Benefits Of Boldness

We're going to get into the Word tonight and get excited about it.

At least I'm excited about it.

I hope you're excited to hear about it.

I've got a message for you tonight and the title of tonight's message is the benefits of boldness Benefits of boldness.

And we're going to start in Acts, chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Acts, chapter 3, we're going to read part of this passage and then get on into Acts, chapter 4 and read some more in there.

Acts 3 · chapter mention Acts 4 · chapter mention

So get your Bibles out and get ready to follow along and we'll get started.

So Acts, chapter 3, verse 1, it says Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a certain man, lame, from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they had laid at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.

Acts 3:1

When, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms and, fixing his eyes on him, john and Peter said Look at us.

So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.

But then Peter said silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and so he was leaping up and stood and walked and entered the temple with them and walking and leaping and praising God.

And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

So this is somebody who had been lame for his life.

Everybody knew him.

They were used to seeing him there.

And here Peter and John, just going to church, offered up something that this man had never experienced before, and so all these people saw this and it created quite a ruckus.

And so then Peter and John went to preaching and laid the blame on the Jews who condemned Christ, who killed Christ, and he said it was in Christ's name that this man walks today.

And so we're going to skip on down to chapter four.

Chapter four, verse one, says Now, as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead, and they laid hands on them.

They put their hands on Peter and John and put them into custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

So they locked them up in jail.

No, no, speedy trial.

No, they didn't let him out on bond.

It wasn't a hundred dollar bond or personal reconnaissance bond.

They locked him up for the night and he said and they said, how many of those heard the word and believed?

And the number of the men was about 5,000.

And so on the next day, and it came to pass on the next day, that their rulers and elders and scribes, as well as Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and as many of his family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem, and when they had set them in the midst, so they've got a big crowd of religious leaders and political leaders right there ready to condemn Peter and John.

So in verse 7, and when they had set them in the midst and asked by what power or what name have you done this, peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to this helpless man, by what means he has been made?

Well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified.

Here he goes again, whom God raised from the dead by him.

This man stands here before you whole.

This is the stone which was rejected talking about Jesus, the stone you rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Verse 13,.

Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men these were normal people, uneducated, untrained they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus and seeing the man who had been, seeing the man who had been healed, standing with them.

They could say nothing against it.

But when they had commanded them to go outside the council, they conferred amongst themselves, saying what shall we do to these men?

For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Israel and we cannot deny it.

What are we going to do?

A great miracle has happened and we can't deny it, but so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them.

Can you imagine this conversation?

What are we going to do?

There's this great miracle, this guy, who everybody knows, has been healed, and we don't want anybody to know about it.

That's kind of strange.

But see that it spread no further.

What can we do?

I know, let's severely threaten them.

Severely threaten them from now on that they speak to no man in his name.

So they called them Peter and John and commanded them not to speak at all or to teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said to them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God you judge.

But we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

So when they had further threatened them, they need more threatenings, we'll threaten them a little bit.

And Peter and John defy that request, and so they threaten them some more.

Then they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, since they had all glorified God for what had been done.

And so again, title of tonight's message is the benefits of boldness, and so I want to point out a couple of things here.

In Acts 4.29.

A little bit later we haven't read this part, but we're going to skip ahead it says now look, this is Peter and John.

So, peter and John, they leave.

They go back to their own company, and their own company of people who believed, were praying all with the same voice.

Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is within this.

This is verse 25, who, by the mouth of your servant, david, has said why so now they're quoting David out of the Old Testament?

Why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

Yeah, we kind of see some of these similar things happening today, that there are rulers and kings and leaders and even religious leaders that deny the power of God and they stand against the Lord and they stand against his Christ.

And so, in verse 29, peter and John are praying here and it says now, lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that, with all boldness, your servants may speak, that we may speak your word by stretching at your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, jesus.

And then verse 31,.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.

And so three times right there in chapter four, they pointed out or mentioned there was a mentioning of boldness there.

