Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): What Jesus accomplished through the cross offers you a forgiveness that's greater than anything we could ever imagine. Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe helps you see how to embrace the fullness of God's forgiveness through Christ.

But first, your generous support this month is vital as Telling the Truth prepares to close out our financial year and step into a new season of proclaiming God's truth. With partners like you, we can reach even more people with biblical truth in the year ahead.

Right now, more people than ever are searching for truth. Through this ministry, God's word is reaching them where they are, across digital platforms and around the world. And thanks to an $82,000 matching grant, your gift today will be doubled, helping extend that reach and keep messages like this one going out to you and to others who need the hope found in Christ.

As our thanks for your gift, we'd love to send you Stuart Briscoe's book, A Piece of My Mind, a powerful resource to help you experience God's peace in whatever you're facing. So call today to request your copy: 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with today's message, "The Forgiveness of God."

Jill Briscoe: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. He came in him to forgive us, to run down the road from heaven to earth and say to a world of prodigals, "Come on, come home." We addressed the fatherhood of God as seen in the scriptures and the stories that Jesus told, like the story of the prodigal son, but also indirect teaching.

One day, when the disciples were gathered around Jesus, they said, "Teacher, teach us to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples. Lord, you teach us to pray." And Jesus said, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father which art in heaven.'" That's where it all begins. A Christian worldview includes a belief in the Father-heart of God.

Now, I want to address forgiveness, the forgiveness of God. As I type my notes out in script form, I always press the spell button when I'm done. To my surprise, it kept coming up with one word I'd spelled wrong all the way through these 20 pages or whatever, and it was forgiveness. I had spelled it "forgive mess," which is fine. I left it.

So, there it is in my script. For the forgiveness of God forgives the mess—the mess in our families, the mess in our world, the mess that we make, and the mess that others make for us. He forgives. He wants to forgive it all.

Now, the disciples listening to Jesus and certainly listening to his parable of the prodigal son, I'm sure, would think, "You know, that's the problem with us. We don't know where to start." Think of the prodigal sitting in the pigsty, coming to himself, coming to his senses, and saying, "I'm going to go home to my father. I've just had it. What's the point of sitting in a pigsty when I could be a prince?"

It's the point of conversion, of turning around and heading back where he belongs, to the heart of God. So he rehearses what he's going to say. Do you ever do that? Do you ever have a looming confrontation with a child, an employee, a friend, or somebody in the family, and you sit there thinking in the pigsty of this relationship, "What am I going to say? What's the first thing to say?"

Because I'm going to take the initiative; I'm going to go home. You come up with the first sentence. That's a very practical, good thing to do—to figure out what the very first thing you're going to say is. That's all you need to do, and just go say it and then let the river cut its own channel from then on in.

So that's what we need to do. Where do we start? Where do we begin when we sit on the steps of our soul in the deep place where nobody goes? The Lord comes and sits with us, and we begin this incredible conversation called prayer.

I got a letter from a listener in the UK from our radio program the other day. She wrote, "I listened to you yesterday, and it was as if your preaching was to me. I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. I've been trying to pray to God for healing, but because I hadn't practiced praying, I found myself praying Christopher Robin prayers. So would you pray for me, my sister? Thank you, and God bless you."

She didn't know where to start. Here she is in deep trouble. She's in a pigsty of pain, if you wish. She wants to get to the Father. She wants to talk to the Father, but she doesn't know where to start, and so she asks somebody else to pray.

It took me back to my childhood because Christopher Robin, for those that aren't mothers and you don't have children's literature around the house, A.A. Milne is a British writer who wrote wonderful books for children all about Christopher Robin. One of them was on prayer, "Christopher Robin's Prayers."

I remember as a little girl in my school learning that particular prayer. It's very simple, and it's sort of cute. "Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed, droops on his little hands, little gold head. Hush, hush, whisper who dares, Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. God bless Mommy, I know that's right. Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight? See how quickly he gets distracted. The cold so cold, and the hot so hot. Oh, God bless Daddy, I quite forgot.

