Paul David Tripp: The church is not a theological classroom. It is a c...

We forget that God's primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy.

Paul David Tripp

holy goal forget

The cross guarantees that even in your darkest moment God will never turn in disgust and walk away. There is no rebellion, no weakness, no foolishness, no evil of heart that the cross can't defeat and grace can't transform.

Paul David Tripp

guarantees-that evil heart

Love is willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not require reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving

Paul David Tripp

sacrifice self love-is

Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God's working through you, but your delusions of strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness! Point to His strength by being willing to admit your weakness.

Paul David Tripp

strength christian perfect

God's design in our pain enables us to look back and say: He loves me enough to take me where I would have never wanted to go in order to produce in me what I never could have achieved on my own.

Paul David Tripp

design pain order

When Christ is my hope, he becomes the one thing in which I have confidence. I act on his wisdom and bank on his grace. I trust his promises and I rely on his presence. And I pursue all the good things that he has promised me simply because I trust him. So, I am not manipulating, controlling, or threatening my way through life to get what I want, because I have found what I want in Christ. He is my hope.

Paul David Tripp

grace way promise

If you don't keep the eyes of your heart focused on the paradise that is to come, you will try to turn this poor fallen world into the paradise it will never be.

Paul David Tripp

eye heart trying

There is a God of awesome grace who meets his children in moments of darkness and difficulty. He is worth running to. He is worth waiting for. He brings rest when it seems like there is no rest to be found.

Paul David Tripp

waiting running children

Corporate worship is a regular gracious reminder that it's not about you. You've been born into a life that is a celebration of another.

Paul David Tripp

celebration born worship

God never intended for us to simply be the objects of His love. We are also called to be the instruments of that love in the lives of others.

Paul David Tripp

lives-of-others his-love instruments

We must begin by admitting that people and situations do not cause us to speak as we do. Our hearts control our words. People and situations simply provide the occasion for the heart to express itself.

Paul David Tripp

admitting heart people

God is the ultimate musician. His music transforms your life. The notes of redemption rearrange your heart and restore your life. His songs of forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, truth, hope, sovereignty, and love give you back your humanity and restore your identity.

Paul David Tripp

heart song giving

Grace will expose the deepest issues of your heart, then point you to the Cross which covers everything that's been exposed.

Paul David Tripp

issues grace heart

We are called by God to do theology, that is, to live our lives with a moment-by-moment consciousness of God.

Paul David Tripp

theology consciousness moments

Harboring bitterness against people is actually confessing their sin to myself, over and over again. Anger is akin to confessing their sin to God, dissatisfied that he hasn't done something and placing myself in his position as judge.

Paul David Tripp

done judging people

Becaise I love God, I want to handle his truth with accuracy, clarity, and specificity. I want to build bridges of understanding from the wisdom of the Word to the details of people's lives. And because I love people, I will not be satisfied with lobbing grenades of general truth at them. Rather, through good questions, committed listening, and careful interpretation, I will enter their world with the understanding necessary to bring Christ's help to where it is really needed.

Paul David Tripp

understanding bridges people

Today you will envy the blessings of another, or you will bask in the wonder of the amazing grace you have been given.

Paul David Tripp

envy grace blessing

You can tell yourself that God's not fair, or you can thank Him that He's not fair. If God was fair, we would be doomed and condemned.

Paul David Tripp

not-fair doomed would-be

It is a sweet thing that we serve a dissatisfied God who has destinations in mind for us that we would never choose for ourselves. It really is a good thing that he will not be satisfied until he has gotten us exactly where he created us and re-created us to be. Most of us would have been satisfied to stay at home, and many of us would have quit the journey long before it was completed. But our heavenly Father won't give up until each one of his children has completed the journey.

Paul David Tripp

faith sweet children

Sin doesn't always look sinful to us; sometimes it looks beautiful. That's why we need grace to see sin for what it really is - dark, dangerous, enslaving and destructive.

Paul David Tripp

grace dark beautiful

The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.