Scripture Gives Spiritual Counseling

BENEFITS OF SCRIPTURE Sermon Series

“Scripture Gives Spiritual Counseling”

KEY PASSAGE: Colossians 3:16 (NASB)

Thank you, thank you, worship band, for ushering us into God’s holy presence. And so, Father, we pray that Your presence continues to abide in this church. You are the Fountain of Life, the light by which we see. We pray that You will pour out Your unfailing love on those who love You and Your Son, Jesus Christ. We Thank You for love, grace, mercies, and faithfulness. We give You all the glory, praise, and honor. Amen. You may have your seat.

Tithe and Offering

Well, it is time for tithes and offerings, and I want to encourage you to be faithful in your giving so that our church can do God’s work. Our giving demonstrates our gratitude (thanks) to God for sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and give us abundant life. So, let’s give to God this morning from our hearts and do it cheerfully and joyfully. I also want to remind you to give through the church giving App. Please follow the instructions on the screen on how to give to God. Our ushers will pass around the offering plates. Worship band, please lead us in worship as we collect our tithe and offering.

WELCOME

Welcome to our Sunday Worship Service. Please find some folks around you, greet them and tell them Jesus loves you. Our first visitors, please stand so we can see you. We also welcome all who join us online. Let's clap for our online viewers.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The church newsletter is available. We have copies at the back of the church, so please grab a copy after church today. We will also be sending out the electronic copy of the newsletter by email this week. If the church has your email address on file, you will also receive the eCopy version of the newsletter. The newsletter is a source of encouragement for you; you will also find information on what is happening at the church in the newsletter.

Yesterday was our church leadership meeting, and again, I want to thank our ministry leaders for volunteering their time and resources to help the church advance the Kingdom of God. They do a lot of work, and I want to thank them for their time and effort to ensure the church runs at its best.

Men’s Breakfast is on Saturday, August 31st, at 10:00 a.m. To all men, please try to attend the Men’s Breakfast. Our first night of Worship is on Friday, August 30th, at 6:00 p.m. here at the church. Please join us for an evening of praise and worship and invite others to the service. Wednesday Night Bible Study Connect is at 7:00 p.m. Please join us on Wednesday night to STUDY THE WORD OF GOD. Also, our church corporate weekly prayer meeting is every Saturday at 8:00 a.m. If you are interested in joining the church, the new member class is tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. All the church events and activities are posted on the church App and website. So, we encourage you to download the church app.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Let’s pray. We bow before You: Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I pray that the Holy Spirit will help us think through some of what the Holy Scripture says about Jesus, the Son of God, and how the Word of Christ gives us Spiritual Counseling in these few minutes. I pray that You use this time to renew our spirits and bless our gifts to glorify Your name and advance the work of Jesus Christ. We ask for all this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

DECLARATION of FAITH in GOD

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

You go to see a doctor when your body is consistently in pain. And the reason you go to a doctor is to bring healing to whatever physical issue that is affecting your body. When you go to the doctor, you tell the doctor what is wrong based on your feelings. The doctor then responds to how you express your feelings and attempts to identify what is wrong because what you feel may not be the same thing that is wrong with you. Your symptom may be simply symptomatic of something much bigger and deeper.

So, you go to the expert to diagnose, identify, and correct the pain in your body. That is one type of pain that needs to be fixed. Many of us may feel okay in our bodies, but we are hurting in our souls. We have soul pain. Something has gone wrong in our life, [in our] world, [in our] circumstances, and we need help. Today, I want to talk to you about the help that the Bible offers. A spiritual help, if you will. I want to talk about the Scripture and its provision of Spiritual Counseling.

In theology, we call it biblical counseling. That is the phrase for this morning, and I want you to understand that you have in your hand one of the greatest diagnostic tools for pain in the soul. All of us have a soul ache. If you haven’t had a soul ache, then you don’t live on the real planet in the real world, with real people, going through real stuff. It is where you ache on the inside, where you feel pain because of any number of things, but one thing is clear: you can’t fix it yourself, and so you need help. And the Bible offers the help that you need. The Bible provides the help that you need for your hurting soul. And if you are here today and hurting due to life problems and circumstances. I want to remind you and let you know that the Scripture [the Word of God] is a source of Spiritual Counseling for believers’ hurting souls.

SERMON EXPOSITION

Most of you here today are familiar with Sylvester Stallone, an American actor and filmmaker. After placing popularity and career ahead of his family, Sylvester Stallone said he was left unsatisfied because he was missing something after making bad choices. So, he went back to church and said, “The more I go to church, the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus, listening to His Word, and having Jesus guide my hand.” Stallone realized he had to trust in Christ and the Word of God, the Scripture, more than himself. He said, “You cannot train yourself, and the church is the gym of the soul.” God wants us to trust the Scripture more than ourselves.

I want to ensure [make sure] that I am not wasting your time and my time this morning. So, before we go any further into our sermon for today, let me see the hands of folks who have benefited from the Scripture. Tell the truth and shame the devil. Almost everyone here today will agree with Sylvester Stallone that we all benefit from Scripture when our soul, body, and spirit are troubled. The Scripture becomes our source of encouragement and strength when we find ourselves at the bottom of the spiritual barrel. We benefit from Scripture by saturating our hearts and minds with the Word of Christ and then walking in obedience.

