ACBC Theology Exam 23 - The Doctrine of the Church

00:00:00.000 | our 23rd meeting of Intermediate Biblical Counseling.

00:00:03.780 | Trust that you're doing well and trust

00:00:06.780 | that your Thanksgiving break was a happy one.

00:00:11.580 | It's great to have you back on this class.

00:00:13.440 | As you know, we're moving our way to the end of this class

00:00:17.140 | and this year and heading to our final two meetings of 2020.

00:00:22.620 | We'll be looking at tonight Theology exam number 23,

00:00:26.020 | and then next Sunday,

00:00:27.860 | we'll be looking at Theology exam number 24.

00:00:31.300 | We will get through the Theology exams by the end of this year,

00:00:35.900 | and then we'll wait until January to do the counseling exams.

00:00:40.660 | But I do hope that your study has been a blessed one,

00:00:45.380 | and that you've been encouraged as you've been looking at

00:00:47.660 | these wonderful topics from the ACBC Theology exams,

00:00:52.580 | and just encouraged by your faithfulness and your love for God's word.

00:00:57.140 | Thank you for being with us this year and for continuing in our study together.

00:01:03.380 | Well, tonight we are looking at Theology exam number 23,

00:01:07.780 | and we're looking at the doctrine of the church.

00:01:11.660 | If you remember from your last two Theology exams,

00:01:15.580 | we left off studying the doctrine of the Holy Spirit

00:01:21.100 | in the last two weeks of our class together,

00:01:25.460 | and now we are making a transition from the doctrine of

00:01:29.340 | the Holy Spirit to the doctrine of the church in theological terms.

00:01:33.860 | We're moving from pneumatology to ecclesiology,

00:01:39.020 | and that transition shouldn't be a difficult one to make.

00:01:45.300 | If you understand that we as believers have been baptized into the Holy Spirit of God,

00:01:51.380 | that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit,

00:01:54.420 | and that we have been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit,

00:01:58.020 | then it's a natural transition to look at who we are corporately as a church,

00:02:04.580 | that the church is the new spiritual organism in

00:02:08.780 | the New Testament age that has been birthed by the power of the Holy Spirit,

00:02:14.620 | and that proclaims the gospel to the world

00:02:17.740 | in the power and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

00:02:21.380 | We are transitioning from pneumatology to ecclesiology,

00:02:25.980 | from the doctrine of the Holy Spirit to the doctrine of the church,

00:02:29.940 | and I can't think of any better way to spend an hour

00:02:33.260 | tonight than in talking through the doctrine of the church.

00:02:38.460 | This is a doctrine that I love.

00:02:41.420 | This is a doctrine that I trust you will love.

00:02:44.300 | This is a doctrine that is near and dear to the heart

00:02:47.980 | of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, ACBC.

00:02:53.460 | In fact, this is probably one of the distinctives of ACBC that I love and that I treasure,

00:03:02.180 | is the fact that not only does ACBC hold to the doctrine of

00:03:07.820 | sufficiency as it relates to Scripture's role in counseling,

00:03:12.580 | but also holds to a view of the local church that sees

00:03:16.860 | counseling as an expression of the church's ministry.

00:03:22.740 | This is a distinctive.

00:03:24.400 | Most counseling organizations see counseling as

00:03:28.260 | an activity that happens outside of the local church and not inside of the local church.

00:03:33.700 | What you'll see in most counseling approaches in our world today is

00:03:38.980 | that people are promoting an idea that in order to do effective counseling,

00:03:44.700 | we need to refer people outside of the local church,

00:03:48.760 | and it's when they go outside the church,

00:03:51.640 | that is when they're going to get the most help for their problems.

00:03:56.620 | As you know, ACBC holds to a high view of the local church

00:04:01.740 | that sees counseling as a ministry of the church,

00:04:07.220 | that the most effective help that people are going to

00:04:10.700 | get for their problems happens inside the church,

00:04:15.580 | and so the church ought to embrace

00:04:19.700 | the ministry of counseling as part of the ministry of the church.

00:04:24.740 | ACBC promotes that view of counseling.

00:04:28.820 | ACBC has a high view of the local church.

00:04:32.060 | In fact, you cannot get certified as a biblical counselor with

00:04:36.060 | ACBC without being a member of a local church,

00:04:41.260 | without having a recommendation and affirmation of

00:04:45.460 | your counseling ministry from the pastors and the elders of your local church.

00:04:51.100 | In fact, ACBC is so intent on getting the affirmation of

00:04:57.500 | the local church that they require a yearly annual reaffirmation of a counselor's ministry,

00:05:05.340 | and so I need to as a pastor in my local church,

00:05:09.540 | sign off on the counselors in our church and their ministry on an annual basis,

00:05:16.860 | because we do see that people want to become

00:05:20.340 | counselors and they actually do become certified counselors,

00:05:23.580 | and then they may leave their local church and be operating

00:05:27.260 | outside of the authority of the local church,

00:05:31.540 | and so ACBC, if they see that happen,

00:05:36.500 | that person will not be renewed in their certification.

00:05:41.140 | All that to say that we take that very seriously.

00:05:44.420 | We take the local church's role in counseling very seriously,

00:05:48.900 | and what you have in ACBC is an organization that is very devoted

00:05:56.020 | to holding a high view of the local church in counseling ministry.

00:06:02.660 | So I do hope that's something you'll embrace.

00:06:05.540 | I hope that as I stated in year one of our training,

00:06:08.620 | that you as a counselor will be committed to your church,

00:06:13.580 | that you will have a reputation in your local church to

00:06:18.540 | uphold the ministry of the pastors and the elders of the church,

00:06:22.220 | that you will become known in your church,

00:06:25.060 | that you will serve in your church.

00:06:27.540 | One of the questions that ACBC has us write out for our counselors is on an annual basis,

00:06:34.620 | is does this person uphold the elders and the pastors of the local church?

00:06:43.060 | Are they submissive and supportive of the leadership of the local church?

00:06:48.140 | So I always tell my counselors,

00:06:49.460 | you guys better be nice to me throughout the year because the annual review is coming,

00:06:53.940 | and they are more than exemplary in supporting the leaders of their local church.

00:07:03.780 | But I hope it's something you'll embrace,

00:07:06.300 | that you will be known for this,

00:07:08.900 | that you will be church people,

00:07:11.820 | that you will be known not only for your love for Christ and his word,

00:07:16.300 | but also for your commitment to your church.

00:07:21.140 | So with that preamble,

00:07:23.380 | let me get into our study for tonight,

00:07:25.740 | and I do pray that each of you will be encouraged.

00:07:28.020 | I do thank God for each of you.

