Rick Warren - Why You Absolutely Need A Church Family—Part One

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible

teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're excited you've joined

us today as we begin a powerful news series how

the Church meets your deepest needs. Together, we're going to

uncover the joy and strength that comes from being a

part of God's family. All right, let's get right to

Rick for a message called why you absolutely need a

church family.

You know, every Sunday in the United States, about one

hundred and twenty million people go to a church worship service.

Now, let me put that in perspective.

That means more people in America go to a church

service on one single weekend, one hundred and twenty million people.

Then we'll go and attend every single professional sporting event

in America in an entire year. Now, today, I want

to ask the big question, why why do they do this?

What are the benefits?

Why are over two million, excuse me, two billion people

around the world a member of a church family somewhere

in the world.

Why do they do this? What are the benefits? What's

the payoff?

Why get out of bed and go attend a service

at a church when you can stay home. How would

you answer that question. You know, having been a pastor

for over forty years, I happen to know that most

people who attend to church service have no clear reason

or idea why they're there.

Now, I'm sure that some.

Of those millions who are attending church around the world,

not just in America, but in Berlin and in Buenos

Aires and in Hong Kong and Manila and all the

other places where we're reaching out, I'm sure that some

people attend out a habit or out of tradition, or

maybe they go out of duty, or they went to

a church service out of guilt, or maybe they went

because somebody pressured them to go. Somebody were to ask you,

why are you a part of a church family?

What reasons would you give? What would you say?

We need to who we are and what we are.

We need to identify why we do what we do

and what are the purposes of a church family. Now

you need to have clearly in your mind this foundation.

You need to know all of the ways that God

wants to bless your life through your church family. So,

starting this weekend, I'm going to teach you a five

exclusive benefits of being part of a church family. Now,

these five benefits to your life are exclusive to the church.

In other words, nothing else besides the church family can

meet the five deepest needs in your life and provide

the five essential benefits that a church provides. You can't

get them anywhere else. They are only available through a

church family. You can't get these benefits through your work,

or your school, or your nation, or even your physical family.

Only the church can meet your five deepest needs and

help you fulfill God's five purposes for your life. Now

that's a big claim. I'm going to prove to you

without a doubt. Now, what I'm saying is true that

only your church family can meet the five deepestieds of

your life help you fulfill God's five purposes for your life.

And I'm going to be very practical and very very specific.

Now the starting point is to ask this, what's the church?

What is a church? How?

How do you define it? How do you describe it?

When I say the word church?

What do you think of? Now?

Depending on your background, your answer is going to vary.

Whether you come of a Christian background or a non

Christian background, or an atheist background, or Buddhist or you

know whatever, Muslim or whatever. But my guess is that

your understanding of what a church really is it's probably

pretty limited and not really all that God says that

a church family is. So let me first what a

church is not. It's not a building. I mean most

of you when you think of a church, you think

of a church building on a location. I'm going to

the church, which means a building. Jesus didn't die for

a building. Churches meet in buildings, but they're not a building. Second,

a church is not an institution, which is a misconception.

We often think of the institutionalized church. Well, that can

be out there, but that's not what a church is.

It's not a building and it's not an institution. I

want you to write this down, Okay, write this down

in your outline. A church is not a place I

go to, and it's not an event I attend. It

is a spiritual family that I belong to. It's not

a place I go to. It's not an event I attend.

It's a spiritual family that I belong to. Now, there

are many many verses in the Bible that will teach

this truth, but let me just look at one Acts,

Chapter two, verses forty one and forty two and down

verse forty six, which is a clear description of the

very first church which was in Jerusalem.

And here's what it says.

Every one of these words that I tell you the

circle is important. So please circle them, and then we'll

come back and talk about to those who believed, circle

the word believed. Those who believed, circle that were baptized.

Circle that believed baptized and added to the church. They joined,

circle the word joined, So you got believed, baptized, joined,

They joined with other believers and committed themselves to the

apostles teaching and to fellowship circle teaching, and circle fellowship teaching.

And what's the apostles teaching. It's the Bible and fellowship

and the fellowship. It says they worshiped together, circle the

word worship. They worshiped together regularly at the temple courts.

And they met in small groups. Circle that in home

for communion. You can underline a circle communion and shared meals.

I like this part.

Circle shared meals with great joy and thankfulness. Now notice

these words believed, baptized, joined, worshiped, fellowshipped, They ate together,

they ministered together, they served together. All these different things

according to the Bible, this verse and many others. Here's

the definition of a church. A church, I've written it

there on your outline. A church is a group of

baptized believers who've joined together in a commitment. Notice the

word commitment. I didn't have you circle that who joined

together in a commitment to help each other fulfill God's

five purposes for their lives. That, friends, is a church.