And so it must be important or God wouldn't have put it in there that many times they had boldness.

And the Scripture is very clear at least three times that boldness had a lot to do with this.

You know, 2 Timothy 1, verse 1, verse 7, chapter 1, verse 7 and 8 says God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound, stable mind, and so fear is faith in the opposite direction.

2 Timothy 1:1

Faith, you know, we believe that we have faith where the will of God is known, and so faith is believing that what God said is true, and fear is the opposite of that.

Fear is faith in the wrong direction.

Fear is also anti-boldness, it's the opposite of boldness.

And so I looked up the word boldness as it was used here in the Acts, references here the three times.

It's the same word used these three times.

It's the Greek word peresia, and it means this it means outspokenness, blunt, unreserved utterance, it means free speech with frankness, candor, cheerful courage, and it's the opposite of cowardice, timidity or fear.

And so God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of boldness.

We can say the Holy Spirit gave them boldness.

When they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they did some bold things.

And so I make the pitch to you that boldness is one of the evidences of the Holy Spirit.

Here it denotes a divine enablement that comes to ordinary, untrained, unskilled, unprofessional people who are exhibiting spiritual power and authority.

It also refers to a clear presentation of the gospel, without being ambiguous or unintelligible.

They didn't mumble, they didn't stumble on their words, they came right out and they made the pitch and they said what the truth was, and they did it without shame and without fear.

So they were bold.

Boldness, or peresia, is not a human quality, but it's a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and so we need to be more bold.

It ought to be that people filled with the Holy Spirit have and exhibit this quality of boldness.

In Ephesians, chapter 6, so I'm going to go through that.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

See, there's one, two I've probably got five or six references here in other places in the Bible that I'm going to mention to you tonight where it mentions boldness, and there's a whole lot more than that.

But that same word, peresia, is used a lot through the New Testament, and so pay attention when you find it.

It's used in various places in various ways, but in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 19,.

Ephesians 6:19

It says and for me, that utterance may be given to me.

So this is a prayer that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel One.

We have the ability, our spirit has the ability to communicate with the Holy Spirit, so what the Holy Spirit knows, he can let our spirit know.

So we have the right and the ability to know what the mysteries of the gospel are.

And then, when we operate under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, we can do that with boldness and convey spiritual truth that people haven't heard, and do it with a confidence and a boldness.

And then in Ephesians, paul goes on to write that he's an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak again boldly, as I ought to speak, and so we ought to speak boldly and not timidly.

There are several references in Hebrews.

I'm going to go to Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 16.

Hebrews 4:16

It says Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

They're boldly again Greek word peresia.

Same thing we're approaching the throne of God and we're doing it boldly.

And so Peter was bold to speak the gospel truth about Jesus at a time that was not very popular.

In fact, he pointed the finger at them and said this Jesus whom you crucified.

And so he was very judgmental in his words there.

And so that's one kind of boldness here.

But here we can approach God's throne boldly with boldness.

Why is that?

Because Jesus made a way for us to come back behind the veil.

We can approach our heavenly Father.

We're adopted kids into this family, and so he's our heavenly Father.

We are his kids, we're his children.

How many of you parents out there, when you're sitting in the room to your kids Maybe your kids do Mine, don't.

Mine walk right into the kitchen.

They go right into the pantry, they go into the refrigerator.

They get whatever they need because they feel like they own the place.

They don't have any problem walking up and grabbing the TV remote control I may be watching something and they'll grab that thing and change it to another chair.

That's kind of bold, and I may be sitting there on the couch watching something and Thea and she's probably watching right now and she might be cringing too, but you know I'm watching the astros play and then there she goes on the piano.

She thinks she owns that thing and she's just playing away.

Well, I do kind of own the thing that those are my kids, that's our house, that belongs to our family, and so we ought to be able to approach God.

We ought to be able to walk into God's kingdom with that same kind of boldness.

