an overview of these case studies and an overview of the exam questions numbered 12 to 20 and what you'll find is that in the case studies what we're really going to be asking you to do is to take the material that we have already covered in the theology exams numbers 1 to 24 and then also the counseling exams numbers 1 to 11 and then we're going to ask you to apply them as it relates to a specific case study so what you'll find in counseling exams number 12 to 20 is that we're not really covering new ground we're not covering any new information but we're taking the material that we have already covered in the year 2 training and asking you to apply them to a specific counseling situation for example one of the exam questions asks you to relate what exact homework you would assign to a person going through a specific counseling issue well if you've been with us in our year 1 and year 2 training you know the value of homework you understand the broad categories of what you might assign as homework and what you're gonna be doing in this exam question is taking those concepts and then specifically designing a homework scenario a homework assignment that would help a counselee through a specific counseling issue and so again we're not covering any real new information in exams 12 to 20 but we're taking the information we have already covered and applying them to specific counseling scenarios we are also going to be asking you to work through your own personal counseling approach to these case studies and so with the different students in our class we would expect to find the same basic foundational understanding of what homework is what good an inventory asking questions would would be about but we will find that each of the students should be assigning their own specific homework in other words each of you will be unique in how you will apply these principles to a specific counseling issue because each of you are uniquely gifted and have your own unique strengths in counseling ministry and so what I thought would be helpful for us tonight is just to do an overview of the case study make you familiar with the case studies being presented and then also familiar with what categories are they asking you to go back and review and then apply to a specific counseling scenario you'll find me saying oftentimes in the next hour what we're gonna do is ask you to review this lesson and then apply it to the case study that you're looking at in this question and so I hope that makes sense of what we're about in the next hour what we're aiming to do we're gonna be giving you an orientation as to the three case studies that are presented in these essay questions and then asking you to do your own work as to taking the material we've already covered and then applying it to a counseling scenario so I hope this will be a helpful study for all of us so thank you for joining us tonight let me open us in a word of prayer and we will get started in the case study let's pray father we do thank you so much for your word and for the precious truth that has been given to us in the holy scriptures and we thank you for the privilege of studying your word for the privilege of understanding your word and for the privilege of ministering your word in counseling ministry we thank you for the many biblical counselors that you are raising up around the nation who are devoted to the sufficiency of the scripture and pray that father our time tonight would be profitable that we would engage in a useful hour of orientation and that you would help each of the students in this class to think deeply and to apply these principles to the case studies before us and father this would be a helpful exercise for each of us in our counseling training thank you for this time and thank you for the great time we've had this year in studying your work together and we commit this time to you in Jesus name amen amen well if you look at the first page of your handout we come to the first case study that is presented to us which is the case study concerning Eric now I encourage the students in year two training that if you're a female counselor please feel free to give Eric a female a female name Erica may be a good name that you might assign to this counselee and if you're a female counselor you most likely will be counseling a female in counseling ministry so feel free to give Eric make Eric a female counselee and give a female name but the case study is this Eric is a 20 year old believer who has been struggling with pornography for the last three years before that time he knew that pornography existed but had never seen it because his parents carefully monitored all the technology in their home Eric discovered porn on a trip out of town when some of his friends from high school showed it to him on their phones since then Eric has frequently looked at pornography the problem became worse when he moved to college and had unfettered access to the internet on his laptop computer several weeks ago Eric became convinced that as a Christian he must begin to deal aggressively with this sin he did the hardest thing he had ever done and told his dad about the problem Eric's dad loves his son and wants to help him but has no idea what to do about a problem like this they came together to meet you for counsel so the counseling case study here has to do with the issue of pornography and the question associated with the case study is counseling exam number 12 assume that the information you have here is a straightforward presentation of the facts and write down the homework assignments you want Eric or Erica to complete after this first meeting with you after you list the homework explain the specific issues you will address with Eric in counseling sessions please include the categories of put off and put on in your answer so the question here has to do with homework assignments what type of homework assignments would you want to assign to Eric as you help Eric with this counseling issue you will remember that the category of homework assignments is covered in the six eyes a biblical counseling under the methods section of our year one training we cover the six eyes or the six key elements of biblical counseling and the last the sixth eye was the key element of implementation that is the assigning of homework between the counseling sessions that will help a counselee work through a certain counseling issue now that is the broad category of information that you want to bring to bear upon counseling exam number 12 if you remember from our overview