Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, we are in a series at the moment looking at the book of Acts. We call it highly flammable because we believe the sort of church that Jesus is looking for is a church that's full of his presence, full of his fire. And as someone famous one said, when we get on fire for God, people come to see us burn. And there is a call for the church not to be a bland church, not to be a compromised church, not to be a church that's just busy, but a church that's full of Jesus who wants to be a part of that church. Amen. Well, the good news is that you can make that very decision about your life and about my life because he wants to fill his church by filling his people in his church, his living stones. And this morning, as we look at this next section of this series, which I think is gonna go on for a long time, 'cause we've been going on a while now and we're on Acts chapter four today.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 So if you'd like to turn with me in your Bible to Acts chapter four, and we are gonna be looking for verse 23. And those of you who were here last week or caught up online will remember that last week's story was a response of a miracle that had happened on a previous week, which was when the man at the gate beautiful was healed. Peter and John were going to the temple and this man was asking for money. And Peter and John said, silver and gold, we don't have but what we have, we give you in the name of Jesus. Get up and walk. And he got up and he walked and he danced and he leapt. And there was a quite a stir within the city as a result of this miracle. And then we read that Peter and John were arrested and then they were taken before the leaders, the religious leaders, and they were quizzed.
Speaker 1 00:01:50 And then we read at the end of last week that they were instructed by these leaders to not speak of the name Jesus anymore. And that's where we come to this week. Verse 23, after they were released, they went to their own people and they reported everything. The chief priests and elders had said to them, we're gonna pause, we're gonna look at the verses we're gonna carry on. After they were released, where did they go? It says they went to their own people. Now these were Jews, these were people that lived in Israel. They were people that had grown up among their own family. The sons of Abraham, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were their own people. In fact, they had just been grilled and quizzed by the leaders of what they'd understood to be their own people. But it says, after they were released, they went to their own people.
Speaker 1 00:03:04 Do you have, do you have an understanding who, who your own people are? Do you know? I, I believe it's really important in today's world to know who, who we belong to, who's who we are part of. I believe it's really important to identify, you know, if you don't have an understanding of who your own people are, and of course our own people are sons and daughters of God. Our church of millions of people across the face of the earth, that the church is growing rapidly in some parts of the world, in South America, in the far east, there, there are loads of wonderful things the Lord's doing. And they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, our family. We are in Christ Jesus. He is what unites us. It's not what football team we support. You know, sometimes I used to go and watch Exodus City and there's a song that they sing. I dunno if I should admit this, but there's a song and it says, stand up if you hate Argyle, <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:04:05 Plymouth Argyle. And uh, and you know, there's a peer pressure around you like, uh, everyone else has stood up except you. Um, if you don't stand up, are they gonna unzip your jacket and see if you're wearing a Plymouth top? But I'm not standing up <laugh>. No I'm not. I don't hate argyle. We have a vision for the region here. Amen. It's not our football allegiance that that creates our identity. It's, I mean, Christ Jesus. There are some identities that go beyond, you know, in, in this fragmented, broken world where we've got generations, different ages say, oh, I might find my kinship with my mates in my class at school. It's amazing. You remember back to your school days, how much of a year made a difference in terms of the people you hung out with? Those are my people. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you are in Christ, the people who are your people are Christ's people. Amen. It's not divided by age. What about culture? Oh, I'm from Wales. They're my people.
Speaker 3 00:05:14 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:05:18 There's a few of us. Christ. So Ri and I shout Ra like tipping back. That's all I know.
Speaker 2 00:05:31 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:05:37 Sorry mom and dad if you're watching this, but my people and not just my nation, I'm in Christ Jesus. Amen. Those who are in Christ Jesus, those are my people. And if you don't have a developing relationship with the people of God, I'm not asking, do you attend church? I'm not even asking if you're part of a life group. I'm asking, do you know who your people are? Because if you don't, in a world that's fragmented and broken in a world where there are all sorts of challenges about following after Jesus, you are likely to be picked off. I almost see the joy in those in this story, Peter and John that had just had an experience that was not a nice experience. And I get this vision, them being released and their instinct, the first place they run to, are they people? Because they're safe there.
