Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Jesus never wasted an opportunity to teach, and he continues to teach through willing followers like you and me. Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe helps you prepare for those teachable moments. But first, the generosity of friends like you keeps broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

As thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill that will give you timeless wisdom on the subject of prayer and help you build a more consistent and inspired prayer life. Tomorrow is your last chance to claim this offer, so call now to request yours at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. All right, let's jump into today's message from Jill Briscoe called Used by God.

Jill Briscoe: Isaiah chapter 50. It might not look very interesting to you, this passage, but I tell you it is going to be interesting to you. I just know it is. Many people say to me, "What is your favorite verse of scripture?" and of course, that's impossible. But this is one of my favorite passages of scripture, and I'll share before we're finished why.

It is a servant song. We've been talking about the songs of the servant, the ultimate servant, Jesus Christ. And this is a Messianic passage. It looks forward to the servant of the Lord who is going to come and change things around this world for eternity. It is a marvelous passage of scripture because it speaks about the servant and his persistence in the task of teacher, counselor, and obedient disciple. There's a lot here about being a teacher. There's a lot here about being eloquent, and a lot of you are excusing yourself at this very point from my talk.

You might say, "I'm not a leader. I'm not a counselor. I'm not a teacher. I'm not eloquent, so I'll just sit and listen." But before we're finished, you're going to see you're all all these things. We are all all these things. And it's a very challenging passage of scripture because, "As the Father has sent me," said Jesus, "so send I you." We are the servants' servants.

Now then, the ultimate leader who's called to be a servant has the tongue of a teacher. Let's read this, verse four: "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, he wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." We'll go down to there. The tongue of a teacher. The ultimate leader is the ultimate servant leader, which is all of us, servant leader, who has the tongue of a teacher. The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom so that I may know what to say to all these weary ones.

Now Jesus, of course, was the ultimate servant. Before he sent us, God sent him. And God gave his servant Christ words of wisdom to use at teachable moments. Now, we all know about teachable moments, especially if we have kids. And we have many teachable moments with our children. I think I told you about the teachable moment I found myself in the middle of when putting my grandchildren to sleep and stripping off their clothes and going off and just about to put out the light.

Danny says, "I've been watching a funeral and I want to know how long will I be in the box, in the coffin?" And I put the light on again. This was indeed a teachable moment. I came back, sat on the bed, and tried to answer the kids' questions about death and coffins and things like that. And so I said, "Danny, you want to know how long you'll be in the box? Not one moment. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. He that believes in Jesus will never die."

Then said Danny, "What goes in the box?" And I looked on the ground and there were these two little piles of clothes I'd stripped off the kids to bathe them. And I said, "Look, that's like your body. And when you die, your spirit immediately goes into God's presence, so you never die. You never die. But that's what goes in the box. That's what goes in the box."

And so Michael, who's the pragmatist in the other bed, says, "Will we be naked then?" Good question. I said, "No, we'll have glory clothes." And then of course we had to get into what was glory clothes and God was going to give raiment and all of this, and what did that mean? It was indeed a teachable moment.

And what we have to be ready for if we're going to have the tongue of a teacher, whether it is to our grandchildren or our own children or someone else's children who happen to be with our children in our house playing with our children or whatever else, we have to be ready for those teachable moments. Jesus never missed a teachable moment. Never missed a teachable moment. If it was sitting on the hillside and birds were flying over his head and something happened, he would use it. If an incident happened, if there was a fight, he would use it. He would use this teachable moment.

When the woman came, he said, "Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you." And he used a healing of a woman as a teachable moment because somebody else came and he'd asked Jesus to go and heal his servant, but now his servant had died or whatever it was. Jesus used that whole thing as a teachable moment. He used the man's comment as a teachable moment.

So in doing this, if we're going to have the tongue of a teacher, how can we use teachable moments? First of all, by using the wisdom that we have accumulated. Jesus was 33 years of age when he died, but he had accumulated a lifetime of wisdom. And you don't have to wait until you're 60 or 70 to feel that you've accumulated life's wisdom, just lessons of life. I'm learning that young women are looking around for some life's wisdom. Yes, it's nice if it's spiritual, but I tell you these young mothers who are probably far away from their own moms in this scattered community that's called America, and far away from their grandmothers, or perhaps there's been divorce in their own parents' family, they don't have a woman with life's wisdom.

