Paul Tripp: There is hope for us as individuals; there is hope for our families; there is hope for our friendships; there is hope for our communities, and our cities, and our nations. There's hope because we live in a world where grace lives.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here, now, is Paul Tripp.

Paul Tripp: I want to start the program today with a vocabulary exercise. If it was your job to scan the entire human vocabulary for the most beautiful word in the universe, what would you say it is? If you had to think of all the words that you've ever thought or spoken, what was the most beautiful of them all? What is the most beautiful word in the human vocabulary? The average person speaks about 7,000 words a day; that's a whole lot of talking. That's 49,000 words per week. That's 1,479,000 words per month, over 17,000,000 words per year.

Now, of all those words, which was the most beautiful word you spoke last year? Or think about it this way. There are just under 1,000,000 active words in the English language, 988,000 words. What, one of them, is the most beautiful? You talk all of the time; you listen to people talk all of the time; you read all of the time; you hear words all of the time; words are the background drone of all of our lives. And so today, what I want to do with you is examine one word, one word that is perhaps the most beautiful word that's ever been spoken.

One word that is not only beautiful in its history, but it has the power to totally rearrange you and everything that makes up your life. One essential beautiful word, one word you do not ever want to live without, one word that you definitely want in your life now and all of the time. What could that word be? What is the most beautiful word that's ever been spoken? What is that word?

Music: "Grace" by U2

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that
Changed the world

Kate Crowley: And you're listening to Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp...more on "The Most Beautiful Word," coming up as we continue the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." Be sure and tell your friends about Paul Tripp Ministries, Monday through Friday, right here on WFIL at 11 A.M.

The purpose of this program is to help you find freedom in Jesus Christ right here, right now. We invite you to check out our website at paultrippministries.org. And while you're there, you'll find Paul's latest book, Lost In The Middle and other resources on video, audio, and print that will be helpful to you. That's paultrippministries.org. Right Here, Right Now continues with Paul Tripp.

The Thing You Cannot Buy or Earn

Paul Tripp: You want it; you really do; you need it; you really do. You can't live without it, but you can't buy it, and you can't earn it. It only ever comes by means of a gift. You want it for yourself all the time, but you'll find it hard to give to somebody else. Sometimes, it comes in such subtle ways that you miss it. Other times, it comes loudly and dramatically into your life. You can't own it, and if you hoard it, you find out you didn't really have it in the first place.

It's nearly impossible to adequately define, yet it is simple and beautiful, as simple and as beautiful as anything ever was. In a fallen world, populated by selfish, lost, fearful, and rebellious people, it's the one thing that everyone needs. When you receive it, you immediately realize how much you have needed it all along, and you wonder how you could've lived so long without it. You can only give it to someone else when you have first been given it yourself because you cannot give away that which you did not have.

What is this word? What is this thing that I've been describing, this thing that we so desperately need, that is so amazingly beautiful, that's so deeply needed, that is so essential for life ever to be what it was meant to be, that is the most important ingredient in this broken world? What is this one thing that every person living in this broken world cannot safely live without?

Well, have I gotten your attention? Have I been driving you crazy? Have you scanned your own personal dictionary? Have you scanned your vocabulary? Have you been thinking about what in the world I'm talking about? Have I gotten your attention? Well, here it is. It's so simple to say; it's so beautiful to behold...'grace'. Grace is the word; grace always has God as its source, and it is always given to someone who doesn't deserve it. But it is something that's needed by everyone. Grace always comes to an undeserving person, and grace always results in things that are good.

How much do you really understand? How much do you really know about? How much do you daily rely upon this thing called 'grace'? How much do you consistently celebrate 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 the beauty of grace? Is your life driven, shaped, and motivated by grace?

Well, if you don't know how to answer that question, ask yourself this question: What is your life shaped and motivated by? Is it motivated by your gifts? Is it motivated by your position? Is it motivated by your personality? What drives your life? What is that thing that you depend on? What gets you through your day? Is your life driven; is your life shaped; is your life motivated by this one, beautiful, essential gift, never earned, always given--grace? How much do you understand grace?

Music: "Please Forgive Them" by Big Tent Revival

Upon the cross of Calvary
My precious Savior died for me
And for our sin, He shed His blood
And by His love, He prayed to God
Father please forgive them; they know not what they do
I will be the sacrifice for all they've done to You
Turn Your wrath upon me Lord, Your one and only Son
Please forgive them; they know not what they've done

Grace Where You Live and Work Every Day

Paul Tripp: Now, let me put this beautiful word 'grace' in the context of where you live, and work, and do what you do every day. Do you know that there is always something that you base your life on? Do you know there's always something that defines you, that explains why you do the things you do? There's always something that provides for you motivation, that provides for you purpose, that delivers to you hope of some kind.

