A Problem You Can't Solve By Yourself - Paul David Tripp

Oh somebody sometimes I get asked as some of our faculty do as well as we get older in the faith and as we have been around for a while who who still ministers to us who are the the Paul's for which we are the Timothy's as we become Paul's for other Timothy's and I'm pleased to introduce one who has been that for me through his writings and this is the first time this week that I've gotten to spend time with him personally but Paul Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp ministries and he's been a pastor so he knows where I've been he's an event speaker he's a best-selling author Ward winning author with more than 30 books and video series on Christian living his passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life I've read dangerous calling a couple of times I have a number of his other works on my shelf including his book on sex and money his book on awe and new morning mercies but this last year he released one that behold come let us adore him which was his Advent series and it was a great book to read through the month of December this last year I think I'll do it again it's you can't you can't come after that Christmas story without being moved every time but he brought angles to it that were inspiring instructing and life-changing for me he's married to Louella they live in Philadelphia they have four grown children Paul thank you for being a mentor to so many thank you for taking time out of a very busy writing and traveling schedule to spend these two days with us at DTS would you join me in giving him a warm welcome dude I heard that was a very time well it's an honor to be here with you it's always an honour for me to address pastors or future pastors or people are committed to ministry in the local church and there are ways in which you are my ministry heroes because you are living in the trenches of the life and ministry and struggle of the local church my calling right now is I just drop into a community for a weekend create all kinds of gospel trouble and leave so I have a great esteem for what you're giving your lives to well I was a very very angry man I didn't know I was an angry man but I was an angry man I was in the midst of destroying my life in my ministry and I didn't know it I was a pastor Louella my dear wife was very faithful in bringing that anger to me in godly ways extremely patient but forthright and when she would do that I would wrap my robes of righteousness around me which I have none and tell her what a great guy I was I would tell her that I thought her problem was discontent and I would pray for her that helped her that's a lie at one moment I got on a bit of a roll I'm a domestic guy I do most the cooking in our house I don't mind doing things around the house and I said these deeply humble words to my wife I actually said these words 95% of the women in our church would love to be married to a man like me how's that for humility Louella very quickly informed me she was in the 5% it was a moral disaster I was on a weekend much like this moment we're spinning together with my brother Ted and on the way home driving up the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike he said Paul we probably ought to make what we heard practical to our own lives why don't you start and what happened next I'll never forget I say that I will celebrate this 10 million years into eternity Ted didn't make any statements he began to ask me questions and as he asked me questions it was like God was ripping down curtains and I was seeing myself with accuracy and hearing myself with accuracy for the first time in many years filled with the grief of conviction let me just say don't resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit don't defend yourself against the conviction of the Holy Spirit you are not being condemned you are being rescued run run run toward the conviction of the Holy Spirit God was in that car in powerful ways and as I I looked in at this man and heard this man it was disjointed it was almost impossible for me to believe that that was actually me but it was I was broken I couldn't wait to get home that evening to talk to Louella and I have a lively sense of humor I often enter the house humorously and I came in very serious that night I think she knew something was up already and I said you mind if we sit down and talk she said sure I I'd be glad to do that and I said to her I know for years you've been trying to talk to about my anger and I was unwilling to listen and I'm willing to hear and I I think for the first time tonight I can say I want to hear what you have the state to me I'll never forget what will what happened next Louella told me she loved me which I thought was an amazing sign of gray she began to cry and then she talked for two hours and in that two hours God began a process of the undoing and the rebuilding of the heart of this man now the operative word was processed I wasn't zapped by lightning but I was a man now with open eyes and open ears and open heart and I saw that anger everywhere I looked there were moments where I felt like I couldn't breathe it was the next several months were painful but it was the pain of grace God was making that anger like vomit in my mouth so I would never go go there again I'll never forget one day months months months down the road coming down from rough stairs and seeing the wellas sitting in the living room with her back to me and I looked at her I I thought I I don't remember when I last felt that old ugly anger toward her and I went