Biblical Counseling (part 5)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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A loving Father, we commit this time into your hands. Help us,

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O Lord, to love one another.

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Help us to trust you and your word. And help us to both live in light of the gospel and to be able to minister to those who are in need.

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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so my goal today, this week and next week is to finish the material that we have in the handout.

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The handout is mostly like a methodology. What should you be thinking of as you're counseling one another, as you're looking to counsel yourself in light of either sin that you are struggling with or suffering that the

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Lord has brought into your lives. In both of these circumstances, these are the problems that come into our lives. How do we find the help we need in the time of need?

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And so that's biblical counseling. So we've looked at this, most of you on your first sheet, you should see this thing.

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By now you'll probably memorize this. Love, know, speak, do. You begin by loving one another.

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Caring for the person who is going through suffering. Being involved in their lives and providing them hope.

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Then we talked about knowing. So you take a little inventory of what is really around this problem that they are facing.

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And then find some data that will help you process what really is at the heart of this person's situation.

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And today we'll continue with step four, which is interpretation. Which is now that you have the data, how do you process it?

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What do you do with it as a believer? And I'm going to focus this more on the inward.

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Like how do you help yourself as a believer with the word of God and the spirit of God? And that will apply just as well for people that you're ministering to.

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And then the next two sections, you know, love, know, speak, and do. Speaking is the key part of biblical counseling where you're instructing the person.

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That's the first step. Hopefully we'll touch that as well today. And then the remaining three steps, inducing or getting the person to move forward.

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Implementing what are some practical steps that you do with the counsel of the word of God. And then integration.

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How does this person move from being just a person who has been dealing with sin or under the weight of suffering to someone who is out there ministering with the power of God, with the joy of the

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Lord, and helping others who may be facing similar circumstances also. So our goal is not just to address the problem, but get past that to discover

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God and his power that we can both experience in our lives and minister to in other people's lives.

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So with that, let me pause. If anybody had anything that you through this past week, where you got to apply this for yourself or others, you want to share, feel free to do that.

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Yes. Isn't that wonderful?

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I hope all of you could hear. We we we are thankful that the

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Lord did answer our entities to have you back with us.

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I lost a cousin to covid this past week and we know the Lord is good in all he does when he restores and when he takes away.

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But as you were talking, I was just remembering the whole Paul's emphasis in Corinthians was, you know, we have received

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God's grace in the midst of our afflictions in order that we may minister God's grace to those who are going through similar so we can comfort them, help them, give them hope, the right kind of hope.

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Thanks for sharing. Any other examples or thank you.

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So we're going to continue with interpretation. And in this section, so it's

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I think page five on your handouts. Once again, we've gotten the data from the inventory and now we want to understand the biblical nature and cause of the problem in order to be able to.

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And explain that to the counselee. In this particular case, I'm going to keep it focused on the self.

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We're going to look at for ourselves, how do we interpret this? So let me begin with a section.

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A actually, let me read the whole thing. 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.

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You know, if you are not convinced about the nature of your problem, you're not going to take the right kind of action.

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The remedy that you need. So you go, you go to the doctor, you give them a lot of symptoms physically. You know what you're experiencing.

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And their job is not to just say, OK, here's what pretty bestelling me and I'm going to just deal with that.

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Their job is to connect the data that I'm giving with the common sources of problems that their medical journal gives us, gives them.

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And our responsibility is to say, OK, I'm hearing all of these things. What does the Bible say about it?

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And maybe I'll just give a little caveat. I was going to say this later, but I'll say it now. We believe that the

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Bible is all sufficient. So no matter what circumstance you are going through the

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Bible, God has given us everything that we need in order to find this help in our time of need.

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Now, there are some things we'll see in a few moments that you might actually need some physical help from a doctor.

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In my case, it was vitamin D's was like completely off the chart and it was something as simple as that.

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But I needed a doctor to tell me that. But you need to be able to connect those dots with the scriptures and what we have with the way in which we've experienced trials in our own lives.

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So you might say, you know, go to try these kinds of situations that might be helpful.

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You know, ask your doctor about X, Y and Z because, you know, certain things that you have experienced. But foundationally,

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I want us to walk out of this series with the knowledge that the word of God is sufficient. And our responsibility is to go more skilled at it in order to know how to draw the truth from God's word and apply the right truth with skill to the problems that we are facing.

