Sermon Tone Analysis

We are starting a series today I have called Be Bold.

It is based on God’s promise to Joshua in Chapter 1:9.

It’s the basis for a book titled, Sun Stand Still.

It’s the foundation to what I wanted to share with you as we begin this journey together.

Now you may or may not remember Joshua, he was the one who took over after Moses.

You remember Moses led the people around in the desert for 40 years until a generation passed away and then Joshua was to lead the people into the promised land.

After God command him to go, he gave him these words of assurance.

I’m reading from the Message translation:

Joshua 1:5-9

Joshua lived with amazing boldness.

Oh that this will be our story.

Ask someone to pray

I believe boldness comes completely natural to us, unfortunately we often misunderstand it.

What I am talking about by Boldness.

Bold (παρρησία): Outspoken, frankness, plainness; openness to the public; courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness.

παρρησία: Outspoken, frankness, plainness; openness to the public; courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness.

You can sum all those up in the phrase:

Outspoken, frankness, plainness; openness to the public; courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness.

Being willing to do what others won’t.

Many times in my life, I did what others weren’t willing to do.

I remember one time, when my brother and his friends were over, I wanted to impress them, so we went to the drug store and I volunteered to distract the clerk so they could steal candy.

I remember one time, when my brother and his friends were over, I wanted to impress them, so we went to the drug store and I volunteered to distract the clerk so they could steal candy.

I remember being bold enough to be the distraction in order to help my brother and his friends when I was little, but old enough to know better, to steal candy from a store.

Some people would think of that as boldness.

Actually it wasn't bold at all.

My friends thought that was bold.

Actually it wasn't bold at all.

I did it out of fear.

I feared being rejected, you see, I knew I wasn't good enough.

I wasn’t rich enough, athletic enough, or cool enough so I would do anything I could to fit in.

I wanted to be accepted, and I believed I wouldn’t unless I did what others wanted.

Acting on these false beliefs is not God’s design for boldness.

Think about it.

Think about if your pastor did things motivated by a desire to impress his or her congregation.

They would preach on things that were always nice to hear, they would never ask us to get uncomfortable for the sake of others, they might just work themselves to exhaustion wanting to make you happy.

That may be your story too.

More than likely, you too made many decisions just like me because of the influence of others, only to realize later that God’s opinion was more important.

Some of you may be living that way today, still trying to be accepted, still trying to live into a false belief you have about yourself that you aren’t good enough, you aren’t rich enough, powerful enough, good enough of a mom, husband, wife, dad.

Good enough of a Christian.

I was bold enough to do silly things in order to get attention.

I was bold enough to take risks that others wouldn’t take.

For me it was born our of a belief that I wouldn’t be accepted unless I did what others wanted.

That may be your story too.

More than likely, you too made many decisions just like me because of the influence of others, only to realize later that God’s opinion was more important.

Some of you may be living that way today, still trying to be accepted, still trying to live into a false belief you have about yourself that you aren’t good enough, you aren’t rich enough, powerful enough, good enough of a mom, husband, wife, dad.

Good enough of a Christian.

This is not God’s design for boldness.

Think about it.

Think about if your pastor did things motivated by a desire to impress his or her congregation.

Think about it.

Think about if your pastor did things motivated by a desire to impress his or her congregation.

Go talk to them…For me it was born our of a belief that I wouldn’t be accepted any other way.

They would preach on things that were always nice to hear, they would never ask us to get uncomfortable for the sake of others, they might just work themselves to exhaustion wanting to make you happy.

But God’s design for us to be truly bold is different.

It is true that....

Being willing to do what others won’t.

Bold

παρρησία: a state of boldness and confidence, sometimes implying intimidating circumstances—‘boldness, courage.

Outspoken, frankness, plainness; openness to the public; courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness.

outspokenness, frankness, plainness

openness to the public,

a state of boldness and confidence, courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness,

Over these last 4 weeks I have worked to introduce myself and tell why I think your church is special.

I Love THIS Church, I’m sure you do too.

But our love is to extend beyond THIS church to God’s church, including every other church around because they are part of our WHO: The family of God.

And as God’s children, those redeemed and saved, we have two very important things in common, we shares our WHY: JESUS and we share our HOW: The Holy Spirit.

You might say those two are the same thing, God; and you would be correct.

Everything we are and everything we will become is for God’s glory.

That’s where I want to begin this next series.

Talking about our WHAT.

What we do as a church, as children of God.

Bold behaviors are born out of belief

This is simply a fact; hear me now:

We will do what others won’t, when we believe what others don’t.

We do what others wont, when we believe what others don’t.

I saw this movie the other day Hacksaw Ridge. the main character in the movie Private Doss was an unarmed medic in Okinawa.

In one battle he saved i think it was 75 people single handedly.

It was an amazing story of how he stayed in the fight and did what no one else would have done, because he believed he was called to it like no one else.

It was an amazing story of amazing boldness.

You name it, I would do it for a laugh, for attention, or to belong.

But now things are different.

Now I understand who God is, my boldness comes out of the relationship I have with Jesus.

It flows from the promises I hold from God.

Over the next 4 weeks we are going to look at different areas of life for Christians that are affected by our beliefs.

How we might be bold in our dealings with people and with God.

We are going to talk about boldness in prayer, witnessing, obedience.

We are going to spend this time looking at the early church, specifically Peter and John in .

Let me explain what has been happening.

Jesus was crucified, and resurrected.

He told the Disciples to wait until Holy Spirit came to help them be His messengers.

That’s just what they did.

But once Holy Spirit came, everything changed.

They went out to preach and heal.

On one of their travels, Peter and John came upon a beggar who couldn’t walk and they healed him.

The Sadducees saw this and heard them preaching about the resurrection of Jesus and got angry because the Sadducees were sad you see they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

But while Peter and John taught some 5000 were added to the church.

The next day, the Sadducees put them on trial, and that’s where we pick up today, Peter answering the charge, by what power or in what name did you do all this?

Would you read it with me?

Acts 4:

Acts 4:8-2