Telling the Truth

Stuart Briscoe: Welcome to Telling the Truth, the ministry of Stuart and Jill Briscoe. Today, Jill continues her series about how the Bible is as alive, active, and life-changing as it was when God inspired its writing thousands of years ago. Today, how the Bible will help you return to the course God set out for you even when you've lost your way. She'll begin in just a moment. Everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like it's always going to be this way or I'll never overcome this.

And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened. In it, Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing. You'll learn that even in trouble times, you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, and joy.

The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So, request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with the message The Cry of My Heart on today's Telling the Truth.

Jill Briscoe: May my cry come before you, oh Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. May my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your promise. May my lips overflow with praise for you. Teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are righteous. May your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, oh Lord, and your law is my delight. Let me live that I may praise you. And may your law sustain me. I have strayed like a lost sheep.

Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. Now, David is believed to be the writer of this Psalm, even though it does not attribute it to him at the beginning in my Bible at any rate. But he is believed by most people, most commentators, people that know about these things to be the writer of this Psalm. I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. I wonder if at this point he is thinking of other ways that he has strayed from God or we don't know when this was written. And is he thinking of his sad story last week when he didn't get off the roof and how he sinned in an unbelievable way.

The man after God's own heart committing adultery and murder. That's what Nathan said. Thou art the man. Thou art the man, David. You killed your friend as surely as if you had put the spear in his heart yourself. And so here is a man who has fallen in an incredible way. And I wonder if he has this or some other straying in mind. I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. A hymn that's one of my favorites. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it from your courts above. Prone to wander. Do you ever feel you're prone to wander? I always feel I'm prone to wander. And all of us are prone to wander because we have that bias in us. We are born in sin, as David says in Psalm 51. In sin did my mother conceive me. It means that there is that bias in the fallen race because of sin's entrance into the fallen race. And that bias gives us proneness to wander. All our lives, one day we'll not be doing that anymore.

One day, it will not be a thought allowed in heaven or wanted or able to be, because we will be new people with new bodies like Jesus himself. But now is now, and then is then. And all of us are on the track, trust believe the right track. I hope we're on the right track and not on the wrong track, as Psalm 139 reminded us. Remember the way, the way, the true way. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my ways and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Lead me in on the road to eternal life. And I hope all of us know and we can know. We don't have to hope. We don't have to wait till we get there and see if we made it. We can know here and now if we have asked God to forgive our sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to make us righteous in his sight, justified, just justified, never sinned, justified by grace through faith. Prone to wander, however, because we are a sheep at heart. Isaiah 1:18. All we like sheep. All of us, not some of us, all of us like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned everyone to our own way. The essence of sin is our own way. The essence of sin is independence. The essence of sin is I'll be my own God. That's the essence of sin. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Now, in Psalm 119 verse 28, David says my soul is weary with sorrow. My sad life, and this is another translation. And a way to just get another slant, another facet of the diamond I talked about is is to read the same text in other translations. It just gives you another look at it. It gives you another way of saying it.

It lights it up. And there's also paraphrases. They are not translations. They are putting it into vernacular, if you wish. And it's good to read one of those too. I use four translations in every verse I looked up for you. I read it in all four translations and one paraphrase. And it just it was like a window letting the light in and showing me another nuance of it. And one of those paraphrases that I enjoy is the message by Eugene Peterson. And he says of Psalm 119 verse 28 my sad life is dilapidated, a falling down barn.

Build me up again by your word. I like the picture of feeling like a dilapidated collapsing barn, my poor life. I just feel dilapidated. Do you ever feel dilapidated inside? Do you ever feel I don't know. Somebody needs to come and put me together again. Just another way of looking at it. In other words, there is a cry in David's heart. He knows weariness. He knows being exhausted. He knows being sad, the sadness that will not quit, the sadness that will not go away. All of us know that. Every sheep prone to wander knows that great sadness.

Why did I do that? What am I doing here? How do I get back on track? Huge weariness with ourselves. We're fed up with ourselves. You ever felt fed up with yourself? Jill, I often say Jill, why did I do that? Why did I say that? Why did I think that? And we get weary with it. And the cry of his heart 169 Let my cry come before you, oh Lord. Give me understanding. Let my cry come to you. Give me understanding. May my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your promise. Can hearts cry?