Speaker 1 00:06:41 They belong there. They know they're on the same page there. Do you have those people in your life? If you don't, you have them. But if you don't know them, that needs to be attended to in our lives. And I know that post lockdown, there were a lot of people who said, I'm not sure I need church. I I, I can follow Jesus in my home. I can read the Bible, I can watch YouTube clips. I can follow Jesus from the comfort of my home in my pajamas. I don't need to go to church. Well you know what the enemy does? He takes truth and he exploits it. And the truth is, yes, Jesus lives in you. Yes, the truth is God's word is existing in your heart and in your home. And he can speak to you alone. Yes, that is truth. But listen to this, you and I need to know who our people are.
Speaker 1 00:07:41 Yes, we need to belong. We need a place of safety that we run to. Yes, we need a people that we belong to. And we run to people that we can share the good and people who we can share the difficult. And here they ran and reported everything to their own people that had been said. Verse 24, when they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth and the sea and everything in them, you said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father, David, your servant. Why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot futile things, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against the Messiah. Let's just pause there for a moment and go back to verse 24.
Speaker 1 00:08:42 When they heard this, this is my people, their people. When they heard what was reported, what was the first thing they did? Or we better organize a counseling session for you, Peter and John, you've been through some trauma. Now I'm not. I'm for therapy and I'm for counseling. But there's in their instinct, there's an instinct that's higher than just attending to the emotional fragility of these two people. There's a greater understanding of something even bigger than their emotional wellbeing. What was it? <inaudible>. The first instinct wasn't to take on a lawyer and to bring a charge against the unlawful arrest of the people of God. It wasn't to start a campaign. It wasn't to start a you gov campaign to talk about the injustice there is in the nation. Their first reaction was to go to God. That's the first reaction of the people of God every time.
Speaker 1 00:09:51 And it's not always the first instinct, but it should be the first reaction because our instincts can often be cultured and developed emotionally by the things of this world. And there are times when I go through difficulties and my instinct isn't to go to God. My instinct is to maybe run away from God. But I know that the best thing I can do is to run to God every time is to turn to him. And I think there's something mature about a community. Maturity has nothing to do with your age maturity. A mature congregation is nothing to do with the age of the congregation or even how long they've been following Jesus. Maturity of those people who have learned the wisdoms to go to God first in everything, every time. So you know, you often on a Sunday you might see me, I'm talking to someone in the congregation, uh, maybe before or after a service.
Speaker 1 00:10:46 And you might hear me say these words. Should we pray about that now? Because that's what God's people do. Because his ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His resources are greater than our resources. His healing is greater than my therapy. His word is more powerful than my word. So why would we go anywhere else other than to God first? Now it doesn't mean we dismiss the counsel and the advice and the godliness of our interactions. It doesn't mean we don't talk about anything else in life. But the reality is God is first and foremost and we go to him first. Amen. Because, not because it's the righteous thing to do, but because it's the logical thing to do. Yes. If you want a logical faith, think about who it is that you're going to. That's why we go to him first and foremost.
Speaker 1 00:11:40 And what do they say when they lifted their voices together and they did it together? Oh, it's so easy, isn't it? For us to have a few louder voices, confident voices. And if you're in a prayer gathering, it's so easy to let those people who normally pray to lift their voices and the rest of us, we listen on and say, that was a good prayer. That was a wonderful, wonderful prayer. They prayed and we sort of passively participate. But it said they raised their voices together. There was unity, there was focus, there was energy, there was confession, there was participation by everybody. And they raised their voices together to God. And what do they say? Master, that's a really important word. Not just savior, not just king, not just provider master.
Speaker 1 00:12:48 That's a word that as we grow in our maturity of our Christian faith, we need to learn increasingly to call him master. Oh yes, he's Abba daddy. He's Father God. He's king, he's savior. He's our brother. Jesus our friend. But Jesus is also our master where he says we go. I've got a love-hate relationship with my sat nav system on my car. <laugh>. My sat nav system has taken me to some places that have been quite problematic to me over the years. It's led me to river edges, um, with a ferry that goes across once a year. It's taken me to what it calls a main road, I guess in Devon. Some of them may be called main roads, but there was one he tried to take me down a few years ago where I had to breathe in to get through it.
Speaker 1 00:13:56 It, I've come to the conclusion that my satin nab doesn't always know best. It's not infallible. It may have some logic and some parameters, but it does not know best. So I feel fully entitled. And I did it yesterday. My satin nav told me that somewhere I was going, I needed to turn right. And I thought, I know I can get there if I turn left. I actually saved half an hour of time by going my roots. And I actually saved about 10 miles by going my roots. My satin nav doesn't always know best. And sometimes we treat Jesus like our satin nav when he gives us directions that we're familiar with or we like, we follow. But when he doesn't, we do our own thing. Let me tell you, if you choose to do the opposite of what Jesus tells you, that's not you declaring your wonderful skill. It's you entering into sin.