of the key element of implementation we looked at the categories of Bible reading Bible memorization church involvement the assigning of involvement in small groups or attendance at Sunday morning worship services the listening to of sermons or of specific lectures books and booklets even engagement in relationships asking three to four people to pray for you or involving yourself with an accountability partner we even talked about the fact that you can assign songs to listen to or hymns to sing you can really get very specific in homework assignment as you work with a counselee and those are just broad categories books and booklets Bible reading Bible memorization church involvement those are broad categories to think through as you think as you think about homework assignment in relation to a specific counseling issue now what you want to do in this counseling exam is work through those categories of Bible reading Bible memorization books booklets sermons lectures songs to sing relationships and give some specific assignments in those categories to Eric as you help him through this counseling issue or if you help Erica through her counseling issue think through some specific passages of Scripture that you want the counselee to read and to memorize think through some good books that would be helpful as it relates to this counseling issue think through relationships in the local church perhaps you want your counselee to ask three to four people in the church who are trusted to get involved with the counselee in working through this counseling issue or perhaps one specific accountability partner that the counselee can be engaged in think through with the specific issue of pornography the installation of an internet filter on in a smartphone or on a computer in homework you can really assign anything that would help your counselee work through the counseling issue and the more specific you can get in this essay as to the specific homework assignments you would give to Eric or Erica the better your essay will be now think through order of sequence one possible way one possible approach to write this essay is paragraph number one you might want to talk about what type of homework you would assign on the first session as you work through a counseling issue in this way you will note that the homework assignment given at the first session will be different from the homework assignments dealt with in sessions two three and four in your first session assignments you may want to focus on Bible reading and Bible passages that give hope to the believer that give hope for change and you might want to think through the categories of indicatives and imperatives and promises and assign a balance of biblical reading that would both give hope for the counselee to change and then also give some specific direction as to how the counselee is to change some good reading assignments to give in specific specifically relating to the issue of pornography is Heath Lambert's finally free fighting for purity by the power of grace is an excellent resource that we use in counseling ministry a very grace-centered Bible centered gospel centered approach to dealing with the issue of pornography a very excellent work that I would recommend to you there is specific counseling homework assignment in a Christian growth and discipleship manual written by Wayne Mac and Wayne Johnston just some good homework handouts to give to a counselee that would relate to this issue and so those are some good homework assignments that you might want to give to Eric or Erica one key passage that I would recommend that you use in counseling ministry as it relates to the issue of pornography or even temptation to sexual immorality is Romans chapter 6 verses 1 to 14 just a wonderful passage of scripture that gives hope to the counselee that the counselee can change by the grace of God based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ Paul says there in verse 1 what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace might may abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life and then I love what Paul says in verse 12 let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace and so Heath Lambert in his book finally freed as a great job of unpacking the significance of Romans chapter 6 in relation to the pursuit of purity we begin from the standpoint of this great indicative that the Christian is no longer a slave to sin the Christian may be tempted to sin but a Christian is not enslaved to sin or under the dominion of sin the Christian does not need to sin the Christian can by the grace of God and because of the person and work of Jesus Christ pursue holiness and overcome temptation and so that might be a passage that you might assign to a counselee who is wrestling with temptation to pornography or to sexual immorality another key passage is 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 where Paul says for this is the will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter because the Lord is an avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness so these are some possible texts that you might assign to a counselee to read even to memorize you want to be careful not to overwhelm the counselee with homework that would be overly burdensome but think through passages in your own study and remember to think through the the categories of indicatives imperatives and promises indicatives what God has done for us in Christ imperatives how we are to live in light of Christ perfect work on our behalf and then promises what God has promised to do in our lives for each believer in Christ just be balanced in your assigning of homework don't give all promises don't give all indicatives don't give all imperatives but think through those categories in terms of a balanced approach that would help the counselee deal with these issues and then thinking through the language of put off and put on that's coming from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 to 28 which talks about the fact that we are to put off the old man and put on the new man and so sanctification is put off and put on in other words our goal is not for Eric or Erica merely to put off immorality but we also want Eric or Erica to put on the pursuit of God and the pursuit of Christ likeness sanctification is not just abstaining from involvement with pornography but sanctification is putting on a passion for holiness and a passion for true sanctification and likeness to Christ it is putting off the selfishness that would lead to