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All right. With that, I'll stop. Let's begin with a replay secular language with biblical language to aid in finding the biblical answer.

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So let's get three people who can read those verses. The first one. Can I get a volunteer? Proverbs three.

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All right. We've got one in the back. Romans 12. Thank you. And then

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Colossians three. All right. Colossians three. OK, so we have three verses.

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And as they're turning there, the goal here is to understand that we are going to get certain types of data and we need to now translate it or map it to biblical language.

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So we'll begin with Proverbs three verses five through seven. Thank you. I'm going to pause with this verse and maybe a few of the verses.

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When we face a problem, I cannot help but look at it through my own eyes.

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I don't have God's eyes looking at it for me as I was making printouts. There was a lady who just called. I thought she was from BBC, but she wasn't.

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She was looking for some help, the financial kind. And so as I'm talking to her, her her concern was getting this physical need for this physical problem that she was facing.

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And as we started talking, it became clear that she had a different situation that she needed actual help with.

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So, you know, you want to be kind and compassionate, don't want to dismiss even as you're hearing the words that are coming.

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But Proverbs three is all about trusting in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

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So when I'm facing a trouble, my sense is always to gravitate toward those things that I say, oh, you know, this is what is consuming me.

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And I need to be able to turn my eyes to the Lord and look to him for help. He's the one who can take the categories of troubles that I'm facing and then help me see it the way he sees it.

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So that's where it begins when we interpret the data that we've got through the lens of scripture.

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So the next one is Romans 12 to thank you. And I think this is something that is humbling for every believer, especially if you've been a believer for a long time and you're going through a trouble often like to think, oh, you know,

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I've got this covered. I know the Bible back to back read zillion times, but we live in the world and our minds have been patterned to think in the ways in which we interact with other people.

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There's a lot of data that we get from the world that consciously or unconsciously helps makes me think along the patterns of the world.

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And so Romans 12, 1 and 2 are very crucial for us to remember that I have to consciously put aside the things the way the world thinks and think in the patterns that God has given for us.

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In fact, there's a word there that talks about testing. You know, that is by testing is how you examine the circumstance yourself, your heart in light of how do you see the truth that this situation brings.

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So, you know, all right, let's we'll come back to this more. Colossians three.

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Thank you. So it's talking about put to death things in your flesh.

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And in the next section, we're going to talk about putting off and putting on. There are things that you need to consciously put off and put on as you're looking to be conformed into the image of Christ rather than being conformed into the world.

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Now, I'll say this here. So when we talked about sin, it's a little more explicit. I know that I'm struggling with a fleshly desire or impulse that has maybe taking a hold over my life and I need to work through it in suffering more often than not.

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It may be not caused by my sin, but my responses to that suffering can tend to be sinful.

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And so even though my flesh may not have brought this trial, you know, this calamity into my circumstance, you can think of Job.

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As you are in the midst of the calamity, the flesh is going to rear its ugly head.

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I think only Christ is the only one who always responded to overwhelming suffering with purity and and righteousness.

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Each of us will be tempted and many of us will fall when we try to think

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God's thoughts in those moments of great suffering. And so Colossians 3 is a good reminder, even as we are.

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I'm going to focus on ourselves as you're counseling and working through this suffering. How do I think just God, God, your hearts and look through this.

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So let me read the next few items that are on your page. And just remember, secular language with biblical language.

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So the terms that are used here, dysfunctional family, low self -esteem, lack self -confidence, unmet needs, workaholic, perfectionist, addicted to gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, put all of this for yourself.

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You know, it's easy to talk about other people. And actually, you know, normally in church, when

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I look around, everybody seems so perfect. Like I'm the only one who is like struggling all week with these types of things.

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And the truth is, all of us in varying degrees, shapes or form have different struggles. Not the same for everyone.

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But these terms that are used here. Let's just maybe take a few moments. What about these terms do you think in light of the scriptures that we just heard?

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What about these terms? Do you think if you've gotten this from yourself?

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Let's say I'm telling to Pradeep, you're a workaholic. What might be the biblical language to look at it?

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I don't think you'll find workaholic in the Bible, but what might be some other things to think of?

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Like now that I'm looking through the lens of the scriptures, what might I replace workaholic with?