Approach our heavenly Father without fear, without hiding behind the couch, ducking behind the plant, tiptoeing through the kitchen, taking a little bit of food and running it upstairs to your room.

No, we know that that's our heavenly Father, and so be bold about it.

Don't have any fear or shame or doubt that heaven belongs to you, and whatever heaven has is available to you and for you.

So in 1 John again, we're going to go through a few different scriptures here and I won't go long tonight.

This is just an encouragement to be bold.

1 John, chapter 5, beginning in verse 14, it says Now, this is the confidence that we have in him.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

It didn't say boldness, it said confidence.

So Peresia is one of those things.

If you're confident about something, you're bold about it.

This is the boldness that we have that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And there's a key to that that we don't just ask for moon and stars, anything and everything, whatever it is we want.

No, we ask for things that are according to God's will, and when we do, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us, that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we asked him for because we asked according to his will and we asked with boldness and confidence and faith.

And so there's your confidence.

This is the confidence we have, that if we ask according to his will, we have it.

You have the petitions you ask for.

You're not asking a miss, you're not asking out of his will, and so I know people are sometimes call us who are word of faith.

They call us the name it and claim it group.

Well, we don't just name anything that we want, we name God's word.

And if God's word says that we can have it, then we should claim what we can have.

And so we declare what we can have and we lay claim to it by faith.

And here it is in scripture.

We have confidence that if we know it's his will and it's his word, and we lay hold of it and we make those petitions, we put a demand on our covenant for these things, then we have it.

That is our confidence.

Hebrews, chapter 10, in verse 19,.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Another use of the word boldness here.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness, peresia, to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh.

Having the high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a pure heart, in full assurance.

Well, full assurance is not the word peresia, but it's a very similar word.

That means that you're confident, that you are fully assured to this.

That means I don't have any doubt in my mind that I can come into his throne room and draw near to him with faith, and so having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience.

So an evil conscience is sin consciousness, and when you're thinking about all the things where you missed it in life, then you do find yourself ducking and dodging and hiding and cringing and shying away.

And so we ought not be conscious of our sin.

We ought be conscious of what Jesus did for us and we ought be bold.

It said so.

We read the verse earlier, and then it goes on to say and let us consider one another, to stir each other up to good works, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a manner of some, but all the more as we see the day approaching.

And so we need to encourage each other to be bold, we need to encourage each other in the promises that we have and not forsake the assembling together, and we do all of this with boldness.

I wanted to point out something Dr Ed Young.

He's a pastor at Second Baptist Church here in Houston and last Sunday he preached a fine sermon and started out by giving statistics about the crime here in Houston and he laid out an excellent case of how crime has risen in Houston.

And then we've got on our commissioners court, our County Judge, lena Hildago, and two Democrat commissioners, adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis, and he laid the blame at their feet because and also our district attorney, kim Og, and our mayor, sylvester Turner he laid the blame for crime on the rise in Harris County because we've given money, we paid money and pay taxes so that we have an appropriate level of law enforcement here in Harris County and they've done nothing but ensure that we have fewer law enforcement out on the street, and they've done things to cut and defund our law enforcement which, by the way, is not legal.

And so he called them on it from his pulpit, from his platform on a Sunday morning, and he did this with all boldness and confidence and made the case that that is evil and that the church ought to be set against evil and that the church ought to vote those bums out of office.

And I wholeheartedly agree with him.

So kudos Dr Ed Young for that stand.

This is not new for him.

He has taken stands over the years on all kinds of issues and I would that more pastors would take equally bold or greater than that stands.

This is nothing new for us here at Glorious Way Church.

We regularly state these things in our church service.

It's the issues of the day and God has a side and we've got to be bold about declaring God's side on these issues.

And so you know, when Peter and John went and they broke the law by doing what they did, they healed somebody on the Sabbath day and they were in this man and then they made the case that Jesus was the Messiah and that these religious leaders crucified and killed Jesus.