00:07:29.500 | Thank you so much for your encouragement as we've worked our way through this year,

00:07:34.460 | and just to know that you're showing up every Sunday,

00:07:37.980 | desiring to be equipped for counseling ministry.

00:07:41.380 | There is no greater joy than to see people love the word of God,

00:07:47.300 | and desire to learn the word of God,

00:07:49.220 | and just encouraged by each of you joining us on this webinar for this class.

00:07:58.020 | So let me pray for us, and let's dive right in.

00:08:02.300 | Well, Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the privilege of studying your word,

00:08:08.580 | and we thank you so much for the privilege of not only belonging to Christ,

00:08:15.100 | but the privilege of belonging to the local church.

00:08:19.660 | We thank you for the church,

00:08:22.340 | for this is the church which Christ has purchased with his own blood,

00:08:28.620 | and we thank you that the church is the very body and the bride of Christ,

00:08:35.180 | and that your word teaches us to love Christ is to love the church,

00:08:40.580 | and to love the church is to love Christ,

00:08:42.780 | for the church lives in vital spiritual union with Christ.

00:08:48.820 | And so we just thank you for how the local church is a means of blessing to each of our lives.

00:08:57.180 | We thank you for the gatherings of the church.

00:09:00.860 | We thank you for the songs of the church.

00:09:04.180 | We thank you for the ordinances of the church, baptism and the Lord's Supper.

00:09:10.500 | We thank you for the fellowship of the church, for the teaching ministry of the church.

00:09:16.780 | We thank you that the church is the environment in which we grow spiritually,

00:09:23.460 | and that it is the most precious institution on the earth today.

00:09:32.460 | We thank you that Christ has promised to build his church.

00:09:36.780 | And so Father, we pray that you would help us in these last two weeks to develop a robust ecclesiology,

00:09:45.980 | that we would understand what your word teaches about the church,

00:09:50.700 | and that we would see counseling ministry as an extension and as an expression of the local church's ministry.

00:10:00.620 | And may many come to our churches and receive help and hope from your word,

00:10:06.980 | and be ministered to by the body of Christ, and have lives that are changed for your glory,

00:10:12.900 | we pray as a result of our study together.

00:10:17.540 | We pray your spirit would work in us tonight, and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

00:10:23.540 | Amen. Well, let's read the theology exam question together.

00:10:27.700 | We were looking at the doctrine of the church in theology exam number 23.

00:10:32.940 | The question is provide a biblical description of the church.

00:10:37.260 | Now that, as you note, will be a very general prompt for an essay dealing with what is the church and what does the Bible say about the church?

00:10:51.220 | Just note that in theology exam number 24, you're going to get more specific about how counseling ministry relates to the church.

00:10:59.140 | This week's exam question really is a general prompt.

00:11:03.500 | It's a general question asking you to describe just the general descriptions of what the Bible says about the church.

00:11:14.740 | And I do pray that you will write a good essay on this topic.

00:11:21.900 | A number of helpful resources on page one of your handout, you have the usual selections from the standard resources.

00:11:30.180 | We have Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology,

00:11:38.500 | and then Heath Lamberts, A Theology of Biblical Counseling.

00:11:43.460 | I would also recommend to you a selection from the Journal of Biblical Counseling, David Powelson's Counseling is the Church.

00:11:52.700 | I believe that can be purchased from the CCEF website.

00:11:58.260 | Just a really good resource thinking through how counseling relates to the local church.

00:12:07.220 | And then a really good resource that you want to have on your bookshelf is Robert Soce's The Church in God's Program.

00:12:16.420 | Now, if I had one book that I would recommend to put in a person's hands to give them a solid,

00:12:23.900 | comprehensive overview of what the Bible teaches about the church, it would be Robert Soce's The Church in God's Program.

00:12:33.260 | You'll find that much of my material is at least inspired by or prompted by Soce's study,

00:12:40.300 | especially his summary of the biblical illustrations of the church.

00:12:46.140 | And so if you want a resource that you can easily footnote in your essays,

00:12:51.740 | you can pick up Robert Soce's work and you can take your quotations from his material.

00:12:59.740 | I do encourage people not to quote from my lecture notes because my lecture notes are not published material.

00:13:06.860 | But you'll find that if you want to quote from a good published resource,

00:13:13.260 | Robert Soce's The Church in God's Program is a helpful and very readable study as well.

00:13:21.980 | So I highly recommend you to have that on your bookshelf.

00:13:26.820 | Let's move in our study to page two of your notes, and we're looking at the topic of the doctrine of the church.

00:13:36.820 | If you get a chance, take a look at the ACBC Standards of Doctrine.

00:13:42.340 | Those can be found at the ACBC website at biblicalcounseling.com.

00:13:48.660 | By the way, ACBC has a brand new website that has been launched.

00:13:54.380 | You can find that at biblicalcounseling.com.

00:13:58.060 | It's a beautiful website and very well done by the folks at ACBC.

00:14:04.740 | But on the ACBC Standards of Doctrine, we have a section on the doctrine of the church,

00:14:10.740 | and it states that the church is the bride of Christ called to proclaim the word of God,

00:14:18.260 | administer baptism and the Lord's Supper, and exercise church discipline.

00:14:24.980 | The church is the organism through which God accomplishes his mission in the world.

00:14:30.860 | It is the main agent for all ministry of the word, including the ministry of counseling and discipleship.

00:14:41.900 | And again, if you want a resource that is easily quotable for your essays,

00:14:47.260 | you can never go wrong by quoting from the ACBC Standards of Doctrine.

00:14:54.020 | That is a very good statement that summarizes what the Bible teaches about the church.

00:15:02.820 | Just on a devotional, practical, personal note, we want to be reminded that as believers,

00:15:11.380 | we are meant to live with a passion for the local church.

00:15:15.980 | God has called us to love the church and not only to love the universal church,

00:15:23.340 | the worldwide body of Christ, but to love our local church,

00:15:29.380 | which is an expression of the worldwide body of Christ.

00:15:35.180 | If I wanted to say I want to esteem and love the institution of marriage,

00:15:41.580 | I want to esteem the marital covenant in general and uphold the institution of marriage,

00:15:47.500 | then one of the best ways I can do that is by loving my wife and being faithful in my own marriage.

00:15:54.700 | And in a similar way, we can express our love for the universal church,

00:16:00.220 | the worldwide body of Christ, by loving our local church,

00:16:05.300 | the particular local expression of the body of Christ, which is found in every nation and in every continent.

00:16:17.740 | A helpful distinction between these two ideas, you have the universal church,

00:16:23.540 | which is the theological term we use to describe the church worldwide.

00:16:31.340 | Henry Thiessen defines this as all those who in this age have been born of the spirit of God

00:16:38.060 | and have by that same spirit been baptized into the body of Christ.

