Biblical Counseling (part 1)

Good morning, everyone. The series that I'm going to teach is biblical counseling. If you don't have a clear and firm grasp on who

God is, it is impossible for us to live the way

God has intended for us to live. We can draw wisdom only in light of the

God of wisdom. We can help others who seek wisdom and help in their times of trouble only if we know the

God who provides that help. And so I think providentially this was the

Lord's goodness that we can worship, exalt him, know him, and adore him. And with that truth penetrated in your hearts for the last several weeks, what we're going to do for the next couple of weeks hopefully will help.

And I just had a copy of this. I don't know if you refer to this, Andrew. It's the Blessed and Boundless God by one of the

Puritans, George Swinnock. It's after reading none greater.

This might be one Puritan book you'd not feel too intimidated by. It's very short chapters on each of the attributes.

And so I highly recommend it. I have a few other books as well. I'm going to refer to more on the counseling side, but this is the attribute side

I wanted to recommend. Now, getting to our topic, before we get to our topic, my goal for this series is a little different.

Intended to be academic because I think many of the things I'm telling you, you probably are going to be familiar with.

So maybe a few things you'll pick up, maybe organize a few things in a way that makes sense for you. But it is intended for you to walk out these doors with a fervent desire to apply biblical counsel.

You've covered many aspects of this. I'm going to pick one sentence and then connect the dots. You need counseling because someone needs counsel because you have a problem.

There is something that needs to be addressed. And that problem is addressed in a very specific way, a biblical way, by pointing them to God, to Christ, and how we connect the truths of the scriptures to apply in this particular person's problem or situation that they're facing.

So that's biblical counseling. We bring the Bible to bear upon the problems this person faces, and more often than not,

I face. Maybe I'll just talk about those two sides first.

Psalm 42 talks about the psalmist saying, Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God.

We're all familiar with that verse. And when we see that verse, we recognize that the psalmist is doing something, applying the gospel to himself.

He recognizes his problem. He's very downcast, discouraged.

And what is the answer to this? Hope thou in God. So there is a biblical response to that.

And as believers, each of us walk through each day with many of those instances where you think of something, maybe you're tempted to sin, and then you say,

No, commit your ways to the Lord. There are scriptures that just wash over you by the spirit as you quickly turn around.

This biblical counseling happens many times in your life daily as a believer because the spirit of God will take the word of God and apply it in those situations you face.

But there are problems sometimes that don't seem to go away, bigger problems that I face that need more than just that Nehemiah prayer.

Lord, I'm in trouble. Help me. Speak to the king. I think many of you know the story

I'm referring to where Nehemiah's king asks him, Why are you downcast?

It's like, OK, what do I tell him? And you just pray quickly to God and go forward.

But then there are other things that need more study where you need to examine, OK, why is the sin just so doggedly behind my back?

I can never kick this thing out. Why am I so? I'm going to say share a few personal things, so don't judge me too harshly.

You know, when I'm in front of my family, my countenance is not as beaming, pleasant as it is sometimes when

I'm here teaching Sunday school. And I don't recognize it until somebody sometimes points the problem to me.

And when I recognize the problem, it's not just, OK, put on a fake smile. There's something else there and inside that I need to work on.

Am I having too high an expectation of my family that they seem to disappoint me? That would be horrible for an elder to say that.

And yet that might be true. Am I willing to explore and understand the source of my own sin, my failures, my temptations?

And once I understand what those sources are, am I willing to take the time to spend in the word rather than just,

God help me, I know that's the problem, to here's what the word really speaks about this problem, that word may wash over me, it might cleanse me, that I might meditate on me so that it permeates me, that I find those specific ways in which

I need to work with my family in order to minister the gospel to them, the grace of God to them, as I minister right now in teaching to classes.

So these things take time and effort. And I can be lazy or I can be distracted with so many other things.

I need to help that person that, oh, God forbid, take two hours to counsel myself. That would be a waste of time, wouldn't it?

That's sadly the challenge that we face with inward biblical counseling. So we'll talk about that a little bit in this time that we have.

In fact, I want to encourage you for personal biblical counseling. I gave a copy of this to one of our church members because someone in their family needed help.

And this particular book, I have a lot of books. I'm going to show you a few of them here. I was teaching a class on counseling, so I bought some books.