Well, all that was true, but it violated every ordinance of the day.

And Peter and John were bold and they said whether it is right for us to obey you over God, you decide, but for us, we can't help but speak of the things that we have both seen and heard and know.

And so they were unashamed, unafraid and bold to speak the truth, even though they were under threat of arrest.

And they did get arrested, and, thankfully for them.

In that moment, the worst thing that happened to them was that they were one threatened and then two threatened, some more severely, and so behold, they're threatenings.

Well, ed Young has done the very same thing.

He has called out evil in government.

And what does government do?

They threaten.

And so I think it was the county chair, the Democrat party here in Harris County locally, that filed a complaint against the tax exemption of the church for taking on these issues from the pulpit, and that is truly laughable.

That is ridiculous.

This is the job of the church, this is what the church ought to be doing, and I think Sylvester Turner also had some mean, ugly, nasty and terrible things to say about Dr Ed Young and what he preached that Sunday.

So behold, they're threatenings, and so I pray that Lord you grant with all boldness that we may speak even more, and when we do, there are benefits to this.

Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 35.

Hebrews 10:35

Says therefore, do not cast away your confidence or your boldness, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance so that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Verse 37 says for yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now, the just shall live by faith.

But anyone who draws back, that is, shies away, ducks, hides, cringes, is fearful.

My soul has no pleasure in him.

God has no pleasure when people, when his people, shy away from an issue of the day.

We've got to confront that issue of the day, and this doesn't just fall squarely on the shoulders of pastors although pastors are on the front lines when they're speaking out on these issues of the day because we have the threat of the 501c3 non-profit status issued by the IRS.

So let me say the IRS doesn't make a church a church.

The IRS can't stop a church from being a church and we have, according to God's will, a mandate of free speech, and thankfully that mandate of free speech is also included in our constitution, and so no one can stop or should stop a pastor from speaking truth, no matter who it offends or no matter who likes it, and so we're gonna continue to do that very thing.

I wanna take you back a little bit in time.

So during the, the, the pandemic, in the middle of that, there was a pastor in Canada and I believe he was a Polish pastor, and he kept his church open or opened it back up during that time, and the Canadian authorities showed up on his doorstep and tried to come into his church.

And you know what his response was Please come in and investigate.

No, he didn't do that.

He didn't let him come in and do anything.

His response was, in my best Polish accent get out, get out of here, you Nazis.

Get out and don't come back without a warrant.

And he did that multiple times and eventually they did come back with a warrant and they did arrest him multiple times and they find him multiple times.

But that didn't change his message.

That didn't change his voice or his boldness.

He was.

I imagine he was just as bold in prison as he was in church.

I wouldn't have been surprised if he invited his congregation to come to prison, because that's where he would be preaching from the next Sunday, and so he was bold to do that.

Well, I think it was July of this year.

He was completely vindicated.

A Canadian court ruled against the government in that case and ordered refunds of the fines that he had paid and restitution and vindicated him, and he had a complete right to do what he did.

Even in Canada he had a right to do that.

And so how much more you know our constitution?

I'm fine for people who live in Canada, but I'm fond of America and I know that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and our constitution was founded on God's word, and we have protected in there the freedom of speech.

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof or bridging the freedom of speech.

My boldness, my all outspokenness you can't touch it, you can't do it.

And so we've got to exercise these rights.

We've got to assert what we know, what belongs to us.

You've got to assert God's word to the devil.

When the devil comes against you and tries to tell you something, take something away that you know belongs to you.

Assert your right, put your foot down and tell him in your best Polish accent get out, devil, get out.

Don't give any place to that.

We'll have more of whatever it is we allow.

When you hear something wrong, when people state something wrong, it's not love to let them go on believing the lie.

It's not love to do that you say well, I don't want to hurt their feelings, well, it really doesn't have so much to do with their feelings as it does your own feelings.

In many cases, it's not comfortable to engage people on something that is controversial, and so we, as Christians, have got to get over what's not comfortable.

