Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Coming up on Telling the Truth with Stewart and Jill Briscoe.

Stuart Briscoe: What have I told you? What was the first one? These are the words of a gentleman. What did that do? That built in that fundamental building block that the word of Christ is totally true and utterly reliable. Who else are you going to believe? Who else is going to be your authority? That's a question that needs to be asked in our culture at this time. Who are you going to believe and who is your authority?

Guest (Male): When you allow people you trust to speak into your life, their wisdom can shape your faith and alter your perspective. Today on Telling the Truth, Stewart Briscoe goes into his own history to share several times another person sparked an aha moment in his spiritual journey. But first, joy is an integral part of the Christian faith and we want to help you navigate the ups and downs of life with an attitude of joy by sending you Stewart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Rediscovering Joy. It's our way to thank you for your gift to help more people experience life.

But this special offer ends soon, so call today to request your copy. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's get to Stewart with today's message, Words to Live By.

Stuart Briscoe: When I was 18, I got a very nice letter from the English government is saying we have a war on in Korea and we'd very much like you to come and help us with it. Quite frankly, I was more interested in my career than I was in career. Little pun there, but don't worry about it. And and so I went and I dutifully reported for my medical examination, all that kind of stuff. And then they said, what do you want to join? I said, I don't I don't particularly want to join anything. And they said, you got to join something.

This this is conscription. And so there was a man there in a in a magnificent uniform. And I said, what's he? And they said, he's a Royal Marine. And I thought, well, I could fill that uniform as well as he could. So I said, I'll join them. And uh they said only for volunteers. And says, I said, how do you volunteer? They said, you volunteer. So I said, okay, I just volunteered. So that was how I became a Marine. So but we we did have in our household at that time uh an army officer, Captain Horace Sydney May of the Royal Artillery.

He had been stationed near our home for a long time during the war and after the war. And he was a wonderful friend uh of of our family. When he heard that I'd volunteered for the Marines, she said, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. Army officers in England talk like that as if it as if it hurts. And that's wonderful. And he then said, and here's the apple of gold in the setting of silver. Don't miss this one. You will nail your colors to the mast. You will nail your colors to the mast. Now that that's a typically English saying and it it was something that was rather odd coming from the lips of an artillery officer because it is a basically naval expression.

But in the old days when the ships would sail out out of port into into battle, they would hoist the colors of the of the sovereign, the king or the queen to the masthead and they would sail under the colors of the king or queen. If they got into trouble and had to surrender, they would hoist down the sovereign colors and they would hoist up the white flag they've surrendered. To make sure that that would not happen under any circumstances, sometimes the captain would send a man up the mast with a hammer and nails and they would nail the colors to the mast so that they would say there's no way, doesn't matter what happens, there's no way we surrender.

In other words, you let it be known as you sail out of port who you are and whom you serve. So he explained all that to me and he said, you will do that in the Marines. Now didn't didn't suggest that he did. He told me you will do that in the Marines. You will nail your colors to the mast. So I said, well, how do you do that? And he said, well, he said one way you can do it is by letting the men know as soon as you get there that that you're a Christian.

I said, well, how would I do that well? He said, when I joined the Royal Artillery, he said the first night in the barrack room, I knelt by my bed and prayed. And he said that told them something. I thought I bet it did. And uh I said, what happened? He said, they threw boots at me. And I said, what did you do? I'll never forget his answer. He looked at me as if I was totally stupid. He said, what did I do? He said, I cleaned them and I returned them. He uh he was my mentor.

Captain Horace Sydney May of the Royal Artillery. You will nail your colors to the mast. So I arrived in the barrack room in the Royal Marines and uh I took about being between the devil and the deep blue sea and between the Marines and Captain Horace Sydney May of the Royal Artillery. When I see this room full of Marines, I think to myself the last thing I'm going to do is nail down and have my back facing them. And then the thought was then I've got to meet Captain May and I know the first thing he'll ask me, did you nail your colors to the mast?

And so I waited till all the these Marines were at the other end of the room. And then I thought, well, I can I can nail down and make it look as if I'm looking for something under the bed. And if he asked me, did you nail by your bed? I said, oh yeah. But but there And and so that's what I did. And and and as soon as I did, there was a terrible silence descended on the room. Then it was broken only by the creaking of floorboards and I realized that they were walking towards me about 30 of them in the barrack room.

