Biblical Counseling (part 3)

So we are week three of biblical counseling.

Biblical counseling.

So we have been following up on

the series on the attributes of God.

The attributes of God gave us a vision of how grand and glorious our God is.

And the more our minds are filled with the truth about who God is, we recognize also that those

truths have a very direct and practical bearing on the way we live our

lives.

How does our mind get transformed by the truth of God's word?

And how do we live out this life that God has intended for us in a way that is

flourishing, in a way that is bringing glory and honor to the Lord.

And so biblical counseling we saw last time, the last couple of weeks was first and foremost for

ourselves.

We wanna be able to take the truth of God's word, God's counsel and apply them in our lives

in those circumstances where God has placed us and recognize that we have everything that we need for life and

godliness in God's word.

And we can learn how to get those truths from the

scriptures.

And there's a spirit of God equips us to apply them and to grow in the ways that God has intended

for us to reflect really the power of God, the goodness of God, the love of God,

and all of those things that God has blessed us with in the spirit.

So the last two weeks, we kind of just started on why we

need to do biblical counseling for ourselves, how we can do biblical counseling for those in

our midst.

That biblical counseling is a key part of our one another ministries.

So as we come across other believers, we ought to be genuinely loving them.

That was the first bullet we saw last week.

We wanna be involved in people's lives with the love that Christ himself has and respect them, show them,

be honest and open with them in the way in which we deal with these trials.

So we talked about counseling in two areas.

One is sin.

Someone may be stuck in sin and we wanna come alongside and help them.

Galatians six, one and two.

We also saw how people are going through trials and are hurting and do not know how to

look beyond their trials that they are facing.

And so we saw second Corinthians one, where God is a God of comfort who brings those comfort to us in our

times of need.

We have experienced those comfort.

We wanna be able to share that comfort to those who need that in this time.

So it begins with this first step of involvement, which

is we care enough for people to wanna be involved in their lives, to show the love that God has given us.

So this eight steps in your handout are by Wayne Mack

and the person Tom Maxim had done this in master seminary.

So we just took his handouts to walk through it.

And as I was talking to you the last few weeks, I said, if

there are areas in your life, you wanna be intentional in the way in which you apply biblical counseling.

Sometimes we just kind of walk through and say, I just made a quick prayer and I'm still stuck in the ditch.

God intends for us to seek his truth, his wisdom, his counsel in

God's word.

So as you're going through the series, if there are areas in your life where you think you need to

study the word and get God's help, I would love for you to use a pencil pen and write down what you think you

wanna be doing when you walk out of this Sunday school.

And if God brings someone to your mind where someone that you know is struggling either in sin or in

suffering, and you've been kind of too shy to reach out to them and provide them the help that God has shown you

through the scriptures, I want you to write down again, what are those things that you wanna be praying about?

How do you wanna minister God's word to them?

This outline is written for a more formal biblical counseling where you go meet someone

and then they walk you through the process of understanding what

the root of your concerns are and how do you find ways to apply

it.

But this can be used in all circumstances, including, like I said, in your own walk and in the lives of the

brothers and sisters you meet with.

So last week, we covered involvement and inspiration.

And inspiration, we talked about when someone is without hope, who's stuck in their sin, thinking I can't get

out of it, or stuck in their problem and then just unable to see the goodness and the power of God, you wanna be

that brother or that sister who comes alongside and says, there is hope.

And so if you would look at number two, page two, we looked at

what are those means of hope?

We saw last time, Jesus and the gospel are the basis of hope.

Hope is not just something that we humanly provide, we point people to Christ

and help them see Christ in those times when clouds have overcome them.

They can't see the sun through the clouds and you wanna remind them there is a sun that is beyond these clouds.

And this God is a God of hope.

We saw all those scriptures last time.

And then we also saw how people are motivated to change with hope.

I know Janet, just as we were closing, said, I have a verse to say.

And it happened to be the very next verse, which was Romans 15, four.

And we ended with that last time.

And this is exactly how biblical counseling works.

There are some scriptures that have just been so embedded in your spirit

because God has used them to minister to you in your time of trial.

And when you wanna communicate that same hope to others, these are the scriptures that just bubble out because God has done a work

in you.

And that's exactly what biblical counseling is.

You don't often have to go and study because more often than not, God has done that work in you and it comes out through

you.

