from flickr by alphabrasil Listening to Rick Warren was like walking into a huge bank, and finding out that all the riches of wisdom and wealth that have been built up there over the past 40 years are available to you. There have been some impressive speakers over the past two days, but Rick Warren was “absolutely mind-blowing” as the lady sitting behind me put it. Someone just tweeted: “Just been hit by a wisdom juggernaught.” Rick Warren is the author of the Purpose Driven Life, the most translated book in the English language apart from the Bible. Just in passing he talked about being asked to do the Billy Graham role, praying at Presidents Bush and Obama’s inauguration in Washington DC. Anyway, Warren on the traps leaders fall into, said: “Satan’s tactics in the garden of Eden were to appeal firstly to the lust of the eyes, secondly to the lust of the flesh and then thirdly to the pride of life.” In other words the appeal: “to feel, to have and to be.” He summarized these once more as: “materialism, hedonism and secularism.” Warren pointed out the same pattern from Jesus’ temptations in the desert, “turn these stones to bread,” or in other words, “you deserve to feel good.” He then said: “If you want the blessing of God on your life, give yourself to integrity, humility and generosity because they are the anti-dote to Satan’s appeal.” He said: “God blesses character.” Then repeating what the Bishop of London said: “Be aware that your greatest temptations will come out of your strengths not your weaknesses.”
Fascinating listening to how he gave away the proceeds from the Purpose Driven Life and paid back 25 years worth of salary that Saddleback paid him. He now “tithes” 91 per cent of his income and he and his wife Kay live off the remaining 9 per cent.
Nicky Gumbel asked him “how do you avoid burn out?” and he rattled off a 4 point sermon on Nehemiah off the top of his head!
He told us in the UK church that things are better than we think. He told us to get our heads up. “Hey, I read the last chapter of the Bible . . . we win! The church is the only thing that’s going to last forever. My generation made a major mistake. We fell in love with the para-church, not the church. The more I focus on honouring the local church, the more God blesses my life.”
It was tragic when the interview ended. He’s speaking again tonight.