What have we learned? 40 Days of Purpose
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
The Purpose Driven Life – Part 7
Rick Warren
Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
November 9-10, 2002
Sermon Outline Notes
“Remember today what you have learned about the Lord
through your experiences with Him.” Deut. 11:2 (TEV)
ABOUT GOD?
1. THAT IT’S ALL ABOUT GOD, NOT ME
“God is the one who made all things, and all things are for
His glory. He wanted to have many children share His glory...”
Heb. 2:10a (NCV)
“Everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” Col. 1:16 (Msg)
2. THAT GOD STILL DOES MIRACLES
"You are the God of miracles and wonders! You still
demonstrate Your awesome power." Ps. 77:14 (LB)
ABOUT LIFE?
1. THAT LIFE IS PREPARATION FOR ETERNITY
“God has planted eternity in the human heart.”
Eccl. 3:11 (NLT)
2. THAT WE’RE PUT ON EARTH FOR 5 PURPOSES
"The Lord has made everything for His purpose."
Prov. 16:4 (NLT)
I WAS.... BIBLE WORD:
Planned for God’s pleasure Worship
Formed for God’s family Fellowship
Created to become like Christ Discipleship
Shaped to serve God Ministry
Made for a mission Evangelism
ABOUT SPIRITUAL GROWTH?
1. THAT WE GROW THROUGH MAKING COMMITMENTS
"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
James 2:17 (NIV)
2. THAT WE GROW THROUGH FELLOWSHIP
“As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other.”
Prov. 27:17 (NCV)
“Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received
and heard... and the God of peace will be with you.”
Phil. 4:9 (NRSV)
ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY?
1. THAT PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY FOR SPIRITUAL TRUTH
“Look around you! Vast fields of human souls are ripening all
around us, and are ready now for reaping.” John 4:35 (LB)
NOW WHAT?
START LIVING WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED!
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you
do them.” John 13:17 (NIV)
“Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the
meaning of life but as those who do.” Eph. 5:15 (Ph)
“Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it!” Phil. 3:16 (Msg)
PASS IT ON!
“Now I want you to tell these same things to followers who
can be trusted to tell others.” 2 Tim. 2:2b (CEV)
“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for every one of you
because the news of your faith is spreading throughout the
whole world.” Rom. 1:8 (GW)
11-20-05
Dallas Baptist Church
Celebration…What have we learned
Deuteronomy 11:2
Sermon Transcript
It's hard to believe we're at the end of 40 days.
Would you take your outline.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 11:2, "Remember today what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with Him."
A key word is the word "remember".
Many times the Bible tells us to remember the lessons we have learned; otherwise, we have to learn them over and over and over and over.
Some things we only learn through experience.
So today, we're going to look at what have we learned about God,
what we’ve learned about ourselves, about life,
about growing, about our community.
So what have we learned? What have we learned about God?
The first thing we've learned is that it's all about God, not me.
It's all about God, not me.
The Bible says in Hebrews 2:10, "God is the one who made all things and all things are for His glory. He wanted to have many children share His glory.”
We began our 40 Days by saying the purpose of our lives is far greater than our happiness.
It's greater than personal fulfillment.
It is greater than success.
We were made by God and for God (you can probably finish this by now), and until we understand that, life doesn't make sense.
You were made for God.
And the Bible says that God made us for His forever family.
The Bible says, "Everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.”
Now, this is the most basic truth you have to learn about life;
that life is not about you, it is about God.
You were made for God, and you were made to live with God forever in eternity; and you exist for God, not vice versa.
Now, when you understand that, doesn't that change everything?
Doesn't that just kind of change your priorities and your perspective and a lot of other things?
If we would just get that one down. It’s not about you. It’s not about me.
It is all about God…we would be so much happier in life; that is the fundamental truth of life.
Now, the second thing, we learned about God is this:
that God still does miracles.
Miracles of healing.
Miracles of forgiveness.
Miracles of salvation.
Our God is a miracle-working God and nothing is impossible to Him.
He is good. And He is worthy of our praise.
Let's thank God for his graciousness for all that He's done in the last 40 days.