So with that, we'll jump into today's material.

So we'll pick with, if you wanna go to page two, and we'll walk through these eight

steps, which kind of outline how you can do biblical counseling for yourself and for those

in your midst.

I was trying to figure out how I can go faster.

One way was to cut down the number of verses that we read.

And I said, that'll be the most stupid thing for me to do.

In fact, the only thing that I think is powerful here is God's word.

And those words are what will help you to be a counselor, to minister, to see how God has equipped each of you to be able to

serve one another.

And also to see that there is genuine hope for you if you're looking to see and receive help.

So I'm not gonna cut down on the verses, but I would like it if those of you who are gonna volunteer, which is

any one of you here, would raise your hands a little quickly and read a little loudly so all of us can hear.

So we'll begin with inspiration B.

People are motivated to change with hope.

Janet, if you don't mind, can you read Romans 15, four and 13?

And can I have somebody volunteer for 1 Corinthians 10, 13?

Thank you.

So we'll start with Janet.

If you see the first three and verse 13, it is God's word that gives us hope.

And our God is a God of hope.

When things seem hopeless, you wanna remember, you wanna go to God's word to receive the hope and to

look to the God who provides us hope when everything seems lost.

I can testify to it, and I know many of us here can testify to it, and that if you look at verse 13, there is

joy.

Very often when hope goes away, joy goes away.

And if you wanna find joy, you wanna be able to look to the author of our faith.

We wanna look to the one who is the source of our hope, and you will find that he gives you the hope which you need in your time of

need.

And many of you who've been stuck in sin can always remember this verse, which comes and helps you when you get

out of sin, that there is a God who is aware of the worst of my sins that I have faced, the

temptations and the failures that I've had, and yet God is faithful.

He will provide what exactly I need, and he will help me through this trial that I'm

stuck in.

And we wanna remind ourselves with this.

When you meet somebody and you're like, how can God ever help this person?

It's like, yeah, we have a God who is all powerful, who knows much more about this situation than you ever will,

and yet loves this person and cares for this person and is able to give the grace that this person needs in this

person's time of need.

And that's what you wanna be able to give this person, a hope when they think all is lost.

All right, like we did last time, we'll pause with each bullet.

Feel free to write down what you need to, but also if there's anything else you wanna share on the verses or the point, feel

free to do that.

That's a great question.

How does hope relate to peace?

So when we think of peace, I think of like Shalom, like well -being,

where when either sin or trials come, I feel unsettled.

My peace kind of seems to be fleeting and gone.

When I am in that state, I need to be able to look past the

peacelessness, if I could make up that word, to the God of hope who provides me the hope for

the restoration of Shalom, that one day I can receive that peace.

And in fact, the verse that comes to my mind is Philippians four, where Paul says, do not be anxious for anything,

but in everything, my wife, with thanksgiving,

with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God and the God of peace will, and now I'm

messing up the words, am I not?

Who can finish that for me?

Yeah, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds.

So there's an assurance as we look to the God of hope that he will provide us the

peace that comes from it, that our hearts will be settled, that we can have a knowledge of peace with God.

Very often when sin comes or when suffering comes, when sin comes especially, I feel like somehow

the state of peace between me and God is broken.

And in some ways, the feelings of guilt that come are good to remind me that I've been bought at a price, I

shouldn't take it for granted, but my God's love never gets broken.

And I need to find that reminder that I am at peace with God and that I can be at peace

in the way God intended.

But when I'm peaceless, it is the hope that helps me to recognize that I can be restored

to the state of peace.

I can pray, I can receive the help.

I don't know if I answered it.

And I think that's exactly it.

You know, we always, when we are walking the Christian walk, we get dirty, we get

discouraged because my walk, my practice doesn't seem to

match up with what it ought to be.

And anytime that happens, I need to always go back to the cross and remind myself of my position, the

God of peace, the peace that he has bought for me at a great price, at a price that I could never pay.

And that settles me in terms of who I am.

And yes, I am a sinner saved by grace.

I'm a sinner that is still struggling with my walk, but that never ever takes away

the greatness of the God who saved me or the greatness of the God who began that good work in me who will

finish it at the day of Christ.

That there is a hope that he will do the work that I may not seem to be able to accomplish on my own.

And it all begins with who I am in Christ.

If anybody needs more handouts, just let me know we have more copies here.

