Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares the second part of her message, Chains of Blessing, on the difference spiritual intimacy—a close relationship with God—truly makes. 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, and 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.

And as our thanks for your gift, we'd love to send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace 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, let's go to Jill for the second part of her message, Chains of Blessing.

Jill Briscoe: It says in Acts 16 they hung around. Why did they hang around? I mean, why didn't they just get out in the marketplace and preach? We don't know because it doesn't tell us, but we are allowed to think, sit and wonder, look around the corners of the verse. What would you have done? Why did they just hang around? Well, I think, and I could be wrong and I could be right, but I think they were waiting for the man to show up—the man in his dream.

I can see Silas saying, "Is that him? Just come into the restaurant?" "No, no, it doesn't look like him. He was very big." And Paul would describe him, so they all began to look for this man. They never found a man, but they found a woman instead. Paul got fed up after a few days just hanging around waiting for the man who'd told him to come and help. So they went and found the Jews. The Jews were by the river because Jews in a pagan city always met by the river trying to start a little synagogue and a fellowship because they needed the river for their rituals and their cleansing.

They needed water. And so he knew where the Jews would be, and they get there and there's this woman, a very, very important woman called Lydia. She is a merchant. Now, some people don't think her name was Lydia. They think it was Euodia or Syntyche, and that actually the word in the original language is Lydian. She came from an area around there called Lydia, and people that did that were called Lydians. We don't know.

But anyway, it says in the NIV a woman called Lydia, or the Lydian, came to faith. She and the whole of her household were saved, and she said to Paul, "Will you come home to my house?" Just before I went on this trip, I was in Europe, Eastern Europe. I was in Prague and I was in Hungary, I was in Budapest. But when I was in Prague, I was meeting with women from all over Eastern Europe, key women. They sent two key Christian women who are turning their countries upside down to that conference, and I got the joy of doing the Bible teaching.

I want to tell you something. The church in Europe still meets in Lydia's house. They tell stories of hundreds and hundreds of homes where there are home churches, just as it was in Acts chapter 16. "Come home to my house." Paul was a little bit reluctant, but in the end he went. The church was born in Lydia's house, with Lydia and her family and maybe a couple of other Jews that heard and believed that day.

Then Paul got very excited and he overstepped his mark, as usual, and they had a very exciting time with a woman with a demon, and it got him into all sorts of trouble. He got thrown in jail, of course. They got thrown in the inner jail—the inner prison. In the hole, probably, in Paul's case. At midnight, the other prisoners heard a sound, all of them. So how loud were those guys singing from that hole? Everybody heard them. At the top of their voices, they were singing.

I wonder what they were singing. "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." I don't know, probably not. But they were singing. My husband always says when he's teaching Philippians that their singing was so bad it caused an earthquake. Right. And there was an earthquake, and the jailer thought everybody would run away. So he took his knife out to commit suicide because he was for it.

Paul said, "No, no, no, nobody's run away," which was a miracle. "We're all here." And the man gets saved, and his house, and his kids, and his teenagers, and they all get baptized. What I love in Acts 16, when they all get baptized, it says they were filled with joy because they'd come to believe in God—he and his whole family, verse 34. Filled with joy! Now he was probably for the high jump anyway because he let Paul and the others come into his home and he washed their wounds.

But in the morning, the people found out they were Romans and they were absolutely horrified. "You mean we put Romans in the inner jail?" Paul rubbed it in. "Yes, we're Roman citizens. What's Rome going to think when they know that's how you treated me, a Roman citizen?" And they pleaded with him, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Would you please leave? Would you just get out of the place?" Paul said, "No, I'll go at my own rate." When he got an apology from them, he went to Lydia's house and said goodbye, and they prayed and he left.

That's how the church at Philippi started: with a jailer and his family, probably his wife run the Sunday school, and Lydia and her kids, and a few other Jews and a couple of pagans. That's ordinary people with extraordinary stories. Everybody has a story. That's how the church started. This church is one that won Paul's heart. He said, "I love these people. I love these people."

The church was born in Europe. So it came. At the end of his life, Paul is still in touch with them. Sometimes he sent Timothy, sometimes he went himself. Some people think three times he visited this church. When we begin the book of Philippians, Paul says, "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ." They always started their letters with their signature. We end our letters with our signature, don't we? But in those days, they started them so you knew who you were reading the letter from.

