in our series here on really growing as biblical counselors or disciples, the same thing. In our last message, we prayed through it this morning, but if you weren't here on Wednesday and you weren't here this morning for the prayer meeting, in our last message we began to look at what we call the key elements in biblical counseling and discipleship. And what that means is when we say key elements, we're just talking about the nuts and bolts of how to sit down with an individual and minister the Word of God effectively. Now, that ought to be the desire of every Christian. We're going to have different skill sets and we're going to have different abilities and so forth and so on, but the desire of every follower of Christ ought to be that I want to be able at some level to be able to sit down with the Word of God and help someone if the Lord gives me an opportunity to do that. been with us for the past messages, and you find yourself agreeing that there's certainly a need for this, for someone to be able to open the Word and help someone practically. You're on board with, or you can see, and understand the doctrine of progressive sanctification that we grow over time, and then the practical process of biblical change. And again, you find yourself wanting to grow in what we said this morning was really the calling of every Christian according to Ephesians 4, 13-16. then the key elements are going to guide you in how to do that. What skills do you need to be thinking about in order to be an effective biblical counselor or discipler? It's just given us categories. So sometimes we can think about, sure, I'd love to be able to help people, but I have no idea where to start. So it's kind of like this. I was trying to think through different ways of of illustrating this. So it's sort of like taking something you know nothing about. So for me, it would essentially be auto mechanics. If you were to say to me, Lewis, we need you to diagnose the problem in this engine and then to fix it, I would say, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know how to diagnose it. And even if I could diagnose it, I don't even know what I'm diagnosing. I don't know what the parts are. I don't even know what they do, really. I can change the oil, I mean, if that's your problem. But other than that, sorry. But if someone were to come along and say, okay, let me show you how this works. And let me give you a system of how you would go about doing this. I think maybe a better way for me to start thinking about it so I can say something intelligible is if somebody said, hey, I need you to build a house. What comes first? What do you do first? If somebody told you they needed you to build a house and you started on the rafters first, you're going to be in bad shape. You've got to start on the foundation. Before you get that done, there's some other things that you need to make sure are laid out. You've got to get the things square. And then you've got to start with the framing. You don't come in and start throwing sheetrock on top of air and hope that it's going to stay. There's a process. There are things that need to happen. First, second, third, so forth and so on. And with these elements, all of them aren't in sequential order, but particularly the first two are. These things need to happen before you can actually help somebody. Sometimes people can be intimidated in thinking, I wouldn't know what to do if someone were to come to me and tell me that they were struggling with X, Y, and Z. I wouldn't even know what to say. I just don't have that gift. And I'll just say this, it's not necessarily a gift as much as it is a skill set. And the good thing about skills is you can learn them. You can learn them. If you've gone to college, most of us, I would probably say none of us, went to college as a speech major and yet you had to take public speaking, didn't you? Because over the years, people have figured out there's some pretty basic skills to where anybody can be a decent public speaker. So you come up with a catchy intro. You figure out how to summarize what you were going to say with a conclusion. And you say something that makes sense in between. You can be a pretty decent public speaker. That's a skill. That's not some sort of a special gifting. And it's the same thing when it comes to ministering God's Word. And so we said on Wednesday, and we reviewed it this morning, that the first skill that we need to focus on if we're going to help someone with their problems biblically is we need to gather data. It just means we need to understand what's going on. Proverbs 18.13, he that answers a matter before he hears it is folly and shame unto him. Now, out of all the skills that are going to be laid out in the next six or seven messages, this one, this very first one, is probably the most crucial. And it's probably where most people end up messing up. Most people's tendency. is to try and start telling people how to fix their problems before they've adequately taken the time to understand the problem. You can't help somebody with something that you don't really understand. And as we illustrated on Wednesday, buzzwords don't help you understand anything. Someone may think, you know, if someone were to sit down in front of me and say, I'm depressed, I wouldn't know what to say. And you know what the truth is? You shouldn't say anything because you don't really know anything yet. There's a lot that could be behind that word. And so we've got to take the time to figure it out. And you could reference back to the message on Wednesday. Now, after you've taken the time to gather all the pertinent information from an individual, more than likely you'll have a good bit of