Beginning with the Heart

1. Beginning with the Heart D-Group Oct 11, 2010

2. Case Study 1: Marco • Marco was a leader of a student ministry in DLSU in 1996 • After graduation in 2000 Marco went to seminary and later took a part time volunteer work as a youth pastor of CCF • After 3 years (2003) it was revealed that Marco was involved in a homosexual relationship with someone outside the church • After church discipline which resulted in his leaving the ministry it was found out that Marco had been struggling throughout his HS and college days with homosexuality

3. (Cont.) Case Study 1: Marco • Although he had become become a Christian he had secretly continued to struggle with homosexual feelings toward other men. • The feelings occasionally erupted into dabbling with pornography, and twice resulted to homosexual one-night stands. • If this brother in Christ had been in your Bible study during his college days and had confessed to you his struggles, how would you have sought to minister to him?

4. Case Study 2: Juanita • Juanita has served Christ faithfully for 15 years (1995-2010). • She is a respected competent leader in Sunday School and has an outstanding ministry. • Countless people have benefited from her care, wisdom love and discipling. • But inspit of these she has a severe internal struggle • Whenever she encounters stress in the ministry, boredom with the routines of life or disappointments with relationships she eats.

5. (Cont.) Case Study 2: Juanita • As a result Juanita is heavy • She has gone on numerous diets of all varieties and shapes. • She has even spent more than P250,000 undergoing liposuction treatments • Through all these strategies she has often lost weight and seen herself as victorious in her weight struggles, only to go back to her old eating patterns at the outbreak of new set of life problems.

6. (Cont.) Case Study 2: Juanita • She hates herself, she knows that her eating patterns are wrong but she just can’t seem to stop eating. Why? If you were her close friend what counsel might you offer her?

7. Case Study 3: Pastor Luke • Pastor is well liked by his colleagues and church congregation in CCF. • He has both a successful pastoral and teaching ministry and has found much satisfaction and seen much fruit in both. • Yet he operates in the verge of burnout most of the time. • This due to his inability to say no to his people’s request and demands in the ministry. He knows that he is already too busy but he keeps on adding additional Bible studies to an already overcrowded schedule.

8. (Cont.) Case Study 3: Pastor Luke • His home-life is filled with strife since he is out of the house five nights a week and even when he is at home he is preparing for his sermon or a Bible study. • His wife is constantly nagging him to cut back and slow down. • He acknowledges that he should but never seems to be able to. • As a result his inner life is somewhat of a simmering pot of anger, guilt, resentment, self-pity, and despair.

9. (Cont.) Case Study 3: Pastor Luke • What is going on with Pastor Luke? What advice might you give to help him in his current situation?

10. Typical approaches to change • Stop doing it/try harder • Will power • Accountability • Punishment reward • Renew your mind/change your focus • Instead of getting angry say a memory verse • Seek to understand why – psychological approach • Ex: homosexual = must be molested when young • What can you say about the approaches to change?

11. An understanding of change • The problem with any and all the above mentioned strategies are not that they are wrong • Each approach can find good biblical “proof texts” to support its use. • The issue is not wrongness as it is incompleteness. Generally these strategies tend to see sin (attitudes and actions) as behavioral. That is to say they tend to acknowledge that sinful attitudes and actions are always derived from wrong motivations of the heart.

12. (Cont.) An understanding of change • If change is to be significant it must go beyond external behavior and consider the dynamics of human motivation (the heart) Mark 7:21-23 “for from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evil come from inside and make a man unclean.”

13. (Cont.) An understanding of change James 1:14-15 “…but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”

14. Fruit or Root Repentance?

15. Fruit or Root Repentance? • Bad root = Bad fruit • A heart that is trusting in something else besides God. • Bad root = idols of the heart • Ex: when bad things happen how do you react? • When under pressure what kind of fruit do you bear? • Good root = Good fruit

16. Fruit or Root Repentance?

17. Fruit or Root Repentance?

18. Misplaced Desires and the Issue of Unbelief 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! -Psalm 84:11-12

19. (Cont.) Misplaced Desires and the Issue of Unbelief • Misplaced Desires: The Issue of Unbelief • Consequence of the Fall: At creation man was made to live in dependent relationship with his Maker • God would meet all of man’s needs and man would respond in loving obedience. • Man’s sin of willful independence led to a broken relationship with God and a life in a “cursed” world. • Man could no longer count on God to meet his needs for security, significance, acceptance, life, etc. • Ultimately man turned to other things (idols both physical and psychological) to meet his needs (Eph 4:18-19, Eph 2:12 and Rom 1:21-24)

20. (Cont.) Misplaced Desires and the Issue of Unbelief B. Failure to Trust God: Trusting in Functional Idols • If we don’t believe that God is the God of Psalm 84 then other gods become more attractive • The god (idol) of financial stability • The god (idol) of relationships • The god (idol) of career • The god (idol) of business success • The god (idol) of intimacy

21. (Cont.) Misplaced Desires and the Issue of Unbelief “People are always doing something with God. Human beings inescapably love God, or love something else. We take refuge in God, or in something else. We set out hopes in God, or in something else. We fear God or something else.” - David Powlison

22. (Cont.) Misplaced Desires and the Issue of Unbelief C. Repentance: The Answer to Unbelief • Behind all of our sinful behavior is an incipient mistrust in the goodness of God • The core issue is not about stopping the bad habits. It is about who I (you) are going to worship • Will you worship idols and live in unbelief or will you embrace God in faithful obedience? • Are you trusting in God or someone/something else to fill the vacuum?

23. Application Question: What are our functional idols? What are the idols of our heart? What are the things we trust in to give us “life”?

24. Bible readings • 1 Thess 1:9b-10 • Jeremiah 17:9 • Psalm 139:23-24

25. Source(s) • Dr. Dave Darwin, Beginning with the Heart, IGSL

26. God bless you!

27. Doms – Money • Julius – Fear • Elton – Surrender • Omar – Money, Self (Image) • Paolo – Image

28. eltonjohnlazaro@yahoo.com omarphilippe@gmail.com (mendoza)