And now real distraction. If I open my fingers a little bit more, I can see Nanny's dressing gown on the door. It's a beautiful blue, but it doesn't have a hood. Oh, God bless Nanny and make her good. Mine has a hood. Now he's really off. And I lie in bed, and I pull the hood right over my head, and I shut my eyes, and I curl up small, and nobody knows that I'm there at all. Oh, thank you, God, for a lovely day. And what was the other I had to say? I've said 'Bless Daddy,' so what could it be? Oh, now I remember. God bless me."

Christopher Robin-itis. It's cute when you're five or six. Not very cute when we're 20, 30, 40, 50. And yet many of us have never graduated from Christopher Robin prayers. It's fine to say, "God bless Mommy and Nanny, Daddy, etcetera," and we should, and we do. But is that what God intends when he said, "If you want to learn how to pray, shut your eyes, listen to me: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed holy be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done"?

Very different from "God bless Mommy and Daddy and me, and that's it. Now I get on with my day." So we all need to start somewhere. I well remember becoming a Christian and being invited to a missions prayer meeting. I had no idea what that meant. I didn't know what a missionary was. I didn't know what missions were.

But I went along with some of my students downtown Cambridge to the beautiful library. The library at Cambridge must be one of the most gorgeous buildings in the world and has the most incredible collection of books in the world. There was the librarian who happened to be a believer and a wonderful, wonderful man of God.

He was leading the mid-morning 12:00 to 1:00 prayer meeting for students, and we were praying for the world. It was a new planet. I had never sat in a group of 700 or 800 students on their lunch hour, foregoing lunch to come and pour their heart out that the kingdom may come within the heart of people around the world.

I sat there amazed, and then I thought, "Oh, he's expecting all of us to say a prayer out loud." I had never had that concept before. I didn't know what to say, but I thought, "Well, I may as well start." I jumped in, and I prayed my very first prayer out loud in a prayer meeting. Very simple, it went something like this: "God bless Africa. Amen."

Well, it was a start. However, at the end, this venerable, incredible man came up and very gently said to me, "I'd like to talk to you about your prayer." He said, "Which part of the great continent of Africa is your concern? Is his kingdom making progress in the hearts of men there? Which mission are you getting thoroughly informed about? Which particular tribal problem are you focusing on? And how are you seeing yourself as part of the solution, Jill? Are you finding a heart cry of response to the need as you pray?"

And I realized that "Bless Africa" isn't going to do it. That's where we begin, and that's all right if that's where you are. But don't stop there. And what you need to do is get second things first.

Guest (Female): There's nothing you can do that God's grace can't handle. In a moment, Jill will get back to her message to show you how God will forgive any mess you make in your life. But first, listen to this note we received from a listener in Hawaii named Sandra. She says, "I am so blessed and encouraged by your example of faith and your excellent teaching. May God our gracious Father continue to bless you in your ministry."

Thank you so much, Sandra. That's the kind of impact your gift can have right now, helping more people encounter God's truth at the very moment they need it most. As Telling the Truth approaches the end of the financial year, finishing strong is critical so that many more people can be reached in the coming year.

Through expanded digital outreach, biblical teaching is reaching people across the world who are searching for peace, direction, and hope. And when you give this month, your gift will be doubled thanks to an $82,000 matching grant to extend that reach and keep broadcasts like this one going strong all year.

We'll say thanks for your generous support with Stuart Briscoe's book, A Piece of My Mind. Stuart wrote this resource to help you experience the peace of God in the midst of whatever you may be facing. It's our thanks for your financial year-end gift worth twice as much when paired with the match to help more people experience life through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth.

So request your copy when you call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Okay, let's get back to Jill with more of today's message, "The Forgiveness of God."

Jill Briscoe: What we've got to do is get second things first and really learn how to move the hand of God, that the kingdom may come in the hearts of men and the world of prodigals may come home.

So, kingdom-ness. And if you are praying for anything, make sure that you're adding at the end, "And if there's any way I could become the answer to this prayer, count me in." It might be a scary thing to pray, but unless we are willing to become, as this man reminded me, the answer to our own prayers.

And what happened to me as I decided, a busy student though I was, that every single lunch hour from now on I needed to be downtown Cambridge sitting in that library, praying my heart out, my heart on its knees. As I did that for the world, for Africa and Asia and the Middle East and all over the world, something happened. I packed my suitcase; I was ready to go. It got into me—the Father-heart of God for the world of God.