information. And now the question is, what am I supposed to do with all this? So if you learn to ask good questions, if you learn to listen well, and someone is sharing a problem or an issue that they're having with you, then you're probably gonna get a good bit of info. And so question number two is, what do I do with this information? And that leads us to key element number two, and that is, we must learn to discern problems biblically. We must learn to discern problems biblically. Now, there's going to be a decent amount of information in this, and as always, if you want the notes, because we're rattling off lists that are too fast for you to write them down, just ask me and I'll email them to you. What do we mean when we say learning to discern problems biblically? Well, discerning problems biblically means that we are taking information that's been gathered And we're working to evaluate, interpret, understand, categorize, and prioritize, and address problems biblically. That's a lot, I know. We're working to evaluate, interpret, understand, categorize, prioritize, and address problems biblically. You say, good grief. Why would I want to do that? Because the alternative is you're going to evaluate, interpret, understand, categorize, prioritize, and address problems unbiblically. You want to do that? None of us want to do that. And so we're going to have to work in order to do it in a way that would be honoring to God. Let me give you a few examples here of the importance of discerning problems biblically. Probably the best case study for an individual who spoke before he heard a matter, that is, someone who started talking before he understood what was going on, is found in 1 Samuel 1. 1 Samuel 1. And I'll just read the text and then you'll know what I'm talking about. 1 Samuel 1. In verse 9, this is the story of Hannah and Eli. Hannah's heart was grieved. She was unable to bear a child. And in verse 9 it says, so Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if Thou will indeed look on the affliction of Thy handmaid and remember me and not forget Thy handmaid, but will give unto me, I'm sorry, give unto Thy handmaid a man-child, Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." Now, let's just stop there for just a second. Here's Hannah. She's in bitterness of soul, right? I mean, she is weighed down. And what she's doing is beautiful. She's going to God and she is pouring her heart out. That's what she's supposed to be doing. Now, verse 12 says, it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth. Now, let me just ask a quick question. Was Hannah honoring the Lord in her response to her affliction? Yeah, that's not a trick question. Yeah, she was. She was pouring her heart out before God. Eli comes along and sees Hannah. Starts trying to mark her mouth and see what she's saying, all that. Verse 13, it says, now Hannah, she spake in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunk. And Eli said unto her, how long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. Now, if you put notes in your Bible, Proverbs 18.13 finds a good home right there with Eli. Eli sees Hannah. She is afflicted in her soul. She is weeping and pouring her heart out before God. But the text tells us that she was doing all this really in her heart. Her lips were moving, but her words weren't coming out. So Eli sees this woman doing this. And all of a sudden, he finds himself in a situation where he needs to make an interpretation of what's going on. You realize we're interpreters every day, all day. I mean, we interpret everything. The question is, is it an accurate or an inaccurate interpretation? But we see things all the time. You come face to face with information all the time, and we have to interpret what's going on. Eli makes really an embarrassingly horrible interpretation and adds insult to injury as he takes this lady who is brokenhearted and treats her like a drunk. Essentially calls her to repent of being a drunk when she's really pouring her heart out before the Lord. Horrible interpretation there. And it's because he didn't take the time to figure out what was really going on. Now, let me give you another example of the importance of biblical interpretation. Why you need it and why I need it. Look in Luke 10. And this is a good illustration, a good example of why we need to learn, not just for other people, but for ourselves. All this stuff would apply as far as working through these kinds of things. We need to know how to discern for ourselves and then also for others, but discerning problems biblically. In Luke 10.38, we get this very familiar story. Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village, that's Jesus, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art..." The word in the KJV is careful, but it's anxious. "...thou art anxious and troubled or distressed about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away." So as we look to evaluate this, the circumstances or just the facts of what was happening are found in verses 38 and 39. Jesus enters into a village. He enters into the house of a woman named Martha and Martha had a sister named Mary, and she sat at Jesus' feet and heard His Word." That's what was going on. That's the facts of the story. If you were gathering data, that's it. That's what's happening. Now, Martha has a problem. It says in verse 40, Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help." So verse 40 gives us really Martha's interpretation of her problem, and it's this. It says that she was cumbered about. It just means she was distracted or she was preoccupied with all of her tasks. This was the problem. Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet and Martha was so busy with her task that she was completely distracted and preoccupied. And so Martha comes along to Jesus and says, do you not care that my sister is not helping me? So the problem was that Martha was distracted. Her interpretation of the problem was that this is because Mary is lazy. Could somebody please get this girl off the floor and get her to help? That's what Martha's thinking. If Mary wasn't so lazy, I wouldn't be so distracted. Well, kind of makes sense. But Jesus gives a different interpretation. Jesus says in verses 41 through 42, that Martha is distracted and preoccupied with all of the tasks because, now the word because is an interpretation word here, because she is anxious and stressed and upset about many things. Now, you may say, well, of course she is. And the reason she's anxious and upset and distressed about many things is because Mary's lazy. That's the problem. It still goes back to Mary. But if we take Jesus' words and we look at them carefully, we realize that the reason Martha was anxious and stressed and upset about so many things was because she had prioritized what she wanted over that which was needful. And then blamed the unpleasant consequences on Mary. who, according to Jesus, had prioritized the right thing. So Mary was condemning what Jesus was endorsing. You notice that in the passage? Mary's doing the wrong thing, and since Mary's doing the wrong thing, my spirits are all out of sorts. And Jesus says, you're blaming the wrong thing, Martha. Mary's chosen that which is needful, that which won't be taken away. But the problem is that you've become anxious and distressed about all kinds of things. And the problem is your priority, not what Mary's doing. You know how this works. Now, I'm not necessarily saying what I'm about to say is always sinful, but I am saying that it can certainly lead to distress and anxiety and so forth and so on. We like to have things a certain way, don't we? You think about the last time you had company, or maybe I could think about me and my house and company. What really matters to me when we have company is not necessarily what the house looks like. Abby would worry more about that. But you know what matters to me whenever we have company a lot of times, especially if I'm the one doing the cooking? How'd the food turn out? Do we have enough of it? Those kinds of things. I can be more worried about that than I can the purpose for why we're there in the first place. That is fellowship. That is to be able to interact with one another. That is to be able to serve the other person and so forth and so on. And if I'm thinking the entire time about how did this turn out? What are they thinking about this? What's the house look like? What's the food taste like? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've become anxious over things. Should it matter? Well, yeah, I think in a way it should matter. If I'm going to host you, hopefully, I want to serve you something that's not gross. But if I prioritize that over my service to you and our fellowship. That is, I'm so distracted thinking about that that we never get around to what God really cares about. That's a problem. And the problem is with me. So, many times we interpret our problems in inaccurate ways. This is a pretty good example of that where Jesus comes along. And if it weren't for Jesus, we probably would agree with Martha. So, we need to learn to interpret problems biblically. How do we do this? How do we think through this? Well, number one, and I think this is necessary for us to make this distinction. Scripture, the Bible, needs to be the lens for interpreting data, not the filter. And I'm going to tell you the difference just in case it doesn't make sense. But Scripture needs to be the lens that you're interpreting life through, interpreting data through, not the filter. So here's the difference. To use Scripture as a filter, it's to take a concept that has been developed outside of Scripture and see if you can find a way to align it with a verse. People do this all the time. they take a worldly concept, they find a verse that seems to align with that worldly concept, and they say, look, here, the Bible says it's true. It's right here. Anybody can see it. It's plain to see. I think it was on Wednesday, but if it wasn't, sometime recently, I mentioned the way people have done this with Matthew 22-39, Jesus is given the greatest command, and then the second is likened to it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And many people have taken this verse and they've tried to back up this self-esteem driven theory that says you must first learn to love yourself before you can love other people. If you don't love other people well, It's because you had to learn to love yourself well. And if you would just take the time and put in the effort to learn to love yourself better, your love for other people would skyrocket. And you say, that doesn't make sense. Well, it made sense to Jesus. You got to love other people the way you love yourself. And so if your level of love is not high or is not developed for yourself, you can't really expect it to be that way for other people. Now, that's using Scripture as a filter. Now, to use Scripture as a lens means that we're seeking to understand all of life through the lens of Scripture, and we're trying to develop our understanding of concepts by seeking to understand what Scripture as a whole says about a particular subject. So we're not just trying to match a worldly concept with a biblical text. We're trying to discern what does the Bible as a whole have to say about fill in the blank. So back to our example on Matthew 22-39. You've got to learn to love yourself before you