involvement with pornography and putting on service and giving yourself away in service and ministry to others it is putting off the selfish isolation that would lead to involvement with this sin and putting on true fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ in the local church as Heath Lambert says all involvement with pornography is an expression of pride and so we want to help the counselee put off pride and arrogance and to put on humility and lowly lowliness of life of mind and so just think through those categories of put off put on one possible way to structure this counseling exam is to work through in a first paragraph your first session homework assignments and then work through in a second paragraph further assignments that you would give to help Eric or Erica work through this counseling issue and and then a third paragraph deal with the concepts of put off and put on that you're not going to be satisfied with your counselee just merely abstaining from pornography but you want to help the counselee put on Christlike virtue and Christlike character and become humble and selfless and involved in fellowship and engaged in a pursuit of God and a passion for Christlikeness and the worship of Christ and so that is the first case study which is the case study of Eric let me move to the second case study that is presented in the counseling exams and this is the case study of Sarah the case study says this Sarah is a 34 year old married mother of three who comes to you for help with depression she says that she has been feeling terribly sad for the last six months and has a lot of trouble keeping up with life she came to you seeking the opinion of a biblical counselor on what she should do Sarah has several friends who received antidepressants from their family doctor the medicine seemed to help for a while but they also experienced some unpleasant side effects that she is concerned about she asks you explicitly do you think I should see my doctor about taking an antidepressant and so the case study with Sarah deals with the issue of depression and the related issue of the Christian and psychotropic drugs or antidepressants in this case now if you've been with us in our study of year one and year two you know that this is material that we have covered both in our year one training and in our year two training we had a section on depression in our year one training and then also session dealing with Christians and psychotropic medications we then did a review of that material in our year two training I believe that was counseling exam number five we dealt again with the issue of depression and the related issue of psychotropic drugs so we would want you to simply review that material I will suggest to you to go back to counseling exam number five and just review the session that we looked at in that counseling exam and then relate that material to the case study of Sarah who is asking if she should take an antidepressant for her struggle with depression now just remember some of the material we covered in those sessions our definition of depression Gary Gilley writes that depression can be defined as that debilitating mood feeling or air of hopelessness which results in a ceasing of the handling of life he continues that a depressed person may want to sleep all the time you may cry easily you may stop going to work or doing a necessary task around the house you may stop eating or eat constantly he will feel that life is hopeless and so in the case of Sarah the exam question is this how would you respond to this question the question is do you think I should see my doctor about taking an antidepressant and then write out your answer exactly as you would provide it to Sarah so what we want you to do in this exam question is to go ahead and imagine yourself in a counseling room having a counseling session with Sarah and then just type out verbally what would be the language you would use to talk to Sarah and to walk her through the issue of depression and psychotropic drugs for example your essay might begin with some type of language like Sarah I'm so sorry to hear about your struggles with depression and then go on from there addressing Sarah in the counseling essay the counseling exam question let me just remind you to enter the counselee's world as you write out a response to Sarah make sure to give a compassionate response if depression is that debilitating mood feeling or air of hopelessness which results in a ceasing of the handling of life enter the council's world and see life through her eyes and make sure to give a compassionate response I will suggest to you to remind the counselee that she is not alone we talked about this principle in our overview of depression in session number five the number of Saints who have struggled with depression throughout redemptive history we talked about the fact that Job experienced some type of depression as he walked through this great season of suffering and sorrow we looked at the psalmist in Psalm 88 verse 3 who said for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol in verse 7 he says your wrath lies heavy upon me and you overwhelm me with all your waves verse 18 you have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me my companions have become darkness and so what's helpful in relating to a person like Sarah is just to remind her that you're not alone many Christians have wrestled with seasons of despair seasons of sorrow seasons in which there is some experience of spiritual darkness we think of even great men of God like ch Spurgeon who wrestled with depression William Cooper we mentioned in our session number five who wrote great hymns of the faith and yet wrestled with great spiritual darkness and so forth and so on many examples of Christians who have wrestled with great periods of darkness and despair and so just giving a compassion response just assuring the counselee that she is not alone assuring the counselee the Bible does address this issue and that the Bible does address this issue in a way that is compassionate and merciful and that our goal again is not to remove the depression per se but our goal is to help the counselee to walk with God through seasons of sorrow and spiritual darkness now as it relates to the specific question of do you think I should see my doctor about taking an antidepressant let me refer you to the session number five where we did cover some of this material as to how we might handle the issue of psychotropic drugs we did look there at two extreme views extreme view