Paul Tripp: Are you facing the reality of where you live? Do you carry around with you appropriate expectations? Do you get the fact that, by God's plan, you've been called to live smack dab in the middle of the 'already' and the 'not yet'? And in that middle, you have not been left alone because the God who has ordained for me to live in the middle of His amazing story is in the middle of that story with me.

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: Do you know where you live? You are thinking, "Well, Paul, of course I do." Now, think with me for a moment. I don't mean the city, or the state, or your street address. What I mean is do you really know where you live every day? Have you thought about the world that you live in every day? Have you thought about how broken it actually is?

Think about it with me for a moment. Is there anything right now in your life that's disappointing you? Is there a relationship that is leaving you hurt and confused? Are there personal problems that you simply just don't know how to solve? Do you ever feel lonely? Have you ever felt like you've been dealt an injustice?

I mean is there anybody listening who could say, "Everything in my life is completely and utterly perfect?" Isn't it true that all of us are disappointed in some way? Nothing in our lives works exactly the way that they were meant to work. Everything around us is broken in some way. And even though we have lots to be thankful for, and we all experience many things that we've been given that we don't deserve, yet, there really is brokenness around us. What is that about?

Music: "The Levees Gonna Break" by Bob Dylan

If it keep on rainin', the levee gonna break
If it keep on rainin', the levee gonna break
Everybody saying this is a day only the Lord could make

Kate Crowley: You're listening to Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp. And Paul will continue in just a moment. But first, we are so glad that you've turned into this new radio program from Paul Tripp Ministries. You can hear Paul each weekday at 11 A.M. on WFIL. Paul's goal is to remind you every day that there really is help in Jesus Christ, Right Here, Right Now.

In fact, to help, Paul has some great resources available on his website, including an exciting new book that he has written called Lost in the Middle.

"It Is All About Knowing Who You Are," Right Here, Right Now continues with Paul Tripp.

We All Live in the Middle

Paul Tripp: You know, what I described to you earlier is exactly where all of us live. If you think about your job, you think about that new house that you bought, if you think about your church, even if you think about your marriage, you know that things in your life just don't function as easily as it seems like they should.

Your life is always a little bit more complicated than you would like it to be. You're always dealing with some obstacles. There are places where you're not sure what you're supposed to do about what you're dealing with.

Let's think of marriage for a moment. I don't think any honest person would be able to say that they haven't been disappointed in their marriage in some way. Maybe the problem is western culture dating. You know, dating is just a step above used car sales, because when you're dating, the last thing you want is for that person to know you because you want them to buy the item.

And so, a man, who doesn't like to shop, will shop. He'll say, "Yes dear, I'd love to go to another 15 stores to look for those shoes that are in your head and probably have never been produced. Or a woman who doesn't like sports will watch sports. Well, she'll give it away in the middle the game because she'll say something like, "My, dear, aren't their uniforms cute?"

A man would never say that; if a man thought that, he'd be terrified. And then, six months into the marriage, this woman is crying, "This is not the man I married." This is the man you married; the man you dated was a fake.

See, that's the way it is with life. We always are hit with the reality that something's wrong. You can't look around without concluding that something is wrong. That dream of a vacation doesn't turn out the way we thought it would. That dream of that perfect Christmas holiday didn't turn out the way that we thought it would. That job that I just thought was 'The job' for me ends up being a job that disappoints me.

I left that imperfect church, and I thought I was going to 'the' perfect church. I checked it out, and guess what? It has as many problems and foibles as the previous church; they are just different ones.

You see there's something that all of us bump against every day we wake up and breathe. And the Bible says it's this, "You live in a terribly broken world; things are not the way they're supposed to be; this world isn't functioning the way it's supposed to function." There's something that's happened that's broken our world, and that brokenness is in the way of everything we do.

And in fact, the Bible would say that, not only is our world broken, but we're broken people in the middle of that broken world. How are you dealing with accepting, understanding, knowing where you actually live? Do you know where you live every day?