can love other people. Think about this. Turn to Ephesians 5. We're trying to discern What does the Bible mean? What did Jesus mean whenever Jesus said that? Well, it's worth checking out to see is this illustration or is this parallel used anywhere else? And it turns out that it is. In Ephesians 5, verse 28, as he's illustrating the way husbands need to love their wives, In Ephesians 5.28, he says, "...so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church." Now, here's the question if you were to look at this text. Is Paul saying, that in order for husbands to love their wives appropriately, they must first learn to love, nourish, and cherish themselves. Is that what the text says? No, the text doesn't instruct or command that. The text assumes that. The text assumes it. Paul's saying we naturally love, nourish, and cherish ourselves, and since that's the case, We have a basis for understanding how we ought to love our wives. Paul says in verse 29, no man ever yet hated his own flesh. This is something that's just natural. It's just something that's assumed. We love ourselves. And so we have a basis for knowing how we ought to be interacting with and displaying love and care for other people. So this is viewing Scripture as a lens. We want to know what does the Bible say as a whole about any particular subject. Now, this is where the importance of doctrine comes into play. If you want to evaluate, if you want to discern, if you want to interpret problems biblically, you're going to have to understand biblical doctrine. Now, doctrine is just a word for teaching. And a lot of times when we talk about doctrine, we think about things like predestination and election and those kinds of things. And that is, that's doctrine. But doctrine is just simply what the Bible teaches about filling the blame. There's, again, the doctrine of God's love. There's a doctrine of how we ought to love one another. There are doctrines anywhere in Scripture that anything is mentioned or taught. And so what we've just been thinking about, just to kind of illustrate the point, out of Matthew 22 and out of Ephesians chapter 5, is the Bible's doctrine of self-love. So according to Scripture, we understand the Bible's doctrine of self-love. Do we need more of it or do we have more than we need? We got more than we need. That's the biblical doctrine of self-love. Now we apply that in practical ways to help discern problems. I hope you can see that my doctrine of self-love is going to affect the way I try to help somebody. So if I'm wrong, if I'm off, and I'm saying, well, I tell you what you really need is to spend more time loving yourself, then you can be more useful in the kingdom. Well, that's at odds with Jesus saying, if you would follow me, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. I'm sending someone in a direction that is opposite of where God wants them to go. And it is primarily because I have a doctrine problem. I don't understand what the Bible has to say about the subject I'm trying to speak to. Now, let's think about some theological models for evaluating problems biblically. Let's think about some models for evaluating biblically. We've already said we want to come at the Bible as a lens where we're looking at understanding all of life through Scripture. Scripture is developing our concepts, not the world. So that when something is a sin, we don't say it's a sickness. When something is coming from the heart, we're not making excuses for people or encouraging them to adopt some sort of a view that would say they're not responsible and so forth and so on. So look in 1 Thessalonians 5. This is another one of those passages that shows us the need for discernment. 1 Thessalonians 5. This is a good passage just to have marked down anytime you're trying to help someone, just to give you some categories and remind you of some things. This is where Paul says to the church in Thessalonica, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men." Paul says three different things here. You need to warn the unruly, you need to comfort the feeble-minded, and you need to support the weak. So here's the question. If you're trying to help someone, How are you going to know when to warn? How are you going to know when it's appropriate to provide comfort? And how are you going to know when it's appropriate to support someone? We make it our aim to please Him, 2 Corinthians 5-9. That is, we want to honor God. We want to bring Him glory in the way that we interact with people. What do you think God would think when we're seeking to help someone we find ourselves comforting the unruly. Well, we live in a world that equips us to do that and more. The unruly, those who have placed themselves at odds with God. Those who are in open rebellion, habitual rebellion. What are we supposed to do with those kinds of folks? Make excuses for them? Convince them that they're really victims? No. We warn them. Why? Because rebels really will meet God one day and answer for their rebellion. Okay, that's true. That's a reality. And so there are warnings to be given. God gives warnings in Scripture. What about this? What about those who are feeble-minded? Those who are weak-minded? Those who are in a fragile place? Does it honor God for us to give stern warnings to those who need comfort? No. We could say the same thing about supporting the weak. Again, the question is, how are you going to know when to do what? And the answer to that is, you've got to use your noggin. You've got to discern. You've got to think. You've got to evaluate. And you've got to do that according to Scripture. You don't get to decide what's rebellion. God has already decided that. And so whenever you