Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and bestselling author Dr. Paul David Tripp

connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. We live in the middle of the already

and the not yet. God is purposefully using life in this broken world to conform us into the image of

his son. In today's episode, we're going to listen to a session from Paul's conference, Portrait of a

Struggle. If you enjoy today's content, you can purchase the full conference at store.palltrip.com.

Here's Paul with the already and the not yet.

I want to say it this way.

Sometimes I think that I forget where I live.

No, I don't mean that I'm having a senior moment and I forget my address.

I think that I don't fully understand where I live.

And that's what I want to begin to talk to you about. It's understanding that that begins to build an

agenda for responding to the things that are in your life every day in a way

that's productive and helpful and deeply fulfilling. I was a pastor in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Some of you are already smiling. Scranton is a place where the

American dream died in 1950. Old coal and railroad. I have an English friend, and I was telling

him once that it's really amazing when you go through

the Lehigh Tunnel of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, culture changes.

He says, I disagree with that. It doesn't change. It ends.

It was in many ways a hard place to be.

One Sunday afternoon, I had a man in our congregation, quite a prominent person in our congregation,

approached me and say, Paul, I really need to talk with you.

I was actually excited about that. I thought this will be

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