Stretch Out Your Hand To Heal : BOLDNESS - Audio

Bakersfield First Assembly

Acts 4:29-31 (NIV) – [29] Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great BOLDNESS. [30] STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” [31] After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God BOLDLY. 2023 Theme: Stretch Out Your Hand to Heal “The apostles prayed not for divine vengeance but that God would hear the threats that had been leveled against them. The believers did not pray that God would remove the threats, take away the possibility of persecution, or even protect them. Instead, they prayed that God would give the believers, his servants, great boldness in their preaching.” (Life Application NT) BOLDNESS (parrhesia) means freedom of speech, plainness, openness, freedom in speaking; the absence of fear which accompanies freedom of speech. (Abbott-Smith Lexicon) Acts 9:27-28 (NLT) – [27] Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached BOLDLY in the name of Jesus in Damascus. [28] So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching BOLDLY in the name of the Lord. 1. Boldness in Preaching Jeremiah 20:8-9 (NIV) – [8] Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. [9] But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. Acts 14:3 (NLT) – [3] But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching BOLDLY about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. 2. Boldness in Power Acts 18:24-26 (NLT) – [24] Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. [25] He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. [26] When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching BOLDLY in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately. 3. Boldness with Accuracy 2 Corinthians 3:12 (NIV) – [12] Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very BOLD. 4. Boldness in Hope Titus 2:11-13 (NIV) – [11] For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. [12] It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, [13] while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.