00:16:45.180 | So when we refer to the universal church, we're speaking of the worldwide body of Christ.

00:16:53.700 | And just I do encourage you to have a passion for the church universal,

00:16:59.420 | to have a passion for the church in Australia, the church in Japan, the church in Italy,

00:17:06.380 | the church in Russia, the worldwide body of Christ.

00:17:11.140 | There ought to be a global passion that we have for the church,

00:17:16.740 | that as we see the church built up in any nation and in every nation,

00:17:22.220 | that we would rejoice and that we would be in prayer for the universal church.

00:17:29.220 | But what a joy it is to know that the universal church has particular local expressions.

00:17:37.740 | The local church is defined as a group of believers that is identified as a local assembly or congregation.

00:17:46.900 | That would be the definition by Paul Enns in the Moody Handbook of Theology.

00:17:54.580 | We express our esteem for the universal church by being faithful in our local church.

00:18:03.700 | Now, if you've been committed to your local church for any length of time,

00:18:08.460 | you know that being committed to the local church is not always glamorous.

00:18:14.620 | Being committed to a local church means that we show up every Sunday to the same church

00:18:21.460 | and we see the same people, we hear preaching from the same pastor,

00:18:26.100 | and we do that Sunday after Sunday, year after year,

00:18:30.380 | and we just desire to be faithful to those things.

00:18:33.820 | It's not so much a glamorous commitment,

00:18:38.300 | and all church people will be able to tell you the same.

00:18:43.300 | It's serving in the nursery,

00:18:45.180 | it's serving refreshments to the saints,

00:18:48.580 | it's opening the same Bible,

00:18:51.140 | sitting in the same seat many times,

00:18:53.980 | if you're in a routine of sitting in the same location in your particular assembly,

00:19:01.540 | and it's just doing that week after week,

00:19:03.580 | Sunday after Sunday, year after year,

00:19:05.580 | just being faithful to your local church,

00:19:09.540 | and yet it is through this commitment of being faithful to my local church

00:19:15.700 | that we express our love and our esteem for the church universal.

00:19:23.020 | We are part of what God is doing in building up his church worldwide

00:19:29.420 | as we show up in our local congregations day after day and week after week.

00:19:36.940 | By committing ourselves to some very small things,

00:19:41.260 | we become part of the great and the glorious work of God

00:19:46.780 | that he is doing in building his church around the world.

00:19:51.540 | You see that scripture refers to the universal church in Ephesians 5,

00:19:56.260 | verse 25, where Paul says,

00:19:57.980 | "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

00:20:05.140 | That's referring to the church universal.

00:20:09.340 | All those who have been born by the Spirit of God,

00:20:14.060 | Christ loved the church.

00:20:17.380 | But then you'll find in other passages,

00:20:19.940 | references to the local church.

00:20:23.060 | For instance, in Acts 8, verse 1,

00:20:25.820 | "There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem."

00:20:33.100 | That's referring to the particular expression of

00:20:36.820 | the universal church in the particular city of Jerusalem.

00:20:42.180 | You'll find that throughout the New Testament scriptures.

00:20:45.580 | Scripture refers to the church in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2.

00:20:51.620 | The churches of Galatia in Galatians 1, verse 2.

00:20:57.180 | The church of the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 1.

00:21:02.100 | You have these local expressions of a worldwide or universal reality.

00:21:09.980 | This concept of universal church and local church is

00:21:14.260 | found in the New Testament scriptures.

00:21:18.580 | By the way, when you're looking at

00:21:21.340 | those two concepts of universal church versus local church,

00:21:24.980 | it may surprise you to see how much Scripture

00:21:29.620 | emphasizes the second aspect, the local church.

00:21:33.860 | In fact, I think this is in your notes,

00:21:36.580 | the term ecclesia is the common New Testament word referring to the church.

00:21:44.300 | Out of 114 occurrences in the New Testament,

00:21:48.380 | at least 90 times it refers to the local church.

00:21:53.140 | There is a high priority in Scripture that is placed upon a commitment to a local church.

00:22:02.740 | Now, in our day, we find that the priority of

00:22:06.860 | the local church really is being diminished and I don't mean to be critical here,

00:22:11.180 | but I do want to be true to life.

00:22:15.140 | We do see a lot of church hopping in people's lives.

00:22:19.620 | People do float from church to church or they're around

00:22:23.940 | one church long enough to see its flaws and then they move to another church.

00:22:28.180 | We just do see a lot of a low commitment to a particular local church.

00:22:35.540 | I always tell a humorous example of one person goes

00:22:39.620 | to one church because they like the worship team there,

00:22:43.260 | and then they go to another church because they like the preaching there.

00:22:46.580 | They go to a third church because they like the donuts

00:22:48.900 | there and they're moving from church to church.

00:22:52.260 | That's a little bit of an exaggeration,

00:22:54.820 | but not so much of an exaggeration.

00:22:58.940 | We do see that people tend to have a low view of a steady commitment to the local church.

00:23:08.100 | We do find on a very practical note that many of the people that we

00:23:13.020 | counsel have problems in their lives because they

00:23:18.700 | have no regular faithful involvement with a local church.

00:23:25.180 | Either they haven't become members of a church or maybe they are members,

00:23:29.700 | but they're not engaged on a weekly basis in the ministry of the church.

00:23:35.980 | They don't have relationships in their church.

00:23:39.180 | They're not part of a small group.

00:23:41.580 | No one's praying for them.

00:23:43.460 | They're not praying for anyone.

00:23:45.020 | There isn't this mutual one-anothering that is part of the body life that's happening in

00:23:50.980 | their lives and we do find that many of our counselees are really struggling with

00:23:56.020 | a lot of spiritual baggage,

00:23:59.420 | a lot of spiritual struggles because they don't have

00:24:02.020 | a robust commitment to their local church and part of

00:24:05.420 | counseling ministry is helping our counselees see their need for involvement in

00:24:12.060 | a local church and helping them to take those next steps

00:24:15.820 | to become faithful participants of the local church.

00:24:20.940 | But there is a heavy emphasis in scripture on the local church.

00:24:25.300 | Dr. Larry Pettigrew writes this,

00:24:27.140 | that the local church is intended to be a local reflection of the body of Christ.

00:24:33.940 | The local is simply the active,

00:24:36.420 | working, visible counterpart of the universal.

00:24:41.700 | A very good way of relating the two concepts of universal church and local church.

00:24:49.620 | Earl Rodmacher has put it this way in his book,

00:24:52.900 | The Nature of the Church.

