This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Good morning. It's good to see everybody out. Thank you guys for all who participated this morning in worship. I think it's it's almost an unspoken rule that you have to stand for every song that has stand in the title except if you sing two songs in the service that has stand. So that's one of the few times I've sat for Dare to Stand Like Joshua.

It reminds me when I was in college we had a singing in a gym one night and we, we were seeing, I stand in awe, and so, you know, sometimes people do the thing where you want to be extra cool, you know, in college, you want to be the guy who when, right when we get to the chorus, they say, I stand, and everybody, the one person stands up and everybody follows and they stand up, right?

Well, one night we sang that song, they did that, well, the next song we sang was where no one stands alone, and guess what happened? The one other guy was like, I'm going to be that guy, and he stood up, and guess what happened? He stood alone the entire song, and I got to give him credit. That's a long song.

It's like four or four verses. He stood for every single one of them. So I got to admire it. I was thinking I was a singer this morning. I was like, I got to admire that. That is a certain level of boldness that we're going to be talking about this morning that, that I appreciate. But thank you guys for, again, for participating in all seriousness.

I needed this this morning. I don't know about you all, but I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off this morning. And I just felt. Frazzled and I think worship so far this morning has really put me at ease and I hope it has for you too And so with that being said, let's talk about politics.

Just kidding But talking about being put at ease We are really entering into in the next couple weeks the next couple months into a political season where everybody's got an opportunity to cast a vote, you know. And in a democracy, we're blessed with this opportunity and we really have an opportunity to have a say as far as where is the direction of our country going to go.

This is the time of the year when I think everybody kind of is willing to share their opinions, whether you want to hear them or not about where they think that the country should go. And so, there's a certain level of boldness I think that everybody kind of takes on in one way or another in the political season.

And it's for good reason, because, I mean, national elections have really big consequences, and so if you feel really strongly about something, the direction, that impacts you, and that impacts other people, if you care about yourself and other people. then you take on this boldness because you're concerned about the things in your mind what matter the most.

And so often the most dangerous political opinions to have are the ones that really challenge the status quo, the movements that really go against the grain, the movements that push back against culture. And of course, the more extreme the view in relation to culture, Then the higher the stakes and the higher the probability that that that message is going to be repressed.

And nowhere has this been more true than with the Christian faith. And the gospel of Christ and its teaching, it's something that's always gone against the grain. And wherever the cross of Christ is preached, there's going to be opposition. And even opposition not only from our fellow man, but even from powers that are beyond our sight.

Like Ephesians 6:12 says, And so from the beginning the churches needed a certain boldness in order to stand up for the truth. And that boldness is seldom met without hostility. So this morning what we're going to do is we're going to go through Acts 4 and see how the Christians there were empowered by the Old Testament using Psalm 2 and the message of the Gospel, seeing Psalm 2 as being fulfilled in Christ.

in order so that they may speak boldly to opposition of their time. And the early church is really going to be our model so that we can speak boldly about Christ and about our faith in a time like right now, in a time, excuse me, in a time of a lot of uncertainty. And so, before we go to Acts 2, let's start in Psalms 2 this morning, and let's read Psalm 2 and get a feel for what's going on there to kind of get an idea why the Christians went to Psalm 2 for their situation that we'll discuss in just a second.

Psalm 2:1. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

The Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell the decree. The Lord said to me, I will tell the decree. You were my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Amen. As we read, maybe you noticed, but I just want to point this out having just read Psalm 2, kind of the structure of how the psalm is laid out, because it's really important. It's a chiastic structure. And if you don't know what that means, it's just a kind of a poetic device where you kind of have a list of things.

In one descending order, and then you have that same list listed in a reverse order. And so, it kind of creates this little pyramid, the side of this pyramid. And the thing that the psalmist is wanting you to focus on is the thing that's in the middle of the psalm. And so what we see structurally is not the emphasis being placed on the rebellion of the kings, but ultimately about the power of God and the power of His king.

And so what the psalm is trying to show us, even in a time, I think when I read Psalm 2, I don't know about you, I picture all these kings of the earth and these rulers coming before Jerusalem, before Zion. It reminds me of like, Lord of the Rings. This is like the White City, Gondor, and the Return of the King, of course you all know, right?

And when, you know, all these orcs come and they're surrounding the city and it's this giant horde of orcs, it's terrifying. That's, that's kind of what I picture, and everybody's holed up inside, they're besieged. But even in the face of really big opposition, even if it was all the orcs that Tolkien could write about, Even in the face of opposition, what Psalm 2 is trying to tell us is that God is in control in the face of opposition.

