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Paul Tripp on Identity

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This coming Sunday, June 10th, Lord-willing, I’ll be preaching on 1 Peter 2:4-10.  This passage talks about believers being living stones, believers, a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for His possession, God’s people, and receiving mercy.  This identity is to loom large in–define–our lives.  Unfortunately, too often, other things carry the storyline of our existence.  Here’s a series of posts from Paul Tripp that provide some insight into our identity amnesia.  I hope you’ll dig into these and benefit.

I Am My Success

I Am My Relationships

I Am My Righteousness

I Am My Possessions

Getting Identity Right

Worship God As Creator

Worship God As Sovereign

Worship God As Savior

Book Review: Paul Tripp Greatest Hits, Now Available

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“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh,” so ends one of the most practical books in the Bible, Ecclesiastes.  And, it makes sense, doesn’t it?  Book lovers love all things books.  And, we’ll exhaust ourselves for the sake of a good book.  There are long books, short books, wish we had more books.  Have you ever read an author and thought, “I wish more people could connect with this author?”  That’s my experience with Paul Tripp.  Every single thing he writes is productive and helpful for me.  
His latest book, New Morning Mercies, is another book among many.  Tripp’s written devotional type books before.  He’s written the textbooks, the practical books, the pastoral books.  So, what is New Morning Mercies?  It’s a collection of writings from Tripp.  These are written up in short blips to read each day.  You might view this collection of writings as a Tripp Greatest Hits piece.  It’s really him at his finest: probing the heart with thought-provoking meditations so that we’ll be driven to our need of the good news found in Jesus.
So, if you find that you can’t quite navigate the preponderance of books, grab Paul Tripp’s greatest hits, New Morning Mercies, so that you might be engaged at the heart level and be left to go to your Savior.  

Love Is

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Forrest Gump famously said, “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is.”  While we may have a good idea of what love is, I was helped just today, when someone drew my attention to this article on 23 Things That Love Is by Paul Tripp (and the one forwarding it to me reminded me to be reminded of this while I’m shopping for card, flowers or candy for my valentine):

  1. LOVE IS… being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of others without impatience or anger.
  2. LOVE IS… actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental toward another while looking for ways to encourage and praise.
  3. LOVE IS… making a daily commitment to resist the needless moments of conflict that come from pointing out and responding to minor offenses.
  4. LOVE IS… being lovingly honest and humbly approachable in times of misunderstanding.
  5. LOVE IS… being more committed to unity and understanding than you are to winning, accusing, or being right.
  6. LOVE IS… a making a daily commitment to admit your sin, weakness, and failure and to resist the temptation to offer an excuse or shift the blame.
  7. LOVE IS… being willing, when confronted by another, to examine your heart rather than rising to your defense or shifting the focus.
  8. LOVE IS… making a daily commitment to grow in love so that the love you offer to another is increasingly selfless, mature, and patient.
  9. LOVE IS… being unwilling to do what is wrong when you have been wronged, but looking for concrete and specific ways to overcome evil with good.
  10. LOVE IS… being a good student of another, looking for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so that in some way you can remove the burden, support them as they carry it, or encourage them along the way.
  11. LOVE IS… being willing to invest the time necessary to discuss, examine, and understand the relational problems you face, staying on task until the problem is removed or you have agreed upon a strategy of response.
  12. LOVE IS… being willing to always ask for forgiveness and always being committed to grant forgiveness when it is requested.
  13. LOVE IS… recognizing the high value of trust in a relationship and being faithful to your promises and true to your word.
  14. LOVE IS… speaking kindly and gently, even in moments of disagreement, refusing to attack the other person’s character or assault their intelligence.
  15. LOVE IS… being unwilling to flatter, lie, manipulate, or deceive in any way in order to co-opt the other person into giving you what you want or doing something your way.
  16. LOVE IS… being unwilling to ask another person to be the source of your identity, meaning, and purpose, or inner sense of well-being, while refusing to be the source of theirs.
  17. LOVE IS… the willingness to have less free time, less sleep, and a busier schedule in order to be faithful to what God has called you to be and to do as a spouse, parent, neighbor, etc.
  18. LOVE IS… a commitment to say no to selfish instincts and to do everything that is within your ability to promote real unity, functional understanding, and active love in your relationships.
  19. LOVE IS… staying faithful to your commitment to treat another with appreciation, respect, and grace, even in moments when the other person doesn’t seem deserving or is unwilling to reciprocate.
  20. LOVE IS… the willingness to make regular and costly sacrifices for the sake of a relationship without asking for anything in return or using your sacrifices to place the other person in your debt.
  21. LOVE IS… being unwilling to make any personal decision or choice that would harm a relationship, hurt the other person, or weaken the bond of trust between you.
  22. LOVE IS… refusing to be self-focused or demanding, but instead looking for specific ways to serve, support, and encourage, even when you are busy or tired.
  23. LOVE IS… daily admitting to yourself, the other person, and God that you are unable to be driven by a cruciform love without God’s protecting, providing, forgiving, rescuing, and delivering grace.

