Telling the Truth

Announcer (Male): As your shepherd, Jesus promises to never leave you. We're so glad you're with us today on Telling the Truth as Jill Briscoe helps you find joy and contentment in Christ during the good times and bad. But first, in their two-message series, Worry Less, Stuart and Jill Briscoe help you break free from worry and experience the joy and peace God wants for you.

We'll send you a copy of this resource plus Jill's booklet, "Me, Worry?", as thanks for your gift today to help others experience life in Christ. So call today to request your copy of Worry Less and "Me, Worry?" at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's Jill with today's message, "Rest Stops."

Jill Briscoe: I have met Christians in Rwanda, in Bosnia, and in Tajikistan, who are sitting on the sidewalk in Tajikistan today with all they've got because they don't have money. They haven't been paid for two years, so they have to barter for food every day. You walk around your house and find something to barter, and you sit by the road and you barter it. These are people like you and me who used to have jobs like you and me. I have met Christians who are doing that because they're not exempt, and they're content.

So I know it's possible. How can God make you content without things? Well, a shepherd can do that. "You shall not want" is His promise. So often our society says, "Well, you cannot be content without a man around. You cannot be content unless you have children. You cannot be content unless you have a job and an income."

But I have discovered there is no man that can love me enough, there is no child that can need me enough, there is no job that can pay me enough, and no experience that can satisfy me enough. Only Jesus. Look at me, read my lips. It's true. That is true. Let me give you that again: no man can love me enough, no child can need me enough, no job can pay me enough, and no experience that can satisfy me. Only Jesus. Only Jesus.

It's true. What a message that is for our world, for all these dissatisfied little sheep, munching, munching, munching, full of empty. And what we can do is say, "I know green pastures. Come with me. Meet my Shepherd." He knows how to feed you and nourish your needs. He knows how to replenish you. He knows how to refresh you by the still waters.

Somebody said to me the other day, "Who ministers to you, Jill? Who refreshes you? Where do you find your refreshment?" Well, interestingly enough, that question sent me to some concordance and that word "refresh." And I grazed in some of those wonderful verses. I recommend that to you. Get a concordance, which is a list of all the words in the Bible, find the word "refresh" or whatever word you want. It'll give you every verse in the Scriptures and then just look them all up and graze, chew it over, bed down.

As I looked at it, and I don't have time to tell you all the talks that fell out of that that I have to develop, but I found that times of refreshing were promised from the Lord to the people in Pentecost. At Pentecost, times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. Joel talked about it. It happened when the Holy Spirit was given. So the Holy Spirit is the conduit from which my refreshing comes—from the Lord, through the Spirit, to the people.

One way I get refreshed is directly, drinking at those cool streams, directly. Another way is through people. Romans 1:11, Romans 15:32, Proverbs 11:25, which was my special piece of nourishment that day: "Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed." Those that refresh others will themselves be refreshed. I want to tell you something: where do I get my refreshment from you? People are my energy. People that I minister to, minister back to me.

If you will pour your life out into other people's lives, you'll find that to be true. So from the Lord to the people, from the people to the people, flock fellowship. That's what we're doing. We're rubbing our little wool up to the next little sheep sitting next to us. We're baa-ing our little choruses, sheep choruses. So fun! From the fellowship, that's where you get your refreshment—the flock, believe it or not.

He knows how to feed us, He knows how to lead us, to reroute us in right paths, in right paths. You know the Eastern shepherd, not the Western shepherd, the Eastern shepherd does not drive his sheep. He leads them. It's a choice. You can follow or you don't have to, but he doesn't drive the sheep. My husband says he tries to remember that as a pastor. It's tempting to drive the sheep from behind instead of leading them from in front, making sure they know it's their choice to follow.

Every so often, you see these little things in the East, in the Middle East, where the sheep have gone and the paths go this way and the paths go that way. And then there's a sort of big, spare space because the shepherd keeps gathering the sheep, keeps gathering them together and then says, "Now, keep together and we're going this way." And he reroutes you. So those gathering times like this are very, very important indeed.

He teaches you to walk in right paths for His name's sake. What does that mean? I remember standing in Jerusalem. What a privilege to have gone so many times to the Holy Land. And I watched one way as a shepherd brought his sheep in at the end of the day from the fields around Jerusalem. They were a great bunch. They were all happy and they were all in a little line with their little noses under the tail of the next one. They were following the shepherd and they looked fat and satisfied. I thought, "Oh, what a neat shepherd he must be."