out behind her put my hands on her shoulders and I said you know I'm not angry at you anymore she looked up at me like this and we laughed and cried at what God had done I want to be honest with you I'm not saying I had reached a point of my sanctification where a moment of irritation was impossible for me but that life dominant anger was broken praise God praise God now I want you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 3 I'm gonna look at just a couple verses there because you may be sitting there wondering how could that happen you are in God's Word all the time how as a pastor could that develop to that point I now know that Louella was planning her escape not to leave me but just to break the cycle of evil that was going on in our home well this passage is an explanation and a help let me read it for you take care brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the Living God but exhort one another every day as long as it's called today so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin this passage is a warning and a call and you only understand the essentiality the the necessity of the call if you understand the nature of the warning it's actually the warning actually describes a process and if you don't understand that process you don't see how significant and important the warning is and I want you to look up here because I'm going to physically picture the process for you take care that none of you has a sinful unbelieving turning away hardened heart there's a process a spiritual debilitation process that is being described here now let's let's unpack it you begin to let subtle areas of sin into your life sin that you would have never thought of letting into your life in those early moments of your conversion when was all pores open excitement I get to follow Jesus and everything inside of you was moved toward I want to live in a way that's pleasing to him listen familiarity with the gospel is a huge blessing if you're familiar with the gospel Grace has visited visit you but familiarity with the gospel is dangerous because things that become familiar to us don't grip us anymore you may be driving your first time towards your office on a street full of beautiful huge trees and as you're driving you're thinking look at this beauty these trees the the arms of these trees point to the glory of God I'm so glad I get to drive down this road six weeks later you're on the same Road you're pounding your your hand on the dash saying this traffic drives me crazy and you haven't seen a tree in three weeks that's what familiarity does to us so you begin to let down your guard and you begin to let subtle areas of things that God says is wrong into your life now when that happens because the heart of the heart heart has been taken out of you and the heart of flesh has been placed inside of you by God's grace your conscience will bother you and when your conscience bothers you you only have one of two choices to make you either immediately confess that that is wrong and you place yourself once again under the justifying mercies of Christ and receive His forgiveness or listen carefully you will wreak some system of self justification that makes that wrong acceptable to your conscience we are so good at doing that I'm about to hurt your feelings but it's my job no one in this world swindles you more than you do just accept it stop arguing your heart right now just accept it because no one talks to you more than you do and so a man who is at the mall lusting he'll say that wasn't lust I'm just a man who enjoys beauty praise God for the beauty he's created in his world particularly feminine beauty somebody who's gossiping on their cell phone destroying the reputation of somebody who's not there well we'll say it wasn't really gossip it was just a very detailed personal extended prayer request we should pray a parent who has just screamed in unbridled parent or anger against a child has no ability to defend himself we'll say it wasn't anger I'm just being like one of God's prophets thus says the Lord a man in ministry who's on an ugly quest for personal power say it's I'm not after power I'm just exorcising God giving leadership gifts all of those are attempts to convince my heart that what God says is wrong isn't so wrong after all and what I'm describing to you are functional patterns of unbelief what you are doing is you are backing away from the clear indictment of the Word of God and what's important about that is unless you are willing to accept the horrible bad news the good news of the gospel you will not seek and celebrate and so I'm I'm now living in the subtle functional patterns of unbelief I say that I have surrendered my life to the the message of scripture but there are places were I'm backing away from it and so there are things in my marriage things in my personal life things in my finances things and relationships that are out of accord with what God has called me to sin in God's eyes that I'm now okay with that's turning away because once you're you're able to cut that anchor cord the cord that hold you to the Word of God that keeps you morally anchored because you've surrendered yourself to the call of your Messiah there will be further drifts and ultimately a hard heart what does that mean it means what once bothered me doesn't bother me anymore and something that's hard if I had a stone in my hand I press it with all my might what did you think would happen well look at the size of my arms it's not hard to answer nothing it's resistant to change now what is being described here you