Maybe you're a person that's defined by your family and all that your family is. Or maybe you're defined by your job, the position, the power, the success or achievement that you have there. Maybe you're defined by your education; you're defined by your academic life and the degrees that you achieved. Maybe you're defined by your possessions. Maybe your house is a monument to your decorous ability.

Or maybe you are defined by your relationships; you really get your personal definition by the people and the groups who have accepted you, who respect you, who esteem you. There's always something in life that provides definition, direction, and motivation for you.

Let me give you this principle: As a person, you are in the best place ever when you are defined by the best thing ever. And the best thing ever is grace. What is this wonderful thing called grace? Well, let me attempt to give you a definition. The problem with defining grace is that it is, at once, very simple and yet so expansive, that it seems almost impossible to define. Grace is: "The freely given love, forgiveness, acceptance 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 for our friendships; there's hope for our communities, and our cities, and our nations. There's hope because we live in a world where grace lives. There's hope when you are foolish and ignorant; there's hope when you're weak and unable; there's hope for you when you're proud and self-sufficient; there's hope for you in times of anger, fear, and discouragement. There's hope when you are eaten by envy, vengeance, and regret. There's hope when you've messed up and failed. There's hope because God is, and God is a God of amazing grace.

Yes, it's true that this world is terribly broken. Yes, it's true that we are flawed human beings. Yes, it's true that we fail and make mistakes all the time, but in all of that failure, and all of that brokenness, and all of that difficulty, there is one constant thing that we can celebrate again, and again, and again. It's always new, it's always fresh, and it's tremendously powerful. It's grace.

You see, God's grace is, in fact, the most powerful force in the universe. It reaches into where you are, and it is able to take you where God wants you to be. It has the power to do something that nothing else can do. It has the power to transform you at the causal core of who you are as a human being, your heart.

You see, the promise of God's grace is a radically new heart, rather than condemning me, rather than turning His back on me, God wraps arms of grace around me and transforms me at the core of who I am as a human being. And if you look around, if you pay attention to the things we say and the things we do, again and again, every day, we are people in need of transformation. We are not noble people who always do the right thing.

The Bible is not filled with stories of noble people who always did the right thing. In fact, Abraham, who is called in Scripture, "The Father of the Faithful," blew it in his own marriage. He did a horrible thing in having sexual relations with his servant girl. Why did Abraham do that?...because he was unwilling to wait. We always need God's grace.

So, you may be asking, "Okay, Paul, I get your definition that grace is the freely given, love forgiveness, acceptance and help of God, even though there is nothing that I could ever do to earn it, but I'm not sure I understand what grace looks like."

Well, first, grace is the grace of forgiveness. You see, we all do what is wrong. The Bible calls that sin, and that sin leaves me guilty. I need to be forgiven, and Jesus Christ went to the cross to carry my sin, to take my punishment so I could experience radical, and comprehensive, and complete forgiveness. In Jesus Christ, I'm forgiven for everything I've ever done in the past, everything I now do in the present, everything I will ever do in the future.

Second, grace is the grace of acceptance. God, now, not only forgives me, but He welcomes me into relationship with Him. He invites me into His family. He adopts me as His child, and because of that, I now have this Father-child relationship with Him 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 separated me from God. God's grace, now, has given me acceptance.

But third, there's also the grace of God's presence. God is not far away from me. In fact, God is present with me wherever I am, whomever I'm with, whatever I'm doing. It's an amazing thing. The Bible tells us that God, in His grace, has made us now the place where He lives. It wasn't enough for God to forgive me. He literally unzipped me and got inside of me by his Holy Spirit, and so He is with me all the time.

But not only the grace of forgiveness, and not only the grace of acceptance, and not only the grace of His presence, but there's also the grace of enablement. You see, sin leaves me lame; it leaves me weak; it leaves me unable to be what God called for me to be and to do what God called for me to do. And so, God's grace gives me power; it gives me strength. It gives me the ability to do what I was meant to do.

It's also the grace of freedom. You see, God's grace doesn't just forgive me and doesn't just empower me; God's grace delivers me. Sin turns me into an addict; sin turns me into a slave; God's grace frees me from that addiction. It gives me the power to say, "No!" and to turn and go in a much better direction.