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Not just that. Any of those terms there? Go ahead. We'll come next.

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Excellent. So, you know, somebody else had a comment. OK. A mark of a good biblical church.

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You know, you and you can see right away. So if I'm worshiping my church, I get my satisfaction from my church.

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Not church. What did I say? Work. Church, work. All right. So if the work is what ultimately satisfies me, that I'm going to pour myself out into my work to the neglect of my family, to my neglect of my ministry and everything else, that tells me that God is not the center of my life.

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Work is. And that's what idolatry is the definition of. So 1 John 5, 21, little children flee from idols and workaholic could be one of them.

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It's not doesn't necessarily have to be that, but that's definitely one of those categories that you could map with anything else.

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OK. So now it's not just the satisfaction of the work, but it is your love of money that is drawing you to doing the kind of things that will.

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So your idol is not just the work itself. Your idol is money or it could be insecurity because I think money is what is going to keep me safe.

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And so I'm going to try to earn as much money. So when I fall back, money will catch me. And as you know, money burns.

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It's it's only the Lord who can. And that's kind of how you now start to look into the mapping of where things go.

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Just just a caution, though. So if someone is struggling with something, we don't just say, oh, you are an idol.

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And even for yourself, you know, sometimes it's if I just say that to myself, it'd be like, oh, too bad. And what do

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I do? You know, we want to be able to recognize where the problem is coming from and then work through the route to where the situation is.

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And then say, here's what the here's how the Bible looks at the same situation. And here is the root of the problem that we know we're going to try to fix.

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We're not going to try to fix workaholism. What is that? Instead, we're going to fix idolatry.

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We're going to we're going to look to the Lord for help as we grow. Trusting him rather than money or whatever else that might be.

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So that's that's how we will map. Any other thoughts on any of those items there?

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Excellent. Yeah. So who am I? And the answer is I'm. Manager of X or I am, you know, technical consultant for Y.

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And that's who I am. And and I think Pastor Mike always likes to say this. It's like when people come here,

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I'm not asking you about your job because that's normally how people talk to each other. What do you do? How are you?

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Do you know the Lord? You know, those. And the thing is, for a believer, it's your identity in Christ.

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The next section is going to emphasize that more because we're going to talk about the person before we talk about the situation that they're facing.

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And so and actually, that's a very interesting thing, because my previous company, I worked for about nearly 20 years.

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And I was always conscious of the Lord and his ministry. And, you know, the emphasis of work versus ministry, the way my life should be balanced with family and everything else.

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But when I lost the job, I felt like there was a part of my life that was just gone.

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I'm like, wait, I didn't realize that work had filled so much of me. And it was good for that job to go away because I kind of needed to remember that, you know, the

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Lord has given that. He takes it away, but he's my stay. I am a child of God. And that's where I should rest.

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And sometimes you don't even realize you have a problem until the Lord kind of wakes you up to who this is what you need.

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And he's good that way. Any other thoughts on the first section? Yes. And then and all of these things have we talked about the presenting problem in the last section.

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So something's going to come to you. But underlying them, you could have other real root causes.

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And insecurity could be one of them here. Excellent. And, you know, I've so far gone, proved myself in the world and received accolades for what

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I've done. And after a point, you can stop remembering that it is to the Lord that I'm doing all of these things, as opposed to the right kind of responses that I get.

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And that can be not just at work. It could be even in church. We want to be doing things for the

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Lord. Excellent. All right. So we could talk more about any of those. My goal is this week and next week, we'll finish the methodology and then in any remaining weeks, we'll actually pick some specific examples and dive a little deeper.

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But let's keep this conversation going so we can apply to different examples as we do the method.

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So the next section is the biblical categories or the spiritual condition to describe the person. You kind of want to know this before you go to C, because C is really where you're starting to interpret well.

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But you need to know the person for whom you're interpreting. So we have a few categories here. Let's just read them all very quickly.

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It should be pretty self -evident. So we need five or six people to read.

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So John three. Can I have a volunteer? Just raise your hand and you can find it later.

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OK. A mature. This is I need to Hebrews five. Did I see a hand?

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Thank you. And then Ephesians four. OK. And then first Thessalonians 514.

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OK. And then Matthew 22. OK. All right.