We’ve also learned a lot about life.
Number one, we learned that life is preparation for eternity.
In fact, if someone were to say to you this question, “What is the meaning of life?”, there isn’t a better three-word answer than “preparation for eternity.”
Maybe someone will ask you this week, and now you’ve got the answer…at your office, one of your kids, who knows?
Look at what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11. “God has planted eternity in the human heart.”
God plants that in our hearts.
Every one of us looks forward to an eternity, but the purpose driven life helps to prepare us for that eternity, it helps get us ready for what God wants to do in our lives, the rest of our lives.
There's no job that can give me significance above the fact that I was made to last forever, the fact that God wants me, the fact that God loves me. There's no relationship in this world that can give me significance over that fact.
It changes my perspective; it gives me the priorities to live for, because I was made to live for eternity.
And that takes a lifetime for all of us to learn.
Learn these purposes of life so we can balance the purposes of life.
And the only way to remember something is to review it.
So we’re going to take just a few minutes to review what we talked about these last 40 days, these five purposes.
There are fill-ins there, you help me with the fill-ins; all right?
We’ve learned that we’re put on earth for 5 purposes. [Power Point slide quotes Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for His purpose.”] Number one, I was planned for what?
I was planned for God's pleasure.
The Bible word for that is "worship."
Secondly, I was formed for God's family. Family.
I was planned for God's pleasure. I was formed for God's family.
And the Bible word for that is "fellowship."
I was created to become like Christ. And the Bible word for that is "discipleship," becoming like Jesus Christ.
And then the fourth purpose, I was shaped to serve God.
I was shaped to serve God. The Bible word for that is "ministry," that’s what God made me for.
Then the last purpose, the fifth purpose, I was made for a mission.
And the Bible word for that is "evangelism."
That's why God put me here. That's why God put you here, to do those things in our lives and through our lives.
When I get a hold of God's five purposes for my life, when you get a hold of that for your life, you realize I was put on this earth for God's pleasure.
My life is not an accident. I was made. I was created to live for God.
What have we learned about growing?
We learned that we grow through making commitments, and we grow through fellowship.
And if anything summarizes what the last 40 days has been all about,
it has been about those two things:
Making commitments and fellowship.
It takes more than coming to church to grow.
You're not going to grow only by coming church.
You have to act on what you learn.
The Bible says in James 2:17, "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is" – what? – "is dead."
You can go to church the rest of your life; but…if you don't do anything about it, it does you no good.
We also grow through fellowship because God's plan (we talked about this and it is in the book) always involves other people.
You cannot grow on your own. That is a myth.
In other religions, the holy man is the person who hides himself away from humanity and lives up in the mountain by himself.
But, NOT in God's Book.
God says if you're going to be holy, you have to be around other people, because holiness is love and you can't love people unless you're around them. So you got to get with other people.
That's been the whole general thrust of this, that 25,000 of you made a real step, a real step for some of you, to get involved in a group.
Some of you for the very first time said, “I’ll go to a fellowship and I’ll have a daily devotional reading.”
Proverbs 27 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other."
I want to ask you a question: How many of you would say you grew more with other people than you would have on your own.
Now, this is why we're never going to stop talking about small groups in this church, not until every Dallas attendee is connected, because you cannot grow without other people.
You have to have other people in your life who get there with you and you grow and you develop.
Look at this next verse, Philippians 4:9, let's read it aloud together. “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard, and the God of peace will be with you.”
He's saying, “Why in the world would you stop doing what helps you the most?”
Okay. You need to stay in a group.
Now, you have three options, okay?
One is you can stay in the group you're in, and that's fine.
And if you do, you need to keep in touch during the holidays.
You’re probably going to take a couple weeks off during the holidays, which is great, but you ought to stay in touch with your group during the holidays. Stay with your group.
Or number two, you can join a new group. Maybe you’ll want to switch to a Sunday morning group.
Or number three, you can start a new group, because some of you as you were in this thing, about halfway through it, you figured, “You know what? I could have been a host.” Duh. Well, Yeah, duh.
