Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): What do you imagine when you think of God as the Father? Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe opens the book of Luke to look at the Christian worldview on the fatherhood of God and what that means for you.

Guest (Male): But first, if you've been feeling overwhelmed lately, like your mind just won't slow down, you're not alone. A lot of people today are carrying anxiety, uncertainty, and questions they don't know where to take. That's why Telling the Truth is sharing biblical teaching in digital spaces, so people can encounter God's truth right in those moments, right where they are.

As we approach the end of the financial year, your support is critical to keep this ministry going. Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping reach more people searching for peace and direction. And as our thanks, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Piece of My Mind*, a resource designed to help you experience God's steady pace when life feels unsettled.

Call 262-788-4648 to have your gift doubled by the match, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's get to Jill with today's message: The Father-ness of God.

Jill Briscoe: In 1945, at the end of World War II, Helmut Thielicke, an incredible theologian and pastor, probably the only one out of jail in Hitler's world, was preaching through the Lord's Prayer in what was left of his church to what was left of his congregation in Stuttgart, Germany.

He said this: "A bewildered human race is like a man lost in a forest asking, 'Father, are you there?'" Thielicke said everything will be all right as long as we hear His good voice calling to us above the howling of the wolves, above the sound of branches snapping, above the ominous noises around us. God is always there.

A Christian believes in the father-ness, the fatherhood of God. He or she believes that God is always there. Yes, sometimes He hides His face, sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance. And the human heart calls out. How can it be in this forest, in this storm, in this rain, that the Father is there at all?

The issue of Newsweek on the front of the cover says "Spirituality in America." I don't know if you saw this. And it says as diverse as America itself are the ways that Americans seek spiritual enlightenment. He says, the researcher, "American faith has long been characterized by creativity and individualism. That's the secret to their success. Rather than about being a God who commands you, it's about finding a religion that helps you, that empowers you. It's all about me," says America. "So I'll try a little bit of this, I'll try a little bit of that, and I'll find not one size fits all, but something for me." It's me-ness, not God-ness.

It's all about me. But Christianity is all about God. It's all about Him. And in this book, Christians believe this is a revealed body of truth. It tells us how to know God. It tells us how to draw near to God. It tells us what we need to say. It tells us how to pray.

In Luke chapter 11, verse 1, a group of men are watching the Lord Jesus Christ pray. When He's finished, they say, "Teach us to pray." And it's something about Jesus, and it's something about what happens when Jesus prays, and it's something about His face, and it's something about the power that's evident when He's finished praying that gives the disciples this longing. We don't know where to start, we don't know how to go on, we don't know where to finish, we don't know how to do this. Lord, teach us to pray.

And when you look at Jesus and prayer, you cannot get away. It was as natural as breathing. It was something Jesus did all the time. He talked to His Heavenly Father. For prayer basically is just the speaking part of our relationship with God. He prayed at all the major points in His life—when He chose His 12 disciples, the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed six times, "Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father." Read it. It was just part of who He was. And He wants it to be part of who we are.

Father, is that how we pray? Think of Him standing outside the tomb of Lazarus when He starts to talk to His Father. "Father, I know you always hear me. I'm not saying that out loud just for fun. I know you would hear me if I prayed silently. But because of the watchers, because of the listeners, I am praying out loud that they may know that You've sent me, Father."

And then He says, "Lazarus, come forth!" And the man came forth. Did he walk out? No, he had his feet bound. He came out by the sheer power of the Word of God following prayer. Father, bring him out, give him life. Jesus prayed. And when the disciples saw Jesus in prayer, they said, "Teach us. We want to be there, I want to do that, I want to go there. I want to know how to pray. Teach us how to pray."

And Jesus said, "Shut your eyes and listen to me." And He prayed: "Our Father in heaven, our holy Father in heaven. Holy be Your name, honored be Your name. Your kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Luke chapter 11, the disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

Now we have a lot of groups in this church. We have a lot of youth groups, we have a lot of men's groups, we have a lot of women's groups, we have a lot of couples' groups, and we learn to do a pretty good job with this. But you know what we also should be doing? Helping each other to pray. Saying, "Come with me. Come on. Come to the throne room." Take people to the throne room. Hear the seraphim sing together. What better thing could you do for people to teach them how to pray? Teach us how to pray. John's doing it for his disciples. Jesus, You do it for us.

