Praying for Boldness: Embracing Vulnerability in Faith

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I don't think we have any reason to believe that Paul was a natural speaker. I don't think there is anything about Paul that suggests to us that it was second nature to him that he would have been, if you like, part of the debating society in school. In fact, it would seem that Apollos was the one who was peculiarly gifted in that way. [00:00:56]

Now you will notice that his great concern, as we said again this morning, was not his liberation but rather the proclamation of the mystery of the gospel. That ought to make you turn immediately back to chapter 3 and verse 7 where he is speaking of the gospel, and he says of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. [00:03:12]

Boldness, now, you see, in the face of external pressure or, for that matter, within the church, internal pressure and opposition, boldness is necessary. You remember that God says to his prophet of old, he says, now do not be afraid of their faces. What is number one fear in life is the fear of death. [00:06:38]

To speak boldly does not mean to speak unkindly. We make a major mistake if we think that boldness then somehow allows us to just about qualify everything else and then determines the tone of our delivery. While he was very bold and therefore he can get away with murder, no, Paul has already said actually in chapter 4 that it is absolutely essential that we would be speaking the truth in love. [00:07:23]

One of the reasons that the church gives such an uncertain sound in our day and seems to be prepared to equivocate on so many different things, in other words, is absent a sense of boldness, it's because of a loss of conviction about the gospel itself. Why would you be so bold enough to say to the whole world there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, unless you believe there is? [00:08:15]

Western Christianity isn't dying out from natural causes; it's dying of suicide. Now this article, I think, is written by a Roman Catholic man. It comes from a fairly objective point of view, and I'm not going to read it all to you, but his thesis is worth considering. What he says here is this: that the church, at least speaking of the British Isles, has now for decades been chasing after cultural acceptance. [00:09:10]

When the church of Jesus Christ ceases to pray as Paul prays here, that we might be enabled to have utterance so that when our mouths are open we speak the word of God with boldness, when it ceases to do that, it deserves actually to fizzle out and to die. [00:10:26]

Paul was not a superhero. He was marked by vulnerability and unaccompanying humility. That when he requested prayer from those to whom he wrote, he was specific in his request, that I may have the words, that I may have freedom and delivery, that I may be able to speak the word of God boldly. [00:11:50]

Paul says, I have chains too, but these chains I'm not wearing around my neck, but they are an insignia of the one I represent because Paul was aware of the fact that he represented a higher throne than all this world had known, that he had been set apart as we saw at the beginning as the ambassador of the King of Kings and of the Lord of Lords. [00:14:03]

He does this, and in doing this, he not only affirms his place as an apostle in the founding of the church, but he, if you like, blazes a trail for other frail, weak souls who are set apart to gospel ministry, who are asked to stand often fearfully, consistently, unrelentingly before a group of people Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. [00:17:11]

Do you pray for the preachers of the gospel? Do you realize what happens every time a man enters a pulpit, frail, fallible, weak, and yet called of God to be his representative and an exponent of his glorious truth? Do you pray for preachers of the gospel, and do you pray in particular that they may speak boldly? [00:18:46]

May God help us to heed this call and not miss this moment, and who knows but that God may choose to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon us such as there would not be room enough to contain it. [00:22:24]

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