And so, when we break down Psalm 2, in the first couple of verses here, in verses 1-3, we see this Davidic king has got these vassal kings that have come up against him. And a vassal is just a way of saying a king that's subservient to a king that's greater than him. So, if you look in 2 Kings, verse 17, you don't have to turn You look later, but Hosea, he gives he pays homage to Shalmaneser, king of Assyria.

And so, David is, this is kind of a picture of this king this Judahite king this king of, son of David, or David himself, seated on on Mount Zion, and yet all of these kings that are subservient to him have now rebelled, and they're coming. And not only that, but with the decree that's handed to him in verse 7, if you look in 2 Kings 11:12, the connection with King Joash when he's given this testimony of the coronation when he comes and rises to power, that's why a lot of people typically refer to Psalm 2 as a coronation psalm.

And it makes sense because you think about when are kingdoms and powers most vulnerable, but when there's an exchange of power, when there when there's a new king, a young king may be coming to the throne. Well, that's when these, these vassals or these subservient kings see an opportunity to rebel.

And so as the psalm goes on, the kings of the earth, ultimately they come standing before Zion, but what they don't see is a Lord seated above in the heavens And the psalm transports us from earth to heaven and God is laughing scornfully at these rebels and he, he appoints ultimately the Davidic king to be his representative and the one through who his judgment is going to come.

But what's really interesting when you get to verses 7-9 is, The, this, the king himself is just really passive in the way that that he talks here. In the Hebrew it's only three of the twenty five words that are spoken in these three verses that actually are attributed to the king himself.

Other than that it's strictly the decree of the Lord that is spoken because it's the basis of the king's reign. It's not his own power. It's not like the kings of the earth who are, who are trusting in their own power to overcome David. But it's rooted in the decree of the Lord this, this adopted son of the Father in heaven.

And so, the decree recalls David's covenant with God in chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, when God tells David, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to him be to me a son. And so the Davidic, Davidic king's right to rule wasn't by his own power, but it was because of God's gracious covenant and his promises to David.

And so even though it's the Davidic king's turn to speak, he still shows himself to be a passive and a subservient son to God. And so the point is not to emphasize the power to overcome the opposition that is kind of bracketing this psalm, But it's to be found in the Lord God in heaven. And so like David before Goliath, this, this king of Judah, he would say, you come to me with sword and with spear and with javelin.

But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And so the psalm ends with these rebellious kings. They're warned and they're called to allegiance not only to God in heaven, but to the king. And so what we see is Psalm 2 really warns these nations not to plot against the, against the Lord or against his anointed.

And he tells them to swear allegiance and kind of a really prophetic style. He confronts these enemies, but he also comforts the Davidic king with a hope of vindication in the face of a besiegement. And so in the face of the enemy, this Davidic king is able to boldly speak God's decree of his role as God's representative and as his messiah, his anointed one.

And so here we have Psalm 2, a psalm that's all about opposition and ultimately vindication about God's power revealed through his earthly king through the son of David. So again, we're gonna be talking about Acts 4. Let's go to Acts four now and let's talk about this because the reason we start in Psalm 2 again is because the Christians in Acts 4 in a really tumultuous time rely and they go to Psalm 2 for encouragement.

But before we even get to this text, we need to get a little bit of Running start because I think it's important there's some, some consistent themes that kind of appear here as we read. That really this story begins in chapter 3, and it begins in chapter 3 with Peter being in the temple, and he sees a lame beggar, and he ends up healing him, and it says he heals him in the name of Jesus Christ.

And as a result, he ends up preaching, he calls the fellow Jews to repent, he says, you know, if you're, if you're a true Jew, a true Israelite, then you would listen to the prophet like Moses that Deuteronomy 18 talked about. And that prophet is Jesus himself. And so he calls them to repent. And so the temple authorities, hearing all this commotion, they come and they inquire.

They want to know, by what name did you do this? And so Peter goes on to preach. And we'll come back to this verse at the end of our lesson today. He says, There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Referring to Jesus. And so, after hearing these, or seeing these amazing signs and hearing that it's done in the name of this, this once crucified Jew named Jesus, the authorities say, well, we can't deny what you guys are doing, but we can tell you not to talk about it.

And so they order them not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus. So that's kind of where we're at. There's an emphasis again on the name of Jesus in chapters 3-4. And so, let's begin reading Acts 4. Let's start in verse 23, and we'll go down through 28. Make some observations and we'll return to the text.