know this because it says see two brothers is a regressive process that can happen in the life of a believer we are able to let subtle patterns of sin in our lives we are able to defend ourselves against conviction by self atoning arguments we are able to allow ourselves to drift we are able to have hearts that are hardened you can be in ministry with a hard heart it's possible and as I've around the world told the story of my anger what's been sad to me is how many pastors have grabbed me pulled me into a private room and confessed the things that are going on in their own homes I've heard story after story after story after story after story I think as a result of writing dangerous calling God has called me to be a man who lives in grief until I die I weep again and again I get off of a phone call another another pastor another call and I walk upstairs to talk to Louella and I can't talk I'm weeping because this is happening to us it's happening to us this process is happening to us leader after leader pastor after pastor most of them will never get on the internet shells of men shells of women in ministry because of process now you say why how could this ever happen in the life of a believer well the theology passage tells you it's a see to it that this doesn't happen to you lest you be hardened by what say it the deceitfulness of sin sin is deceitful and guess who it deceives first I have no problem seeing the sin of my wife and children it's and never been a problem for me I see other people send very clearly but I can be surprised when mine has pointed out now here the theology yes the power of sin has been broken in the justifying mercy of Christ but here's our theology the presence of sin still remains and is being progressively eradicated right that's your theology no stay with me because the see ology is important that means as long as sin is still inside of you there will be pockets of spiritual blindness everybody in this room must give up the thought that no one knows you better than you do it's a delusion because there will be pockets of spiritual blindness inside of me until there's no longer sin that blinds inside of me and if you here's where I was if you say no one knows me better than I know me then you are naturally resistant to anyone who comes to you with something you haven't seen so I felt I felt absolutely appropriate to argue with Loyola about my anger to tell her how mad it made me that she approached me with my anger it makes me so mad that you call me angry I felt absolutely justified because I believed that I had the most accurate view of me there are brothers and sisters in ministry all over the place that are resistant to wise counsel are resistant to loving confrontation because they believe they have the most accurate view of themselves and anything that disagrees with their view they could be feel completely justified to send away it's a mess it's robbing the Church of Jesus Christ of its vitality you can feel my passion so what what is the solution what I want to say one other thing before I say that unlike physical blindness spiritual blindness has another element to it I have I have a dear lifelong friend who's completely blind George is amazing a few years ago he vited me to go to a master woodworkers convention because he's a master on the lathe completely blind and George doesn't turn big bowls or things like that he he makes fine writing pens and he collects rare wood and he turns the barrels of those little pins on the lathe totally blind George does everything but the only thing that I can think that George doesn't do is drive and he's probably working on it driving by Braille is dangerous because you have to hit the thing before now why do I tell this story because George went blind at nine years old when he was immediately aware that he was blind here's the danger of spiritual blindness and spiritually blind people are blind to their blindness I was blind to my blindness I thought I was a sighted man when actually this destructive thing was taking over my heart and my life about to undo all the wonderful things that I had been blessed with I was blind to it so look at what the passage says take care brother's lest any of their be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the Living God but exhort one another every day as long as it's called today so none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin what do I need I need instruments of scene in my life I need people who will help me to see things that I would not be able to see by myself welcome to the essential sanctifying Ministry of the body of Christ I need to invite people to step across the normal boundaries of of nice comfortable relationships to intrude in to my space I need people to interrupt my private conversation because they love me I need those people in my life and I don't need just to assume that they'll be there I need to invite people in to my life everyone in this room needs to live in an active network of intentionally intrusive Christ grace driven redemptive relationships let me say that again intentionally intrusive christ-centered grace driven redemptive relationships we need help the message of Scripture is that as a grave danger this side of eternity for us to live unknown and yet in the body of Christ we live often in networks of terminally casual relationships most of what we call fellowship isn't it's the stuff that people do at the pub a little bit of weather a little bit of sports a little bit of hi how are you we had to just call it publish it instead of fellowship we're