discern that someone has violated what God would have them to do, that's how you know. Now, we want to think about this in at least two different ways. Number one, we want to be thinking about people and we want to be thinking about problems in terms of biblical and theological categories. Biblical and theological categories. So some good questions that we might ask if we're trying to help an individual is, does this individual have a biblical view of God? Does your view of God matter? I mean, just in day-to-day life, does it matter? Is it just for church? You know, A.W. Tozer said that the most important thing about a man is what he thinks of God. That's an accurate statement. What you think about God is going to affect every aspect of your life. It's going to affect the way that you think. It's going to affect the way that you're motivated. It's going to affect the way that you behave and so forth and so on. What does an individual think about God? It takes discernment and questions to figure that out. We view our problems in light of the character of God. whether you believe that or not. You know, some people think that their life just isn't fair. There's a theology of God in there somewhere. Does the individual have a biblical view of sin? That's pretty important. You know, just at the baseline, the root cause of every problem you will ever face, that anyone else will ever face, the baseline of that is going to be sin. Now, it may not be your sin. It may be the fact that someone else has sinned against you. But the baseline is sin. We live in a world that is fallen and cursed under the curse of sin. And if we're going to understand that accurately, then we're going to have to have an accurate view of sin. Does the individual have an accurate, or maybe I should say this way, it means the same for what we're talking about, but does an individual have a biblical view of humanity? Mankind? Including themselves? That matters. That matters. You know, typically, one of the most distorted areas in that people have in their thinking as it relates to trying to work through problems is they have a distorted view of themselves. So let me just give you a quick example here. Typically, this is what it looks like in session one of any kind of marriage counseling or any sort of relational conflict. It's just easier for me to say marriage counseling because I can divide it up clearly. The husband comes in and he thinks this. If she would just listen to what I had to say. If she would just recognize my wisdom. If she would just get on board with my agenda. If she would just realize that I'm really the hero in this relationship, and if she would quit being so stubborn and listen to me, we could get things going in the right direction, and I'm hoping this guy will convince her about how good I am. At the same time, the wife comes in and she's thinking this. If he would just listen. If he would just get on board with my agenda. If he could just see what all I've sacrificed and that really I'm the hero in the relationship and what I'm hoping is that this guy can get him to see how great I am. Now, we smile and we chuckle at that. The truth is you've thought that a million times in relational conflict. We all do. The question is, as we're trying to work through those problems, do we have a biblical view of ourselves and our contributions? to the issues. Here's another one. This is important. Again, we're thinking in theological categories. Does the individual have a biblical view of trials and suffering? That's important. Brother Aaron talked about it. whenever he was talking about, I can't remember the song, but about heaven, about the fact that what God's doing through these trials and where it is that we're going and how we're being shaped and molded and so forth and so on. What is God doing in trials? Why do you face trials and why do you face suffering? Is it because God hates you? Is it because God's out to get you? Is it because God's punishing you? A lot, a lot of people believe that. Does it make a difference in how you would respond to a trial if you had a biblical view of what God uses trials to produce? Yeah, the answer to that is yes. I'll give you a few more categories. And again, these are big picture categories. Who is the individual living their life to please? You've got somebody in front of you. You're trying to help. It would be very helpful for you to recognize and be able to discern who is this person primarily living their life to please. 2 Corinthians 5-9, Paul says, whether I'm dead or alive, I make it my aim to please Him. Sometimes people's problems are compounded because their primary goal in life is to please themselves. You find somebody who has problems and their answer to the problem is, I need another vacation. You got a pretty good answer to the problem. You find somebody who has problems and it's always everybody else's fault. You probably got a pretty good answer to the problem. You find somebody who has problems and they really exaggerate Their response to the problem is not really congruent with the problem. You find someone who's living a life to please themselves. So, biblical categories, theological categories. These are helpful. Second, and this is important, learning to use and understand biblical terminology. Biblical words. You want to learn how to discern, evaluate, categorize problems biblically? Well, you've got to learn biblical terminology. That is, biblical words. We can't explain problems biblically if we don't know how to use biblical terminology. And so often, We don't. Now, I'm going to give you some examples of that here in a minute. Part of the reason why we don't is because we live in a world that is just