00:24:54.820 | He writes that the working method of God in the world at any given time is to carry out

00:24:59.940 | his purpose through the members of the body of Christ,

00:25:04.340 | who are living in the world at that time.

00:25:07.460 | The New Testament always views these members of the body as

00:25:11.060 | banded together in groups known as local churches.

00:25:15.220 | Thus, the church is in the world in the form of local churches,

00:25:20.660 | which are physical organizations with

00:25:23.220 | physical relationships and definite physical responsibilities.

00:25:28.900 | I love this statement. The local church is God's agency in the world,

00:25:34.460 | transacting God's business.

00:25:38.860 | Now, just think through the implications of that statement.

00:25:44.340 | I think John MacArthur has put it this way,

00:25:47.420 | that God is really only doing one thing in the world today,

00:25:50.820 | and that is he is building Christ Church.

00:25:55.460 | Everything else going on in the world is just background and backdrop to

00:26:00.020 | the great story of how Christ is building his church in the New Testament era,

00:26:07.620 | and the church will be presented to Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb,

00:26:12.580 | without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

00:26:16.100 | The very bride of Christ that will one day be glorified.

00:26:22.020 | God is doing only really one thing in the world today,

00:26:25.060 | and he is building his church,

00:26:26.420 | and everything else just provides the environment or the context in which that is happening.

00:26:33.940 | The local church is God's agency in the world,

00:26:38.020 | transacting God's business.

00:26:40.580 | So I tell young people this,

00:26:42.100 | I say if you want to be something big,

00:26:44.820 | give your heart and your life to the church.

00:26:49.500 | This is where it's at.

00:26:51.340 | This is where the action is happening.

00:26:53.220 | This is where God is changing lives.

00:26:55.140 | This is where God is doing his business in the world.

00:26:59.500 | It's not in the government.

00:27:01.660 | It's not in the corporations.

00:27:03.620 | I mean, all of that is good and well,

00:27:06.100 | and all of that has its place,

00:27:07.500 | but all of that is just backdrop and

00:27:10.060 | background to what God is doing in building his church.

00:27:13.060 | If you want to be in the middle of the greatest work that God is doing in the world today,

00:27:19.700 | then give your heart and your life to your local church.

00:27:23.500 | Be there. Be there when the church meets.

00:27:27.140 | Be there when the word is taught.

00:27:28.900 | Be there when relationships are formed,

00:27:30.980 | when the church prays together.

00:27:33.740 | Be committed to your local church,

00:27:37.500 | and I'll tell you on the backside of some of you know,

00:27:41.380 | I have young adult children,

00:27:42.660 | and my wife and I have always sought to instill in our children,

00:27:49.140 | the priority of the local church.

00:27:50.980 | There were always things that they weren't able to do,

00:27:53.700 | because we always said that we're going to be there when the church meets,

00:27:57.820 | that our children are going to be there when the church meets,

00:28:00.740 | and if that means they can't go to a soccer game,

00:28:03.020 | or they can't be part of another extracurricular activity,

00:28:06.620 | then that was going to be the price that we were going to pay,

00:28:09.500 | and I'll tell you on the end of that journey,

00:28:14.300 | or the beginning of the end of that journey is,

00:28:17.620 | we have no regrets that our children were not always able to do

00:28:23.140 | all of the things that all children do or the society tells you that they need to do,

00:28:28.980 | but they have grown up with a love for the local church,

00:28:33.540 | and we have no regrets in making that a priority.

00:28:39.220 | The church is where it's at,

00:28:42.780 | and so Wayne Mack has put it this way in his excellent work,

00:28:46.900 | Life in the Father's House.

00:28:48.340 | He says, at the primary context,

00:28:51.020 | and by the way, you need to have that book,

00:28:53.660 | Life in the Father's House by Wayne Mack at my previous church.

00:28:57.620 | We used to make that book required reading for anyone who wants to become a church member,

00:29:03.460 | because it was just so helpful in thinking through what is the church,

00:29:07.020 | and what does it mean to be part of the local church,

00:29:10.420 | and Wayne Mack writes this,

00:29:12.220 | the primary context in which God wants this involvement to take place is the local body of believers,

00:29:19.500 | and so the commitment called for is also a commitment to the church.

00:29:24.980 | Almost all of the one another's of the New Testament are given directly to

00:29:29.900 | local churches and are intended to help those churches be what God wants them to be.

00:29:36.940 | It is not enough for us to say that we are merely a part of the universal or invisible church.

00:29:43.620 | We must also commit ourselves to a local or visible group of God's people.

00:29:51.380 | That's a great statement and worthy of our careful attention.

00:29:57.060 | So let me move to the next page of your handout,

00:29:59.860 | and let me make a point here that maybe at the risk of restating the obvious,

00:30:07.180 | but that's okay because I think we need to at times restate the obvious.

00:30:13.460 | The statement is this,

00:30:14.980 | that Christians are meant to have a definite relationship to

00:30:20.340 | a defined local church with a definite structure under a definitive authority.

00:30:29.620 | I'll just repeat that again.

00:30:31.820 | Christians are meant to have a definite relationship,

00:30:35.060 | that's church membership, to a defined local church,

00:30:40.100 | that's a particular local assembly with a definite structure,

00:30:46.140 | that's an organized local assembly of believers under a definitive authority,

00:30:53.620 | that's a plurality of elders.

00:30:56.460 | We could go through each of those components,

00:30:58.700 | but just as a brief summary,

00:31:01.780 | I would highlight two points here that the definite relationship that we're

00:31:06.980 | talking about really can be defined as church membership.

00:31:13.040 | Every church does membership a little bit differently,

00:31:16.900 | but the concept of church membership is thoroughly biblical.

00:31:22.020 | I've taught church membership classes here at

00:31:25.260 | Kinder Community Church over the last five years and people have asked me,

00:31:28.940 | "Well, Dan, where does it say that I need to become a church member in the Bible?

00:31:34.660 | Where is church membership found in the Bible?"

00:31:36.940 | I've always responded to that by saying,

00:31:39.040 | "Where is the concept of a believer being able to

00:31:43.340 | grow without a definite relationship to the local church?

00:31:48.900 | Where is that concept found in the Bible that you just have

00:31:52.020 | individual believers doing whatever they please and not gathering in

00:31:55.780 | local assemblies and being accountable and known in that assembly?"

00:32:01.500 | The concept of church membership is thoroughly biblical.

00:32:06.740 | The concept of a believer being placed in a local assembly,

00:32:10.560 | being accountable to that assembly,

00:32:12.280 | being submissive to the elders and the pastors of that assembly,

00:32:16.780 | being governed by a particular church governance structure,

00:32:21.920 | being into the one another life of that local church and

00:32:26.840 | partaking of the ordinances that are given by that church.

