Telling the Truth

Announcer: Do you take the time to lie beside still waters and let God replenish you? It's hard in today's world, but Jill Briscoe shows you the importance of taking the time to be quiet as she digs deeper into Psalm 23 today. Right now, people are searching for hope, answers, and truth they can build their lives on. And Stuart and Jill Briscoe's timeless biblical teaching is reaching into those very moments through social media and other digital platforms, a vast collection of vintage videos, and wonderful ministry partners. At Telling the Truth, our mission has always been clear: faithfully share the truth of God's Word so people everywhere can know and experience life in Christ.

And you can be part of that mission. When you give today, you help share hope with people who need to hear biblical truth taught clearly, faithfully, and without compromise. As our thanks, we'd love to send you Verses for Advent, a set of 25 beautifully designed scripture cards created to help you keep God's word at the center of the Christmas season. Reflect on a new verse each day through Advent as you embark on a journey from Old Testament prophecies about Jesus to the Christmas story in the New Testament. So please consider a gift today and help us carry out the Great Commission, ensuring that more people can hear God's word and discover the life found in Jesus.

Call now at 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks again for listening and for your support today. Now here's Jill with the second part of her message, Everness.

Jill Briscoe: My husband told this story, I believe, about 20 years ago or so. I'm safe in telling it again, probably, but it's a favorite story, and it's a true story. We have a friend, or Stuart had a friend in Scotland who was an evangelist. He lived in England, but he used to go, and he was a children's evangelist. That was pretty common where we were growing up. And they would simply be invited to little churches and gather the children in sort of open air meetings or inside, probably inside because it was England, and we have two seasons, winter and the second week of August, okay? And so you would gather the children and take them in, and then the visiting evangelist would preach for a whole week.

It would be evangelistic, but also whatever was needed that the pastor felt the kids needed. And our friend was one of those children's evangelists, and so he traveled up to a kirk, that's a church in Scotland in the north pointed end of the British Isles in the winter. He couldn't do it any other time. Winter was just beginning, and it was pretty wild up there and pretty cold and miserable. And he passed a shepherd and his sheep in a field, and he stopped his car and he said, I've come to talk about Jesus at the kirk. Your pastor has asked me to come. Will you be able to come to the meetings?

I'm going to talk about the 23rd Psalm, and it's all about sheep and shepherds, so I thought maybe you'd like to come. And the little boy said, oh, I'll ask if I can get someone else to help me, then I'll come. And he came to a couple or two of them. And at those meetings, our friend used his left hand, and I'm going to describe this because people are listening on radio and can't see me. I'm holding up my left hand, and the pastor used his right hand to talk about, and he touched each finger as he talked about it, the Lord is my shepherd. And he split up his meetings by taking a different aspect, the Lord is my shepherd.

And when he got to the my, he took his right hand and held that finger tightly, and he talked to the children about having to do this. You've got to say at some point in your life, he's mine. I want him to be mine, and I want to be his. I am his, and he is mine forever, as the hymn says. He's mine. Have you said that? I don't care how old you are. I don't care if you've been in church all your life. I don't care if you look like a sheep and sing like a sheep and act like a sheep. You might not be a sheep if you have not said, mine. This little boy listened. So did everyone else. Our friend left.

The winter was terrible. There was a snowstorm. The little shepherd boy, unbeknown to the people around, couldn't get the sheep back to the fold for the night, and he perished with his sheep in snowdrifts over 12 feet high. And when they found his frozen body, they couldn't really understand it. And so the pastor rang our friend and said, we found his body like this. We found the little boy clutching his finger, his fourth finger. Why would that be? Oh, said the evangelist, he's all right. He's home. He's home. He's home. Have you done this? Mothers, have your children done this? Don't let anybody rob you, fathers and mothers, of the joy of helping your kids to do this.

