The New Life in Christ: Cultivating Community. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

Cultivating community takes humility:

Self-importance, smugness, and stubborn pride destroy fellowship faster than anything else. Pride builds walls between people; humility builds bridges.

Humility is the oil that smoothes and soothes relationships.

That’s why the Bible says, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” The proper dress for fellowship is a humble attitude.

The rest of that word says, “…because, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

This is the other reason we need to be humble: Pride blocks God’s grace in our lives, which we must have in order to grow, change, heal, and help others.

We receive God’s grace by humbly admitting that we need it.

The Bible says anytime we are prideful, we are living in opposition to God! That is a foolish and dangerous way to live.

Amen.

The New Life in Christ: Cultivating Community. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

Community requires commitment.

Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but he cultivates it with the choices and commitments we make.

Real fellowship depends on frankness.

Frankness is not a license to say anything you want, wherever and whenever you want. It is not rudeness. The Bible tells us there is a right time and a right way to do everything.

Thoughtless words leave lasting wounds.

God tells us to speak each other in the church as loving members: “Never use harsh words when you correct an older man, but talk to him as if he were your father. Talk to younger men as if they were your brothers, older women as if they were your mothers, and younger women as if they were your sisters.”

God said, “I will show kindness to anyone to whom I want to show kindness, and I will show mercy to anyone to whom I want to show mercy.” Romans 9:15.

(Then who are we, after all human beings have the rights to hurt the believers by using wounding words? This attitude of such people will surely destroy the fellowship-Living witness.)

Amen.

The New Life in Christ: We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

You were created to become like Christ.

God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development.

He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.

Christlikeness is all about transforming your character, not your personality.

Many Christians misinterpret Jesus’ promise of the “abundant life” to mean perfect health, a comfortable lifestyle, constant happiness, full realization of your dreams, and instant relief from problems through faith and prayer.

In a word, they expect the Christian life to be easy. They expect heaven on earth.

Never forget that life is not about you! You exist for God’s purposes, not vice versa.
Amen.

The New Life in Christ: Transformed by Trouble. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

God has a purpose behind every problem.

Understanding Romans 8:28-29.

This is one of the most misquoted and misunderstood passages in the Bible. It doesn’t say, “God causes everything to work out the way I want it to.” Obviously that’s not true. It also doesn’t say, “God causes everything to work out to have a happy ending on earth.” That is not true either. There are many unhappy endings on earth.

 Amen.

The New Life in Christ: Planned for God’s Pleasure. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

Worship is far more than music.

For many people, worship is a synonym for music.

Actually, worship predates music. Adam worshiped in the Garden of Eden, but music isn’t mentioned until Genesis 4:21 with the birth of Jubal. If worship were just music, then all who are nonmusical could never worship. Worship is far more than music.

Even worse, “worship” is often misused to refer to a particular style of music: “First we sang a hymn, then a praise and worship song.” Or, “I like the fast praise songs but enjoy the slow worship songs the most.”

In this usage, if a song is fast or loud or uses brass instruments, it’s considered “praise.”

But if it is slow and quiet and intimate, may be accompanied by guitar, that’s worship.

This is a common misuse of the term “worship.”

Christians often disagree over the style of music used in worship, passionately defending their preferred style as the most biblical or God-honoring. But there is no biblical style! There are no musical notes in the Bible; we don’t even have the instruments they used in Bible times.

Frankly, the music style you like best says more about you-your background and personality-than it does about God.

Amen.

The New Life in Christ: Thinking Like a Servant. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

My servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely. Numbers 14:24. (NCV)

Money has the greatest potential to replace God in your life.

The Bible is very clear: God uses money to test your faithfulness as a servant.

That is why Jesus talked more about money than he did about either heaven or hell.

He said, “If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” How you manage money affects how much God can bless your life.

There are two kinds of people: Kingdom Builders and Wealth Builders. Both are gifted at making a business grow, making deals or sales, and making a profit.

Wealth Builders continue to amass wealth for themselves no matter how much they make,

but Kingdom Builders change the rules of the game. They still try to make as much money as they can, but they do it in order to give it away. They use the wealth to fund God’s church and its mission in the world.

Unfortunately, a lot of our service is often self-serving.

We serve to get others to like us, to be admired, or to achieve our own goals. That is manipulation, not ministry.

Amen.

The New Life in Christ: Thinking Like a Servant. (The Purpose Driven Life-RICK WARREN.)

My servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely. Numbers 14:24. (NCV)

Real servants don’t try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for his purposes.

Servants think like steward, not owners.

To become a real servant you are going to have to settle the issue of money in your life. Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and Money.”

He didn’t say, “You should not,” but “You can not.” It is impossible.

Living for ministry and living for money are mutually exclusive goals. Which one will you choose? If you are a servant of God, you can’t moonlight for yourself. All your time belongs to God. He insists on exclusive allegiance, not part-time faithfulness.

Money has the greatest potential to replace God in your life.

When Jesus is your master, money serves you, but money is your master, you become its slave.

Wealth is certainly not a sin, but failing to use it for God’s glory is.

Amen.