All right, turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4 verse 29.
This is right after Peter's great sermon in Acts chapter 4 and him and John are praying
to God and this is what they pray, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto
thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word."
Verse 31, this is the result, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake
the word of God with boldness."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I just pray that you would give me boldness right now as I preach, that
you'd help me to convey the truth from your word, to edify your people, in Jesus' name
I pray.
Amen.
The title of my sermon tonight is Be Bold.
Be Bold.
And when you think of boldness, some of the words that are associated with that in your
head are probably courage, confidence, a lack of fear.
And those are all godly aspects.
Those are all aspects that we should strive for in our life.
And the opposite of this is obviously fear.
And fear today is something that is absolutely epidemic among Christians and amongst God's
people and it's something that we need to get away from.
Boldness is a super important part of the Christian life.
I want to make three quick points about boldness tonight.
Turn to Joshua chapter one.
Joshua chapter one.
So point number one, boldness is a command.
Boldness is not optional.
Joshua chapter one verse nine, "Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy
God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest."
And you know, God may have been talking directly to Joshua in this scripture, but this scripture
is just as applicable to us as it was to Joshua himself.
He didn't just want Joshua to be strong, he didn't want just Joshua to be of a good courage.
He wants all his people to be that way.
And just like God was with Joshua wherever he went, he's with us wherever we go.
So you know, you say, you hear a lot of people say, "Well, I'm just not gifted in that area.
I'm just not a real bold person."
You don't have a choice.
It's a command of God.
And if you're not gifted in that area, you need to get gifted in that area because that's
the command of God.
God wants all His people to be bold.
Why?
Part of the reason, I think, why is because it makes God look weak to the world.
Because whether we like it or not, the world, when they view your life for better or for
worse, they view it through the lens of Christianity and through the lens of the Bible.
And when they see you being weak and cowardly, or if they see you being strong and bold,
that's going to depend on, or that's going to affect how they think about your God and
your Bible.
You know, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might, if you want to."
Is that what it said at the end of that verse?
No, it said, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."
That's a command.
We don't have an option in that.
So if people know you're a Christian, they're going to view your life that way, so you should
take that into account.
If you're a shy person, you need to work on that.
Turn to Proverbs chapter 28, and you know, maybe one of the ways you need to work on
that is to pray, like John and Peter did in Acts chapter 4, and ask God for boldness.
And he gave it to them, he'll give it to you.
Proverbs chapter 28.
So we see that boldness is a command, number one.
Proverbs 28, we see that boldness is a common characteristic of godly people, okay?
Proverbs chapter 28, verse 1, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous
are as bold as a lion."
So we see here, the Bible clearly teaches that the righteous are bold.
Boldness is a characteristic of righteous, godly people, okay?
And there's plenty of examples of that in the Bible.
You think about Moses and Aaron, the boldness that they had to preach against Pharaoh, saying,
"Let my people go."
Rahab the harlot, the boldness she had to harbor the spies, the men of God, against
her own life to do what was right.
David, the boldness he had to stand up to Goliath.
Jeremiah preaching an unpopular message facing prison.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to face the fiery furnace.
Daniel prayed to God when it was illegal to do so.
John the Baptist preached against King Herod, ending up getting beheaded because of it.
Jesus Christ, the ultimate boldness facing the death of the cross.
Paul preaching under the Gentiles, like Remy said, he got beat three times, stoned once,
shipwrecked three times, the Apostles, the boldness they had to preach God's Word to
turn the world upside down, Stephen preaching that hard sermon against the Jews right before
being stoned, what do all these people have in common?
Boldness.
It's a characteristic of godly people, you know, yet you're afraid to preach the gospel
to your neighbor after all that they did in the Bible.
You know, those stories in the Bible aren't there just for us to be entertained by.
They're there as an example to us and we can do the same great things and have the same
great effect that those people have if we would just have the boldness that God wants
us to have in our life.
All these men and women have one thing in common, boldness, right?
And it's not just examples of that in the Bible, we see examples of that in leaders
in our day.
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 13, it says, "For they that have used the office of a deacon
well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith," which is
in Christ Jesus.
You know, part of what I think makes our movement so awesome is the boldness of the preachers
in our movement to get behind the pulpit and thunder forth the whole council of God without
holding anything back.
And I thank God we have a church where Brother Aaron is going to get behind this pulpit every
time he preaches.
He's going to give us the whole council of God.
I thank God for our pastor, Pastor Jimenez.
That's a man of boldness.
Look up Christian Orlando.
You know what you're going to find?
Pastor Jimenez.
He's a bold man of God.