Speaker 1 00:15:08 Because his ways are always the right ways. He always sees more than you. And I see he's always perfect. So master, I am not gonna call my sat nav. Where are we gonna go today? Master. But every morning I'm gonna come before Jesus and I'm gonna say master. And they lifted their voices together. See, in a room of this size with this number of people in the church, sometimes people say to me, mark, he must be quite hard leading a group of people when there's lots of different opinions. Well, I guess if I was doing everything according to a straw pole and asking everybody's impression, should we turn left? Should we turn right? What should we do? I guess it would be a really complex thing because in this room we would have a polarity of preferences and ideas.
Speaker 1 00:16:11 But the elders and I, while we do want to be sensitive and understanding of people's perspectives and ideas and realize that God can speak through anyone in this church, we are also fundamentally committed to coming before the Lord and saying, master where you lead us, we will follow. Amen. Not my will, hallelujah, but your will be done. Not my ideas, but your ideas be established. And may they be established through me. Master. And this, they go on to say, you are the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in 'em. See what they do in there. Because Peter and John have just faced a powerful group of religious leaders. They had authority in their society and in their prayers they're saying, but the one in whom we're gathered, he made the seas. The best these guys can do is float on it, swim in it.
Speaker 1 00:17:13 But my God made the seas, my God is bigger than any authority in this world. And then it goes on to say, and actually they quote scripture, quote in scripture in our prayers is really powerful and helpful, having an understanding of God's word. We're not just spirit people, we're spirit and word. We believe the Bible is able to be a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. It's able to direct us, it's able to carry it. It's able to be an anchor in stormy times. And they went to the scriptures and they quoted something that David had said about the Messiah. And in verse 27 says, for in fact, and they carried on their prayers. In fact, in this city, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the gentiles and the people of Israel assemble together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed to do look at this closely, to do what? Whatever your hand and will had predestined to take place. This wasn't Herod's and Pontius Pilate call to make they fought in their robes and in their palaces that they were able and authorized to make significant powerful judgements in their day. But didn't Jesus say to Herod, if you, if you had not been given this authority that's right, you would not have it. That's right.
Speaker 1 00:19:01 You see, 'cause even in the arrest of this situation, even in the chaos of this situation, they were reminding one another that God is in control.
Speaker 1 00:19:14 He's in control. He's all powerful. He's almighty. Is there anything too difficult for him? Is there anything that takes him by surprise? There's nothing that takes him by surprise. And sometimes our most chaotic of moments can reveal something of the glorious nature of God. I remember a number of years ago, uh, I was leading a youth group in a church that I was, I was, um, pastoring in and we had some very, um, strong disturbance out on the street. And it resulted in us having to take a few guys to try to calm a situation down. And one guy just put his foot right through the window of the church and um, he was drunk. He was all over the place. He was sort of trying to be a tr a problem to us. So we called the police 'cause we had lots of young people inside and we didn't want 'em to get harmed. And the police came and they arrested him. No, we didn't want to press charges, but the police wanted to press charges. A few months later, I was requested to go to the court to act as a witness against this guy. I get to the courtroom and they asked me to wait in a waiting room. Have a guess who else they placed in that waiting room. <laugh>. How does that even happen? Me sat on one chair and the guy I'm giving evidence against sat on the other.