number one is that Christians should never take psychotropic medications and that would be a view I myself would not take because I don't find any command in the Bible that says thou shalt not take any psychotropic medications and if there's not a command in the Bible that says that then I definitely don't want to make up one on my own this view holds that the problem is always spiritual in nature and should only be addressed through spiritual means as we work through counselees with counselees and counseling ministry we just have to be really careful with that we don't always know that the problem is 100% spiritual it there may be a physical issue here there may be a true medical condition such as hypothyroidism or there might be undiagnosed diabetes or they might be a side effect from a medication there may be a true medical issue that needs to be addressed and therefore we just want to be careful about concluding that the problem is spiritual if we don't have all the information on the opposite side you have the extreme view that psychotropic drugs are the only answer for Christians this view would hold that the problems only physical in nature and therefore the answer is merely chemical and biological so it's one thing on one hand to say well you should never take a psychotropic drug that that is clearly sin we do not want to say that because the Bible doesn't say that but on the other hand you can go to the extreme and saying that all of my problems will be solved if I simply take a psychotropic drug or psychotropic medication and we just want to be aware of the extremes we could come to as it relates to this issue and find a balanced we gave you a proposed balanced view realizing that man is both spiritual and physical in nature we don't want to add extra biblical standards to the Word of God we want to beware of having a judgmental attitude when it comes to extra biblical standards I don't want to ever tell a counselee you shouldn't take psychotropic medications because I don't have the authority to do that from Scripture and I also don't want to unfairly judge a counselee who may have different convinced convictions on that subject then I do Romans 14 says we are not to judge one another as it relates to disputable issues which are not clearly spelled out in Scripture we want to realize that counselees have a wide spectrum of attitudes towards taking psychotropic medication we realize that medication can be a common grace measure to treat the symptoms of depression depression is sometimes a physical issue but it is always a spiritual issue and so our goal is to minister the Word of God to the heart medication is not a gospel blocker and so this is material we've covered already what we're asking you to do in this counseling question is to take this balance for you and then in your own words communicate to Sarah a view of medication that would strike this balance of we don't prohibit what God's Word doesn't prohibit but we also don't want to place all of our hope in a drug in an idolatrous way in saying that this drug has all of my confidence and all of my trust we want to bring a balanced biblical view to that discussion and that question is asking you to do that in your own words speaking to Sarah how would you shepherd her through that through that topic as you look at the next question question number 14 the question is what means would you use to find out more information about Sarah's current problem what information would you seek this is relating to the key element of inventory one of the six eyes of biblical counseling what kind of questions would you ask Sarah what are the categories of information that you would be seeking to understand as it relates to a counseling issue you will remember that inventory we defined as the ministry of active intentional listening to a counselee's thoughts emotions and feelings so as to minister to that person with knowledge and understanding we covered the preach acronym by Wayne Mac just categories of information that we might seek to understand as it relates to Sarah's issues physical resources and relationships emotions and feelings there is actions behavior conceptual thinking goals values desires and motives and then there is the historical view of Sarah's life the good and bad in past context present context failure school and job problems you will remember some basic skill sets of good inventory we told you to ask don't assume make sure that you invite the counselee into the situ into the conversation without prejudging the counselee and assuming a certain truth that may or may not be true learn to ask open-ended questions instead of close-ended question and then learn to utilize both extensive questions as well as intensive questions you'll remember we covered the whole idea that as it relates to Sarah you might want to find out an extensive ask extensive questions that kind of summarize the history of Sarah's life I might want to find out is this struggle with depression is it a lifelong issue has it been going on for a decade or more or is it really a recent development if Sarah says something to the effect of I never struggled with depression I just started struggling with depression three months ago and before that there really was not an issue then I'm gonna be asking intensive questions as to what happened exactly three months ago what are the physical things the relational things the emotional events that happened three months ago that may have triggered this spiraling down of a person's thoughts and emotions into a type of depression you will remember that we taught you in the three tree diagram that the concepts of heat and heart and root and fruit and that a good line of questioning moves from the external situation that a counselee is encountering the heat of life to the behavioral issues the external actions of behavior and then into the heart or the root issues of life and so as it relates to Sarah's condition I would want to find out when did the depression start were there are physical stresses as it relates to the the timing of when the depression really became intense is Sarah sleeping what is her schedule like what are the spiritual stresses upon her life are there any real spiritual battles that she is encountering in her Christian life I'd want to also find out things like broadly what is her salvation testimony when does she come to know the Lord what are the fruits and the evidences of her salvation I would want to use a personal data inventory form a PDI to find out more about Sarah's life and what