Some were good, some not that great. And from almost all books, you can pick something that is helpful. But in the last several months,

I was going through some of those things. If you thought that was terrible, what I did to my family, there's a lot more you might learn about me and say, oh, what is this guy doing, teaching us?

The thing was there were some new trials that I faced in the last several months, let's say the last year, some new weaknesses in my own spiritual walk that I didn't realize

I had. And those things brought me great pain and sorrow. And this particular book is one of those examples of biblical counseling.

And starting next week, we'll spend more time on specific topics. So this book has examples like, you know, anger, bitterness, death, and it goes on, you know, worry, suicide, singleness, perfectionism, money crisis.

You know, you can just name it, whatever you think is probably a category here. And one of the things that I did spend some time, and the funny thing is,

I said, oh, I don't have that. I don't have that. I don't have that. Oh, I think I have this. And then I finished reading the topic.

It's normally like three pages long. It goes like this. It gives a few examples. And I'm going to pick an example just to whet your appetite for biblical counseling.

This particular one is discouragement, which I was facing a lot in the last several months. It gives a couple of examples of people who are facing discouragement.

So a guy who has been working for a long time loses his job that was paying well.

And at the same time, his older son runs into trouble with drugs. And then the dad and provider is discouraged as he goes through.

And it kind of gives you a little more color to experience what this person is going through. So it may be you.

It may be somebody else you're facing. And then it gives you a definition. Here's what discouragement looks like in the world.

It gives you a definition. For example, here it says it's a feeling of despair, sadness, lack of confidence.

This person can tend to be disheartened. There are three underlying causes for discouragement, lack of confidence in ourselves, lack of confidence in God, lack of hope for the future.

And then he goes on to define it some more. When you think of discouragement, what are some of the boundaries that it traverses?

And then after that, how do you assess discouragement for yourself and for others?

So there are about ten questions. Some of the questions include what are some things or events that make you discouraged?

So if you feel discouraged, you kind of need to know what caused that discouragement. So here are some questions.

And this is what I was doing to myself in my great,

I shouldn't say this. This is providential that the Lord brought this book to me. And as I was reading this, it's like, oh, this helps me think.

Here are some circumstances in my life. And other questions, do you have control over these things or are they out of your control?

Sometimes I worry about things that I absolutely have no control over. So then should I do something about the situation or do

I need to rest and pray and just leave it in the hand of God? So there are ways in which you think through the problem that you face.

And then counsel. So how do you then help this person? And all of these are like paragraphs this long.

So it will take you like five minutes to read it. It will probably take you 50 hours to process it.

So then there is counsel. And I'm just reading you snippets so that way you think of what

I'm talking about, biblical counsel. Discouragement ought to be the first indication that it is time to pray.

And very often if I examine my own life, it's like I've kind of gotten too inwardly focused.

It says people can become discouraged when they are overwhelmed and begin to neglect prayer, which is exactly the time we need to rely on God more.

And it goes on to say a few other sentences around it. And then action steps. So now that you understand what this particular area you need to do, what are the ways in which you need to go through?

So I'm just going to say a few bullets here. Be realistic. Give your discouragement to God.

Rethink your goals. Don't go into this what -ifs situations because God is sovereign. And don't focus on your feelings.

Keep a journal. Be ready. What do all this mean? Maybe we'll unpack them in a future class.

And then finally biblical insights. What are some scriptures? So here there is,

I'll just read one verse that might help you. Let us not grow weary in doing good.

For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. That's Galatians 6 .9. So you can, and there's like about seven verses here and a short explanation for each of these.

And then a short way to start praying about it. Okay. If you are just completely out, you know, here are some ways in which you can pray.

And then a few resources for just this particular topic. And so this particular topic,

I'm going to read it. You know, each one is like three pages long. And something like this

I have found personally helpful in a topic that I really needed help with.

And then the funny thing was, I said, hell, let's look at this other problem that I didn't, I don't think

I have. And I started reading it. And they have some diagnostic questions. Here's how this person is going through when they have this particular trouble.

Check, check, check. Wait. I didn't know I had this problem. And the truth is, you know, we all have troubles of varying degrees.

When something gets so overwhelming, then we tend to focus our attention on it. But when some things are happening, when, you know, you could actually take care of them before they become a crisis,

I tend to ignore them. And sometimes it's good to know Biblical counseling as a preventative measure.