And so Jesus began, and He gave them a pattern. He gave them words. "Shut your eyes and listen to me." And it was very obvious that He began "Our Father." He wanted them to go heart-deep. This is a heart-deep thing. Prayer is a heart-deep operation.

How many of us go heart-deep? Don't be like the hypocrites. They love to be seen of men. Pray in secret where your Father only sees, in the deep place where nobody goes. Sit on the steps of yourself and talk to Him.

I have spent so much time talking to people about where to begin and problems in prayer. And I've just simply said, "Pray about it." "Oh, that never occurred to anybody. You mean I pray about prayer?" Yes. If you don't know where to start and you don't know how to do it and you don't know what I'm talking about, about going heart-deep and getting held against the heart of your Father, pray about it.

Say, "What I heard gave me a hunger. Rang a bell, but I don't know where to start. Father, are you there?" Start right there. Start there. And ask Him to help you. And then learn to listen.

Listen with a pencil in your hand. Listen with your Bible open. Bring your Bible to church. Look at it yourself, check it out. Hang your heart over the Word of God. Listen, listen, listen. And Jesus often went into solitude, into silence. We don't know how to do that. We have managed to raise a generation of children that don't know what silence or solitude's all about. And we're not much better.

Some of us are afraid of being alone. Some of us don't want to be alone with ourselves. And some of us are even afraid of being alone with God, actually. But it doesn't work any other way. We have to learn silence. We have to learn solitude. And naturally, when one engages in this inner soliloquy, that's where we become focused on God instead of focused on me, on myself.

Guest (Male): You're hearing from Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. She's coming right back with more on what it means to come to God as your Father. But before she jumps back in, there's a growing hunger for truth in our world today, and more people than ever are searching for real answers. That's why, as Telling the Truth prepares to close out another financial year, your support matters so much.

Your support helps take the trusted teaching of Stuart and Jill Briscoe and place it in digital spaces where people are already looking for hope. And right now, an $82,000 matching grant will double your gift, expanding that reach even further in the months ahead.

When you give, we'll say thank you by sending you *A Piece of My Mind*, a powerful resource from Stuart that shows you how to experience God's perfect peace, even in uncertain and challenging times. So call today to request your copy when you have your gift doubled by the match: 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, 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/mobile-app. Remember, you can also give to support Telling the Truth on our mobile app. All right, let's get back to Jill with more of today's message from her series, *The Fatherhood of God*.

Jill Briscoe: It was interesting to see in Helmut Thielicke's book on the Lord's Prayer that I was reading, and it's out of print, but this incredible little book that a friend gave me. What a gift! It said that there was a man who wrote about people praying in Stuttgart in those days in the Second World War.

And he said, "Naturally, when one engages in this inner soliloquy, one need not act as if one was really speaking to a Thou, to a God. One must be quite rational about it and abandon this old resort to a world beyond where one's most secret thoughts are supposedly heard. One must quite soberly make up one's mind. It's only a matter of talking to oneself for the purpose of clarifying and composing our minds."

And Helmut Thielicke answers that article in another article in the Stuttgart paper, and he said, "What a tragic delusion, this yearning for prayer, which denies itself any actual fulfillment. Beyond the heroic, set face of this man lies the whole tragedy of a child who's lost his father. Father, are you there? You don't need a Thou. You just do it for yourself. You meditate, you sit cross-legged, you go to you."

I tell you something. If you want to know God, it has to be prayer to the Father whom Jesus came to reveal to us. One day Philip said to Him, "If You'd just show us the Father." Jesus said, "Look at me." And Philip looked and noticed something he'd never noticed. He had His Father's eyes. That incredible family likeness, of course. I am in my Father, my Father in me. And His is the heaven, the home I'm going to take you to.