And uh I waited for the boots. Nothing came. I couldn't think of anything to pray about. So I I thought, well, I'll just stay down here and I thought I really can't do that. I'll have to get him sometime. So I counted up to 25. And uh I got up and to my amazement, no boots came. They were all standing around my bed in a in a big circle, about 30 of them, I would guess. And they began to talk about me as if I was not there. One of them said, what was he doing?

Somebody else said, I think he was praying. Who to? God. Well, where is God? He's not under the bed, is he? Is he? There in the clue. And they began to talk about God and about prayer and they began to fire questions at me. And that first night in the Marines with the old set on their beds and I had the opportunity not only to explain that I was a Christian and why I was a Christian, but how to become a Christian. And it was absolutely nothing to do with me because I was frightened out of my wits.

But the nice thing about it is this, if in whatever tentative way you do, you nail your colors to the mast, God will take it and use it.

Guest (Male): That's right, lad.

Stuart Briscoe: I said, tell him, lad. Yeah, I've I've seen the foundation principles here. Okay, nail your colors to the mast. Let them know who's you are. Uh I got out. The Marines went back to the the the banking business, continued preaching in my spare time. Round about that time, I noticed and it you didn't really need to be very observant that the people in England were staying out of the churches in droves, particularly the young people. And the the people in the churches tended to spend a lot of their time criticizing the young people who were this, that, and the other.

And one day it did occur to me I wonder I wonder how many of these people know anything about these young people of whom they're so critical. And I came to the conclusion when I've asked some of them that uh they really didn't know and anything about these young people didn't want to know about them. And and so a friend and I uh we we we started going into some of the coffee bars in England. They were in vogue at the time. And so we started we started going down into into these coffee bars and I began to do less and less preaching in churches and spend more and more time with these kids.

And what I discovered was very simple, very basic. They would say this to me, if you want to tell us about Jesus, we'll listen all night. If you want to talk about the church, forget it. There was a tremendous antipathy towards the church. There was complete openness to the person uh of Christ. And uh and so that's what happened. And round about this time I met Jill. She was doing the same sort of thing uh in her spare time. She was a school teacher. I was a bank examiner by this time. I was traveling all over the country looking for people in the employer of the bank who got their money mixed up with the bank's money.

Hang with me. And uh and and Jill was uh Jill was teaching and both of us were involved in all our spare time in in this kind of youth ministry. Jill and I got married and we went to um we went to live in Manchester and right across the road from where we lived was a coffee bar called the Cat's Whisker. And the Cat's Whisker was crammed every night with kids. And uh I thought it might be a good idea if one night I went in there to see what was going on. As I went in this place, I tripped over somebody, literally tripped over them.

And I looked up and it was a a fella and his girlfriend. They were sort of intertwined and they both had equally long hair and the hair was all mixed up in each other and you couldn't tell where one started and the other stopped to, you know. And and I I just said I'm terribly sorry or something like that. And he looked at me as if I'd crawled out from under a rock and he was sort of quite had a question look on his face. What are you doing here? And so I thought I'd better say something.

And to this day, I have no idea why I said it. But I said to him, are you alive? It was it was the strangest thing. Are you alive? And uh he turned to his he turned to his girlfriend. He called her his chick. He said he wants to know if I'm alive. And she said, well, are you? He said, yes, I'm alive. I said, why? He said, what? I said, why are you alive? He said, why does it have to be a why? I said, surely there's a reason for you, isn't there? He said, why should there be?

I said, well, can you see anything in this room that doesn't have a reason for its existence? Floor, no. Wall, no. Doors, no. Light, no. Table, no. Coffee cup, no. Guitar, no. Can you see anything in this room that does not have a reason for its existence? She said, no. I said, are you greater or lesser than all these things? He said, I'm greater. I said, if things lesser than you have a reason for existence, is it not reasonable to assume that you're being greater, at least have a reason for existence? He said, yes, it is.

I said, then that's why I asked you the question, why are you alive? By this time all the kids had gathered round. And he said, why am I alive? I said, I've never thought about that. I said, would you like to do it now? He said, yeah, I would. And he was dead serious. And uh after a minute he he said, I know why I'm alive. I said, why? He said, because I was born and I haven't died. I said, that's a good answer. That's a good answer.

Guest (Male): You're hearing from Stewart Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. He's coming right back with more on the wise words that have shaped his spiritual growth. But before he jumps back in, are you living in the joy Jesus has chosen for you? For many, joy is something that's become lost or clouded by life circumstances. So many all over our world are weighed down by loneliness, grief, and worry. And people are longing to find the joy that Christ promises all who follow him. We want to help you live in complete joy by sending you Stewart and Jill's five message series Rediscovering Joy.