It's like, okay, here are some tendencies, propensities that I have. And in light of the scriptures, how ought

I to look at this situation? How ought I to think differently about this and, you know, avoid a car crash down the road? And so that's how

I would talk to Biblical counseling for each of us, for ourselves. All right.

So like I said, next week we'll pick some topics. And I'm going to just let you pick the topics.

I've kind of read that book several times. So I can pick any topic that you think we want to work through and then see how to apply this for ourselves.

And more importantly also for others. So with that, let me pause.

Is there any questions, thoughts, anything you want to add? All right.

So now I'm going to switch to another book. Actually, hi.

My wife, Sunita, and I went to a Biblical counseling conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, like a month or so ago.

And this is the first time we've been to a Biblical counseling conference. Just the two of us. And it was very encouraging.

It was encouraging because the confidence that these counselors have had in bringing

God's word, applying the word to many different types of situations, and seeing the work of God in people's lives as they are transformed by it, gives encouragement to people who are stuck in their circumstances.

And don't quite see how to get past it. I mean, I'm looking at some of you who have done this many times before.

And have seen and proven the work of God in the lives of broken and hopeless people.

And you've seen it for yourselves. You've seen it for those that you've ministered. And so in this conference, we got to hear a lot of different stories of how

God has done these things. How do you apply God's word in these types of circumstances? And the response to that was, well,

I don't know. But the greatest encouragement I got was the realization of where BBC is.

I mean, these were people from thousands of people from all over the country. I don't know if they were from around the world as well.

And when I heard the conversations, talked to people, I realized theologically, biblically, each one of you is equipped in ways that 90 % of the people in the conference were not.

And many of them were actual counselors that were there. I think we've been so blessed by the teaching of the word here.

That in terms of what the scriptures say, who our God is, we all have a pretty strong handle on.

I think the challenge that we face is taking those truths and with confidence applying it into those circumstances that we face.

So the application part is, I think, where we don't know how to intentionally apply as much as we could.

And so with that, I'm going to read a few verses just to give you a context for what the scriptures say about counseling.

And then I'm going to go through the method of counseling. There are a few stages, if you will, that you go through in counseling.

And we'll get as far as we can today. And then we'll go through the rest. And before I go into the stages, if I forget,

I'm going to read the verses. I have some handouts. So let's look at the verses first. I need some volunteers to read these verses.

I'm just going to call out the verses. If you can just raise your hand, I'll know you're reading it. The first one is

Proverbs 27 verses 6 and 9. Did I see a hand? Thank you,

Christine. The next one is John 13, 34, and 35.

Don't be shy, Charlie. And then, actually, if you're reading the verses, you can also read

John 15, 13 through 15. So I'll call out the actual verse when we get there.

And then Romans 12, 10. Thank you, Taylor. And then 2

Corinthians 2, 4. Do I see a hand? Great. Thank you. And then

Galatians 6, 1 and 2. Steve. And then

Philippians 1, 8. Thank you. And then 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 and 8.

Last one. Thank you. All right. So I think we have all our verses. Let's go through these verses as we see what the

Scriptures talk about Biblical counseling. So the first one, Proverbs 27 verses 6 and 9.

The sweetness of a friend comes from earnest counsel. Each of you here know friends here that are going through troubles of various kinds.

If you're feeling shy about approaching them and helping them, just know that your counsel, your heart, your soul, your love for your friend is demonstrated by your willingness to talk to them and approach them.

John 13, verse 34 and 35. We'll start with that, Charlie.

And chapter 15, verses 13 to 15. Mark, it's okay if you want to stay here.

You know, the difference between Biblical counseling and just teaching a

Sunday school class like I'm doing right now is that there's a difference between the two. Teaching can be clean. I just list out a few things.

I look good and I walk away from here. The spirit does the work in your hearts. And I'm not, you know, down into the dirty, difficult, messy part of life.

But the Scripture calls us to love God like we've been doing and looking at his attributes.

It calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves and especially those of the household of God. And true love requires involvement in people's lives.

I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. But just remember that your desire to love each other involves getting involved in the circumstances of their lives.

So we'll stop with that. We'll come look at it more closely next. Romans 12 .10, brotherly affection.

