Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Are you ready to start that conversation? It's the most important one you'll ever have. This time on Telling the Truth, we hear the second part of Jill's message about getting on track with your relationship with God. It's part of Stuart and Jill's series Living in the Word, and Jill shares more from the Psalms in just a moment.

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget. This series will anchor you in six time-tested truths from God's word so you can stand strong in your beliefs as you remember the deep spiritual truths that are foundational to your faith.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Last time, Jill spoke from her heart about how too many believers treat their time with God as just another to-do, an item on a daily checklist that they rush through, and they do all the talking. It's on that thought Jill picks up with the second part of her message, Getting on Track.

Jill Briscoe: Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light to my path. That's the promise. Bring all of you to your quiet time, to your devotions, to your time in the sanctuary on a Sunday, wherever you go to church, and take a scribble book. Just scribble. You don't need to take down every word, just capture things. Two great needs of the human race: to be loved, cared for, and to be known and understood. The third one is to have purpose and meaning, have reason for living, something to live for and something to die for.

In my work with young people, and that goes on because gift doesn't age, spiritual gift, heart doesn't age, passion doesn't age, I'm a kid person. I don't know what I'm doing with all you grown-up people here. Just give me my teenagers and my college kids and my 20-somethings. Gift doesn't age. If you are good with kids, you'll be good with kids all your life. Spiritual gift doesn't age.

As I'm thinking about this and the study of the word and finding the track, the right path, the way, the truth, the life, I'm thinking of all the things that we need to do to make sure we are getting on track with God or getting on the road. In Psalm 139, which I just love, it's one that I memorized. If you can memorize, memorize when you're young. My glasses come in handy, my hearing aid is fine, my false teeth are just dandy, but I sure do miss my mind. That's what happens.

But if you look at Psalm 139 for a minute: "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit, you know when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out, my lying down. You're familiar—the word is family—you're family," says God. "You're family. I'm your father. You're family. I'm familiar with all your ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord." That's a blessing to speak as I can tell you.

"You hem me in behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me,' the light will become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. You created my inmost being. You knit me together—embroidered is the word—you embroidered me in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame wasn't hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts." And then the last verse: "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me in the right road. Get me on the right track. Are you on the right track? Well, if you're on the right track, this word will come alive to you because that's the word you're going to need to keep you on the right track. As you see at the beginning of that Psalm, it's all, "Show me your word and I'll obey you. Show me your word and I'll walk in your ways. And when I get off track, don't give me up. Get me back on again."

David knows his heart, knows it all too well. One of the things that we need to know is to be loved and known, to feel relevant, to feel necessary, to feel important, to feel that somebody cares. Somebody loves me, somebody knows me. Even if you have the most wonderful relationships, there is a longing within to be known, to be known thoroughly, and what is known not to make a difference to the person that knows it.

God says, "I know you like that because I've made you." You can know you're loved because of the trouble he took to make you. He took such trouble in such a small studio and in the dark in the womb. He made you on purpose. I mean, if you want meaning, just think about that. He had a purpose for making you. He didn't go to all that trouble just for you to wander around with nowhere to go and nothing to do and no destiny. I mean, why take all that trouble, right?

So this Psalm says, "I've got plans for you." All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. He has plans. What are these plans? The very best for you. If he took all this trouble, if he loved you so much, if he loved you enough to send his son to die for you, then can you imagine what his plans are for you? Not only to forgive you, not only to indwell you, but to have plans.

Every day ordained for you is written in his book because he loves you and he wants you to live in his word every day of your life, the good days and the bad days. So we are loved and we are known. It's a favorite Psalm of mine because of the wings of the morning. You see that? "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea."

For 40 years, I've been taking the wings of the morning as Stuart and I have literally been on every continent. I hate flying. I used to have to take medicine to get on a plane when I came to America years ago to get myself on a plane. That's what I think of flying. It is a total miracle that I can now say I'm a million-mile flyer.

I am busy telling everyone, and I try to look around planes now for people that look frightened and get a seat next to them or move because I want to talk to them. So when they're showing nervousness or they say, "I hate flying, I like my feet on the ground," I tell them how heavy the earth is and how amazing it is it stays in space, and that doesn't help them much. Anyway, I really get them as frightened as I can.