Now, she doesn't need to be ancient. She can be in her 40s, but maybe she's been through it and she's got some life's wisdom to share. I remember when I was having David in this hospital and it was a big ward of people that looked like beached whales lying on beds, ready to produce. And they're all in various stages. And you didn't have your own little room in our hospital anyway. And so everyone was in various stages of ooh and ah and then somebody was obviously ready and somebody whipped her into the and off she went and it was a horrible sort of situation.

And I was very scared. And this was my first baby and I didn't know what was going to happen. There was a cleaning lady who was brushing around the beds during all of this. And she sort of came to me and just to get my mind off what was happening internally and the pains that were coming more and more frequently, I just started to talk to her.

And she said, "It's all right, love, it's going to be all right. Yes," she said, "I've had ten, ten!" And I said, "Oh, you have! Tell me about..." So she started to tell me about it. This was accumulated wisdom. She had had ten. I hadn't had one yet, but I was about to produce one. And I tell you, I hung on every word and she was brushing and every time she started to brush the next bed I left out of hand and pulled her back to me. I said, "Don't you go to the next bed. I need you, I need you."

Well, then of course my time came for me to be wheeled out of the ward and the nurse came and yes, it was time. And she got the bed and she started to wheel it. And I just grabbed this cleaning lady by her wrist with an iron grip and she was running along the side sort of waving her brush as they were whipping me and the nurse was saying, "Leave her alone, leave her alone, leave her alone." I said, "No, no, I need her." Why? Because she had this accumulated life's wisdom.

And you know, you don't realize, folks, that you can have the tongue of a teacher in all sorts of ways. You can get over principles of scripture, you can get over comfort, you can get over things God wants you to do for another human being, simply by drawing on what you have learned. What you have learned. As I raised my teenagers, I remember having a fight about my daughter and whether she could wear jeans in church and my husband coming in and saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff, Jill. If you're going to have a war, have it over something that's important."

And I remember the wisdom that I learned of what to fight about. Am I going to fight about jeans or am I going to fight about a moral issue that really matters? And so that little bit of wisdom I learned the hard way as a teenager. I have shared some of those stories all around the world. I've put them in my books. I've talked to women. In fact, I had a woman down in Raleigh came to me and said, "I came here, I haven't been back to this conference for ten years."

And she said, "It was just as I was raising my children," and she said, "you were just in that age where the kids were coming out of their teenage into college age and you shared all that stuff about Judy and David and Peter." And she said, "I went home and this is what you said." And she got out her Bible and she gave me some of these little headlines, which was really not a spiritual verse or anything. It was accumulated wisdom. It was hard lessons in the school of hard knocks. And Jesus used his own life's hard knocks to teach, to have the tongue of a teacher.

And so what happens to us, life's wisdom and life's wounds can be used. When Jesus' mother came and his brothers to take him home because they thought he was out of his mind when he first began his ministry, it said they came to take him by force, the word is, drag him home because they said he must be out of his mind to be doing this. He didn't even have time to eat, it says in the scriptures. Mark's Gospel chapter 4 tells you about this, and the mother and the disciples came and Jesus said, "Who is my mother and my sisters?" in the hearing of his own mother.

This was very difficult. This became a rift between him and his family and they went home without him. They went home without him. And so later, when Peter said, "We've left everything to follow you," Jesus was able to use it as a teachable moment and say, "I know what you feel, Peter, because I have a family that doesn't understand as well. And let me tell you in the world to come you're going to have houses and mothers and fathers and sisters and anybody that's left mother or father or wife or child for my sake and the kingdom's will in the world to come have that made up to them." He used his own life's wisdom and he used his own life's wounds to talk to people.

Guest (Male): You're listening to an uplifting message about what it means to be both servant and teacher on Telling the Truth. This broadcast is heard by people all over the world thanks to the support of incredible listeners like you. Your gifts keep Telling the Truth on air and online. We want you to know that your gifts to this ministry encourage people like Shelly from Texas. She wrote in to share this: "I'm so grateful for all of the teaching on Telling the Truth and listening to the daily messages as I go to sleep each night. God is meeting me and guiding me directly through the teaching of your ministry. Thanks so much."