Music: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

by Adam Clayton, Dave Evans, Paul David Hewson, Larry Mullen, Victor Reina
I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

Your Bible Is a Story, Not a Topic Index

Paul Tripp: I don't know if you have noticed it or not, but your Bible isn't arranged by topic. Your Bible isn't a dictionary of human problems and divine solutions. Your Bible isn't an organized set of directions. Your Bible is not an encyclopedia of life. If you've paid attention, you've noticed that your Bible is essentially a story; it's a narrative. Maybe it would be best to say that your Bible is a story with theological annotations, theological notes.

Now observing this is important because the Bible is a whole-life story. It's an origin-to-destiny story that really summarizes everything you could say about human life. Now, stay with me. If the Bible is an origin-to-destiny story, then we're living in the middle of the story.

We weren't there in the beginning, and the end hasn't happened yet, so we live smack dab in the middle the story. We live in the middle of what theologians call the 'already' and the 'not yet'.

Think about this. Already, the Word of God has been given. Already, Jesus has come. Already, He's lived; already, He's died; already, He's risen again. Already, we've been brought into His family. Already, we have been given daily grace.

But 'not yet' has this broken world been restored; 'not yet' are people without sin; 'not yet' is everything restored to be what it was meant to be. You see, we live in this amazing intersection between awesome grace and deep brokenness. That's where we live, in between the 'already' and the 'not yet'. It means that the world you live in just will never function in this moment as it was meant to function. And yet, in that dysfunctionality, we have been given incredible grace.

I love what Don Miller says in his book, Blue Like Jazz. He says that... "Groaning is the default language of the children of God." Now, what does he mean by that? Well, let me read for you from Romans 8, beginning with verse 18. Paul says,

For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to this present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

That passage is meant to capture what it's like to live between the 'already' and the 'not yet'. You see, it's not only important to know who you are, it's important to know where you are if you're going to live a fruitful and effective life.

Paul uses three wonderful phrases to get at the brokenness of our world. The first thing he says is, "This world has been subjected to frustration." Sin has frustrated the cosmos. And you know that there are all kinds of frustration in this fallen world because the brokenness of the world makes things so difficult and complicated.

The second thing he says is that the world is in bondage to decay. Death wasn't part of the original plan. Life was supposed to give way to life, giving way to life, giving way to life, all the way into eternity, and sin brought death into the world. And, it's an incredible thing to think about that everything that is now living is somehow, some way, in the process of dying. Things die, and we all live with the every day reality of the death of things.

Not only subjected to frustration, not only in bondage to decay, but there's a third thing Paul says that we live as if in pains of childbirth. Probably there are two things that Paul is looking at there. There are times where the painfulness of life in a fallen world is acute like that moment of pain as one is delivering a baby. It probably also means that this painful moment is the process by which something very good will result, and that's the hope that he talks about.

I'm going to ask you to think about it for a moment. Are you facing the reality of where you live? Do you carry around with you appropriate expectations? Do you get the fact that, by God's plan, you have been called to live smack dab in the middle of the 'already' and the 'not yet'? And in that middle, you have not been left alone.

Sure, you will face disappointment. God has never promised that you will avoid disappointment. Sure, you will face frustrations of life; you'll face problems and difficulties, but you'll never, ever, ever face those alone because the God who has ordained for me live in the middle of His amazing story is in the middle of that story with me.

And I never live alone in between the 'already' and the 'not yet', and that's why it's right to groan. I shouldn't be satisfied; it shouldn't be okay because things are not the way that they're supposed to be. This world is a broken place, and you get up every morning and somehow, some way, you bump your nose on its brokenness, but you'll never do that by yourself because, in between the 'already' and 'not yet', you are never ever alone.

You know, it hit me a while back that Christians should be the saddest and most celebrant people on earth. We should be the saddest people on earth because we understand what this world could have been, and we understand what it has become, and we get why.

