Rick Warren Gives His Last Sermon at Saddleback Church After 43 Years: “It’s Been My Privilege to Love You”

After 43 years of leading the Saddleback Church, Rick Warren delivers his final sermon there, titled “It’s Been My Privilege to Love You.”

Rick Warren’s last sermon as pastor of Saddleback Church was on Sunday. It was the same message he gave more than 40 years ago: people should “invest” their lives in something that will last forever.

Rick and Kay Warren started Saddleback, a church in California with 40,000 members, at Laguna Hills High School in 1980.

On March 30, 1980, about 50 people came to the first Sunday. Most of them were strangers. Warren had just graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 25 years old.

Warren said during Sunday’s message, “We didn’t know each other. They didn’t know me, I didn’t know them, and they didn’t know each other.” “Only 50 to 60 people came because I sent a letter to the community,” the organizer said.

But the church made a big difference almost right away. Over the next nine months, 60 people were baptized.

He said that Saddleback was started with a “purpose-driven value” and “with the end in mind.”

“This is what it means to be goal-oriented: to start with the end in mind. Warren said, “Know where you’re going.”

Warren used the same wooden pulpit for his last sermon that he had used for the first 15 years of Saddleback. A member of the church built it.

“”It has been my honor to love you, pray for you, serve you, encourage you, stand by your graves, stand by your bedsides, do your weddings, help you through hard times, encourage you, and teach you for 43 years,” he said.

In 1980, he spoke about Zechariah for the first time.

“No human strength can build a new place of worship. Only God’s power can do that,” Warren said when he preached his first sermon again. “…We’ll need the help of God’s spirit to build a new place of worship.

“Will you come with us on this expensive trip, this big adventure? “, he asked. “Will you join us in living our lives based on what God’s Word says? Will you help us carry out God’s will?