Shelly, do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the walls instead of landing in the presence of God? Or do you pray more out of obligation than relationship? Maybe you recognize a lack of passion in your voice even as you pray and you're left wondering, "Does God even hear my prayers or will he answer them?" We'd love to help lead you toward a more inspired and vibrant prayer life by sending you a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

This one-of-a-kind resource is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life in Christ through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. But it's only available as thanks for your gift until tomorrow. Your support enables countless people across the globe to stand strong in the unchanging truth of scripture. And we're so grateful for friends like you. So be sure to request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call to give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Okay, here we go back to Jill with more on today's message, Used by God.

Jill Briscoe: So we can do the same because life words can be couched in the principles of scripture or in the wisdom that we have learned. "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue." He's given me a special ability to speak eloquently and encouragingly. That verse could be interpreted. He's given each servant of the Lord Jesus the tongue of a teacher. "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."

Let me give you another translation. He has given us the ability to speak by words in their season of need, that I may know how to sustain the word of he that is weary. Let me give you a little phrase. He's given us the know-how to know what to say. He's given us the know-how to know what to say. That's literally what it says here. "He's given me the instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary." The know-how to know what to say.

And Calvin says the know-how includes wisdom and skill. Listen to John 3:34, "The one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit, without measure or limit." God has given us the Spirit without limit. He is the teacher. The scriptures tell us this Holy Spirit is our teacher. Within every single one of you, you have the Holy Spirit who knows what to say. So he has given you the know-how in giving you the person of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit's the one that searches the deep things of God. He knows the mind of God. He understands what goes on, what makes God tick because he is God. And we have received the Holy Spirit and in fact the New Testament says we have the wisdom of Christ because we have Christ. Now it's a question of appropriating that, of learning to appropriate the power that we have to know what to say.

The Spirit who is our teacher will use our tongue to teach. Well, to teach who? The weary. Those overwhelmed by problems, those overwhelmed by many afflictions. Let me give you an Old Testament example of all of this. What about the slaves in Egypt? Now there were a people that were weary. They were a people with problems that you would not believe. The whole nation is in slavery. Now then, God reaches down to a guy who has been living in the backside of the desert, a man called Moses.

And he says to him in Exodus—and you don't need to turn to it, you know the story—"I have heard the cry of my people, so I've come down to deliver them. So now I'm sending you to bring them out." Now remember he's a fugitive. Remember he has been 40 years as somebody that murdered somebody and ran away before they could catch him and put him to death. And here he is in the backside of a desert with a few scraggy sheep. And God appears to him in a burning bush and the angel of the Lord says, "I'm going to send you."

His response to this is, "What if they don't believe me or listen? Oh Lord," listen to this, "I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you've spoken to me." So now I've met you in the burning bush and I don't feel any different. "I've never been eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue." I can never find the words, that means. The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it." You ever said that? I have. "Here am I, send Aaron." I wrote a book called that once, "Here Am I, Send My Brother." And so God got mad with him. He got angry with him and he said, "All right, I will. I know he can speak well. He is eloquent. He is naturally talented with a gift of the gab. I know that about Aaron because that's what I made him."

"So I know he can do it. You go, you tell Aaron what you want to say and Aaron will say it for you. Do it together." Verse 14 and then in 18, they go back and Aaron begins to listen to Moses. He whispers in his ear. He tells Pharaoh the message. That goes on for one short chapter. The next chapter it says, "Moses said." He soon took over. It was interesting to me. However, God got him to do what he wanted, said, "Okay, go with someone else, you know, we'll play this game and we'll encourage you along."

And so they go and of course things get worse. Do you remember? Pharaoh gets absolutely mad and he says, "Well, okay, if you're trying to work up trouble among my slaves, they can make bricks without straw." And the leaders of Israel come to Moses and say, "What you doing? You say God has sent you to bring us out and now we're in worse state than before." So Moses goes back to God and says, "Look what's happened! I told you this would happen. I told you I'm no good at persuading people."

And God simply says, "Go and tell Pharaoh the next bit." And Moses says, "If Israel won't listen to me, why should Pharaoh? Since I speak with faltering lips." In other words, and another translation is, "I'm no orator." And you know what dawned on me as I looked at all of this? Of course he did go in obedience and he did speak and he did find the words and he did have the know-how to know what to say because God gave it him. That you and I can speak with spiritual eloquence with faltering lips.

