Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart Briscoe shares biblical principles for how you can experience supernatural peace in a chaotic world. 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. 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, here's Stuart Briscoe and his message, "How Can I Find Peace of Mind?"

Stuart Briscoe: It's a cruel world. It can be cold, it can be hostile, it can be mean, it can be ugly. And some of you hearing me right now would say, "You're absolutely right. That's my world right now." You've got a lot of anxieties, you've got a lot of problems, you've got a lot of troubles, and as a result of that, you find yourself either chronically worried or occasionally on the verge of panic attacks.

If there's one thing you'd like more than anything else, it would be just to get rid of all the garbage and all the stuff that's messing things up just so you could have a little peace of mind. And then some of you are in a totally opposite situation. You've got your life pretty well organized. You're doing pretty much what you want to do. You don't have to do what you don't want to do. You can afford to pretty much go where you want to go, and if a problem comes along, you've got the means to fix it.

And so, basically, stuff's okay. And the strange thing is this, that even though you've got everything more or less as you want it, at times there's an inner sort of feeling of things not being quite right. Something doesn't quite fit, something just a little out of sync. Well, whichever group you're in, whether you're a member of those who are sort of overwhelmed by problems and anxieties and on the verge of panic attack, or whether you're one of those people who is very fortunate, very blessed, and life is very amenable, and yet you have that inner sense of something not being quite right, you're both looking for the same thing, and it's what we would call peace of mind.

Now, the people who are living under tremendous stress and strain and difficulty, they probably think that peace of mind would come if they could only eradicate all the stress in their lives. If they could just line up all the things that are causing them worry and just shoot them down one by one, the end product would be peace. When the Bible talks about the peace of God that passes understanding, it has a very, very different perception of peace from the idea that peace is the product of the eradication of stress and the cessation of hostilities.

Now, there's a very well-known word that is common in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew, it's the word "Shalom," and it is translated peace. But we have to understand something, and it is this: that in the biblical way of thinking, in the Semitic languages, the idea of shalom is not necessarily related to the eradication of stress or the cessation of hostilities. It has the basic idea of meaning that things are in order. And it is perfectly possible for things outside my life to be totally chaotic but to have that inner sense of order.

Now, Isaiah the prophet said something that is helpful in this regard. Let me read it for you. It's in the 48th chapter of his great prophetic book. And the Lord gave this message to his people through Isaiah, and this is what he said, verse 17: "This is what the Lord says, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river."

No doubt that last little expression resonates with you if you're familiar with the old hymn, "When peace like a river attendeth my way, and sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." Now, notice that that hymn says that even when sorrows like sea billows roll, it is possible to have peace like a river. Even when sorrows like sea billows roll, it is possible to be able to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul."

Now, clearly, there's a differentiation here between the way that the Hebrew-speaking people think of peace and the way we think of it. What it is really saying is this: God is God, and he is the one who knows what is best for us and is willing to teach it to us. And if we would listen and allow him to direct us and go in the way that he says, then we would have peace. Why? Because we would be ordering our lives according to the orders of an orderly God. You see, that's the root meaning of peace in the biblical sense.

It is the inner sense of order. In fact, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, he said that peace is the tranquility of order. So it is possible to live in a situation where, quite frankly, all hell is breaking loose, and yet in the midst of this situation to know that whilst the circumstances are such as you would just give anything to be rid of them, but you can't, in those circumstances, you know that the Lord knows what is best for you.

You're listening to what he says in these circumstances. You are understanding his direction, and you're operating on the basis of loving, trusting obedience to him. There's that inner sense of order, an inner sense of peace, peace of mind. It has nothing to do with the stress. It has nothing to do with the hostility. They may well continue; they may even get worse. But the remarkable thing is that you're at peace.

So, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, we'll turn to this passage in a moment, he talks about the peace of God that passes understanding. Now, you can understand the person at peace where everything is going just great for them, where they've got everything organized, everything nailed down, they don't lack anything, they can fix anything they want. What's great about that kind of peace? You can understand that. What cannot be understood is that inner sense of tranquility and ease of spirit when everything outside is going wrong. That's the peace of God.