It says,

And when they had heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and earth and who, and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why do the Gentiles rage in the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed. 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 plan had predestined to take place. And so after this announcement, this command by the temple authority saying, Hey, y'all need to be quiet about this name of Jesus. Peter and John, they come and they regroup with all of these other Christians in this new found Jerusalem church.

And the immediate reaction of all the Christians is first of prayer And it's really at this point where we see the, the New Testament Christians, what they do is they, they look back on the Old Testament with fresh eyes. They see in a completely different, different way in the light of the resurrection of Jesus.

And so after witnessing Jesus ministry, His death and resurrection, They look at the Old Testament, they look at Psalm 2 in a completely different way. It's not just talking about the Davidic King, it's talking about Christ being crucified and resurrected. And so, what they see is ultimately Jesus is the true, anointed one.

He's the Davidic King who's really met with not only rebellion by the Gentiles, but ironically, in the way that this text is totally flipped on its head in this context, it's referring to the Jewish people themselves. Oh, some of the Jewish leaders? and people that participated in having Christ crucified.

But ultimately what these, these leaders did not see was that the Lord in heaven was behind this condemnation of Jesus. That ultimately this is according to his will as it was revealed in the scriptures. And so really what goes on here in Acts 4 with all of the Christians meeting, it's really a offshoot of what Peter's already been saying over and over again in three sermons before this in the book of Acts.

He consistently implicates the Jewish leaders for having killed Jesus, for crucifying Him, but also declaring that Christ has been raised from the dead. And he goes on to use Old Testament passages in Scripture to appeal to the Jews, showing that Jesus is the Messiah. And he's calling them, ultimately, to repentance.

And so we kind of have a private interaction here with the Christians, with Peter and John, to see how they reacted. To this kind of opposition. And so not only do we see it foreshadowing the Davidic King, but now we see Psalm 2 itself fulfilled in Christ's death and resurrection. And even though Christ was put to death, the Lord vindicated him by raising him from the dead.

And so the gospel, just like Psalm 2, is really a story about opposition and vindication. And so let's keep reading just a little bit more in Acts 4:29-31. Look what the Christians go on to say. After having seen Psalm 2 in light of Christ, they say, And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with all boldness.

And so, like the newly crowned Davidic king, the early church at this time is really in its infancy. It's really vulnerable to a lot of threats. And Acts really tries to point that out over and over and over again. There's internal threats, there's external threats, there's kings, there's rulers. And over and over again, what happens is God vindicates His people through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.

And ultimately, Peter and John, they had previously proclaimed Christ's name, and they really had received the same opposition that Jesus had himself, except this time in the form of specifically the Sadducees and the temple authorities. But having read the Old Testament in the light of Christ, the early Christians styled themselves ultimately in the sandals of Christ.

And they really, I think Christ provided a model for how the early Christians were able to act at this time, in a time of uncertainty. So what they do is they defied the Jewish leader's commands, not once, but they actually do it twice in our text here, by calling on God through the name of His Holy Servant, Jesus.

Maybe you saw the as we read. And so in Psalm 2, God had spoken from heaven in order to reassure his Davidic king. And here in Acts 4, God shakes the place that they were in. It, it harkens back to Exodus 19:18, where God comes down upon Mount Sinai and he shakes Mount Sinai.

And God is telling his people that even in this time of uncertainty, this time of hardship and persecution, I'm here and I'm present with you in the middle of it. And it's through the Old Testament being fulfilled in Christ that the Christians found the courage to ask God for boldness. And God granted them this boldness through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.

And though opposed by the Jewish leaders, the Christians were vindicated ultimately in the next chapter by the signs and wonders that they asked God for. So, Here's kind of the pattern I was trying to show you through these couple passages and how I think the early church was using the Old Testament to see how it's fulfilled in Christ and then in turn how they can embody it themselves and use it.

But now, what does that mean for us, ourselves? I think, after examining the early church's process of seeking boldness, I think we need to ask ourselves two questions about our own boldness. The first of those is going to be, well, what is the origin of my boldness? What is the origin of my boldness? Now I love going to Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 for this, and this is a sermon in and of itself, the connections between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.

There's plenty of, if you want to think about it this way, think about the Book of Psalms as a, you know, a temple itself. The Psalm 1 and 2 are the two doors that you enter in through. And so Psalm 1 is really focusing on kind of more individual allegiance to God, while Psalm 2 is focusing on national or or political allegiance to God.

