All right, so hopefully you have received the notes. I emailed them a couple weeks ago, since last week we had to cancel because of weather. I just sent them out on the church WhatsApp as well. And if you need them, maybe someone can WhatsApp them to you, or I can send them to you after today. So we're going to be, for the next few sessions, going over basically a summary of a book that I have read or am in the midst of reading. A Practical Guide for Effective Biblical Counseling. And it is an introduction to sort of a method that he has that he calls, he utilizes eight I's, eight I words, probably for memorization, but they do seem to fit the general theme. And so we consider who can benefit from such a series on Sunday school. Well, I would say that anyone involved in counseling people. So this would include using the scriptures to help ourselves and others with various problems and situations. A number of us can understand that we've had experience with this. Anyone who strives to disciple others for Christ, okay? So biblical counseling is directly linked with discipleship. So if you're thinking, well, I don't necessarily think I'm a biblical counselor. Well, you are called and commanded to disciple others. So this will work well for you as well. Every person who wants to promote effective communication and faith-building conversations with children. This will also be a benefit. This will hopefully challenge us spiritually during our time together, but the investment, I will say, is hopefully going to be worth it. It is worth it, but it will hopefully be worth it for you as well. Any Christian committed to serving others with the word of God. Another command, another idea of the Christian faith. This will hopefully help us, give us a procedure to deal with counseling or life situations. Also, anyone who wants to live a life pleasing to the Lord, I just want to make sure everyone's included in this, utilizing the principles set forth in scripture. So hopefully you can see many benefits. This book that we will be reviewing and going through is meant to be a guide for biblical counselors on how do we effectively help counselees overcome their struggles, practical and spiritual, and become true faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. So the approach here to biblical counseling can be broken up into eight essential steps, each rooted in biblical disciple-making principles. and clearly described each step will show us how and where it is taught in scripture and why it is vital to strengthening discipleship. So just to review, the goal of biblical counseling is to help people. It is to help people become a consistently positive influence in the church, giving rather than merely receiving. If you really like hard definitions, biblical counseling simply stated is helping people solve their problems. It is about discovering the cause and applying biblical principles to help them overcome their problems and giving them the necessary tools for them and us to move forward in spiritual maturity. Does that make sense to everyone? Wonderful. We must consider first, ultimately, that all counsellors are theologians. That's a definition that Wayne Mack gives. He says some are sound theologians and some are not. If your foundational presuppositions are based on anything other than the holy word of God, then you will fall into the latter group. And so important to note, I've included in the notes some of the understandings, some of the basic understandings that we must have when considering a biblical understanding. And we must have a doctrine of God. We must have a theology. So there are certain doctrinal truths that are really important for us all to have and to be developing and to be learning more about ourselves. The first off is that God is triune. There's scripture there to support these. God is one God. God is creator. God is holy. You know these, but just by way of reminder, God is loving, gracious, and merciful. God is unchangeable, or he is immutable. God is all-knowing and all-wise. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. Praise God for that. God is truthful. He cannot lie. God is faithful. This is a big one when you're making disciples, when you're telling people, we must be telling them God is faithful. God is trustworthy. All right, God is trustworthy. And so I'm hoping that this will be practical because biblical counseling as described is inherently practical. If it's not practical, what possible good is it? So the goal of biblical counseling is to help people. After all, it does this by putting the principles of scripture into practice in their lives. So biblical change is a word that we will hear many times. Biblical change is possible in every area of life. So I want you to take hope and take heart in that, every area of life, in thoughts, in desires, in words, and actions. Biblical change is possible in every area of life. Important to note as well, the author says that it is impossible to counsel someone biblically if they do not believe in Christ. It is impossible to counsel someone biblically if they do not believe in Christ. That doesn't mean we throw everything out. 1 Corinthians 2.14 tells us the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. All right, so these things are spiritually discerned. So we must find out right away the standing of the person who comes for help. Are they a believer? Are they prepared to come under the authority of Christ, which means the authority of the scriptures? So if they are a believer, we can take another step. If they are not a believer, that doesn't mean we can't do anything. Evangelism then becomes a priority. Does that make sense? We all, most of us understand this from being a child ourselves or having children. Evangelism becomes a priority. Without the Holy Scripture, biblical change is impossible. Without the Holy Spirit opening up the eyes to see through the Scripture, it's impossible. It could lead to some change, but that's more behavior modification. doesn't tend to be long-lasting. It's certainly not everlasting, all right? Biblical change is not behavior modification. It is an actual change brought on by the Holy Spirit. So, as I mentioned, we're gonna be looking at the eight I's, eight I words. You'll