We're going to open up to Romans 15. Romans 15. And we've been looking at, thinking about biblical counseling and discipleship and what that means and where it should be happening and change and sanctification and so forth and so on. And one of the questions that we want to answer tonight is just the simple question of who should be doing this? And you already know the answer to that. But it's nice to have a text for it. Who should be doing this? What are the qualifications of an individual to help someone in this way as far as opening up God's Word and giving practical help, practical instruction, whether we call it biblical counseling or whether we call it discipleship, it's the same thing. What goes into, what does an individual need to be like? What are the qualifications, characteristics of an individual who's able to do this sort of thing? And so Romans chapter 15 verse 14 is a verse that is often referenced with this question in mind. Romans chapter 15 verse 14. when Paul says to the church at Rome, and I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish one another. Now the word for admonish is a word that could be translated. It's a broad word as far as the meaning, but it could be translated and often is translated in other translations as counsel. It really just means to instruct, to advise, to rebuke, to reprove, a lot of different, but to counsel. So Paul says, I'm persuaded of you. Persuaded of who? Of the saints at Rome. That you are. Full of goodness. Filled with knowledge and able to admonish, and so I want to look at four essential qualities for essential qualities, and these are qualities that we are growing in. We ought to be seeking to grow in, but if we're seeking to grow in these areas, then we fit the script of what Paul was saying here. So, number one, and you've heard some version of this before, you may not remember it, but number one, first characteristic or qualification is Christ-like character. Christ-like character. Now, we've spent, you know, six months prior to this on Wednesday nights going through the fruit of the Spirit. You've heard me talk about Ephesians 4, 1-3, a lot. Character, biblical character. As we think about the fruit of the Spirit, what are we talking about? It's just character. Whether you have patience or not is a matter of maturity, and maturity is always a matter of character. Whether you are full of goodness or not, this is a matter of maturity, which is, again, a matter of character. Is this part of your character? Forbearance, humility, pride, all these things are an indication of somebody's spiritual maturity. And we could say in another way, all of these things are part of a Christian's character development. OK, so the character is either developed or it's not. So Christlike character encompasses all these things that Paul starts in this verse. He says, I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you are full of goodness. You're full of goodness. Now, this is the same word that Paul uses again in Galatians 522 and 23 as part of the fruit of the spirit. And as Hendrickson, the commentator explains, Goodness is a virtue that reveals itself in social relationships, in our various contacts and connections with others. So it's something that reveals itself in the way we interact with people. Again, that's character. And the reason we say that, it's important to say that because you might think of goodness as just somebody being good, some sort of moral purity, and that's obviously a biblical virtue. But that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the way an individual's character is put on display as they interact in relationships. Christ-like character. Again, as we so often mention, and I hope I mention it so often that you just think about it whenever we think about character, but Ephesians 4, one through three, walking worthy, that is, living your life worthy of the calling in which you've been called. How do we do that? Well, we do that in humility rather than pride. Humility is Christ-like character, Philippians chapter two, putting on the mind of Christ. We do that in gentleness rather than harshness. We do that in patience rather than impatience, okay? And then we do that in forbearance or tolerance rather than being short-fused and nitpicky. So again, these are Christ-like character qualities. Not only are we seeking to grow in these. So the point is not you have to have mastered these and there never are any weaknesses and never any failings in your life. The point is you're taking this seriously. God has called me to grow and. You know this already, but. This is just a reminder. You're going to have a hard time trying to help somebody do something you're not doing. If you've never taken your spiritual growth seriously, you're going to have a hard time helping somebody in their spiritual growth. The old saying goes you can't give away what you don't have. Fighting sin. Is hard business. There's no magical formula for it. There's no, you know, pithy sayings that you can learn to help somebody. If you aren't battle worn yourself. In trying to fight the flesh in fighting for humility and so forth and so on, you're not going to be very effective at helping other people do the same thing so. Christlike character development. It's a it's really