STUDY GUIDE TO ACCOMPANY VIDEO LESSONS Written by Shelby Abbott
ABOUT PAUL DAVID TRIPP Paul David Tripp is a pastor, author, and speaker. He wrote the bestselling daily devotional, New Morning Mercies , along with many other titles such as Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense . In 2006, he launched a not-for-profit organization, Paul Tripp Ministries, to produce and distribute free Bible teaching around the world that connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Paul and his wife, Luella, have been married since 1971 and have four adult children. ABOUT ACCESO DIRECTO Acceso Directo exists to make the name of Jesus known by spreading the message of the Gospel through a variety of biblical resources to which they give you free access at www.accesodirecto.org. Their deepest desire, and what they pray for, is that God would be glorified in your life and in the entire Spanish-speaking church as you know, live, and make known the One who gave us direct access to the Father. Learn more about their ministry and access their library of resources at www.accesodirecto.org. ABOUT CITY TO CITY LATIN AMERICA City to City Latin America helps local leaders develop gospel movements in their cities through urban environments, evaluating, training, and mentoring church planters to see cities as their mission field, beyond simply planting a church. Learn more about their movement and network at www.citytocitylatam.com.
PaulTripp.com /PDTripp @PaulTrippQuotes @PaulTripp /PaulDavidTripp
© 2025 Paul Tripp Ministries All rights reserved. Teaching@PaulTripp.com 21 N. Main St., Suite 8, Coopersburg, PA 18036 (215) 338-4000 Permissions
You are permitted to print and/or electronically distribute this Study Guide provided that you do not charge for the material or alter the content in any way. You may download the video lessons for offline use, but please do not distribute the video in any way and rather link back to and use Paul Tripp Ministries' online video player. If you require exceptions, please email Teaching@PaulTripp.com. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Contents
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How to Use This Series
SESSION 1 Limits SESSION 2 Character SESSION 3 Suffering
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How to Use This Series Thank you for choosing this 3-session video series by Paul Tripp Ministries! Our prayer is that this resource will be used by God to strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ and your family and help you to minister to the people he has called you to disciple and shepherd. If you have any questions, please contact our team: Teaching@PaulTripp.com. Global Gospel Leaders in Spanish is designed to be used either by individuals, or ideally, in groups with others. There are three video sessions from a conference in Santiago, Chile in 2025, with teaching (in English) by Paul, translated live on stage into Spanish. You can either watch these lessons together, or in advance of the discussion time. After watching the video, the elements of the Study Guide below can be used to make Paul’s teaching more practical for your life and ministry. Of course, you can decide how to best make use of this material based on your situation and time. Finally, we would like to thank our partners, Acceso Directo and City to City Latin America, for hosting • Begin with How Did It Go Last Week? (Which you will skip the first gathering, since there was no previous meeting) This is an opportunity to share successes and challenges with the group, based on what was learned and applied from the previous session. • Then, someone (or all together) will read aloud the Bible verses found in And God Said... These are the main Scripture verses that Paul will teach from or reference. • Similarly, someone may then read aloud What is the Point? , identifying the main points in the video session about to come so participants are prepared for and looking out for what Paul will be teaching on. • Then, someone may pray the Petition , preparing hearts to receive the Word. Additionally, everyone can pray their own prayer, as they feel led. The scripted petition is to soften the spirit to receive what Paul will teach on from the Scriptures. • Now, watch the video session, Hear the Word . Because these video sessions are long, time might be better spent assigning these videos outside of the group discussion, if you can ensure that everyone will watch it in advance and come prepare. However, our recommendation is to watch it all together, so that you can learn and receive the Word at the same time, in the same room. • After watching the video, spend the remaining time in your gathering using Let's Talk About That . Many discussion questions have been provided, knowing that not all of them might be touched due to time restraints (or, if one or two particular questions take up the majority of the discussion!). • After the gathering concludes and in between the sessions, Do Something and Search Me, O God provide options for homework, accountability questions, or prompts for journaling. These can be used as conversation starters to begin the next gathering, when you start with How Did It Go Last Week? this conference and making this resource available free of charge. Here is a recommended “order of service” for a fruitful group session: Each session begins with Group Participation.
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SESSION 1 Limits
FOR GROUP PARTICIPATION These elements of the study are best used with others in a group setting.