God created a gorgeous world with beauty beyond anything we are able to conceive. God created perfect human beings. And these perfect human beings were meant to live in a perfect world in a perfect relationship with God as perfect people. And that perfection was shattered, broken in one single act of disobedience. And flooding into the world came sin, and sadness, and sickness, and disease, problems upon problems, frustration, decay, and death. We should be so sad; it's right for us to mourn.

But we should be the most celebrant people on earth because we know, into that world of frustration, into that world of decay, into that painful place, came the Lord Jesus Christ, and He came, not only to forgive us, but He came to enable us to deal with what we would not otherwise be able to deal with.

What I love about the Bible is how it's shockingly honest and amazingly hopeful at the same time. The honesty doesn't diminish the hope, and the hope doesn't minimize the honesty. You see, you should not be satisfied with the way things are. You should not put on a happy face and act as if everything's okay. That's not faith.

Faith is able to look at brokenness and be honest about it, but able to be hopeful because I understand I'm never alone in that brokenness, that Jesus takes the name Immanuel; He's a God who's always, always, always, with me so I can live with unafraid honesty and unshakable hope because I know that God is in the middle of this story with me.

It's not just my story; the story of my little life; the little life of Paul Tripp is embedded in that huge and amazing story of redemption. My story is just a piece of the bigger story, and I know that God is in the middle of my story, and He's up to something good.

Music: "The Solid Rock" by Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean in Jesus' Name.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Groaning With Hope in the Already and Not Yet

Paul Tripp: So the apostle Paul says that you're supposed to groan. Look around. This is not the way it was supposed to be. Hear this! You should not be satisfied with the way things are. Yet, you should be full of hope because you understand that you are in the middle of a process, and there's more to come. God is not done with His story, and He's with you, and He's moving you toward things that are better.

I love the Psalms. I think the Psalms are in the Bible to keep us honest, and the Psalms really have this balance between honesty and hope. You have Psalm 13, for example, that says, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" It's a shockingly honest Psalm of pain. It says, "God, where are you? What's going on? I don't understand." That Psalm is in the pages of your Bible.

And yet, you also have Psalm 46 that says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not be afraid." It's a Psalm of awesome hope.

Think about this. What is it that God has given you to help you as you live in the middle of the 'already' and the 'not yet'? He hasn't just given you principles; He hasn't just given you commands; He hasn't just given you promises. God has given you Himself, and in the middle of it all, we can have hope because He has given us Himself.

Kate Crowley: And that hope is something that you can hold on to. Well, we're glad that you could join Paul for part two of this series titled, "It's All About Knowing Who You Are" on this brand-new program called, Right Here, Right Now.

And as you've been listening, maybe you find yourself in the middle of the struggle of trying to discover your identity. Paul wants you to know that you don't have to be paralyzed by regret or discouraged by the passing of your dreams. In his book, Lost in the Middle, Paul Tripp explains how moments of pain can also be moments of God's grace. That's Lost in the Middle, Paul's new book available at our website, paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, (paultripp), spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

If you've missed part of the program, remember that you can also listen to these programs online or sign up for daily podcast and have the programs delivered to you so that you can listen any time. CD copies of today's broadcast are also available for just five dollars. You can order any of these resources from the website at paultrippministries.org or call us at 1-800-551-6595, that's toll-free 800-551-6595.

Right Here, Right Now is reaching people across the country with these programs, and we can use your help. If you'd like to support this ministry, you can give online at paultrippministries.org, and just click on 'Ministry Support', or you can write to us at 7214 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19135.

If you would like to hear Paul in person, he'll be speaking at the "Hope for Broken Relationships Conference" this weekend, beginning Friday, November 10 through Sunday the 12th, at the Valley Forge Convention Center. For more information, call 215-884-7676, that's 215-884-7676.

Tomorrow on the program, Paul will introduce a new series called "Survival Skills for a Fallen World". And now, 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.