PAUL TRIPP
PAUL TRIPP
PAUL TRIPP
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<strong>PAUL</strong> <strong>TRIPP</strong><br />
MINISTRIES, INC.<br />
Survival Skill 15 November 29, 2006<br />
Paul David Tripp: There is hope for us as individuals; there is hope for our families;<br />
there is hope for our friendships; there is hope for our communities, and our cities, and<br />
our nations. There’s hope because we live in a world where grace lives.<br />
Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the<br />
transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here, now, is Paul Tripp.<br />
PDT: I want to start the program today with a vocabulary exercise. If it was your job to<br />
scan the entire human vocabulary for the most beautiful word in the universe, what<br />
would you say it is? If you had to think of all the words that you’ve ever thought or<br />
spoken, what was the most beautiful of them all? What is the most beautiful word in the<br />
human vocabulary? The average person speaks about 7,000 words a day; that’s a whole<br />
lot of talking. That’s 49,000 words per week. That’s 1,479,000 words per month, over<br />
17,000,000 words per year.<br />
Now, of all those words, which was the most beautiful word you spoke last year? Or<br />
think about it this way. There are just under 1,000,000 active words in the English<br />
language, 988,000 words. What, one of them, is the most beautiful? You talk all of the<br />
time; you listen to people talk all of the time; you read all of the time; you hear words all<br />
of the time; words are the background drone of all of our lives. And so today, what I<br />
want to do with you is examine one word, one word that is perhaps the most beautiful<br />
word that’s ever been spoken.<br />
One word that is not only beautiful in its history, but it has the power to totally rearrange<br />
you and everything that makes up your life. One essential beautiful word, one word you<br />
do not ever want to live without, one word that you definitely want in your life now and<br />
all of the time. What could that word be? What is the most beautiful word that’s ever<br />
been spoken? What is that word?<br />
Music: “Grace” by U2<br />
Grace<br />
She takes the blame<br />
She covers the shame<br />
Removes the stain<br />
It could be her name<br />
Grace<br />
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that<br />
Changed the world<br />
KC: And you’re listening to Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp...more on “The Most<br />
Beautiful Word,” coming up as we continue the series, “Survival Skills for a Fallen<br />
World.” Be sure and tell your friends about Paul Tripp Ministries, Monday through<br />
Friday, right here on WFIL at 11 A.M.<br />
The purpose of this program is to help you find freedom in Jesus Christ right here, right<br />
now. We invite you to check out our website at paultrippministries.org. And while you’re<br />
there, you’ll find Paul’s latest book, Lost In The Middle and other resources on video,<br />
audio, and print that will be helpful to you. That’s paultrippministries.org. Right Here,<br />
Right Now continues with Paul Tripp.<br />
PDT: You want it; you really do; you need it; you really do. You can’t live without it, but<br />
you can’t buy it, and you can’t earn it. It only ever comes by means of a gift. You want<br />
it for yourself all the time, but you’ll find it hard to give to somebody else. Sometimes, it<br />
comes in such subtle ways that you miss it. Other times, it comes loudly and<br />
dramatically into your life. You can’t own it, and if you hoard it, you find out you didn’t<br />
really have it in the first place.<br />
It’s nearly impossible to adequately define, yet it is simple and beautiful, as simple and<br />
as beautiful as anything ever was. In a fallen world, populated by selfish, lost, fearful,<br />
and rebellious people, it’s the one thing that everyone needs. When you receive it, you<br />
immediately realize how much you have needed it all along, and you wonder how you<br />
could’ve lived so long without it. You can only give it to someone else when you have<br />
first been given it yourself because you cannot give away that which you did not have.<br />
What is this word? What is this thing that I’ve been describing, this thing that we so<br />
desperately need, that is so amazingly beautiful, that’s so deeply needed, that is so<br />
essential for life ever to be what it was meant to be, that is the most important ingredient<br />
in this broken world? What is this one thing that every person living in this broken world<br />
cannot safely live without?<br />
Well, have I gotten your attention? Have I been driving you crazy? Have you scanned<br />
your own personal dictionary? Have you scanned your vocabulary? Have you been<br />
thinking about what in the world I’m talking about? Have I gotten your attention? Well,<br />
here it is. It’s so simple to say; it’s so beautiful to behold…’grace’. Grace is the word;<br />
grace always has God as its source, and it is always given to someone who doesn’t<br />
deserve it. But it is something that’s needed by everyone. Grace always comes to an<br />
undeserving person, and grace always results in things that are good.<br />
How much do you really understand? How much do you really know about? How much<br />
do you daily rely upon this thing called ‘grace’? How much do you consistently celebrate<br />
its existence in your life? How much have you come to realize that of all the good things
in your life, your story is a story, some way of grace? How much do you sit in and take in<br />
the beauty of grace? Is your life driven, shaped, and motivated by grace?<br />