00:32:32.520 | That concept is thoroughly biblical that a believer is known in that local assembly,

00:32:38.840 | that there is a definite relationship that each believer needs to

00:32:42.920 | have with a particular local church.

00:32:48.080 | So that is just something that we need to promote and that we need to be a part of,

00:32:56.240 | is this idea of having a known public relationship that says,

00:33:02.840 | in church membership, that's what it is.

00:33:04.760 | It's a public relationship where you publicly identify yourself as

00:33:09.280 | being accountable to a particular local assembly to the point that if you were,

00:33:15.040 | God forbid, ever to go astray in doctrine or in terms of your personal holiness,

00:33:23.640 | if you're ever to go astray and fall into sin,

00:33:26.240 | that there would be a particular local assembly that would have

00:33:30.800 | the right and the responsibility of shepherding you,

00:33:35.080 | disciplining you, and bringing you back,

00:33:37.440 | restoring you back into the fellowship.

00:33:40.760 | That is talking about a definite relationship.

00:33:45.320 | Then another point here I would highlight is that

00:33:49.120 | this local assembly is governed under definitive authority.

00:33:55.600 | I believe Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3,

00:33:58.760 | as well as 1 Timothy 5,

00:34:00.920 | would call for a plurality of elders which govern

00:34:04.800 | a local assembly that shepherd the local church

00:34:09.440 | and that are responsible to give an account for that church.

00:34:13.880 | So as an elder of my church,

00:34:15.800 | I live under the burden and I mean that as a joyful burden,

00:34:22.640 | but it is a burden too that one day I will give

00:34:26.160 | an account for the sheep who are members of my church.

00:34:29.600 | Hebrews 13 is very clear that one day elders will give

00:34:33.280 | an account for the members in their church.

00:34:38.240 | That is a joy and it's a glad burden,

00:34:43.280 | but I live under that responsibility that I will give an account.

00:34:48.240 | I need to know where the sheep are.

00:34:50.240 | I need to know who's going astray.

00:34:52.760 | I need to know who's struggling,

00:34:54.280 | who needs prayer, who's in the hospital.

00:34:57.680 | I need to know those things because that is

00:35:00.480 | the responsibility of an elder in the church.

00:35:03.120 | Now, I cannot know or give an account for

00:35:07.640 | sheep if they have never identified themselves as belonging to my church.

00:35:13.480 | I cannot account for their spiritual life if they have

00:35:16.520 | never even identified themselves and let us know what their names are.

00:35:21.520 | I say to the members of my church,

00:35:24.280 | please make my life easier on the day when I will give

00:35:27.280 | an account to the Lord by being easy to give an account for.

00:35:31.520 | Make it easy for your elders to give an account for your soul.

00:35:35.280 | Be there on Sunday, be there in classes,

00:35:38.200 | be there in small groups so that we know where you are,

00:35:41.320 | we know how you're doing,

00:35:42.760 | make it easy for us,

00:35:44.320 | and church membership is part of that process.

00:35:48.720 | Christians are meant to live in this way.

00:35:54.280 | It's very important that we understand that.

00:35:58.040 | Now, because I do belong to a local church,

00:36:01.320 | I'm going to brag on the pastor of my church,

00:36:03.760 | Pastor Philip DeCourcy,

00:36:05.760 | who was on a discussion panel with some leading national counseling figures,

00:36:11.440 | and these leading national figures held to an integrationist view of counseling.

00:36:18.680 | If I told you who they were,

00:36:21.480 | you would know who they are because they're nationally known.

00:36:25.680 | What these leaders were essentially saying is that

00:36:28.800 | the church doesn't have the resources to counsel their members,

00:36:33.920 | and what the church needs to do is to refer their members out to "professional counselors"

00:36:42.280 | in order to receive real help for their problems.

00:36:48.880 | Those of us who know Pastor Philip,

00:36:51.840 | we could see his body language on this Q&A panel.

00:36:55.720 | We could see that he had a little righteous indignation at what the people were saying.

00:37:04.640 | I love so much what Pastor Philip said that I transcribed that and put that on your handout,

00:37:11.320 | and I won't be able to recreate the Irish accent,

00:37:14.240 | but he said this on the panel,

00:37:17.360 | "I just get a little unsettled when we use the term 'professional counselor'

00:37:21.840 | because every one of my pastors are professional, competent, capable, theological, and godly.

00:37:29.840 | I just get a little disturbed when we use this term as if you could go to

00:37:34.040 | your pastor who is not a professional and then you could go to the professional counselor.

00:37:40.240 | When I talk about being with my elders,

00:37:42.520 | these men are counselors.

00:37:44.000 | They've got years of walking with Christ.

00:37:46.480 | They've seen life in the raw.

00:37:48.480 | They can handle the word of God.

00:37:50.360 | I'm not ruling out going to a doctor or a psychiatrist in some cases,

00:37:54.080 | but today in the church,

00:37:56.240 | we have so elevated psychiatry side of the fence,

00:37:59.440 | and the professional medical side of things,

00:38:02.000 | it demotes the pastor."

00:38:04.400 | The Puritans called pastors physicians of the soul.

00:38:08.960 | Just historically, pastors were the counselors in the congregations,

00:38:14.040 | the physicians of the soul.

00:38:16.240 | While the doctor has a role to play in the physical side,

00:38:19.440 | if a man knows the word,

00:38:20.880 | he can address the issue of anger,

00:38:22.960 | eating habits, because that's an issue of self-control.

00:38:25.840 | He can make that a gospel issue.

00:38:28.200 | I want my people to know that the first port of call is the church.

00:38:32.680 | The first port of call is your pastors who can handle God's word.

00:38:37.400 | Then a wise pastor won't rule out in the common grace of God and in the providence of God.

00:38:43.000 | That person might need something,

00:38:44.720 | but I just think we tend to run to that too quickly.

00:38:47.760 | At our church, we train our people to counsel from the word of

00:38:51.600 | God so that we address those issues that families are going through.

00:38:56.120 | At this point in the dialogue,

00:38:57.640 | one of the leading integrationist counselors said something to the effect of,

00:39:02.760 | "You don't really mean to say that the church has the ability to help

00:39:07.040 | someone with a cutting issue or an eating problem, an eating disorder."

00:39:13.800 | Pastor Philip responded, "I feel

00:39:16.440 | any pastor should feel qualified to address the cutting issue.

00:39:20.520 | At the end of the day, that's an image problem.

00:39:23.400 | It's a self-control problem.

00:39:25.200 | It's a body image problem,

00:39:26.760 | and that's a biblical issue.