she is going through if she is married and does say here that she is a married mother of three I would want to get permission to ask for the husband's input and his perspective on the situation those are just some avenues of data gathering and inventory that I might want to employ in learning more about Sarah's current problem and then just generally I would want to find out from any counselee what is the counselees church involvement how is the counselee serving how many times does the counselee attend worship services is the counselee in a small group who are the relationships that are ministering to this person spiritually what is the counselee reading in the Word of God is there a regular intake of Scripture and how is the counselee engaged in serving others those are some general diagnostic types of questions that I would be asking to know what is the spiritual condition of the counselee as we look at number 15 exam question number 15 the question is carefully described whether and how you would want to work with a physician to help Sarah through this ordeal as part of your answer to this specific question described in general terms how you believe biblical counselors should cooperate with medical professionals now again this is a review of previous information we looked previously at the whole concept that man is material and immaterial that man is physical and spiritual if you work through the theology exam questions with us you wrote an entire essay on the the idea that man is material and immaterial that the material side of man is always relating to and interacting with the immaterial side of man that man has a soul and man has a body and therefore we as biblical counselors we are not medical physicians we are not tasked to give medication to the to the body we are not tasked to prescribe certain medications or treatments to the physical body that we will partner with medical professionals to treat who treat the body and our focus is really on ministering the Word of God to the soul and so while we are tasked as biblical counselors to minister the Word of God to the immaterial side of man the soul or the heart we do want to be aware of what is happening physically with the counselee and so we will ask a counselee as part of homework assignment to go see a medical physician to get a thorough medical assessment and we just want to eliminate physical causes for a person's depression and so as Tom Maxim has written there are physical causes for depression such as side effect from medication a true medical problem diseases and medical conditions such as hypoglycemia there might be undiagnosed cancer or other issues there might be the a chronic pain issue from an illness or injury and so forth and so on so we just want to partner with medical professionals in order to rule out physical causes for Sarah's depression so that we might focus on the spiritual causes and minister the Word of God to the heart now if you go to AC BC's statement on mental illness and medicine that's available at the biblical counseling calm website again that's the AC BC statement on mental illness and medicine AC BC has a statement there that is very balanced that talks through what how a biblical counselor might partner with a medical professional and in that statement the this the AC BC statement says this I'll just quote a portion of it says that biblical counselors must acknowledge the human being struggle with physical and spiritual problems biblical counselor shall encourage the use of physical examinations and testing by physicians for diagnosis of medical problems the treatment of these problems and the relief of symptoms which might cause contribute to or complicate counseling issues so that's a good statement to read to quote you might want to quote that statement in your essay and that will give a good balanced perspective on how a biblical counselor might partner with a medical professional to help a counselee like Sarah okay let me move to the third case study and this is the case study of Tim and Emily and let's just talk through this case study I'll give you some pointers to write the last three essays but this is the longest case study in the sequence so here we go Tim and Emily come from a church across town and I've asked to meet you because of some help that you offered their friends several months ago they are coming because of a persistent problem they have had in their marriage they explain that in their six years of marriage Tim has always had a short fuse a pause at this point you will note in the course of this case study the language of short fuse is relating to the issue of sinful anger and so in order to address this case study please go back to the session we completed on sinful anger I am forgetting the number that was I believe that was session number six or session number seven go back and review that material and relate that material to the case study of Tim and Emily Tim going back to the case study has always had a short fuse he regularly loses it when he comes home from work which fills the evenings with tense communication their weeks are filled with arguments about everything from dinner being ready on time to whether they should have kids Tim thinks Emily is a good wife admits the problems are his fault but says he just doesn't know how to maintain control about a year ago Tim went berserk screaming at Emily kicking the kitchen table and throwing plates on the floor in response to Emily's complaint that he came home late without calling Emily was always uncomfortable with Tim's previous pattern of outbursts with this was different she was truly scared Tim was too in tears she told Tim that something had to change Tim talked to his pastor who told him that he needed to see a professional therapist which sadly is the route that many churches take in dealing with an issue like this to refer them outside of the church to a an integrationist counselor who bills himself or herself as a Christian therapist Tim followed the advice and made an appointment with the Christian counselor whom his pastor recommended Tim met with the therapist for a few sessions who ultimately recommended he see a psychiatrist for medical care when Tim met with a psychiatrist he was told that he had bipolar disorder and began to take the medications prescribed by the physician so you will want to note we had a section on sinful anger you wanna you'll want to keep that material fresh in your mind as you relate to Tim and Emily you will note we also had a section on bipolar depression as part