wondering why you have the trouble and somebody else doesn't. Want peace in times of trouble, begin to worship God. Give your heart to worship God. "One thing I desire, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." There exists in our Lord a beauty that is infinitely greater than any ugly thing we will ever face in our lives. And the only way to understand your ugly is to look at it through the lens of God's beauty. May God help us by grace to do that. Let's pray. Lord, what can I say but thank you, thank you, thank you for Psalm 27. Oh, I'm so apt to forget who you are and who I am by Your grace. I'm so oriented to meditate on my trouble more than I gaze upon You. Oh, come to me. Enable me and all of my sisters here, by Your grace, in those moments to gaze, to remember, to rest, and then to act. Thank you for hearing us. Thank you that you never turn a deaf ear to the cries of your people. In Jesus' name, amen. SESSION 5 Pray for me. If you think of the name Paul Tripp, here's what to pray. Pray that I will live what I teach. I am more and more aware of the gap between what I say and what I struggle to live. And do pray for Luella. There's a lot of sacrifice for a ministry wife. And I'm married to my hero. She is deeply more mature than I am. We almost have a parental relationship. I've learned to be okay with that. I do say to her often, and she doesn't mind me saying this, "Okay, Mom. You're right." I do argue with her at points where I know I'm wrong in the beginning. Pray for Louella. She lives with the real me. Well, I want to get practical with you, as if what I've said so far isn't practical, and I want to actually answer the question, what does it look like for you to be a woman who helps women? What does that mean? I am very afraid that we throw these things around and we give assent to them, but we really don't understand, where the rubber meets the road, what it actually looks like. What does that lifestyle actually mean? And I want you to turn your Bibles to Colossians 3, beginning with verse 12. This is a passage that comes across as being incredibly radical. It's a radical passage to us. But if we were to study our way through Colossians and you get to these verses, there's no prediction by Paul that he's about to say something radical. He doesn't say, "Okay, people, take a deep breath, this is crazy radical stuff," because it wasn't intended to be radical. It's radical to us because of how far we have moved away from the lifestyle that's in this passage. Does that make sense? And so we've drifted so far, I'm talking about the church of Jesus Christ, from the norm that's in this passage, that the norm of this passage seems incredibly radical. Having said that, fasten your seat belts and put on your crash helmets, here we go. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has to complain against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell on you richly, teaching and admonish one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Now, let's look at the first few verses. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Now, why that list of character qualities? Notice the passage is written to every believer. This is God's plan for 10 out of 10 people in this room, no exceptions. There is no one who has been given God's grace, who is intended by God just to be a recipient of grace, no one. Was that loud enough? No one. The church of Jesus Christ is shockingly passive, shockingly. The studies say that 80% of the monies that are
Transcript: Session 5
WOMEN HELPING WOMEN
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