Telling the Truth

Stuart Briscoe: Today on telling the truth, Jill Briscoe shares how Christ can set you free from the sins that are truly weighing you down. But first, right now people are searching for hope, answers and truth they can build their lives on. And Stewart 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 Briscoe with her message overloaded.

Jill Briscoe: He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped and we were healed. All of us have strayed away like sheep. We've left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped and we are healed. He carried our sins and he also carried our sorrows. He carried life's sorrows. What does this mean? Well, one of the life's sorrows is shame.

I know people's lives that are ruined with this incredible sense of shame. How could God ever forgive me? I can't forgive myself for what I've done, for what I've been. How could God forgive me? And this is a huge burden. It's a sorrow, a soul sorrow. Well, he can carry that. He carried our sins and he also carried our sorrows. He carried life's sorrows. What does this mean? Well, one of the life's sorrows is shame. I know people's lives that are ruined with this incredible sense of shame. How could God ever forgive me? I can't forgive myself for what I've done, for what I've been.

How could God forgive me? And this is a huge burden. It's a sorrow, a soul sorrow. Well, he can carry that. Maybe you need to have a good dose of Psalm 51 some of you where David is praying his incredible prayer of repentance after Nathan has faced him up and told him that God isn't very pleased with his adultery and murder of Uriah the Hittite. And David says, I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And he begins to see things as they really are and call things as they really are. And what you have to do when you come to Christ is name things, give them their real names.

That's anger, that's bitterness, that's adulterous thought, that's coveting, that's lying. A half truth is a whole lie. And we need to call these things by their real names instead of dancing around it and calling them growing up, being mature, etc. etc. And David comes in repentance and he says, cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. There are some things that only God can heal. Some things only God can do. Hyssop was a little plant grows in Israel. You see it if you travel over there in the walls, little sort of bushy like sponge little thing.

And the priests used to dip it in the blood of the lamb that had been sacrificed. And they used to sprinkle the leper, the leper with the blood of the sacrifice. And the leper that God had healed would have to go to the priest. If you remember when Jesus healed 10 lepers, he sent them to the priest to make sure that the skin disease had gone. And then the priest would dip the sponge, the hyssop in a sacrifice that the leper had brought. And he would sprinkle him with the blood. Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

And David had done something and he felt like a leper. Only God can cleanse a leper. And only the life for the life is in the blood. The life that was shed for us on Calvary can make us clean. Do you want to feel clean inside? Then come to him. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And he will carry your sins, but he'll also carry your sorrows. God can absolutely pick you up and carry your sorrows. Carry your sorrows. How is this? Because of the cross. You know, it's because he's carried our sorrows to Calvary.

It's because he carried our sins, because he died for us that he can lift the soul burdens of us internally. I wrote a little book years ago and I remember the name Harrow Sparrow. I want to tell you a little story. I haven't read this book. I never read anything I've written. But I had a read of this book and it's really quite good. I was obviously inspired years ago. Now it's a weird thing, but it touched me and that's a really weird thing. I thought this shouldn't be touching me. I wrote it. But I wanted to write a book about suffering, about sorrow for children.

I wanted parents and children to interact together. And so I looked in the Bible and found everything it said about sparrows. And it's really very sad. And I gathered these sparrows, everything I found into a family and I gave them all a name, Father Sparrow, Mother Sparrow, Twit and Tweet. They were the two brothers and Harrow, three boys. And Harrow was called Harrow Sparrow because he had a very harrowing life because they did in the Bible. I mean, everything they took got put in a pie, some got sold in the market. Everything always happened and they were all brown and they didn't have nice feathers like, you know, I was going to say duck or geese, but I mean parrots and things like that.

Well, the story opens on a very sad note really because a little egg is born into the nest, a little poor sparrow family. And this they give the little bird in the in the egg a name, Chirpy. And they have an ultrasound so they know that it's a girl. That's not in the book. Should be. Modernize it a bit. And the rent collector is Early Bird and he's the villain. And Early Bird has had a very bad childhood and so he's sort of not very nice rent collector. And his father was an alcoholic actually because he used to eat berries in the forest.

And when he tries to get back to his nest, he goes like this and his beak's bent because he goes into a tree, you know, sort of get the picture. He's had a tough life and therefore he's he's not very nice. So he comes to collect the rent and the poor sparrows don't have any rent. So they want to open the door. So he pecks a hole in the nest. And guess what? First page, little Chirpy rolls out of the hole and goes to birdie heaven. That's sad. Sad. Harrow wants to know why, where's she gone?

