Cet enseignement est donné par un protestant et pour des protestants. Il doit donc être reçu avec certaines précautions et adapté. On sera attentif en particulier à la place des sacrements, de l’Église, et à ne pas avoir une utilisation instrumentale de la Parole de Dieu.
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Message from the 30th March 1980, very first message preached by Rick in Saddleback, given again on the last day of Rick Warren at Saddleback as Senior Pastor.
You are making history today! We don’t know each other, but I’m filled with gratitude, because today is the beginning of a miracle. You are not here by accident! Thousands of years before you were born, God knew you would be here today to see the launch of a brand new Church. Even though I don’t know your name, God does. I began praying for you nine months ago, and I think God wants you to impact this city, and country, and eventually the world in ways you’ve never imagined. God wanted you here today for this service.
I chose a text from a very small book: Zachariah. Context: Israel spent time in captivity in the Babylon Empire; the Temple was destroyed; and as they come back to Jerusalem, God encourages them to build a new place of worship. I believe that God’s instructions to this people thousands of years ago talk to us today. Za 4,6-10. You will succeed. So do not despise those small beginnings.
Five facts in those 5 verses:
1- Building a new place of worship can be done only by God’s power. We’re going to need God’s spirit to build it.
2- Solid foundations has to be laid. It determines everything else.
3- We are not dismissed however small the beginning is. The number we are today is no indication of how many people will be changed by this church.
4- God is happy to see his Work begin.
5- God guarantees our success if we rely on him.
Should a church even be interested in success?
1- God tells us his church is “the Body of Christ”, which means it’s a body not a business, it’s an organism not an organization, it is alive, and all living things grow. If you’re not growing, you’re dying! Col 2,19: God wants the church to grow!
2- But let me define success. Success is not size. Success is changed lives. We will focus on health not growth, because if you’re healthy, you automatically grow. You grow if you’re healthy. Cf. kids: you don’t need to tell them to grow!
3- God calls us to be faithful and fruitful. Jesus expects us to be fruitful. So we are going to expect fruitfulness and work for it. Jn 15,8.16. Notice the “much”.
So I am going to explain five things that we are going to do in the following years in order to ensure the fruitfulness of our lives and this church. I’ve called it “the five reasons this church is guaranteed to succeed. As you decide today if this church is for you, I want to give you our biblical blueprint, and I hope at the end you will be willing to join us, because it’s going to be quite an adventure!
1) Because doing God’s Word will be our foundation
The only legitimate foundation for any church is the Bible! God makes many promises about his Word. Is 55,11. It will not fail : that’s success! And I believe this book.
Now. Every church believes God’s word, teaches God’s word, studies, memorises… What is going to be different here is that we are going to focus on practicing it, doing it. That’s different! In the great commission: teach them to do. We are to be doers of the Word. If you are looking for a Church where all that is required is that you come and sit, and listen, friends it’s not a place for you. We won’t just study it, we will do it. And it will change our lives! Many churches don’t do anything. They study, but don’t do anything for the world. James 1,25. God’s blessing comes from doing what God says.
Let me explain. Imagine I want to lose weight. To show how determined I am I go to a store and buy a book. And every day, in my chair, I read a new chapter. It’s very inspiring! I love reading it, and as I read it and enjoy it and am inspired I keep drinking soda and eating chips. Very often, churches behave that way… In that Church, we will focus in doing it. That’s why there is a verb in every point, so that you can practice it then. Jos 1,8. You will hear me say it so many times in the following years: you only believe the parts of the Bible you actually do. If you don’t do it, you don’t believe it. Jesus often ends with “now do likewise”. Jn 13,17: do it! You get blessed not by knowing the Word, but by doing it.
2) Fulfilling God’s purposes will be our plan
Second reason why we will be successful. We are not going to grow this church on our plan! Pr 19,21. We all have plans, but only God’s will prevail. Ac 13,36. That’s success! That’s a successful life. He did it.
I don’t have time in this first message to explain the five purposes of God to you: I’ll do it in the next messages. But the first church models this purposes in Ac 2; Jesus reports on it in Jn 17; Paul explains it in Ep 4; but they are best explained in the five verbs of the great commandment and great commission. So here is the moto of this brand new church: “a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will build a great church”. That’s why we will succeed!