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Not Simon. OK. Simon, you can take the next one. Proverbs. Actually, we have several proverbs.

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Why don't we just read all of them for Simon? OK, we'll begin with believer and unbeliever. And we talked about this already.

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If you're talking to a believer, there is a certain way in which you can help them. If you're talking to an unbeliever, you talk to them in a different way. The call

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I got this morning, I thought was a believer. And then as I'm talking to, I kind of quickly realized this is not. And so we need to talk about something else.

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We I'm not just disregarding the problem. Patty, I need to tell you what she's going to call you back.

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So I do all the fire and brimstone. Oh, OK. So, you know, so, you know, and then we talk about the real root problem.

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So if you don't know which category, you can't help. And this is important for self -examination, too.

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Sometimes you get questions like, OK, given the type of responses I'm having in this situation, do

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I need to examine my own faith? So let's let's begin with John three. And just a note here.

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So the thing we want to remember is as an unbeliever, there is one thing that's supremely important for me to deal with.

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Even for a believer, it is Christ. But I know that. But as an unbeliever, I don't. And so when

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I'm trying to help them through whatever problem that they are facing, we want to make sure that they recognize this, because there is no promise of God's help for anyone who rejects him.

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God is gracious to help people who are unbelievers. The sun rises on the just and the unjust.

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But and I can give them some common wisdom and advice. But I want to be be clear that there is a grave danger that they are in.

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And that's. And that is the that is the key to life, as you read in John three.

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All right. So the next one is mature or immature. So let's read the two verses, Hebrews five. And the maturity is kind of important.

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So people who are mature can still go through sin and suffering.

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And you want to be able to understand where this person is as you're ministering. You know, how much content do they actually not know?

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How much content have they not lived through? And you need to kind of help them through the basics or how much do they already know?

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And they just need a reminder or an exhortation. What is it that this person needs? So recognizing where they are.

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And I think the passage that you just heard, the Lord is equipped. The church BBC here with different gifts in order that everyone may be mature.

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So the goal of the sin and suffering that comes is to help us look to the Lord for help and find the strength in the spirit.

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And in the word, in order that we may grow in maturity. And that's the purpose of all of these trials. And so we are to help people recognizing where they are in their walk.

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First Thessalonians 5. Did you notice those five, four verbs?

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Admonish. How many of you like to admonish somebody else? Encourage.

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Urge. So it's kind of in degrees, you know, going from one extreme to the other, how you want to help people.

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And recognizing where they are helps you minister the word in a way that's helpful. And for myself, there are times when

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I'm just stubborn in my own thinking. And I need to say, OK, this is the

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Lord's rebuke in the way in which I'm looking at these things. And I need to firmly put aside whatever it is that I'm thinking or doing and jump ship.

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And there are other times that I have to kind of work through these things because these are hard matters of the heart.

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Like this week, I was balancing a couple of values and I couldn't quite figure out how they fit with each other.

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And, you know, you bump against the wall a few times, spend more time on your knees. And ultimately, you know, the spirit of God will guide you through,

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OK, here is how I need to come along. And this is I was looking at it from a self -examination.

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But as you're ministering to others, recognize where they are. Matthew 22. And again, here is where is this person's heart?

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And this is kind of central to every counseling that we have. You know, is my heart Godward in terms of love or is it inward in terms of what

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I want? And almost every situation, it's like I've turned in some way toward myself.

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And I need to be able to turn it toward God and other people. Proverbs. Simon, you have a lot of verses.

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This wisdom and foolish categories are crucial in thinking of biblical counseling. You know,

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I don't know. Someone once said, you know, sin is like temporary insanity.

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You're almost mad when you commit a sin, especially as a believer, when you recognize the beauty of God, the holiness of God, the glories of God.

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And in spite of all that, I just say, set that aside. I'm going to go step on vomit. And thinking of the categories of foolishness and wisdom, the proverbs has plenty of those.

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Reminds us that fearing the Lord is what gives us that wisdom we need.

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And that's what helps us come out of the category. And sometimes recognizing that I am foolish is crucial to know that I need to seek wisdom.

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And I need the help that comes from above. So we saw a few categories here. Hopefully that helps you think through.

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OK, here I'm not looking at an alcoholic. I'm looking at one of these. I'm not looking at whatever else the category might be that the world wants to put a label on me.