Then I say, "Are you scared?" "Well, yeah, I don't like flying." And I'm always able to say, "I used to hate it. It used to be awfully difficult for me to get in an airplane." They look at me and they say, "Well, what happened?" And I say, "Jesus," basically. Jesus. And it's knowing that every day ordained for you is written in his book, and you won't go to heaven one day before you're meant to. That doesn't always comfort me either because this might be the day I meant to, but it helps.

That victory has to be won for me over and over again. It says in Psalm 119, "Wherever I lodge, your word will comfort me." True. It does. Wherever I am, for wherever. So are you on the right road? Two roads, two ways of living: the right way and the wrong way, the right road and the wrong road. There's a way that seems right but is wrong. There's a way that looks wrong but is right. Isn't it funny? Narrow way and a broad way.

Tolerance is the first commandment. How people say to you, "How can you be so narrow and live on this narrow road of righteousness?" Well, they're thinking the majority is always right. Something wrong with that. Or, "If I'm sincere, it won't matter if I'm on the wrong road." There's a broad way that seems right. What happens if we're sincerely wrong? I have to tell my tram track story.

When Stuart was traveling all those days in mission, he was away for months and months on end. I was busy taking meetings and things. I had to go to Blackpool, which was about an hour and a half away, and my driving is legend, and so is the inability to find wherever I'm going. Nothing has changed except it's got worse. You know, I told you about this newfangled thing where there's a lady called Siri and you can ask her where you are.

I was so excited. So I tested it about three weeks ago because I got lost just in my neighborhood where I've lived for years now. So I'm trying to find somewhere and I ask Siri, "Where am I?" And she tells me. So then I say, "But where should I be?" And she was silent. So she's not God, right? Anyway, somebody gives me a little map to get to Blackpool and speak at a church. They are sincere. They are absolutely sincere.

But they are sincerely wrong, that's all. But I don't know that. So they say, "Go straight towards Blackpool, towards the sea. You'll see the sea, and there's a little road. Just go as far as you can till your car is nearly in the water and turn right. You'll see it, but you'll have to get right down there." So I did, and there were no lights or anything. I thought, "I can't see a road," and then suddenly here it was. There was a hedge, but there was a way around it onto this little road.

I could see the road. So I get onto this road and I'm going and I thought, "This is a weird road." And then in my mirror, there are headlights behind me, and I look ahead and there are headlights in front of me, and they're sort of high. And I'm on the tram track. But the problem was there's now a hedge this side of me and that side of me. So the tram behind me on electric cables, you know, is coming pretty fast.

I think, "Well, I can go faster than he can." And then suddenly across the hedge come lights of a police car who have seen this. And so very naughty me, but I think, "Well, there's nothing to stop me on the tram track. There's lots to stop him." So I put my foot down and I just go, thinking I can get off the tram track at the station coming up. Sure enough, he has to stop at the traffic lights, which he does, and I roar into the station where there are people very interested waiting for the tram.

And here I come in the car. So I go through the station and there's, thank the Lord, a place to get off. So I get off and here's the policeman. So he comes over and he says, "Never, never in my life." So we have this little conversation. He says, "I'll have to fine you," and I said, "Officer, where does it say in your book that you're not allowed to go 80 miles an hour on a tram track?" But that didn't work.

In the end, he said, "Where are you going?" And I said, "To church." Actually, he said, "Follow me, where is this church?" So he took me and actually he took me to the wrong place, and it was a Masonic Hall, but I didn't know that. So I walk in and they're waiting for something and I appear. The whole thing gets worse and worse and worse. But the whole point is they were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong.

I had the map. I had the word, "This is the right way." And you know what's so sad? People aren't on the wrong track which leads to destruction for deliberate reasons. It's just that they have believed somebody who is sincere that believes something that is wrong. And that's all. And you know how we can help those people is to get to know them well enough and make friends with them and show them from the word that there is a right way and a wrong way and there is only one way they have to get on that track.

If they do, then they'll get to the right place. They'll get to the everlasting heaven, won't they? So what are we going to do with this sort of person that is not naughty but numb, that's drifted, the drifter? That's probably 90% of the people I know have just drifted away from their moorings. They are not anti-God. They still would say, "I love the Lord, I think. I do know the Lord. It's just that it isn't as all-important to me as it was."