Showing honor. We're going to see how honor is a key part of counseling. Because it's so easy when

I see somebody's messy problem, especially one that I don't struggle with, it's like, oh. You know, if I do that often to myself, it becomes easier to not do that to others.

Because part of biblical counseling, and the reason it gets hard is people don't want to open up when people are going to just say, how could you?

And then leave it at that. There may be times when I have to say, how could you? There are times when

I've said to myself, how could you? But our desire should be to show brotherly affection.

Philadelphia. There should be this. I tend to go into preaching mode.

The next one is 2 Corinthians 2 .4. Thank you.

You know, there is a victory that we have in Christ. He leads us into triumph in Christ.

So there is a confidence and a hope that you have. Sometimes you look at some problem and you're like, I don't want to touch that with a ten -foot pole.

It's like, you know, when you know the Christ that has saved us, redeemed us, equipped us, every situation that the

Lord has placed before our lives, he will also give us the grace to go through it. So you have a great confidence because of the one who is with us.

So this verse, Galatians 6, 1 and 2, I think is crucial. I think it's a memorized, you can memorize the whole

Bible, but for biblical counseling, you really should memorize this one. Who has that? That's good.

You know, one and others, this one and others throughout biblical counseling and bearing one another's burdens is a crucial part of biblical counseling.

I mean, I can tell, I'm going to ask you this, but, well, maybe I'll ask you this after the rest of the verses.

The next one is Philippians 1 .8. Who has that?

I know I wanted it to be 1 .6,

but why don't you read both 1 .6 and 1 .8? Thank you. When I first saw 8,

I was like, wait, shouldn't it be 6? You know, there is a confidence that, you know, every believer will truly finish his race, you know, no matter how desperate the problem that you're facing, how desperate the problem your counselee or your friend is facing.

But in addition to that, actually, we are doing Philippians in our high school Sunday school, not today.

But when we look at that passage in Philippians 1, Paul is just overflowing with affection for the

Philippians. And that's why verse 8 is there. He loves the Philippians with such a deep and enduring love.

Their well -being is foremost on his mind as he's writing this book. He writes about a lot of good things as he commends them.

And that's a part of biblical counseling, too. It's not just, hey, get that straight. It's like, oh, you're doing these things great.

You know, just keep on. The more you grow in these things, the more you're going to reflect God's power in all of your life.

And so the verse 8 was there because of just the affection that Paul has for the Philippians.

And as you love those around you, part of the ministry that you have in serving one another is bearing the burden, giving them counsel, helping them through this.

And the last verse we have is 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 and 8. And that kind of summarizes what

Paul thinks of his ministry of the gospel and sharing his life.

You know, you get involved in people's lives. So, you know, if you just, I just asked you to stand up and look at everybody around here and say, you know, how many of these people do you know well enough to just approach them and help them?

You may not know all of them, but you certainly would know a few of them, and some of them may be going through things that they may not recognize.

I mentioned how I was having some trouble that until somebody told me, I had no idea I had that trouble. I'm glad they told me because that was the love.

It was loving on their part to tell me so I may grow in sanctification in this particular area.

It was hard for me to receive it, but it was crucial for me to receive it.

And in God's providence, God had placed them in my life in order to tell me that I needed to hear it.

And so you may be that person that is in this other person's friend's life in this body that you may need to speak up, take some courage, and do it.

And I didn't say this verse. It's from Ephesians 4. You want to speak the truth in love.

You want to be able to do it with a desire for the other person's well -being, but you need to take the courage to do that because God has intended for you to serve one another in this particular way.

All right. So let's now look at, I have three questions for you, and then we'll get into the method.

So the first question, who is bold enough here today to talk about counsel that you would like to have for yourself?

This is self -counsel, not looking for somebody to counsel you. If you are looking for counsel in a problem,

I mean, I think, Carolyn, you defined it really well.

Here is a problem, and we need a solution. How many of you would be thinking, okay,

I have problems that I need biblical counsel for. And if any of you would be willing to share what comes to your mind as you think of biblical counseling for yourself, that might be helpful as we think through this thing before we get into the method.

Anybody want to share? It feels awkward to share something like this in a group setting.

Don't share something that will share really what you're comfortable with and what might be appropriate here.

But yes, excellent. And I think, you know, this is how we will study this more.

We are going to see some problem that we face. We call them the surface problem. You know, there are some things that we observe, we can see, and that's triggering thoughts in our mind.

