Your Stewardship Moment from the Purpose Driven Life:

Using Your Personality: When God made you, He broke the mold. There never has been, and never will be, anybody exactly like you. It is obvious that God loves variety – just look around! He created each of us with a unique combination of personality traits. God made Introverts and extroverts. The Bible gives us plenty of proof that God uses all types of personalities. When you look at personality differences in the twelve disciples, it’s easy to see why they sometimes had interpersonal conflicts. 5-29-09

Your abilities were not given just to make a living; God gave them to you for your ministry. Peter said, “God has given each of you some special abilities, be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.” “Whatever you’re good at, you should be doing for your church!”. 5-22-09

What I am ABLE to do, God WANTS me to do. You are the only person on earth who can use your abilities. No one else can play your role, because they don’t have the unique shape that God has given you. The Bible says that God equips you “with all you need for doing His will.” To discover God’s will for your life, you should seriously examine what you are good at. 4-31-09

The second characteristic of serving God from your heart is EFFECTIVENESS. Whenever you do what God wired you to LOVE to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don’t care about a task, it is unlikely that you will excel at it. Don’t settle for just achieving “the good life”, because that good life is not good enough. Ultimately it doesn’t satisfy. You can have a lot to live ON and still have nothing to live FOR. Aim instead for “the better life” - - - serving God in a way that expresses your heart. Figure out what you love to do - - - what God gave you a heart to do - - - and then do it for His glory. 4-24-09

How do you know when you are serving God from your heart? The first telltale sign is ENTHUSIASM. When you are doing what you LOVE to do, no one has to motivate you or challenge you or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. The opposite is also true; when you don’t have a heart for what you’re doing, you are easily discouraged. 4-17-09

We instinctively care about some things and not about others. These are clues to where you should be serving. Your emotional heartbeat is the second key to understanding your shape for service. Don’t ignore your interests. Consider how they might be used for God’s glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things. Repeatedly the Bible says to “serve the Lord’ with all your heart.” God wants you to server Him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing or feel passionate about. 4-10-09

Whenever we forget these basic truths about gifts, it always causes trouble in the church. Two common problems are “gift-envy” and “gift-projection.” The first occurs when we compare our gifts with others’, feel dissatisfied with what God gave us, and become resentful or jealous of how God uses other. The second problem happens when we expect everyone else to have our gifts, do what we are called to do, and feel as passionate about it as we do. The Bible says, “there are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving.” 3-27-09

Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own benefit but for the benefit of OTHERS, just as other people were given gifts for your benefit. The Bible says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.” God planned it this way so we would need each other. When we use our gifts together, we all benefit. If others don’t see their gifts, you get cheated, and if you don’t use your gifts they get cheated. Have your taken time to discover YOUR spiritual gifts. An unopened gift is worthless. 3-20-09

Whenever God gives us an assignment, He always equips us with what we need to accomplish it. This custom combination of capabilities is called your SHAPE. God gives every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry. These are special God-empowered abilities for serving Him that are given only to believers. You can’t earn your spiritual gifts or deserve them – that’s why they are called GIFTS! They are an expression of God’s grace to you. No individual receives ALL the gifts .... that would defeat one of His purposes – to teach us to love and depend on each other. If you had them all you’d have no need of anyone else. You need to unwrap your spiritual gifts. 3-13-09

Note from Dalen: The Purpose inserts are from Purpose #4 in the book, “You Were Shaped for Serving God”. Recently we finished up Chapter 29 from the Purpose #4. For clarity you might want to remember what SHAPE means as you read the next several weeks. Warren created a simple acrostic: SHAPE S-spiritual gifts, H-heart, A-abilities, P-personalities, E-experience. From Chapter 30: Each of us was uniquely designed, or “shaped”, to do certain things. You are not an assembly-line product, mass produced without thought. You are a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece. God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve Him in a way that makes your ministry unique. As Ethel Waters said, “God doesn’t make junk.” 3-6-09

“What matters is not the DURATION of your life, but the DONATION of it. Not HOW LONG you lived, but HOW you lived.” If you’re not involved in any service of ministry, what excuse have you been using. Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, David had all kinds of family problems, Naomi was a widow, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed...... (and so on). That is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each on them in His service . He will use you, too, if you stop making excuses. A question to consider: What is hold me back from accepting God’s call to service Him?” 2-20-09