DC Email – Pride: Check Yourself

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Here’s my email to elders and deacons at Crestview on 9/24/13:

Reading through the recommended reading from our last Dangerous Calling video, I came across this quote from chapter 11 (pp.153-154).  Read through this slowly: “I am afraid that there is a whole lot of pride in the modern pulpit. There is a whole lot of pride in the seminary classroom. There is a whole lot of pride in the church staff. It is one of the reasons for all the relational conflict that takes place in the church. It is why we are often better theological gatekeepers than tender and humble spokesmen for the gospel. It is why pastors often seem unapproachable. It is why we get angry in meetings or defensive when someone disagrees with us or points out a wrong. We are too self-assured. We are too confident. We too quickly assess that we are okay. We too quickly make heroes out of ourselves and others. We too often take credit for what sovereign grace produced. We too often assess that we don’t need the help that the normal believer needs. We are too quick to speak and too slow to listen. We too often take as personal affronts things that are not personal. We quit being students too soon. We don’t see ourselves as needy often enough. We have too little meditative-communion-with-Christ time nailed into our schedules. We confidently assign to ourselves more ministry work than we can do. We live in more isolation than is spiritually healthy. Pastor, there is ample evidence all around us that we tend to forget who we are and that we allow ourselves to be defined by things that should not define us.”
Today, I encourage you to remember the obvious: we are sinners in the process of sanctification and very much as needy as those we serve.  Let’s flee to the only remedy for our souls, then, the cross of Christ.  That’s our standard of acceptance and being right before God.  Let’s boast in Christ and His work rather than our own and be leaders who serve the body well. 

With you in this…

Dangerous Calling Email – Guarantee

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Here’s the email I wrote to the Elders and Deacons of Crestview on 8/27/13:

There’s a great quote in the notes from Sessions 7 & 8 of Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling DVD Study Guide.  It comes from p.126 of the book: “If you and I have been guaranteed a place in eternity with our Savior, then we also have been guaranteed all the grace we need along the way.”  My response written on the page when I read this was, “Yes!”  I tend, so very often, to forget that the grace that justifies is the same grace that sanctifies and will eventually glorify me eternally.  The grace that leads us safe thus far will, indeed, safely lead us home.  And, this is good news for each of us. 

You see, our success in ministry is not entirely wrapped up in who we are.  It’s wrapped up more specifically in God and who He’s made us to be.  Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”  We do a lot in ministry without Him.  But the most effective ministry moments are those that find us in weakness admitting to Him our need and relying on Him to accomplish what He intends.  Today, remember that God is the source of our work.  Rest in Him.  And, as we do, we’ll be the effective leaders God’s called us to be. 

Dangerous Calling Email – Arrival Danger

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Here’s the email I wrote our elders and deacons today, 7/31/13:

In chapter 11 of Dangerous Calling, “Between the Already and the Not Yet,” Paul Tripp wrestles with the concept of arrival.  Specifically, as we saw last time, he warns of the carnival mirrors of ministry that can distort the true reality of our souls.  Related to that, Tripp gives some clear Results of Thinking You’ve Arrived:
1) You will think that you don’t need what you preach (or teach or study).
2) You will not be open to the ministry of the body of Christ.
3) You will expect of others the perfection that you think you’ve achieved.
4) You will feel qualified to have more control than you have.
5) You won’t feel the need for daily meditative communion with Christ.
6) You will take credit for successes that only grace can produce.
7) You will feel entitled to what you could never earn or achieve.
8) You will be less than watchful and protective when it comes to temptation and sin.
9) You will load more on your ministry than you can responsibly handle.
Again, all of this flows from distortion.  As Tripp closes, he reminds us “that you and I are still a bit of a mess.  Yes, by grace we often get it right, but we also often get it completely wrong.  There are times when we are the exuberant celebrants of the Lord, and there are other times when we are just full of ourselves.  There are times when we are deeply grateful, but there are other times when we feel entitled and demanding…  All of this is to say that the great spiritual war doesn’t rage only outside of us; there is ample evidence every day that it still rages inside of us.” 
What’s the remedy?  “Gospel-driven, Christ-centered ministry, one that gives grace to those who hear, doesn’t start with theological knowledge; no, it starts with a humble heart.  It starts with the recognition of your own need and the acknowledgement that you and I are more like than unlike the people to whom God has called us to minister.”

With you in this dangerous calling…

Dangerous Calling Email – Danger of Arrival Review

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Here’s the email I wrote to the elders and deacons of Crestview today, following up on a meeting we had going over Tripp’s Dangerous Calling DVDs.