And when those trigger thoughts come, we can just say, you know, let me just keep doing what

I'm doing. And, you know, I'm here because I'm doing, keep doing what I'm doing, and I need something more in order to grow through this thing.

And so normally when we face those circumstances, and this is parenting, marriage, the relationship type of godliness, those things take skill.

So especially when I was a young parent, we've read the shepherding a child's heart.

And we know the truth. But how do you apply that? Those things take time and effort. And so you talk to people who have done those things before who have the experience of saying, you know, here's how

I've done these things. And then you learn certain things through that. But more importantly, I go for myself one level below and say, why do

I have difficulty being consistent with my parents? What about the truths of god do

I need to dwell on in order to recognize the urgency or the importance of doing it? And also recognizing, you know, we're never going to be perfect.

That can lead to, you know, I get so depressed. I got my kid 97 % of the way.

That three percent that I missed, how could I? Well, the grace of god covers that three percent.

And so that's basically how we want to do. Thanks for sharing, Taylor. And I think, you know, whatever things that you are thinking of for yourself, those are the ways in which we want to think of biblical counsel for ourselves.

And we'll apply those for the methodology to it. So let's now turn this around a little bit.

And I'm intentionally doing this so you'll be thinking. Remember my goal? My goal is not to just teach you. I want you to go out of here and do something with this, what we're learning today.

Can you think of maybe one person in your life that does need biblical counseling?

Either they approached you and talked to you about a problem or you've seen a problem that you think you need to go and talk to them about.

Just take a couple of moments to just think through, you know, this could be a person that I could reach out or they've been asking and I need to be more intentional in helping them.

So don't say names here. But if there is some particular situation that you are comfortable sharing which would be anonymous, feel free to share that.

And not just the situation but maybe some concerns you have about counseling this person.

Thank you for sharing that, Charlie. You know, there's many things you listed there.

I'll mention a couple and then I'll pass out my handout. We'll look at some of those elements in the handout as well.

Maybe next week we'll cover some of what you talked about. But there's a few things

Charlie said. Charlie's probably more equipped than me in doing this. I know you've been a blessing to others.

So anybody wants, you can make a beeline to him. Now, let me state a few things.

Like I mentioned before at BBC, we don't normally have a difficulty knowing the scriptures, you know, what the scriptures do say.

Sometimes we may not know the whole council, how they all apply in a particular circumstance.

But the difficulty that many of us face is, well, you know, there's many difficulties.

The first one that I might face is I'm inadequate for this task. God forbid

I say the wrong thing and mislead this brother and I think that's a great caution to have.

I don't want to just go tripping off and say, hey, try this out and boom. All right, now

I have my own sin on top of everything else. But I don't think that is the challenge that at least in our church we face.

I think we want to be careful with handling the word. But it's not because we don't know the word. Many of us know the word pretty well.

But how do I take the word and work it in this person's life in a way that let me step back.

So sometimes, you know, I had a lot of these examples and I just blew past them. So think of going to a medical, to a doctor's office.

You have a problem. You go there. You have a triage or ER, for example.

And then you check something out. Here's your problem. You go this way and then you have some treatments and things go on.

Now, most of the times you go to your doctor, your doctor says take this, this, then this and you'll be fine. And you wish like biblical counseling sometimes could be very prescriptive in a very well -defined way.

But it's not the case because biblical counseling is going to take, like Charlie, you said, depending on the type of situation, things may go in a lot of different directions.

And between where the church stands on biblical counseling, there are some things that are inbounds and out of bounds in terms of how we help people.

And we'll talk about some of those things in our methodology. But in terms of the steps,

I'll give you some guidance. But in terms of the challenges that we face, because every time you read, listen to a message or you read a book, the trouble that we can always, every one of us faces,

I think Pastor Mike has said this before, most heresies are not in the exegesis of the text.

They are in the application of the message in your life. You can take something on good works and apply it for your salvation.

OK, I just damned myself. And vice versa. You can take grace and then say

I don't do any works. So you can take and apply, misapply things, and that's a real danger that the counselor needs to be careful of.

So you need to know how the scriptures apply in these contexts, and through how practically it gets worked out, you need to be able to help this person walk through their trouble, looking for help from God, building this godly lifestyle around trusting

God, putting off sin, putting on righteousness, and then coming past this problem to not just be defined by your problem.