It's a group of baptized believers who've joined together for

the purpose of helping each other fulfill God's purposes for

their lives. The purpose of the church is to help

you fulfill God's five purposes for your life. Now, we've

talked in the past many times about the purpose driven life,

but in this series we're going to look at the

purpose driven church and why you need other people in

your life to fulfill God's purposes. So the next question

we need to ask is this, why is the church

the most important group on earth?

Somebody say, well, it is.

Yeah, I'm sorry to tell you this if you don't

know it, but it is. The Church is the most

important group on earth. He said, well, why would that

be true? Well, let me give you a number of

reasons for that. You might write these down. Number one

first reason it's the most important thing on earth is

because the church is God's family. It is God's family

one Peter one three. God has given us the privilege

of being born again, so that we're now members of

God's own family. You become a part of the human

race by being born into the world. You become a

part of God's family. By being born again into God's family.

We are a part of God's families. Notice it says

we're members of God's own family circle the word member.

We're members of God's own family. You need to be

a member of God's own family. Now what is God's family? Well,

One Timothy three five three point fifteen says this NCV

version that family is the church. God's family is the

Church of the Living God, the support and foundation of

the truth. Here in California, where we have earthquakes, we

know the value of support and foundation. You don't have

good support, you don't have good foundation, You're gonna crumble

when the earthquakes happen. And if you don't have a

good support and good foundation for your life, the support

and foundation of truth, you're gonna crumble when the heat's on.

In your life. So the Church is God's family.

That's why it's more important than any business, any government,

or anything else. Number two, it is the only reason

God created the universe. Did you know that the whole

reason God created the universes He wanted a family. God

wanted a family, and that family is called the Church.

So the Church is the reason God created the universe.

If God hadn't wanted a family, if God hadn't wanted

the church, none of this would exist. The Bible says

God created the entire universe because he wanted the Church.

That's how important it is. Look at this verse in

the Bible, Ephesians, chapter one, verse four. Living a Bible

long ago.

Even before He made the world, Even before He made

the world.

This is before the universe, God chose us to be

his very own through what Christ would do for us.

Did you know that before God thought of the universe,

he thought of you. That's how valuable you are. That's

how important you are. That's how much you matter to God.

Before he thought of the universe, he thought of you.

Look at this verse on five. His unchanging plan. God's

unchanging plan has always been from the very beginning of

time to adopt us into his own family. God wanted

a family, to adopt us into his own family by

bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ, and this gave

him great pleasure. So the Church is God's family. God

wanted a family. It's the whole reason he created the universe.

That's how important the church is. If God didn't want

a church, nothing else would exist. Number Three, God is

using his church for his eternal purposes. Phesians three, verse ten.

In the Bible, verse ten and eleven says this God's intent,

that's his intention. His purpose was that now through the Church,

through the Church, through the church. Underline that through the Church,

the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to

all the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according

to his eternal purpose, which was accomplished in Christ. Jesus,

our Lord, I love the message. Paraphrase of this passage

Ephesians three ten, it says this through Christians like yourselves,

gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming

known and talked about even among angels. God's plan for

all of time involves the Church. No church, no universe,

no time, no plan. Number four fourth reason why the

church is more important than any business, any school, any government,

any nation. Jesus died for his church. He didn't die

for your nation or my nation. He didn't die for

your business. He died for the Church Ephesians five, twenty

five and twenty seven. Christ loved the Church and gave

himself for it.

It's like the.

Father dies for his family, the husband dies for his

wife and kids. Christ loved the Church, the bride of Christ,

the body of Christ, the family of God, and he

gave himself for it. He died so that he could

give the Church to himself like a bride in all

of her beauty. And he died so that the Church

could become pure and without fault. You want to know

how something matters, you look at what somebody is willing

to pay for it. When somebody is willing to give

their life for something, that shows how much it's valuable.

Christ died for the church. Number five.

It's the only thing on earth that's gonna last forever.

The thing about this Starbucks isn't gonna last forever. McDonald's

isn't gonna last forever. Walmart is gonna last forever. No

corporation Toyota Corporation isn't gonna last forever. No nation's gonna

last forever, No business will last forever. The only thing

that's going to on earth right now that's live, gonna

last forever is God's Church. It's gonna last forever. The

Bible says this, and Ephesians three twenty one, glory will

belong to God in his Church.

Christ, in Christ, Jesus.

Notice I underline this for all time and for all eternity.