it's a striving toward godliness. But it's also, if we would help to disciple other people, one of the other aspects of a Christ-like character is that we have to seek to serve God and not be man-pleasers. So Jesus said several times in the Gospels, particularly in John, John 5, In verse 41, as he was going back and forth with the religious leaders there, he told them, I receive not honor from men. And then in verse 44, he said, How can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? So as we're seeking to help individuals grow, as we're seeking to help individuals just really in their day-to-day Christian walk, We want to make it our aim to please God. We want to honor him. That's why we would do it to begin with because he's told us to do that. We're going to. This is our last point, really, but he's he's the one who came up with the Titus 2 model. He's the one that came up with Ephesians 4 7 through 16. That's God's idea and the way that God intends for us to do it is in that Ephesians 4 speaking truth in love. And so sometimes we have to Say things that can be difficult. Sometimes we have to say things that aren't the easiest things to say. We want to do it in love, but if we fear God over men, then we're going to be faithful to speak the truth. Doesn't mean that we're out to offend everybody. It does mean that we're out to honor the Lord with a Christ like character as we speak truth. So qualification number one. Christ-like character. Back in Romans 15-14, Paul goes on and says, "...I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge." Filled with all knowledge. What kind of knowledge is he talking about here? He's talking about biblical knowledge. He's talking about knowledge of the truth. He's confident that the saints in Rome can admonish one another, that is, to disciple or to counsel one another because he's confident that they are filled with biblical knowledge. Again, just as it goes with what we talked about earlier as far as experience and seeking to grow and fighting our own battles with sin and You can't give away what you don't have. If you don't know what the Bible says, you don't know what the Bible says. I mean, there's no substitute for that. If you're not regularly reading God's Word, if you're not to some extent seeking to meditate and apply God's Word, you don't have what you don't have. And brothers and sisters, whenever you have a church full of people, and almost no one has the biblical knowledge to be able to disciple and guide fellow believers, you're in bad shape. That is not God's idea of a healthy church. And so the biblical knowledge part is, oh, it's important. It's important. Jesus said, you know this already, Matthew chapter four, verse four, man shall not live by bread alone, but off of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. How is it that you and I are to live our lives? What's to be the guiding rule for the decisions that we make? What's to be the guiding rule for the way that we shape our lives and the direction that our lives are moving? What's to be the guiding rule for the priorities that we have in our life? Well, it's the Word of God. There's no way for us to know what God would have us to do, and this, that, or the other, outside of His Word. Now, some people have decisions to make, and I can understand that there are some decisions where there's wisdom that's needed. Well, several mentioned tonight, but one in particular my mom mentioned about the lady who's not married, and she's got a couple of different options as it relates to her treatment for cancer or surgery for cancer? And should she do one or should she do the other? Well, it's entirely appropriate for prayer to be made and for her to beseech God and to try to make the best decision she can in that sort of a scenario. But not all decisions are that way. I mean, the truth is there's not a wrong decision for her to make. It's a judgment call. And she can pray and seek God's discernment. But you know, there are hundreds of decisions that you and I made, and it's not a judgment call. It is a clear black and white word from God. And the question is, do you know what it is? Do we know what God says about this, that or the other? Sometimes when we're thinking about wisdom issues, and it's not as easy as the discernment thing I just mentioned or the judgment call that I just mentioned. There can be some fairly complicated decisions that we make, and while there might not be a black and white word, there are plenty of wisdom principles that we ought to be applying as we seek to make those kinds of decisions. Well, if we don't know scripture, we're not going to be able to do it. We're not going to be able to help folks do that. So just, you know, for an example, If you wanted to know what does the Bible have to say about anger? Well, you could get in your concordance and you could look up the word anger. That's not everything God's Word has to say about it, but it'll get you headed in the right direction. God's Word is going to say some clear, concrete things about anger. Be angry and sin not. OK, so there is a place where I can be angry and not respond Don't make friends with an angry man lest you learn his ways. OK, well, better take it pretty serious if I'm thinking about close companions and someone who's