00:39:28.760 | You take a young girl to Psalm 139,

00:39:31.360 | you take a young guy,

00:39:32.520 | you say your identity is in Christ and you work theologically and biblically at that.

00:39:37.040 | I think those are theological issues.

00:39:40.280 | The New Testament addressed,

00:39:42.360 | I would assume, all issues, all sins.

00:39:44.880 | There's nothing new under the sun,

00:39:46.640 | and it seems they didn't have this third group.

00:39:50.760 | It was pastors, it was God's people taking the word of God,

00:39:55.440 | which is sufficient to equip us onto every good work.

00:40:00.200 | Now, we in the office,

00:40:01.560 | we were listening to this Q&A live,

00:40:03.320 | and then we all started high-fiving each other and

00:40:06.680 | texting each other because we were so pumped by what Pastor Philip has said,

00:40:11.280 | and I think he lost some friends probably as he made this statement,

00:40:16.160 | but he also gained the loyalty of many who are loyal to scripture.

00:40:21.920 | The point is this, that the church is central in counseling ministry,

00:40:28.960 | and I hope you will indeed embrace that.

00:40:31.960 | At the bottom of page 3,

00:40:33.800 | let's look at the nature of the church,

00:40:37.080 | and we'll just walk through this together.

00:40:42.800 | I have this summary statement,

00:40:44.560 | this definition that the church is a unique spiritual organism

00:40:49.720 | empowered by the ministry of the Holy Spirit,

00:40:52.680 | made up of believers, both Jew and Gentile,

00:40:55.880 | connected to the head who is the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:40:59.360 | and given the mission to make disciples of all the nations.

00:41:04.960 | I know that's a handful.

00:41:07.480 | You could also pick through each of those components in

00:41:10.640 | that definition and find a rich understanding of the church,

00:41:14.200 | but just a couple of elements here.

00:41:16.160 | It is a spiritual organism.

00:41:18.080 | The church was birthed on the day of Pentecost on Acts 2,

00:41:22.640 | by the power of the Holy Spirit.

00:41:25.680 | The church has been baptized into the person and the power of

00:41:30.680 | the Holy Spirit and proclaims the gospel because of

00:41:34.240 | the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

00:41:36.640 | Just again at the statement,

00:41:39.160 | at the risk of overstating the obvious,

00:41:41.640 | the church is made up of believers.

00:41:44.520 | The church is made up of believers in Christ.

00:41:48.800 | You would think we wouldn't need to restate that point today,

00:41:51.920 | but actually we do,

00:41:53.760 | because people are promoting this view of the church that

00:41:56.040 | says that the church is just a gathering of

00:41:58.800 | people with varying levels of interest in Jesus.

00:42:02.920 | We need to go back to the basic idea

00:42:06.360 | here that the church is made up of believers.

00:42:09.440 | The church is the ecclesia,

00:42:11.160 | the called out ones,

00:42:12.560 | those who've been called out of the world and called into

00:42:16.520 | a relationship with Jesus Christ and into

00:42:20.040 | a relationship with those who belong to Jesus Christ.

00:42:24.640 | On page 4 of your handout,

00:42:26.320 | you have that great statement by Jesus in Matthew 16, verse 18.

00:42:31.280 | I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock,

00:42:34.200 | I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

00:42:41.360 | Now, what I want to do at this point is give you

00:42:43.840 | five illustrations or descriptions of the church that are found in scripture.

00:42:49.040 | I'm going to run through these briefly in our time remaining.

00:42:52.960 | You can do much study on each of these illustrations or descriptions.

00:42:58.720 | You would do well to choose three or four of these descriptions,

00:43:05.120 | and do your own study,

00:43:06.960 | put it in your own words.

00:43:08.440 | Again, you're communicating in your essay,

00:43:11.680 | you're writing as if you are communicating these concepts to a counselee,

00:43:15.800 | and so you're putting it in your own language.

00:43:17.840 | How would you communicate this concept to

00:43:21.960 | someone who you're trying to minister to?

00:43:25.680 | But you would do well to find at least three of

00:43:29.080 | these descriptions and develop a full paragraph on each of them.

00:43:32.600 | If you want to go and do all five,

00:43:35.040 | you're certainly welcome to do that.

00:43:37.160 | I'm not sure if you could get all of that in to a page and a half,

00:43:41.240 | but at least three or four of these illustrations

00:43:45.080 | would be the basis for a good essay on this topic.

00:43:50.920 | I'm going to run through these briefly and try to resist the temptation to belabor the point here.

00:43:58.440 | But illustration number 1 is that the church is the beloved bride of Christ.

00:44:03.160 | Ephesians 5, verse 25,

00:44:04.920 | "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

00:44:10.120 | The key idea here is one of spiritual union.

00:44:13.480 | Ephesians 5, verse 31,

00:44:15.480 | "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,

00:44:19.440 | and the two shall become one flesh."

00:44:21.960 | This mystery is profound,

00:44:23.760 | and I'm saying that refers to Christ and the church.

00:44:27.040 | Paul is saying there in Ephesians 5 that the unity that exists between

00:44:31.920 | husband and wife in the one flesh relationship is

00:44:35.640 | an illustration of the union between Christ and the church.

00:44:41.360 | The church is the beloved bride of Christ.

00:44:46.120 | Now, this will drive your own passion for the church.

00:44:52.600 | That Christ loves the church and considers the church to be the very bride of Christ.

00:44:59.560 | So a number of scriptures there that you could think through.

00:45:04.520 | But I just bring to you a simple application of this truth.

00:45:09.880 | How we treat the local church is how we treat Jesus Christ.

00:45:15.880 | I'm sure someone could say, "Well, Dan,

00:45:18.360 | I really don't like your wife,

00:45:20.200 | but I really love you.

00:45:22.280 | I really want a relationship with you,

00:45:24.280 | but I don't want a relationship with your wife."

00:45:26.160 | I would say, "We are one flesh,

00:45:28.720 | we're one, we're in the covenant of marriage,

00:45:33.080 | and if you want a relationship with me,

00:45:35.720 | it means that you're going to have a relationship with my wife as well.

00:45:38.840 | You can't say you love me and that you don't love my wife because we're one."

00:45:43.280 | In a similar way, there are many who say,

00:45:45.960 | "Well, I really love Jesus,

00:45:47.760 | but I just can't stand his church.

00:45:50.160 | I really love Jesus, but I can't stand the people of the church."

00:45:55.000 | Biblically, that is really an impossible concept.

00:46:00.400 | How you treat the church is how you treat Christ because the church

00:46:03.720 | is the beloved bride of Christ.

00:46:08.440 | Matthew 10, verse 40 says,

00:46:10.040 | "Whoever receives you receives me,

00:46:12.760 | and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

00:46:17.280 | That'll radically change your relationship with your church.