I’m going to summarize session 5 in this email and press for some application. 
Some of the high points were:
– The Bible is shockingly honest about the brokenness of this world but is, also, gloriously hopeful.
– Since the Bible is honest and hopeful, we should be the most open and honest community.
– There is a danger of identifying or defining ourselves and each other by positions of ministry.
– Effective ministry requires an intentionally intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-driven, redemptive community based on humble approachability and loving honesty.
– We are all tempted to live according to the lie of autonomy and the lie of self-sufficiency.
– The greatest problems and temptations of life lie inside of me and not outside which means I need the grace of God in me much more than I need changes in situations.
Here’s the applications, we were encouraged to pursue:
Is there someone in your life whom you have made yourself approachable to and will allow them to intrude into your life?  If not, why not?  Who could such a person be in your life?
Are you still a person who hungers and thirsts for God’s grace?
How can our church help develop and support the spiritual growth of each other in leadership?
Pray for and with your church leaders (reminder, we meet each Sunday at 8:30 in the bookstore).

Hope you have a great week.  

Dangerous Calling Email – The Danger of Familiarity and Humility

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Here’s the email I sent the elders and deacons of Crestview today:

In Chapter 8 of Paul Tripp’s book Dangerous Calling entitled Familiarity, he warns his readers of the dangers of becoming overly familiar with the things of God.  We have an awe-of-God crisis that must be engaged.  Later in the chapter, Tripp highlights what the awe of God will produce in the heart of a pastor that are vital for effective, God-honoring, productive ministry.  One area he points to is humility.
Here’s how Tripp introduces this idea: “There is nothing that will put you in your place, nothing that will correct your distorted view of yourself, nothing that will yank you out of your functional arrogance, or nothing that will take the winds out of the sails of your self-righteousness like standing, without defense, before the awesome glory of God.” 
He continues: “Somewhere along the way in ministry, too many [church leaders] have forgotten who they are.  They have a bloated, distorted, grandiose view of themselves that renders them largely unapproachable and allows them to justify things they think, desire, say and do that simply are not biblically justifiable.  I have been there and at times fall into being there again, and when I am there, I need to be rescued from me.  When you are too much in awe of you, you set up to be a self-righteous, controlling, overconfident, judgmental, unfalteringly opinionated, ecclesiastical autocrat, unwittingly building a kingdom whose throne will be inhabited by you, no matter how much you are able to convince yourself you do it all to the glory of God.” 
This week, we transition on Sunday mornings into Revelation 4-5.  Take some time and read through seeing how great God is.  As you see that reality, realize that this awe is meant to drive you in ministry.  Have a great week living out of this reality.

Dangerous Calling Email – It’s Bigger Than Just You

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I’m writing some weekly emails to my fellow leaders at Crestview.  Here’s the email from 4/24:

As we keep working through Dangerous Calling, we are doing so in the hope that God would engage our hearts to make us holy.  We want to be servants of Christ who honor Him with our lives.  In chapter 6, “The Missing Community,” Tripp begins by explaining a transformation that took place in his heart and life when he understood that Christianity isn’t just Jesus and me but relational community.  Here’s his explanation, which is helpful for us seeing how our hearts need to change: “I have now come to understand that I need others in my life. I now know that I need to commit myself to living in intentionally intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-driven, redemptive community. I now know it’s my job to seek this community out, to invite people to interrupt my private conversation, and to say things to me that I couldn’t or wouldn’t say to myself. I have realized how much I need warning, encouragement, rebuke, correction, protection, grace, and love. I now see myself as connected to others, not because I have made the choice but because of the wise design of the one who is the head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot allow myself to think that I am smarter than him. I cannot allow myself to think that I am stronger than I am. I cannot assign to myself a level of maturity that I do not have. I cannot begin to believe that I am able to live outside of God’s normal means of spiritual growth and be okay. I cannot allow the level of my spiritual health to be defined by my ministry experience and success or by my theological knowledge. I cannot let myself be lulled to sleep by the congratulatory comments on ministry weekends by people who mean well but really don’t know me. I cannot let myself think that my marriage can be healthy if I live in functional isolation from the body of Christ.” (p.84)

Do you understand these things to be true in your life?  Are you aware of the danger of individualized Christianity?  Today, let this be a reminder to escape the clutches of rugged American individualism for the amber waves of community that God has allowed to surround you in the church.  Let’s embrace this for His glory and our good. 

Dangerous Calling Email – Fears

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Here’s the email I sent church leaders today, 4/17:

Today, we continue working through Dangerous Calling as weekly reminders of the high calling of local church leadership.  We are getting into Chapter 9 “Dirty Secrets”.  I think we probably all resonate with Tripp’s 4 Debilitating Pastoral Fears: 1) Fear of Me – illustrated in Gideon’s fear of Gideon, 2) Fear of Others – illustrated in Peter in Galatians 2:11-14, 3) Fear of Circumstances – illustrated in Abraham and Sarah’s situation, and 4) Fear of the Future – being paralyzed by the “what ifs.”  The remedy?  1) Humbly own your fears.  2) Confess those places where fear has produced bad decisions and wrong responses.  3) Pay attention to your meditation.  (what are you thinking about?)  4) Preach the Gospel to yourself. 
Let’s engage our fears so that we may be men of faith who courageously lead our people to deeper expressions of faith.