The Church is gonna last forever. Nothing on this planet's

going to last except the Church. That's how important it is.

It is.

First, Thessalonians three four seventeen talks about one day that

when the second come in Christ, then we'll be caught

up together with him in the air, in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air, and we will

be with the Lord together forever.

Well, that's who who is that? Who's that? We?

The church number six. The church is the only group

that Jesus said would succeed. In Matthew sixteen, verse eighteen,

Jesus says this, I will build my church, and all

the powers of Hell will not conquer it. Jesus is

in the church building business. He's not interested in building

my reputation. He's not interested in building your reputation. He's

not interested in building nations. He's not interested in building businesses.

He's not interested in building clubs or organizations. He says,

I'm going to build my family. That's why I built

the whole universe. I will build my church, and all

the powers of Hell will not conquer it. Yes there

are battles, Yes there are losses. Yes there are things

we don't win in. But I've read the last chapter

of the Bible. We win, and ultimately the church succeeds.

It's the only thing that's going to last number seven.

It is the only group big enough to solve global problems.

You know, I've spoken before the United States Congress, I've

spoken before the United Nations. I've spoken at TED conferences

and Aspen Institute and Davos World Economic Forum, and I

hear people talking about public and private partnerships. But you

know what the problem is, They're not big enough to

solve all the global problems. There's no nation big enough,

there's no business big enough. The Church is the only

thing big enough to solve global problems. Let's put this

respective there are two point two billion church members in

the world. That means the church is bigger than China.

The church is bigger than India and China put together.

And the Bible says in Ephesians three twenty and the

New Living Translation, by His mighty power at work within

us the Church, he is able to accomplish infinitely more

than we had ever dared to ask or hope. All

of the global problems cannot be solved without one third

of the world who happened to be members of churches.

We have the greatest distribution, We.

Have the most volunteers and with highest motivation, love, and

on and on. Let me give you one other reason

why we're going to do this series. Because the greatest

privilege in life. Listen, the greatest privilege in life is

to be a part of God's church. To say I'm

a member of God's family. I'm a child of God.

That's more important than your nationality, or your gender, or

your business or anything else. The greatest privile reagi in

life is to say I'm a part of God's family.

One Peter one three says it like this. God has

given us the privilege, the privilege circle that this is

the greatest privilege. God has given us the privilege of

being born again, so that we're now members of God's

own family circle the word members again member and circle

word family. God has given us privilege to be a

member of His family. One Corinthians three sixteen. Do you realize?

Don't you realize? That all of you together are the

temple of God and the spirit of God lives in you.

I said this earlier, but I want to say it again.

When you were born physically, you were immediately born into

the human family. You became a part of the human race.

You didn't have a choice. The moment you were physically born.

You became a part of the human race. Once you're

born physically, you're in that human race. But when you

are going to be a part of God's family, that's choice,

and you've got to choose to let Christ come into

your life. And when you're born spiritually, reborn, born again, rejuvenated,

new life, then you're born into God's family, and that's choice.

I don't know if you've made that choice or not.

You're in the human race, you're created by God, you're

loved by God, but you're not in God's family unless

you've asked him to be a part of his family

and accept Christ as your savior. Now you said, okay, Rick,

I get it. Church is not something we go to.

It's not an event, it's not a building. It's family

that I belong to. And you just gave me eight

reasons why it's more important than anything else on the planet. Well,

next question that comes up is what's a purpose driven church?

You've heard that around saddleback any length of time.

What is a purpose driven church?

Well, if you were to look up the word drive

in a dictionary, you would find that the word means

to guide or to control, or to direct, to guide,

to control, are direct. When you drive a car, you

guide control directed down street. When you drive a nail

into the wood with a hammer, you guide control, direct

the nail into the wood. When you drive a golf ball,

hopefully you guide control directed down the fairway and onto

the green. Drive means to guide, to control, or direct.

Every organization, every business, every nation, and every church is

driven by something guided, controlled, are directed. I've listed a

few things there in your outlets. Some churches are driven

by tradition, and some organizations are driven by tradition. How

do you know your tradition driven church. They have the

favorite phrases. We've always done it that way. Some churches

and some organizations are driven by personality, and the question

then is what does the key leader want. The problem

with the personality driven church is when the leader dies

or retires or as a moral fay or whatever burns out,

then the church is left floundering. And we've all seen

that happen to a lot of churches. We don't want

a personality driven church. Some churches and some businesses driven

by finances. And when you have a finance driven church,

the question is how much will it cost? And he

asked that some churches are driven by programs. And you

look at the schedule of a typical church and they've

got programs for Sunday school and program for women, programs

for men, and programs for the choir, and programs for children,

and on and on and on, and you get the

whole idea that the purpose of the church is just

to keep people busy, to keep Christians busy in meetings.

