The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Day 21: Protecting your church

• 6 ways to do this:
  • Focus on what we have in common, not our differences
    • 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 purpose
    • Personal differences should never influence these things
  • Be realistic in your expectations
    • Love the church despite the imperfections
    • Reconciliation, not running is the road to stronger character and deeper fellowship
  • Choose to encourage rather than criticize
    • Judging another believer brings about 4 things:
      • You lose fellowship with God
      • You expose your own pride and insecurity
      • You set yourself up to be judged by God
      • You harm the fellowship of the church
    • My only comment here is that within your close group of friends, you should judge when you see a pattern of sin that needs to be brought into the light in a nurturing way to help that friend
  • Refuse to listen to gossip
  • Practice God’s method for conflict resolution:
    • Go tell them personally. They won’t listen…
    • Bring 1 or 2 others. Still won’t listen…
    • Tell the church
  • Support your pastors and leaders
• Ending:
  • It is my responsibility to protect the unity of my church
  • Rom 14:19
  • What am I personally doing to protect unity in my church family right now?

Purpose 3: You were created to become like Christ

Day 22: Created to become like Christ

• Life is not about us, it’s about what we can do for God
• Becoming more like Christ is called sanctification
• We grow closer through trials
• Paul explains in Ephesians our 3 responsibilities to become more like Christ:
  • Choose to let go of all ways of acting like the world
  • Change the way we think – transformed by the ways of our mind
  • Put on the character of Christ by developing Godly habits
    • Study and apply God’s Word
    • Connect regularly with other believers
    • Trust God in difficult circumstances
• It is a long, slow progress, so don’t get weary, keep pursuing
• Ending:
  • You were created to become like Christ
  • 2 Cor 3:18b
  • In what area of your life do you need to ask for the Spirit’s power to be more like Christ today?

Day 23: How We Grow

• We become what we’re committed to
• To become like Christ, you must learn to act in new ways:
  • Let go of old routines
  • Develop new habits
  • Intentionally change the way you think
• Must rely on Christ to get this done, not on ourselves
• Think of others, not yourself
• Ending:
  • It is never too late to start growing
  • Rom 12:2b
  • What is one area that you need to stop thinking your way and start thinking God’s way?

Day 24: Transformed by Truth

• Choose the Bible as your ultimate truth
• Assimilate its truth – fill your mind with it to truly be transformed
  • Receive it
    • Listen to it openly
    • Humbly welcome it into your life
  • Read it
    • If you read it 15 minutes a day you’ll read through it in a year
    • How can you expect to grow spiritually if you don’t get into the Word
    • Create a plan
  • Research it
    • Ask questions on the text
    • Write down your insights
  • Remember it
    • You remember what is important to you
    • Many benefits to memorizing scripture
  • Reflect on it
    • Biblical meditation – focused thinking
    • If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate, only this is focusing on the negative
• Apply these principles
  • Those 5 practices won’t mean anything if we don’t implement it in your life
  • This can be difficult and painful at times, but it will set you free
  • Again, create a plan
    • Personal
    • Practical
    • Provable
  • Have a small group to keep you accountable
• Ending:
  • The truth transforms me
  • John 8:31-32
  • What has God already told you in His Word that you have not started doing yet?

Day 25: Transformed by Trouble

• Problems force us to look to Christ and not ourselves
• Everything happens for a reason
  • We know – through the Bible we know the ultimate goal
  • Everything – all events in your life work together
  • For the good – God works everything for good to those that follow Him
  • According to His purpose
  • Building Christlike character
• Responding to problems like Jesus
  • Remember God’s plan is good – focus on that and not your pain or problems
    • Corrie Ten Boom once said, “If you look at the world you’ll be distressed, if you look within you’ll be depressed, if you look to God you’ll be at rest.”
  • Rejoice and give thanks – our reward is in Heaven
  • Refuse to give up – be patient and persistent
• Ending:
  • There is a purpose behind every problem
  • Rom 8:28
  • What problem in your life has caused the greatest growth in you?