So if you want to be a host, just let me know, write on your card "Host," and we'll let you start a whole new group. We'll get you some information.
Next, look at this verse on your screen, it’s Hebrews 10:25. "We should not stop gathering together with other believers. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more."
Why is that?
Because we grow through fellowship.
So we've learned a lot. We have learned a lot about God.
We learned a lot about life. We have learned a lot about growth.
And what did we learn about our community?
As some of our group hosts will tell you, People are hungry for spiritual truth.
I know some of you were flat-out surprised at who said yes when you invited people to your group.
And you probably didn’t expect there to be such a warm response.
But the fact is the world is hungry to know God's love, to know God's purpose. And the big myth is that they are not interested.
Look what the Jesus said in John 4, "Look around you! Vast fields of human souls are ripening all around us and they are ready now for reaping." God will use you if you're available.
In fact, He has used you.
Dallas Baptist Church is spiritually ready, and we are physically ready for the next wave of new believers.
Maturity is always for ministry and mission.
Maturity is never an end in itself.
Let me tell you a couple things God wants us to do.
Number one, write this down, start living what you have learned.
Put it into practice.
All the knowledge in the world is worthless unless we practice it.
Let's read these three verses: John 13, Ephesians 5, and Philippians 3 together, one right after the other.
First, let's read John 13: "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."
The blessing doesn't come in knowing the purposes of life.
The blessing comes in doing the purposes of life.
Let's read the next one, Ephesians 5, "Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do."
Did you know that you are more responsible than you were 40 days ago? You know more. You know what life is all about.
And God says you can't go back to the old way of living for things, living for pleasure, living for fun, living for prestige, living for success.
You can't go back to that because you know the meaning of life now.
So God says you have to live responsibly.
I was planned for God's pleasure, so I better worship God today.
I was formed for God's family, so I better fellowship with some other believers.
I was created to be like Christ.
I was shaped to serve God.
I was made for mission; therefore, I should build my life on these things.
I can't go back.
As Philippians 3:16 says, look at the next verse, "Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it!" Let's stay on.
Let me give you a couple suggestions for doing this.
How many of you remember everything you read in the book?
So I want to suggest that you reread the book several times over this next year.
In fact, if you want to do it in a group again, that's fine.
Second, get involved in some of the classes we will offer next year.
And then the third thing is keep having your daily devotional, having the time with the Lord.
But don’t stop there…pass it on. Pass it on.
You only keep what you give away.
God doesn't want you to be a reservoir.
He wants you to be a funnel.
There's almost nothing that God won't do for the person that says, “God, I’m a straw. Use me to bless other people.”
There are many, many different ways that you can pass it on to others:
you share a truth,
you can write it in a letter, you can send an e-mail,
you can give them a book, you can bring them to church,
but whatever you do, pass it on, so you'll keep growing.
My prayer would be that Romans 1:8 would fit us here at Dallas Baptist Church…Paul was praising and giving thanks for the way the Roman church was spreading the good news…he wrote: “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for every one of you because the news of your faith is spreading throughout the whole world.”
As we close in this service, I want us to pray a prayer together with our eyes open. Inside your program is a Purpose Driven Life card, I want you to pull this out. This is the commitment card for the 40 days. There's nothing to sign up for; there's nothing to sign. I want you to put this in a prominent place to remind you of what is the purpose of life. Put it on your dashboard or your mirror or office or refrigerator, someplace like that. But I want us to read it aloud together as a prayer as a church family. Let's read it aloud together. Let's start with "Since life." Read it with me.
“Since life is preparation for eternity, I want to use my time on earth fulfilling God's five purposes for me. I was planned for God's pleasure,” that's worship, “so I will use this day to get to know and love God better. I was formed for God's family,” that's fellowship, “so I will use this day to show love to other believers. I was created to become like Christ,” that's discipleship, “so I will use this day to make choices to grow my character. I was shaped to serve God,” that's ministry, “so I will use this day to serve God by serving others. I was made for a mission,” that's evangelism, “so I will use this day to share the Good News.”
The Bible says in Psalm 126, “The Lord has done spectacular things for us.” And truly we are on holy ground.
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