So there is a God in heaven, there is a Christ to take us there. And if it's God's heaven, the God revealed in the scriptures, in the Bible, then He has every right to have who He wants in His heaven and to tell us the way to get there. And that's what He said: through Christ. "I'm the way, the only way. I'm the truth, the only truth. I'm the true truth. No man comes to the Father but by me. Philip, you're looking at Him. You want to see the Father? Look at me. Look at me." And Jesus said, that's where you begin.

The problem is that some of us have this sense: I can't talk to the Father for some very, very sad reasons. Some of you have been abused by a father. Some of you have been hurt by a father. Some of you have been left by a father. Some of you have been ignored. Some of you have had a father that's showed favoritism or has been absent. And yet this search for father-ness has left a bitterness because of all of that in your heart.

And you say, "Don't ask me to pray to God the Father. I'll pray to Jesus, that'll do." Jesus said, "Don't pray to me. Pray to the Father through me. The reason you can pray to the Father and must pray to the Father is I've made the way. So you come in my name. You come because of what I did. Don't pray to me. Pray to the Father. When you pray, say 'Our Father.'"

He did it in His life. He showed us that's the way to go. But you say, "I just want to pray to Jesus or I want to pray to the Spirit." Well, the Spirit helps us to pray when we don't know what to pray for. And He gives us ideas and thoughts and prayers to pray, but nowhere in the Bible does it say you pray to the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the one who holds a torchlight on Christ, and Christ is the one that holds the torchlight on the Father. He says, "When you pray, say 'Our Father.'"

There is a sense of "I want this father-ness. I'm looking for this father-ness." It's in every human breast in the world. Now, if you have had an unfortunate experience, it's very hard for you to start and pray to the Father.

I had the other problem. I had a wonderful dad. Didn't see him for four years; he was fighting in the war, and I was sitting in an air raid shelter. But I knew what my dad was doing. He was trying to stop the war. He was trying to stop the bombs falling on my life every night for four years. He was trying even to give his life to look after me as a perfect father. He came to my ball games. He was there for me before the war and would be after the war.

And even though he wasn't there, I trusted him. And my problem, sitting in that dugout going heart-deep in my six-year-old mind for the very first time, in my wanderings about the father-ness of God, was: I think my father's nicer than that Father. Because if my father were God, he would stop the war.

So what sort of a God is He? And as I sat there, a small child, thinking about the father-ness of God, I remember thinking, "Is that You, Father?" My small heart crying, "Is that You?" And I wondered if per chance it was indeed Him in the forest of my life who would bring me out of the forest of my fatherless into His arms. Took eight years more before I found the Father.

And I found as I went heart-deep, the Father is always there. Sometimes a God who hides Himself, never a God who absences Himself. Sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance. And as I began to think and listen with my heart, I began to understand when I came home to the Father. I could hear Him. "I love you, I love you, I love you. We're going to make it. I'm going to get you home."

And I have heard that for nearly 50 years in the deep place where nobody goes. And so whatever problem you might have with praying to the Father, pray about it. Get over it because your prayer life will never have the richness until you understand what the Bible says about the father-ness of God.

And do not bring your idea of father-ness and maleness to this. Bring your heart to the scriptures and say, "What does this reveal about Your father-ness? What does it say? What is this all about?" And ask Him to address that for you.

"Our Father which art in heaven, holy, honored be Your name." Holy be Your name. And it's interesting to me that in the Lord's Prayer, there is nothing about me praying, "Make me happy, make me better, make me like Jesus." Me, me, me, me, me, sanctification—there's nothing there. There doesn't have to be, because if we concentrate on the holiness of God, then we will want to honor Him. We will not want to hurt Him by being unholy.

If you're scared of what your sin will do to your Father, you will have no problem being holy. Hallowed be Your name. So little redeemed, so little like Him, so little I've changed from what I have been. So little like Jesus, so people can see His power and His glory living in me. Are you so little redeemed? Our Father, our Heavenly holy Father, who lives in that incredible home that we're going to, that He's going to take us to. Holy, honored be Your name. And Lord, my Father, I am going to honor You. That will take care of all the holiness issues in your life.