probably have them memorized by the time we're finished up here. Hopefully, we'll get to some of one today. But the author argues the eight I's model of counseling can be used in two ways. So I want us to consider this. They're used as a guideline and they're used as a checklist. So used as a guideline, that helps us to have some direction to help in the process of change. used as a checklist, that helps us to evaluate the success of our attempts to help people change. So guideline, it helps us have direction. Checklist helps us evaluate. So as I said here in the notes, this is a quote. Many passages tell us what we are to do in counseling others, like Matthew 28, 19 to 20, or Colossians 1, 28. or Colossians 3.16, or 1 Thessalonians 5.11, Galatians 6.1, those are to name a few. Some even give general directions on how to do it, by teaching and preaching and counseling, we know this. However, they don't really give specific directions in helping people change. So as a result, many people want to help, but they don't know how. Have you ever had that thought or feeling? Okay, I'll lead the way. Definitely want to help, but didn't necessarily know how or where to start, right? You might feel inadequate for these things. So the desire is there, but the know-how is not necessarily developed because of this. Counselors, Christians need guidelines if they are to increase in effectiveness, okay? And so that's what this book shows. It's a model of one way to do the important work in the lives of ourselves and the lives of others. So a checklist. The checklist evaluates the success of our attempts to help people overcome their struggles with biblical change. So without a checklist, we can sometimes wonder if we're doing the right thing. What criteria do we use to determine the worth of our efforts in discipling? Sometimes we can get ourselves into two ditches, which we'll talk about, two dangers. We often determine success only if it's immediate or visible, right? I know that I'm often thinking that way, but it can be misleading. Mack points out the best way to measure effectiveness is to ask this question. Have I, in my counseling or my counsel or my advice, have I been true to the word of God? Have I been true to the word of God? That's how we measure success. That's why we have the checklist. So those dangers I talked about, there are two real dangers, really, when helping people. One is that we take our responsibility, I want you to not be afraid of that word. Do not be afraid of the word responsibility as a Christian. We take it too lightly. We can be unprepared. The other danger is being excessively concerned with our own responsibility and beginning to perceive that the result of our counseling depends on us. How many others have been in that spot? I definitely have. I have to remind myself of this often. And so that's why the guideline and the checklist are helping us. So we feel the weight of guilt oftentimes, but we must not feel that. We must not think in this way, well, we didn't say enough. We didn't do enough, obviously, because it looks like there's been no visible immediate change. Must be our fault. So we end up discouraged and oftentimes afraid to try again. I'm hoping we can put an end to some of that in the next few weeks. If we are faithful, we don't have to be discouraged. because we have attempted to do what is pleasing and honoring to the Lord. So one of the best prayers that you can pray, if you haven't starting today, is that we would be a faithful people. And that's personalized for yourself, pray it for others, but pray that, Lord, help me to be a faithful Christian, faithful to you. The biblical process of making disciples and accomplishing biblical change involves two primary aspects, putting off bad fruit and putting on good fruit. We've heard this before. And a lot of this stuff, you'll begin to realize, as I did, that you're probably doing a lot of this already. You just didn't really know it. If you're a mature Christian, you'll find yourselves, these eight I's, as it were, very familiar. But I think if we deploy them with some structure, we will find great effectiveness. biblical counseling so putting off bad fruit and putting on good fruit so I've included a small little picture that I took from the book in in the notes but it's for visual learners it helps there are key elements to biblical change and that comes from Ephesians 4 20 to 24 This is the word of God, but that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. And the putting on, to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. Putting off, putting on. So the eight I's, as it were, don't merely look at the fruit, as the catchphrase says here, but we look at the root, the heart root. You might notice that some of them, four of them, There's a little arrow that goes down, so putting off bad fruit. And then the other four, there's a little arrow that goes up, putting on good fruit. So primarily the four, the first four focus on putting off to promote biblical change, and the other four putting on in the aspect of biblical change. So what are the eight eyes? That's the elephant in the room. The first one is involvement. Involvement. And I'll read some definitions for these. Involvement promotes biblical change by establishing a change-facilitating relationship. Involvement. As you can probably guess, yeah, we need to be involved in the people that we're speaking to. Disciples are involved. That's a two-way street there. Involvement. Inspiration is the second I. So in promoting biblical change, we want to inspire or we want to influence the counselee to develop and sustain an attitude and feeling of hope that will promote biblical change. When we get to inspiration, it's amazing to see, it gives a list of ways that you can tell that someone has lost or has little hope. And he gives some behavior characteristics, and it's amazing the list to see. And so he's saying that we need to inspire them to have hope. That's not going above the scripture. We're using the Holy Scriptures to show them the hope in Jesus Christ. So that is inspiration, and the best use of that word. Third I, inventory, or you could say investigation. And this promotes biblical change by securing enough of the right kinds of information to