"Oh, this is a letter from Paul and Timothy." The word he uses is "a marked man." We're marked people. We are slaves of Jesus Christ. He identifies himself, and he borrows a picture from the Old Testament in Exodus where, if perhaps a slave loved his master and didn't want to go out free, he could say so. The master would take him down and put him up against a post and take a wooden peg and a hammer and put it through his ear and mutilate the man's ear so that every time the man would go around doing the master's business, they'd say, "Oh, he's a marked man, earmarked."

He's said, "I love my master. I will not go out free." That is the mark of a servant of Jesus, and that's a spiritual art: to serve God as a servant of Jesus, a spiritual art. Paul says, "That's who we are. We're just slaves and we're practicing serving Jesus." We're marked men, earmarked for life. You can look up Exodus 21:6 or Deuteronomy 15:17 and find that there.

What is the mark of an earmarked man? Well, the mark of an earmarked man is joy. He was a marked man and he was a joyful man. Fourteen times in this book, we read "rejoice" or "joy." It's a laughing letter. It is full of joy. It is tap dancing. It is an incredible piece of literature when you realize who it's written by: a man in chains, in the hole, in the inner prison, facing certain death. Fourteen times, "Oh, the joy," says Paul. "Oh, the joy. It won't quit." That's liberty. That's liberty when you're chained. And here we have a man, a joyful man.

Guest (Male): This is Telling the Truth, and today Jill Briscoe talks about how to have spiritual intimacy. She's coming right back with more. First, we want to share this note from Shelly, who says, "Love hearing your messages and thanking the Lord for the inspiration and strengthening I receive through the messages you share. Keeps my hope alive and helps my faith grow from the child-like to the mature doer of Christ. Blessings of continual health and energy to you both."

Thank you, Shelly. 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 Peace 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. Now, here's Jill Briscoe once again from Philippians chapter 1.

Jill Briscoe: Let me read you a definition of joy: a settled state of mind characterized by peace, an attitude that views the world with all of its ups and downs with equanimity, a confident way of looking at life that's rooted in faith that's keenly aware and trusts in the living Lord of the church and is content. Paul is learning, because arts have to be learned, contentment. Whether he lives or whether he dies, whether he's hungry, whether he's full, whether he has plenty, whether he has nothing, he says, "I have learned to be content."

Contentment doesn't come when you ask for it. So many people say to me, "I want to know contentment. I don't have peace of mind. I need to be content with things that I have, and I'm not. Never content, never have enough. There's something missing." Paul says, "Well, you have to learn to be content." Paul is in the school of hard knocks. Paul is in the university of suffering, and often that's where you learn it.

He says, "I haven't yet become perfect in this art of contentment or tranquility or serenity—a spiritual art. I haven't attained. In fact, in chapter 3, he says, 'Don't think I've arrived. I'm reaching. I'm getting there and I will get there. But I'm on the way. I'm learning to be content in any and every situation.'" So he's a marked man. He's a joyful man.

People sense the joy, just as they heard Paul and Silas singing years previously when that church was born. It was the joy that made the prisoners stay put and not run away. It was the joy that attracted the jailer to faith in Christ. It was the joy. Oh, the joy! Here again, Paul is demonstrating the learned art of contentment and joy and peace of mind.

But he intends to spread it. Joy is an evangelist. Who wants to join a miserable group of people? Tell me. When people look around the church of Jesus Christ, why would they want to join? Well, they'll want to join if joy is the evidence of contentment and peace of mind in the people that go to the church. Paul says, "My chains are chains of blessing."

You need to read Philippians chapter 1, but in verse 12, "I want you to know, brothers," he says, "what's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. And as a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly because of my chains," he says.

I don't know who or what you're chained to, but what I want to know is what's happening because of who or what you're chained to. When something happened to you, what happened to people because something happened to you? Paul says, "These are the things that happened to me: persecution, trouble, chained to the guard. But what happened when what happened to me?"

Chapter 1 tells you what happened just in that passage I started to read to you. Read on to the end of the passage. He says, "First of all, I learned to pray." You need to read the first few verses of Philippians and make a little list. Lists are great when you're reading the Bible. If you want to learn how to pray maturely and as we should, make a list of how Paul prayed. Five, six things: "What was he praying? He was praying this, he was praying that." Just get a pencil, get a notebook, read the Bible, and make that list.

He said, "You know, I just can't stop praying. I thank my God every time I remember you." There's that word: "I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray." His prayer life was all. It was full. It was a joy. He didn't have to do it. He didn't do his devotions. He prayed.

Then secondly, he says, "Because of my chains, guess what? The church has been planted in Caesar's household." Now what does that all mean? Well, he was chained to a guard, you see, with one hand chained to the wall with the other. I can see Paul content with where he was, for nothing can happen to a child of God outside the will of God, and he believed that. Content, unpacked, chained to the wall, chained to the guard.