Speaker 1 00:20:33 I ended up bleeding into Jesus that day. And the, and the judge threw the case out. He said, it's okay. You know, the guy's admitted guilt and uh, just pay for the window. You know, there was a moment where it looked like chaos. Like this isn't right. But through the chaos, God is in control. And when you call him master, you open your life up to recognize that some of the places we go, the things we do, the environments we are in may not look like we want it to look. But God is still in control. Master he was in control when Satan was having his party, that he had managed to crucify the son of God. God. God was in control. And the very foundations of the earth shook as our savior. And Lord conquered sin, death, and hell. And there is nothing too hopeless for our God to speak into. And now verse 29. And now Lord, consider their threats. I wonder what your prayer would be in this next part of the sentence. You've probably read it. You've probably know what's coming. You see what their prayer is. And I think this is a staggering prayer for them to pray. Because I think my instinct would've been, and now consider their threats and protect us.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 Consider their threats and soften their hearts. Consider their threats. And cause our society to have an acceptability for the followers of Jesus. To live and to speak the word of God with boldness. I think those are very likely to be some of the prayers that we would choose,
Speaker 5 00:22:36 But
Speaker 1 00:22:37 Not these guys. These who had been with Jesus said these words. And now Lord, consider their threats. And grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness. All boldness. You see, when, when we know that God is in control, the persecution of others, while it may be real, while it might have a material impact, when we bend our knee and say, master, we trust that he can do anything. I was reading this from John Wesley's diary Sunday morning, may the fifth preached in St. Anne's was asked not to come back anymore.
Speaker 5 00:23:35 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:23:37 Sunday evening of May the fifth, preach to St. John's. Deacon said, get out and stay out
Speaker 1 00:23:45 Sunday am May the 12th. I preached at St. Jude's. Can't go back there either. <laugh> Sunday, the 12th of May and the evening I preached at St. George's. I was kicked out again. Sunday am May the 19th. I preached at st. Somebody else's. I'm not sure if that's a proper name. Deacons called a special meeting and said that I couldn't return on the evening of that week. I preached on the street and I was kicked off the street on the 26th of May. And the morning I preached in a meadow. I was chased out of the meadow as a bull was turned loose during the service on the morning of June the second I preached out at the edge of town and I was kicked off the highway. But on the evening of June the second, or in an afternoon service, I preached in a pasture and 10,000 people came to hear what I had to say.
Speaker 1 00:24:42 John Wesley. I think his prayer was very much like these New Testament, apostles and saints, the people of God, you've heard their threats. Grant your servants boldness that we may speak your word boldly, that boldness is uncompromising. Now let me just put a caveat in here and I'm gonna ask a friend of mine, Justin, to come in a moment and just 'cause we gotta finish this service in a little bit by responding to all of those who want to join in this prayer and say, Lord, consider their threats. But grant your servants boldness. But let me just say something before Justin comes around boldness. This prayer of boldness and courage has been used by believers for years to just simply be offensive.
Speaker 1 00:25:41 To say things that are judgmental, to say things that come across as social dysfunction. And that's not what this is talking about. This is not Lord grant me boldness that I might not care what people think. I think we should care what people think. The Bible says, make every effort live at peace with your community. I think we should care about that. But I think also we should care about being clear proclaimers of the full council of God. Yes. And the full council of God is grace and truth, hall grace and truth. You cannot have one without the other. The council of God requires us. You can only be bold to the true word of God by having both those things in our lives. Justin's a wonderful evangelist. This man is out on the streets being bold with the word of God on a regular basis. And I'm gonna get you a microphone. Lemme get this one here. Justin, tell us what boldness looks like for you and how we can be bold.
Speaker 6 00:26:51 Well, just to clarify, make sure we've got the right boldness in mind. We are not talking about this kind of boldness, <laugh>. I mean, we both qualify, wouldn't we? The word of course, the word boldness, I'm the most helpful translation of the word boldness actually is this. And you can look this up in any kind of Bible dictionary yourself. It literally means cheerful courage. Amen. Cheerful, in other words, courage with a smile on its face. That's what boldness is. And actually, um, you know, I think the place to start with boldness is, is a place of revelation. You know, Proverbs 29, verse one says this, the righteous are bold as lions. When we understand that, when we gave our lives to Christ and were born again, Christ's very righteousness. His right standing with God was imputed, accounted reckoned to us.
Speaker 6 00:27:56 And that's who we are. We, we can stand in that place and in that relationship with God, knowing him as our father, our old lives are dead. Our new life raised with Christ. And that's, that's that revelation. In fact, you can tell someone who has that revelation, that revelation of their imputed righteousness because they automatically are bold. They can't not be. When you know whose you are. And when you know who you are, it leads automatically to boldness. That would be a good point at which to say amen. Amen. Put your hand up here. If you know that you have been made righteous in Christ, you know that in here. Come on, wonderful. Praise God. I guess the second thing, 'cause there's lo to say, you can say the Bible, God's given us loads about boldness in the Bible. But look, I'm just picking out three things.