I caught it, and that's what should happen when we pray. Kingdom-ness, use me. I have a friend in Russia. She was at Oxford, a brilliant student, got a job in the Foreign Office. She got converted the last semester of her time up at Oxford. Somehow she got involved with a mission called Operation Mobilization. In the little break they had, they went behind the Iron Curtain—the wall was still up in Berlin at that point—and they smuggled themselves in with a load of Bibles. In East Germany, they began to do evangelism.

Well, Catherine was just mesmerized by this whole thing. A brand new Christian, she came back and, I think it was shortly before she took her final exam, she watched the television. On the television was the sight that we all saw of the wall coming down in Berlin. She started to pray for the people that she had met on that team, that mission team. "Lord, now they can hear about you. Now your kingdom can come in their hearts. How wonderful, how wonderful!"

And then she stopped. And God said to her in that little tiny room at Oxford, "And who's going to tell them, Catherine? Who's going to tell them?" And Catherine said, "Okay, here am I, send me." She canceled the job that she had in the Foreign Office and she joined Operation Mobilization. She's now in Russia. I've been with Catherine; I've been up to Siberia with her. I've seen her heart for her world, for her Russians.

And I know where it began. It began as she sat in front of a TV and her heart on its knees began to pray for the people in East Germany. And you know, you'll never be the same if you dare to get heart involved that his kingdom come in the world. Use me, send me. Don't pray "Send somebody else." "Here am I, send somebody else"—that's what we usually pray. Or "Lord, you know," we say loudly, "I'm willing to go," but secretly, we're planning to stay. God does not appreciate that dishonesty.

So, God squandered his heart on us when he gave us Christ. And we need to squander our life for the love of Jesus, in prayer and in action all over the world. What is the kingdom of God? Well, Jesus was here once and he was walking around and he said, "The kingdom of God is among you," because he, the King, was among them. Another time in the upper room, he said to his disciples, "The kingdom of God shall be in you. I'm going away, but I'm going to send my spirit. I am with you, but I will be in you." And when the King is in us, then that just helps us look at the world a whole different way.

There's a wonderful little passage you can look at sometime in Isaiah chapter 32. It's also in Isaiah chapter 32, and it talks about when the King reigns. It's talking about the reign of Israel, and when you get a good king on the throne, he chooses good counselors and the counselors choose good officers and the officers choose good police and the whole nation settles down. When the King reigns. It's also a messianic Psalm. When the King reigns.

And then it gives three pictures. When a king, a good king reigns, three things will happen. Every man, every woman, every boy, every girl will be like the shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, and the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land. A windbreak, a watershed, and a wall. Marvelous picture.

When the King reigns in my heart, when he's boss, when he's Lord—and if he isn't Lord of all, he's not Lord at all—when he's Lord, when he's King in my heart, my life will be like a windbreak. I'll get on my knees, and as the blast of the enemy comes against somebody that I love, prayer puts up that great big barrier between us. We can be a windbreak. We can take the blast. We can take the sorrow. We can take the pain.

And we can become a watershed; we can divert the water of life in the direction of a thirsty person. And we can be a wall, something solid and reliable like a rock in a weary land. Shadow of a mighty rock. We're not the rock; the Lord is the rock. But we can be the shadow of the rock. What's a shadow? Look it up in the dictionary: an inescapable companion.

So if I insist on being an inescapable companion of my Lord in prayer, do you know what's going to happen? People are going to look at me and say, "Something about that person. Secure, upright, integrity, rock-like. I like it. I sense it's a shadow of something behind them." And they're going to beat a path to your door and say, "What's the secret of your life? You're living your life out loud and it's shouting something to me, and I want to know. I want to understand what's the message."

Well, the message is: find Jesus as savior, let him invade your life by his spirit, remember he is Lord—you don't make him Lord, he is Lord, so he comes in to be who he is—and then let him rule. Let him reign. Kingdom-ness first of all in my heart, and then he'll start and bring the world back home, even using you and me, one sinner at a time.