Well, if you don’t know how to answer that question, ask yourself this question: What is<br />
your life shaped and motivated by? Is it motivated by your gifts? Is it motivated by your<br />
position? Is it motivated by your personality? What drives your life? What is that thing<br />
that you depend on? What gets you through your day? Is your life driven; is your life<br />
shaped; is your life motivated by this one, beautiful, essential gift, never earned, always<br />
given—grace? How much do you understand grace?<br />
Music: “Please Forgive Them” by Big Tent Revival<br />
Upon the cross of Calvary<br />
My precious Savior died for me<br />
And for our sin, He shed His blood<br />
And by His love, He prayed to God<br />
Father please forgive them; they know not what they do<br />
I will be the sacrifice for all they’ve done to You<br />
Turn Your wrath upon me Lord, Your one and only Son<br />
Please forgive them; they know not what they’ve done<br />
PDT: Now, let me put this beautiful word ‘grace’ in the context of where you live, and<br />
work, and do what you do every day. Do you know that there is always something that<br />
you base your life on? Do you know there’s always something that defines you, that<br />
explains why you do the things you do? There’s always something that provides for you<br />
motivation, that provides for you purpose, that delivers to you hope of some kind.<br />
Maybe you’re a person that’s defined by your family and all that your family is. Or maybe<br />
you’re defined by your job, the position, the power, the success or achievement that you<br />
have there. Maybe you’re defined by your education; you’re defined by your academic<br />
life and the degrees that you achieved. Maybe you’re defined by your possessions.<br />
Maybe your house is a monument to your decorous ability.<br />
Or maybe you are defined by your relationships; you really get your personal definition by<br />
the people and the groups who have accepted you, who respect you, who esteem you.<br />
There’s always something in life that provides definition, direction, and motivation for<br />
you.<br />
Let me give you this principle: As a person, you are in the best place ever when you are<br />
defined by the best thing ever. And the best thing ever is grace. What is this wonderful<br />
thing called grace? Well, let me attempt to give you a definition. The problem with<br />
defining grace is that it is, at once, very simple and yet so expansive, that it seems<br />
almost impossible to define. Grace is: “The freely given love, forgiveness, acceptance<br />
and help of God, even though there is nothing that I could ever ever do to earn it.”
You see, there’s hope for us as individuals. There is hope for our families. There is hope<br />
for our friendships; there’s hope for our communities, and our cities, and our nations.<br />
There’s hope because we live in a world where grace lives. There’s hope when you are<br />
foolish and ignorant; there’s hope when you’re weak and unable; there’s hope for you<br />
when you’re proud and self-sufficient; there’s hope for you in times of anger, fear, and<br />
discouragement. There’s hope when you are eaten by envy, vengeance, and regret.<br />
There’s hope when you’ve messed up and failed. There’s hope because God is, and God<br />
is a God of amazing grace.<br />
Yes, it’s true that this world is terribly broken. Yes, it’s true that we are flawed human<br />
beings. Yes, it’s true that we fail and make mistakes all the time, but in all of that<br />
failure, and all of that brokenness, and all of that difficulty, there is one constant thing<br />
that we can celebrate again, and again, and again. It’s always new, it’s always fresh, and<br />
it’s tremendously powerful. It’s grace.<br />
You see, God’s grace is, in fact, the most powerful force in the universe. It reaches into<br />
where you are, and it is able to take you where God wants you to be. It has the power to<br />
do something that nothing else can do. It has the power to transform you at the causal<br />
core of who you are as a human being, your heart.<br />
You see, the promise of God’s grace is a radically new heart, rather than condemning me,<br />
rather than turning His back on me, God wraps arms of grace around me and transforms<br />
me at the core of who I am as a human being. And if you look around, if you pay<br />
attention to the things we say and the things we do, again and again, every day, we are<br />
people in need of transformation. We are not noble people who always do the right<br />
thing.<br />
The Bible is not filled with stories of noble people who always did the right thing. In<br />
fact, Abraham, who is called in Scripture, “The Father of the Faithful,” blew it in his own<br />
marriage. He did a horrible thing in having sexual relations with his servant girl. Why<br />
did Abraham do that?...because he was unwilling to wait. We always need God’s grace.<br />
So, you may be asking, “Okay, Paul, I get your definition that grace is the freely given,<br />
love forgiveness, acceptance and help of God, even though there is nothing that I could<br />
ever do to earn it, but I’m not sure I understand what grace looks like.”<br />
Well, first, grace is the grace of forgiveness. You see, we all do what is wrong. The Bible<br />
calls that sin, and that sin leaves me guilty. I need to be forgiven, and Jesus Christ went<br />
to the cross to carry my sin, to take my punishment so I could experience radical, and<br />
comprehensive, and complete forgiveness. In Jesus Christ, I’m forgiven for everything<br />
I’ve ever done in the past, everything I now do in the present, everything I will ever do in<br />
the future.<br />
