HOW THIS SERMON’S OUTLINE
BRIDGES TO CHRISTIAN COUNSELING

Jesus began His ministry by speaking in a few local villages. Lives were touched right away. His crystal clear message reached people from the start. His first sermons were not recorded in full, but we have the “nutshell version” in the Gospel of Matthew: He told the people, “You can turn your life around because the Kingdom of the Heavens is at hand. The Father is right beside you, available to help you with any problem that comes up.” (This translation is discussed more fully in A Far Better Life, page 9.) That hope-bearing message was a golden nugget – a lifeline to His first listeners. They were ready to listen to anything else He had to say, if that much was true.

As is discussed in A Far Better Life, Chapter One, that message became a golden nugget because of the particular meaning of the term, “The Kingdom of the Heavens.” “Heavens”, plural, means “the air around you; your living space.” Jesus was telling people to invite the Father into their living space. In fact, He was saying they could transform their living space into His kingdom, where He runs everything. “Call on the Father. He is close at hand.” How completely simple that is, yet profound.

Please keep in mind that this message was attracting much attention before He delivered “The Sermon on the Mount.” Actually, it is why so many folks showed up. People were strongly drawn to that idea – the creator of the universe is “at hand”, ready to be a caring Father. That kind of a relationship with God completely transforms a person’s outlook. People came from every remote village in the region to listen to this teacher with the rich, life-changing message. They followed Him up the mountainside to hear this sermon.

It would be great to do some time travel, and go back to hear the full, word-for-word presentations of those early messages. He must have said more than is recorded in the “nutshell version.” Those first sermons must have been completely captivating. To see His facial expression, hear His voice inflection and to find out how He used everyday language would give a sense of the power that was stored up in those early messages.

A time traveler would also hear the entire “Sermon on the Mount”, complete with all of the examples and connecting points which are unrecorded. What we have in Matthew, Chapters 5 to 7, is an outline of what He said that day. In A Far Better Life you will get to look at “The Sermon on the Mount” in its outline form, which will help you will see how Jesus’ listeners viewed the sermon. This will give the sermon the same focus that it had back then.

Allow me to say a little more about outlines. Teachings at that time emphasized the main point by placing the core idea in the middle, not at the end, with sub-points lining up before and afterwards. So what is the main point – the climax – of this sermon? “The Lord’s Prayer.” If that is the main point, then what about the rest of the sermon?

• The first half of the sermon discusses wounds that keep us distant from the Father, and make it hard to ask the Father to be in complete control of our life. After these wounds are addressed, we can pray that prayer with our whole heart.
  
  
• "The Lord’s Prayer”, at the sermon’s mid-point, emphasizes turning every area of our life over to Him.
  
  
• The remainder of the sermon details out how our lives can be transformed by His leading.
  
  
• The closing point lines up with the introduction, emphasizing that the Father will be with us during the hardest of times.
  
  
• The wounds identified in the sermon’s first half need to be dealt with so that the family-of-God traits, mentioned in the second half, can direct our lives. In this way we see that the first half and the second half parallel each other, with the climax in the center: “Talk it all over with the Father.”

This understanding presents “The Sermon on the Mount” in a new light. Instead of being a collection of His teachings about many topics, including prayer, this outline suggests that the sermon is well-organized, from start to finish, and everything points to “The Lord’s Prayer.“

I believe this sermon contains an expansion of His earlier sermons. For you time travelers, in case you don’t get back there to hear Jesus’ first sermons in full, it is good enough to read “The Sermon on the Mount.” You will find that it eloquently expresses the mature development of the seeds from the earlier sermons. When Jesus urged people to turn their lives around by inviting the Father into their living space, people may have not quite known how to do that. This sermon makes that known:

1. Trust that the Father will help you when times are hard.

2. Let Him help you with your heart wounds, so you will no longer live from your hurt.

3. Put the Father first, and talk everything over with Him.

2’. Seek His guidance as you develop His family character traits, so that you can live from a heart shaped by Him.

1’. It takes more than hearing this sermon, to withstand hard times – you need to live it.

That outline contains the details about how to invite the Father into your living space (the core teaching in Jesus’ early sermons), and it is spelled out in more detail below.

AN OUTLINE OF “THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT”

1. “The Beatitudes” Matthew (5:3-12). The Father will be with you during the hardest of times, particularly when you are spiritually broken, overcome with sadness, treated unfairly, trying to live correctly, seriously drained from being merciful, deeply longing to stay pure, overmatched in your peacemaking efforts and when you are persecuted because you follow Jesus. Because He is with you, you will find yourself full of joy. Invite Him into your living space, and you will enter into the Kingdom of the Heavens.