understand the counselee and the problem, to understand the root, to understand the fruit, to understand the problem. We are in inventory or investigation stage. Fourth eye, interpretation. So that promotes biblical change by analyzing and organizing information that we've gathered so we can accurately identify the biblical nature and causes of the counselee's problem, then convincingly explain them, okay? Interpretation, very important when reading and studying the Bible, very important when teaching, preaching, counseling, is interpretation. Five, instruction. promotes biblical change by giving accurate, appropriate, and relevant biblical instruction that provides God's perspective on how to solve the problem or problems, right? God's perspective, using the scriptures to instruct appropriately. Sixth, inducement. Hopefully that doesn't give former pregnant ladies shivers. Inducement promotes biblical change by encouraging the counselee to repent of sinful attitudes, this is very important, of sinful words and actions, and to make a decisive commitment to obey the Lord and follow biblical directives, okay? Simply showing them what God says, telling them where or how or lovingly, showing them where they have gone astray, and then telling them they need to repent of this and follow God's law, God's commands, okay? Does that make sense? Implementation. Implementation. I think this is very important in making disciples. And I would say it probably lacks in a lot of our discipleship making. Implementation promotes biblical change by helping the counselees to plan how to make biblical directives a reality in their life. Not just telling them what God says and telling them to repent and never meeting them again. Implementation actually formulates a plan on how, some next steps. What can we do? How can we move in this direction? Would that not be helpful for all of us? I hope you see that. Integration, rather, is the last I. And integration promotes biblical change by coaching and mentoring the counselee until the necessary changes are integrated into his or her life. How important is that? Encouraging integration into the life of the church, into life of the church. This will hopefully have a multiplication effect, right? And so I would encourage you not to just learn for information, I would encourage you to now even be praying that the Lord would help you to put into practice the things that you'll hear in the following weeks. And you don't have to follow this exact method the rest of your life, but why not try it? Why not put some of these into practice? And ask yourself, have I been true to the word of God? That is one question we must ask ourselves the whole way through. So be praying that the Lord would put into your life someone that would help you I want to say challenge you to do some of the things that we talk about and I think we will rejoice at the faithfulness of our God to do so and if we are praying that we would be faithful to him and faithful to other Christians to love them as we ought to love one another As we have a great desire to do, I have a feeling we will learn much. And we will be able to then come alongside others and teach them. Or maybe they will ask us, remind me of how you helped me and what some of those steps were. They might not know that there's eight I's. But hopefully you'll be able to tell them and then they will take that to others. So let us move into our first I, involvement. Involvement actually is one that's going to be sort of threaded through the other eyes. And that's probably why it's first. So as a reminder, involvement promotes biblical change by establishing a change facilitating relationship, all right? Establishing a relationship. Counseling requires much thought, insight, and prayer. Thought, insight, and prayer. So hopefully we're not neglecting that. So the quote here says, some people develop a problem-centered approach to counseling. Once they discover the problem, they wanna quickly deal with it, expecting the counselee to take their sage advice and run with it. Problem solved, as simple as that. Well, it's not that simple. Effective biblical counselors take a people-centered approach, right? Not a problem-centered approach, a people-centered approach. It's more about the person, actually, than it is the specific problem. Is that making sense? Some people develop a problem-centered, others people-centered. And that's what we want to aim for, people-centered. So Mack points out that while some problems seem to have an obvious solution, sometimes people aren't ready to hear or handle what is required. Right? Sometimes people are not ready. There are a number of reasons for that. You will be familiar with this if you have ever come alongside someone who is hurt. Someone who is angry, someone who is in sin, or someone that has been sinned against. They're not able to handle everything that is needed. One example that just came to mind, a dear brother in this room told me one time, it was one of the most impactful things that I've ever heard. He said that when talking to his kid who had a lot of questions, good questions about life, and forgive me if I get some of this wrong, but he basically said, You know, his kid had asked him some questions that he determined, by ways of indiscretion, that he probably wasn't able to handle the whole situation. He wasn't trying to lie, he wasn't trying to tell him something, lead him astray, but he realized he can only handle so much, and the kid wanted to know why. And so I think what happened was, you know, he basically put a suitcase, I think it was, at the bottom of the stairs. And he said, you know, can you lift this suitcase up the stairs? And so the kid went down, lifted the suitcase up the stairs, no problem. No problem. And he said, okay, now, and then I guess the idea is he put a bunch of weights in the suitcase. And then he said, now, can you lift this up the stairs? And of course he either struggled really, or he couldn't at all. The idea was he couldn't handle the whole situation. He could only handle part of it. And so that's the picture here, is that sometimes in our emotions, sometimes in the immediate hurt, we're not able to handle the big picture. But we must be thinking of the big picture, the long