The Bible clearly states that man comprises three parts: a body, a soul, and a spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says your body gives you the ability to function in the external world through your five senses. The body is wasting away, and the older you get, the more you will feel it until it stops working completely because the body has no permanent solution.

You have a spirit, the Bible says; when you become a believer, your spirit is redeemed, you are a new creation, and you are saved through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I hope everyone here today is saved. Your spirit is perfect. The Bible says the seed in you cannot sin. But that leaves the soul. The soul is your unique personality (personhood). The study of the soul is called psychology; it is the study of the soul created by God. The art, the science of psychology, addresses soul aches, discomfort, and pain that must be corrected and addressed. The problem is that the person who has the pain has been unable to correct or fix it themselves.

SERMON EXPLANATION

I want to zero in on Biblical Counseling. Biblical counseling concerns what God says and thinks about what is wrong with you or me. Biblical counseling is where a Christian uses the Word of God (the Scripture) as the foundation for identifying and addressing what a person needs to know to bring healing to their hurting soul. Let me say that again. Biblical counseling is when a Christian uses the Word of God as the foundation for diagnosing and addressing what another person needs to know to bring healing to their soul that they cannot bring themselves.

We don't do much biblical counseling here at our church. Maybe we will in the future as we grow and expand. But biblical counseling involves a problem. It involves verbal communication and confrontation with the Word of God. It involves loving concern to help lead a person out into deliverance, victory, or whatever [it is that] they need to be healed from on the level of their soul. It is lovingly confronting believers with the truth of God’s Word in such a way that you help them come out of whatever may be holding them hostage.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says that conversion to Christ is a transformation, a regeneration, a new life, but many times, in our souls, we get stuck. We try to shake off the pain, wiggle, and twist because we have been there too long, or maybe we have become too weak. Our souls have become weary, and we are unable to release ourselves from the circumstances that hold us back . Call them what you will: pains, addictions, strongholds, needs, and aches of life.

Jesus reminded those with weary souls to come to Him in Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” God can put wheels on your burdens and weary souls so that you can deal with them more easily when you come to Jesus.

In Psalm 119, verses 23 and 24, David says, “I meditate on your words,” and he says in verse 24, “Your testimonies are my counselor.” He says when I go to Your Word, I get counseling. I get spiritual counseling for my hurting soul. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All scripture is inspired of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

The Bible would provide Timothy, a young pastor at Ephesus Church of Jesus Christ, with what he needed to enable God’s people to be corrected, reproved, directed, and to know what the right thing is that they ought to do. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “When God saved us, He gave us all we needed in our salvation, everything we needed to live life and be godly [people].” So, the spiritual blessings we need are already available to us (Watch this), but under one condition: it is up to us to access them. In the next verse (verse 4), he says, “And you can find them in the great and precious promises of God.” In other words, the Bible thinks of itself as a textbook on counseling. The God who authored the soul and wrote about the soul seems to think He is the best solution for the soul. God can diagnose, identify, address, and correct pain in the soul.

The foundation for healing for the soul must be rooted in Scripture. Many folks today, including believers, try to solve life’s issues by going to a step program. That step program may have good steps, but the question is, what kind of foundation is that step program sitting on? Is the step program sitting on the Word of God or man’s opinion? The 12-step program may appear to work for a while, and you may appear to be getting a little bit closer to the light, but if it is not resting on the right foundation, you can discover, in a very discouraging way, that you need something more solid to rest on. The good news for us believers is that God’s view of His words is that His textbook, the Scriptures, is the best tool for healing the wounded soul.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION

Ladies, put on foundation to match their natural skin tone as closely as possible to help create a more even-looking complexion. A new face will quickly become an old face without the right foundation. You can get all the information in the world, but it won’t stick if it is not resting on the right foundation.

SERMON EXPLANATION

So, what is our problem today? We have more counseling today than we have ever had in the history of the church. Counseling has become an enterprise. It has become a major profession. And yet, many people seem to be getting worse than getting better. The problems seem to be getting worse. The needs seem to be getting worse.

In the Bible, the personal pain of the soul comes from three sources. First, they can come from organic illnesses or physical problems in the body that have psychological impacts. For this kind of pain, you need a doctor. The second cause of pain in the soul is demons. The Bible regularly relates demonic activity to the pain of the soul. The third reason that these issues exist is sin. That is, sin in the life of the person being counseled that they have committed, or sin committed upon them by others. In other words, in child abuse, the child may not have sinned; they are bearing the psychological pain and consequences of parents who sinned upon them.

These three areas create the need for soul pain, which requires help. If it is physical, then you need a doctor. If the pain is demonic or due to a sin in your life, you need to seek a biblical response applied in the context of a loving person.