of the depression study and you'll want to keep that information handy as well and if you need more information on bipolar disorder you will want to read Charles Hodge's book good mood bad mood you will want to review his section on bipolar disorder just so you know how to handle that topic but those are the two categories of information that we will need to bring to bear upon this case study of Tim and Emily so Tim has what by all accounts seems like a an out-of- control anger problem he's gone to a psychiatrist who has given him a psychological diagnosis of bipolar disorder he has been placed on medication in order to deal with this problem let's continue on in the case study Tim was initially discouraged to learn he had a disease that would likely last his entire life but he was thankful to have a plan to deal with the problem Emily was also encouraged that there was now at least something they could do the encouragement quickly gave way however when after several months on the medication Tim had still not really changed well as temperament seemed milder in general the loss of control and screaming were still present it was at this point that Emily began to regret ever marrying Tim all the arguments together with a couple's lack of children were taking their toll she realized she was in a marriage that she did not want to be in but didn't think she had any options so you see here the compounding of problem upon problem which is typical in life and in counseling ministry then last week Tim went completely crazy Emily suggested on a Saturday morning that Tim should cut the grass because he had not done it the week before Tim did more than scream and throw things this time as he yelled and became more worked up he threw the phone at Emily he missed her knocking a hole in the wall but they both knew he had crossed a line Emily said she couldn't take it anymore and wanted out of the marriage she told him that if something didn't change very quickly she was going to leave that is when he reached out to his friend who recommended you Tim and Emily both profess faith in Christ and relate their testimonies of conversion in their teen years both are also terribly discouraged Tim doesn't know how to treat Emily better since he is plagued by this disease Emily loves Tim and would like their marriage to work but she is worn out with the lack of change she feels badly about wanting to leave because she knows he has an illness but she is increasingly convinced that God is telling her to divorce Tim so a number of issues here there's a lot going on we're gonna work through this step by step and we are asking you as part of this counseling exam package to write I believe it is five essays on this subject so let's take this step by step and look at counseling exam number 16 which is the first issue how will you decide whether to pursue Tim and Emily as believers and unbelievers what difference will their status as Christians make in your counseling so that's the first step is it not is we want to determine whether we are counseling believers or unbelievers why is that important it's important because you do not want to be trying to pull out spiritual fruit from a spiritually dead unregenerate person if that is a recipe for frustration in biblical counseling so you want to get a good salvation testimony you want to understand how well do the counselees understand articulate the gospel you want to be get an understanding of their salvation testimony is there a clear before I knew Christ this is how I came to know Christ and then this is how my life was like after I placed my faith in Jesus Christ I was a new creation and I began to bear spiritual fruit you want to ask diagnostic questions such as if you were to die today and God were to ask you why should I let you into my heaven what would you say and I have asked many people that in meetings and in counseling ministry and you'll be surprised at the number of differing responses you get to that question what you want to hear something like the only reason I should be allowed into God's heaven is because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross on my behalf and because he paid for my sin at Calvary and died on the cross for me by grace alone through faith alone that is the only way that I will ever be allowed into heaven that it is not by my works that I am saved but you'll be surprised at how many people answer something very vague or general or something that is related to their their church attendance or the number of works that they have done for the community or just things that really do not nail down the gospel with any type of precision so you will want to find out whether Tim and Emily have a clear understanding of the gospel now this makes a huge difference why is that because if Tim and Emily are unbelievers then we can't offer any hope for change until they come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ if Tim and Emily are unbelievers then as it as sad as it is to say they have a much bigger problem than their broken marriage that they are enemies of God and they are under the wrath and the condemnation of God's law and if they were to die today then they would face the judgment and condemnation of eternity in hell and they would not be have the hope of going to heaven and so if they are unbelievers then their greatest problem is that they need Christ and they need to be saved and they need the gospel they need to be forgiven other sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ and we can't offer the hope that their marriage will change apart from them coming to the saving knowledge of Christ however on the other hand if Tim and Emily are believers then we have the assurance of all that what scripture has said regarding the believer in Christ that they are new creations in Christ that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them that they have received all the promises of God in the scriptures that they have been forgiven of their sins that their future hope is in heaven and because they have received all the blessings of the gospel and that they ever they are united to Christ in his life death and resurrection then we can offer hope for change and that Tim and Emily can have their marriage restored and that they can forgive one another and they can experience unity and fellowship with one another and fellowship with Christ because of what Christ has done for them and so what difference does this make it makes all the difference in the world whether you understand Tim and Emily as