And God Said… Read aloud Genesis 1:1–13 , Hebrews 3:12–13 , and James 3:13–18 . What is the Point? Read these statements aloud and keep them in mind during the video. • As leaders, we must recognize that God has set limits for us. Fruitful, long term ministry is built on a knowledge and acceptance of our limits. • The Limit of Time • The Limits of Personal Spiritual Insight • The Limits of Our Wisdom • This means that leadership embraces our God-ordained limitations instead of trying to avoid or get around them. Our limits are God’s choice for us and our ministry always goes where the heart has gone before it, so our hearts must accept and cherish our limitations as blessings from him. Petition Pray this together aloud. Lord, help me to be the kind of leader who understands at the heart level that the limitations you have placed in my life are good gifts from you and not annoying obstacles in the way of leading effectively. God, I need your grace to help me guide my decisions and form me more and more into the image of your Son. I know I have failed as a leader in the past, and I know I’ll fail again in the future, but would you mold and shape my heart to help me influence others while I embrace the beauty of the limitations you have purposefully placed in my life? My heart needs to be continually reminded and oriented toward walking by faith and peacefully accepting the good limits of my time, my personal spiritual insight, and my wisdom. I need your power and grace. And I’m asking for it now for your glory and my good. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hear the Word Watch the video. (1 hour 7 minutes) Let's Talk About That Discuss these questions. (30 minutes) 1. Why do you think that limits are such a huge source of frustration for so many people, including you? If God has set limits for us and a fruitful, long term ministry is built on a knowledge of our limits, what are some of the specific limitations God has placed in your life? How have you normally responded to those limits? Take some time right now to ask God to change your heart posture toward the limitations he has blessed you with, and thank him for the grace of limiting
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you in specific ways. 2. If all of your life exists within the parameters of time limits, what parts of your life are expanding into other areas that are shrinking? Are those areas that are shrinking parts of your life that you’ll regret getting smaller as you examine how you’ve lived? 3. Is there evidence in your life that you are not living within your God-assigned limits? How would your children describe you? How vibrant is your time with the Lord? Is ministry where you get your identity? Is your life out of balance? Are you appropriately pastoring your family? Are you getting things out of ministry that you’re not supposed to get, so that you’re constantly saying ‘yes’ too easily? What are you currently saying ‘yes’ to that impedes on your personal time with God and/or time with your family? What might God be calling you to do as a result of those shrinking areas? 4. What areas of your life are you currently afraid of being exposed or revealed? If certain specific sins in your life are habitual or something you’ve become numb to, ask God to soften your heart right now. Confess your sin to him and someone else who is a trusted person in your life and ask that person to pray that your heart would no longer continue in its hardness. Who can see into your heart to help you see yourself with accuracy? 5. How often do you pray for God to grant you wisdom? Are you assuming that you are wiser than you actually are? Why is embracing weakness such a godly character quality in the eyes of the Lord? Would you say you are good or not so good at embracing your weaknesses? What avenues might God use to help you embrace specific areas of weakness in your life? In what ways might your personal ministry change for the better if you embraced those weaknesses? FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own as part of your devotional and confessional life. Do Something During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing. 1. Take some intentional time to examine your daily routine and see where there are clear limitations God has placed in your life. If your time with God in His Word or time with your family are being squeezed out by any other priorities, pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom about how to reorient your time and schedule to make sure the most important things in life don’t suffer. 2. Ask the people who are closest to you to describe you and what it’s like to interact with you as you go about life and ministry. Find out what your spouse says. Find out what your children say. Find out what your friends observe. Find out what your coworkers experience with you. 3. If you don’t have someone already, find a person you trust and ask them to speak into your life in ways that point out your good character qualities and also your flaws. Commit to him or her and set up a time to meet weekly and discuss the realities of life and limitations. Make sure you communicate to the person that they have the freedom to speak into your life and call you out on your sin and also areas of godliness they observe.
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4. Surround yourself with wise, godly, seasoned people. Have an open and teachable heart. Don’t be a teacher and not teachable. Pray that God would shine new light on his Word and new light on your heart so you can grow in wisdom and righteousness. 5. Figure out your weaknesses and ask God to work through them to glorify himself in your life. Be willing to be uncomfortable during this process and pray that the Lord would fill you with his Spirit to accomplish his work in and through your life. Search Me, O God For introspection during the coming week. How does the life-changing power of the gospel influence your understanding and embracing of your God-ordained limitations? What current priorities do you need to shrink in order to expand the areas of time in Scripture and time with family? Who is speaking into your life in ways that are intentional, godly, and gentle, but also firm, convicting, and somewhat uncomfortable? Are you changing as a result of that kind of fellowship and discipleship? In what ways would you say your own personal wisdom has failed you in the past? Where would you say are your sources of input that bolster your wisdom? How is God’s Word a regular part of that input? For More from Paul Tripp, Read: Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church
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SESSION 2 Character
FOR GROUP PARTICIPATION These elements of the study are best used with others in a group setting.