James 3 says there are only two kinds of wisdom. There is wisdom from above and the wisdom from below. There is wisdom from God. The wisdom of this earth, he says, is demonic and straight from hell. He equates human wisdom with being straight from hell. A lot of us are going to hell to get help from heaven. Because God is the counselor, David says, thy testimonies are my counsel. Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel or according to the advice of people who don’t know God.” One of the reasons our souls don’t get healed is we have too much hell trying to help our hurting souls.

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing who? One another.” Admonishing means to counsel. “Counseling one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Paul says; let the Word of God dwell richly within you so that you can help somebody else. Now, that raises a question. What does it mean for the Word of God to dwell richly in you? It means you use the Scripture to fix you. You learn how to use the Bible to fix your hurting soul pain. The Bible is not just an ancient textbook but a rich book with spiritual songs.

What happens when somebody is rich? What happens when somebody has enough? When somebody is rich, that means they have enough for themselves and enough to share with somebody else. Enough to share with the person sitting next to you. Why is it that many Christians can’t help somebody else? Do you know why?

Because we are poor in the Word of God, not rich in the Word. If you are poor in the Word of God and don’t even have enough Word to help you, how can you help a brother or a sister? Our problem within the church today is that we don’t have believers who are rich in the Word—folks who know how to use and apply the Word of God to encourage and strengthen others. I am talking about people who are messed up and have never seen the Word of God work in their lives.

No sermon can make the Word work for you. A sermon can motivate you, encourage you, and challenge you. A sermon can cover (mask) the pain, but unless the Word of God dwells richly within you, it says, only then will you have leftover wealth to help somebody else. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers and sisters, even if a person is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual are to restore such a person.”

Not you who are Christian. Has anybody ever been messed up by a quack Christian? The Bible says you who are spiritual. A spiritual person is under the control of the Holy Spirit. Why is it important to be under the control and power of the Spirit? Because the Bible says, the Holy Spirit is the divine counselor. In every counseling session (biblical counseling), there are supposed to be three people: the counselor, the counselee, and the Holy Spirit (Ghost).

Watch this: The Holy Spirit takes the Word and enlightens the heart to restore the hurt. The counselor’s job is to help the counselee understand and accept responsibility for whatever they need and respond appropriately to the Word of God. Once that foundation is laid, everything else becomes extra and a bonus. The Bible says that if you are going to help somebody, Ephesians 4:15 says, “You must speak the truth with love.” When counseling or helping a fellow Christian in trouble due to sin, we must treat that person with patience, care, respect, and kindness.

And when the spirit mixes with the Word through the mouth of a loving counselor, [through the mouth of a loving believer] what you have is 1 Corinthians 2:16, which says, “is the mind of Christ.” To “have the mind of Christ” does not mean we are infallible (a perfect church) and start playing God in other people’s lives. To “have the mind of Christ” means that we are a church that takes Scripture seriously and looks at life from the Savior’s point of view, keeping His values and desires in mind. It means that we are a church that thinks God’s thoughts and not thinks as the world thinks.

My concern for this church is that as we move into some of the new things (new ministry) that we are doing here at the church, we need to make sure that we use Scripture and be a church that takes God’s truth and shows concern for folks who are hurting that will come through these doors of this church for prayer, deliverance, counseling, encouragement, but in a way that addresses the root because they are in link with the Holy Spirit.

FAITH APPEAL, CALL to ACTION and ALTAR CALL

And you are in link with the Holy Spirit when God’s Word dwells richly within you, and you rest on His power to change a person or you. What great church would there be if you had to call the Pastor’s office or one of the other church leaders and say, I am canceling my counseling appointment? Why? Because we were scheduled to meet, [but] a brother or a sister from the church met with me, opened the Word of God, and applied the Word of God with love, patience, care, respect, and kindness to my life. And I am already seeing changes in my personal and spiritual life. May our church be a place where folks from all walks of life can come and be restored, healed, and delivered because of the proper application of the Word of God?

My prayer for our church is that God will enable and help us to take the Scripture seriously and not mix it with stuff that contaminates its power to work in our lives. May we not be a church that minimizes the Word of God. Like Paul in Acts 20:27, we can say, “I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.” May we spend our lives studying the Word of God and fix it with faith in Christ Jesus. May the Word of God dwell in us and have access to every inch of our hearts so that we can walk in spiritual freedom. God bless you.

If you are here today and do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, the Bible says you will die in your sins and go to hell. That is the one unforgivable sin that the Bible talks about. Don’t leave the service without accepting Jesus if you are not saved. You see, a church is a gathering of people who confess Jesus as Lord and worship the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the focus of their lives. When you accept Jesus right now, He will be the focus of your life, and you will become part of God’s family. Is there anyone who would like to receive Jesus today? If you need prayer, please come forward so we can pray for you.

BENEDICTION

Shall we pray? Dear Lord, dismiss us with Your care and love, and we thank You for Your Word. May it dwell within us richly, not poorly, and may we know the Word of God and use it for ourselves and then with one another that we might be set free. You said the truth would set us free. Then that means we are not supposed to be in bondage. Set us free from ourselves and from anything that will hold us hostage. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God bless you. We will see you next week at 10:30 a.m.