We'll attend to that in the next lecture because it marries what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about how shall a young man cleanse his way, the next piece of Psalm 119: "By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." How do we stay on track? How do we not get distracted? How do we not drift?

How do we come to life again if we're just numb? What happens if my only problem is I don't feel anything anymore? It's as if I'm asleep. And you know what? Living in the word can attend to all those things. Over and over again it says, "I'll renew you. I'll set you on fire. My word is sweet. My word is powerful. My word is life. It's life, folks. It's life. Think you're living? This is life."

How does that happen? If you live in my word, you'll surely be my disciple. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free from fear. And if my fears have been realized or from the fear of dying, I don't have a fear of what's after it, it's just getting there, right? From my fear of that, he'll release you. So will you ponder? Will you promise him from now on I'm going to figure it out?

Then you'll write it in books and emails and letters and you'll have coffee with people. And that will be the most meaningful thing you can do to teach people how to live in the word.

Guest (Male): Now Jill sits down and talks a little more in depth about a couple of points from today's message. Jill, God created a person with a unique purpose and a plan for that individual. So how does a person find out what it is?

Jill Briscoe: Joshua had just taken over from Moses. Can you imagine how intimidating it must have been to stand in Moses' sandals? He was supposed to lead this million and a half plus people through the desert, keep them alive, stop them fighting among themselves, protect them, lead them in God-directions, which meant he had to spend much time in the tent of meeting with God himself.

How was he going to do this? He is totally overwhelmed. Otherwise, God would not have said to him, Joshua 1 verse 6: "Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the right or the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don't be terrified. Don't be discouraged. The Lord your God is with you." God would not have said that to him if he hadn't been terrified and discouraged and quaking in his sandals. How could he fill Moses' sandals? How could he possibly do this?

God encourages him and says, "Part of your encouragement will be my direction for your life, for the decisions that you make, in my word." Now remember how much of the word Joshua had—not nearly as much as you and I have. And so how does a person today find out the plan of God? It will be different from Joshua's plan. Every single plan for every single person is different because every single person is different.

But some of the principles of how we find out pertain. For example, we need to be in the word, meditating. That means that word chewing it over like a cow chews over the cud, over and over again until the nourishment invades his whole body. And we have to chew it over. We have to think through. We don't perceive truth because we don't meditate. This culture that we're in can't stop.

Silence terrifies our children. We need to learn silence and solitude and teach our children, take them with us into it and teach them how to think, to meditate, even on a verse of scripture, just to be quiet and say, "Think about it. What do you think that means? Can you think of a promise there? Can you think of a command? Can you see a warning?" And so we meditate, we chew it over, and God begins to give us direction in very practical ways through his word.

Guest (Male): Jill, when someone drifts away from God, it often happens so slowly that they don't even know they're adrift. How do we stop ourselves from drifting away from God?

Jill Briscoe: All of us need to watch the drift. The devil's clever. Obvious sin somehow is obvious and we say, "Oops, no, definitely not." But I wrote a piece not long ago called Apples are Apples. All apples are apples. Little apples grow into big apples, talking about sin, little sins. Just a little tiny apple. And we take it and we absorb it and it doesn't seem to matter.

The devil uses something that doesn't seem to matter. It's just a little apple, a little sin. That's how the drift begins. And so sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is essential. And what we need to do is be still before God and say, "Lord, did I eat any little apples, like did I tell a little lie? Was it a half truth? Show me. Make me sensitive to the little things."

Drift starts like that, and we don't think it matters, but then little gets bigger and bigger and the drift gets bigger and bigger. So time with God and heart over his word and look for the warnings and look for the commands, the do-nots. Color them in. Do not the do-nots. That's how you guard against drift.

Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're so glad you've joined us and we pray this message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promised. We want you to hear from a listener named Anna, who recently shared an encouraging testimony. She said, "I'm going through a serious and traumatic trial right now, and being able to learn about the Lord and listen, read, and watch encouraging messages through your app is comforting me tremendously. Thank you for the work you're doing to glorify God."

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Tomorrow, Jill talks about staying on the right road no matter what obstacles lie in your path. That's Friday, here on Telling the Truth.