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?