Necessity and Relative Priority

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces pastoral counseling as unit eight in pastoral theology, defining it as concentrated individual shepherding to address specific needs or chronic problems…

Pastoral counseling is likened to a shepherd setting a broken bone, treating a chronic stomach disorder, or healing from skirmishes with wolves, illustrating the individual attention needed for specific sheep needs.

And perhaps the best way to begin to ease in to the definition that I have had printed in your notes is to think of pastoral counseling as essentially a concentrated exercise of individual or domestically oriented shepherding of the people of God with reference to some isolated need or chronic problems that are hindering us. And I have listed two texts in the Word of God that are central in my thinking with respect to the subject of pastoral counseling. In Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, the familiar words of the apostle to the Ephesian elders, their task is laid upon them in terms of the duty o...

1:05 - 2:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Please make that distinction between the principles and precepts and the way that they will find their expression in practice.

Martin uses his own experience as a 63-year-old grandfather versus his 28-year-old self to illustrate how a pastor's maturation and life experience naturally shape and enhance their counseling ability.

I can do things in counseling as a 63-year-old grandfather that I never could do when I was 28 with one kid.

15:42 - 15:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're seeking to fulfill your job description graciously and wisely under the rule of Christ and someone resents that then you've got to deal with whether or not Calvin says they're conducting themselves like a sheep…

Martin recounts a brief, private interaction with a brother struggling with weight gain, illustrating how meaningful pastoral interaction can be quick, personal, and effective in fostering accountability and spiritual growth.

Ezekiel 34 for general teaching will often have a cold reception unless it is helped by advice given in private accordingly there's no excuse for the negligence of those who after holding one meeting live for the rest of their time free from care as if they've discharged their duty it is as if their voices were shut up in the sanctuary since they've become completely dumb as soon as they are out of it those who learn are also warned that if they do indeed wish to be counted among the flock of Christ they must admit the pastors as often as they come to them and their private warnings are not to...

26:59 - 28:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it is not just the pure white light of truth but truth clothed with the human personality suffused by the spirit of God conveying the urgency the concern compassion all of those dimensions of spirit possessed human perso…

Martin shares his amazement at people from diverse backgrounds opening their hearts to him, a stranger, after listening to his sermon tapes, demonstrating how effective preaching can build trust and pave the way for individual counseling.

and with compassion and with sensitivity the inevitable results of effective pastoral preaching will precipitate it this has been one of the things that has blown my mind over the years and has helped a natively sensitive and in many ways I don't have a lot of native self-confidence but it's amazed me over the years to go in various parts of the world with people of all kinds of ethnic and sociological and economic backgrounds from people in some of the poor areas of the Philippines to dignified reserved Englishmen and more volatile Welshmen etc and to find people who have come to me I've neve...

34:23 - 35:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no nostalgic looking back as I'm tempted to do and for you to have a deep yearning to be yanked out of it and just say it's too far gone well it isn't too far gone.

Martin describes the societal shift since World War II, where mothers entering the workforce (like 'Rosie the Riveter') contributed to the unraveling of the nuclear family, illustrating a cultural circumstance intensifying the need for counseling.

intensified need for what we're describing as pastoral counseling and then the second Timothy 3 passage is my understanding Paul is saying that characteristic of the overlapping of the ages that which we call the last days that there will be these seasons in which there will be a heightened and an intensified and an aggravated manifestation of men's depravity grievous times shall come not one grievous time but grievous times and if we have reason to believe that we are in such a grievous time in our own society then we're going to face this necessity for some of us who've lived long enough to ...

40:21 - 41:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no nostalgic looking back as I'm tempted to do and for you to have a deep yearning to be yanked out of it and just say it's too far gone well it isn't too far gone.

He contrasts the meaning of 'be a good girl' in the 1950s (virginity) with its modern interpretation (safe sex), illustrating the proliferation of humanistic relativism and its impact on moral standards.

was the stereotypical Irish man he loved his whiskey and I can still remember Mrs. Yates chasing her son down the street with a broom she had a fiery temper and I can still see her chasing Sonny Yates with a broom unashamedly down the street but when the broom got put away and her husband got sober there was mom and dad and Sonny and his sister in that home and up and down the street and it lent a stability it lent an unofficial government on our street everybody was watching over everybody else's kid and everybody believed the worst about his kid when his neighbor told him an unwritten compac...

41:50 - 43:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no nostalgic looking back as I'm tempted to do and for you to have a deep yearning to be yanked out of it and just say it's too far gone well it isn't too far gone.

Martin recounts a conversation with a young man who had no intention of paying back college debt, illustrating a profound shift in personal responsibility and dignity in modern culture.

the accumulated influence of evolutionary nonsense tell a man he's nothing but an ape advance long enough and he will descend to act like an ape at the higher levels tell him he's nothing but cosmic dust and he'll begin to live as though that's all he were and he's going to grab all the gusto he can get before he goes back to more cosmic dust just to be blown around who knows where for who knows how long it's been the bravest thing to be part of that in witnessing the intrusion of drugs some of us lived before the 60s and the drug culture and we reared our kids in a tragic naivety we did not k...

43:18 - 44:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Have no nostalgic looking back as I'm tempted to do and for you to have a deep yearning to be yanked out of it and just say it's too far gone well it isn't too far gone.

He contrasts his childhood games (playing train with chairs) with the pervasive influence of television, illustrating the loss of innocence and the molding power of media in shaping minds and behavior.

tall in the sense of manly responsibility and dignity it's pretty well gone I got my baptism some years ago and talked to a guy working for our pharmacist and the whole matter of his college death came up and without a sense of shame I got no intention of paying a bag he gave I was dropped into a totally different planet reared in the context where devil hell and death were three words that were synonyms I was brought up to fear death like the devil and hell itself and here's a guy who incurred it willfully with no thought of ever paying it back brainwashing power the TV is a molder of mind ca...

44:48 - 46:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Do I believe that the preaching of the word is the primary instrument ordained of God to carry forth his work and this is where your theology of preaching is put to the test.

The analogy of a village with polluted water and air causing chronic illness is used to illustrate that while treating symptoms is necessary, a pastor's primary energy should be directed at the source of the pollution (the mindset of the world) through preaching, rather than solely individual counseling.

and God's announcement of chastisement that would dog him to the end of his days a counseling clinic staffed by ten J. Adams and ten Wayne Max could not reverse the influences of divine chastisement upon David his family was going to come apart at the seams his influence and credibility in the kingdom would be eroded and no amount of pastoral counseling could change it now thank God there is a doctrine of restorative grace and how often have I in pastoral counseling opened up to Joel chapter 2 and verse 25 I will restore the years that the locust is eaten and the years that the canker worm is ...

61:06 - 62:36 Read in full sermon