If you aren’t serving you’re just existing, because life is meant for ministry. God wants you to learn to love and serve others unselfishly. You are going to give your life for something. What will it be – a career, a sport, a hobby, fame, wealth? None of these will have lasting significance. Service is the pathway to real significance. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives.
2-13-09

One day God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves compared with what we invested in serving others. At that point, all our excuses for self-centeredness will sound hollow: “I was too busy” or “I had my own goals” or “I was preoccupied with working, having fun, or preparing for retirement.” To all excuses God will respond, “Sorry, wrong answer. I created, saved, and called you and commanded you to live a life of service. WHAT PART did you not understand?” 2-6-09

Serving is the opposite of our natural inclination. Most of the time we’re more interested in “serve us” than “service”. We say, “I’m looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me,” not “I’m looking for a place to serve and be a blessing”. We expect others to serve us, not visa versa. The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, “Who’s going to meet MY needs?” and starts asking, “Whose needs can I meet?” Do you EVER ask that question? 1-28-09

Today thousands of local churches are dying because of Christians who are unwilling to serve. They sit on the sidelines as spectators, and the Body suffers. For Christians, service is not optional, something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. Service is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came “to serve” and “to give” – and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too. Serving and giving sum up God’s fourth purpose for your life. Mother Teresa once said, “Holy living consists in doing God’s work with a smile.” 1-21-09

One reason why you need to be connected to a church family is to fulfill your calling to serve other believers in practical ways. The Bible says, “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” Your service is desperately needed in the Body of Christ – just ask any local church. Each of us has a role to play, and EVERY role is important. There is no small service to God, it all matters. 1-14-09

You are called to serve God. Growing up, you may have thought that being “called” by God was something only missionaries, pastors, nuns and other “full-time” church workers experienced, but the Bible says every Christian is called to service. Your call to salvation included your call to service. They are the same. Regardless of your job or career, you re called to “full-time” Christian service. A “non-serving Christian” is a contradiction in terms. 1-07-09

The next few weeks come from Purpose #4 “You Were Shaped for Serving God.” All of us who say we are Christian’s have an “assignment” according to Scripture and by Warren as well and it is two fold. First we were CREATED to serve God! Second we were SAVED to serve God! Keep this in mind as you read excerpts from Day 29.

“Accepting Your Assignment”. This will be the theme for the next two months of inserts into the bulletin starting with the following: “If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others, and I’m only concerned about my needs, I should question whether Christ is really in my life. A saved heart is one that wants to serve.” 1-02-09

“You were saved to serve God. The Bible says, ‘It is He who saved us and chose us for His holy work, not because we deserved it but because that was his plan.’ God redeemed you so you could do His ‘holy work’. You’re not save BY service, but you are saved FOR service. In God’s kingdom, you have a place, a purpose, a role, and a function to fulfill. This gives your life great significance and value.”
12-26-08

“You were created to serve God. Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your purposes. God has actually SHAPED you for this purpose. What God told Jeremiah is also true for you: ‘Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.’ You were placed on this planet for a special assignment.”
12-19-08

“God designed you to make a difference with your life. You were created to ADD to life on earth, not just take from it. God wants you to give something back. This is God’s fourth purpose for your life, and it is called your ‘ministry,’ or services. The Bible gives us the details.” 12-12-08

The next few weeks come from Purpose #4 “You Were Shaped for Serving God.” “We are simply God’s servants ... Each one of us does the work, work the Lord gave him to do: ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow.’ 1 Corinthians 3:5-6 (TEV). You were put on the earth to make a contribution. You weren’t created just to consume resources – to eat, breathe and take up space. 12-05-08

“Pray shorter conversational prayers CONTINUALLY through this day rather than trying to pray long sessions of complex prayers. Practicing the presence of God is a skill, a habit you can develp. Just as musicians practice scales every day in order to play beautiful music with ease, you must force yourself to think about God at different times in your day. You must train your mind to remember God.”
11-28-08

“Today we often feel we must “get away” from our daily routine in order to worship God, but that is only because we haven’t learned to practice His presence all the time. This is God’s ideal. In Eden, worship was not an event to attend, but a perpetual attitude; Adam and Eve were in constant communion with God.” 11-21-08

Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure. God says, “If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me....These are the things that please me.” There are six secrets of friendship with God. We will look at two secrets in the chapter and four in the next. FIRST SECRET: Through constant conversation. SECOND: Through continual meditation. THIRD: I must choose to be honest with God. FOURTH: I must choose to obey God in faith. FIFTH: I must choose to value God values. SIXTH: I must desire friendship with God more than anything else. 11-14-08

Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” The word for FRIEND in this verse does not mean a casual acquaintance but a close, trusted relationship 11-7-08

We are now starting a new chapter entitled , “Becoming Best Friends with God”, and will be reading excerpts from that for a few Sundays. “We were made to live in God’s continual presence, but after the Fall, that ideal relationship was lost. Only a few people in the Old Testament times had the privilege of friendship with God. Then Jesus changed the situation. When he paid for our sins on the cross, the veil in the temple that symbolized our separation from God was split from top to bottom, indicating that direct access to God was once again available. 10-31-08

What Matters Most – No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. 1 Corinthians 13:3b (Msg). Love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is this: Live a live of love. 2 John 1:6 (NCV). Live is all about love. Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like Him, so love is the foundation of every command He has given us: “The whole Law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love other as you love yourselves.’”
10-24-08

Thinking About My Purpose:
Point to Ponder: I was formed for God’s family.
Verse to Remember: “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1:5a (NLT)
Question to Consider: How can I start treating other believers like a member of my own family? 10-17-08

“Baptism doesn’t MAKE you a member of God’s family; only faith in Christ does that. Baptism SHOWS you are part of God’s family. Like a wedding ring, it is a visible reminder of an inward commitment made in your heart. It is an act of INITIATION, not something you put off until you are spiritually mature. The only biblical condition is that you believe. 10-10-08
“Why is baptism so important? Then I realized it is because it symbolizes God’s second purpose of your life: participating in the fellowship of God’s eternal family. Baptism is pregnant with meaning. Your baptism declares your faith, shares Christ’s burial and resurrection, symbolizes your death to your old life, and announces your new life in Christ. It is also a celebration of your inclusion in God’s family.”
10-3-08

When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become His children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family. The family of God includes all believers in the past, the present and the future. Every human being was created by God but not everyone is a CHILD of God. The only way to get into God’s family is by being born again into it. You become part of the human family by your first birth, but you become a member of God’s family by your second birth. God “has given us the privilege of being born again, so that we are now members of God’s own family.” 9-26-08

You were formed for God’s family. God wants a family, and He created you to be a part of it. This is God’s second purpose for your life, which He planned before you were born. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love Him, honor Him, and reign with Him forever. It says, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” And this gave Him great pleasure. Because God is love, He treasures relationships. His very nature is relational, and He identifies Himself in family terms: Father, Son, and Spirit.
9-19-08

“Remember what God has already done for you. Unfortunately, we forget the cruel details of the agonizing sacrifice God made on our behalf. Before His crucifixion, He was abused and ridiculed by heartless men, He was treated worse than an animal. While His lifeblood drained out, hecklers stood by and shouted insults, making fun of His pain and challenging His claim to be God. Jesus gave up everything so you cou8ld have everything. He died so you could live forever. THAT ALONE is worthy of your continual thanks and praise. Never again should you wonder what you have to be thankful for.”
9-12-08

"Trust God to keep his promises. During times of spiritual dryness you must patiently rely on the promises of God, not your emotions, and realize that he is taking you to a deeper level of maturity. A friendship based on emotion is shallow indeed. So don’t be troubled by trouble. Circumstances cannot change the character of God. God’s grace is still in full force; he is still FOR you, even when you don’t feel it. When you feel abandoned by God yet continue to trust him in spite of your feelings, you worship him in the deepest way.” 9-5-08

"Tell God exactly how you feel. Pour out your heart to God. Unload every emotion that you’re feeling. Job did this when he said, ‘I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak.’ He cried out when God seemed distant: ‘Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house.’ God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, confusion, and questions.” 8-29-08

“The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an EXPERIENCE rather than seeking God. They look for a feeling, and if it happens, they conclude that they have worshiped. Wrong! In fact, God often removes our feelings so we won’t depend on them. Seeking a feeling, even the feeling of closeness to Christ, is not worship. When you are a baby Christian, God gives you a lot of confirming emotions and often answers the most immature, self-centered prayers – so you’ll know He exists. But as you grow in faith, He will wean you of these dependencies. Faith, not feelings, pleases God 8-22-08