Speaker 6 00:28:58 The first one, this revelation of righteousness. The second one is this, the primary purpose for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to enable us, to empower us to be witnesses. And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses. That's the primary purpose. And listen, there's gonna be an opportunity if you've not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit, or if you want to move more in the power and the boldness of the Spirit, then this morning, is this the morning for you? This is a time to receive afresh or for the first time the boldness and the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. The final thing, of course, is this, this very passage that we've just been reading, we can pray, we can ask, we can ask God. And actually, because this is a prayer in the Bible, this is a prayer that God always answers.
Speaker 6 00:30:07 Hang on a minute. How? How can you say that? I can say that because of this. The word of God says, the word of God says that if we can find a, any scripture in any, any, any truth in the Word of God, that God will answer those prayers. Now, this is the confidence we have in Him, one John five, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we've asked. If you ask for boldness, guess what? You will get boldness. Look, here's a a simple illustration, real simple illustration. Imagine you want to do some kind of d i y job at home and you've got the power tool for it. You've got it there. There it is. The cable coming out, the plugs on the end until you put that plug into the supply of the power, that tool is not gonna do what you want it to do. Boldness is taking yourself, taking you the plug and putting it in the power. Once you do that, the power will flow and you will move in boldness. You need to know imputed righteousness. You need to know that God is gonna answer this prayer if you pray.
Speaker 6 00:31:36 And of course you need to know that that baptism was given so that you can be a witness, mark.
Speaker 1 00:31:45 Amen. And we're gonna pray. But let me just come to the last verses of what happens in that story. As they prayed for boldness. It says, when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken. It wasn't just the building on the day of Pentecost that shook this building shook as well. And it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly. Let's all stand together. Hallelujah.
Speaker 5 00:32:36 Hallelujah.
Speaker 1 00:32:43 Maybe responding to God as not just Savior, but master might be your thing this morning, but maybe you are here and you've never even asked him to be your Savior. Well, this morning you can leave this room knowing that Jesus is your savior. You say, well, my life isn't that bad. Well, the reality is that your eternal destiny
Speaker 1 00:33:12 Is going in the direction away from God unless you receive him as your savior. That your connection to God is cut off by your sinfulness unless you know him as your Savior. And this morning he wants you to know him as your savior. The Bible says, if we repent of our sin, if we invite Jesus to come and be our cleansing and our righteousness and invite his spirit to fill our lives, then he will lead us and guide us and we will be part of his family and you will be in Christ Jesus. If you'd like to pray that prayer for the first time or to come back to God, I'm gonna ask us all to pray this prayer out loud to encourage those who will be doing it for the first time. But if you'd say it for the first time, you're not just repeating my words, you're talking to God. And I believe he will hear your words and he will come to you and he will change your life now in this place.
Speaker 7 00:34:14 Amen.
Speaker 1 00:34:15 So would do you all pray this prayer after me? Jesus. I thank you Jesus.
Speaker 7 00:34:20 I thank
Speaker 1 00:34:20 You that you gave your life,
Speaker 7 00:34:22 Your
Speaker 1 00:34:23 Life on the cross for me, on the
Speaker 7 00:34:25 Cross for
Speaker 1 00:34:25 Me. I'm sorry I've left you out of my life. I've done my own thing. I've
Speaker 7 00:34:32 Done my own thing
Speaker 1 00:34:33 And I've made a mess. I've
Speaker 7 00:34:35 Made a
Speaker 1 00:34:35 Mess. Please forgive me. Please
Speaker 7 00:34:37 Forgive me.
Speaker 1 00:34:38 Come and wash me of all my shame and
Speaker 7 00:34:41 Wash me of my
Speaker 1 00:34:42 Shame and reunite me into relationship with you. Reunite
Speaker 7 00:34:46 Relationship with you.
Speaker 1 00:34:49 Come and be my savior. Come
Speaker 7 00:34:50 And be my savior.
