Redeeming Joy Study Guide Excerpt

PAUL DAVID TRIPP REDEEMING JOY

STUDY GUIDE TO ACCOMPANY VIDEO LESSONS Written by Gregory Berkhouse

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.

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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 How to Use This Series

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SESSION 1

The Reason for Our Joy 2 SESSION 2

Joy and Suffering 5 SESSION 3

Joy and Community 8 Outline

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Transcript

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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 joy in Christ and help others do the same. If you have any questions, please contact our team: Teaching@PaulTripp.com.

Redeeming Joy can be used by individuals, couples, and groups. We recommend a minimum of 60 minutes for each session so you have enough time to watch the video teaching together and spend time discussing. Of course, there is flexibility based on your circumstances, but this curriculum has been written for you to simply follow the "order of service" outlined in the Study Guide.

Each session begins with Group Participation:

• Begin with How Did It Go Last Week? (Which you can skip the first gathering) 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) would read aloud the Bible verses found in And God Said...

• Likewise, someone would then read aloud What is the Point?, identifying the main points in the video session about to come so participants are prepared for what Paul Tripp will be teaching.

• Together, everyone would pray the Petition, preparing hearts to receive the Word.

• You then would watch the video session, Hear the Word.

• 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 before the next group session, For Personal Application material has been provided for individuals or couples to use as "homework" or part of your devotional practices.

Why Transcripts?

You will notice that full transcripts of Paul's three video lessons have been included at the end of this Study Guide. This is to allow for a quick keyword search or a full reading of the sessions for those who desire it. If you plan to print off a hard copy of this Study Guide to distribute to your group, you may want to only print off the Sessions and exclude the transcripts!

REDEEMING JOY

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S ession 1

The Reason for Our Joy 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) In the coming sessions, questions and topics will be provided here for group discussion of your experiences in putting into practice what you learn each week.

And God Said…

Read aloud John 15:7-11; reread the final verse.

What is the Point?

Read these statements aloud and keep them in mind during the video. (5 minutes)

• True joy is vertical.

• True joy is internal.

• True joy is unshakable.

Petition

Pray this together aloud.

Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts—Thou fount of life, Thou light of men— From the best bliss that earth imparts we turn unfilled to Thee again.

Jesus, our only joy be Thou, as Thou our prize wilt be; Jesus be Thou our glory now and through eternity. Amen..

Hear the Word

Watch the video. (25 minutes)

Let's Talk About That

Discuss these questions. (30 minutes)

1. “True joy is vertical, you get it from Jesus.” Read aloud John 15:1-5. What nutrition can a branch, if separated from the vine, supply for itself? How does this horticultural metaphor aptly describe our spiritual relation to Christ? Now read aloud v11—who is the “vine” that supplies our joy? In fact, is our joy really ours, or is it his? How great then can our joy potentially be? How does this understanding illuminate what Jesus means by “full”?

2. The apostle Paul enlists another horticultural metaphor to explain the source of Christian joy: read aloud Galatians 5:22-23. So again, whose joy really is our joy? Can we generate true joy ourselves? Discuss some practices suggested by each of these horticultural metaphors—abiding in Christ as a branch on a vine, and sowing to the Spirit—that will assist you in cultivating true joy

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in your heart and life. Each one in the group should record the practices for personal application at home (see below).

3. The gospel (“good news”) is full-orbed—not only has Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, but he has also broken the power of sin over us and is even now, by his Spirit within us, conforming us to his own holiness as we anticipate a glorious eternity with him in Heaven. This knowledge alone should make Christians the most joyful people on the planet—but many of us are not very joyful at all! Discuss briefly how “gospel familiarity” and “gospel amnesia” cause many to mire in despondency.

4. “True joy is internal.” Again read aloud John 15:11. Where does Jesus lodge the joy that he gives us? Talk briefly about what having Christ’s joy “in us” means, both spiritually and practically.

5. “Creation was never meant to be the source of your joy…Earth will never be your savior.” Read aloud Ecclesiastes 5:19 and 1 Timothy 6:17. Is it wrong to “enjoy” (have joy in) the wonderful things the Lord provides us in relationships, pursuits and circumstances? In what way can such enjoyment become wrong? All of humanity, saints and sinners alike, has a proclivity to go looking for joy in all the wrong places—talk (with appropriate discretion) about some of the wrong places you have looked.

6. “True joy is unshakable.” Once more, read aloud John 15:11 (you will have inadvertently memorized it by now!). The Greek word translated “full” is the source of our English word plethora, and it means full, complete, finished. Briefly discuss how “complete and finished” connote “unshakable.” True joy is unshakable in the face of…what?

7. Not only is joy unshaken by trials, but God, in his good providence, uses trials to refine and strengthen our joy. Read aloud James 1:2-4. Discuss how it is that trials can actually produce and nurture joy. Talk about some of your own experiences in which your joy and peace in Christ were made fuller during and through a trial.

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FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION

These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own, either with your spouse or individually as part of your devotional and confession life.

Do Something

During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing.

During the session, the group discussed and recorded practices suggested by the two horticultural metaphors—abiding in Christ as a branch on a vine, and sowing to the Spirit—that can assist in cultivating the joy of the Lord in your heart and life. Take some time to read and think over the list, and determine how you can graft some of the practices into your daily routine. Don’t overdo it—just pick one or two that particularly mesh with you, and be consistent in implementing them. Come to the next session prepared to discuss your successes and challenges in this endeavor.

Search Me, O God

For introspection during the coming week.

Are you a truly joyful person? (Bear in mind that “happy” and “funny” are not the same as “joyful.”)

Does your heart witness to the profound joy of the gospel, the joy of conviction that you, through Christ, are a child of the Father, and that nothing can ever change that? If not, why not? Have you been actively cultivating true joy by abiding in Christ in your daily routine? Are you looking for joy in things other than Christ—human relationships, personal interests, temporal circumstances? Has the gospel been pushed back in your memory by pressing matters of life? Or is the gospel message so familiar to you that you have allowed it to lose some of its luster?

If you are a joyful person, are you helping others to become the same?

Want to Know More?

One of the Bible’s grand themes is sanctification. As explained above, salvation does not stop at conversion, but the Spirit then conducts a work of progressive holiness—sanctification—in our hearts to conform us to the image of Jesus. Throughout Scripture the writers enlist a horticultural metaphor of fruit-bearing to depict the Spirit’s work. As this theme is pertinent to Christ’s cultivation of his joy within us, it will be helpful to consider more sanctification passages (there are many others): • Psalm 92:12-15

• Matthew 13:18-23

• Galatians 5:13-25

• Proverbs 12:12

• Luke 3:7-9

• Philippians 1:9-11

• Isaiah 61:1-3 (Jesus speaking

• John 15:1-11

• Colossians 1:9-12

• Romans 6:20-23

• Hebrews 12:3-11

prophetically through Isaiah).

For More From Paul Tripp:

Read his book, A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You

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