“When God seems distant, you may feel that He is angry with you or is disciplining you for some sin. In fact, sin DOES disconnect us from intimate fellowship with God. We grieve God’s Spirit and quench our fellowship with Him by disobedience, conflict with others, busyness, friendship with the world, and other sins. But often this feeling of abandonment or estrangement from God has nothing to do with sin. It is a test of faith - - one we all must face: Will you continue to love, trust, obey and worship God, even when you have no sense of His presence or visible evidence of His work in your life?” 8-15-08

“He has promised repeatedly, ‘I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you.’ But God has NOT promised ‘you will always FEEL my presence.’ In fact, God admits that sometimes He hides His face from us. There are times when He appears to be MIA, missing-in-action, in your life. Floyd McClung describes it: “You wake up one morning and all your spiritual feelings are gone. You pray, but nothing happens. You rebuke the devil, but it doesn’t change anything.’ This is a normal part of the testing and maturing of your friendship with God.” 8-8-08

WHEN GOD SEEMS DISTANT “God is real, no matter how you feel. It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life - - when He has provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. How do you worship God then? What do you do when God seems a million miles away? The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trail, trusting Him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving Him when He seems distant. 8-01-08

You have heard people say, ‘I can’t make it to the meeting tonight, but I’ll be with you in spirit.’ Do you know what that means? Nothing. It’s worthless! As long as you’re on earth, your spirit can only be where your body is. If your body isn’t there, neither are you. 7-25-08

If worship is mindless, it is meaningless. You must engage your mind. Jesus called thoughtless worship ‘vain repetitions.’ It is so much easier to offer clichés in worship instead of making the effort to honor God with fresh words and ways.
Read the Scriptures! Expand your expressions of worship.” 7-18-08

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to worship and friendship with God. One this is certain: You don’t bring glory to God by trying to be someone He never intended you to be. God wants you to be yourself, ‘That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship.’” 7-11-08

"Sincerity of worship is not enough; you can be sincerely wrong. That’s why both spirit and truth are required. God-pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal. We use both our hearts and our head. The best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love for God, based on the background and personality that God gave you.” 7-4-08

"Since worship involves delighting in god, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship Him with deep feeling ... but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. God hates hypocrisy. He doesn’t want showmanship or pretense or phoniness in worship. He wants your honest, real love.” 6-27-08

Personal viewpoint from Dalen for brevity’s sake. Last week Warren brought up a right way and a wrong way to worship. Warren’s view: Worship must be accurate, authentic, thoughtful and practical. Back to Warren: “Worship must be based on the truth of scriptures, not our opinions about God. To ‘worship in truth’ means to worship God as He is truly revealed in the Bible.” 6-20-08

“Where you worship is not as important as WHY you worship and HOW MUCH of yourself you offer to God when you worship. There is a right and wrong way to worship. The Bible says, ‘Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him.’” 6-13-08

YOUR MOST IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS” There is nothing – absolutely nothing – more important than your developing a friendship with God. It’s a relationship that will last forever. Paul told Timothy, “Some of these people have missed the most important hing in life – they don’t know God.” Have you been missing out on the most important thing in life? You can do something about it starting now. Remember, it’s your choice, you are as close to God as you choose to be. 5-16-08

“What does God care about most? The redemption of His people. He wants all His lost children found! That’s the whole reason Jesus came to earth. The dearest thing to the heart of God is the death of His Son. The second dearest thing is when His children share that news with others. To be a friend of God, you must care about all the people around you whom God cares about. Friends of God tell their friends about God.” 5-9-08

“I MUST CHOOSE TO VALUE WHAT GOD VALUES. This is what friends do – they care about what is important to the other person. The more you become God’s friend, the more you will care about the things He cares about, grieve over the things He grieves over, and rejoice over the things that bring pleasure to Him.” 5-2-08

“True friendship isn’t passive; it acts. When Jesus asks us to love other, help the needy, share our resources, keep our lives clean, offer forgiveness, and bring others to him, love motivates us to obey immediately. We are often challenged to do ‘GREAT THINGS’ for God. Actually, God is more pleased when we do small things for Him out of loving obedience. They may be unnoticed by others, but God notices them and considers them acts of worship.” 4-25-08