Jesus did not say I've come that you might have meetings.

He said I've come that you might have life. Some

churches are actually driven by their buildings. I think it

was Winston Churchill who said, we shape our buildings and

then they shape us. One of the reasons why Saddleback

went fifteen years without a building. We wanted to prove

to the world you don't have to have a building

to grow a church. This church grewed over ten thousand

in attendance in a tent. We didn't even have a building.

Why we wanted to prove that a church is not

a building. We moved so many dozens and dozens of

times in the first fifteen years of our church before

we finally built a building. And then Some churches are

actually driven by events, keep the calendar full of activities.

But at Saddleback Church, we call ourselves a purpose driven church,

not tradition driven, events driven, you know, money driven, you

know ego driven, personnite driven. No, not a guilt driven,

not a fear driven church, but a purpose driven church. Why, well,

we base it on this verse Proverbs nineteen twenty one,

which says this many are the plans in a man's heart,

but it is the Lord's purposes that prevail or last eternally.

What does that verse say? I can make all kinds

of plans, but they're not going to last. The only

thing that's really going to last is to have a

solid purpose of God that says his plans are eternal,

his plans last forever, his plans prevail, His purposes are

going to be going on forever and ever and ever.

And we're going to look at these in detail for

our church family in the days of He ahead.

Now, all of this has just.

Been introduction, but I don't want to leave you without

giving you a short list of some of the many,

many benefits of belonging to a church family. So let's

just wrap this up by giving you five benefits of

being a part of a church family, of belonging, not

just attending, but belonging.

Say that's my family.

You can always tell others an attendant member, when attender

comes up to me in the grocery store, says Pastor Rick,

I love your church, your church. But when a member

comes up to me, he says Pastor Rick, I love

our church. Have you made that hop Have you made

that switch from consumer to contributor, from a tender to member,

from longing to belonging. Let me give you five of

the many benefits. We'll look at dozens of these in

the days ahead. But why don't you write down these five?

Number one, A church family helps me focus on God.

A church family helps me focus on God. You know

that is it easy to lose your focus on God?

Yes?

Is it easy to get distracted by details and distractions

and disturbances and dead ends and delays and difficulties. Yes,

and about every few days. I need to get my

focus refocused. And coming together as a church family helps

me focus on God. And the Bible says seek first

Kingdom of God. All these other things will be added

to you. So if I focus on God, the bigger

God gets in my mind. The smaller my problems are,

the bigger I see my problems, the smaller God is,

so I refocus on God. Number two, A church family

not only helps me focus on God, it helps me

face life's problems. You know, it helps a whole lot

to know that other people are in the fight with you,

that you're not alone, that you're not by yourself, that

you're you're not alone. Ranger, Let me just get real personal.

You ever get discouraged? Of course you do. Why Because

life is tough. Life is tough. Life is a series

of problems, and some of you have this myth in

your mind that one day I'm going to get it

all together and then I'll have no more problems and

no more stress, and no more tension, no more in anxiety,

no more stress the rest of my life. I hate

to tell you this, but you're going to have stress

the rest of your life because life is a series

of problems. It's how you build character. You're right now

in one of three positions. Either you just came out

of a problem, or you're in the middle of a

problem right now, or you're headed into the next one.

Because life is a series of problems. But God never

meant for you to go through life and all those

problems and all that stress on your own. See the

life that God intends for you, a purpose driven life

is never a solo act. God never meant for you

to have to handle all this stress, all this anxiety, questions, problems, doubts,

fears by yourself. He built a support group of people

around you. It's a spiritual family, and we call that fellowship.

It's part of the purpose of the Church for your life.

So Number one, God helps me to focus my faith,

It helps me to efface my problems. Number three a

church family will help me fortify fortify my faith. Now

do you know what fortify means. It means to strengthen,

It means to develop. It means to reinforce or to

make stronger. And what happens is when you get with

other people in God's family, you set up your right values,

you get the right support. It helps you establish your priorities.

It helps you decide what's trivial, what's really important. It

helps you fortify your faith. It clarifies your values.

You know this is true.

There's a lot of phony, blogny ideas out there in

the world today.

There's a lot of stuff on the radio and on

the TV, and on the internet and.

On social media. It's just not true. They're not just

fake news. There's fake everything. And if you don't have

a fortified faith, if you don't stand for something, you're

gonna fall for anything. You know that, So it helps

you fortify your faith. Number four, A church family helps

me find my place to make a difference. It helps

me find my place to make a difference. You have

a desire to aspire, you have a need to succeed.