Second, grace is the grace of acceptance. God, now, not only forgives me, but He<br />
welcomes me into relationship with Him. He invites me into His family. He adopts me<br />
as His child, and because of that, I now have this Father-child relationship with Him<br />
where I can come to Him. I can sit on His lap, and I can bring my needs, and concerns,
and my failures to Him, and He responds to me as a loving and kind Father. Sin once<br />
separated me from God. God’s grace, now, has given me acceptance.<br />
But third, there’s also the grace of God’s presence. God is not far away from me. In<br />
fact, God is present with me wherever I am, whomever I’m with, whatever I’m doing. It’s<br />
an amazing thing. The Bible tells us that God, in His grace, has made us now the place<br />
where He lives. It wasn’t enough for God to forgive me. He literally unzipped me and<br />
got inside of me by his Holy Spirit, and so He is with me all the time.<br />
But not only the grace of forgiveness, and not only the grace of acceptance, and not only<br />
the grace of His presence, but there’s also the grace of enablement. You see, sin leaves<br />
me lame; it leaves me weak; it leaves me unable to be what God called for me to be and<br />
to do what God called for me to do. And so, God’s grace gives me power; it gives me<br />
strength. It gives me the ability to do what I was meant to do.<br />
It’s also the grace of freedom. You see, God’s grace doesn’t just forgive me and doesn’t<br />
just empower me; God’s grace delivers me. Sin turns me into an addict; sin turns me<br />
into a slave; God’s grace frees me from that addiction. It gives me the power to say,<br />
“No!” and to turn and go in a much better direction.<br />
And then finally, God’s grace is the grace of completion. There will be a day when I will<br />
be fully restored to what I was meant to be. There will be no more sin. There will be no<br />
more struggle. Grace is the grace of forgiveness, the grace of acceptance, the grace of<br />
God’s presence, the grace of enablement, the grace of freedom, and the grace of<br />
completion. What does Peter say?...that God’s grace gives us everything we would ever<br />
need to be what we are supposed to be and to do what we’re supposed to do right here,<br />
right now.<br />
Music: “There Will Come a Day” by Faith Hill<br />
It's not easy trying to understand<br />
How the world can be so cold<br />
Stealing the souls of a man<br />
Cloudy skies rain down on all your dreams<br />
You wrestle with the fear and doubts<br />
Sometimes it's hard, but you gotta believe<br />
There's a better place<br />
Where our Father waits<br />
And every tear He'll wipe away<br />
The darkness will be gone<br />
The weak shall be strong<br />
Hold on to your faith<br />
There will come a day<br />
There will come a day
PDT: I came across a wonderful statement of grace in World Magazine; it’s actually a<br />
statement by Bono of U2. An interviewer asked him, “…doesn’t he think appalling<br />
things happen when people become religious?”<br />
Bono counters, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that God who created the universe might be<br />
looking for company, a real relationship with people. But the thing that keeps me on my<br />
knees is the difference between grace and karma.”<br />
The interviewer asked, “What’s that?”<br />
Bono says, “At the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put<br />
out comes back to you, an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth; or in physics and physical<br />
law, every action is met by an equal but or opposite one. And yet, along comes this idea<br />
called ‘grace’ to up end all of that. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your<br />
action, which in my case,” he says, “is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of<br />
stupid stuff.”<br />
The interviewer asked, “Like what?”<br />
“Well,” Bono says, “that’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if karma was<br />
going to finally be my judge. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for<br />
grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross because I know who I am,<br />
and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”<br />
The interviewer marvels, “The Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. I wish I<br />
could believe in that.”<br />
“The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that what<br />
we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious<br />
death,” replies Bono. “It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of<br />
heaven.”<br />
The interviewer marvels some more. “That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great<br />
hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy in my view. Christ has His rank<br />
among the world’s great thinkers, but the Son of God, isn’t that far-fetched?”<br />
Bono comes back, “Look, the secular responses to Christ’s story always go like this: He<br />
was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of<br />
other great prophets, be they of Elijah, Mohammed, Buddha, or Confucius; but, actually,<br />
Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off the hook. Christ says, ‘No, I’m not<br />
saying I’m a teacher; don’t call me a teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet; I’m saying<br />
I’m the Messiah; I’m saying I’m God incarnate.’ So what you’re left with is either Christ<br />
who was who He said He was, the Messiah; or a complete nutcase. The idea that the<br />
entire course of civilization, for over half of the globe, could have its fate changed and<br />
turned upside down by a nutcase, for me, that’s far-fetched.”