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But this is the labels that the Bible gives me. And once I recognize these labels, or a label has got a pejorative sense, how the

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Bible calls me out in my time of need, then I can say, OK, here is how

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I need to get counsel, get wisdom, get help for myself and for others. Any thoughts on this section?

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All right, so let's move to the next section. And so here comes the probable cause. So what does the

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Bible say about this? So these are, let's read those, those three sections. Jeremiah 17, can

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I get someone to read it? Thank you, Janet. Mark 7, it's

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OK if you've read before, Steve. And then James 4 .1, thank you. So we'll begin with Jeremiah 17.

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It's a longish. Most of us know the last verse well. And from the heart comes all things.

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We're going to see that too. But the previous section must remind you of Psalm 1. You know, here is what causes flourishing.

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You know, it is being in the Lord and not being in the Lord is a wasteland. And the probable cause, let me just say a word and then we'll go further.

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So no matter what circumstance we have, let's say a dysfunctional family or some other circumstances that are external or, you know, that contributed to where I am today.

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In biblical counseling, we want to get to the heart. It's not about all the other circumstances.

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And the example you gave was perfect. Just helping this person see how to trust in the

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Lord, how to look at your own heart in terms of overcoming fear. And it's not about,

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OK, why did I get COVID or, you know, what is going to happen to me next? Mark 7.

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And we could say, OK, I passed the first one, second one, third one, fourth one, fifth one, sixth one. Yeah, I got around foolishness.

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And the thing is, the heart is your idle factory. Whatever it is that is coming and our responsibility is to recognize where is my heart entangled?

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Where is my heart stuck? And how do I look to the Lord for help as I look up to him?

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James 4 .1. We live in a society that's very litigatious. It's my rights, my freedoms and what

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I want to do. And James, when he's talking to the people, reminds them that it's in our hearts that we begin these conflicts.

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And it's normally self versus seeking the love of the Lord and the neighbor. And so with the first A, B and C, what you've seen is,

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OK, you're going to get some data. You're going to come to some categories. You're going to now look at it through the lens of the scripture and say, what does the

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Bible say about it? Where is this person in terms of his walk with the Lord or not knowing the

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Lord? And then looking to the heart, what is it that is the underlying area where you can help this person or ultimately yourself?

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Where is my heart? Where does it need to be? And so once you have this framework in which you're looking through the problem, now you're no longer saying, oh, what is that?

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Low self -esteem. I have no idea what to help you with low self -esteem. I can tell you because I can tell you what the

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Bible says about it. And so if I'm feeling low self -esteem, I need to now look through the lens of the scripture and look at who

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I am as a child of God. Recognize why I'm thinking this way. And then bridge the gap between where I am to where I need to be.

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It's not like, oh, I got a pill. I'm a child of God. I put it in and then everything disappeared right away.

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Maybe for some it does. It's just an admonish. Wake up. I need to get a kick in my backside. I'm a child of God.

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You know, I just remember how God saved me. And then my darkness is dispelled. But for more often than not,

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I'm here stuck in a place because I've been thinking a pattern that does not help me. And I now need to work through the process of trusting in the

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Lord, looking at the scriptures and working through this. And it's the same when you're doing this for somebody else. You know, just be compassionate with them.

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Sometimes they need time and other times they need to just don't kick them physically. So D and E.

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So at this point, hopefully you are able to recognize, you know, where the heart of the matter is and then how you see this in order to be able to help.

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So and you can always continue to get more data as you need. So for this overall section of interpretation, any questions or thoughts?

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All right. So let's go through the next couple of pages. Those are the attachments to the to these handouts.

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So this is something that professional biblical counselors do. And I say professional, they are like certified.

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But this some of these things you probably don't need. But I'm going to point out a few things here, especially on page two of the attachment on health.

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I can tell you almost every person that I've counseled, I've always asked this first. If they're not thinking clearly, they're not they're struggling with sleep, whatever it is that it might be.

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You know, someday it might be fear. It might be something else. When was your last physical? You know, that's my first question because I've had to apply that to myself.

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I hate physicals. My sorry to doctors here. My confidence in the medical profession is not very high, but they helped me a lot.

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So put those two together. So but but in the health section, you can see there are some questions there that are helpful to recognize.