It doesn't feel comfortable to engage people on this.

When a little boy says that he's really a little girl and tells his parents that, and then the parents affirm that and go ahead and give him gender blockers and the school cooperates with this and the insurance companies pay for it and the whole world around them accommodates and affirms that lie, then we've totally destroyed somebody from their innocence, we've destroyed them, and some of that stuff is irreversible in the physical body, and so that's just.

It's horrible.

The left wing, the LGBT, it's creeping its way into our government, into our society, into our schools and parents are just.

It's not comfortable for them.

Corporations are woke and corporations fall on the side of evil.

And it's not comfortable for people, when you feel all alone, to declare what's true and right.

But God said you can have boldness and there's some benefits for that.

And so I want to touch on these benefits.

And then we're going to wrap it up.

In Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 35, I just read this.

Hebrews 10:35

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, don't cast away your boldness.

If you've got, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, this ought to be evidence that the Holy Spirit is on the inside of you.

This is evidence of the Holy Spirit.

Don't cast that away.

It has a great reward, and God takes no pleasure in those who pull back and withdraw and shy away and hide from a fight.

No, if a fight comes looking for you, you better take that fight on and know that the greater one dwells and lives on the inside of you, we have the greater one.

So let's get to the benefits.

According to Acts, chapter 4, 5,000 men believed became believers that day when Peter and John went into the temple to pray and they healed that lame man, and then they started speaking boldness and truth, and even the religious leaders and the political leaders of the day recognized that these were unlearned men and they spoke with boldness and they recognized that these men had been with Jesus and they couldn't deny the miracle.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And so the end result was that 5,000 men believed.

Now it only documents the men.

That's typical throughout the Bible.

They document the men.

But those men, many of them had wives and children, and so you can add to that if there's 5,000 men, there's likely upwards of 20,000 people men, women and children who heard the boldness and believed.

And so your boldness will yield fruit for God's kingdom.

Don't ever shy away, don't pull back.

There's no pleasure in that with God, but he rewards your boldness.

Number two in Acts, chapter 4, verse 32,.

Acts 4:32

I think we read over this, but we're going to go back out there and read this, and let's see verse 32.

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.

Neither did anyone say any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

And then verse 33, and with great power, the apostles gave witness.

So they started out with boldness which led to great power.

You can bet that there were miracle signs and wonders that followed, because there was great power.

So, starting with boldness, operate with the boldness the Holy Ghost gave you, be bold to speak, and the next thing on the list is great power.

He'll back you up with great power.

Number three we're going to keep reading, and with great power.

The apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was on them all.

So it starts with boldness and you get great power, not a little bit.

You get great power and you get great grace.

That means God's ability to do stuff.

That means you can endure all kinds of scenarios and you have God's ability to get through it.

You have God's supply to get through it, which is point number four.

There was no lack in verse 34, nor was there anyone among them who lacked.

For all who were in possession of lands, houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

So the heavenly supply was multiplied through real estate.

I believe real estate funded the early church.

I believe real estate is funded in the latter church too.

Real estate can be a real blessing, and so that's a side note, but make note of that.

One Real estate can be a great blessing in your life, but God will multiply your resources so that there was no lack among any of them.

So 5,000 men, plus women and children, believed.

They had great power, they had great grace and they had no lack among them.

Finally, I'll close with this in Hebrews, chapter 13, 6.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

God said that he would never leave us nor forsake us.

You know, sometimes your boldness will put you out there in places where you feel like there's nobody backing you up.

I'll give a quick personal testimony here and then we'll wrap up with that verse.

But I'm thinking about no lack here and some of you out there.

You've got a job and you're earning a living and there's inflation.

Well, the workman is worthy of the hire.

Twice in my life I have demanded a raise with boldness, and guess what?

I got the raise.

So once, when I was working on that tall ship.

I tell some of my sailing stories from time to time, but I had worked and lived on this ship for about a year and I was making $100 a week.