00:46:21.080 | When you realize theologically speaking that how you treat the members of

00:46:25.840 | your church is how you are treating Jesus Christ himself,

00:46:29.840 | because the church is the very bride of Christ,

00:46:33.320 | it will change how you relate to the people of your church,

00:46:38.000 | and how you serve,

00:46:39.880 | and how you support your church.

00:46:43.960 | Let me move to the second illustration here and say that the church is the body of Christ.

00:46:50.880 | Again, the main idea here is one of unity,

00:46:54.800 | that Christ is the head and we are the body of Christ.

00:47:00.040 | Again, a simple illustration.

00:47:02.240 | Someone, I suppose, might say, "Well,

00:47:04.400 | Dan, I'm just going to punch you in the arm,

00:47:06.400 | but don't worry, don't take offense.

00:47:07.960 | I'm not punching you, I'm just punching your arm."

00:47:10.880 | I would say, "Well, if you're punching my arm,

00:47:12.840 | you're punching me because this is my body.

00:47:16.760 | My arm is part of my body and you can't separate my body from me."

00:47:22.520 | The similar truth is true of Christ's relationship with the church.

00:47:31.480 | How you treat the body of Christ is how you treat Christ himself.

00:47:36.320 | How you treat the members of the body of Christ is how you treat the head who is Christ.

00:47:42.400 | First Corinthians 12, verse 12,

00:47:44.440 | "For just as the body is one and has many members,

00:47:47.120 | and all the members of the body,

00:47:48.880 | though many are one body,

00:47:50.520 | so it is with Christ."

00:47:52.400 | Now, verse 27 says,

00:47:54.400 | "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

00:48:00.000 | Paul's point in that passage is that you cannot affect

00:48:03.640 | one part of the body without affecting the entire body.

00:48:07.320 | When one member hurts,

00:48:09.200 | the entire body hurts,

00:48:11.480 | and each member of the body is necessary for the proper functioning of the body.

00:48:18.520 | The body has different parts and all of them function differently from each other.

00:48:24.040 | When people say to me, "Dan,

00:48:25.960 | I don't feel like I'm part of this church because I'm different from everyone else in this church.

00:48:31.240 | Maybe I'm a different ethnicity,

00:48:33.120 | or I'm a different age and stage in life,

00:48:35.040 | or I have different hobbies,

00:48:36.960 | or I have different interests,

00:48:39.480 | or just a different personality.

00:48:40.960 | I don't feel like I fit in," and I say to them,

00:48:43.320 | "If you feel like you're different from everyone else in this church,

00:48:46.880 | that is all the more reason why we need you here."

00:48:50.080 | Because the whole point of the body of Christ is we are made up of

00:48:53.320 | members who are different from one another.

00:48:56.680 | We don't need 100 ears in the church.

00:48:59.280 | We don't need 100 eyes in the church.

00:49:01.680 | We don't need five livers or five hearts.

00:49:05.280 | We need each member of the body functioning exactly how God has designed them to function.

00:49:12.200 | So that is the point of the church being the very body of Christ.

00:49:19.560 | So just a wonderful concept that the church is the body of Christ.

00:49:25.600 | The third illustration at the bottom of page 5 of your handout,

00:49:30.760 | the church is the flock of Christ.

00:49:32.760 | John 10, verse 11, Jesus says, "I'm the good shepherd.

00:49:36.840 | The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

00:49:42.040 | Admittedly, as I've said in other classes,

00:49:43.960 | this is not the most flattering metaphor to compare believers to the sheep of God

00:49:50.320 | and compare the church to being the flock of God.

00:49:55.200 | Sheep are the dumbest and the dirtiest of all the animals in the world.

00:49:58.920 | They can't kick, they can't bite,

00:50:00.480 | they can't scratch, they can't claw,

00:50:02.160 | they can't defend themselves.

00:50:03.800 | They're easy prey for savage wolves.

00:50:06.200 | They need constant care and constant protection.

00:50:10.720 | Sheep are always getting lost.

00:50:14.400 | They're always going astray.

00:50:17.040 | Believe me, if you have a heart of a shepherd,

00:50:20.400 | you will never lack sheep who need your shepherding care.

00:50:24.840 | And if your counseling ministry at your church has the heartbeat of a shepherd,

00:50:30.720 | then you will always be pulling sheep out of a whole lot of trouble.

00:50:37.640 | The church is not an organization that needs to be managed.

00:50:40.920 | The church is a flock that needs to be shepherded.

00:50:46.240 | And by the way, I would just say this on a personal note.

00:50:48.520 | This is why I am a biblical counselor.

00:50:51.320 | This is why I got trained to be a biblical counselor and got into the organization ACBC.

00:50:58.000 | It is not so much that I'm passionate about counseling ministry in and of itself,

00:51:05.760 | but it really is that I'm passionate about being a shepherd,

00:51:10.200 | that God has called me to be a shepherd,

00:51:13.440 | and that God has called all of us to have the heartbeat of a shepherd,

00:51:17.200 | because Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the flock.

00:51:22.920 | And counseling is a means to express shepherding care.

00:51:28.840 | Counseling is a means of rescuing lost sheep.

00:51:32.360 | Counseling is a means of protecting straying sheep.

00:51:35.920 | Counseling is a means of restoring wounded sheep.

00:51:41.000 | In fact, it is an incredibly effective way of expressing the shepherding care of Christ.

00:51:46.720 | When else do you get this opportunity to express shepherding care into people's lives

00:51:52.280 | when they come to you with their problems and their spiritual struggles?

00:51:57.800 | And so I'm passionate about shepherding because I serve the good shepherd who is Christ.

00:52:02.680 | And counseling is one means to express that shepherding care.

00:52:07.920 | And that is why I'm passionate about counseling because that is what the church is.

00:52:14.920 | We are shepherds who give shepherding care to the flock of God.

00:52:20.960 | And we always need more shepherds because there's always more straying sheep

00:52:25.720 | than there are shepherds who are capable and willing to go after those sheep.

00:52:32.880 | And so we need counselors who reflect the character of the great shepherd.

00:52:39.000 | And Jesus said, if you have a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,

00:52:42.160 | you're not happy with the 99 sheep that you have.

00:52:44.440 | You leave the 99, you go after the one, and you bring that one sheep back into the fold.

00:52:51.480 | Each sheep in the flock of God is worthy of shepherding care.

00:52:57.680 | Jesus said to Peter three times in John chapter 21, when he restored him into ministry,

00:53:02.280 | Peter, do you love me?

00:53:04.320 | And Peter said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

00:53:06.680 | And he said to him, feed my sheep.

00:53:12.000 | This is what the church is.