3) Trusting God’s promises will be our confidence
One of the most amazing statements of Jesus is in Jn 14. It’s mind blowing. “I’ll tell you the truth”. So this is not an exaggeration! “Anyone who trusts me will be able to do greater works…” Jn 14,12-14. “Ask in my name”: that’s prayer. How in the world could anyone do greater works than Jesus?? He was thinking about the power of prayer. At that time, Jesus was limited to one place, one time. That’s no longer the case: he can do everything, everywhere. That’s why God is asking us, challenging us to expand our desires and expectations. Ep 3,20!
I’m a big dreamer. Let the size of your God determine the size of your goals. Imagine what He can do. So we’re going to go for God’s vision. So today, in front of this small group of people, and we don’t even know each other yet, I’m going to state in front of you the vision, the dream God gave me for this church as I was praying for it. And I wrote it all down. Everything starts with a dream! Here is the dream God gave me to push me to come here. Let me give you the picture of Saddleback church in the future.
Ø A place where the hurting, the confused, the hopeless, the frustrated will find love, acceptance, forgiveness, hope, guidance, encouragement and support.
Ø A place where the life-changing good news is shared with hundreds of thousands. A dream of being 20,000.
Ø A dream of growing people to spiritual maturity, to fulfil the purpose of their lives.
Ø A dream of equipping every member to his own ministry, his personal life mission.
Ø A dream of sending members by thousands on every continent.
Ø A dream of growing church leaders all around the world.
Ø A dream of creating a daughter church at least every year.
Ø A dream of at least 50 acres of land one day on which we will build a worship centre.
Today, I state that all of this dreams will be realised. Why? Because they are inspired by God. My confidence is not in myself! It’s in the promise of God. The question is not who we think we are, but who we think God is. 2 Co 3,4-5.
4) Depending on God Spirit will be our strength
We will totally depend on God. The name for this is: humility. It’s not pretending you’re not gifted or denying your strength. It’s being honest with your weaknesses, and relying on God. Jc 4,6. Grace is the fact that God knows every stupid mistake I’m going to make, but he still chose me! Pr 3,5-8: trust the Lord! We are going to do what this verse says.
Often we think you have to be strong to be used by God. But God uses our weaknesses! Your weaknesses are also part of God’s plan for you. God uses weak people. But they were humbly relying on God. This Church will be lead by ordinary people with ordinary weaknesses. But we will rely on God. Job 8,5-7. That’s the promise I’m taking for this Church.
How long are you going to be the pastor? God willing and by his grace, I publically commit to you to giving the next 40 years of my life to reaching and growing the people of this Church family. It won’t be easy! I’m counting on these! Ph 1,6.
5) Loving God and people will be our attraction
Many people were coming to Jesus. “Multitudes”! Why were they attracted to Jesus?
(1) He met their needs (physical, emotional…)
(2) He taught them in practical and interesting ways.
(3) He loved them. Most important.
For the past 12 weeks I’ve been talking to people. And I’ve discovered that behind the doors they are many lonely people. People seek love. And we want this Church to be famous for it’s love! Love is the key for success: 1 Co 16,14 ; Col 3,14 ; Ep 5,2… It’s loved that moved me here, made me use my money, my time… Mt 25. That’s what God is asking us to do. Here, we are going to treat people with compassion.
Conclusion
Now it all comes down to 2 words. Will you?
Will you join us in this extravagant journey, this great adventure? Will you join us in doing God’s Word? Will you join us in fulfilling God’s purposes? Will you join us in trusting God’s promises? Will you join us in depending on God’s Spirit? Will you join us in loving people the way God does? Remember Za 4,6-10.
Maybe the most important day of your life is today. Being in this Church will be the most important thing you will do. It will outlast everything else. It will be the adventure of a lifetime. It won’t be easy, but there will be rewards for ever. Mt 9,29 : “According to your faith, it will be done to you.” So you get to decide how much God is going to bless the rest of your life. You get to decide. What do you expect God to do? Why does God use me? Not because I’m good: because I expect him to. The greatest thing to do with your life is to invest it in something that will outlast it. This is your decision. Will you?
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