Then I looked the other way and there was the weirdest looking bunch of sheep coming along. They were scraggy. One of them had an ear bitten off. And the shepherd didn't look any great shakes either. And I thought, "Well, if I was a sheep, I'd like to belong to this flock, not that flock." You judge the shepherd by the sheep, and remember that. And so He wants to lead you in holy living, in right living, in white wool living if you wish, in order that His name be glorified. For His sake, for His sake. That's the important thing.

He leads me into right living for His name's sake. And all of that adds up to restoration of your soul. He replenishes you. He reroutes you. He restores you. My mom used to enjoy doing things to antiques. She'd buy a lump of wood as far as I could see. She'd work on it and work on it until the original image that it had lost was brought out. And that's what the word means: to restore the original image that we as human sheep have lost because we went every way. We went every one of us to our own way. And the Lord laid on Him, the Lamb of God, the sins of us all. And so now we need to be rerouted, shown how to follow the Shepherd again.

So maybe you're in the sunny slopes and I hope you'll take advantage of learning how to bed down and how to nourish yourself, how to go to the still waters and find your refreshment from the presence of the Lord and from the flock here. Second place some of you are living in: the Shadowlands. The Shadowlands. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." Let's take that little bit.

The Shadowlands. Some of you have come here and a cloud has come over the sun, many of you. And funnily enough, this is to be a rest stop, a rest stop. Did you notice it says, "Yea, though I walk"? Now, my temptation as I have moved into Shadowlands in my life is to put on my little Nike running shoes, my spiritual running shoes, and say, "Okay, I know I've got to go through this valley," and zoop! "Yea, though I walk."

Why would it be the sense of following the Shepherd as the shadows begin to fall on your life, whatever those shadows may be? Well, amazingly, the greenest grass grows in the valleys. That I have discovered. The greenest grass grows in the valleys. And if you take off through whatever shadow God has allowed to fall on you, you are going to miss the most incredible rest stops of your life.

Don't miss it. Don't miss the process. You know, God has a process. And part of the process is Shadowlands. Don't miss the process because the process is just as important as coming out the end into the light. Shadowlands. A cloud has passed over the sun and you're in a dark place. It might be a place of doubt, it might be a place of dread. You'll be asking, possibly, three questions: Is God there? Does God care? Is God fair? That's what you ask when the cloud passes over the sun. There's a debate going on in your soul. You've become to distrust because you cannot see Him very clearly in the shadows. That's a problem.

But if you're in the Shadowlands, it is a place to learn that He is there whether you can see Him or not. Samuel Zwemer, writer of the last century, said, "God may hide His face, God may hide Himself, but He never absents Himself. Sometimes in the dark but never at a distance." Sometimes in the dark but never at a distance. It's just there are shadows and you can't see Him as well. And this is the time at this rest stop to learn He is there whether you can see Him or not. And you know, like a blind man, we have to learn to see through the shadows.

What do we have to learn to see? That He is with us and His rod and staff comfort us. He indeed is there though all evidence points to the contrary. And if that's where you are, that's what you must learn in the Shadowlands. He is there and He is there for you. You know, when Mary was going through a real choice about whether to become the young woman who would bear Christ, the Scripture says the angel said to her, "The power of the Almighty will come upon you. He will overshadow you." That's the word, same word. He will overshadow you.

And somehow in the Shadowlands, you need to stay there until you discern the shadow of the Almighty, which overshadows all the other shadows for you. When you're overwhelmed, remember you're overshadowed. When you're overwhelmed, remember you're overshadowed.

Announcer (Male): You're hearing from Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. She's coming right back with more on how you can find true contentment and joy in Christ. But first, anxiety, fear, and worry can keep you in a painful state of uneasiness and limit you from truly experiencing the incredible joy and peace God wants you to have. We want to help you break free from worry and embrace God's abiding peace with Stuart and Jill Briscoe's encouraging two-message series, Worry Less.

This powerful series shines a critical light on the root cause of worry and gives you practical guidance on how to rule your anxieties instead of having them rule you. It's fresh encouragement straight from God's word to help you overcome the stresses of life, whatever they may be, so you can start living with more joy. We'll send you the Worry Less series as well as Jill's booklet, "Me, Worry?", as our thanks for your gift today to help you share the healing truth of God's love with people around the world through the resource and teaching of Telling the Truth.