How Did It Go Last Week? Share your successes and trials with the group. (10 minutes) • How did the practical application of accepting your limitations play out in your daily life this week? What was uncomfortable to come face-to-face with as you observed your limitations? • Who are the wise, godly people in your life to surround yourself with? What can their influence practically do in your life? • Did you make any changes to your priorities this week in order to value who and what is most important? And God Said… Read aloud 2 Peter 1:3–9 and Galatians 2:20–21 . What is the Point? Read these statements aloud and keep them in mind during the video. • The greatest gospel problem among many believers is a gap in understanding the present benefits of the gospel. • Many Christians understand salvation-past (forgiveness) and salvation-future (eternal life), but miss salvation-present (transforming grace for right now). Without understanding present grace, ministry becomes driven by law—“you should / you didn’t”—instead of being driven by grace that transforms. • The gospel isn’t just the entrance and exit… it’s the transforming reality for right here, right now. Petition Pray this together aloud. • The Gospel is an Identity. • The Gospel is a Lifestyle. • The Gospel is a Lens. Lord, help me to understand who I truly am in Christ, and to live out my identity in him proactively each day. Help me to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that it shapes my relationships, decisions, attitudes, hopes, and dreams. Give me the grace and strength to put on my “gospel glasses” each morning so that I might see the world through those lenses and live every day in worship and heart-felt service to you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hear the Word Watch the video. (1 hour 10 minutes)
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Let's Talk About That Discuss these questions. (30 minutes)
1. What kinds of gospel gaps have you noticed in your life lately? How has any kind of ministry activity been more about focusing on rules and performance instead of grace? What might you be asking the Law to do that only grace can do in your life? 2. In what ways is the gospel an ongoing daily reality for you? Write down or share with someone a few examples from your life. 3. Can you give examples that represent how you would say your life and ministry flow from who you are in Christ? Take a moment to pause and reflect about how you might be living as a “gospel amnesiac” (ineffective and unfruitful). Now ask the Lord to help remind you about the truth of the gospel that has the power to combat ineffective and unfruitful ministry. 4. How does your identity in Christ help give you meaning and purpose? How does it give you power through the Holy Spirit who indwells you? Freedom from condemnation? In what ways are you living like you are poor instead of incredibly rich in the grace God has lavished upon you? 5. How is the gospel shaping not just what you believe, but how you live? In what ways are you applying gospel truths to your relationships? Your attitude in various situations? Both your big and small decisions? Your hopes and dreams for the future? How is the gospel forming how you treat people, how you parent your children, how you handle conflict, and how you make daily choices? 6. In what ways is the gospel giving you the tools you need to interpret the world in the right way? Can you think of specific examples? What does it practically look like for you to rest in God’s sovereignty? 7. How might your sin be shrinking down all of life to your own self-centered desires? Why isn’t your sin ever a small thing or something to be taken lightly? How have you seen God’s grace restore what sin has destroyed in your life? 8. How is the gospel transforming the way you view personal hardships? How is it giving you the ability to understand your purpose in life? How is it giving you the ability to interpret relationships, suffering, and success?
FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own as part of your devotional and confessional life. Do Something During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing. 1. Take some time to examine how you’re living like you’re spiritually poor when you’ve been given infinite riches in Christ. Then pray and ask the Lord to help you live in the reality of his spiritual riches. Try to process the specifics of your day-to-day life and what it would look like to apply living
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with infinite spiritual wealth. 2. Ask God to use the gospel to transform your desires, thoughts, choices, and actions. Ask him to eliminate any guilt, fear, or shame that might be currently motivating your desires, thoughts, choices, and actions. 3. List the ways in which you are grateful for God’s grace in your life and for how he has specifically transformed who you are. Thank him for your identity in Christ and pray for the grace to live out that identity each day. 4. Get in touch with a trusted friend or family member who walks with God and share with them about your desire for transformation in thought, word, and deed. Then ask your trusted friend or family member to keep you accountable in specific ways when it comes to functionally living out the gospel. Brainstorm together what that could look like and set up regular touchpoints to talk about how the Lord is working and shaping you. Confess your sin to one another and pray for one another each time you talk/meet. Search Me, O God For introspection during the coming week. What parts of your private life that no one else can see need to be confessed to God because they aren’t fully surrendered to him? Is there any sin that has tainted your daily desires, thoughts, choices, or actions? Are you regularly confessing that sin to God and keeping short accounts with him? Who are you bringing into your life to help keep you on the narrow path of walking with God? How has the Holy Spirit helped you to discover specific parts of your life where you haven’t allowed the gospel to permeate and transform it? In what ways are you neglecting to have an attitude of thankfulness for the riches of grace God has given you? What needs to change in your habits, thoughts, motivations, words, and/or choices in order to more clearly display that the gospel is powerfully at work in your life?
For More from Paul Tripp, Read: New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional
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SESSION 3 Suffering
FOR GROUP PARTICIPATION These elements of the study are best used with others in a group setting.