Don't leave it to anyone else. Make sure they can say, the Lord is my shepherd, and he loves me, and he feeds me, and he leads me in right paths. How do we know what the right path is for our life? I see that there's a lot of teenagers here. I love that. Spent my life with kids. I have no idea what I'm doing with you big people. That's all right. But you know, I love the young people's heart who take the challenge of saying, the Lord is my shepherd and I will follow him. I spent an evening with the college age, and I was there a long time afterwards answering the same questions. How will I know God's will for my life?

How will I know the job I should do? How will I know who I should marry and who I shouldn't? How will I know this? How will I know how to act at work, and this is the situation? What should I say to my parents who do not believe? What should I, how, how, what path should I take? And I tried to help them ask the shepherd. In fact, we kept stopping the conversation. I said, well, let's ask the shepherd. He's going to show you the right path. And then in my mind, I was thinking of the question and realizing there was a piece of Green Pastures they needed to read, and by the time we'd finished praying, I would turn to it and say, okay, this is what the shepherd says about this particular thing, and we would read it.

We would read it. And God wants us to know this book so thoroughly, so well, hang our hearts over it, yes, but to know it inside out. Why would we not? That when we want to know the right path, we know the right path. Oh yeah, where is that something about so and so? Or was there a situation sort of like mine, pretty well like mine, actually? What happened and what did they decide to do and what did they do right? What did they do wrong? This is where you'll get the answer. He will lead you in right paths, right paths. Yes, we can help each other. Yes, of course, the Bible study leader and the pastor and all of us people who are counseling and helping people.

We can help. We're under-shepherds. But hey, don't go to an under-shepherd first. Go to him. Go to him. If you don't know how to go to him, that's the question you should ask. Somebody said to me the other day, would you mentor me, Jill? I said, no, but I'll show you how Jesus will mentor you. I'll meet with you three times. Jesus wants to mentor you, and then you'll be fine. He'll do a lot better job than me, but I'll show you how. And so you graze in the green pastures and you lie by the still waters. In a sense, you could use that as prayer, a place where the presence of God is there, the invitation to sit on the steps of your soul in the deep place where nobody goes and have a conversation.

That place, that's poetic language, but the place to go in the interior life, and you are responsible for your own interior life. The shepherd is not. He will take you to the green pastures. He will not lean down, take your little mouth, your sheep mouth, and say, chew. He will show you where it is. Our job is to chew it over. Our job is to meditate. Our job is to eat until we're full. Do you know a sheep never lies down till its stomach's full? It's true. Never lies down till its stomach's full. And here it says, you will lie down in these green pastures. Have you ever read your Bible till you're saying, oh, I can't take any more.

That's wonderful. I need to go to sleep. When your stomach's full, you usually go to sleep. Is that what happens when he shows you the green pastures and you do the work of eating it? And what about prayer? What about this place? This place, what else is there? Where else is there? What else is the same time at your feet? A pause in your presence, time holding its breath with a sense of everness pervading my living room. Holiness that hovers, evidenced by quietness beyond quietness, permeating this space beneath the praise of angels. What do we know about it? What do I know about it? Never enough.

I can't get enough. Still waters. Green pastures, replenishing our soul in order that we may follow the shepherd.

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We look forward to connecting with you. Now let's head back to Psalm 23 and Jill Briscoe.

Jill Briscoe: Standing in Jerusalem once at the Sheep Gate, traditionally the place that the shepherds brought their flocks at night because they're on the hills around Jerusalem, and they're going to get marauded, and sheep are going to get stolen, and they might get killed. So they would come into the gates of Jerusalem, and all the gates have a different meaning. Many gates around the city of Jerusalem, still there to this day, although the gate's not there, the hole is. And the sheep gate is a favorite place of mine. I always visit it when I'm there, and I watch the shepherds bringing their sheep through all the tourists and this medley and mess on the very narrow sidewalk at sunset.

And Stuart and I were there with a group once, and I looked to the right, and here's this sheep line coming towards me, and it was just the neatest thing. They were all little sort of happy, woolly little sheep and all fluffy, and they were nose to tail, and they never got out and sometimes the shepherd looked behind and used his rod and staff, very, very seldom, and called a name or something and they sort of got back in line and, you know, trot, trot, trot. And I thought, boy, I wish I belonged to that flock. I'd like, that's a nice shepherd. I turned around and looked in the opposite direction and there was another shepherd coming with another line of sheep and I cannot tell you the contrast.