immersed in worldly wisdom. secular humanistic type thinking. Often we've allowed the world to give us labels by which we understand different problems and different categories and so forth and so on, and we've adopted those unwittingly. Here's one of the important things about using biblical terminology, and I'll go back to something I said earlier. And it's because an effective solution is always dependent on an accurate diagnosis. If you want to learn how to effectively solve problems biblically, you've got to learn how to effectively diagnose problems biblically. You've got to know what you're talking about. You've got to understand what Scripture says about that. If you're thinking about problems or life issues, through terminology and labels, worldly wisdom, you are not going to have a biblical understanding and you are not going to arrive at a biblical solution. Now think about that in light of 1 Corinthians 2, verses 12-13. The importance of using biblical terminology. Now I'm going to read it out of the New American Standard. You can look at it in your Bible in the KJV and see the clarifications here. But this is what Paul says, 1 Corinthians 2, verses 12 and 13, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. Stop there for a second. Paul's saying we've received. the Spirit of God. Why? So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. We might know. Now, look where he goes. He keeps going with this. Verse 13, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Now, in the KJV, it's spirit and spirit, but it's this combining or this explaining spiritual concepts, spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. We've said this before, but just as a reminder, God wrote a book, and God used words, and God used those words on purpose. Now, the words that he used can really transcend and cross over into different languages. Obviously, we know that. The word was written in Greek, and so we read in English. And I will say that honestly, one of the downsides or one of the weaknesses to only reading the King James Version is that you don't think thoughts in 1611 King James English. And so it's hard for you to think about modern concepts in archaic language at times. Now, I like the King James just fine. I use it. But I don't think that way. You know, I've never told anybody that your biggest problem is evil concupiscence. Never once. And you've never thought that either, because we don't think that way. But if you want to learn how to use the Bible in a practical way and help someone with it, or even grow yourself, we've got to be able to understand what the Spirit has said to us, and then we've got to be able to communicate that in an intelligible way. In a way that makes sense to us. Now, let me give you a practical way that you can do this. One of the ways that you can grow in the area of diagnosing problems with biblical terminology is to work to understand. There's all kinds of places. I'm going to give you some. All kinds of places in Scripture where the Bible gives us lists of sins. It's just one after the other. You'll remember on Wednesday nights we were looking at the works of the flesh for one of the services. And we did that in one. We didn't get too deep into it, but that's Galatians 5, 19-21. Now the question is, if you had to, could you take that list and could you give a concise, clear explanation of what each of those are? If you can't, I promise you, you will never be thinking in those categories. Proverbs 6, verses 16-19, seven things that the Lord hates. Could you clearly explain what those are? If you can't, that's not going to be in your thought process as you're trying to discern problems. Mark 7, verse 21. Jesus says, all these things proceed from the heart. And He gives a list. 1 Corinthians 6, 9-10. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom, and He gives a list. Colossians 3, 5. Now, here's one, and you can turn here. Ephesians 4 verse 31. Ephesians 4 verse 31. I'll give you an example or at least a pertinent question. In Ephesians 4 verse 31, Paul is talking about problems. He's talking about growth, but he's addressing some problems here. And he says, "...let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." Now here's the question. What's the difference between bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and malice? If someone were to ask you that, could you give a clear distinction between those words? Someone says, well, I don't know, it just all has something to do with anger. Well, if we were trying to help someone discern their problems biblically, We've got to give them something other than that. So, for example, there are times where you have people and their anger is just explosive anger. They just blow up. That's wrath. Wrath is that volcano type anger, that explosive anger that happens. And then you have others whose anger is sort of a low-lying, behind-the-scenes, just over time. There's never going to be a blow-up. But I'm not going to talk to you. And I'm not going to do the things that I know I could do to make your life easier. And I'm going to try to avoid you. And it's just kind of behind the scenes. Well, that's our word for anger in this text. Now, there's several other words. What's the difference between clamor and evil speaking? They both have to do with how you're using your mouth and how anger's affecting it. The point that I'm making is you cannot precisely diagnose a problem if you don't precisely understand biblical terminology. And we cannot take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ if our thinking is not clear. You know, clear thinking is so important in Scripture. You know, the older men in Titus 2, the very first thing that