just given over to anger. So those are pretty clear. But then maybe there's some. Other kind of issue. That you can't look up in your concordance. The words just not there. So what do we do with that? Well. That's when we have to start applying wisdom principles. To situations that we can't look up, you know, word for word. Well, there's no concordance for that. If you're not familiar with Scripture. If you haven't been reading, you haven't been thinking. You're in trouble. When Jesus said man shall not live off bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Did he really mean that? Did he really mean that we're supposed to live off of base our life off of make our decisions based off of? Every word that proceeds at the mouth of God. I say yes. Yeah, he does mean that he did mean that. God meant that from the very beginning. And so we need to know. Scripture we need to know Secondly, we need to know Scripture well enough to accurately handle it. Just because you know what a verse says does not mean you know what a verse means. I hope that makes sense. You can use Scripture deceitfully. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2. And I'll give you an example. 1 Thessalonians 2. Starting in verse 1, Paul says, For you yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention, for our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth the heart." So Paul says, when we came to you, we didn't come to you in deceit. We didn't come to you in uncleanness or impurity. We didn't come to you in guile. We came to you seeking to speak the things of God, seeking to please God. Now, when we're talking about accurately handling Scripture, or you're probably more familiar with the Second Timothy 2, rightly dividing the Word. This is not just referring to people who purposefully distort Scripture. There's well-meaning people who have taken bogus interpretations of passages and they've known what the passage says and they got what it meant all wrong. So here's one that's a pretty good example. It's not as popular, but you still hear it sometimes. When Jesus says. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and the second one is like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And then somebody says. Well, here's the problem. Jesus even said it himself. Until you learn to love yourself. You're never going to love your neighbor the way that you want to see because he said you gotta love your neighbor as yourself. And your problem is you got too low of a view of yourself. And if you could learn to love yourself more. Then that's going to help you love your neighbor more. Well, does the passage say love your neighbor as yourself? Yeah. Is Jesus really worried about you loving yourself too little? No. Jesus says you need to be denying yourself. Paul says in Ephesians chapter five that husbands ought to love their wives the way Christ loved the church, and then he goes on when he's talking about the nourishing and the care. He says nobody has forsaken that as far as nobody has neglected themselves. When you look to see what Scripture has to say about self, the biggest problem that we have is not that we don't love ourselves enough, so now we can't love people more. The problem with ourselves is that we love ourselves too much. You know that. You've heard me say this. The problem with you is the same problem with me. I love myself, I have a wonderful plan for my life, and you keep getting in the way. And you've got the same problem I do. And what needs to happen is is that I need to adopt God's plan and forsake my own. I need to not allow pride and selfish ambition to rule my agenda and your cooperation with my pride and selfish ambition to dictate my love that I have for you. So biblical fidelity accurately handling the scripture just because we have a verse and we know what something says doesn't necessarily mean that we have the accurate meaning. You gotta work to discern that and handle that accurately. There's been other ways that this has been really used versus misapplied in ways that are just really horrendous. And so we gotta accurately handle the scriptures. We need to know what they say, we need to know what they mean. So he says, back in Romans 15, 14, I'm persuaded that you are full of goodness. That you are filled with all knowledge of biblical content. And that you are able to admonish you are able to admonish. This is you are competent in your ability to help somebody. Able ability you're able to. You have some sort of competency in this. Now I think it's helpful to make a few observations about this. As we're trying to admonish, as we're trying to help, to disciple, to counsel, whatever word you want to use, what is it that Jesus wants us to be doing? I mean, it is true that we need biblical knowledge. We need to know some things. But when you look at the Great Commission in Matthew 28 verse 20, Jesus's command is that after we've taught and after we've baptized, then we're teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded. Now, the key word there is to observe. We're not just trying to teach people content and leave it there. We're teaching them to observe or to keep. This same word for observe is translated in Mark chapter 7, verse 9. Mark 7, 9. where Jesus says, full well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition. So Jesus is saying to them, you've rejected God's word so that you could keep or that is just continue to live according to your own tradition. So we're thinking practically as it comes to helping people to grow and to help disciple them. We're thinking about how will they observe, how can they observe a particular text, a particular principle, something like that. Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. We've gone to this passage a lot, and I just want to make this point based on it. The Bible is a practical book. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable, useful, practical. So it is a practical book, and ultimately it is meant to be practically applied or observed. You know, all doctrine is practical. The doctrine of God is practical. I mean, the doctrine of God ought to dictate how you practically worship God. It also ought to dictate how you practically live your life in light of this holy God who is, and you could just name His attributes. It's also very practical in giving you specific things you can be trusting God for as it relates to His character. So observing, practically observing things, that's really what we're after as it relates to discipleship, as it relates to counseling. In order to do that, as far as just being skillful in this area, number one, we've got to take the time to understand where a person is at in life. So it's one thing to know biblical content, but we've also got to understand where a person is. Now, if somebody has a particular problem, we need to try to understand what that problem is. Maybe they don't have a particular problem. Maybe they just want to grow and change. And we just need to understand where are you in life? Are you in school? Are you in college? Are you married? What's your life circumstance? How do we know when to start? Proverbs 18, 13 says that it is foolish to answer a matter before you hear it. It's folly and shame to the one who does it. And so if we would be skillful in helping individuals grow, we've got to start with listening. Figuring out what's going on with this person. Where is this individual understanding where they are in life? second We must also know once we've discerned where a person is and maybe what their problem is We must know what passages of scripture are relevant or useful in their situation okay, so How are we going to help minister to an individual so that they can observe God's Word? Now, sometimes, I'm going to use anxiety for an example just because I've got something practical here in a second to show you, but sometimes people will express their anxiety over something and someone will say something like, well, you know, God is sovereign. Our God is in the heavens, he's done whatsoever he's pleased. Well, is that true? Sure, it's true. So how do you take something like that and help somebody live in light of it? You know, there's a difference in teaching to observe and speaking to somebody to get them away from you and leave you alone. Sometimes we can use those kinds of things just to essentially we're in a holy way telling people hush. and we got a chapter and verse for it. Because we don't know how to use it. We haven't helped anybody. We've just given a verse, OK? But if you're thinking about anxiety, there's several practical practical verses that you could go to. Psalm 115 three would be one of them. If we could get creative and telling people OK, what is this? How can you use this? How does it help your prayer life, your trust or whatever? Second Timothy 1 seven. is a very helpful one. 2 Timothy 1.7, where Paul tells Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Philippians 4.4-9, very helpful. Now, after we've located some relevant passages, 1 Peter 5.7, casting all your cares on Him because He cares for you. Then, and this is where we get more practical, we've got to be able to clearly show somebody, how do I use that? So let me show you a couple of things. None of this is original with me, but I've used it for the last 13 years and it's been helpful to folks. So 2 Timothy 1.7. This is usually over the years as far as counseling and discipleship goes, As far as the counseling goes, outside of marriages, what I've seen more than anything else has been anxiety, and most of that is with children. And so Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 7 has been one that I go to almost every time. And, you know, this doesn't work like medicine. So just because it worked with one person doesn't mean it's going to work with everybody. But this has been a pretty effective passage. And the point that I try to to make starting out is, you know, God has given you. An ability. If you're in dwelt by a spirit. To think clearly. About your life to think clearly about situation. That's what a sound mind means. It means to think clearly. So a lot of times, particularly after COVID, it was younger children who were. Anxious over being sick, anxious over being sick. A lot of these symptoms were the same for them. They would pass by the mirror and think, oh man, I look kind of funny. I wonder if I'm getting sick. I wonder if I'm getting COVID. I wonder if I'm going to die. I wonder if, and it just keeps going. And so typically what I would do, and you know, you could do this