So call today to request your copy of these resources when you give: 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Use your phone to make a spiritual connection with the free Telling the Truth mobile app. Listen to daily programs, read and comment on devotions and relevant study plans, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall. Get the Telling the Truth app through your App Store today. And remember, you can give to support Telling the Truth right on our mobile app. Okay, now let's get back to Jill with more of today's message.

Jill Briscoe: I don't know where she is, but there is a dear lady in this room who met me yesterday and said, "Last year at Breakaway, I came in the middle of cancer treatment. And I went away content to walk through the valley of the shadow of death." That little sheep is gamboling, as in G-A-M-B-O-L, around this Breakaway this year. Praise God! No, it isn't over, but she's content.

Wherever you are, you had no idea what you gave me when you told me that, confirming what I needed to tell other people. It's an incredible thing. For a year, that lady has learned to bed down in green pastures, and she's discovering the greenest grass grows in the valley. And it's a rest stop. Don't miss it. Don't miss the process. You know, God has a process, and part of the process is Shadowlands. Don't miss the process because the process is just as important as coming out the end into the light.

Shadowlands. A cloud has passed over the sun and you're in a dark place. It might be a place of doubt, it might be a place of dread. You'll be asking, possibly, three questions: Is God there? Does God care? Is God fair? That's what you ask when the cloud passes over the sun. There's a debate going on in your soul. You've become to distrust because you cannot see Him very clearly in the shadows. That's a problem.

But if you're in the Shadowlands, it is a place to learn that He is there whether you can see Him or not. Samuel Zwemer said, "God may hide His face, God may hide Himself, but He never absents Himself. Sometimes in the dark but never at a distance." Sometimes in the dark but never at a distance. It's just there are shadows and you can't see Him as well. And this is the time at this rest stop to learn He is there whether you can see Him or not. And you know, like a blind man, we have to learn to see through the shadows.

What do we have to learn to see? That He is with us and His rod and staff comfort us. He indeed is there though all evidence points to the contrary. And if that's where you are, that's what you must learn in the Shadowlands. He is there and He is there for you.

You know, when Mary was going through a real choice about whether to become the young woman who would bear Christ, the Scripture says the angel said to her, "The power of the Almighty will come upon you. He will overshadow you." That's the word, same word. He will overshadow you. And somehow in the Shadowlands, you need to stay there until you discern the shadow of the Almighty, which overshadows all the other shadows for you. When you're overwhelmed, remember you're overshadowed. When you're overwhelmed, remember you're overshadowed.

So maybe you're on the sunny slopes, maybe you are in the Shadowlands. And lastly, maybe you are on the heights, on the high hills, on the mountaintop. And what happens there? Well, He lays a table before you in the presence of your enemies. He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows. Let me just touch on one or two of these things quickly.

You will learn there at this rest stop on the heights—and this is where God wants all of us to be. He wants us to live on the heights whether we're on the sunny slopes or in the Shadowlands. He wants us to know what it is to be content, to be at rest, to be nourishing ourselves in the very presence of our enemies. What does that mean? Well, perhaps an illustration here: I used to be petrified of flying. I never even like it today, to tell you the truth. I like my feet on the ground.

And that was an enemy for me. Fear! Fear just can rob you of all the things I've talked about—the fear of flying. And in the very presence of that fear, God gave me victory, if you wish, for an old-fashioned word. And He spread a table for me in the very presence of that fear, and He helped me relax. You know, I can never eat when I'm nervous. My stomach just goes in a knot, even today—more today than it used to, actually.

And I think of specifically being in situations where I was in danger, and my stomach would just go in a knot, in physical danger. And I have learned that He spreads a table for me in the presence of my enemies. I think specifically of Colombia years ago, when we were in a missionary base surrounded by guerrillas. And we had a conference in the presence of our enemies. And my job and Stuart's job was to spread a table for everybody else of those missionary communities and the kids that were there in that missionary school.

And there wasn't a day I didn't walk into that meeting hall through unfenced jungle, knowing that somewhere out there as I walked along the path, we were literally circled—we had to go in by airplane for that reason—by guerrillas. Guerrillas who were intent on harming and kidnapping and unspeakable things for that missionary community and for ourselves. And I can testify to you: He spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies. Doesn't mean I didn't do it unscared, but I was able to do it scared. I was not obsessed by fear. I was able not only to nourish myself but to have something to spread for other people.

