The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
Day 16: What Matters Most?
- The most important thing God wants us to learn is how to love
- Love God and love people. Faith, hope and love last forever
- Use your time – invest, be intentional, focused attention
- Ending:
- Life is all about love
- Gal 5:14
- Are relationships your first priority? How can you ensure that they are?
Day 17: A place to belong
- Why you need a church family?
- Identifies you as a genuine believer
- Moves you out of self-centered isolation
- Helps you develop spiritual muscle
- Body of Christ needs you – we have our own spiritual gifts
- You will share in God’s mission for the world
- Ending:
- You are called to belong, not just believe
- Rom 12:5
- Does your level of involvement in your local church demonstrate that you love and are committed to God’s family?
Day 18: Experiencing life together
- 9 characteristics of biblical fellowship (1-4)
- Authenticity – take risks, confess faults, sins, pain – pray for each other
- Mutuality – depend on each other, encourage each other
- Sympathy – share in the pain with others, support
- Mercy – offer it and receive it. Don’t hold grudges, forgive. God has shown us more mercy than we ever could
- Ending:
- You need others in your life
- Gal 6:2
- What one step can you take today to connect more deeply with another believer on a heart to heart level?
Day 19: Cultivating Community
- 9 characteristics of biblical fellowship (5-9)
- Honesty – Need to be honest with yourself and with others, confront others for their sin without being judgmental
- Humility – pride builds walls, humility builds bridges
- Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less
- Courtesy – be kind to all, even when they may be EGR’s (extra grace required 😉)
- Confidentiality – what happens in the group stays in the group
- Frequency – meet together consistently, even when you don’t feel like it
- Ending:
- Community requires commitment
- 1 John 3:16
- How can you help cultivate today the characteristics of community in your small group and your church?
Day 20: Restoring Broken Fellowship
- 7 biblical steps to restoring broken fellowship
- Talk to God before talking to the person
- Always take the initiative – doesn’t matter if you were the offender or the offended
- Sympathize with their feelings – listen before speaking
- Confess your part of the conflict
- Attack the problem, not the person – don’t play the blame game
- Cooperate as much as possible
- Live in peace with everybody
- May cost our pride
- Costs our self-centeredness
- Emphasize reconciliation, not resolution – disagree without being disagreeable
- Ending:
- Relationships are always worth restoring
- Rom. 12:18
- Who do you need to restore a broken relationship with today?