He saw the opportunity. Some people see an opportunity in every difficulty, and other people see a difficulty in every opportunity. I always see a difficulty in every opportunity and my husband always sees an opportunity in every difficulty. It depends whether you're negative or positive. I don't know whether Paul was negative or positive, but he had learned the art of seeing the opportunity.

Here's the guard, changed every two hours. I can see his little eyes glinting. "Oh, here's the next one." I can see the guard after two hours of having Paul preach at him and not being able to get away, going back and saying, "Oh, am I sorry for you, brother. Your turn. He never stops talking about this Jesus and all of that." One by one by one, those guards came to Jesus.

They went back to the barracks and they went back to Caesar's household and they began to talk. If you look in the very last chapter of Philippians, chapter 4, right at the end, verse 21: "Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings. All the saints send you greetings, especially those who are of Caesar's household."

How did they get there? I mean, how do you have saints in Caesar's household? Well, you just win the guards one by one by one by one. Soon you have a church right under Caesar's nose. The Praetorian, the main guards, were looking after him. Paul wins them because he sees an opportunity in his difficulty. He isn't licking his wounds and he isn't sorry for himself. He settles in and is content.

If you read through that chapter, you see that he had an opportunity to evangelize, an opportunity to learn to pray, an opportunity to defend the gospel. He says in verse 16, "I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. I'm going to get a chance to go on trial, and I'm going to reach a whole other audience I'd never reach if I wasn't on trial here."

"I'm going to get an opportunity to encourage the church." Did you see that? Because of my chains, all the brothers in the church in Rome are being encouraged. How is that? It always encourages you to see somebody exercising the spiritual art of suffering. I tell you, come with me where I've been in this last trip. Who's encouraged? I haven't a clue whether I encouraged those people. I can't imagine how.

I'm encouraged because those incredible people walked into my life, and I am more encouraged because of their suffering. When you see somebody suffer well with joy—oh, the joy—then you think, "Well, they could do it. I can do it." Paul said it helps them preach more boldly even if they get caught and they get put in prison with me. They don't care because they see me.

They're modeling after me. Twice in this book, Paul says, "Look at me. Do what I'm doing." Could we say that? Could we say to people, "Look at me, how I'm suffering, and you do it"? Wow. Paul the apostle says, "Because of my chains, because of my chains, it was given me on behalf of Christ to be in that prison so I could win this man to Christ, who could win that man to Christ, who could win this man to Christ, and could even perhaps tell Caesar himself about Christ."

What a joy! How else could it have happened if I hadn't been in this hellhole? How else could it have happened? Because of this, I rejoice. The spiritual art of liberty, jail mail written by a free man in chains. Oh, I want that. Do you want that? Do you really want what Paul had in that spiritual intimacy? "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth, wrapping up her message, Chains of Blessing. She's coming right back. 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 gift, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace 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, Jill sits down and delves a little deeper into a thought from today's message. Jill, how can a person be content even when it feels like their world is crashing in around them?

Jill Briscoe: Well, if you think of contentment as "everything is all right in my world," then you can't be content if your world is crashing around you. But if you think of your contentment as a settled state of a relationship outside everything that happens in your world, and you are content in God, then there is the possibility some of that security, some of that peace may invade the world of which you're a part and is falling apart.

So contentment isn't a feeling only. For some people, never; it's deeper than a feeling. It's a sense of all is right with my inner world—with my inner world. That's the contentment I'm talking about. In fact, all is right with my inner world when everything is wrong with my outer world. Contentment is being content with Him in the middle of a world where nobody's content with you and you're not content with them.

So we come back to this personal relationship with God that enables you in crisis, in chaos, even in an abusive situation where you are being treated absolutely wrongly and you tend to feel that you deserve it. I've just talked to a lady like that. Knowing that God is content with you—yea, more, He loves you—and you know what it is to be in His presence and be content with Him can assure you that you're not the worst insect on the planet that whoever is abusing you is telling you you are.

That's a lie. Somebody a lot more important than that person loves you, died for you, He thinks you're worth dying for, wants to live with you forever. Hey! So the contentment that comes as we grow our relationship with God helps us when our world falls apart.

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 Peace 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.

Today, Jill talked about the importance of spiritual intimacy. Tomorrow, her focus shifts to spiritual unity and harmony. It seems like unity and harmony are hard to come by today. Why is that? And what can we, with God's help, do about it? That's tomorrow, here on Telling the Truth.