All right, so let's move to the next one, true hope.

I need three, four volunteers, or three volunteers.

Psalm 119, who would like to, Simon.

First Peter 1 .3, I'll go with you.

And then Rosa, if you can take Hebrews 11 .1 and 12 .3.

So we'll begin with Simon on Psalm 119, verse 49.

You know, this is a, as you know, Psalm 119 is all about the word of God, you know, how good it is.

And here is the Psalmist's plea to God.

But if you look at the second half of that verse, it is God's word that makes us hope.

So this is, every time you counsel yourself as well as counsel others, you want to remember, God's word is

God having spoken once for all those truths that we need to have.

And so God's word is literally as good as if God was standing right in front of you and speaking them to you.

This is God's word.

And that's how the Psalmist sees it here.

And he has anchored his hope upon the word of God.

And so should you, so should you help your counselees see as well, thank you.

And again, this verse we saw last time, three to five, what was this living hope?

The riches of the inheritance that we have, there is an eternal component to it.

And that eternal component helps you, like in the book of First Peter, go through all suffering, all of the trials that you

face with a great confidence, because this, with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God

has given us that hope and it'll endure not just for eternity, but also in our trials that we face.

11 verses, 11, one and 12, three.

So Hebrews 11, one talking about the assurance of things hoped for, you know, these are things you don't quite see.

Faith is not sight.

And that's the whole point of how God brings these trials in our lives, so that we may get

to see through those trials, the great God who has helped us.

And I think every one of you here who has gone through major trials can testify to it.

You have come out of that trial with a vision of God that you haven't had before, because it is brought down to

the end of yourself.

You've gotten to see how our God is a glorious God in the midst of that trial.

And then you can testify, my God lives.

And it's a living hope that we have.

So let's stop here, true hope.

Any other comments or thoughts on this section, on this verses?

I'm so glad you shared that because very often when we think of hope, our

understanding of hope is very similar to that of the world, which is, you know, I am hoping for something,

which is like, hey, you know, it's a 50 chance I might get what I'm hoping for, 80 chance, whatever the

probability is.

But when we talk about the God of the Bible, the hope that is here is an anchor that pierces the whale.

There are truths that the scriptures talk about that nothing can take away from, you know, and

exactly what you said, you know, the world can have this hope on fluffy things, some of them good, some of them not so

good.

And they may anchor on sand that gets washed away, such as not the hope of

the believer.

The believer's hope is one that is on solid rock on Christ himself.

And actually, you know what, let me just pause here.

I wanted to say this later, but I think this might connect.

So when my mom had cancer a few years back, my brother was overseas,

and I needed to go tell my mom that she had cancer.

So obviously, the first thing I did, think of it in the biblical counseling context, is pray, you know,

just pray for her, pray for the situation.

Our hearts were breaking as we found out that this was kind of worse than what we thought it was, would have been, and

we've been praying up until now that it wouldn't be cancer.

We had seen something and we thought it was cancer.

We hoped the result would be, eh, it's benign.

And it's good to pray that way, when you face a trial, that it wouldn't be more severe.

But it turned out that it was cancer.

And I remember going and visiting my mom, and she was in such high spirits.

And I was like, okay, just spend some time with her.

I said, if you're going to a movie, Mom, I never take Mom to movies.

So we ended up going to the movie that day.

We came back, and throughout the time, obviously, I was praying, and I was like, okay, this is not the time.

So I come back the next day.

My mom and dad were there, and I took my dad out.

I said, you know, let me take Dad for a walk.

Walked outside, told him the news.

His legs buckled when I'm talking to him.

And I'm like, okay, you know, we prayed together, comforted him, and I said, Dad, you need to be strong for Mom.

So we both go back in, tell my mom.

Shattering lots of tears and sadness.

Took us about a half hour.

We were just comforting one another.

I wasn't talking about all these truths at that point.

She just needed someone to cry on, and I needed to cry with her.

And once we were past that, we started talking about the Lord.

And I can tell you, that was like the most sweet thing that we ever had.

She's a believer, so it's a lot easier when we are talking about hope to someone who knows the Lord.

And here were the truths that the Spirit of God gave me.

I had some I had prepared for, and then we just had a great time of prayer.

And Mom was confident as I walked out of her house that day.

And in fact, Sunita, me, and my dad were with her when she went into surgery.