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OK, you know, it'll give you more data, but also point them in the right place if they need help. That's something that we are not equipped to.

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And then if you go to page four of the handout, there's a problem checklist. This is something that they if you go to a biblical counselor, like I mean,

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I think if you meet with Pastor Steve, he might ask you to do this. But even as you're talking, you can think through myself, you know, where where are these things that I'm struggling with?

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And this is what helped me last year when I was really stuck. I just had a biblical counseling book.

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I just went through the table of contents and it's like, whoops, whoops, whoops. Or maybe and then, yeah, you know, as you read more and there are these are helpful, you know, especially as we are thinking in terms of what are the biblical areas that we need help with?

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And then the last four questions in that page, I think this is really helpful just to write it out for ourselves when we are going through times of trial, because I'm a thinker.

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I like to drive and think as I'm processing things. But sometimes just after I've done all the thinking to just distill it down and write it, something like this helps a lot in terms of applying

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God's word very specifically, because when it comes to others, sometimes, you know, I spend a lot of time trying to help.

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But when it comes to me, I'm like, you know, I can kind of skim through this thing. And sometimes our troubles need more than just a quick Nehemiah prayer.

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And so, you know, going through these questions help. So let me actually let me look at the next page, too.

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So that's the interpretation attachment. So once you've done this first section of analysis, getting the data now.

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Remember, our second bullet in this eight steps had to do with inspiration or hope.

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So when a person is struggling, when you are struggling, you're looking for something somewhere. And that's not in the right place, because if it is, then you will get the help you need from the

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Lord. So misplaced hope is a category in which you look at some of these things. So when we talked about workaholism, where was this person's hope?

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And so you can kind of write that down. This is your interpretation of the problem that you saw.

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And now there is misplaced hope is one category, but sins are another category. Remember, we have both sin and suffering, and it could be a sin that you are stuck in or a sin in which you are responding to the suffering.

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And so listing those down are crucial, because you want to help yourself recognize that sin, repent of that sin, confess that sin, and then look for help to grow out of that sin.

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And then comes the counseling plan. So this counseling plan, we're going to see in steps five, six, and seven, in terms of how do you work through this, now that you know where the root of the problem is.

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In some cases, like I said, it's just that you tell them and it's done. Tell yourself and it's done. In other cases, you have to work through this.

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Okay, does this person need to read the scriptures, these scriptures, examine these things, put a pattern in their life.

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Okay, if it's pornography, here are the things that you want to put in place. So there's going to be a few things that need to come, but at a high level, you want to kind of lay out what do

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I need to do. If I am perpetually anxious, here are some steps that I need to work through.

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And like I said, we'll cover that in steps five and six. And then there's resources, reading and audio, biblical passages or books that you want to give them to read, accountability, what are things that they need to put in place.

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When you meet someone who is having specific issues, what are ways in which you can put them accountable and then connect them with the church.

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So I've asked people to do discipleship. I've asked people to join home group because a lone sheep is the one that's easy to get taken away.

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All right, so I'll pause here. There's a lot of content there. Any comments or questions or thoughts on that section, those attachments?

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All right, so we have a few minutes. I want to start the instruction because this is really the heart of everything that we've been hoping to hit.

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And I'll give you a little bit of data that will help you connect everything we've seen so far.

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And then next week, hopefully, we'll tie it up. So instruction, this is the second handout that's all stapled together.

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You should have page one at the bottom. So the definition is to promote biblical change through accurate, concrete, practical, and appropriate teaching and counsel from the scripture, providing

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God's perspective on what to do to solve the problems. You know, this is a skill.

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So you may not do this always perfectly for yourself, even being accurate. You know, sometimes

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I look at workaholism, and I think it's idolatry of the work when it is actually something more deeper in terms of greed.

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You know, where I'm getting satisfaction to where I'm getting my confidence. Concrete, you know, you want to be very specific about how you're going to address.

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Your instructions can't be just vague and general. If there is a specific problem, it needs a specific answer.

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It needs to be practical. I can give a lot of theory and theology over the issue that is going to be discussed, but if the rubber doesn't meet the road, it does no good.

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I mean, I can be a Ph .D. in something and then be swaddling like a baby in a foot of water.

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You know, how do I take the theology and make it real in my walk with the Lord? And it has to be appropriate.