And so if you look in Psalm 1:2, the man, the righteous man, the blessed man, says his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on His law, He meditates day and night. But then, as we read in Psalm 2:1, it says, Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? That word meditate in chapter 1, the word in chapter 2 for plotting, those are the same word in Hebrew.

And so, What I think the psalmist is trying to tell us is that we're either meditating on God's teaching or meditating on ways that we can rebel against Him. And in the same way, our boldness is something that's either rooted in the power of God or it's rooted in our own personal power. I think, especially like we mentioned at the beginning of the sermon this morning, you know, this time of the year, you can find a whole host of people who are willing to speak boldly about something, right?

Yeah. People who will be willing to stand up for the things that they believe in. And people are really, a lot of times, willing to endure a lot of great hostility and maybe public shaming for the things that they believe. And everybody willing to speak with any kind of boldness is probably going to be met or challenged with some type of opposition.

But for us, if we're gonna suffer for something, well, shouldn't it be something that it's worth suffering for? Turn with turn with me over to 1 Peter 3:13-17. Peter talking to some suffering Christians that they've been experiencing some kind of informal persecution, being dragged before courts and slandered.

It says in verse 13, Now who is there to harm you if you were zealous for what is good? Even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your heart's honor Christ the Lord is holy. But always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. And so the kings of the earth and the leaders, the different Jewish leaders who ultimately crucified Christ, they were really bold in their accusations and in their besiegement of the king.

But ultimately they were bold about the wrong things. Ultimately their boldness, as Psalm 2:1 says, was vain. It was vain because it came to nothing. It was powerless. However, if our boldness is something that's founded in the resurrection of Christ, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:8, or 58, he says, in the Lord our labor is not in vain.

If we're doing the will of God, the work of God, with all boldness And we will be vindicated no matter what might come our way. Then secondly, along these lines about our origins look back at Psalm 1 again. Another poetic thing, if you look at the beginning of Psalm 1, starts with the, the, the word bless.

Then you notice Psalm 2:12, ends with the word bless. And this is another poetic device called inclusio. It's basically just where you put something at the beginning, a similar word or phrase as you do at the end, and it's telling you, hey. Even though these may be separate things, or it may be one psalm in and of itself, it's saying, you need to read these things together.

And so Psalm 1 and 2 are telling us that we need to be read, it needs to be read together. And so again, Psalm 1 is about personal piety, while Psalm 2 is about kind of national allegiance to God. And what it's telling us, in looking at both these psalms, whether on an individual or a national scale, all, blessedness can really only be found in a refuge in God and in His instruction.

And so, both Jesus and the early church took their cares to God in prayer. And in both cases, God doesn't save them from the immediate trial. He lets Christ be crucified. He lets the Christians continue to go on with fear of persecution. But in the end, he preserved them through it. And it was prayer that emboldened Christ and his church to endure.

You think about in the Garden of Gethsemane that we talked about in my last sermon, that Jesus goes and prays, not thy will, but your will. He prays that three times. And prayer is where God Jesus goes so often, not only before the crucifixion, but even on his own several times at different, difficult times in his ministry, Christ continually goes and seeks God in prayer.

And so does the early church. And ultimately the church, because they go to God in prayer, they're able to use, be used by God in ways that they've definitely would have not thought were possible before. And in Psalm 1, again, we the person who follows the law, the person who follows Torah, is someone who's blessed.

And in Psalms 2, the Davidic king, he spoke from the decree of the Lord. So not only do do the Jesus and the early church, they go to God in prayer. We see the Davidic king and we see Jesus, and we see the early church so often go to God or meet God in Scripture as well because the Davidic king, he had no power apart from God.

Again, he, he spoke the decree of the Lord. Jesus, when he was tempted in the wilderness, where does he go? He goes to Scripture over and over. And here we see in Acts 4, the Christians doing the same thing. I think, so often when we think about these times of our lives, of political instability, or whatever it may be, or just personal instability as Psalm 1 kind of talks about, I think we, we, we think a lot of times that our boldness needs to come from some interpersonal strength.

But if you look in scripture time and time again, that's not the case. God doesn't tell the early Christians in Acts 4, you know, pull up yourself, put yourself up by your bootstraps and just keep, keep doing it. You know, I'm not going to help you. You got to, you got to hang in there and just do it.

And of course that's true to a certain degree. But God calls him ultimately to seek safety in him through prayer and through his word. And if we're empowered by God, he's going to help us to grow and grant us a boldness that we wouldn't thought we would ever had before. In preaching in Solomon's portico after having healed the lame beggar, as we mentioned earlier, Paul makes this point really clearly.