And she was, she seems like the most joyful person in this room.

You may not know who was the one in for surgery that day.

And the thing is, you know, God takes people who are afraid, fearful of a lot of things.

And I can testify to my mom, you know, she's cancer -free.

Just how the Lord worked in her through that particular trial.

And me and my wife and my family were blessed just to see how God had ministered to her with

us just as people who got to witness to the power of God, the goodness of God, the hope that he had

provided.

And we have so many more stories to say.

Amen.

I'm glad you mentioned that.

That kind of leads into our next point, which is, you know, I could have told my mom, oh, Mom,

we're gonna pray this cancer away.

You know, like some people sometimes have a hope on intermediate things, good things, but intermediate things.

And we wanna be able to provide them a hope that is genuine and it is actually true.

And I think you are a good testimony to that.

And as I'm looking around, I could see many of you who have gone through similar circumstances.

We can testify to the kind of hope that God gives us.

So let's look at the next section.

What are things that as a counselor, you don't wanna over -promise or promise what's not true?

So let's, okay, we have many verses.

So the first one, Matthew 5.

Can I see a hand?

Thank you.

Romans 8, back there.

And then Roman, Hebrews 11.

Thank you.

And then second Peter 1.

All right, Mark.

Thanks.

Okay, so let's begin with Matthew 5 .12.

And I think any hope that just stays on the temporal, which is what Janet was talking about,

is false.

We really should anchor every believer's hope in the eternal.

And in this particular case, persecution trials were promised throughout the scriptures as well.

Romans 8, 28 and 29.

Once again, I think it's easy to just say all things work together for good and think that it means no trials, no

pain, no persecution.

That's not what it means.

In fact, the second half talks about our conformity to the image of his son.

God cares a whole lot more about how he is making us into

the image of Christ than he is about whiffing our problem away.

And that is the beauty of the Christian walk.

In first Peter 1, three to five and beyond, it's all about that.

That God cares to take this soiled, rotten, dirty creature and then

make him glorious like Christ.

So there is a hope of eternal glorification that we have as we one day will not have sin.

But through these all things, all things include those trials, those temptations and those

difficulties that we walk through.

Hebrews 11, amen.

We'll just pause here for a moment.

If you look at verse six, it is our, for me, as I'm counseling

myself through this, I need to remember that I have to anchor on Christ and not just the solution of

the problem.

That's verse six.

You believe that he exists.

You trust in him as you're walking through this trial.

But I think the 24 to 26 give that example of Moses.

There's many examples in Hebrews 11, but here it helps you take your eyes off

of that immediate persecution because the immediate persecution is what woke you up to the need for

seeking the Lord.

And when you seek the Lord, you want to remember that it's the Lord's purposes that you must seek and not your own.

So Moses could have very easily said, well, I can get rid of this problem by just, you know, conforming to the

image of Egypt and the royalty that has been given to me.

But instead he chose the reproaches of Christ.

So as a counselee for myself, I need to remember that this trial has woken me up to something that I

maybe haven't considered before.

And the path that the Lord provides may actually be harder than the human solution

that I have for my trial on my own.

And so it is vital when I give counsel and hope that I don't just give them the easy way

out.

We want to look for what the Lord's purpose is in this and make sure we focus on that.

And then second Peter one, and I think you can see the repetitive theme coming through.

God cares about your sanctification through that trial.

And when you're looking for counsel, you want to remember that this is God's will for you

as opposed to just getting past this trial.

You're going to go through that trial, but you're going to go through with God by your midst.

So let's pause again.

Any comments on this section or just giving hope in general before we move to the next section?

So even in evangelism, we want to be very careful.

It's not like this is your band -aid or your magic potion.

It's you get to have all your sins forgiven and you are also promised trials

in this walk that you have.

We want to be honest.

I think in the last section we saw about what God promises and what he does not.

You know, last time we looked at John, I think it's right on the top there on the section eight, 11, one

to 46.

And one of the things we noticed there was how Jesus responds to Martha and Mary.

And both of them needed, they had the same question and Jesus gave them slightly different responses.

And so this very same question, you have somebody who's hard -hearted and just thinking they are all set.

You want to be able to clearly and unequivocally and sometimes maybe even with

the, I don't know, exhortation is the word I'm

thinking of.

I can't think of the right term here.