You know, I know Jesus prayed when he was a little boy. I know that he prayed as he was growing up in Nazareth. I do not think Jesus Christ learned to pray to his Father at the age of 30 to the age of 33. Of course not. I believe he prayed for his family, James and Joseph who didn't believe in him, and all the rest of his sisters and brothers. I believe he prayed for his mother. I believe he prayed for his father, Joseph, his dear beloved earthly father.

Joseph got sick, I believe he prayed for him. And as Joseph went through the front door ahead of his earthly family, Jesus prayed for all the mourners in his extended family. I believe he prayed for the neighbors in Nazareth. I believe he prayed for the customers who came to his small business in town. I believe he prayed for his debtors, the people that never came through and paid him for all the hard work he'd done building their houses.

I believe he went to collect his debts, and I believe he heard the story, and I believe if he knew it was poverty or it was a problem, I believe he forgave the debt. And I believe he did more than forgive the debt standing on that doorstep; I believe he prayed for that family. He prayed. I believe he prayed for the Romans, I believe he prayed for the slaves, I believe he prayed for the children. And so Jesus Christ as a boy would see people on a cross. Do you think he prayed for them? Oh, yes. Jesus grew up talking to God about everybody he met, and so must we.

Guest (Male): You're hearing from Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. She's coming right back, but first, there's a special resource you'll want to hear about.

We're in a pivotal moment for Telling the Truth. As the financial year comes to a close, your support now can help us reach even more people with God's word in the year ahead. More people than ever are searching for real peace. And through this ministry, biblical truth is reaching them in those moments, across digital platforms and around the world.

Thankfully, a group of generous friends has offered an $82,000 matching grant, doubling your gift this month to extend that outreach even further. Your generous gift today, worth double when matched, will help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

As thanks for your generous support, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, A Piece of My Mind. Stuart wrote this resource to help you experience the peace of God in any circumstance you may be facing. Simply request your copy when you call today and give a gift to help keep the ministry of Telling the Truth going around the world. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill to answer an important question for you and wrap up today's teaching.

Jill, why is it important to pray for God's will to be done instead of just insisting on what we think the answer to prayer should be?

Jill Briscoe: Well, maybe the answer to that is pretty obvious. Maybe, and maybe not. If we think that God is the great need-meeter in the sky and he's there for our convenience, then that's one heretical idea of prayer and what we should be doing with it. But I think it's obvious that God's will is most times probably not our will.

And the idea is like there's a great big ship and we're a little tiny dinghy, a little tiny ship, and we've got a rope between us, and prayer is pulling on the rope. If you do that, if you pull on the rope, the little ship snuggles up aside the will of the big ship and it goes where the big ship takes it. That's prayer. Not tugging on the rope to bring the big ship alongside your little ship and go where you really want to go.

Obvious illustration. Ask him to do it, but don't tell him how. Ask him to do it, but don't tell him now. Get that? Ask him to do it, don't tell him how. Ask him to do it, but don't tell him now. And be willing to hear yes, no, or wait, and accept whatever he eventually tells you.

So it's important to pray for God's will to be done instead of my will. And if that's hard, pray about it. If you have a problem with prayer or a problem with God, talk about it. "Lord, I don't want your will to be done. I want mine." Well, he knows already, so it's okay verbalizing what he knows already. In fact, he'd like you to.

And then read some scripture, and go on reading till you get a principle or something rather pointed to do with your situation that you're praying about. And it will happen if you stay in the word long enough. Just read. Read a whole gospel, read an epistle, and look for principles, and suddenly it will pop out and that will be the answer of what God's will is. You cannot know God's will without God's word. It's in God's word that his will is revealed. So be heavy on the reading of the Bible and the understanding of the Bible and less of prayer—not all of prayer—trying to twist God's arm to get him to do what you want him to do.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. We hope today's message encouraged you. And before we go, here's something important to remember: there's still time to make a meaningful impact before the end of this financial year and help reach many more people with the truth of God in the year ahead.

Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping extend biblical teaching to people searching for peace, hope, and direction. As thanks for your gift, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, A Piece of My Mind, a resource designed to help you experience God's steady peace in whatever you're facing.

So call now to give, knowing your gift will be doubled, and remember to request your resource with our thanks when you do. 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks so much for listening today. Tune in next time for more encouragement straight from God's word. Experience life right here on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.