“Lord ... grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness”

Acts 4:29 (ESV)

"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

Proverbs 28:1 (ESV)

1. Boldness Requires the Recognition of a Threat

" ... suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in

skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated ... .“Hebrews 11:36-37 (ESV)

2. Boldness Requires Reliance on God's Spirit

"Lord, … grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.“29 " ... when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to

speak the word of God with boldness.“31

Acts 4:29 & 31

"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the

flesh?" Galatians 3:3 (ESV)

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

word of God with boldness." Acts 4:31 (ESV)

A. Prayer"and when they had prayed ..."

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.“

Ephesians 5:18

"that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he

hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him"

I John 5:15

B. Unity"... the place in which they were gathered

together ..."

C. Action "... and continued to speak the word of

God with boldness."

3. Boldness Requires a Renewal of Our Commitment

"pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.“

Hebrews 2:1