Forcefully communicate the truth that they are wrong and they need to abandon their false

hope for the true hope that exists.

And then there are others who are hanging by a thread and thinking this is the only hope they have.

And you want to come alongside, pray for them, sit with them and then minister the truth to them.

You don't want to let them stay in their false hope, but communicate it in a way that they can

grab ahold of Jesus or we pray with them that the Lord would, yes, amen.

That's so Pastor Steve.

And that's key to counseling because if you help them think

through or recognize the consequences of their own false nature or false

ideas and help them come to the conclusions that you want to tell them, I think

that's the best.

And I think that in every counseling, that's part of a key part of it.

So thanks, Pastor Steve.

All right, so with that, let's move to the next section, number three, inventory.

So some of you have, I've realized I've read three versions of this copy, so I cannot

no longer tell you which page these things are.

But there is a, those eight bullet points, I broke them into, I didn't break it, someone else did, into

four sections.

I'll actually show you the page so you know what I'm referring to.

So it's this table.

So the first section was, it was love, know, speak and do.

Love involved involvement and inspiration.

So you cared enough for this person to counsel.

And then now we are going to the second section, which is to know, and that involves inventory and interpretation.

So knowing basically is, before you can counsel, you want to understand what the problem is.

So there's a part of inventory where you want to gather information from the counselee, whether it is yourself, because

sometimes I think I know myself, but I haven't really thought through what the data is.

And then the second thing is to interpret, to put that

information in a biblical way, because I think things and I normally put a lot of stuff out there,

but then I have to kind of clean it up and then say, okay, here are the real things, the way the Bible sees them.

And so that's the second part of understanding the issue, whether it is sin or suffering,

before we can actually provide the counsel, which is the next step.

So let me read the definition on top for inventory.

And as you know, promote biblical changes, the constant theme in each of these eight steps.

Promote biblical change by gathering enough of the right kinds of information

to accurately understand the counselee and the problems.

And so even in that case, it's like, okay, what about this person do we need to understand

and the circumstance or the trial they are facing?

So with that, I'm just gonna make a brief comment on A and B, and then we'll go to C.

So A and B are attached a couple of pages down in your printouts.

When we look at that inventory document, it kind of walks through many things and I'll walk you through it in terms of

what to look for.

And then B is an organizer form, which takes all the data from there and then organizes it in a way as a

counselor you wanna think of.

What are the ways biblically I see the same data now?

And so we'll cover them when we get there.

But I think we had a couple of situations of unbelievers that we were talking about.

And so it's good for us to look at why, how you counsel a believer,

or how do you counsel someone who calls himself or herself a believer?

And I think these texts will kind of help you recognize who you are talking to when you're trying to give them

counsel.

So let's look at the scriptures here.

Matthew 7, who'd like to read that?

Thank you.

And then Philippians 3, 7, Simon.

First John, actually let's do all of them in First John.

Who would like to do First John?

Okay, Mark.

Okay, so let's do begin with Matthew 7, 20 to 23.

A person claiming to have done a lot of different things.

And the one reason that Jesus doesn't call them a believer is he calls them workers of lawlessness.

And God sees through their heart despite all the actions that they had.

We'll talk about this after we looked at the other verses.

Philippians 3, 7.

And just the section before this, Paul recounts all of his qualifications,

credentials as a Pharisee.

You know, how he was kind of spick and span when you think of righteousness

according to the law.

And as a believer, here's how he saw it because he has seen the righteousness of Christ.

So how does a believer look at holiness as opposed to an unbeliever?

And then the last one is First John.

So I know you have a lot of verses, but if you can.

So the last verse there is talking about the purpose of First John.

He's writing to assure believers that they may know that they have eternal life.

How do you know that you have eternal life?

I should have said this before Mark read, but those of you familiar with First John would have caught it.

There were three tests that were listed in all of those verses.

The first one was the test of obedience.

You know, you'd walk as Jesus walked.

Second was the test of love.

You know, if you really know God, you would love him.

And the third test was the test of faith that you trust in Jesus as the Messiah.

And so those three things are written over and over again in many ways in the book of First John in order to give assurance to believers

and also take away false assurance from unbelievers.

So why are these verses important?

So if you're gonna counsel someone, including yourself, you wanna make sure that this

person is a believer.