believers or unbelievers I would be wanting to find out here with Tim is this issue of anger characteristic of every other issue in his life in other words is Tim bearing fruit in other areas of his life as a Christian but he's just really struggling with this one particular issue or is there a pattern of just a lack of fruit in every area of his life we are not saved by our fruit but spiritual fruit is the evidence of spiritual life that is residing in the soul we are not saved by our good works but we are saved unto good works and so I would be wanting to find out where is the spiritual fruit in Tim and Emily's life moving to counseling exam number 17 describe as fully as you are able your strategy to help Tim and Emily think biblically about his diagnosis and their use of bipolar and illness language now bipolar disorder I don't know if I have the source here but it has been defined as a behavior pattern in which a depressed individual experiences at least one episode of exaggerated mood elevation this is called the manic episode the dominant feature of bipolar disorder that's from Marshall and Mary Asher's book the Christian's guide to psychological terms and so in bipolar you have depression which is which leads to a manic phase and then back to depression and so from the psychiatrist perspective Tim may be swinging from these episodes of depression into these manic episodes of which present themselves in unbridled anger the biblical evaluation of Tim's behavior I believe if if you go back to our session on sinful anger this really is uncontrolled anger it is what scripture calls outbursts of anger and we would want to deal with the issue using biblical terms and biblical descriptions of Tim's behavior labeling Tim with a psychological illness minimizes his personal responsibility in the matter and also removes genuine hope for change if Tim is Tim's behavior can be explained solely due to his illness in this way then he has an illness that is to be managed rather than a sin that needs to be repented of Tim would feel that he has a disease that will last his entire life and that disease can only be managed rather than dealing with the issue in a straightforward biblical manner that he has a sin issue of unbridled anger that needs to be repented of Ephesians 4 verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you and so all the different forms of anger there is bitterness a long-standing resentment wrath which scribes a passion and agitated type of anger there is anger translates Greek term or gay which talks about the deep resentment that seeds and smolders clamor referring to the shout of cry or strife and outbursts that reveals a loss of self-control that word would describe Tim's behavior here slander literally evil speaking to speak of others so as to harm or defame malice wishing evil on others and Paul says that that all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander is to be put away from you a verb that refers to a decisive definitive action that needs to be carried out with a sense of urgency whatever the psychological diagnosis is if Tim is a true believer in Christ filled with the Holy Spirit he is called to put away to decisively put off all forms of anger bitterness wrath anger clamor slander and then he is called to put on kindness he used to be kind to his wife he used to be tenderhearted and he is to forgive just as he has been forgiven and because he is a believer he not only is called to that type of behavior he also has the power and the resources to live in this way if sin is the problem then Christ is the solution the diagnosis of sin is catch this the most hopeful diagnosis that we can give to a counselee because the Bible teaches that we have an all-sufficient Savior who has died on the cross and risen again in order to make atonement for our sin and to free us from both the penalty and the power of sin if Tim simply obeys the straightforward commands to put off anger and wrath and clamor and slander and to put on kindness and tenderheartedness toward his wife that marriage between Tim and Emily will be transformed and so I would be encouraging you to think through this counseling exam in relation to how do you help a counselee deal with sinful anger and and deal with the issue as a sin that needs to be repented of rather than in illness that needs to be managed now just as a side note you can do all of that without even getting into the discussion of should Tim be seeing a psychiatrist or should Tim be seeing a psychologist I wouldn't even be trying to debate any of that I wouldn't be getting into the debate of do you have a bipolar disorder or do you not I wouldn't even be getting into any of that as I do biblical counseling I would just be dealing with the issues as the Bible addresses them what is Tim's behavior how does the Bible describe that behavior and then letting scripture speak into that situation and I wouldn't even get being sidetracked into the whole discussion of well do you have bipolar do you not a bipolar or should you take the medication or should you not take the medication I wouldn't let myself get into all those rabbit trails I would just be dealing with the issues straightforward as the Bible deals with those issues I think that's our role as biblical counselors is just to minister the Word of God let me move quickly to number 18 Emily is convinced that God is telling her to divorce Tim write out your word-for-word response to Emily on this matter in your response be sure to address the themes of biblical decision-making and permission for divorce and remarriage two main concepts that you want to bring into this exam concept number one is that God tells us what to do through his written word and not apart from his written word and so you want to go back to the session we did in ACBC theology exam number 22 the Holy Spirit and guidance the main point in a session was that the Holy Spirit guides us through his written word not apart from his written word the Holy Spirit inspire the written word and so the Holy Spirit guides us as we understand and read and apply the written word not apart from the written word of Scripture and so if Emily is convinced that God is telling her to divorce Tim then you will need to help Emily understand that God only tells us what to do as we read and understand his written word and God does not speak to us apart from the written word of Scripture many passages we looked at in that session I'll let you review that on your own the second foundational idea that you're gonna want to bring