They were all over the place. They were just, there were screaming cars because they were darting into the traffic, and this poor shepherd, he was running down and putting them back in place, and they were scraggy and dirty, and one even had a half an ear hanging off, you know? And I thought, well, I wouldn't like to belong to his flock. You get the point. For his namesake, do people look at us and say, I wonder who's looking after them? I wonder how are they coping? They've just had this tragedy in their life, but look at them, they're surviving it. More than that, there is a serenity about them.

There is a power. There is actually hope. Of course there are tears. What do people say when they look at us? Are we so little redeemed that nobody will believe in our redeemer or want to join his flock? Now, I admit, when I first went into a church at the age of 19, after my conversion at Cambridge, I was in flock shock. I didn't like the church. I'd never been before, but it only took me 2 or 3 Sundays to decide I didn't want to belong to that flock. I'd be on my own, you know, just the shepherd and me. What do I need the flock for? Well, we need the flock because God says we need the flock.

It's his method. We'll talk to him about that when we get up there, right? That's his method, flock. And as I began as a young believer to be there, I figured out a whole lot of things which I don't have time to go into to tell you about why we need to be in the flock. And actually, when thinking back, the first flock I found I wanted to be in was led by wonderful shepherds, and all the sheep were just absolutely woolly and happy and just great, and I thought, yeah, I'd like to belong here. We judge the shepherd by the sheep. We judge the shepherd by the sheep. Let's take that to heart. Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, remember where there's a shadow, there's always light.

It's never totally dark. It will be dark. We live in a period called life after the fall with a fallen nature. What do you expect? Until glory and the new heaven and the new earth. That's how it's going to be. But here in the Psalm, David says, yeah, there'll be shadows. I've had shadows. Look at the history of me. Read it in Chronicles, see what I had to go through. Always a shadow, but always light, for where there's a shadow, there's always light. And that's because he is the light of the world, and he says, I will be with you, and you will have no fear of evil. He will comfort me, and he will spread me a table of grass, and we'll have a banquet, and the enemies can be leering and pressuring us, and it doesn't matter because he's there.

I will never, never, never, never, not once leave you or forsake you. And surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That's like the sheepdogs of Psalm 23. Goodness and mercy will be behind us, God's goodness and mercy, and the shepherd will be leading us home, leading us home. There's homeness in everybody's heart. There's this, I don't belong here, I belong home, home, I want to go home. God has put homeness in your heart, and that's why you'll never be satisfied, never be happy, and never be settled until you let him into your heart and make him home in your heart. And one day, I didn't say it like this, one day he'll lead you right through some gates and show you the room he's prepared for you.

That's the word, incidentally, in John 14, not I've prepared a house for you, I've prepared a room in my house for you. Show you your room in his house, and then you will be at home forever, forever. Do you know the world needs to hear that message? Because God has put homeness in their heart, and they don't know where it is. They just want to go home. Tell them, tell them. Let me finish with this. When healing oil was needed for the wounds within my soul, when battered, raw, and bleeding, I needed to be whole. When enemies surrounded me, and all I knew was fear, my shepherd came and found me and whispered, I am here.

He lifts me on his shoulders, and he laughs in fear's face, and he carries me through danger, and all I know is grace, then gently puts me down again, though enemies abound, and tells me I am dear to him, for I'm the sheep he found. And he leads me to green pastures and rests me by cool streams, and he lays a table for me within my darkest dreams. And the nourishment is such that when it's time to follow on, I gladly face tomorrow, for all my fears are gone. So when I cannot thank him for all that's come to pass, I'll feast within the wilderness and wait for greener grass. When I can't praise for what's been done, I'll lift my voice out loud and praise my Lord for who he is in what he has.

