Boldness without being a jerk!

One thing many people in our world do not have an issue with is boldness

However many believers do,

so what is boldness

Define: Boldness=fearless before danger

Joshua 1:9 NASB95

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

One of the greatest weapons the enemy exploits is the lack of boldness in many believers.

Maybe you don’t have this issue

But maybe you do and don’t even know it.

When I was in Junior high I was on TV in a game show called Hi Q.

It was hosted by Mike Sobel now of Global News.

It was a quiz type show where you would try to answer the question of the quizer. and you competed as a team and would ring in to answer he question

My problem was not that I did not know the answers, but I was fearful of what would happen if I was wrong.

There was a cascading question, where they gave clues, and with every clue given the points would be reduced.

The first clue was. “ I can hold my breath underwater for over 5 minutes

I immediately knew the answer was hippopodmus. but fear would not allow me to buzz in.

one of my teammates buzzed in and said platapus, he was wrong

They gave another clue, again it pointed toward a hippo

and another clue…again hippo

no one buzzed in

finally after reallizing i was not wrong I buzzed in and said hippo.

I was right, but got the lowest possible points on the question.

this continued throughout the game show

Fear of being wrong, preventing me from winning something that was easily in my grasp

So I did not even try to answer many of the question I knew the answers to.

Needless to say we lost!

Have you ever not received what you should have because of fear?

Has fear ever prevented you from walking in the fullness of what God destined for you?

The Cure for Fear is Faith

And Faith without boldness is useless

I am a product of the 80’s I remember the No Fear campaign

Problem with “no Fear”, is that with out faith “no fear” just makes you a jerk.

Now Jerk is old term so let’s define it

Jerk=An idiot or stupid person. An insensitive, selfish, ignorant, person who is inconsiderate and does stupid things.

basically a jerk is someone who only thinks about themselves.

How many of you heard the story of the writer who cried last month because her editor questions the way she spelled hamster?

A young writer in her 20’s was going over edits with her boss.

They had been speaking in low tones, but their volume got louder toward the end of the conversation because the young woman was getting agitated about a particular edit.

That particular edit was correcting the spelling of “hampster” to “hamster”. Apparently she had used the phrase “like spinning in a hamster wheel” in this draft (presumably) speech or or op-ed.

The young woman kept saying, “I don’t know why you corrected that because I spell it with the P in it.” The boss said (calmly), “But that’s not how the word is spelled. There is no P in hamster.

The boss (remaining very calm and professional), let’s go to http://dictionary.com and look it up together.

The young woman, according to Blymire, "insists she doesn’t need to look it up because it’s FINE to spell it with a P because that’s HOW SHE WANTED TO SPELL IT."

The boss says, “Let’s look over the rest of the piece so I can explain the rest of my edits.” They do, and I can see the young woman is fighting back tears. The boss is calm, cool, and handles this with professionalism and empathy.

Boss says, “I know edits can be difficult to go over sometimes, especially when you’re working on new kinds of things as you grow in your career, but it’s a necessary process and makes us all better at what we do.”

Boss gets up from table and goes to her office and the young woman can barely hold it together. She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting. A minute later, her phone rings.

Our young hero (in her own mind only), had apparently texted her mother for support in this Hampster Crisis, and her dutiful mother called her right up

The young woman put her mom on speakerphone, "IN THE WORKPLACE,"

She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like “hamster”.

The mother tells her that her boss is an idiot and she doesn’t have to listen to her and she should go to the boss’ boss to file a complaint about not allowing creativity in her writing.

The young woman kept saying, “I thought what I wrote was perfect and she just made all these changes and then had the nerve to tell me I was spelling words wrong when I know they are right because that is how I have always spelled them.”

Boldness can be dangerously stupid when misused

But let me say this “The people of God need boldness to share God’s Love with this world”

One of my favorite examples of boldness in the Bible , and there are many, Is the Story of Daniel in the Lions Den!

We told of this occurence in

Daniel 6:6–9 NASB95

Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: “King Darius, live forever! “All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den. “Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction.

You see the other leaders were jealous of Daniels wisdom and cooked up a scheme to get rid of him

They saw He was a honourable man and tried to use that against him

Daniel 6:10 NASB95

Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.

Daniel did not resort to doing it in secret.

I can pray and no-one around me knows I’m praying

but Daniel did it on His rooftop, windows open, everyone could see what he was doing

He was ignoring the laws of man when they were in direct conflict with the will of God

That’s Boldness,

Should he feared for his life? He had good reason too. People were trying to kill him!

But obedience to God was more important to him than his life

If you want to refresh yourself or learn what was his outcome you can read the rest in the book of Daniel

We live in a country that we don’t really have to worry of fear of death if we obey God

Many people in the the world cannot say that.

Maybe your social media post will get deleted or delisted

But for the most part persecution does not exist in Canada. compared to many parts of the world

You see the enemy has learned from his past experiences

throughout the centuries Every time God’s people have come under greater persecution the gospel message has spread in even greater ways.

The book of Acts Peter is brought before the Sanhedrin after the were miraclousy let of of prison, and returned to preach in the temple courtyard.

They were ordered to stop preaching Jesus and Peter repsonded

Acts 5:29 NASB95

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Acts 5:29

Gamaliel: if man it will end If God you will be fighting against him

Acts 5:40–41 NASB95

They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Acts 5:40

More Christians are being persecuted today in the world than ever before in History

Report: Global persecution of Christians on the rise - ENN 2019-01-16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ll9zymV-_E 2:29

I believe it is time for Christians who do not face persecution to use their freedom to share the gospel with Boldness while we have it!

Let’s not allow fear to stop us from obeying God.

Instead even before we face persecution let’s pray to God and ask for boldness

Acts 4:23–31 NASB95

When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, And the peoples devise futile things? ‘The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the Lord and against His Christ.’ “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:27–31 NASB95

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:27-31

Fillled with Holy Spirit and Speak the word of God with Boldness

Application