Oh yes, who hasn't tossed and turned all night worrying about a child whose pastor you, a marriage on the rocks, who's not wept their way through a terrible trouble that has been allowed to touch those we love. What about permitted pain, job loss, grief when a friend doesn't know the Lord or does but is off track? Who in your world is in trouble with the law or addictions, depression, or straying from their faith like a lost sheep who does not know the cry of the heart to God? David wrote my soul is weary with sorrow.

Strengthen me according to your word verse 28. I want to trust and obey again. And I have talked to many of you here and there. And this is your experience as well. I started off my Christian life so well. What happened? And I want to start again. It's never too late to start again. It's you're never too old to start again. I don't care what you've done. I notice God. It doesn't matter. He wants you to start again. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Not only do I feel it, I've done it. Okay, start again.

You can do it. You have a will or maybe a won't. I always look at the children used to think they have a won't not a will. We have a won't and a will, if you wish, and you can will to will. So, he's praying get me back on track. I've strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. I used to wander off till you discipline me. But now I closely follow your word. That is another translation, the new living translation. I like that. I used to wander off till you discipline me. But now I closely follow your word.

Whoa. Well, think about that in a minute. In other words, get me back on track, but help me use the experience to learn sadder and wiser. When we have been prone to wander, when we have been doing things we shouldn't have done, when we are disturbed with ourselves and upset with ourselves, another people are as well. There's pain in it. How do you use the experience? Do you learn by the experience? Do you use the pain? Do you use the pain even if it isn't your fault? Do you use the pain if somebody has inflicted pain on you and it's nothing to do with you?

You're suffering for someone else's stupidity or sin. What do you do with the pain? Well, learn to use it. David used the pain to drive him to God. But when you're hurt or you're angry, don't let your anger be at God. That's stupid. Your only help is there. And what the devil wants to do is turn your anger at God so that you'll rely on yourself. That's a good idea, huh? Or other people or him. Here I'll give you some ideas how to cope with it, what to think about it. Don't waste the pain. Don't waste the pain.

Help me to use the pain. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I may learn your decrees. It reminds me a bit on Paul and his thorn in the flesh, actually. You know, in the end he said I asked God three times to we don't know what it was. It was some physical malady, perhaps his eyesight, they believe, but we don't know. And it's good we don't know because we can all then relate. All of us have these things that irritate and hurt. And we ask God to heal us and take it away, right?

Well, Paul ended up by saying, you know something? It's a good thorn. This this is a good thorn. How how can a thorn in the flesh be good? The God decides not to heal. No, Paul. No, Paul. No, Paul. What do you not understand about no, Paul? I want to know what that sounded like. I want to know how Paul knew it was the last no. Something for you to think about and discuss. How do you know when it's no? And you stop beating on the door. And as he did, accepted because there was something that told him no that he believed was God and used the pain.

And he said you know it's a good thought. I know God like I've never known him before. I know his word like I never knew it could come alive to me. I understand people better. I'm more empathetic. I understand myself. Good thorn. It's driven me into Christ in a way that nothing else could do. He used the pain. Help me use the pain. Was good for me to be afflicted so that I may learn your degrees. If you read Psalm 119 all the way through, you'll find three or four verses on that same theme with the word afflicted in.

Look them up. They all give you another reason why it's good to be afflicted. And of course, we need to practice the precepts. This has been my practice. I obey your precepts. Practicing obedience sounds sort of forensic to me, sort of well, it sounds clinical. Shouldn't I want to work on my relationship with God rather than have to? Shouldn't it be sort of spontaneous? I was thinking only the other day actually about incident where I was struggling with this and thinking will there ever be a time in my life I don't have to discipline myself to meet with God?

Surely after all these many many years that I've known him, the want to should be there every day. Well, I want to tell you no, it isn't. It isn't. There's many many reasons the want to isn't there. And then the need to, yes, and the must to comes in. And I must do it. I must discipline myself. I wrote about that little conversation, one of my conversations, okay. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives. Jesus went out as usual. As his habit was, he went into a desert place and met with God.