we're called to do is to be sober-minded. It just simply means to think clearly. What does that mean? Well, it means that you have a clear understanding of Scripture, and that is directing the way that you think. Well, unless you have clear, precise understanding of biblical words, you're not going to have a clear, precise understanding of biblical thoughts. It's one thing to say anger is bad. It's another thing for us to look and see what has the Scripture actually said about it and how does Scripture actually describe it. Now, you may say, well, what's the point in all that? Well, one of the points is when you look in these passages, and several of them, Galatians 5 is one, Ephesians is one, Ephesians 4 is one, where you find the list of problems, you usually find the solution a verse or two later. So, an individual that's dealing with bitterness or wrath or any of the things that are mentioned there, verse 32, what do you do after you put that off? The solution is we learn to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. You have bitterness in your life? You have wrath and anger in your life? You say, you know, I just don't feel like being kind to that person. Well, I want you to think about how God has forgiven you. I want you to think about how much you have squandered God's goodness on you. What I mean by that is, how many times have you spit in God's face? How many times has your behavior, your thoughts, your allegiances been grievous to God? More than you can count. And you want to know the only reason why you've been a recipient of God's forgiveness? It's for Christ's sake. It's because of what Christ has done on your behalf that God's wrath is not poured out on you. Now, I wonder if what God has done, or maybe I should say it this way, I wonder if what Christ has done on your behalf is enough to motivate you to forgive someone else and the wrongdoings that they've done toward you. Well, Jesus says, It better be. If you refuse to forgive your brother, you won't be forgiven. That's what he says. So you see here as we're thinking through problems and solutions, after problems, there's typically solutions to be found. Last, as we're thinking through this, we need to view Scripture or view problems through the lens of Scripture. We need to be thinking in biblical concepts, biblical terminology. There's plenty. There's plenty there to learn. Plenty to clarify. And then we need to acknowledge, and we did a whole message on this, but we need to make sure we're acknowledging that there is always a connection between behavior and the heart. There's always a connection between behavior and the heart. Behavior issues need to be addressed. Heart issues need to be addressed as well. I'm just going to give you one example of that. Look in 3 John. Again, we're trying to discern, we're trying to evaluate. Look in 3 John. Paul says in verse 9, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us nine. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, pratting against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." Okay, we have this man, diatrophies. He's not receiving the brethren the way that he ought to be. And then he's casting people out of the church who are receiving the brethren and who would receive Paul. And the question is, what is wrong with Diotrephes? Well, if you look in verses 9 and 10, you can see there are at least two heart issues that are going on. Number one, Diotrephes' biggest problem, one of his biggest problems, that he loves something too much. You can see it from the text. In verse 9, what is it that Diotrephes loves? The preeminence. He wants to be the main guy. He doesn't want Paul around. And it has nothing to do with Paul. And it has everything to do with him. He wants to be the preeminent one. It could be anybody. Now, why? Why is he throwing these guys out? Why is he not accepting the men that he ought to be accepting? Well, verse 10 tells us this. There's a contentment issue. There's a contentment issue in his status. The problem is that there's heart problems that are motivating and fueling outward behaviors. And so as we're trying to discern, we think about passages like Mark 7, where Jesus says, these things come out of the heart. We think about Proverbs 4.23, where he says, guard your heart because the issues of life come out of it. We think about James 4 where James says, why are there wars and fightings among you? It's because of the pleasures that war. That is, it's just because of what's going on in your heart. You want something. You're not able to get it. So as we're trying to discern and evaluate, we're not just looking at the fruit, but we're also trying to discern the root of the problems that are going on. Our second key element as we want to grow being effective biblical counselors and disciples, we need to, number one, gather data. And then number two, we need to learn to discern problems biblically, which means we need to have a precise and clear understanding of what Scripture says categorically and what Scripture says as far as terminology goes. Let's pray. Father, we do pray that You would bless us to grow in wisdom, in our ability, our skill to be able to use Your Word. Lord, we confess there is a lot to learn. There's always going to be a lot to learn. But through Your help, Father, we can grow in this. And so I pray that as we read the Bible for ourselves, that we would intentionally seek to clarify these concepts and clarify these terminologies so that we would be better at seeing and evaluating in a way that is consistent with the way that you see and evaluate. We thank you that you've given us your word. And now we pray that we would use it skillfully in Jesus name. Amen.