And so I wonder where you are. Are you a prodigal in a pigsty? Well, you need to come home to the Father. He's waiting. Know how to do that? I'm going to give you a prayer in a minute. Maybe you could borrow my words if you don't have any of your own.

Or maybe you say, "No, I'm not in the pigsty. I'm a perfectly respectable Christian, card-carrying Christian." But maybe you're like the older brother. Two sons who were prodigals. One in the pigsty, the other in the pew probably. Never did anything wrong, he just sat there and got more and more angry at his father. "I've slaved for you all my life. You never gave me a goat to have a party." Read the prodigal son.

The younger one says, "Give me, give me, give me," and then goes and wastes his life with rebellious living. And the older son is there, listening. And it says in the parable, Jesus divided unto them their inheritance. And one took it, misused it, and the other kept it—surely he could have afforded a goat to have a party. But his resentment, his anger... looked a perfect church-going person. He was a prodigal in the pew, and he needed to come home to the Father just as much as his brother.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. She's coming back in just a moment to talk with us about today's message. But before she does, what if your generosity today helped place biblical truth in front of someone at the exact moment they needed it most? That's what's happening every day through Telling the Truth.

Through social media, our Telling the Truth website, and other digital platforms, people are encountering God's Word, many for the very first time, right where they are. And more people than ever are searching for the kind of peace that can only be found through life in Christ. That's why, as we approach the end of the financial year, it's so important that we finish strong because your support can help us reach even more people with biblical truth in the coming year.

The great news is that a group of generous friends has offered an $82,000 matching grant, doubling your gift to expand the outreach even further. Now is a powerful time for you to step in and help keep God's Word going out to the people who need it most. And as our thanks, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Piece of My Mind*, to help you experience the peace of God in whatever you're facing today. Just call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now let's get back to Jill to get some answers about today's teaching.

Jill, if someone came to you and said, "Teach me to pray," what would your response be?

Jill Briscoe: Well, I'd be delighted if somebody asked me, "Teach me to pray." What a wonderful question. It doesn't often happen, I want you to know, even though prayer is something we all struggle with. What I would do would be invite that person over for coffee and do it with them. In other words, I would just simply say, "Let's walk into the presence of God and let's talk."

But before we do that, let's listen. And I'd read a little bit of scripture and say, "What do you think God said? Well, what is He saying in this piece of scripture to us?" And we'd talk about that, and I'd say that's what we start and talk about with God when we walk into His presence in prayer.

And then I would hold her hand—or not hold her hand—or sit at a table or kneel, whichever she's most comfortable in, position she's in. And then we would just talk to God about it. And first, we would talk to God about what we just read. And I'd say, "Now you talk to Him about it. I'll talk first."

And then I'd say, "Now let's thank Him for some of those things we learned from something we can be thankful for today from what we just read." And I would try and anchor it around what we just read and try and get her in the habit of doing that when she begins to pray.

And when we've nearly finished, I'll say, "Now let's pray for what we want to pray for for our family." Because what usually happens if you pray, we spend all the time for "me, my, and mine." And it's like running into the doctor's and saying to the doctor, "Let me tell you everything that's wrong with me," and he's got his mouth open to reply, and you say, "Well, I've no time left now because I've spent all the time telling you what I want."

And so that's how I would begin with somebody that has never prayed before in their life and comes to me and says, "Teach me to pray." I'd also give them a good book on the subject. There are so many books about prayer. Walk into a Christian bookstore and have a look around and say, "Here's a good book." That's the sort of way I'd start off anyway. And then I would pray for them. I'd put them on my prayer list and I would ask God, "Help this person to enjoy her time in the throne room and make her into somebody that prays with effectiveness and changes her world through prayer."

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. Before we go, here's something important to remember: your support this month can help Telling the Truth reach even more people in the coming year. Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping extend biblical teaching to people around the world through digital platforms.

And as our thanks, we'd love to send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Piece of My Mind*, to encourage you with the promise of God's peace. So please request your copy when you call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648, 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.