As his habit was as usual. And it really struck me and convicted me. So, I had this conversation with him. As usual, Lord, as usual, like regularly. Yes, regularly, like a habit, a habit, like a serious habit. Silence. Lord, aren't habits sort of legalistic, like rules and regulations? I thought if we were your children, we didn't need rules and regulations. Children don't need rules. Well, yes, but aren't we supposed to be free? Free from what? Rules and regulations. Like the rule of living a disciplined life, he asked me. The rule of love is a discipline to be practiced.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Remember? The commandments like the usual ones, the usual ones. I'm coming, Lord. Hurry. Yes. Why do we argue? I don't get it, but I do. It's that bias. It 's that old devil. You don't need to do it as usual. So, the cry of my heart needs to be as usual. I need to practice the precepts. And not one of us can get around the discipline of love. You have to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that, believe it or not, takes practice.

Practice where? In the presence of God. Takes practicing the presence of God. So, let's look at the shepherd passages. Just one, Psalm 23. Luke 15 you can look at another time. Little sheep that got lost and the shepherd goes and finds it. John 10 we might have a little look at. And Psalm 23. There are many other shepherd passages in the Bible. Of course, we've got Isaiah all we like sheep have gone astray. But we also have whole shepherd passages in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Look them up sometime. Also, we have in 1 Peter all about being earthly shepherds, which is following over on the picture of what a real shepherd and a good shepherd does.

They are all worth not rabbit trails, sheep trails that you can follow and look up yourself. It says in John chapter 10. Well, let's read it. Much better than me telling you. We'll read it from the scriptures. Tell you the truth, said Jesus, verse one. The man who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out.

And when he's brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them. And his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Over the page or my page, it says other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them also I must bring. They also will listen to my voice. So, we have something going on here between the good shepherd and the sheep. Now, this is a figure of speech. Jesus says it himself. Look at verse six. Jesus uses this figure of speech about shepherds and sheep. So, obviously we know that this is a figure of speech.

It's a good figure of speech. And he talks about listening to his voice, knowing his voice. The sheep know not only the shepherd's voice, he knows their name. Here's Jill to answer a few questions about today's message. Jill, how does a person start over with Christ? What does that look like?

Jill Briscoe: Well, start over probably isn't a very good colloquialism. If if you get into a row with somebody, a person, a human person, and you need to start over with them, somebody has to say sorry. Actually, both of you probably, if you're human, have to say sorry. Now, Christ doesn't have to say sorry, but we have to say sorry. So, if we've had a row, if you wish, if we don't agree, if we've stopped talking to each other or Christ never stops talking to us, but we stop talking to him, how does a person start over with the word sorry?

It's the hardest thing to say, hardest thing to say to a human person because of our pride or maybe we think we're right or maybe we are right. But we can be sorry for something. And we can initiate. We can say I'm sorry we've had this row. Even if you're on the right side of it, you can take the initiative and start over. That's how we humble ourselves and say look, this shouldn't be. Let's talk. I'm sorry.

Jill Briscoe: How does a believer practice obedience?

Jill Briscoe: One day at a time, one step at a time. It doesn't mean you're consciously saying am I being obedient? You'll know because the Holy Spirit, who's holy, will tap you on the inside of your life on your shoulder and say uh-uh. I remember when I first came to Christ, my mouth was not very clean. And I'd open it to curse. After I came to the Lord, the Holy Spirit within me, it was just like a little tap on my shoulder. Uh-uh, no more. Let's clean up your mouth. And internally you feel that check on your spirit.

No. And so how do we practice obedience by listening, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's work in our life on a daily basis all the way through the day, and by being in the word and finding the commands to obey? Do not or do or you should or you must. Look at all those words and then say what does that mean? What does it mean to me today? And then do it.

Stuart Briscoe: Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. We want you to know how your prayers and partnership are meeting listeners like Danny from Georgia who writes you guys have opened my eyes to connecting with Jesus and living a blessed life. Thank you and God bless. Thanks for the note, Danny.

Jill Briscoe: Everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like it's always going to be this way or I'll never overcome this. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened. In it, Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing.

You'll learn that even in trouble times, you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, joy. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So, request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Tomorrow on Telling the Truth, it's the second part of Jill's message on Finding Your Way Home. The Cry of My Heart continues next time here on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.

Thanks for listening.