I love where he says, look in, look back in Acts 3, Acts 3:12-16. He says, 'And when Peter saw

it, he addressed the people, 'Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 'The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus, 'whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release Him.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murder to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and by His name, by faith in His name, He has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

You know, who would have thought that a gung ho fisherman from Galilee would have been in the temple among the greatest minds of their time. The, the ones that are most knowledgeable about the Torah. And he's standing there before all of them and he's proclaiming this message with boldness that shocks them.

Even they're like, whoa, where, where did this guy get this stuff from? Peter probably didn't think that he'd ever be in this place in his life. But by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus, he was able to do things that he never thought were possible. Amen. And God ultimately can do the same for us.

Maybe in slightly different ways at times, but if we seek Him and we ask Him to grant us boldness to preach His gospel. So, not only do we need to ask ourselves about what is the origin itself of our boldness, but I think lastly, and these will go kind of quickly, and we'll have some concluding thoughts here in just a minute.

We need to ask not only what's the origin of my boldness, but we need to also ask what's the nature of my boldness. Maybe I've got the foundation right, maybe I've got what I believe is true, it's in line and accordance with the scriptures. But how am I, how am I communicating that to people around me?

You know, there are a lot of people today, I think, especially in broader evangelicalism and Christendom in America, there's a lot of people professing to be Christians and yet the way that they express their faith are They're not biblical or not godly in the way that they do that. And so we may have the truth and the proper foundation, but how we communicate that is something we've really got to consider.

So what is the nature of our boldness? Well, you know, first we need to ask, am I concealing my boldness? Am I not even sharing the boldness that I have within me? We all have to take on boldness, just like people are doing right now about political things, no matter what it looks like to you, or what it might cost you personally.

You know, we might know the truth, but if we don't share it with anybody, it doesn't really do anyone any good. And Christ demands us to be bold in sharing our faith with others. That's what we're trying to accomplish in Reagan's back class last quarter, and it's something I hope we're still trying to put into practice.

That we're not just keeping our faith to ourselves, we're trying to share that in sincere and genuine ways with other people. Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus said, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

You know, not saying something is just as bad as denial. And think about the Christians in Acts 4. What if they would have obeyed the command of the Jewish leaders and they didn't say anything? Or they didn't continue to speak in the name of Jesus? Well, then the implication would have been that they denied the power of God to vindicate them from their enemies.

So what's keeping you from sharing your witness as a Christian or your faith with other people? I think next we can think, are we being careless with our words? Sometimes we think we need to have, or we feel the need to not have a filter, right? Or we say what needs to be said, and no doubt, I love people with no filter.

You know, the more you stay around me, you'll probably be like, okay, you need to put a filter a little bit. But you know, there's, there's times where that's needed. There's times where you need to kind of spurn cultural convict conventions. And, and when you see blatant error, you need to speak out about those things in really direct ways.

But we need to be careful with the words we use and how they're conveyed. Matthew 12:36-37 says, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. That's a challenging verse to me.

God, Jesus takes our words really seriously, doesn't he? And we should, too. Next, you know, we gotta consider, are we being retaliatory, or are we retaliating to our enemies? Matthew 5, chapter 38, or verse 38-39 says, You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, Turn to him.

The other also, it's another really challenging passage for us, challenging for me. But you know, when it comes to our, the nature of our boldness and the way we speak out, we can never confuse boldness with brazenness boldness that has no respect for another person. Our boldness needs to have respect, and we need to show kindness and gentleness and respect.

Like 1 Peter 3 talked about. Even when our opponents might not do the same for us. Next, are we timid about sin? Not you know, are we bold when it comes to people who have nothing in common with us? It's like, you know, that's pretty easy. Sometimes I know this person doesn't agree with me on anything.

I can just let it fly because they are not going to listen to anything I have to say. But what about the person that's like, I'm going to see them at the barbecue next Tuesday. I, I carpool with their kids. If I, you know, bring something up to them that they're in the wrong about, that's going to make things really awkward and uncomfortable.

How many times have you let, you know, the, the fear of some just situations just being awkward keep you from saying something that needed to be said? Sometimes it's harder to speak boldly to a brother. In Matthew 18:15-17, he says in verse 15, if your brother sins against you, go to him and tell him his faults.

