Paul Tripp: Like all the wonderful things God has made, sin has made our ability to imagine dangerous as well. Every good capacity that God has given you, because of sin, is a capacity that can be used in a wrong way. Every good thing, because of sin, has become a dangerous thing as well.

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

Male Actor: The whole story was in my head from the time I was in elementary school. I could see it so clearly. I don't know why, but I liked wood. I liked carving, sawing, hammering wood. I liked different kinds of wood. I could see the whole thing in my mind's eye.

I would start out as an apprentice for some carpenter. He would teach me the basics about wood, construction, everything about wood. Then, I would find myself a master cabinetmaker and become his apprentice.

After some years of apprenticeship, I would become a master carpenter myself. I would open up a high-end furniture making business. I would have people coming from all over the world to commission me to make furniture for them. It didn't seem like an unrealistic dream; I was good with my hands.

I had a dream, and I knew I could realize it. Then, how in the world did I get here? How in the world could this have ever happened to me? How did I end up selling software? What happened to my dream?

Music: "All in Your Mind" by Beck

Well, it's all in your mind
It's all in your mind
Well, it's all in your mind
It's all in your mind
And I wanted to be
I wanted to be
Wanted to be a good friend

Kate Crowley: "Building Up Broken Dreams" coming up on Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp from his new series, "Imagination." Now, be sure and tell your friends about Paul Tripp Ministries, Monday through Friday, at 11 A.M. right here on WFIL.

The purpose of this broadcast is to help you find freedom in Jesus Christ, right here, right now. You are invited to log on to paultrippministries.org where you'll find Paul's latest book, Lost in the Middle, and other video, audio, and print resources that will be helpful to you. That's paultrippministries.org. Right Here, Right Now continues with Paul Tripp.

We All Do It Without Planning To

Paul Tripp: Our friend is not alone. We all do it; we don't plan to do it. We don't take time out to do it. We don't think about doing it. We don't schedule into our palm pilots moments where we make sure we have time to do it. We don't worry that we'll forget to do it; we just, we just do it. What do we do? We dream. Our days are dotted with dreams; our dreams simply change with age.

The little boy has visions of being a fireman or an astronaut, and he can see himself in the future on the horse or in the rocket ship.

The teenage girl dreams of going off to college, of her future roommate, of what dorm life will be like. She can envision herself curled up on the bed with four or five other girls laughing hysterically about something that happened in the cafeteria.

The young adult imagines his assent to a very successful career. He envisions conversations of praise with the boss. He envisions getting accommodation at the annual corporate banquet. He imagines winning the great vacation because of the success of his sales.

Or the young couple with children looks to the future and sees themselves alone again, enjoying the post-parenting years. They envision themselves saying, "Good bye!" one by one to the children as their children go off to adult life. And they envision, now, the empty house, and the vacations together, and the quiet evenings at Starbucks.

The wife sits in her 1950's kitchen and imagines what it will be like when it's finally remodeled. Yes, it is true. We constantly dream.

The sick person envisions what it would like to be well again, what health would feel Iike, and seem like, and how different life would be if they could just be healthy once more.

You see, you cannot escape it. You're always looking forward; you're always imagining; you're always dreaming. This ability is wonderful, and mysterious, and practical, and holy, and mundane, and amazing, but it is human, and you won't escape it.

Think about it. You can listen to someone describe a place you have not been to and have a picture of it in your head. You can read a novel, and you're able to conjure up in your mind exactly what every character looks like. And, you can listen to a sermon, and you can see God.

It is an amazing ability, and it is remarkable in its influence in each one of our lives. And I want you to hear this. I'm going to repeat this statement. I think it's that important. You are always doing something with your ability to dream. And what you do with your ability to dream does something with your life. You are always doing something with your ability to dream. And what you do with your ability to dream does something with your life. You dream, and those dreams are formative.

Music: "Daylight" by Coldplay

To my surprise, and my delight
I saw sunrise, I saw sunlight
I am nothing in the dark
And the clouds burst to show daylight
Ooh and the sun will shine
Yeah on this heart of mine
Ooh and I realize
Who cannot live without
Ooh come apart without
Ooh and I realized
Who cannot live without
Ooh and come apart without
Daylight

Why Imagination Matters to People of Faith

Paul Tripp: Now, I want you to consider this with me. Maybe you've just been confused by this discussion of imagination. Well, I want to begin to direct this conversation. Think of how significant imagination is to those of us who believe in a God who really does exist, but is a Spirit, and consequently, cannot be seen.