Hey, I thank God that when I got saved, I started listening to a man of God named Pastor
Stephen Anderson that had the boldness to rip face and preach hard against sin that
changed my life and made me a better man.
I'm glad he had the boldness to say, "Hey, if you drink alcohol, you changed my life."
I'm glad he said that if you're not a soul winner, you're not following Christ because
Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
Praise God for that.
Thank God for all manner of other sermons where he ripped my face off.
Lots of sermons he ripped my face off.
What do you think?
Let's think about what most churches are like, what most pastors are like.
You see a bunch of mice with their tail in between their legs that are afraid to preach
anything.
They're afraid to stand for anything so their people fall for everything because the Bible
says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
And you know what?
They're afraid to preach the Bible and their whole congregation falls because of it.
They call themselves a pastor and a preacher, but they're afraid to preach the Bible.
Can you explain that to me?
You know, they're afraid to preach against the filthy sodomites, how they should be taken
out and stoned.
You know, they're afraid to preach against women wearing pants.
They don't want people leaving the church.
You know, they claim to be a messenger of God and of His Word, but they won't preach
against the modern Bible perversions.
They can't even get worked up enough to stand for the words of God and they call themselves
a pastor?
Unbelievable.
They won't preach against worldliness and covetousness and alcohol.
They're afraid to preach anything in the Bible and it's a sad thing today.
You know what?
These pastors are not doing anything for God.
These churches are not doing anything for God.
They're hurting the kingdom of God.
They need to sit down and shut up and let a man like Brother Aaron or a man like Pastor
Jimenez preach the Bible.
So we see boldness is a command of God.
Boldness is a common characteristic of godly men and women and boldness is critical to
achieve God's blessing in your life.
Ephesians chapter 3, go ahead and turn there.
Ephesians chapter 3, I'll start reading in verse 12, "In whom we have boldness and access
with confidence by the faith of Him, wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations
for you, which is your glory.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named."
Here's the result, "that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory."
Boldness is necessary for the blessing in your life because like I said, boldness, another
word for that would be like courage, right, confidence.
And you remember all those examples I gave you of people in the Bible?
What did they have?
They had confidence in the promises of God.
They had the confidence to step out and do what God commanded them to do because they
had boldness, okay?
And if you want the blessings in your life, you're going to have to be the same way.
I'll read for you my favorite passage in the Bible, Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, "Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
Look it takes boldness to obey God a lot of times.
It's not always an easy thing to do, but that's why you can't trust in your own understanding.
And that's probably what prohibits most people from being bold, is they say, "Well if I do
this, this will happen.
If I preach that way, I'll have no one in my church.
If I go and preach the gospel of this person, they'll hate me."
That's what's probably prohibiting a lot of people from being bold.
Why are the pastors and the churches in our movement being blessed?
You know, I think it's because they're rejecting the wisdom of this world and having the boldness
to go with what the Bible says.
You know, pastors in our movement are saying, "Hey, I don't care what your Bible college
says.
I don't care if your Bible college teaches pre-trib because the Bible teaches that it's
after the tribulation."
You know, I don't care if the whole world says that sodomites are born that way.
You know what the Bible says?
That sodomites are pedophiles and that they need to be killed.
That's what the Bible says.
You know, I don't care if all the Baptists are out there with their cute little door hangers.
I'm going to open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
You know?
I don't care if there's all the nurseries and the daycares, we're going to have a family
integrated church because Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me."
You know, forget your stupid Israel Sunday because the Bible says that Judaism is satanic.
So what's the title of the sermon?
Be bold, right?
I'll read for you 2 Samuel chapter 10 verse 12, "Be of good courage and let us play the
men for our people, for the cities of our God.
And the Lord do that which seemeth him good."
So we saw boldness is a command of God and it's a common characteristic of great men
and women of God and that it's necessary to achieve the blessings in your life.
And you know what?
I'm just going to pattern myself out of this verse.
I'm just going to be of a good courage.
I'm just going to be bold.
And you know what?
I'm going to get behind the men and the leaders that are playing the men for our people.
And the Lord do that which seemeth him good.
I'm going to let the chips fall where they may, but you know what?
I'd rather people look at me and say, "That guy's crazy," than for people to look at me
and say, "That guy's lukewarm," or like Josh always says, "You weak, you weak."
I'd rather people think I'm crazy than any of those things.
I hope you feel the same way.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and for this church, God, and for the movement
that we have.
I just pray that you'd fill each and every person here with boldness.
I pray that you'd fill the next preacher with boldness, God, and that you would help us
all to work in improving this in our life.
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.