Do you know Paul Washer?

At some point in your life you asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior. He became Lord, but you are endlessly wrestling with him about that. Stop wrestling with him. He is your Savior, get out of the way. He wants to be Lord. He calms doubts and fears.

If you are struggling with unrealistic fears there are several medications available. It is no sin to take meds.

http://www.lesfeldick.org/lesqa.html

 

I like Paul Washer. He's young but reminds me of the old school turn or burn Southern Baptists.

Very biblical and very fresh. We need preaching like this today.


My favorite moment in his sermon:

He says something about people in this country being fake about following Christ. And about how we should all strive to follow Christ, or something to that effect. The kids in the crowd cheer, and clap, and shout amen.


And then he says, "I don't know what you're cheering for, I'm talking about you."

Then you could hear a pin drop.


Priceless.


Soli Deo Gloria,
Dustin

 

Good question. What are the motives for the shocking?

• Unfortunately, some do it to emotionally manipulate, so as to increase the "number of decisions."
• Some do it because it brings them recognition and feeds their ego.
• Others do it because they enjoy the power of manipulating a crowd.
• Still others do it out of a misguided sense that they have to be "extreme" in order to "get through" to their audience (particularly true in youth ministry circles).

Sometimes, the word from God, or God's Word itself, is shocking. And that shouldn't be glossed over. But when we have something shocking to say, we should...

• Check our motives. Is this about me, or God?
• Are your "shocking statements" necessary? Are they likely to be misunderstood by the hearers?
• Does God want you to say what you're saying in a shocking way? Or will the shock value stuff simply draw attention to itself, and away from God?
• Will your statements cause a weaker brother to stumble?
• Is what you're saying truthful?

I'll probably think of more later.

 

He has been to our church a few times, and will leave the comments at that.

 

Why is that?

 

xd,
I think you're a bit off. Paul Washer is a missionary. He's been to places where people die for professing faith in Christ, where people are persecuted everyday for naming the name of Christ as Lord and Savior.

Most of us here in the United States have no idea what that is like. Most churches here would crumble under such persecution. People seem to forget that as far as nations go, we're pampered. Compared to most other places, we've got it made. I'm including myself here. The hurricanes in 2005 reminded me of exactly how good we have it.

What he was doing in that sermon was pointing that out. He was faithfully expounding the Bible. There is nothing wrong with doing that. Peter had no regret faithfully preaching the Gospel messege at Pentecost. Men were pricked in thier heart when they heard it. That is an undeniably GOOD thing. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, had no problem plainly and faithfully speaking the truth to those who accused him. What happened? It enraged the people and they stoned him.

What Peter and Stephen and Paul Washer were doing was not preaching what people wanted to hear, but what they NEEDED to hear. They were faithfully preaching the Word of God. It works ultimately for the good of the people who listen and are pricked in thier heart. A person who thinks they're not doing anything wrong cannot repent of doing wrong. They have to be told what thier condition is Biblically.

Paul Washer preached a Biblical messege faithfully. It's not a gimmick or some cool thing he likes to do. I also doubt that he's the one who posts his sermons or writes up the descriptions on sermonaudio. Even if it was, I think it is to get people to listen to the actual messege, because it needs to be heard, not to have it be the most downloaded sermon on there.

Come to think of it, it is. It past Johnathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" a while back.

I still think that we need more messeges like this.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Dustin

 

Let me also clear something up...my comments were to xdx's question about "shocking people;" I do not know Mr. Washer and haven't yet listened to his stuff.

 

The message he preached is availible on the internet. I think you can find it at sermonaudio.com and his own website. Don't have the URL at my fingertips, but Google Paul Washer or Heartcry Missions and you can find it.

I've heard the sermon. It was thorougly Biblical and meaty as all get-out.

The fact that his message shocked some says a lot about what a lot of folks are used to hearing preached. And it definitely was not the sermon you usually expect to hear at a youth rally.

Listen to the sermon, then come back and comment on it.

Let's put it this way. Paul Washer doesn't play church.

 

XDX, I have been listening to a Paul Washer sermon and you will do well to listen to him as well. He preaches solid Christianity, not feel good stuff. This guy is the real deal.

 

How would he know if his audience was "fake" about following Christ? He's making an enormous assumption.

Sure, he just recklessly called them hypocrites.

While there may be many in the room who are hypocrites, most teens (and adults) today have not been discipled and honestly don't know how to follow Christ in transformation and power. We can't expect teens to honestly overcome sinful temptations unless we show them how to connect to the life and power of Christ. Nor can we expect them to bear the fruit of the Spirit unless we show them how to do what Jesus did.

I would say he is merely condemning them without solid information or compassion.

 

You really should listen to the sermon before you make these statements. You are also condemning him with solid information.

 

The sermon was preached at one of those week long youth rallys. So I would assume he knew what he was talking about, as he had been there for a few days, talking to the kids, youth pastors, etc.

The reason he came down so hard on those kids was because he cared for thier souls, not just to make a reputation for himself. In the sermon he was talking about one of the biggest problems in churches today, the kids were hearing messeges that just excited an emotional response. Just getting them psyched up. He talked about how he had heard many such sermons that week. He was preaching what they needed to hear instead of some messege to get a psyched up emotional response.

At any rate, you should actually listen to the sermon before you say such things.

Sermonaudio.com has the audio, video, and the transcribed versions of it. You can watch, listen, read or download for free. I know people who listened to that sermon and downloaded it and burned copies to give to relatives and members of thier church.

After listening to it 3 times, watching once, and reading back over it, I can't say anything but Paul Washer was very genuine at the very least. It is a very biblical messege, shocking as it might be, that we all need to listen to. We need more people like him preaching in our churches, whether it be a Baptist church or a Reformed church.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Dustin

 

Exactly, it is a thing only God can produce.

 

I don't listen to Way Of The Master much anymore, because of the ways they go about evangilizing sometimes. It's neat to listen to the open air preaching, but after you've heard the "are you a good person" method 500 times, it gets a little old. I wonder if they've ever thought of changing the forumula a little, get even more biblical with it. I like the way they use the Law, which is very biblical, but it falls short in other areas (too man centered).

In the book of Acts, Paul was on Mars Hill preaching the Gospel to all the Athenian philosophers, and when he got to the resurrection, they didn't want to hear anymore. Sometimes people aren't receptive. But, the Bible also says that some people who were on Mars Hill believed, so Paul's efforts weren't in vain.

God's Word never returns void.


Soli Deo Gloria,
Dustin

 

I believe my post said I will leave it at that.