into this exam is a biblical understanding of divorce and remarriage I've given to you a reference on your handout from Grace Community Church's statement on divorce and remarriage I would encourage you to review that we covered some of that in our discussion of the year one training on marriage looking at the two exceptions that is what my church's doctrinal statement holds to is the same as the Grace Community Church statement holding to the two exception clauses or the two exceptions to a to the divorce allowing for divorce giving permission for divorce not giving an encouragement to divorce or a prescription to divorce but giving an allowance there that would protect the innocent party the first exception is when one spouse engages in unrepentant adultery and the innocent spouse is permitted as a protection to divorce and to remarry and then the second exception would be if believer is married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever departs all of that is found in the Grace Community Church statement you will want to review that and talk through how the Bible addresses the issue of divorce and then the question is write out a word-for-word response to Emily on this matter so we're asking you to possibly do one longer paragraph talking through Emily of how God speaks to her only through the written word and then the second part of that exam question would be what does the Word of God actually say about divorce and remarriage quickly now to counseling exam number 19 what strategy would you employ to see repentance reconciliation and restoration happen between Tim and Emily I'd refer you here to the peacemaker materials by Ken Sandy which is also referred to in the work pursuing peace by Robert Jones look up in both the peacemaker and pursuing peace the seven A's of confession I believe I have this on a slide here no I don't but the seven A's of confession is very helpful address everyone involved avoid if but and maybe admit specifically acknowledge the hurt accept its consequences alter your behavior and ask for forgiveness and so the two concepts you want to bring into this exam question is how do you do a good confession and then how do you biblically forgive so biblical confession and biblical forgiveness are the two ingredients to biblical reconciliation where there is true confession and true forgiveness you have true reconciliation and so working with Tim and Emily for Tim to give a a true confession of sin using biblical terms avoiding if but and maybe admitting specifically acknowledging the hurt and then helping Emily to forgive biblically both and unconditionally from the heart and then extending conditional forgiveness based upon Tim's confession and bring about true reconciliation so the two parts there are biblical confession and biblical forgiveness both sections have material that I covered in the year one training and I'd encourage you to review that material last but not least exhales exam number 20 describe a detailed plan of restoring marital communication that you would pursue with Tim and Emily this question is going back to the concept of homework as we saw in counseling exam number 12 how would you assign specific homework that would be for the purpose of restoring marital communication so again thinking through the concepts of Bible reading Bible memorization specific assignments a very helpful work here is Wayne max strengthening your marriage there is a unit there in the book strengthening your marriage on communication I would be reviewing that unit in preparation to write this essay exam and just reviewing those concepts and then he has a number of good homework assignments that are related to the issue of communication and so just thinking of the concepts of what are the passages you would want him and Emily to read what are the verses you would want them to memorize what are some of the books or booklets you would want them to to read and to apply Stuart Scott has a good little booklet called communication and conflict resolution that would be again another good resource to read and review in preparation for this essay exam and then getting really practical such as setting a time and a place to talk once once a week if they're struggling with communication then perhaps they need a specific assignment like a date night or even just a time after the kids have gone to bed for them to have coffee or to have tea and to and to talk to one another for 15 or 30 minutes and then you can increase those homework assignments as they go along but here again you are writing out some detailed homework assignments that would help Tim and Emily restore marital communication and that brings us to the end of our case studies and the end of our counseling exams which also means that this is the end of our class I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate you for making it to the end of this class and and just thank you again for your faithfulness and studying the Word of God with me we began having the seminar online because of some of the kovat restrictions and our inability to meet in person and yet God has used this online format to introduce us to a number of friends that are not only here in Southern California but all across the country and even internationally we've been hearing that there are some who are in different countries who are tuning in to this webinar and and it is a joy to be able to count you as friends I love to would see would love to see many of you at the ACBC National Conference in the fall I know that this year's conference is in North Carolina and if not this year then perhaps in a year to come we will be able to fellowship in person but I do want to thank you for joining me and this has been a wonderful privilege to study these with you this morning I had a joy of affirming one of our counselors in church who completed phase 3 of ACBC certification Denise Lopez and she was able to work through all these essays and then work through the phase 3 of ACBC training and just to see the end of the process for her was a great moment in the life of our church and also in my own ministry and though that is the end of her training that is the beginning of her ministry and applying these issues to to the people who God will bring to her to that she may minister to them and to help them with the Word of God and so let me end with this benediction from Romans 15 verse 13 which says this may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope I myself am satisfied about you my brothers that you yourselves are full of