How would you assess or describe your life? Have you come to realize that every good<br />
thing in your life is the result of grace? What is the sure sign that you are celebrating<br />
grace? That sure sign is joyful humility. Paul says it in Romans 5…If what we have is<br />
what we’ve been given and not what we’ve earned, then there’s no reason for boasting.<br />
You see, when I really realize that I’m the object of grace, that all of the good things in<br />
my life are not things that I’ve achieved, but things that I’ve been given by the gracious<br />
hand of God, then what I live in is a joyful, restful humility. And what I do is, I get up<br />
every day, and I celebrate the most important thing in my life, the one thing I could’ve<br />
never earned. I celebrate God’s great grace.<br />
(Music Interlude)<br />
PDT: Well, we’ve talked today about the most beautiful thing that exists in all of the<br />
universe, the most beautiful word in human language. We’ve been talking about grace,<br />
and maybe you are asking yourself, “Okay, Paul, I get it, but how do I avail myself; how<br />
do I enter in; how do I get this grace that you’ve been talking about?”<br />
You see, you have got to understand this…that when you convince yourself that your<br />
greatest problem in life exists outside of you rather than inside of you, you quit becoming<br />
a seeker after God’s grace. If your biggest problem is your circumstances, if your biggest<br />
problem is your relationships, if your biggest problems are all those things that go on<br />
outside of you, then you don’t seek after grace. It’s only when you begin to grasp and<br />
humbly admit that God’s grace really does free you from you because your greatest<br />
problem is you. Your greatest problems in life exist inside of you and not outside of you,<br />
and when you get that, God’s grace gives you something you desperately need. Then,<br />
you start being excited about seeking the resources that God has provided in the Lord<br />
Jesus Christ.<br />
You see, it’s only when you admit that your most significant problem is inside of you, not<br />
outside of you…that you begin to get excited about God’s grace. Isn’t it wonderful to<br />
know that you can stand before God and be completely honest about whom you are, and<br />
what you’ve done, and be completely unafraid? Isn’t it wonderful to know that there’s<br />
never a location or situation where you will ever be alone? Isn’t it wonderful to know that<br />
you have been given God’s grace?<br />
KC: A good reminder from Paul Tripp as he continues his look at “Celebrating Grace”<br />
from the series, “Survival Skills for a Fallen World.” And Paul will continue with more<br />
from the same series tomorrow on Right Here, Right Now.<br />
Now, for a closer look at the kind of grace that Paul has been talking about, if you or<br />
someone you know could use a bit of encouragement, then pick up a copy of Lost In The<br />
Middle. This new book tells us how God has a purpose for all the events in your life.<br />
That’s Lost In The Middle, available on our website, paultrippministries.org. That’s all<br />
one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.
Remember, you can also sign up for the daily podcast so that you can listen to these<br />
encouraging lessons on demand anytime. CD copies of today’s broadcast are available<br />
for just five dollars. You can order from the website, or call us at 1-800-551-6595.<br />
That’s toll-free 800-551-6595.<br />
Right Here, Right Now is also reaching out, and you can join us to bring these messages<br />
of hope and healing to others. All you need to do is click on ‘Ministry Support’ at<br />
paultrippministries.org, or write to us at 7214 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia,<br />
Pennsylvania 19135. Now, if you’d like to invite Paul to speak at your church or special<br />
event, just go online for more information.<br />
And next time, Paul talks about learning how to minister as he continues the series,<br />
“Survival Skills for a Fallen World.” For Paul Tripp and all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries,<br />
I’m Kate Crowley, reminding you that, in Jesus Christ, there really is help Right Here,<br />
Right Now. See you tomorrow.<br />
© 2006 Paul Tripp Ministries<br />
www.paultripp.com