And I'll quit saying, take the shadows away, and I'll quit asking him to kiss every hurt better here, and I'll try and follow. When I can't praise for what's been done, I lift my voice out loud and praise my Lord for who he is, my shepherd, in what he has allowed. Praise who he is, my shepherd dear, who gave his life for me, who's led and fed and raised the dead to live in victory, whose rod and staff have saved me from all my sinfulness. He'll wipe the tear, be ever near in glories everness. Stuart and I put that together. We've never written a poem together, and we put it together after I had shared what I was going to share with you and said, tell me, teach me, help me, expand it, push me so I can get some of it right.

And at the end, I wrote the poem and sent it to him to edit, and he did a pretty good job. He edited, and he put within it his own thoughts. So it was rather neat. We wrote a poem together. I love it. But those are the lines. When you can't praise for what's been done, lift your voice out loud and praise your Lord for who he is in what he has allowed. He's your shepherd.

Announcer: And now Jill joins us to answer a few questions about how Psalm 23 has impacted her life. Jill, the shepherd does lead his sheep, but how can a person make sure that they're following him?

Unidentified Speaker: Well, he leads us by his voice. His voice use words. The shepherd's words are actually written down in a book called the Bible. So if we want to know what the shepherd wants us to do, what he wants us to eat, what he wants us not to eat, if he wants us on this path or another path, if he wants to comfort us, encourage us, rebuke us, it's all there in a book called the Bible. So how does he lead us? He leads us if we are in the Bible. How do we know what he wants us to do or not to do if we have not got our head in the Bible? My husband used to say here when he was senior pastor at Alnbrook Church in Wisconsin, never put your head on the pillow at night until your nose has been in the book during the day.

That sort of became a mantra for all of us, and I would be going to sleep happily without having my nose in the book, and his voice would come back to me, never put your head on the pillow at night until you're... and I'd get out of bed and get my Bible and be reminded. So let me remind you, never put your head on the pillow at night until you have had a word with the shepherd, from the shepherd. You have had, let me correct that, you have had a word from the shepherd that you need to respond to in prayer. He speaks to us through his word, the Bible. We respond through prayer, and you can talk to him in any way you wish.

You must be kidding, Lord. You want me to do what? That's fine. Or what do you mean comfort when I've just lost my husband or my wife? What sort of comfort would I need to possibly begin to touch that? whatever you want to say in response to his word is called prayer, and so those two things go together. Another way that we hear God's voice and know how he's leading us or telling us what to do in a dilemma, if you want me to put that in another way, is to take the advice of other Christians because Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and he is the Spirit of truth. People that have known the shepherd a long time have wisdom.

They're his under-shepherds, if you wish. I hope you've all got under-shepherds. Where do you find an under-shepherd? In a place called the church. And so make sure you have a fellowship or a Bible study group or somebody wiser, somebody gifted who can advise you because they will be coming out of their relationship with God and they will add to what you're reading in the Bible. You can say to them, am I getting this right? I- I'm thinking this verse means such and such and is telling me to do this or not to do this. Check it out with an under shepherd. That's another way a person can make sure they're following him.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're thrilled you've joined us and pray today's message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promises. Right now, people are searching for hope, answers, and truth they can build their lives on. And Stuart and Jill Briscoe's timeless biblical teaching is reaching into those very moments through social media and other digital platforms, a vast collection of vintage videos, and wonderful ministry partners. At Telling the Truth, our mission has always been clear: faithfully share the truth of God's Word so people everywhere can know and experience life in Christ.

And you can be part of that mission. When you give today, you help share hope with people who need to hear biblical truth taught clearly, faithfully, and without compromise. As our thanks, we'd love to send you Verses for Advent, a set of 25 beautifully designed scripture cards created to help you keep God's Word at the center of the Christmas season. Reflect on a new verse each day through Advent as you embark on a journey from Old Testament prophecies about Jesus to the Christmas story in the New Testament. So please consider a gift today and help us carry out the Great Commission, ensuring that more people can hear God's Word and discover the life found in Jesus.

Call now at 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. We're glad you've joined us today, and we hope you'll come back again for more encouraging biblical truth with the Briscoes. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.