And then finally, God's grace is the grace of completion. There will be a day when I will be fully restored to what I was meant to be. There will be no more sin. There will be no more struggle. Grace is the grace of forgiveness, the grace of acceptance, the grace of God's presence, the grace of enablement, the grace of freedom, and the grace of completion. What does Peter say?...that God's grace gives us everything we would ever need to be what we are supposed to be and to do what we're supposed to do right here, right now.

Music: "There Will Come a Day" by Faith Hill

It's not easy trying to understand
How the world can be so cold
Stealing the souls of a man
Cloudy skies rain down on all your dreams
You wrestle with the fear and doubts
Sometimes it's hard, but you gotta believe
There's a better place
Where our Father waits
And every tear He'll wipe away
The darkness will be gone
The weak shall be strong
Hold on to your faith
There will come a day
There will come a day

Bono, Karma, and Grace

Paul Tripp: I came across a wonderful statement of grace in World Magazine; it's actually a statement by Bono of U2. An interviewer asked him, "...doesn't he think appalling things happen when people become religious?"

Bono counters, "It's a mind-blowing concept that God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people. But the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma."

The interviewer asked, "What's that?"

Bono says, "At the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you, an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth; or in physics and physical law, every action is met by an equal but or opposite one. And yet, along comes this idea called 'grace' to up end all of that. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your action, which in my case," he says, "is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff."

The interviewer asked, "Like what?"

"Well," Bono says, "that's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if karma was going to finally be my judge. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."

The interviewer marvels, "The Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. I wish I could believe in that."

"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death," replies Bono. "It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven."

The interviewer marvels some more. "That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy in my view. Christ has His rank among the world's great thinkers, but the Son of God, isn't that far-fetched?"

Bono comes back, "Look, the secular responses to Christ's story always go like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they of Elijah, Mohammed, Buddha, or Confucius; but, actually, Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off the hook. Christ says, 'No, I'm not saying I'm a teacher; don't call me a teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet; I'm saying I'm the Messiah; I'm saying I'm God incarnate.' So what you're left with is either Christ who was who He said He was, the Messiah; or a complete nutcase. The idea that the entire course of civilization, for over half of the globe, could have its fate changed and 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 thing in your life is the result of grace? What is the sure sign that you are celebrating grace? That sure sign is joyful humility. Paul says it in Romans 5...If what we have is what we've been given and not what we've earned, then there's no reason for boasting. You see, when I really realize that I'm the object of grace, that all of the good things in my life are not things that I've achieved, but things that I've been given by the gracious hand of God, then what I live in is a joyful, restful humility. And what I do is, I get up every day, and I celebrate the most important thing in my life, the one thing I could've never earned. I celebrate God's great grace.

(Music Interlude)

Paul Tripp: Well, we've talked today about the most beautiful thing that exists in all of the universe, the most beautiful word in human language. We've been talking about grace, and maybe you are asking yourself, "Okay, Paul, I get it, but how do I avail myself; how do I enter in; how do I get this grace that you've been talking about?"

You see, you have got to understand this...that when you convince yourself that your greatest problem in life exists outside of you rather than inside of you, you quit becoming a seeker after God's grace. If your biggest problem is your circumstances, if your biggest problem is your relationships, if your biggest problems are all those things that go on outside of you, then you don't seek after grace. It's only when you begin to grasp and humbly admit that God's grace really does free you from you because your greatest problem is you. Your greatest problems in life exist inside of you and not outside of you, and when you get that, God's grace gives you something you desperately need. Then, you start being excited about seeking the resources that God has provided in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, it's only when you admit that your most significant problem is inside of you, not outside of you...that you begin to get excited about God's grace. Isn't it wonderful to know that you can stand before God and be completely honest about whom you are, and what you've done, and be completely unafraid? Isn't it wonderful to know that there's never a location or situation where you will ever be alone? Isn't it wonderful to know that you have been given God's grace?

Kate Crowley: A good reminder from Paul Tripp as he continues his look at "Celebrating Grace" from the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." And Paul will continue with more from the same series tomorrow on Right Here, Right Now.

Now, for a closer look at the kind of grace that Paul has been talking about, if you or someone you know could use a bit of encouragement, then pick up a copy of Lost In The Middle. This new book tells us how God has a purpose for all the events in your life. That's Lost In The Middle, available on our website, paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

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And next time, Paul talks about learning how to minister as he continues the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." For Paul Tripp and all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, I'm Kate Crowley, reminding you that, in Jesus Christ, there really is help Right Here, Right Now. See you tomorrow.