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The Wider War: Sexual Sin and the Battle Beneath

Counseling Common Struggles

Sexual sin takes all the attention, which is exactly why it is so often the hardest to help. This course teaches SCCI's heart-targeting method and then applies it where the presenting problem is sexual: the Fruit to Root levels of behavior, thought, and desire, and the six heart-revealing questions that get a person talking about what they actually wanted. David Powlison supplies the case material, including a man who had fought the same battle for twenty years without anyone noticing that his falls were a temper tantrum at God. You will learn to look for what else is running alongside the obvious sin, including anger, self-pity, the demand that God owes you, and the counterfeit refuge people take when life gets heavy. Written for biblical counselors.

1 hour
10 units
2 sections
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What You'll Work Through

Each unit is a conversation, not a page to read. The tutor asks you to explain, apply, and work with the material until it holds.

Chapter 1: Targeting the Heart

Section 1.1: Why the Heart Is the Target

  • The heart is the origin of the problem (Jer. 17:9; Prov. 4:23; Prov. 20:5)
  • Secular counsel targets behavior and mood; biblical counsel targets the heart

Section 1.2: Fruit to Root and the Six Heart-Revealing Questions

  • Fruit to Root: the tree metaphor for the heart
  • Godly assessment before conclusions (Prov. 18:13, 18:17)
  • The six heart-revealing questions

Chapter 2: Widening the Battlefront (Powlison)

Section 2.1: The Multiplex and Tom's Case

  • The multiplex image: sexual sin as the feature film while other films play at once
  • Tom's presenting problem and the failure of technique alone
  • The Friday-night detail and 'my temper tantrum at God' as the key that opens the case

Section 2.2: The Motives Beneath and Closing the Loop

  • The six non-erotic motives that drive sexual sin, each a hijacker mimicking God
  • Closing the loop: redefine the fruit issue at the heart level and point to the true battle and its weapons

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