“We obey God, not out of duty or fear or compulsion, but because we LOVE Him and trust that He knows what is best for us. We WANT to follow Christ out of gratitude for all He has done for us, and the closer we follow Him, the deeper our friendship becomes.” “We obey God, not out of duty or fear or compulsion, but because we LOVE Him and trust that He knows what is best for us. We WANT to follow Christ out of gratitude for all He has done for us, and the closer we follow Him, the deeper our friendship becomes.” 4-18-08

Bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God: “Why would I want to be God’s friend if he allowed THIS? “ The antidote, of course, is to realize that God ALWAYS acts in your best interest, even when it is painful and you don’t understand it. But releasing your resentment and revealing your feelings is the first step to healing. As so many people in the Bible did, tell God exactly how you feel.
4-4-08

“Can God handle that kind of frank, intense honesty from you?” (You DID read last weeks insert). “Absolutely! Genuine friendship is built on disclosure. What may appear as AUDACITY God views as AUTHENTICITY. God listens to the passionate words of His friend; He is bored with predictable, pious clichés. To be God’s friend, you must be honest to God, sharing your true feelings, not what you think you ought to feel or say.” 3-27-08

“You are as close to God as you choose to be. Like any friendship, you must work at developing your friendship with God. It won’t happen by accident. It takes time, and energy. If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God you must learn to honestly share your feelings with Him, trust Him when He asks you to do something, learn to care about what He cares about, and desire His friendship more than anything else.” 3-20-08

Through continual meditation is a second way to establish a friendship with God. Meditation is often misunderstood as some difficult, mysterious ritual practiced by isolated monks or mystics. But meditation is simply focused thinking, a skill anyone can learn and use anywhere. When you think about a problem over and over in your mind, that’s called worry. When you think about God’s Word over and over in your mind, that’s meditation. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate! Dalen’s editorial note: Worry or meditation? Kind of a no brainer isn’t it! 3-6-08

We don’t praise God to feel good, but to DO good. Your goal is not a feeling, but a continual awareness of the REALITY that God is always present. That is the lifestyle of worship. 2-28-08

A BIG THANK YOU to a young lady with a big heart, Annie Norwood, daughter of Dan & Pam and granddaughter of Maurice and Polly. On her 13th birthday she asked her guests that in lieu of gifts they bring a donation of a non-perishable food item for the Bar Harbor Food Pantry. Dave DesFosse delivered on Thursday seven soda flats of can goods and a large box of non-perishable food items that were brought to her party. In this world of “gimme, gimme”, Annie stands out as a shining example of generosity and concerns for others. Thank you, Annie, God is smiling on you. 2-21-08

Friendship with God is possible only because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. That God would want me for a close friend is hard to understand, but the Bible says, “He is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.” God deeply desires that we know him intimately. In fact, he planned the universe and orchestrated history, including the details of our lives, so that we could become his friend. 2-14-08

Becoming Friends with God. God wants to be your best Friend. Your relationship to God has many different aspects: God is your Creator and Maker, Lord, and Master, Judge, Redeemer, Father, Savior, and much more.
But the most shocking truth is this: Almighty God yearns to be your Friend! 2-07-08

From Dalen Mills:
The past several weeks have dealt with surrender from day 10 in the book. The section at the end of day 10 has the following:
POINT TO PONDER: "The heart of worship is surrender."
VERSE TO REMEMBER: "Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purpose."
Romans 6:13b
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What area of my life am I holding back from God? 11-4-07

Surrender is not the BEST way to live; it is the ONLY way to live. Nothing else works.
All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment, and self-destruction.
The King James Version calls surrender "your REASONABLE service". Surrendering your life
is not a foolish emotional impulse but a rational, intelligent act, the most responsible and sensible
thing you can do with your life.
Paul said, "SO WE MAKE IT OUR GOAL TO PLEASE HIM." 10-28-07

Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. I (Rick Warren) asked him, "Why did God use and bless your life so much?" He said, "When I was a young man, I made a contract with God. I literally wrote it out and signed my name at the bottom. It said, "From this day forward I am a slave of Jesus Christ."
Have YOU ever signed a contract like that with God? Or are you still arguing and struggling with God over His right to do with your life as He pleases? Now is YOUR time to surrender - to God's grace, love and wisdom. 10-21-07

Jesus said, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me.”
Let me warn you: When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, and seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel like doing. 10-14-07