in a hundred different ways, but typically what I would do is I'd draw out a little staircase. I don't know if you can see that or not, but it's a little staircase, okay? And usually with anxiety, what happens is is we start on the bottom step. And we jump all the way to the top. OK, with our thoughts, so it's man, I feel sick. I wonder if I'm going to die. Well, there's some steps to fill in before we get from. I feel sick too. I'm dying. OK, what might those be? Well. Usually when we're sick, we tend to run a fever. So do I have a fever? If I'm a kid and I'm sick, usually my parents pick up on that. Have my parents said anything about it? If I'm still worried about it, I can tell my parents that I feel bad and let them check me out. Have I asked my parents? You see what I'm saying? That's very simple, isn't it? There's nothing complicated about that. That has worked almost every time. You know why? Because God has created us to be able to think clearly. Now, I'm not saying that works for every single anxiety problem that's out there. But I'm saying for a lot of them, it's a matter of, I start with a symptom, I feel funny, and I immediately conclude, I need to be planning my funeral. and there's some things in between ought to be thinking and checking out. All right, 1 Timothy 5, 7. Casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. OK, is a very simple way to help somebody in this area. All your cares. The word is anxiety. There's two circles on the outside circle, the big circle. It's just my concerns, the things that I'm anxious about. The inside circle would be my responsibility. So let's just say I'm concerned because I have bills that need to be paid and I don't have any money. Well. Let me start here. Do I have any responsibilities that ought to be fulfilling as it relates to what God has told me to do about paying my bills? Should I be working? Yeah, okay. So, work. What if I don't already have a job, what can I be doing? Filling out applications. Figuring out what I might be able to do to make a little bit of money. Now, that's what I can do. Can I guarantee that when I fill out an application I'm going to get a job? No. That's not really my responsibility. I can't hire myself so I can put it in, but I can't. I can't make someone hire me, so that might be over here. I'm going to put this. Get hired here. And then I'm going to pray about it. Instead of walking around saying. All these dadgum people could give me a job and they just won't. You know my whole life folks just are not fair. What is it about me? I'm the hardest worker they know if they just give me a shot. Instead of lying to ourselves like that, Father, would you please bless me to get a job? You've said you would give us this day our daily bread. I am casting my care upon you. And so I'm taking that concern, that anxiety, and instead of fretting about it and worrying about it and mulling it over in my mind, I'm actually doing something with it. I'm praying to God and I'm seeking to trust that He's going to do what He told me He would do. Again, this is very quick and very basic, This is the kind of teaching to observe. It's one thing to say, cast your cares upon him. It's another thing to say, now let's think about your responsibilities and God's responsibilities. It's one thing to say, God's given you the ability to think clearly. It's another thing to practically show somebody, here's what you're doing. Now let's start filling in the faults with some clear thinking. So it's not just telling people what to do, it's showing people how to do it. And Scripture is very, very practical when we start thinking about it in that way. And you can get creative with it. And so. Those those three things that the fourth one is church community. That is, I myself am also persuaded of you, my brethren, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. So this biblical counseling and discipleship ought to be a normal one another part of church life. Ideally. Those who are involved in this activity are doing the bulk of what they're doing within the one anothering or the church membership that they've covenanted themselves to, like the Titus 2 model, like the Ephesians 4 model. So Christlike character, biblical content. Competence as it relates to just communicating how and then we're doing it in our church community. We're doing it with one another qualifications. of a biblical counselor. If you like those little charts, I'd be happy to share, not that, I've got less crude drawings of that. If you would like to take a picture of it or get a copy of it, that might be helpful if you're interested. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you that that you've given us your word. We thank you, Father, that you've put us in a church. We're thankful that you have given each and every one of us that you've placed here a gift that's meant to be used to edify the body. And so, Father, I pray that you would bless us to be useful, that you would bless us to seek to grow in our character, to be more Christlike in the in our knowledge of the word. and our competency to be able to explain and minister the word, and that we would be committed to doing that among the people that we have covenanted ourselves to here. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.