series of messages otherwise made up of Scripture and Scripture sermons. An example of a Scripture for Scripture message is the seventh of eight messages in the series
"Achieving Through Believing." The title of the message is "God's Strategy for Your Success" and is based on Joshua 1. The outline is as follows:
God never asks us to do anything without His help. He gave Joshua a 5 point strategy for success:
v.7-8: The Guarantee: If you do what I have said, you will be successful 1. BE CLEAR IN YOUR DIRECTION (vs. 1-4)
2. BE CONFIDENT IN YOUR DESIRES (vs. 6, 7, 9) Three things that can destroy your confidence:
* Experiences
* Emotions
*Excuses
3. BE COMMITTED TO YOUR DECISION (vs. 9b) Three sources of discouragement
*Problems
*Pressures
*People
4. BE CORRECTED BY YOUR DEFEATS (vs. 7) Example - Chapter 7: 1-13
The Defeat at Ai
5. BE CONSCIOUS OF GOD'S DEPENDABILITY
*His power (vs. 5a)
*His protection (vs. 5b)
*Prosperity (vs. 8b)
*Presence (vs. 9b)(his emphasis)51
Though his subpoints under points two and three were not directly based on a verse, Joshua did experience all of these to one degree or other either serving under Moses or in leading Israel himself. The subpoints under points four and five are clearly from the text or from the book of Joshua.
In all, twenty-two of the eighty-two messages that have been obtained for this study fall into the Scripture for Scripture category. If the sample that is being used is a representative sample of Warren's sermons, then he preaches verse-by-verse through one main text approximately 27 percent of the time in weekend services at Saddleback. This percentage does not include series that are focused around one text of Scripture, as in the Scripture Interprets Scripture category, except when one of the sermons deals with the passage as a whole such as the first in the series from 1 Corinthians 13. In these cases, each sermon gets its topic or thrust from the guiding passage, but the individual points are built off other scriptures, thus they are very similar to verse-with-verse sermons. The one exception to this rule is any series through a book of the Bible, like James and
Ecclesiastes, but that has not been included in the figure since that is an anomaly.
One additional point that is worth noting in looking at the Scripture for Scripture sermons is that there appears to have been more of these types of sermons
51Rick Warren, "God's Strategy for Your Success," Achieving through Believing, pt. 7 (Mission Viejo, CA: Saddleback Valley Community Church, 1985), sermon transcript.
earlier in Warren's preaching. Both the series Achieving through Believing and What God Can Do through Ordinary You are full of verse-by-verse, or Scripture for Scripture, sermons. Both of them were preached in 1985. The later of the two series is made up of only this type of sermon. 52 More recent series like Essentials for 21 st Century Living and The Purpose Driven Life only have a total of one sermon, out of seventeen, that are verse- by-verse. It is interesting to note that the Christmas collection often sermons, acquired for this study, holds very closely to the overall trend of categorizing Warren's sermons.
Three of the ten sermons, or thirty percent, are verse-by-verse and the rest are verse-with- verse, referred to as Scripture and Scripture for this study.53
Scripture and Scripture. The predominate approach to sermon development that Warren advocates in both his Purpose Driven Preaching Conference and The Purpose Driven Church is the verse-with-verse method. This emphasis is carried over into his weekend messages. If one includes the sermons where he uses a word as the guiding theme for a message, like in the Fruit of the Spirit series called, Nine Secrets of Healthy Relationships, and one includes the messages that are based around a phrase or brief verse, such as in Stressbusters and The Road to Recovery, then Warren preaches verse- with-verse around 70 percent ofthe time. 54
52See Rick Warren, What God Can Do Through Ordinary You, pts. 1-6 (Mission Viejo, CA:
Saddleback Valley Community Church, 1985), sermon transcripts. This series is the only series, outside of the rare book series like James, that this author found of Warren's that is made up of entirely verse-by-verse sermons.
53Rick Warren, Christmas Collection, pts. 1-10 (Mission Viejo, CA: Saddleback Valley Community Church, 1991-2000), sermon transcripts.
54This percentage was arrived at by subtracting the percentage of verse-by-verse sermons from one hundred. The additional three percent is left to account for the rare occasion when Warren preaches through a book.
According to pastors.com the sermon series that is most often purchased is the 1999 series called Essentials for 21 st Century Living.55 The first message, The Five Essentials of Life is listed as the second most purchased of all of Warren's sermons. 56 Below is the outline of points and texts used in that message:
1. I Need Power to Live on
"Even youth grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. "
Isa. 40:30-31 (NASB)
"Be still, and know that 1 am God." Ps. 46:10 (NIV) 2. I Need People to Live with
"God said, 'It is not goodfor the man to be alone ... '" Genesis 2:18 (NIV)
"Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together.
if
one faIls down, the other can help him up." Ecd. 4:9-10a (NCV)"Let us not neglect our meeting together ... " Reb. 10:24-25 (NLT) 3. I Need Principles to Live by
"1 am a pilgrim here on earth; 1 need a map - and Your commands are my chart and guide." Ps. 119:19 (LB)
"Everyone who hears My words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock." Matt. 7:24 (NCV)
4. I Need a Plan to Live out
"God has made us what we are, in Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works.
which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." Eph. 2: 10 (NCV)
"God gives us many kind ofspecial abilities, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service to God, but it is the same Lord we are serving." 1 Cor. 12:4-5 (LB)
55See "Top 10 Best Selling Series" [on-line]; accessed 14 November 2004; available from www.pastors.com. pcom! sermonsibestsellingseries .asp; Internet.
56See "Top 10 Best Selling Sermons" [on-line]; accessed 14 November 2004; available from www.pastors.com. pcom! sermonsibestsellingsermons.asp; Internet.