That was big money right there, and at the end of a year I decided I needed more than that.

I was worth more than that.

So I helped myself into the captain's cabin.

I came boldly into the captain's cabin and I demanded a raise.

He said well, what do you want?

I said I want $150 a week.

And he said, okay, and I left a little disappointed that I didn't ask for $200 a week, and so that was me not being a big thinker.

The other time was when I worked in construction.

This was on the.

My last project was the Bayport cruise ship terminal and I remember the company that I worked for.

They had a bonus system that if the individuals met their goals the individual goals and the company as a whole was meeting its goals then we would be eligible individually for our bonuses and there were different bonus brackets for different levels of employment.

And about midway through the year my project was doing so well and we were so far ahead in so many ways and the company decided they were going to move that carrot.

They were going to move our goals further out there because we were achieving them too quickly, and so the company took what was achievable here and pushed it out and made it look like it was not.

Maybe not achievable, maybe they wouldn't have to pay out those bonuses.

So I had an immediate boss.

He was a vice president.

He came to visit me out on the job site, sitting in my office, a field office trailer, and I had a short piece of rebar on my desk about that long and he's sitting there across the desk from me and we're having a discussion about this bonus system and I started to get mad and I grabbed that rebar and I slammed it down on the desk and I said just pay me what I'm worth.

I don't want your stinking bonus, you can keep it.

Just pay me a fair wage, what I'm worth.

And he looked at me funny while I died and his dentures were halfway fallen out and so he's pushing them back up in his mouth.

And I didn't hear anything more from him.

And it was a couple of days later that he died in the parking lot at the main office of a brain aneurysm.

And I got word and came into the office that morning and one of the senior level vice presidents of the company said this is the last thing he did for you.

And he pushed a paper across the desk and it was my raise that I demanded when I walked in.

I had boldness to demand for it.

I had a case.

I had a good case.

It was right.

I wasn't asking for anything outside of what was right, honest and fair.

But I made that case, and I made it with boldness, and that was the last thing he delivered was my raise, and I still had a bonus, even though he passed away.

He left that for me, and so it wasn't a short time after that that we wrapped up that project, finished it up, and I came to work for the church here and I walked away from that bonus.

I left it behind.

They didn't owe it to me.

There was nothing in my contract that said that they had to pay me that bonus.

And so here I was, working for Glorious Way Church.

I had been gone from that company for a little over a month and I got a letter in the mail from them, and in that letter was my bonus check.

It was a 30% bonus check and I was already making six figures, so you can do the math on that one.

It was a big check and they didn't owe me anything.

But boldness means you don't leave anything on the table, you don't walk away from it.

What belongs to you, what God says belongs to you, you can have, and you don't have to worry about what people think of you.

Again, getting back to Hebrews 13, god will never leave you nor forsake you.

It doesn't matter what you're doing on your job, it doesn't matter if you work in a school or a bank or an insurance company or where you work.

If God says it belongs to you, you ought to ask Him for wisdom and boldness and the words to say and the right time to say it, and you'll have boldness to speak and your boldness will bowl people over and you don't have to worry about it.

God will never, never, never leave you nor forsake you, and he said that so that we can boldly say I will not fear.

I will not fear what government does.

I will boldly proclaim the truth.

As a pastor in a church, I couldn't care anything less about the IRS and their 501c3.

It will not limit us.

It will not limit this church.

We have a mandate from God that we ought to speak boldly and we ought not hold back and we will not fear.

What can man do to us?

So take that, live that in your life where you are, have boldness, speak the truth, do it in love when you're talking to others.

It's not love to neglect the truth.

It's love to help them with the truth.

But don't shy away from it.

Don't back down from a fight.

God's not backing down and he's with you, so hold on to that.

What can man do?

To me, the answer is absolutely nothing.

God will vindicate you every time.

So boldness has benefits.

I hope that was a blessing to you tonight.