Like an alcoholic anonymous, this is who I am. No, you are a child of God, and you're going through this trial for a season in life, and the

Lord will carry you through. Not just because, oh, I did it, or I just thank

God in my closet, because now I can help the person who is now going through the same situation that I did.

And Paul talks about that. Each of us go through trials, not just for ourselves, in order that we may be able to help others who are facing those situations.

So with that, let me stop. I have a limited number of printouts.

These are not daily printouts. This is pretty much for our whole season. And I'd like per family to have one.

I know some families have multiple families here. So we have about 20 copies here, if I can get some help passing these around.

And I'm going to go through this.

This is from the book, a practical guide for effective biblical counseling.

So I'll try to get copies of this so you can purchase it. It's a very small book. And it's called the eight eyes, utilizing the eight eyes to promote true biblical change.

And this is, think of it as a methodology, the steps that you would take. And if you don't have enough copies, maybe if you feel comfortable, sit close to someone else and you can share it.

And if you can bring this for the future weeks, that would be helpful also. So I'm just going to read what the eight eyes are so that way you know what those eight steps are.

Oh, by the way, I was trying to put together, I told Sarita, you know, I don't want to give notes. I don't want to do things.

She's like, you ramble a lot. If you don't have notes, people will remember nothing. So desperately yesterday morning

I'm trying to put my notes together. Oh, thank you, brothers. And I said, hey, let me just Google.

And then voila, the Lord provides. As you can see, these are not my notes.

This is a person from the master's seminary who took this book and laid out a Sunday school outline.

So he's done a much better job than I ever could have done. So what I'm going to do here is go through the eight eyes, and we'll wrap up for today, what each of those eyes are.

Feel free to read them more because that way it will help when we meet next Sunday. But let me read them for you and just explain what they are.

So the very first step, and this is the part I've been trying to emphasize today, is involvement.

So the definition, the first three words are the same in all eight. Promote biblical change.

That's our goal, biblical change, by establishing a change -facilitating relationship.

So you as a counselor, both with yourself, the counselee at times, have to establish that relationship and also with the person that you're trying to help.

And what does that involve? We'll see that next time. Then the next page on the top, you have inspiration.

Again, promote biblical change by inspiring or influencing the counselee to develop and sustain an attitude and feeling of hope.

Many a time you have a problem. The person doesn't see hope. They feel hopeless in that situation.

And you want to be able to tell that person there is hope. Sometimes you,

I've been able to do certain things before, but I can't do those things now.

And I feel like at this point in time, I just am hopeless. Last year, that was my situation. I was like, I can't get through this thing.

I have won many wars, climbed many hills and mountains, but this one is going to get me down and under.

And I had to humble myself and get that help I needed. But the counselee, which could be yourself when you're doing self -biblical counseling, but more importantly for those whom you're applying to others, you need to be able to inspire them.

And that's the second step. The second thing is inventory. And this is part of the technical part of it.

So the definition, it's on page three. Promote biblical change by gathering enough of the right kinds of information to accurately understand the counselee and the problem.

So now it gets into the nuts and bolts of things. What do I need to know in this person's life, in my life, in order to help that person through?

And then there's a lot of details in that section. And then the fourth step is interpretation.

There's four on one side and four on the other side. I'll explain this maybe more next time. Interpretation. Again, promote biblical change by analyzing and organizing the information from the inventory phase to accurately identify the biblical nature and cause of the problem, and to convincingly explain this to the counselee.

I think this is the most crucial part. If you do the first three parts, your challenge will now be, okay, I got a lot of data. Now this may be done through a secular lens, the way

I've seen it. I now have to map that into what does the Bible say? How do I organize this, figure out how

I interpret the data that I have seen for myself first, and then be able to communicate that to the person who needs it.

And then the next few pages are just some documents on how you can do all of the things that was mentioned before.

So I'm going to skip to page, well, it's page one. It's a few pages down. There were two PDF files.

I didn't make one PDF file. So this is number five, instruction. Promote biblical change through accurate, concrete, practical, and appropriate teaching and counsel from the scripture.

So here you're providing God's perspective on what to do to solve the problems.

So once you interpret the situation, now you have to do the instruction part. Here's how the

Bible speaks to your situation. Here's how God provides counsel, and you instruct.