00:53:13.160 | And this is why we must have more biblical counselors.

00:53:19.880 | Illustration number four, the church is the family of God.

00:53:24.680 | When you become a Christian, you lose the world, you gain a family.

00:53:28.800 | We're adopted as the children of God by our father in heaven.

00:53:33.360 | We cry out to him, Abba, Father.

00:53:36.320 | And if we are all children of God in Christ, and what that makes us is a spiritual family.

00:53:44.280 | We treat in the words of first Timothy five verse one, older men as fathers, younger men

00:53:52.260 | as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

00:53:59.160 | First Timothy three verse four says that the qualification of an elder is he must manage

00:54:03.560 | his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

00:54:08.860 | For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's

00:54:14.480 | church?

00:54:15.480 | The church implication, the church is the household of God, made up of the family of

00:54:21.080 | God, and the church needs to be managed.

00:54:25.240 | And if an elder can't manage his own children, then how is he going to manage the household

00:54:30.740 | of God?

00:54:32.560 | First Timothy three verse 15, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the

00:54:38.220 | household of God.

00:54:40.100 | So we're the family of God, and that's a wonderful concept, but it also means that each of us

00:54:44.320 | need to learn how to behave in the family of God.

00:54:48.200 | If I have one word to say to church members, it would be behave, because you're part of

00:54:52.840 | the household of God.

00:54:54.480 | Learn how to act within this family, and that requires learning to know that you're not

00:55:04.600 | always the most important person in the room on any given ministry event.

00:55:11.480 | And so this is the family of God.

00:55:14.080 | We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and that makes a huge difference in counseling.

00:55:20.480 | When I meet with a believer, when I say to that believer, "I'm your brother in Christ,"

00:55:25.820 | it isn't the professional clinical model of a top-down type of dispensing of advice, but

00:55:33.320 | it is one brother coming alongside of another and giving encouragement and hope and help

00:55:39.520 | from God's word.

00:55:41.440 | And then a final illustration, illustration number five is that the church is the dwelling

00:55:46.340 | place of God.

00:55:49.360 | In the Old Testament, you have the tabernacle, which was a temporary tent, and it says in

00:55:54.000 | Exodus 40, verse 34, that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

00:56:00.680 | Later on in Old Testament history, the temple was built and a permanent structure was given,

00:56:07.040 | which was the center of the life of the nation of Israel, and it says that the glory of the

00:56:12.160 | Lord filled the house of the Lord.

00:56:15.840 | We know that God is omniscient and God is omnipresent.

00:56:19.080 | He is everywhere at all times, and yet in a special way, the tabernacle and the temple

00:56:24.720 | were the dwelling place of God.

00:56:29.800 | And in the New Testament era, that temple or the temple is the church.

00:56:36.440 | The church is not a physical temple made by hands, but the church is a spiritual temple

00:56:42.960 | made up of living stones that are perfectly fit together, founded on the cornerstone of

00:56:49.720 | the temple, who is Christ, and as Ephesians 2, verse 22 says, in him that is Christ, you

00:56:57.320 | also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

00:57:07.440 | I'll just end with this.

00:57:09.640 | Biblical counseling, that is an expression of the local church's ministry, offers to

00:57:14.640 | the world what no secular resource could ever offer, which is the very presence of God through

00:57:26.240 | his Holy Spirit, the very blessing of God upon each of the counseling meetings of the

00:57:33.440 | church.

00:57:34.500 | No secular resource can offer this.

00:57:37.240 | A counselor who is part of the New Testament temple, which is being built by God into the

00:57:44.800 | dwelling place of God, no secular counselor can bring into a counseling session the very

00:57:51.560 | presence and the blessing and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who uses his word to change

00:57:59.360 | lives for his glory.

00:58:03.320 | No secular counseling system can offer a counselor who is filled with the scriptures, who is

00:58:10.680 | part of the bride and the body of Christ, and who is filled with the Holy Spirit of

00:58:16.840 | God.

00:58:17.840 | And that is why we love the ministry of biblical counseling.

00:58:22.800 | That is why we approach this ministry with joy and anticipation.

00:58:27.720 | That is why, although we deal with a lot of different problems, that we are excited about

00:58:32.040 | this ministry.

00:58:33.460 | We believe that God will bless this ministry because we are an extension of the church,

00:58:42.080 | which is the body and the bride of Christ, the very dwelling place of God.

00:58:47.960 | And we know that we offer to our counselees and to the world what the world could never

00:58:52.840 | offer.

00:58:54.580 | And so do a good study.

00:58:56.520 | I just encourage you to do a good study on this subject, not only for the sake of writing

00:59:01.160 | an essay, but for the sake of enriching your own understanding of the church, of being

00:59:08.360 | more committed to your own church, for being more passionate about the ministry of your

00:59:15.000 | church.

00:59:16.000 | And we trust that God will use this topic in your life to launch counseling ministry,

00:59:26.160 | to be a catalyst for counseling ministry to take place in the local church for God's glory.

00:59:33.320 | So I trust that you'll be encouraged as you study this topic.

00:59:37.760 | We are going to conclude our class next week with the final topic of the year, Theology

00:59:43.980 | Exam number 24, where we'll take this broad understanding of the church and then apply

00:59:49.440 | it specifically to how does counseling ministry work in this church.

00:59:55.560 | But you'll see that these are very critical topics, and I trust that they will be a blessing

01:00:00.960 | to your life.

01:00:01.960 | So thank you again for joining us tonight on the live stream.

01:00:06.260 | We hope you will have a safe and a blessed week.

01:00:11.080 | And let me close this tonight in a word of prayer, and then we'll be dismissed.

01:00:15.520 | Let's pray.

01:00:16.520 | Father, we do thank you for the church.

01:00:20.240 | Thank you for this study.

01:00:21.240 | Thank you for this hour that we've spent just reminding ourselves of what the church is.

01:00:27.440 | And we thank you that this is the church that Christ has purchased with his own blood.

01:00:33.960 | Help us to love the church because Christ loves the church, and we pray that you would

01:00:41.360 | develop in us a conviction that counseling ministry does belong in the church.

01:00:47.820 | Help us to, in our own lives, echo not only the teaching of Scripture, but also the sentiments

01:00:55.480 | of Pastor DeCourcy, who so well said that the church ought to be the first port of call.

01:01:05.000 | The church ought to be the first place that people seek help for their problems, and that

01:01:13.080 | we do have the resources to help people through your word.

01:01:17.920 | So bless each of my brothers and sisters here, and give us a great week of study, and bring

01:01:21.700 | us back together next Sunday to continue and to conclude our study of these topics.

ACBC Theology Exam 23 - The Doctrine of the Church

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