By Rick Warren
See lives transformed by God’s truth when you lead your
church through our newest church-wide campaign, Transformed: How God Changes Us.
Nothing thrills a Pastor more than seeing real
transformation happen in the lives of people. We want to see people grow up and
become completely mature – completely like Jesus Christ. Another word for this
is sanctification, and sanctification always begins as God’s Spirit uses God’s
truth to change the mind, heart, and will of His follower.
Jesus prayed to the father in John 17:17, “Use the
truth to make them complete. Your Word is truth.” Transformation is
change, and change happens as we apply God’s truth to every area of our lives.
The first responsibility of Pastors and shepherds is to preach God’s truth, which
transforms the lives of our hearers into the image of Jesus Christ.
One of the primary marks of spiritual immaturity is when
other people can easily sway us away from the truth. Not knowing the truth of
God’s Word causes us to change our beliefs back and forth, repeatedly, which
creates an unstable life. Paul said in Ephesians 4:14-15 that when we are
mature and know God’s truth, “Then we will no longer be like children,
forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something
different or made a lie sound like the truth…”
As Pastors, teachers, and church leaders, it is our
responsibility to instruct people in God’s truth and to set the example for
what it looks like to apply God’s truth to every area of our lives. Solomon
set the bar high in this area in Ecclesiastes 12:9-11, “In addition to
being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he
pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find
delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of wise men
are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails;
they are given by one Shepherd.” (NASB)
When you present God’s truth to God’s people for the purpose
of life transformation, two things will happen. First, they will be moved to
act on what they’ve heard, to become doers and not just hearers. Solomon said
the words of wise men are “like goads” that move the will of people to align
with truth. And secondly, they are like “well-driven nails.” In other words,
when God’s truth is presented well, it finds a permanent place in the minds of
its hearers.
As we lead our congregations forward spiritually, I believe
there are several imperatives that will result in truly transformed lives.
- Present the good news of Jesus clearly and repeatedly. Jesus is the point, and the good news of His saving grace never gets old. We never go deeper than the gospel. We never move on past the truth of what it means to be saved.
- Elevate God’s Word in the eyes of the congregation. One of the reasons I use so much Scripture in what I call verse-with-verse exposition is that it sends a message that Rick Warren isn’t the authority, the Bible, God’s Word is the authority.
- Center every message on God, His character, and His truth. The points of your messages will always have more impact when they are about God and not about you or the hearer apart from God.
- Call people to act on what they hear. Once truth saturates the mind and moves the emotions, it should result in actions of the will. This is why I use so many verbs in the points of my message.
I don’t
believe that behavior modification should ever replace the role of God’s grace
in transforming us, but the evidence of real transformation will be behaviors that
are modified by God’s truth.
People are living today under the tyranny of self-defeating
behaviors, and those self-defeating behaviors are always based on lies, which
must be confronted and challenged by God’s truth.
God’s truth is far more powerful than my opinion or yours.
God’s Word teaches us the truth. It shows us the path to walk on. It shows us
where we get off the path. It shows us how to get back on the path. And it
shows us how to stay on the path. Always start with the truth of God’s Word if you
want to see real transformation happen.
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