And normally this is the part I normally think of in biblical counseling. And in many cases that's all it needs.

There's a very simple problem, and I give a simple instruction and game over. But there are other deeper problems where you have to spend more time in gathering the right kind of information and processing it.

And then I would just commend you to that put off, put on. That is central to any biblical counseling.

There's a bunch of texts that are given there. Number six, inducement or intention.

Now, let me read it. Promote biblical change by motivating or persuading the counselee to repent of sinful attitude, words, or actions.

That's putting off. And then to make a decisive commitment to counseling and to obey the

Lord following biblical directives. So things you need to put on. And so there are counselees who are going to come and say,

I really want to need help. Help me. And others are like, I'm stuck in this thing, and I don't want it. I'm fine.

And so you'll have to figure out how you induce them to follow the Lord in this place.

Number seven, page five, implementation. Promote biblical change by helping the counselee to be a doer of the word, practicing biblical directives in daily life until new patterns become established.

Especially if it's a problem they've been stuck in for a while. It's not going to be overnight change. Here's a pill. Take it and you'll be good.

No, it's going to take some time. I just saw a quote this morning.

Fight like a man. Habits are overcome by habits. It's like you have to, you know, sometimes we think grace is

Just like, you know, i just made a light prayer, and i walk away From here, and all is well.

No, it's not. I can show you thousands of examples in my life, but i Tried that, and it always failed.

You know, the spirit of God convicts us for a reason. It's not just because it's like, you know, just forget about it

And go play your video game. It's, you know, there are things that need to be dealt with, and That's part of our goal as a counselor to help this person

Make that part of their habit. I mean, we'll talk about some pitfalls of thinking i'm the

Holy spirit, which none of us are, but there is a role that The counselor plays in helping them see how they can now make

This part of their practice. And then the last one is integration. Promote biblical change until the necessary changes are

Integrated into the life of the counselee, and the counselee is Integrated into the life of the church.

You know, the catechism talks about the purpose that we exist

Is to bring glory to God. We bring glory to God when we grow in sanctification.

We showcase the work of God in our lives that pulls us out of The valleys and sets us on firm ground.

And our goal should not just center on the self. Our goal is to be integrated with the church.

So wherever the counselee is, one day the Lord intends for This person to serve others in the body, to be integrated with The body, and be fruitful as Christ is the wine and we are

The branches, and they produce the fruit when they are abiding In him. And that's the goal. So this person is not just, okay, i got you out of alcohol

And now you're a nonalcoholic. No, i got you out of this pit of addiction to the place where You are an ambassador of living a life that is just as you are

Addicted to sin, now you are filled with, i want to use Addicted, but i know that's a bad word.

You are just consumed by your desire to do the things of God In your life and in the life of others and help those who have

Been struggling in the same area also. So this is kind of lays out the big picture, and i realize i'm

Out of time. So any thoughts or comments before we wrap up? All right.

So as you have the material with you, there's additional Appendices on the next section.

In fact, i forgot to mention, there's a model, i'll talk about That, but there is a text that are there to scripture,

Scriptural text that are there in the back as in the appendix, And that are a quick reference to different topics that you may

Be looking for help on. All right. So with that, we'll stop. If you can read them, that's fine.

You don't have to. Next week, what we'll do is do the eight eyes in a little more Detail, and then we'll pick possibly one or two specific

Examples on how we walk through counseling in those situations. And please bring your questions, because i think this, like i

Said, i want it to be something that we can apply practically. Let's pray. Loving father, we thank you for this time.

We thank you that your son came to seek and save the lost. And we thank you that that salvation that began at the time

Of our conversion and justification continues in our Sanctification as you make us more and more like christ.

And i pray that each one here, you would equip, fill with a

Desire to serve you and to serve one another with deep affection.

Give us wisdom, lord, because it is only by your strength that We can do all these things. And it is in christ's name that We pray.

Amen. So if you're interested, i also have a few books. I thought i'd show you them this time.

Maybe i'll bring them next time, too. If you want to just scan them or borrow them, that's fine, too.

Oh, oh, oh. I'm not done. We have a bunch of little booklets that we bought from the

Conference that's in the library. They're very small. They're pretty much, they almost

Are too cheesy. There's about 60 different Topics. So if you have a specific topic That you're interested in, you should be able to find that in The library.