How Did It Go Last Week? Share your successes and trials with the group. (10 minutes) • Have you been able to put into practice any of the action points related to living a spiritually rich life instead of a poor one? • How have you seen the Lord working in your life this past week to transform your desires, thoughts, decisions, and actions? Did you ask the Lord to remove any guilt, fear, or shame related to your desire for change? How did the Lord answer that prayer? Did God use any circumstances or people this week to answer that prayer request? In what ways might you have overlooked something God was trying to tell you? • How has meeting with a trusted friend or family member to help you live the gospel in a practical way? • In what ways have you been able to discover your gratitude for God's grace in your life and the ways he has specifically transformed you? And God Said… Read aloud Psalm 27:1–4 and Romans 8:18–39 . What is the Point? Read these statements aloud and keep them in mind during the video. When suffering comes into your life, God will meet you with his grace…and that grace is manifested in specific ways to help you grow and understand his character and active role in your life. He gives you:
• God’s Preparing Grace • God’s Intervening Grace • God’s Unstoppable Grace • God’s Providing Grace • God’s Inseparable Grace Petition Pray this together aloud.
God, I confess that in my suffering, I am tempted to question you and distrust you. When life is difficult, when I’m in pain, when I’m faced with confusing circumstances, when there is hurt, injustice, abuse, betrayal, and loneliness, I come to the end of myself and need to be reminded that you are still near and very much in loving control of my life. I admit that I don’t understand so much about this world and my life, but I need your grace to help me put my trust in the fact that
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you are loving and good, and that you understand every detail of every part of the universe. Help me to lean into you when suffering enters my door, and may my life be a living glorification of you, even when I am in the midst of pain and confusion. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hear the Word Watch the video. (1 hour 4 minutes) Let's Talk About That Discuss these questions. (30 minutes) 1. Where do you typically run when life doesn’t make sense? What vices or numbing techniques do you employ to dampen the pain of suffering in your life? How have broken relationships, sicknesses, losses, ministry hardships, etc. impacted you and your relationship with God? How has your functional theology (what you truly believe about God and his character) revealed itself when suffering has come into your life? 2. In your confusion and pain because of suffering in the past, what have you said to yourself about who God is and what God is like? How has David’s Psalm 27 helped you as a model of trusting the Lord while in the midst of suffering? In what ways has God been your personal light, your personal salvation, and your personal stronghold when you’ve gone through trials? 3. Have you ever felt like you should be immune from suffering because you are a Christian? Be honest. Has suffering ever pushed you into believing that God has abandoned you? Why might learning about trust and dependence on God be more valuable than a life free of suffering? 4. How has the Holy Spirit intervened for you in the past when you’ve been unable to pray on your own? What comforts you about the fact that your groanings are carried to the Father by the Spirit? How do you currently feel weak and confused in your suffering? Take those things to God and know that he does not mock you in your confusion and weakness. 5. How have you or others around you misinterpreted Romans 8:28 before? Have you ever thought about how the “good” in this passage is God’s unstoppable redemptive purpose to conform us to the image of Christ? In what ways is God currently conforming you into the image of his Son? Why isn’t your hope ever going to be satisfied by comfort itself? 6. Why does the cross guarantee God’s ongoing provision in your life? Why isn’t everything we want the same as everything we need ? What might you be asking of God that’s more of a want than a need? Even in the midst of suffering, how do you know that you are loved by God?
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FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own as part of your devotional and confessional life. Do Something During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing. 1. Take some time to list a few of the “knee-jerk” responses you typically have when you are faced with suffering of any kind. Write down how you think, feel, react, and talk when unexpected trials come into your life. 2. Now write down a list of characteristics about God that you know are true. Find specific Scriptures that describe God’s nature. 3. After you’ve taken the time to list out your responses to suffering and God’s characteristics that you see in Scripture, how can you allow the Word of God to influence the ways you typically respond when faced with suffering? Remind yourself as you go down the list of your responses that God is all the things you read about in the Bible, and not the negative ways you have perhaps characterized him as in your thoughts. 4. Confide in a trusted, godly friend and vulnerably share with them about how you think about God when you face suffering. Ask that person to pray for you and remind you of the truth when you’re tempted to believe lies in the midst of difficult situations. Search Me, O God For introspection during the coming week. Holy Spirit, will you help me to truly live as if you are carrying my groanings to the Father when I go through suffering? Would you mold and shape me more and more into the image of Christ because of my suffering? I admit that I’m tempted to distrust the Lord when I am in pain or uncomfortable, so I need you to readjust my lenses to clearly see the nature and character of God as it’s laid out in Scripture. My heart is so often preoccupied with a desire to be trouble-free and comfortable, but I know that you love me too much to simply give me a comfortable life… you want to give me yourself, so I ask that you would help me to pursue that instead of what my sinful heart desires. For More from Paul Tripp, Read: Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense
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