Speaker 1 00:34:51 Come and be my king. Come and be
Speaker 7 00:34:53 My
Speaker 1 00:34:53 King. Come and be my master. Come and be my master. In Jesus' name. In
Speaker 7 00:34:58 Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:35:01 Now, if you pray that prayer for the first time this morning, we're not gonna ask people to close their eyes because when people came to Jesus in the Bible, they came publicly, they came and they announced their community. I'm following Jesus. And you won't find a community like this this morning that will cheer you as much as this community will do when they see you respond. So if you pray that prayer for the first time this morning, or to come back to Savior Jesus, then would you just raise your hand where you are? And when we've seen it, we'll cheer. We'll welcome you some of our stewards that come and bring you a a bag that will have some information that will be helpful to you. Would you lift your hand nice and high? That's you this morning. Yes. Thank you on the balcony there. Amen. Yes. Another front here. Yes. Amen. Amen. If there are more of you that I missed, then sorry. But two ladies here today, hall, Lord Jesus, we pray, ask those who pray that prayer. Would you just open your hands where you are? Would you just open your hand like that to like you're about to receive
Speaker 1 00:36:27 Holy Spirit, would you pour yourself into these precious ladies' lives? Holy Spirit, hug them, love them, welcome them. Fill them that their lives will never be the same again. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on, let's give them another welcome in the God's family. Welcome. If you wanna be filled with boldness, just lift your hands to heaven. Say these words after me. Master. Master I give my life to give my life to following you, following
Speaker 8 00:37:24 You
Speaker 1 00:37:24 To follow your word following. And I ask that you would fill me with boldness that I may declare.
Speaker 8 00:37:37 I may
Speaker 1 00:37:37 Declare your word with boldness and confidence in Jesus' Name.
Speaker 8 00:37:46 Jesus name.
Speaker 1 00:37:47 Now, Lord, would you come and place your hand on every person's life? Lord, would you come and walk among the rows and place your hand upon each woman, each man, and say these words, receive the Holy Spirit. Receive the Holy Spirit. Be filled. Be filled with his presence and his boldness. Hallelujah. Hallelujah,
Speaker 9 00:38:34 Hallelujah.
Speaker 1 00:38:43 One of the pictures in the scripture is that the Holy Spirit is like a A breath. Like a wind. Of course, he lives in the entirety of our lives and our spirit. But I'm just gonna ask you to maybe just take a breath in and say, God, as I breathe in now in the natural, I ask that I will breathe in your presence a fresh in my life. Come and fill this life of God.
Speaker 9 00:39:13 Oh,
Speaker 1 00:39:14 Philis Lord.
Speaker 9 00:39:18 Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Sheila Hall, hallelujah. Hall
Speaker 1 00:40:02 Your people God.
Speaker 9 00:40:09 Hallelujah.
Speaker 1 00:40:23 He wants to shake every dodgy foundation in our lives. He wants to shake every failed institution of this world in our life. And he wants to place our feet upon a rock that's unmovable and unshakeable Fill us. Oh God, fill us. Oh God, kill our,
Speaker 9 00:40:44 Share our saddle.
Speaker 1 00:40:47 Fill your people who God, all of them were filled. All of them were filled with boldness. God, we no longer want to live in a day, Lord, were there celebrities, were they preachers imported from the US to come and tell us what boldness is like? Lord, we want all of your church to rise, all of your people to rise all of your people to rise full of grace and truth full of the boldness of your spirit. Oh God,
Speaker 1 00:41:19 Hallelujah. Father, consider the threats of the world around us. Consider the threats. Lord, consider the empty guard climate that we're in. Consider the spirit of the age that's around us. And Lord, fill your servants with boldness. Fill us with boldness. Oh God, that it might manifest in our communities. It might manifest in our workplaces, in our homes. Oh God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. If there was a title from this morning's talk, it would be boldness not blandness. And I don't believe you can so easily be bold and be bland. Boldness requires our courage to step out, our courage to be seen, our courage to be heard. Lord, may the church of Jesus Christ in the UK rise not as aland church, but as a bold church. We pray, God, we know that you are shaking the nation. We know that you are shaking the churches God, you are shaking the foundations of those failed institutions.
Speaker 1 00:42:37 Those things, oh God, that have been built on the things of man God. You are shaking the compromise. You are shaking the deceptiveness. You are shaking the sin and in the name of Jesus. Lord, we pray that a bold, not a bland church will rise across the nation, Lord, in all denominations as you shake, oh God, may boldness arise. May the church be formidable because of his boldness in you. I pray A bold church rises a bold church across the southwest, a bold church across Cornwall, a bold church in Devon, a bold church in Somerset. A bold church endorse it. And our boldness will not come from our size. Our boldness will not come from our social acceptability. Our boldness will not come from our resources. Our boldness will come because the word of God is living. Because the word of God is powerful, our boldness will rise because the saints get ahold of true understanding of a spirit filled sword, carry and believer.