gonna gather for publish if don't worry no fellowship will be taking place you don't have to be intimidated because we don't really fellowship we publish it intensely intrusive it means I want you to intrude I need you Christ centered not beating people up with a law and walking away what I'm saying is we are blessed because of the sufficient grace of Jesus to be the most honest community on earth because there's nothing that could ever be known exposed or revealed about me that hasn't been covered by the blood of Jesus praise God praise God praise God praise God and have you thought about this or not but the most significant moment of suffering of Jesus on the cross wasn't physical it was relational here's that moment when the father turned his back on the son and Jesus cries out in utter toilet torment Eloi Eloi Lama sabachthani my God my God why have you forsaken me listen to this I love this Jesus took every bit of your rejection so that you would never ever again see the back of God's head that's the grace in which we stand you don't have to have the burden of presenting yourself as something that you're not the cross relieves you of that burden you don't have to have the burden of taking yourself off the hook the cross has ended that burden you can come needy and broken and find mercy in your time of need this is our gospel my question is if are we living that gospel at street level is that gospel forming the way that we do community with one another if Christ is the head of his body everything else is just body it doesn't matter how long you've walked with Jesus doesn't matter what position of power you have in the evangelical community every person needs the body of Christ every pastor needs to be pastored there's no indication in the New Testament that it's safe for a person in ministry to live up above or outside of the body of Christ none a pastor is but a member of the body of Christ with a particular set of gifts and a calling to a particular office but he's a member of the body of Christ listen the typical thing that scares me about you people going in ministry it's often the person who is a leading person doing ministry gets the least body of Christ of everybody our leadership circles cannot must be something more than the corporate board of a religious institution they need to be communities of grace where leaders are known and pastored and cared for lest we be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for every one big name that you know about there's fallen in ministry there are thousands that you will never know about because we fail to believe the warnings and the cure of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ we're not living in communities that are formed by the truths of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ maybe I'm more concerned about what you think about me than I am about what is actually going on inside of me listen I've been blessed with identity in Christ so I don't have to shop for it horizontally anymore how burdensome is that it's burdensome I don't have to prove myself to you and if I'm I'm giving myself to that if that means more to me than what the gospel offers me then I will shut myself off from the help that God has designed for me I need help his work is not done in me there's still danger in sight of me they're still blindness that afflicts me I need help here this self-examination is a community project who knows you who have you invited in who knows you I don't mean just who you're married to and those kinds of things knows you at the level of the heart who watches for you who you have a name right now are you living virtually unknown you're husband and wife does your marriage permit honesty there's many many Christian marriages where that kind of honesty the honesty of confrontation is an offense and couples live with two boo topics that can't be can't be talked about anymore that was my marriage wallet couldn't approach me and so this thing grew and deepened are we embracing the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that's producing honesty in community and help in community or does this sinful unbelieving turning away hardened heart process happen over and over and over again taking more and more of us away from our potential in Christ now I'm I'm here because I love you I'm excited about the potential in this room it's mind-boggling what this room the legacy this room could have but we better take Hebrews 3 12 and 13 seriously because there are people in this room sadly that will not be in ministry ten years from now said god help us he's not only given us a warning but as our Redeemer always does he provides a resource of help because he's glorious in His grace he's tender in his mercy he's patient and faithful would you not step into the gospel step into his help and watch what he will do let's pray lord thank you for this scripture that warns us and calls us at the same time thank you that you do not expose need and walk away you expose need and then you lay down yourself to meet that need that's how good you are that's how marvelous your grace is may we in humility and neediness live in our relationships the gospel that we say we believe we I pray this for the sake of everyone in this room I pray this for the health of your church I pray this for the furtherance of your kingdom and ultimately for the sound of your glory old lamb o King already Deemer Jesus amen god bless [Applause] you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Length: 32min 32sec (1952 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2018