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.

It can be said that a church is only as strong as its marriages.

In today's episode, we're going to listen to a session from Paul's conference,

Strengthening Marriages in Your Church,

where Paul will help equip us to minister to and counsel other married couples that God has placed in our path.

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

Here's Paul with Strengthening Marriages.

Well, if you're one of God's children, if you have been redeemed by his blood,

you have been chosen not just to be a recipient of his grace,

but to be an instrument of that grace as well.

No one is meant just to be a recipient.

I think much of what often happens in a local church is we turn the church into what I call

ecclesiastical Macy's, you know, where you have all these people who are passive, who come to

receive, but they don't have a vision for the fact that God means to use all of us in his work.

That's really what this weekend is about, yes, it's about marriage,

but it's about the fact that God has called all of us to be his tools of change in his powerful

redemptive hands. It's very easy to have an unbiblical view of ministry.

It's sort of like this.

My life is lived over here, and I step out of my life into ministry,

and I minister for a while, and then I step back out of ministry into my life.

Hear this.

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