Five purposes for your life and key concepts from the book...

This is from the Purpose Driven Life, a book written by Rick Warren and the book our church in Heidelberg has been going through for Lent. It was a challenging book and I loved it but there was so much to take in that I really needed to summarize it in some way so I could digest it better over the next forty days and beyond. Maybe you will find these notes from the book useful:

Purpose Driven Life
Key Concepts
 Focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose
 You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, life will never make sense
 It’s not about me
 Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.
 I am not an accident
 Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purpose for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them.
 If you want your life to have impact, focus it!
 You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.
 Living on purpose is the path to peace.
 This life is preparation for the next.
 When you live in light of eternity, your values change
 There is more to life than just here and now
 Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test
 The more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be
 Life is a test and a trust
 Your identity is in eternity, and your homeland is heaven
 Earth is not our final home; we were created for something much better
 Living for God’s glory is the greatest achievement we can accomplish with our lives
 When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God
 Jesus will give you everything you need to live for him
 It’s all for him
 Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship
 I was planned for God’s pleasure
 What God wants most from you is a relationship
 Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what’s best for your life.
 God enjoys watching every detail of your life
 God smiles when I trust him
 Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about
 Surrender is best demonstrated in obedience and trust
 Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live. Nothing else works.
 The heart of worship is surrender
 Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure
 Everything you do can be “spending time with God” if he is invited to be a part of it and you stay aware of his presence
 God wants to be my best friend
 God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty
 Bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God
 The more you become God’s friend, the more you will care about the things he cares about
 I’m as close to God as I choose to be
 God-pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal. We use both our hearts and our heads.
 The best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love for God.
 Real worship is rooted in the Word.
 God wants all of me
 God admits that sometimes he hides his face from us
 The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God
 When you feel abandoned by God yet continue to trust him, you worship him in the deepest way.
 God is real, no matter how I feel
 Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever.
 Being included in God’s family is the highest honor and the greatest privilege you will ever receive
 I was formed for Gods family
 Relationships are what life is all about
 The greatest gift you can give someone is your time
 Live is all about love
 We discover our role in life through our relationships with others
 The church will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it
 Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; he has promised to build his church.
 I am called to belong, not just believe.
 Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives
 Every time you understand and affirm someone’s feelings, you build fellowship
 I need others in my life
 When conflict is handled correctly, we grow closer to each other
 Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less
 The fellowship of the church is more important than any individual
 Community requires commitment
 God expects you to make the first move
 In resolving conflict, how you say it is as important as what you say
 Reconciliation focuses on the relationship while resolution focuses on the problem
 Relationships are always worth restoring
 Nothing on earth is more valuable to God than his church
 We must passionately love the church in spite of its imperfections
 We protect the fellowship when we honor those who serve us by leading
 It is my responsibility to protect the unity of my church
 Gods ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort; but character development
 Your character is essentially the sum of your habits
 God is far more interested in what you are than in what you do
 I was created to become like Christ
 We become whatever we are committed to
 The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act
 It is never too late to start growing
 The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make us like the Son of God
 Many who claim to believe the Bible “from cover to cover” have never read it from cover to cover”
 The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable!
 The truth transforms me
 Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days
 Everything that happens to you has spiritual significance
 What happens outwardly in your life is not as important as what happens inside you.
 There is purpose behind every problem
 God develops the fruit of the Spirit by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you’re tempted to express the exact opposite quality!
 We think temptation lies around us, but God says it begins within us
 Temptation is a sign that Satan hates you, not a sign of weakness or worldliness
 Every temptation is an opportunity to do good
 The battle for sin is won or lost in your mind. Whatever gets your attention will get you
 The truth is, whatever you can’t talk about is already out of control in your life
 Don’t ever try to argue with the Devil. He’s better at arguing than you are, having had thousands of years to practice
 There is always a way out
 While we worry about how fast we grow, God is concerned about how strong we grow.
 There is no growth without chance, no change without fear or loss and no loss without pain
 God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time.
 There are no shortcuts to maturity
 If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others, I should question whether Christ is really in my life
 Spiritual maturity is never an end in itself. We grow up in order to give out
 Service is the pathway to real significance
 Service is not optional
 God never wastes anything
 An unopened gift is worthless
 When you are doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you
 I was shaped for serving God
 What I’m able to do, God wants me to do
 It feels good to do what God made you to do
 For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them.
 Nobody else can be me
 You will never know what you’re good at until you try
 God wants you to enjoy using the shape he has given you
 God deserves my best
 Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity
 Great opportunities often disguise themselves in small tasks
 I serve God by serving others
 Real servants don’t try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for his purposes.
 The close you get to Jesus, the less you need to promote yourself
 To be a servant I must think like a servant
 If God only used perfect people, nothing would ever get done
 Your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts
 God works best when I admit my weakness
 Jesus calls us not only to come to him but to go for him
 The Great Commission was given to every follower of Jesus
 It is easy to get distracted because Satan would rather have you do anything besides sharing your faith
 I was made for a mission
 Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to others.
 While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser still to learn from the experience of others
 God wants to say something to the world through me.
 It has never been easier in history to fulfill your commission to go to the whole world
 People may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers
 “You can’t take it with you” – but the Bible says you can send it on ahead by investing in people who are going there!
 The Great Commission is my commission
 A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will make you a great Christian
 You owe it to future generations to preserve the testimony of how God helped you fulfill his purposes on earth.
 Blessed are the balanced
 When God’s at the center of your life, you worship. When he’s not, you worry
 Before most unbelievers accept the Bible as credible they want to know that we are credible
 You can start living on purpose today
 Living on purpose is the only way to really live

The Five Purposes with key points that really spoke to me:

1. “Love God with all your heart”: You were planned for God’s pleasure, so your purpose is to love God through worship
 What God wants most from you is a relationship
 Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what’s best for your life
 Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship
 Surrender is best demonstrated in obedience and trust
 The heart of worship is surrender
 The best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love for God
 When you feel abandoned by God yet continue to trust him, you worship him in the deepest way

2. “Love your neighbor as yourself”: You were shaped for serving, so your purpose is to show love for others through ministry
 If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others, I should question whether Christ is really in my life
 An unopened gift is worthless
 When you are doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you
 Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity
 Great opportunities often disguise themselves in small tasks
 I serve God by serving others

3. “Go and make disciples”: You were made for a mission, so your purpose is to share God’s message through evangelism.
 The Great Commission was given to every follower of Jesus
 It is easy to get distracted because Satan would rather have you do anything besides sharing your faith
 God wants to say something to the world through me.
 It has never been easier in history to fulfill your commission to go to the whole world
 Your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts
 People may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers

4. “baptize them into…”: You were formed for God’s family, so your purpose is to identify with his church through fellowship.
 Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives
 Every time you understand and affirm someone’s feelings, you build fellowship
 When conflict is handled correctly, we grow closer to each other
 Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less
 Reconciliation focuses on the relationship while resolution focuses on the problem

5. “teach them to do all things…”: You were created to become like Christ, so your purpose is to grow to maturity through discipleship.
 God is far more interested in what you are than in what you do
 Gods ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort; but character development
 Everything that happens to you has spiritual significance
 What happens outwardly in your life is not as important as what happens inside you.
 God develops the fruit of the Spirit by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you’re tempted to express the exact opposite quality!
 Temptation is a sign that Satan hates you, not a sign of weakness or worldliness