Be Bold Always

We are continuing our “Always” sermon series. During this sermon series we are looking at various aspects of our Christian journey that we should always be focusing on or doing. This week we discover that we should “Be Bold Always.”

Our scripture comes from 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8. The words will be on the screen.

2 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Please pray with me…

Last week we had focused on how we should be willing to witness to others concerning Jesus and the love that he has for each person that walks the earth. One aspect of being willing to speak concerning Jesus is a willingness to be bold in our relationship with Jesus.

We should decide that we are not going to allow the ways of the world to get in the way of our relationship with Jesus. We should decide that we are going to have our focus be on the ways that we can serve him and be willing to follow through no matter what life throws at us.

The Christians in Thessalonica had lived that out. We discover in Acts that Paul was successful in leading people into a relationship with God through Jesus early on in his visit there. But over time the Jews in that town became jealous and joined with members in the community to attempt to force Paul to leave.

They went as far as kidnapping one of the followers and lead a large number of the people of Thessalonica to revolt against Paul and his message. This led to Paul eventually leaving that community.

Paul, through this letter, wanted to make sure that they did not use these troubles as an excuse to not follow the ways of God and to not be willing to boldly express that they believed. They were to make sure those around them knew that they were a group of people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah and that their sins had been forgiven.

We know based off of last week’s message that they had continued to boldly tell others about Jesus until it had reached the communities around them and had eventually reached elsewhere concerning their willingness to share their faith in times of turmoil. They continued to be bold in their faith despite the problems that they were facing in their community.

These Christians had a reason to remain quiet, but they didn’t let that change their witness concerning Jesus. We can allow the ways of the world to interject in our lives in a way that can lead us to be quiet in our faith. Many of us have heard others speak of having a personal faith. A faith that is their own and not shared with or spoken of to those around them.

Our main scripture should remind us that we should be bold because we have been “entrusted with the Gospel.” We are to choose to please God over the world. We are to have our focus be on what God would want.

Therefore, we are called to have a faith that is expressed into the world. We can go back to the calling that we spoke of last week. We are called to spread the word of God to all people. It does not matter if they are next door, if they are like us, or not like us, or even if they don’t like us. We are to be bold and be willing to share and show others our love for Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Boldness in faith can be expressed in the way we speak, in the actions we take, and in the way we pray. There is not one aspect of our lives that we should choose too not be bold. We should live our lives expressing our love of God to anyone around us.

We candiscover a number of different ways we can be bold in our willingness to speak into the lives of those around us. The most basic of those ways is for us to speak love and grace into their lives or to choose to not speak hate towards others. James 3:10 says that out of “same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”

There is often an expectation that we will lash out at those that attempt to hurt us. We will decide that we are not going to take it and are going to express our dislike towards them. This scripture tells us this is not what we should do.

This should point out to us that we can be bold by choosing what we don’t say as much as by what we do say. A willingness and ability to keep ourselves from saying words that would be hateful or hurtful shows a boldness in following God.

In fact, we will often find that through choosing not to continue conflict, through what scripture would call turning the other cheek, we may be able to have a greater influence on others. They may ask us why we made the choice that we made.

We arebeing bold when we choose to build people up instead of tearing them down. It is through a willingness to look at the good that someone may offer instead of the negative that can not only show our unwillingness to not continue conflict but can also change the attitude of those around us.

The actions of others are not our responsibility. We need to focus on ourselves. We need to decide that we want to offer peace instead of conflict. We want to offer love instead of hate. We want to follow the ways of God instead of the ways of the world.

We also show boldness when we are willing to tell those around us about Jesus. We can many times doubt our ability to express to others what God has done for us and what God has done for them.

This can lead us to keep quiet because our fear factor is greater than our faith factor. Being bold is trusting God. It is us being willing to ignore our doubts within us and believe that God will provide the words for us to say.

It is a simple message that we often will make more difficult than it needs to be. God as a man named Jesus came down to earth and lived among us because he loved us. Jesus died for us so that our sins can be forgiven. Jesus arose from the dead to show that even the most worldly equalizer cannot stop God from working in our lives.

This is a message that we should be bold enough to share because we have a God that loves us and loves those around us. Where we may need boldness is to also share our story as a part of this message. I call this our “Jesus Story.” It is us being willing to be vulnerable and tell others about how Jesus has had a personal impact on our lives.

We also can show our boldness through our actions. We do this by loving as Jesus loved. We are to be people of compassion. We may need to be bold in our actions because some may not like the people that we are trying to help. They may believe that they are not worthy.

Our focus is to be on what Jesus would want us to do. Scripture points out that when we help the hungry, the widow, the prisoner, the sick we are through our actions showing our love to not only the person we are helping, but also to Jesus.

We are to have our actions match our words. We can say we love but then we can act in such a way which doesn’t reflect that love to those we meet. We are to live lives that show that we have a love for Jesus.

Our first reading has Jesus calling out the Pharisees for their behavior. He tells those that worship at the synagogue to listen to what they say because these are words that they should choose to follow.

But he follows that up by saying that these people should not follow the actions of the Pharisees. We often hear the term hypocrite used in these circumstances. Those around you may say that they hear you, but your actions can tell them if they should believe you.

Let us allow our actions to be shown in such a way that those around us would want to hear what we have to say. But that means that what we say has to match the actions that we are showing those around us.

A part of our mission statement is focused on us going out into our communities and serving those around us. It is us being willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus no matter what kind of a relationship this person or group of people have with God. Our focus first and foremost should be on making sure that they know we love them because God loves them.

This leads us to an importance on being bold in our prayers. We can pray without offering a need for God to do any actions. We can pray if we are not careful in such a way in which we believe that our prayer will not be answered.

This is somewhat understandable. We have prayed and at times it seems those prayers were not answered. We have to have the faith to believe that God is listening, and we need to continue praying.

One of the best examples of a prayer that shows boldness is known as the prayer of Jabez. In 1 Chronicles 4:10 we have his prayer, saying to God “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!”

The prayer has Jabez asking for God to give him more. He says I appreciate what you have already given me but give me more. I oftensay that we need to be specific in our prayers because otherwise we might not expect the way God will fulfill our prayer.

Jabez is saying I don’t care what you want to give me, give it to me because I know that when you give it to me you will bless me. I think I often miss out on blessings because I let my doubts override my faith. I question if what I am hearing can be coming from God.

Jabez is saying, God give me your best shot and I will not disappoint you because you will not disappoint me. We should be bold enough to ask for God to do through us what he desires no matter what that may be.

· Practical ways to begin being bold in your faith.

· Share our Facebook and You Tube content on your social media platforms.

· When asked what you did this weekend, mention you went to church.

· Some have used the prayer squares we have available to give to people they meet to let them know people care about them.