And so, in evangelism, the goal is the glory of God. When I'm working, of course I need money, of course I need a career, of course I need money for 401k, etc.

Did I say etc.? Etc., etc. But the thing is, I want to glorify the Lord, then everything else will follow. And so when this man writes, the aim of preaching is life transformation, I just take it literally, the aim, definite article, out of all the aims, this is the aim.

And I think that's wrong, it's faulty. This man writes, guest contributor, CP, if God's objective for every believer is to transform us into total Christ-likeness, well, I already disagree. I already disagree.

If this is God's objective, then the objective for preaching is to motivate people to develop Christ-like convictions, to think like Jesus, Christ-like character, to feel like Jesus, and Christ-like conduct, to act like Jesus.

Every other objective of preaching is secondary. Okay, so see? You think I'm wild, you think I'm crazy. At the end of the sermon, if people aren't being transformed in how they think, feel, and act, I've missed the mark as preacher.

Saying, well, you know, this guy doesn't really know any better, and you have to kind of give people a pass. Mike, I know you teach seminary classes on preaching, and this is a hobby horse of yours, and to put it another way, the writer says, the ultimate goal of preaching is not information.

Well, of course. In fact, giving people a greater knowledge of the Bible can cause pride to develop in our hearers rather than humility. So I guess what we have to do is don't give much, right? So we've got to keep the congregation humble.

If that information isn't translated into obedience, and the goal, if preaching is not merely instruction, and the goal of preaching, it says the goal, if preaching, is not merely instruction either, whatever that means.

Preaching certainly includes instruction, but there's more to preaching than mere behavior modification. Yeah. The goal of well-rounded preaching is transformation and obedience. If we preach with life transformation as our goal, then the result will be believers who are more obedient to the Bible, and we call obedient believers disciples.

Just look at the challenges Jesus gave as he taught people. He continually expected people to do something as a result of hearing him. Okay, 20 questions. Who is it? Question number one, who's a popular writer?

Question number two, who should know better? Question number three, who's always after the doing side, the response side, the indicatives, the imperative side? Who's after that? And so it doesn't take you very long.

You've probably already typed this in. You know what I already think. The aim of preaching is life transformation. That is not the aim. The aim is the glory of God as we proclaim the truth, and then through that, consequently to that, to follow after, through, by means of, then people's lives are transformed.

Of course God's word does its work in those who believe. Now let's stop and think about it for a minute on No Compromise Radio. You are a congregant. You say, I'm not even a pastor. What does this matter?

Okay, what's your goal when you walk into a local church building? I know the church is not the building, but let's say you go where the church gathers in a building. Wherever you go, maybe it's outside.

You go there and you say, what's the goal? Okay, what's my goal today? My goal is to have my life transformed. I don't think that's the goal. I think it could be a goal. You could say, man, I can't believe that God washes me through the word.

I know God's word is powerful to perform its work in those who obey. I know God uses his word to conform me to the image of Christ. I know that it helps me to deny myself and to act more in accordance, in accord with my position in Christ.

I understand all that, but I want preaching to be God-centered first. Then everything will work out. It'll all pan out. And so when Rick Warren says the aim of preaching is life transformation, the ball is dropped.

When you walk into a church service, you say to yourself, my goal is to have my life transformed. That's the wrong goal. I'm just trying to tell you it's the secondary goal. The goal is God is to be glorified.

This is all about God. And so what if you walk in and let's say you're struggling with gossip, slander, complaining, and a lack of submission to your husband. Let's say you're struggling with pornography.

You are lording it over your wife and kids. You're angry and you're lazy. And what if the sermon then that day is on God's holiness? What if the sermon that day is on Jesus healing a leper sovereignly in Matthew chapter 8?

What if the message is on, I don't know, something else? Let's make it even simpler. Let's say you're a woman and the sermon's about how men should act. What if you're a man and it's a sermon on how wives should act?

What if you're a child and it's a sermon on, so you get the picture, but if the goal is God is to be glorified today and I am just a bit player, I'm a two-bit player, I may be, what do they call the actors who really aren't?

They're just extras. Yeah, there we go. I'm an extra, but here's the good news. I'm an extra that God has decided to set His love upon. That is a great thing, but still I am an extra. God doesn't need me to be completed.

God is a triune God and He's not now complete since I'm around and I'm made in His likeness and image. The aim of preaching is not life transformation. Preaching does transform lives, but we preach Christ and Him crucified and we preach to an audience of one and we preach so that God is happy and we preach so that it ends up happening.

Think about what happens. Isaiah sees God's holiness. He sees his own sin. He receives divinely initiated grace through the seraphim's burning coal. He then has the commission. Here I am, send me, and then now here's what's going to happen with Isaiah.

Isaiah has this message. Keep on hearing, do not understand. Keep on seeing, do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

The aim of preaching is life transformation. No, not ultimately and not always. Not ultimately, because it's the glory of God, and not always. Here, look what happens. If you mean life transformation, you're dead and now you're deader.

You're calloused and now you're more calloused. You're hardened and now you've got major hardening. That's what's happening with Isaiah. And see, if you didn't really know your sin, you didn't really know the holiness of God, you didn't understand divinely initiated grace, it would be hard to buckle under this.

How long, Isaiah said. And he said, verse 11, Isaiah 6, until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people and the land is a desolate waste and the Lord removes people far away and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump. The aim of preaching for Isaiah, clearly, plainly, is what? To harden people. Got a two-point sermon. Keep on hearing. Keep on seeing. What are the two results? You're not going to understand.

You're not going to perceive. That's the goal for Isaiah's preaching. So, see, sometimes God is not going to give the fruit that we expect, the transformation that we expect. We're not all going to get better.

We're all not going to, oh, of course, for believers, when we hear the message preached. I get it. I understand. But when you go to a church service, I want you to walk out afterwards saying, glory of God.

God was the focus. The preacher preached like God was the only person listening. He wanted to please the Lord. He didn't care what we thought. He didn't care about how we paid his check, how we could take away his insurance, how we could fire him, how we could change the locks on the door.

He was kind to us. He was nice to us, all right. But he preached like he was preaching to God. The goal and the aim of preaching is to please the Lord through preaching Christ Jesus, the risen Savior.

That's the goal. The aim of preaching is not life transformation. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com or you can go to noco90 .com for a few videos.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.