And so the story begins. And one day to forget their sorrow, they're flying over some birds without wings which are human. And they see a man whose voice sounds strangely familiar. And of course, it's the sparrow maker. Jesus. And so Jesus looks around and he needs an illustration and he says, behold the birds of the air. And they become his companions and he uses them, makes them feel so valued because he starts teaching and they're always with him. And so I tell the gospel story and the little birds are there at the transfiguration and and they build their nest in the tree that the cross is made out of.

And then of course, the story goes on and the men come and cut down three of these trees. Look, they're taking our tree to Pilot's house, claimed Harrow. Who's Pilot? asked his brother. He rules the Jews, answered Harrow. Please that he knew so much. Friendly Town Sparrow had told him who lived in the fortress. Is he nice? asked Mother Sparrow. Don't know, Harrow Sparrow had to admit. Hope he is, Father Sparrow interrupted. He's got Jesus. The birds fluttered around the high rooftops of the fortress hovering over the open courtyard where they saw the sparrow maker standing in the middle of a group of Roman soldiers.

Men were laughing, hitting Jesus, spitting in his face. Stop it, stop it, cried the little birds. Don't you know who you're hurting? shouted Harrow in anguish. How can you do such a thing? The men didn't hear the twittering birds. They were too busy mocking Jesus. Harrow Sparrow was so beside himself with anger that he didn't know what to do. And flying frantically back and forth over the courtyard, he caught sight of the three trees the soldiers had brought to the fortress. And suddenly they looked dark and sinister as if they were waiting to join in the dreadful games the soldiers were playing with Jesus.

Father Gaspareau, what do you think it all means? Father Sparrow had a sad and fearful face that made Harrow Sparrow very frightened. I've seen such a thing once before, Father murmured in disbelief. A cruel and terrible thing is about to happen. Come away, my children. I believe these wicked men will nail the sparrow maker's wings to our tree. And then he will fall. Father shook his head sadly. In horror, Harrow watched as the soldiers forced Jesus to drag one of the oddly cut trees to a small hill outside the city gate. The entire Sparrow family screeched with pain.

When they saw a soldier pin Jesus' wings and feet to the tree with long nails, then the soldiers turned the tree upright and placed it in a hole. For several hours the birds hovered near Jesus while he suffered, but there was nothing they could do. Sparrow maker, please save yourself, cried Harrow, but Jesus didn't answer. Not long after this the birds heard Jesus cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You mean the sparrow maker is falling without the father? Harrow asked in wonder. Perhaps Jesus must fall without the father so that others will not have to fall without him.

Mother Sparrow and God never promised a sparrow would not fall. But he did promise a sparrow would not fall without the father. You little sparrow may fall. But you won't and you don't need to fall without the father because he did, because he did. And the sparrow maker in his eye indeed is on the sparrow. So you know he cares for you. He has promised that he will not only carry your sins, he will carry your sorrows. What have you broken that belongs to your father? And what are you carrying that you cannot bear? Oh, come to him.

Come to him. You cannot carry what you're carrying. Some of you are carrying so much, so many things, so many bad things like happened to a little sparrow family, just one thing after another has happened to you. And the father says, I want to carry you. I watched Dave, our oldest son, and I watched one of his children when they were little come to him with their arms full of such a load of stuff, all their stuff. And I watched their daddy bend down and pick the little child up with all that stuff in his arms.

And he carried the child. Now the child had to carry the load. But the father carried the child. And when you come to Jesus, you're carrying you. You're carrying you. And there isn't a load that he cannot carry. And some of you are saying, ah, but if I come to Jesus, I'm just going to get into a whole lot of other things. Going to be another burden being a Christian. Jesus said, well, my yoke, take my yoke, but my yoke's easy and light because I'll be bearing it with you. There's a legend that Jesus in Galilee made the best yokes of all.

He was a carpenter and he would make yokes. The yoke was tailor made to fit each ox. And above the door may have been the sign that read, my yokes fit well. And in this passage of scripture Jesus is saying, I have tailor made a yoke for you yoked together, you and me. We will plow, we will work. Walk with me, work with me. You come to Jesus in salvation. And then you come to him in discipleship. You give him your sins, you give him your guilt, you give him your shame, you give him your sorrows.

And then he says, I will work with you. Walk with me and work with me. And together we will plow, we will do work together. And I will as it were the old horse carry the young horse in this yoke that yokes us together. My burden is easy and light. And so when you come to Christ, I would be remiss not to tell you that you have to come and give up everything if it's going to work. You have to come and let Christ yoke you to him in order to work for him and do those good works that God before ordained that you should do.

And it's not easy, but it's possible. The word means possible. In fact, it says in the Bible that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort. Nothing is ever wasted. 1 Corinthians 15:58. And those of us that have lived our life without meaning, without purpose, blaming our environment or our father or our husband that left us or whatever it is that's happened to us, whatever it is, we need to realize that there is a freedom, a liberty. Yes, we need to get a life and yes, we need to get a lift.