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You know, I can give tons of data to somebody or just take the right data. I mean, almost everyone that I met, including myself, when

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I'm struggling in my heart, I don't need a book. I need like one verse to begin with.

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And once I have wrapped my heart and my arms around it, then I need a little bit more.

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And then I need to grow as I get stronger. And that's basically how you want to find the right kind of teaching and counsel.

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And it has to be from Scripture. We'll see in a moment. All right, so let's just see if we can cover a couple here.

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The first one is the prerequisites for giving instruction. We've seen this before, so I don't need to talk about it, but I think it's good to reread those verses.

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Can someone read Romans 15, 14? Thank you, Becky. Second Timothy 2, 15.

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Thank you. And then Second Peter 3, 17 and 18. Thanks. All right, let's begin with Romans 15, 14.

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And I think everybody in the body should be equipped to this. And some are more skilled than others.

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And we want to be conscious of this as we are ministering. Second Timothy 2, 15. Thank you. So this is

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Paul writing to Timothy as a pastor as he's ministering to the church at Ephesus. And so when he's preaching the word, he has a weighty responsibility of handling the word accurately.

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And when you do the same thing with the word, you ought to be careful with yourself as well as with others.

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I can easily take the word and make it legalism, or I can take the word of God and provide the grace that God gives.

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So we want to be very careful how I handle the word. And so it is a weighty responsibility, but one that the spirit of God equips us to do as we are conscious of relying on him in understanding the word.

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Second Peter 3. Second Peter, Pastor Mike just went through this, dealing with false teachers and doctrines.

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And one of the things you need to be watching out for is your own stability, staying grounded in the word.

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But when you do that, just like we did with Romans 12, 2, as you test these things, you grow in the grace and knowledge of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. There's an attachment there. I'm not going to go through them for the sake of time. It's right pretty close to the end.

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It's also broken up into categories, attachment three, and it has a verse for every different type of issue you might face.

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So I'd encourage you to read through those things. And then when we pick a topic to dive deeper, we'll we'll examine them more closely.

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So any any thoughts on the prerequisites? All right. So let's look at the next section, the authority based on the word of God.

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If you go to any of the elders here, especially Pastor Mike, Pastor Steve, they will tell you, you know,

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I'm telling you this because God tells you this from the word. So this is a command. This is an imperative.

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This is God himself speaking when they give you God's word. And then Pastor Mike will say, well, and now

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I'm going to give you this as from me. It's not in the word. It's just some practical, wise advice.

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Here are some ways in which you can implement what the word says. You could choose to do it this way or in a different way.

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But this is my council. And when you're looking to yourself, you have to be careful that you recognize what comes from God's word.

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It has the weight of God's stamp upon it. And there is a promise of God's help through the word.

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There is much authority vested in the word as you read it and as the spirit of God convicts you through it.

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And then there are other counsel that you might have. And you have to watch for these because some of them may be common sense, simple, easy, obvious.

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Others might be tinged with things in the world where, you know, I have gone through this before.

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And so I think this might help, but that may not be the necessary part this time, given the different circumstances.

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So let me, I think, stop here. I'm not going to read the verses that will take us time. But I'd like you to, if possible, read through these next time before you before next week.

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Because really, how do we look? How do we trust in the word of God? How do we point to Christ in the midst of our problem?

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And then the next page, as you can see, is the more practical ways of doing it. So if we have the word and Christ as central, and then we can figure out how to apply that in one another's lives.

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So let me stop here. Any thoughts, comments, questions? All right.

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So let's pray. Our loving Father, we thank you for your son.

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We thank you that he showed us what perfection looks like and that he purchased perfection for us.

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Help us, oh Father, in the midst of our imperfections, in the midst of our sin, in the midst of our calamities, to recognize that you are sovereign, that you rule with equity, with justice, with goodness, and with power.

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And you are king on your throne. I ask you to help each of us here and those in this body and in your church elsewhere.

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That we may be a people that rely upon you, that run to you, you who are the tower of refuge and strength, in the midst of our brokenness and our afflictions, knowing that every good thing, including our afflictions, come from you, in order to conform us, to sanctify us, and to glorify you.

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We commit the service into your hand. We pray that you would be glorified in all our thoughts, words, and deeds.