You and I weren't put on this earth just to

use up resources, to take up space, to breathe air,

and then to die. God has a significant purpose for

your life, your life mission for each of your of

our lives, and God has something unique for you to do.

He has a ministry in the church and a mission

in the world that he wants you to make a

contribution with your life. He didn't want you to just

be a consumer your whole life. He wants you to

make a difference. He wants you to leave a legacy.

He wants you to learn how to serve God by

serving others, how to make a difference with your life.

The best way to learn how to do that is

in a church family. Are you gonna learn that at business? No,

you don't learn that at school. No, you don't learn

that in a neighborhood.

No. Now, let me just say this.

When we get to heaven and we and we're standing

there for God, God's gonna ask a couple questions. The

first question that God's gonna ask you is, this is

the most important question in life. What did you do

with my son Jesus Christ. I hope you know the

answer to that. I accepted him his life into my life.

I accepted his graces forgive. I trusted him with my life.

I repented and turned to him. But there's a second question.

It's just as important. After he says, what did you

do with my son Jesus? And by the way, he's

not going to ask what was your denomination? What was

my son? What did you do with my son Jesus?

Then he's going to ask what did you do with

what I gave you? That is the question of the

stewardship of your life. How did you use your life

to serve others, to make a difference, to give back,

to make a contribution. The first question determines our eternal destiny,

but the second question actually determines our eternal rewards. And

part of my job as your pastor, and part of

our church's job as a family, is to get you ready.

For that final exam.

Finally, there's a fifth thing benefit, and that is a

church family helps me fulfill my life mission. Not just

how you serve others, but you were put on earth

to make a difference that no one else can make.

Have you thought about that God doesn't need one of

us or two of us, He just only needs one

of us. God puts you here specifically for a unique

life mission that no one else can fulfill. I can't

fulfill it, nobody else can fulfill it. And if you

don't fulfill your life mission, guess what, it's not gonna

get done. And we're going to talk about that in

the days ahead. Now I realize it's just a little

taste of where I'm going to take you in the

next forty eight days. As I said, we've studied the

purpose driven life before, but in this series, we're going

to look at how you need a purpose driven church

to meet all of your five deepest needs. We're going

to look at each of your five deepest needs and

how to fulfill your life purposes. Let me pray for you,

Heavenly Father. I thank you for our church family. I

love everybody who's here. We come from every different background.

We represent every different age group, every ethnic group, nationality,

we represent different sixty seven seventy different languages, we represent

different economic strata and background and even political differences. But

we all come together in this family called Saddleback, a

purpose driven church that we might learn what you want

to do through your family. Help us to realize that

this is the greatest privilege of life. There is no

greater privilege than the bee a part of your family.

If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your life, if

you've never stepped across the line, you're not a part

of his family. But you can start today. Will you

take this step? Just say in your heart, Jesus Christ,

Just say these words, Jesus Christ, in your mind. I

want to be a part of your family. I want

to live forever in heaven, but I want to know you,

and I want to be a part of your family.

And I want to see how my needs can be

met by your family. And I want to fulfill your

five purposes for my life. So the damn saying yes

to you as simply as I know how, and I

humbly ask.

This in your name Jesus Amen.

You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the

very first time, or you just recommitted your life to

Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.

There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me

Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick, I

prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.

And I'll send you some material that will help you

on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also pray for you.

God bless you.

Wow.

Thanks Rick for such an encouraging message. Hey, do you

ever wonder if your life really matter? Or what on

earth you're here for?

Will?

Pastor Rick Warren wants to let you know that God

has a good plan and purpose for your life, and

in his best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, he

lays out a simple, life changing roadmap to help you

discover and live it. This book has transformed millions of

lives and it could transform someone you love. And great

news it's been updated for today's generation. This edition includes

a video introduction from Pastor Rick for each chapter, audio

teaching at the end of every chapter, and two powerful

bonus chapters on the biggest barriers to living a purpose

driven life. As you go through this book, you'll uncover

that your deepest meaning and fulfillment doesn't come from success

or status, but from understanding and living out the purpose

that God created you for. It's an incredible resource for

your own spiritual growth, but it's also one of the

most effective ways to introduce someone you love to Jesus.

In fact, millions have come to faith in Christ through

this book, often just because someone like you gave them

a copy, so we say don't just get one, get

several copies to share with friends, family, co workers, and

neighbors who need hope. Request your copy today. When you

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Just go to.

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