Now, the Old Testament gives illustrations of this. I don't have time to get into them, but you can check on the story of Gideon sometime. Gideon got himself in an almighty mess. He has been instructed by God to upset the whole of his family and to start a war against the local Midianites the next day. And so he builds an altar to the Lord and says, "I'll do what you say," and he calls his altar Jehovah-Shalom. In other words, he is going to exacerbate stress and he's going to initiate hostilities, and he talks about peace. Why? Because even in the midst of the stress and the hostilities, he is ordering his life according to the orders of an orderly God.

Now then, look at the opposite of this. Isaiah 48 finishes with these words: "There is no peace for the wicked." Now, when it talks about the wicked, it's not necessarily talking about the people who are just the scum of the earth. It is talking about people who don't order their lives according to the orders of an orderly God. There is no sense of inner order for those who know that God is telling them to do certain things and they won't do it. You see, the root problem of this sense of dismay and unease and discomfort and discombobulation, the root problem is disobedience. Disobedience. It is disobedience that will lead to dismay and disorder and unease and discombobulation.

Guest (Male): That's Stuart Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. He's headed right back with more biblical teaching for how to have an unshakable peace in an ever-shifting culture. But before we dive back in, we love sharing with you the messages we get from listeners so you can see the kind of impact your partnership makes. Notes like this one from Joanne: "I've been very blessed by Jill and Stuart's messages, especially when they use their varied experiences as examples. I'm encouraged to learn how they stand firm in their faith, even in the most difficult circumstances. They shine God's faithfulness and steadfast love. Thanks be to God."

Amen, and thanks for sharing, Joanne. 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 a match to help more people experience life through the teaching and 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, let's hear from Stuart Briscoe once more.

Stuart Briscoe: Now, in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus said this to his disciples: "In the world, you're going to have trouble. I promise you that. In the world, you will have trouble." And he explained this to them because this was a bit of a downer for them, obviously. He explained it as follows: He said, "You have got to understand that they didn't like me very much in this world and eventually they'll get rid of me," which of course they did.

Now, the reason that people did not like him is that there is an enemy of the purposes of God. And when people align themselves with Jesus Christ, who's committed to the purposes of God, the enemy of the purposes of God becomes their enemy. All right? So they find themselves now living in a world where they've aligned themselves with the purposes of God. They're going to order their lives according to the orders of an orderly God, and they're going to discover an inner sense of peace.

But that does not mean that everything will be solved outside. In actual fact, what it means very often is that they discover a whole new set of problems, a whole new set of stresses, a whole new set of anxiety-producing situations. Now, Jesus promised this. But then he went on to say this: "In the world, you will have trouble, but in me, you will have peace." Now, can't you imagine one of his disciples saying, "Excuse me, I have a question." "Yes, what's your question?"

"You just said we were going to have peace, right? But you also said we're going to have trouble, right? My question is, what are we going to have? Are we going to have peace, or are we going to have trouble?" And the answer, of course, would have been "Yes." Yes. Because you see, peace is not the eradication of trouble. You will have trouble, but in me, you will have peace. That is why Jesus said, "Peace I give unto you, not as the world gives unto you, I give my peace to you."

And what is that? The world will try to fix your stress. The world will try to get rid of your hostilities. And I'm all in favor of both. But you can get rid of all your stress and get rid of all your hostilities and still not have peace. Why? Because the peace that passes understanding is something that only he can give. In fact, scripture tells us that the peace of which we speak is part of the fruit of the Spirit.

So if it is peace of mind that we want, whether we're living in desperate circumstances or whether we're living in very amenable circumstances with that inner sense of something not being quite right, whichever way it is, if it is peace of mind we want, we have got to recognize it is fundamentally a spiritual issue which has to do with bringing our lives into subjection and submission to the gracious, saving Lordship of Christ, in order that the Spirit of God might do a work of grace within us and give us a sense of inner peace, whatever the external circumstances might be.

Now, that's all introduction. So let's turn to Philippians chapter 4. Here, the Apostle Paul speaks quite specifically about the peace of God that passes understanding. I want to read some of this to you. In fact, I want to start back in verse 20 of the previous chapter. "Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you stand firm in the Lord."