But we need to get liberty. And how does that happen? True freedom, true liberation is being yoked to Christ doing what he planned for us to do. And there is a burden that is like no other burden. Let me tell you about it. It is the burden of having to have our own way. That is a burden. The burden of having to have our own way, of having to get what we want. And you see you don't come to God because you're disappointed. You asked him something and he didn't give it you. And so you're going to leave home.

And you don't come back to God and say, well, I'm going to give you another chance. He says to you, I'll give you another chance. The freedom from the everlasting burden of always having to get my own way. That is a weight. And when you're yoked to Christ, you give him your will, you give him your mind, you give him your heart, you give him your dreams, you give him your your ambitions. If he says marry, you marry. If he says don't you, don't. If he says pick up and go to the far corners of the world, you pick up and go.

If he says stay here, you stay there. If he says give your money to this, you give the money. You are not your own. And to come to Christ and to have him forgive you means that he puts his yoke on you. But oh, what a burden. How could we call it a burden? That is. Oh, what a liberty it is to be doing purposeful work and to feel complete and useful perhaps for the first time in our lives. To to even be able to help other people find Jesus Christ, do you know what a gift that is?

Money can't buy things like that. Money can't buy it. And so I ask you, why won't you come if you will not? You having too much fun? You feel he's a spoiled sport. Michael Augustine, you're saying, Lord, make me holy, but not just yet. Well, you haven't got to the stage where you're a little lamb or a sheep on that ledge and you've had it, Lord. With all your self effort to find happiness and satisfaction outside of total submission to Christ, no peace without submission. Doesn't work that way. No peace without surrender if you wish.

And so how do we do this? I remember lying in a hospital bed saying to the girl that led me to Christ, yes, yes, yes, yes. I want it, I want it, but how do I get it? How does Christ get into my life? I felt so stupid. Here I was at Cambridge University. I should have known. Shouldn't I have known how to come to Christ? Shouldn't I have known how to come to faith? Well, I didn't. Nobody had ever told me. And there was this missing piece of the puzzle. And I didn't know how.

And I felt like such an idiot. I felt like such a naive person. And I said, help me. I was able to say to this woman, help me. And she said, I'd love to. I'll pray a prayer, you pray it after me. And like a little child, she led me to Jesus Christ and I have never been the same again. And that moment is just as fresh in my mind as I tell it to you as it was years ago. You never really recover from God walking into your life. How could you? How could you?

I just remember lying in bed clean on the inside. Know how necessary that was for me. Clean on the inside. And though God had not forgotten, he looked at me as if he had and smiled. Opened his arms wide and said, come on. Come on. Come to me.

Stuart Briscoe: Now let's hear from Jill about a few points from today's message. Jill, tell us about a time in your life when God carried your sorrows.

Jill Briscoe: I think back to um the death of my parents, first my father and then later my mom. And they were pretty heavy things. Why would they not be? Have you ever lost a mom or a dad? Then you'll understand. And you'll understand when your time comes because we'll all lose mothers and fathers. That's life and death as it is on this planet. But for me it was very difficult. Let me talk about my mom's death more than my father's because we had immigrated to America. And I was 3,000 miles away and uh could not go running back and forth across the Atlantic.

In fact, there was only one opportunity to get back and stay. And uh I had to pick the time out of the air and God in his grace took her to heaven while I was there which was a sort of miracle because nobody, doctors included, thought she was going that soon. But God carried me through that very traumatic traumatic experience of sitting by my mom uh as she went to heaven. And then he carried my sorrow as I came back and started, oh, if only she'd ever come to America, which she never did. If only she knew why we left her to serve Jesus um or if only if only.

And suddenly in my head the little voice said, well, she understands now. And it just lifted off me. It totally lifted off me. And I thought all the agony of separation and all the leaving her I left so much behind. Just went. She understands. And I remember I went to sleep that night just saying she understands, she understood. Peggy, you understand. Now you know. And that was it. And that was one way God carried my sorrow uh backed up obviously by by the thing that I chose to put on her gravestone, absent from the body present with the Lord, absent from the body present with the Lord.

Why would that not lift the sorrows from your heart?

Stuart Briscoe: 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. We love getting notes from listeners who tell us what God has done in their life through this ministry. Here's one from Jeff in Indiana who says, I certainly appreciate what you do in sharing the gospel with as many as will listen. Your sermons and character are a blessing to me. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thanks so much, Jeff. Right now people are searching for hope, answers and truth. They can build their lives on.

And Stewart 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 so much for joining us today. Come back next time for more biblical truth from Stewart and Jill Briscoe. Experience life here on telling the truth.