He spreads a table for us in the presence of our enemies. He anoints our head with oil. What does that mean? Well, the shepherd would always rub the little bruises of the sheep's head at night as they came into the fold. He'd use oil. They'd gotten into a hole or they'd gotten themselves into trouble, and he'd rub that little bruise with oil. There's healing for your hurts, healing for your hurts in this place.

And there's comfort in his rod. There is comfort in his rod. Eastern shepherds would sometimes have to break the leg of a little lamb that wouldn't stay close to him. Then until it healed, he'd bind that animal around his heart, lay it against his shoulder, and that's where he'd stay. When he put it down, guess what? It never ran away again, for it had felt the heartbeat of the shepherd.

And the high places of Christian living may be on the sunny slopes or in the Shadowlands, but one of the high places of Christian living is to be content. To be content. Read Ephesians. We're supposed to live in the heavenly places with Christ and all that that means. And when all of this happens, then one day we will go to the heavenly fold. One day we will go to the heavenly fold together.

Announcer (Male): Thanks, Jill. Before we go, just a reminder that when you give to support Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one, we'll send you the Briscoes' two-message series, Worry Less, and Jill's booklet, "Me, Worry?". These encouraging resources will help you start to worry less and live with more joy. So please request your resources when you call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill to wrap up today's teaching with some final encouraging thoughts for you.

Jill Briscoe: One story and I'm through. Coming back from Europe between Christmas and New Year, eight hours in a plane. Pilot says, "Well, you know, we've got a problem in America because they're just being buried under a snowstorm at our airport we're supposed to be landing, but we're going to go, we're taking off because we think we can beat it." Well, we just chipped the end of it, although we didn't beat it. There was two and a half feet on the ground when we landed. We took the last gate at Detroit Airport.

And that began three days for Stuart and me at the end of that ministry week on Detroit Airport—not literally on the airport. We were fortunate to get one of the last two rooms in the little motel that we had to walk to, of course, because there was nothing—no cars, no taxis, no porters, no snow removal, nothing. We were very much fortunate than other planes that sat there for another eight hours before they could get the people off into the airport where they sat for three days, two thousand of them.

However, it was quite an experience. As we lined up on the fourth day to come home or try to come home, in a two-hour queue to get to the gate, to get to the desk to get our tickets rerouted, I looked up at the walls and I said to Stuart, "Look at there." Who, incidentally, got flu as we flew in, so he was very sick for those three days and no water and no medicine and nothing I could do for him. Anyway, here were these three posters, banners hanging on Detroit Airport: "There's no place like home." And then underneath: "Let us take you there."

And I said to my husband, "Wouldn't you have thought that four or five people that have managed to get through the snow to this airport, they would have got up on the wall and taken those down?" It was the most—the guy behind me was just beside himself looking at this poster. "There's no place like home—tell me about it! Let us take you there—that would be nice!" I'm afraid that airline was being bad-mouthed all over that airport.

But I thought about it as I had three and a half hours to stand and look at it. There is no place like home, like the heavenly fold, and there's someone that can take you there. That's the Shepherd. That's the Shepherd. Nobody else. Nobody else. And He can take you to those high hills and those heights one day that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that He has prepared for us little sheep when we will graze in the heavenly pastures forever. And I want you to be very sure you're going there. Who are you trusting to get you home? Make sure that you're trusting the Shepherd. Is the Lord your Shepherd?

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word. Thank You for the green pastures. Thank You that we, most of us here, are little sheep who have gone astray, our own way, Lord. Forgive us. Pick us up. Bring us home on Your shoulders rejoicing. And may there be joy in heaven even today over sheep that come back to the Shepherd. We ask it for Christ's sake, Amen.

Announcer (Male): Thanks, Jill. Before we go, just a reminder that when you give to support Telling the Truth broadcast like this one, we'll send you the Briscoes' two-message series Worry Less and Jill's booklet "Me, Worry?". These encouraging resources will help you start to worry less and live with more joy. So please request your resources when you call 1-800-889-5388, 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks so much for joining us today. Come back next time for more biblical truth from Stuart and Jill Briscoe. Experience life here on Telling the Truth.