You and I, every person in this place can speak with spiritual eloquence when you haven't got the gift of the gab naturally. And to me that is the most exciting thing you can ever discover. Some of us are gifted teachers, some of us are gifted as orators, and some of us aren't. It makes absolutely no difference. God doesn't say, "Well, all the orators and all the teachers and all the people that are poets and can speak with the tongues of angels, go do it and the rest of you just do something else you feel you're gifted for."

He says every one of my servants has the tongue of a teacher. And if you do it clumsy, it doesn't matter because there will be a spiritual truth, the truth-telling you will do as a servant of the Lord will have a spiritual impact because you will be speaking with spiritual eloquence even if you're clumsy with words. And that should set us on our toes dancing. So as we speak badly, it doesn't really matter because the Spirit's going to do his thing goodly through us. Our accumulated experience of life, sharing our life's wounds and hurts, which will really be terrific because we will be writing down the comfort that we will have received from God to pass on to someone else.

That's what the Bible says. God's going to comfort you so you can go and comfort someone else, to have the know-how to know what to say to those that are weary in their season of need. Know anyone in a season of need? Can you think of anyone? See their face, a little boy, a little girl, an older person, somebody that belongs to you, somebody that doesn't. Can you see them? Now can't you get excited with the fact that God is going to give you the tongue of a teacher? Then he's going to give you the skill of a counselor. Number two.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Telling the Truth. Today you're hearing the wise instruction of Jill Briscoe on being a servant teacher. She'll be back momentarily with her conclusion, but before she returns, I'll pray for you. Just pray about it. Prayer changes things. You've probably heard statements like these from other Christians or said them yourself. But if you ask most believers how prayer works, the answers are likely to be all over the map.

So how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is he listening to every single request and can prayer really make a difference? To help answer questions like these, we've put together Stuart and Jill's five-message teaching series, Powerful and Effective Prayer. This collection of messages can help you uncover the secret to a more vibrant prayer life, one where you lose yourself in the presence of God and have confidence that your prayers are rising and making a difference.

You'll gain wisdom and insight on prayer from Stuart and Jill's decades of ministry. Powerful and Effective Prayer comes as our thanks for your gift to help more people fix their eyes on eternity through the truths of God's word shared through Telling the Truth. But we must remind you that this offer ends tomorrow, so don't miss out. Be sure to request your copy when you give a gift today. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now back to Jill to wrap up today's message, Used by God.

Jill Briscoe: Now Jesus, of course, as the servant of the Lord was the wonderful counselor. Isaiah 9 tells us that. God says, "My ear is not heavy that it cannot hear." He is telling us that he loves to listen. If you have a concordance, look up the word "listen" and you'll find hundreds of references in the Old Testament to how God listens to his people. He's not always talking, he's listening.

When Hagar ran away into the desert because Sarah wasn't treating her very well, she was pregnant, ends up in the middle of a desert, probably going to die. Can't survive as a pregnant woman in that world in the middle of a desert. She couldn't go back, she couldn't go forward. Only a matter of time till somebody found her and did her in. And God meets her. And he says, "Hagar, Hagar, I have heard your cries, I've seen your tears. Now what's the matter?"

Hagar starts to realize that God sees her first of all. "You are the God that sees me." Beer-lahai-roi she named the well where she met God. And then he says, "Well, you're going to have a baby. You will have a baby. You will go back to Sarah, submit yourself to her. This is my choice to look after you. I know it's not ideal. You need to go back. And you will have the baby and I want you to call him Ishmael."

And it's interesting to me that when Hagar, the servant of Sarah who had run away, went back, she must have told her story of meeting a God who heard her because Abraham named his son Ishmael. And when she told Abraham and Sarah what had happened, Abraham at least believed her and said, "Then this child's name shall be Ishmael." What does Ishmael mean? "God hears."

And for the next 14 years, when Hagar submitted herself to Sarah and brought up her own child for Sarah—that was tough—every time she called him in for a meal, "Ishmael, Ishmael, God hears, God hears. God hears, time for supper. God hears, time for breakfast. God hears, time to get up." God gave him a name that reminded Hagar that God hears. The God is a wonderful, wonderful listener.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. We hope today's message encouraged you. Before we go, remember that when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of five messages from Stuart and Jill that can help you start moving from a mundane prayer life to one that's rich and vibrant. This resource offer ends tomorrow, so call now to give and request Powerful and Effective Prayer with our thanks: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org.

We appreciate you joining us today. Come back tomorrow to continue the study on God's shelter from the wind. Know Christ more and experience life next time on Telling the Truth.