Between you and him alone, if he listens to you, you've gained a brother. There's so much value in just nipping it right in the bud, right? Not letting time pass, just going directly to your brother who may have sinned against you or just sinned in general and going to them and being direct about the sin, not being timid.

But being sincere and loving. And I love 2 Corinthians 7. Paul you know, he doesn't rejoice in and he says, I regret, I don't regret writing you this letter, but I do regret it. He's like, I, I hate how it made you feel, but also I'm glad it made you feel that way because ultimately that was, that was godly repentance that caused you to, to turn away from the sin that you were in.

And it grieved me to write those things to you, but I rejoice now that you have repented. And so, even though we might have to, to, Go through a period of awkwardness or uncomfortableness with our brother we've got to be bold, we've got to be bold with even the ones that we love. And then lastly, I mean to ask ourselves, you know, whatever form your boldness has taken in your life now what does it reveal about the state and the nature of your heart itself?

As Matthew 15:11 says, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. But what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person, I don't even have anything to add to that one. That one's definitely a challenging one for me too. We need to be considering in all these things, not only the origin, the foundation, the truthfulness of our bold witness, but we also need to be concerned about how are we conveying that to our, each other, as brethren, to our families, to our children.

But also to the community and the people that we interact with every single day. So, right now, again, coming back to our initial original first thought, the political season. We're at a time we're on the cusp of a lot of change in our country, right? Our country's filled with a lot of confusion, uncertainty, and a lot of times just division.

And it's a really scary time, it's got a lot of people worried. I don't know about you guys, I'm worried personally, I don't, I, I have a lot of I'm unsure about a lot of things that are going to happen in the next couple of months. And we and many others are really concerned right now about a lot of being bold about political issues and agendas.

And we should be, we should be involved in those things. And at present, you may be reeling right now. You may not be sure about like, who am I going to vote for? Maybe you are sure who you're going to vote for, but you're not sure if they're going to win or not. Maybe you're worried about the future of our nation, depending on who gets in office or, or you're fearing potential opposition altogether to your faith that may be a result of your choice being made or not, and vice versa, in such a time of turmoil right now.

Let's take note from the Christians and ask for on how we can respond. Despite all the craziness going around on us, we know ultimately who we need to be. When you don't have an answer for anything else, we know we have the right answers, ultimately. And who God has called us to be is people who speak boldly in Jesus name.

Like them, we're in a time, like the Christians in Acts 4, we're in a time of uncertainty. And instead of looking to men for confidence, even though, again, it's totally fine and we should be involved in politics. Let's find our boldness ultimately like the Christians in Acts 4. Let's root it in scripture And let's trust in God through sincere prayer.

I love psalm 146 verses 3-4 It says put not your trust in princes in a son of man in whom there is no salvation When his breath departs he returns to the earth on that very day his plans Perish, you know, there's a lot of people right now being pushed to put confidence in God And these different leaders, whoever it may be But what we have confidence in ultimately is realizing that our confidence isn't in somebody in the White House, in the Oval Office, but it's our Savior at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

As Psalm 110 says he said David said you know, You man, you get up here and you think you can do it off the cuff, and then you know that. I know Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. That's the surety that we can have no matter what's going to happen, no matter what opposition is going to take place in the next couple months to our faith.

We're not, it may be fine, but we know ultimately is that we have a God in heaven and a mediator at his right hand who is in control. And so in humility, what I'm asking you to do with this lesson really is let's model the nature of the boldness, our boldness on the teachings of Jesus. Let's share the gospel in earnest.

Let's be precise. Let's be patient with our enemies and be direct. With sin about with others. And this week really I challenge you to do one thing. I just challenge you to speak boldly to one person. Share the gospel with one person. Share it with as many as you, you can. I challenge you one this week.

Just challenge, I challenge you to speak boldly the name of Jesus. To someone here in this community, the family member or somebody that you may be working with. And let's, let's wait with hopeful expectation for, for Christ and His second coming. That's all I've got for this morning. I appreciate your, your attention.

Tonight this morning I give you the opportunity to, to come and to be a part of this covenant community, the people who boldly speak and proclaim in the name of Jesus until He comes again. Amen. Amen. And if you want to be a part of that community you can't do that. You can't speak the name of Jesus properly with the right power unless you have expressed faith in Him, you've confessed your sin and repented, turned away of your former life and participated in following the footsteps of Jesus through the waters of baptism, being raised to new life, having new commitments and living in a different way and according with the scripture.

So this morning, if that's your desire, then I'd ask you to come now as we stand and as we sing. Amen. Amen.