2.You don’t have to let your life be guided by your hurt Wounds can control your heart when they bring up hopelessness, contempt, lust, dishonesty, retaliation and false righteousness (Matthew 5:13-6:6). In each of these, Jesus stresses it is crucial to win the battle at the heart level, or the battle will surely be lost. Taking care of these wounds can be thought of as healing. Jesus does not spell out exactly how to deal with these wounds, apart from continually seeking the Father’s guidance.

3. “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:7-13). Talk everything over with the Father. In everything, He is to be honored. Invite Him to take control of every area in your life, to help you keep your heart prioritized (to deal with worry, forgiveness, lust and dishonesty) and to live each day from your heart instead of from your hurt.

2’. When hurt no longer clogs up your heart, the Father will be right there to guide you to live from your transformed heart. He will bring these characteristics into your daily life – forgiveness, genuineness, peacefulness, loving relationships and sincerity. These will declare to everyone who your Father is (Matthew 6:14-7:23).

1’. Building your life on this sermon is like building your house on a rock. During the hardest of times He will be with you, so that you will be able to withstand any storm. But be careful – hearing this sermon is not enough. When it directs your life, you will be able to face anything because He is with you. Without Him, you will face certain destruction (Matthew 7:24-27).

THREE KEY COUNSELING GUIDELINES
THAT COME FROM THIS OUTLINE

1. People are broken and need guidance. The Father’s guidance, at every point is essential. This guideline comes from part 3 on the outline, “The Lord’s Prayer”, which is the sermon’s main point. “Father, please be in charge. Take control in every area of my life, just like you are in control of everything in Heaven.”
   
   
2. Wounded hearts need healing. The Father wants to provide healing for wounded hearts. This is based on part 2 of the outline, where Jesus mentions six wounds that can devastate your heart, and keep you from following the Father’s leading.
   
   
3. The Father’s companionship helps people to live from transformed hearts. This comes from part 2’, where the character traits of His family are identified.

Parts 1 and 1’ in the outline lend encouragement and hope, that healing and living from a transformed heart will be possible.

These are not optional ideas – they are the foundation, the core of Jesus’ teaching, upon which we are clearly told to build our lives. Not only do I find these to be good counseling principles, I find them to be essential. They direct how I talk to people each day.

• During counseling we can open up about a heart wound, pray for God’s healing, and end up by taking confidence in a “Beatitude”, like “God blesses those who hang in there when they are treated unfairly. He will help them to win in the end.”
  
  
• Or it may be hopelessness – people may feel as worthless as a pile of dirty salt on the ground. Following a prayer for healing of the traumas that led to hopelessness, it can be very reassuring to visualize a solid house that will withstand any storm, or earthquake, for that matter.
  
  
• “God blesses those who are overcome with sadness. His comfort is always available to help them with whatever comes up.” As an opening prayer, this “Beatitude” can set the stage for God to do His compassionate work, as we get into the most troublesome parts of the session. As time together comes to a close, we can stand firm with the final verses of Matthew, Chapter 6: “Drop your worries. You can count on Him to take care of you."
  
  
• A young man tells me that this morning he asked his mother for prayer, as he was about to go out of control, he also prayed, and was able to stay in school for the whole day. After school, we found the trauma that was triggering him, and we prayed for healing. Not only did he sense he was doing much better, but his faith was strengthened.
  
  
• In her 20s, a young woman reported being completely overcome with sadness. We traced it to mother wounds, and broke the stronghold that she will never receive comfort. His comfort was available, right then, and this was a great stride forward for her.
  
  
• As we were trying to bring a very contentious marriage counseling session to a fruitful close, it became clear that the husband needed to ask the Father to help him with worry whenever he needed to check up on his wife. His worry was his issue. She needed to seek healing for the wounds that had led her to hopelessness. A life filled with interpersonal failure led her to believe that she would not find happiness, so that stronghold was identified and defeated. “I can do all things through Christ, who is my strength.” It wasn’t really “marriage counseling”, but the marriage really came together following that session.
  
  
• Depression, and “things never turn out for me,” translated to “I’ll never lose weight.” This middle-aged woman said that there is something spiritual about this. Even so, we began by looking for the wound, and found that when she was very young, she was not given food except on a schedule. At night the hunger seemed eternal, and the stronghold was established, “you will never be satisfied.” Again, prayer was needed. It gave her the boost in confidence she needed to face a long battle to lose weight.

The examples are on-going, because this is the way He always works. When a session is built on this foundation, God shows up.