As Eugene Peterson says in his book, Subversive Spirituality, "For Christians, whose largest investment is in the invisible, the imagination is indispensable."

But here's what you have to understand, like all the wonderful things God has made, like everything else in creation, sin has made our ability to imagine, dangerous as well. Every good capacity that God has given you, because of sin, is a capacity that can be used in a wrong way. Every good thing, because of sin, has become a dangerous thing as well.

Food is a good thing, but it can be a dangerous thing. The ability to think is a good thing, but it can be a dangerous thing. Relationships, created by God, are a good thing, but they can be a dangerous thing. Sexuality is a good and God-honoring thing, but it can be a very dangerous thing. Money is not, in itself, a bad thing, but it can become a very dangerous thing.

So it is with imagination. It's a wonderful thing that you have this capacity, that it has such a profound effect to shape and direct your life. But it's dangerous that so many unworthy things capture our imagination and distort our lives.

This fact should not be ignored or minimized - you and I always live in pursuit of a dream. You dream at your desk; you dream in the middle of a meeting; you dream as you drive your car; you dream as you walk the dog; you dream in the middle of that long, hot shower, and without even being aware of it, you dream hundreds of other times during every day.

We do it so frequently; we do it so naturally, that we don't even know that we are doing it, and we fail to recognize what power our dreams have to shape our lives. You see, part of your humanity and part of your sanity is an imagination that is healthy and limber.

Now, maybe you're thinking, "Paul, I'm sort of tracking with you, but I'm not sure I know for sure how you're using the term 'dream', and I'm not sure what all this has to do with my relationship with God." Well, let me give you a definition, because I think, at this point, that would be helpful.

"A dream is imagination, coupled with desire, and projected into the future. A dream is imagination, coupled with desire, and projected into the future."

For example, I have the desire to be comfortable, so I dream that I will someday be so successful in business that I will be able to afford a luxurious penthouse in my favorite city. Or in my head, I play the video of a succession of promotions at a certain job and of exactly what that view from that penthouse will be like. I not only dream a distant muddy dream, I dream dreams of specificity and detail so I can see the penthouse; I can see how it's decorated; I can see the succession of promotions in that job.

Now, here's where this gets spiritually very important. The more I play and replay my dream, the more detailed it gets, the more control my dream has of me. And without ever knowing it, without ever making a conscious choice, without ever exercising a definitive decision, I begin to become a person who's living in pursuit of that luxurious loft, that successful, career dream.

It's not too long before that dream is no longer a distant and faint hope. Before long, that dream becomes a prized possession; it doesn't take me too long to become convinced that life without that dream would absolutely be unthinkable and unlivable. You just can't imagine how you will feel and what you would do if you couldn't have your dream.

You see what's happened? I no longer hold that dream. I no longer hold that dream. I no longer hold that dream; that dream holds me. Before long, my sense of identity, my sense of meaning and purpose, my sense of well-being, my sense of contentment and satisfaction are directly connected to the realization of the dream.

Something has happened that's profound inside of me; something has happened that's very dangerous, and I probably don't even know it. My imagination has been captured and controlled by some aspect of the creation. My spirituality has been kidnapped, and I don't even know it.

Here's what you have to understand. It was never meant to be this way. All other personal dreams were meant to be subservient to God's dream for me and my dream of being part of His glory. Yet, in pursuit of my own little dream, I am now convinced that I can't live without it. I have been building, without ever knowing it, my own personal tower to my own personal heaven. I've put bricks on that tower every day, and I didn't even know it.

In a real way, God has nothing at all to do with my dream; God is not in my dream. It is a fundamentally godless dream; the dream has me; the dream defines me. It shapes my words and my actions; it gives me reason to get up in the morning and the hope to press on. Yes it is true. The dream has me, and so every morning I get out my mortar, and my trowel, and put another few courses of bricks on my own personal tower to the sky.

Sure, I still go to church, and sure, I'll still be involved with ministries, and I'll still put dollars in the offering plate. And I'll still listen carefully to the sermon, and I still may read my Bible and pray personally, and I'll still attend my small group. No, I haven't forsaken the faith, but something very spiritually significant has happened to me in a profound, and personal, and practical way.

God is out of the picture of my life where the rubber-meets-the-road in everyday life, and I am just not aware of it. I really don't know it, but I'm a person in the active worship of another god, and this other god commands my affections. This other god commands my time; this other god commands my energy; this other god controls my schedule.