And if they're not, you know, if their lifestyle shows that they care more

about the things of the world than the things of the Lord, whether their belief about what holiness is

from Philippians is very different than what the Bible says, if their

profession doesn't meet their practice in terms of what they believe is true, those would be good

indications to think of, okay, does this person need the gospel in terms of just

knowing God for the first time, or do they need the gospel in terms of the hope that they already have

that they now need to live out?

Now, obviously, the danger that we wanna fall out, watch out for is, I don't know how many of you have

done this, I was saved when I was in my teens, and every single time I sinned,

I felt like, you know, I had never believed in the first place.

So sometimes you, some people can have very sensitive spirits about their convictions about their

sin, and you need to remember to teach them about what sanctification looks like.

It's not perfection.

There are gonna be trials that you face, and you need to always look back to what

God has done for you and walk forward with the hope that he provides.

But at the same time, if you recognize that this person, including yourself, is not a believer, you wanna start right where they

need the truth the most, which is, you know, come and meet this God whom you profess

and know Him before you can seek the help from Him through your trial.

Yeah, that's a great question.

I've had some situations where I, like, okay, all that I see

is making me really question this person's believer, but I don't have a lens into

their heart to know whether they truly are or not.

So end of the day, I can only take what they profess as the means of understanding it.

So may I ask some questions to try to see how they think through those trials, especially Philippians 3, that

section about how do they see God and themselves?

And then with a little counsel, if they are tending toward trusting in the Lord and His word

and doing those things that as a counselor I'm providing for them, I would have to kind of say, okay,

it seems like this person is a weak, immature believer who is

processing this, and I'd still be praying for them and watching to see if there's anything else that comes as I'm

continuing the conversation.

But on the other hand, if they push back on truths about God, then I'd be like, okay, let's chat

some more before we proceed further, because if you do not know who you believe in or who you are

as a sinner who ought to be living by grace, we need to make sure those foundations are

good.

Even if you are a weak believer, you need to know who your God is before we can talk more.

Or if, as through the conversation, it becomes clear that they really never knew God, we'll need to

start there.

I mean, and that's really why the first involvement, the hope, the inspiration begins with the gospel.

It's like we should always have the gospel.

It is from the gospel that we have our hope.

And I think for a believer, it will start to resonate.

Like, I mean, I can testify.

There have been times when the darkness has been so dark that I needed someone to just come and whisper the

gospel to me, because I'm not able to say that strongly to myself.

And just someone coming alongside and telling the truth that I have preached for so many years.

It's like, yeah, I need this at this time.

Some brother coming alongside and helping me in my time of need.

And for a believer, as you're counseling, sometimes they get so stuck in this circumstance, but

to take their eyes off and look at the gospel and the beauties and the riches thereof, then give them that hope to

say, oh yeah, this is big, but this is, our God is bigger.

That's great.

The gospel ministers primarily to believers.

As a counselor, we know a lot of scripture, but those scriptures

come together as we minister to situations like this.

As Pastor Steve was just saying, I was like, okay, when a believer faces something like this, he may be thinking

Romans 6, 7, 8, in terms of where I stand.

Whereas as an unbeliever, like you said, would more often be looking at what else did people

do?

We'll come to that where a person genuinely does impact you and you are maybe caught up in their

sin as opposed to yourself.

But when confronted with the scriptures, you, a believer, will get to see, I am a sinner saved by

grace and I see life, I ought to see life differently now rather than how I used to.

And those are parts of counseling for myself and for others.

All right, I think we are almost out of time.

Why don't we just look at, you know what, let's look at the next two sections

very quickly.

They are pretty straightforward.

So who'd like to read Proverbs 14, 12?

Thank you.

You can also read the next Proverbs, Gary.

And then James 4, 1, all right.

I'm also gonna give out the next two verses.

Proverbs, oh, Gary, if you can read Proverbs 14, 15 as well.

And then, you know what, let's have you read all the Proverbs.

Proverbs, you didn't know you were signing up for all of this when you raised your hand.

Well, while you're picking up those verses, maybe we'll start with Jonathan on

James 4, 1, the presenting problem of the counseling.

I mean, James is so insightful when it talks, well, insightful, this is the word of

God.

But the half -brother of Jesus has a little bit of

a few things to say about how we look at ourselves and our passions, our own.

I mean, and I can talk to this for believers.