Now, notice that expression: "That is how you stand firm in the Lord." There are five smooth stones that will bring you peace of mind that I want to identify for you here. And here's the first one: We experience peace of mind as we stand firm in the Lord. We experience peace of mind as we stand firm in the Lord. Now, what does that mean? Well, he just said that is how you do it. That is pointing back to what he's just said.

Notice in verse 20 of chapter 3: "Our citizenship is in heaven." What does it mean to stand firm in the Lord? Well, one thing it means is this: that I recognize that my citizenship is in heaven and I am an alien, temporary resident in this world, which means that their attitude to earth and their attitude to heaven is the exact opposite of the secularist and the materialist. The secularist basically says what is here is what matters, what is there is kind of up for grabs.

The scriptures say what is there is permanent, what is here is passing away. The materialist says that which is real is that which you can touch and taste and see, etc., etc., material things. The spiritual person says those things are passing away. What is real is that which is locked up in heaven. What really matters to them is the eternal and the spiritual and the things that are heavenly. Citizens of heaven.

Now, what does this have to do with peace of mind? Well, it has everything to do with peace of mind. Because if you know that now you've taken your stand in the Lord, you are a citizen of heaven, that will totally revolutionize your attitude to everything down here. And you will hold much lighter the things that up to now you have held so tightly. It is the things that we hold tightly that cause all the stress, all the worry, all the panic.

To the extent that we can begin to release them because we recognize that they are passing away and that what really stands is all that eternity and heaven is about, to the extent we can do that, to that extent we will begin to know the sense of inner order and peace. But read on: "Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

The thing you notice about those who stand firm in the Lord is this: they believe that he is powerful enough to bring everything under his control. They believe that he's powerful enough to bring everything under his control. The problem is that there are so many things that are beyond our control. And it's the things that are beyond our control that are anxiety-producing. It is the things that are beyond our control that begin to develop this chronic state of worry or even the sheer panic.

But if I know that the things that are out of my control are all under his control and as he wishes and as he chooses according to his benevolent, gracious, eternal plan, he can bring things out of my control under his control, guess what that does to my peace of mind? I begin to stand firm in the Lord.

Guest (Male): That's Stuart Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. And he'll be right back with more on how you can have true peace of mind. 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. And now, Stuart's here to answer a few questions today's message may have brought to mind. Stuart, can you give us a modern-day example of what happens in a person's life when they align themselves with the purposes of God?

Stuart Briscoe: Yes, it's not difficult to think of modern-day examples of people who have really desired to align themselves with God's purposes. I had the privilege recently, along with my wife, of traveling down to Haiti. Haiti, of course, has been known for a long, long time as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. And that was before the huge earthquake hit, I think it was about five or six years ago. This is a devastated nation. The people there are abysmally poor.

And that's the bad news. The good news is I have met people in Haiti, and many other places like it incidentally, who have said, "You know, God's purpose is that people should be loved, that people should be cared for, that God's people should love mercy, that God's people should be committed to justice being done and walking humbly before their God." And I saw in Haiti people who had gone and are devoting themselves to mercy and to justice and to humble serving of the needy people in that country. And so I would say, if you're looking for examples of people who align themselves with the purposes of God, take a trip down to Haiti. You'll find them in many different places there.

Guest (Male): Stuart, what would you say to that person whose world is in such turmoil they have a hard time believing they'll ever experience any kind of peace again?

Stuart Briscoe: I think when some people's lives are in the kind of turmoil that you describe in your question, it's very hard for them to even begin to imagine that things can ever be turned the right side up again. And perhaps the only way we can help them is to say to them, "Look, instead of thinking about your life and the turmoil it's in now and thinking of all the things that have happened, perhaps the better thing to do would be just to focus on one aspect of the turmoil, focus on one issue that needs to be addressed."

"And carefully and prayerfully talk to the Lord about this. And then gather some friends together and talk to them about this one particular issue that needs to be addressed. And see if as you pray about it, you begin to gather fresh insights that the Holy Spirit helps you with, you get encouragement and support from the people you've shared your concern with, and you begin to tackle this huge elephant in the room and take it one little piece at a time."

Guest (Male): 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 a 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. Be sure to come back tomorrow as Stuart and Jill share more life-changing truth from God's word. Tune in and experience life right here on Telling the Truth.