In it, Stewart and Jill examine the lives of several people throughout scripture and show you how to re-encounter the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Rediscovering Joy is our way to thank you for your financial support of telling the truth today. But this special offer ends soon, so request your copy today when you call and give 1-800-889-5388. That 's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. For many, our smartphones have become our social connection. But we want to help you make a spiritual connection with the Telling the Truth mobile app. You can listen to daily programs, engage in Bible reading plans, journal, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall.

Get the Telling the Truth app through your app store or log on to tellingthetruth.org/mobileapp. All right, let's get back to Stewart with more of today's message entitled, Words to Live By.

Stuart Briscoe: I I said, do you um do do you recollect having anything to do with your birth? He said, no. I said, do you plan to have anything to do with your death? He said, no. He said, no, as far as I 'm concerned, there will be two accidents. He said in fact that he said he said, I'll tell you what I am. I'll tell you what I am. And this this is one of the most fascinating things I ever heard anybody say to me. He said, I'll tell you what I am. I am an accident suspended between accidents.

So I started to talk to him about this. No, they they stopped the music now in the coffee bar. I've got I've got my congregation there just sitting on there. I sat on the table. I can't remember sat and sat on the coffee table and just just talked to these kids. Told them that they were not accidents. Told them that there was an intelligent God who had created them for an intelligent purpose and made them intelligent enough to discover it. I told them about the fact that none of them had lived up to the intelligent purpose as they understood it.

That God was indignant about about their rejection of him, but that he loved them. You remember the tear in the corner of the eye and the smile in the corner of the mouth and the and start white apron. I told them about the God of righteousness and justice and holiness and grace and mercy and love. And I told them the whole story of Jesus and they sat there as if they they were sponges soaking it all in, soaking it all in. In the end, the guy who I first got into conversation with he he jumped up.

He said, I got to go. Got to go. He said, before I go, I want to tell you one thing. Pointed his finger at me. He said, I want to tell you something. I said, what is it? And here's the apple of gold and the setting of silver from most unlikely person. This is what he said to me. You don't believe a word of all this that you've been telling us tonight. I said, what? He said, you don't believe a word of it. I said, why in the world would you say that? Oh he said, that's easy.

He said, what you have told us tonight, he said it is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard in my life. But if people like you really believed it, you'd have been down here long before tonight to tell us kids. The problem with people like you is you don't believe what you believe. And he turned on his heel and he walked out and I never saw him again and I never recovered from what he said. The trouble with people like you is that you don't believe what you believe. And so I went home and told Jill about this and and that began to do something that uh the Jill often says when when a major change is coming in your life, God use uses something rather like a cook getting a cake out of a dish.

And you you loosen it around the edges first. And she said, I think God's loosening us around the edges here. And uh that that was precisely what what he began to do. And he began to loosen us around the edges. We had to make a decision. My business career was taking off. I was getting more and more responsibility. My my ministry in the uh with in with these young people was taking off. We began to open our own coffee bars. The first one we called the Bar Non. And uh everybody said it wouldn't work and a thousand kids came in the first night.

We opened another one called the Catacombs in the cellars of bombed out buildings in the city of Manchester. We got all the art students uh to come and they researched the murals in the Catacombs in Rome and and painted all the walls in in in these places. And uh and and that that was what we we began to do. And in the end, Jill and I realized that we couldn't carry on the pace we were going. The the the pace of of ministry and the pace of business. And my problem was I loved them both.

I thoroughly enjoyed the business world. Whenever I'm with businessmen now, I get itchy feet as well. Uh and yet I loved ministering to these kids. And so we prayed about it and we said, God, we we can't go on like this. We need to have some changes. We don't know what they are. If by any chance you want us to leave the business world and go into ministry with the young people of Europe, that that was our vision. If you want us to go into ministry with the young people of Europe, uh then we'll do it, but we need some clear indication from you.

And uh the clear and we said the clear indication would be if some ministry asked us to go and work with them. That was the safest thing to do because nobody ever had. And within a week, two ministries did. You see? So so it's pretty obvious what we should do. But then then then at that critical moment while I got these two offers to go and work with two different Christian organizations, wouldn't you know that the general managers of the nationwide bank sent for me? And they wanted to interview me with a view to me going to work in the general managers department, which was the which was the fast track in the in in the bank.