I've exchanged worship and service of the Creator for worship and service of the creation, and I don't even know it. I haven't even seen it. I'm not even aware of it. I'm hooked; I'm enslaved; I'm addicted, and I didn't even see it coming.

Music: "Life of Praise" by Casting Crowns

I will love You, Lord always
Not just for the things You've done for me
And I will praise You all my days
Not just for the change You've made in me
But I'll praise You for You are holy, Lord
And I'll lift my hands
But You are worthy of so much more
For You are awesome
God of the nations
Lion of Judah
Rock of the ages
Alpha, Omega,
You're worthy of all praise
More than these hands I'll raise
For You are awesome
God of the nations
Lion of Judah
Rock of the ages
Alpha, Omega,
You're worthy of all praise
More than these hands I'll raise
You're worthy of all praise
You are awesome
God of the nations
Lion of Judah
Rock of the ages

Who Is Controlling Your Dreams?

Paul Tripp: Have you been thinking about yourself as I've been talking today? Have you been wondering about what you'd do with your own capacity to dream? Have you been thinking about how you invest your imagination? Have you been asking the question, "Am I hooked? Am I addicted? Am I enslaved without ever knowing it?"

What about you? What are you doing with your ability to dream? What bright vision fills your imagination? What are the things that you tell yourself that you just can't live without? What dream shapes your words and controls your action? What dream are you in pursuit of? What dream are you working to realize? In what way do you get up in the morning as a person in pursuit of a dream?

Or maybe here's a way to ask the question: What earthly glory so dominates your imagination that you can no longer see the glory of God? What created glory has replaced the glory of the Creator as the principal love of your heart? Does love of God really control the way you make decisions, the way you spend your time, the way you respond to others, or the way that you plan your day? Is your life really controlled by love of something else, and you don't even know it?

Could it be that you've been kidnapped? Could it be that you've been taken captive? Could it be that the handcuffs are on, and you don't even know it? Could it be that you are so controlled by a certain dream, that you so actively live in pursuit of it, that the God that you say you love is essentially out of the picture? Could it be you have so filled your heart with the dream that you want that there's no room in your heart anymore for the God that you say you love, and you worship, and you serve?

Or could it be that you are so actively in pursuit of a dream that it gobbles up so much of your time and energy? That it so structures the way that you live life that what you're trying to do spiritually is squeeze God into an already too busy schedule because God really isn't really germane to the dream that now has captured your heart?

You see, what we're talking about is something so much more important than the pretend games of a little boy or little girl, or so much more important than envisioning what my vacation would be like. What we are actually talking about is what rules or controls my heart, because, you see, what controls my heart will control my behavior. Yes, you are a dreamer; you cannot escape it. And, yes, someone or something is in active control of your imagination. Today, what dream will shape your life?

(Music Interlude)

Paul Tripp: I am so glad that I can tell you that one of the prophecies that was made of Jesus before He was born, that is so encouraging, and so hopeful is this: He was prophesied as the one who would come to set captives free.

What does this have to do with dreaming? It has everything to do with dreaming. Jesus came, and He lived, and He died, and He rose again so that you and I could be free from the control of anything that would capture our hearts other than Him. Jesus has the power to free you from that dream that has kidnapped your heart and controlled your life. Jesus has the power to pry you out of your little claustrophobic kingdom and transport you to the expansive glories of His big sky kingdom.

But you have to start being humble. You have to start by being willing. Are you willing to say, "Lord, I really have been controlled by a dream. It really has been the thing that has defined me. Lord, it's been the thing that controls my schedule and shapes my relationships, and, Lord, I have been so much in pursuit of that dream that I've had little time for you and the purposes of Your kingdom. And so, God, I reach out for Your help and for the freedom that can only come from You."

You are a dreamer; your dreams capture you, but there is freedom in the One who came to set captives free.

Kate Crowley: Finding freedom from the series, "Imagination." And there is more to come from Paul Tripp, tomorrow.

Now, for another look at the freedom in Jesus Christ, pick up a copy of Lost In The Middle. This new book by Paul Tripp tells how God has a special purpose for you and the events that cross your path. That's Lost In The Middle, available at our website paultrippministries.org. It's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P paultrippministries.org.

Remember you can also sign up for the daily podcast so you can listen to these encouraging lessons on demand any time. CD copies of today's broadcast are available for just five dollars. You can order from the website or call us at 1-800-551-6595. That's toll free 1-800-551-6595.

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Now, if you'd like Paul to be a guest speaker at your church or special event, just go on line for more information. And next time, Paul digs deeper into the hope found in imagination as he continues this new series. 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.