goal, the biblical change, okay? And we can't expect everything to happen at once. So thank you to that person for that wonderful example. A great starting point with anyone we are counseling or discipling is this, the need for a deeper relationship with Christ. You know, we don't have to be overwhelmed when we think about biblical counseling. This is the first thing that comes up. And if you really think about it in your own life or in the people that you love, the people that you care for, and you see these problems and you think to yourself, what is the main issue? What is the most glaring thing? What do I wanna do? What's the best thing that I can do? It's actually to help them have a deeper relationship with Christ. We all need that, amen? Amen. And so that's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. The main starting point or the great starting point with anyone we're counseling or discipling is this, the need for a greater relationship with Christ. And so the need to develop that closer relationship through the counsel of a godly person they view as a friend and not a foe. All right, there's a lot to say about trust. There's a lot to say about reliability. We'll talk about some of those things, but we must be an ally, not an adversary. You see the difference? Proverbs says this. This is true of any good, effective counseling relationship. We must keep in mind the truths of Proverbs 27, 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. And verse nine, oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. Notice the word friend, not adversary. Remember the involvement in the biblical change is that facilitation, that relationship that we have. So Mack suggests that we build involvement through compassion and respect. All right, compassion and respect, which really reminds me of Titus 2, seven to eight, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned. Compassion. When someone is sinned against, he commonly feels pain, hurt, fear, and hardship. So as Christians, as effective counselors, we must try to promote biblical actions rather than sinful actions, or reactions rather. We do that through involvement in their lives and in their thinking. Too many times offering advice without first developing a caring relationship means that that advice will fall upon deaf ears. Notice many times, not every time, but many times. Hurting people may not care what you have to say if they do not see genuine compassion, genuine involvement. All right, so another little picture there that kind of shows when we're sinned against, we often experience pain and hurt and fear. And so we want to prevent things like repaying evil for evil or malice or evil speaking. Or things like. you know, any harmful things, things like suicide, or drug use, or substance abuse, hostility. And we want to promote, through biblical action, good for evil, prayer, trust, self-control, solution-oriented actions, etc. Okay? So, putting off, putting on, compassion. So offering advice without establishing a caring relationship can oftentimes fall on deaf ears, as we said. So I want to ask, can you think of a situation where it seemed like the person who told you something meant well, but you didn't receive it as well as you could have? You can acknowledge that they meant well, but you might not have received it as well as you could have. Or how about times when you doubted someone's intentions or were left frustrated at how they handled their words? Many times, many times you may be guilty of this yourself. I certainly am. True compassion. The definition from the book says desires to see a closer relationship to the Lord as a result of counseling. Only then will the counselee have the tools to available to sustain him through all the trials and tribulations of life. Such a counselee leaves the counseling setting prepared for any situation. That's the goal. It rarely starts out that way, though. When a hurting person first comes to us, all they can see is painful circumstances or situation. So God's involvement in that is often really outside their thinking. Okay? God's involvement in their situation is outside them. They're not seeing it that way. So the hope is, if you're following in the notes, to enter stage two of compassion and counseling, where the hurting person begins to see, through the situation or circumstance, to the promises and loving kindness of God. Through, or past their situation, not just forgetting about it, but seeing through that to the promises of God, to the loving kindness of God. Seeing through a different lens, the lens of scripture, rather than emotion, okay? And that takes time. Oftentimes, we're an emotional people, and we start to see through our emotional situation. And that situation becomes insurmountable. It's impossible. And it is impossible, but God, okay? So we want the counselee to see through their situations to God. We want them to see God. We want them to see Christ. Compassion has a big part of that. So what is involved in building this deep involvement that facilitates biblical change? What disposes people to listen to us and receive counseling that we bring? So Mac says, as I search the scriptures, I see several factors in building this change facilitating relationship with people. First one is compassion. It plays a vital role in the effectiveness of discipleship. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, Colossians 3.12. Also some other scriptures there for your reference. So I love how Mac, he gives us two great counselors from scripture, Jesus and Paul. So let's observe some of the truths from there in the next few minutes. Well, Jesus was called by Isaiah, wonderful counselor. And Isaiah 9-6 is a great example. He is the greatest example. We can't read the Bible without being impressed with the fact that Jesus' life was characterized by compassion. That was one of the first things I saw as a Christian. And we can mention a few passages. There are more. You might think of some yourself. You might write some down yourself to be able to pray through and be able to show someone one day. Matthew 9, 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. He had compassion for them. Matthew 14, 14, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and he healed their sick. Matthew 15, our great Lord, then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on the crowd. Luke 7, 13, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep, do not weep. You think he was involved. You think he, our Lord was compassionate, showing inspiration for hope for that woman and others. Has he been so with you? Hebrews 4, 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Praise God for our wonderful example, our wonderful Lord. Paul was also full of compassion as well, despite what you might think by his aggressive missionary adventures. Therefore, be alert, Acts 20, 31, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. With tears. You think people responded to that type of counseling, that type of discipleship? I would say, yes. Acts 20, 19, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears. Again, we see Philippians 1, 7, it is right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace. I hold you in my heart. What sweeter thing would you be able to say to someone, what sweeter thing would you be able to hear? And someone loves and cares for you as much that they would say genuinely, compassionately, that they hold you in their heart. I hope that is the relationships that we want to facilitate. Galatians 4.19, my little children, for who I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. There's some perseverance. There's some reliability. There's some good discipleship. Romans 9, one to three. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. It may be said of us. Mac adds some ways that we can acquire a deeper compassion. This is important. Remind ourselves of our own need. That's number one. How can I get more compassion? Remind yourself of your own need of compassion. Why are we in the family of God? Ultimately, because of Christ's mercy. Who loved us when we were unlovable? What's our own need? You could add your own questions. Who gave his life for us? Who had ultimate compassion for us? Or you will say, who had ultimate compassion for me? That's number one. Number two, putting ourselves in their shoes, putting ourselves in someone else's shoes. Try and figure out what this person is going through. How must they feel? You don't have to say, I know exactly what you're going through, although you might know something similar, but think of these things yourself. How must they feel? What must they be thinking? Really set your mind to finding that out, asking those questions when they're not able to. What would it be like if I felt helpless in this situation? What would it be like if I was feeling hopeless right now? What would it be helpful for me? People-centered approach. Consider the person, consider their perspective, and above all, listen to them, listen to them. It has to be in my top four prayers in the last year was that I would be a better listener. Not listening just to respond or make myself seem smart or spiritual, listening to understand. I heard that somewhere and it's really stuck with me. Listen to them. It's helpful to spend time with compassionate people. If you're wondering, well, you know, this is kind of hard and heavy, and this is a lot, and by God's grace, I hope I can do this, and yes, with God's spirit, you are able to, but it's helpful to find someone who's compassionate. Just think of someone right now. Who do I know that just seems compassionate, has been genuine, maybe, Take them out for coffee, learn a few more things from them. Ask them some good questions. What questions might you ask them about how they sort of facilitated some relationships? Look at some people who have discipled well. Ask them questions. I'm sure they would love to tell you what they have learned. Three. No, that was three. Four. This one as well is important. When considering compassion, view them as a part of your family. View them as a part of your family. How is compassion manifested in the life of a Christian? So let's consider these examples. How is compassion manifested? What does it look like? The first example, through words. 1 Thessalonians 2, 12, and 13 through words. You can look these up at any time. I've included the links in the notes. Compassion is manifested in the Christian life also through prayer, through genuine grief in connection with their pain, through gentleness and tenderness, through concern for physical and spiritual needs and doing what you can to meet those needs. So words, prayer, genuine grief in connection with their pain, gentleness and tenderness, concern for physical and spiritual needs. Compassion is shown in many other ways, such as offering encouragement, by not pushing people too fast, by speaking in a gracious manner, by maintaining self-control in the face of insults, and that might happen, by defending people who are being mistreated or falsely accused, by sacrificing time and money to help others. Did you hear that? Compassion is made manifest in the Christian life by sacrificing, at times, time and money to help others. To love the hurting person. Well, we will close our time with prayer and continue on with the what not to do section of involvement. And then, Lord willing, next week we will also cover inspiration. Father, we want to thank you for your great mercy on us. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who was compassionate, a wonderful counselor. And we thank you for the scriptures that you have given us. Lord, would you help us to, would you arrange for us some good relationships that we might be able to have effective counseling, effective friendship, effective Christian relationships that would involve biblical change? Would you help us to have compassion on those around us, especially here in the church, in our families and friends, our immediate circles? Would you help us to be thinking of things like discipleship and using your scriptures to say, we want to be true to your words, oh Lord. We don't want to lead anyone astray. We don't want to offer up just meaningless words that will fade away, but real change. And would you bring about repentance and faith as we unfold these things and as we pray for our dear family and our dear friends and our Christian brothers and sisters? God be honored with these efforts in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.