There are so many areas in my life that over the last 20, 30, actually,

I've been a believer for a while now, but through the years where I thought I was okay until some conflict

and trouble came up, and then I realized, oh, there is this area that the word of God hasn't

shown up, shown me up yet, and then I need to now grow through that.

And so when trials come, like Pastor Steve said, for a believer, those things would look and see, okay, I need the Lord to

conform me to the image of his son.

So the presenting problem may be something outside, but the real problem may be something on the inside.

So there's a lot of rich truth there.

The fundamental thing is, I mean, at the verse that was just read, part

of my role as a counselor is to try to figure out what is actually going on.

Many a time when I'm going through a trial, I myself don't quite understand what the real root cause of the problem is.

You know, it's like when you're driving a car, you hear some noise, and then you're like, well, I just keep driving

on, and then.

So, you know, that's normally the case where most of the counseling happens.

You have something, and you have a little bit of a disruption, but sometimes, you know, you've gotten into a

terrible car crash, and you're walking out and seeing the wreck that was your car, or at other times, you are

in the wreck with the car, and you need somebody to, you know, use the jaws of life.

But the ideal case of counseling is, you know, before that tick, tick, tick, tick starts appearing on

your car, you do preventive maintenance.

So you are able to meet what comes before.

But for the counselor, part of our challenge is to recognize that there are presenting problems, and there are

underlying problems.

What are the root causes that are leading to this?

And I think the James Passage and Proverbs 20 talk about it, and then to

also be careful not to jump into what in our industry we call solution space.

I hear something, I'm like, ah, all right, here's your answer.

Swallow this pill three times a day, and you're good.

Very often, it takes a little more than that to kind of really understand what is going on, and so you want to make sure you

understand what the problem is, and like Pastor Steve said, you want to ask questions as you try to discern

where is this person, what is the real trial, or the underlying issue that needs to

be resolved?

And that's where we want to focus on, rather than what is the superficial question that is happening.

So I will just wrap up this page with the questions that are there.

What has happened or is happening in this person's life?

So some of the things we discussed, depending on what was actually going on in this person's life, the way

you would approach this person would be very different, because the root issues might be very, very different.

Here is a person living in that car, running smoothly with a little tick, tick, tick, or this

person is really stuck in a crushed car, and they need help to get out of there.

So those are things that you want to try to understand and discern as you're helping.

How is the person responding to what has happened or is happening?

So one is the circumstance, and the second is their response.

Where are they?

And actually, let me read the next few questions.

Those will help connect the dots.

What are the person's thoughts, beliefs, presuppositions about what is happening?

How are they interpreting the circumstance of their life?

What is the person's thoughts about God, others, life in general, and self in relationship to what is happening?

What do they know about the truth that the scriptures have given them?

So as you ask all these questions, you will recognize, OK, here is the circumstance.

This is the state of the believer.

This is really a mature believer.

I would urge you, if you see me in a state where I need help, that you come.

You don't say, oh, Pradeep is an elder.

He's all set.

No.

Every one of us needs help from one another.

And if you say, OK, Pradeep kind of knows theology.

It's not like I have to start at the basics, but I'm going to try to remind him of some things.

And then I'm going to tell him what scriptures are helpful for him at this point in time.

That might suffice.

But if you met Pradeep 35 years back, and then you said, OK, hey,

Pradeep, you know God is sovereign.

I didn't know that.

And I need to know that.

And so those are places where you want to begin, depending on what this person knows, how do they see the

circumstance in life.

And so you want to be able to know these things as you try to minister to them in a way that the Spirit would

enable you.

All right, so we need to stop.

Any final thoughts or comments before we wrap up?

All right, why don't we pray.

Our Father, we thank you for your word.

Without your word, we would be clueless, lost, and helpless.

We are so glad that your word, the word, became flesh.

And accomplished what we could never do on our own.

We thank you that your love sought us when we were your enemies, running away from you.

And we thank you for the living hope that you've given each of us here who trust in you.

Help us, oh Father, to have that same love for those in our midst.

Help us, oh Lord, by your Spirit to minister your word, your truth, your love to those who are in need.

And I pray, Father, that as the world sees us doing that, the love that we have for one another,

that they would see an amazing thing happening that can only be attributed to

you and that they would glorify you through.

Lord, we commit our service into your hands.

We pray that you would be honored and glorified in all that we do.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.