And then at the last minute I had to go and see the general managers before uh before I expected to and before I saw the other people. I just had time to go and freshen up and I have my little New Testament with me and I opened my New Testament. I had a ribbon in it where I'd finished reading that morning. I flipped it open and a verse jumped right off the page, an apple of gold in the setting of silver. This is what jumped off the page. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields.

They're white already to harvest. So I slammed my Bible shut and I said, that's it. And I went in to see the the general manager. And uh I had the most wonderful opportunity to sit there with those men and just explain to them why I was going to do what I was going to do. Uh after a long long time one of them looked at his watch. He said, do you think we could perhaps talk banking for a few moments? We seem to have dealt with religion rather thoroughly. And uh and and so I I I left the bank and and went into the ministry.

But the the critical thing there was lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They're white already to harvest. Okay, so what have I told you? What was the first one? These are the words of a gentleman. What did that do? That built in that fundamental building block that the word of Christ is totally true and utterly reliable. Who are you going to believe and who is your authority? As far as I'm concerned, I will listen with great interest to anybody saying anything and I'll put it through the filter of what Jesus said because his are the words of a gentleman.

All right? So that was the first building. But the second one is this, we never touch what isn't ours. We never touch what isn't ours. The third one was how do you know you can't do what you've never attempted? The fourth one was nail your colors to the mast. And the next one was lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They're white already to harvest.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Stewart Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. And he's coming back in just a moment to talk with us about today's message. But before he does, when you support Telling the Truth, you make life change possible for people all over the world by encouraging and challenging listeners to study the word of God. In fact, Telling the Truth broadcasts reach men and women in every corner of the globe. And by giving today, you can help impact even more listeners with sound biblical teaching so they can experience life in Christ. For just a few more days, we'll say thanks for your gift by sending you Stewart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Rediscovering Joy, which examines the lives of several people throughout scripture to show you what it takes to recover your joy and live with unwavering hope in every season.

So request your copy before this offer ends when you call and give 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's go to Stewart with some answers to important questions about today's teaching. Stewart, how do you know when to share the gospel and when to just let God do his work in people's lives?

Stuart Briscoe: The statement that I enjoy so much uh that I think answers the question is uh the business about when when we do something to try and help people come to faith and what God is doing in their lives is found in 1 Corinthians where the Apostle Paul is dealing with the issue where people are talking about their favorite preachers. You remember all some like Paul, some like the Apollos, some like Peter, all this kind of stuff. And and Paul gets to the issue and he says, who are Paul and Apollos? Who are they? And he says, only servants.

We're only servants. Then he says, through whom you came to believe. And then he explains, all right, we are just servants, but we were involved in some way in you coming to faith. And this is how it worked. He says, look, one of us sows seed, another one waters, but only God makes things grow. So what we've got to recognize is this, we have a role to play. Our job is to be sowing seed. Our job is to be watering with prayer. But then we've got to recognize and only God makes things grow. It's going to take a work of God to bring about regeneration in the person's life.

This puts it all in perspective. Keep sowing and keep expecting God to make things grow.

Guest (Male): And Stewart, is there a good way to overcome nervousness or fear about sharing the gospel?

Stuart Briscoe: I I think one of the uh best ways to deal with nervousness of of fear uh uh about sharing the the gospel is to ask, what is it we're nervous about? What is it we're afraid of? Um and uh uh I think one of the things that people are afraid of is, well, okay, if I if I say something um uh and they ask me a hard question, I don't know the answer. I'll feel so stupid. Well, I uh I've uh I've been in lots of situations where people have asked me hard questions and I didn't know the answer to them.

And at first I started feeling very stupid. And then I thought to myself, why am I feeling stupid? And the answer is because I am. Because there's so much I don't know. And so instead of faking it, pretending I knew or trying to come up with some answer to look good, I would simply say, that's a very good question. I have absolutely no idea what the answer is. I'll tell you what, let me make a note of it. Give me your phone number and I'll get back to you. Uh and I really want to figure that one out for myself.

Thank you for asking it. Or another reason that people are afraid is that that they say, oh, people might not like me. Well, um that that's that that's quite possible. But uh the way you do it is going to make all the difference as well. And if you're relaxed and if you're friendly and if you if you if you can just demonstrate your interest in people and listen to them as well as talking at them, I think that fear is not really appropriate at all.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Stewart. Before we close today's broadcast, remember that when you call and give to help more people experience life, we'll send you Stewart and Jill's five message series Rediscovering Joy as our thanks. But again, this special offer ends soon, so please request yours when you call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks so much for listening today. Join us again as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's word. Come back and experience abundant life in Christ next time on Telling the Truth.