His wife Debbie, missionaries were missionaries in Peru for fourteen years. Due to some health issues, they and other things, they came back to The States. And John has been working now with a EBI, a missions, mission Publisher, of Spanish, materials to, with the gospel and teaching materials to go out to the Spanish world and I don't know if you have a little bit of time to explain that this morning. If not, you'll have to come back this evening because I'm cutting, I've cut into his time today but but we're so glad to glad to have them as friends. I've known John from when he was a teenager.

So, that's been a little while and but we're so glad to have them and be a part of their missions ministry, a very important one. So, John, if you would come on up at this time. Oh, children's church. Children are dismissed for children's church. Thank you.

Is that your phone? Yeah, it's not turned on. I was gonna say. Alrighty. Well, good morning everybody.

I wanna begin again by thanking you all for your warm hospitality. We enjoyed a wonderful night and a lovely home with brother Ian. And, so thank him for that and a good breakfast this morning. We enjoyed that. And, thank you for the great meal last night.

If you weren't here, you missed out. Have I to admit, now some people look at me mean when I say this, but, as I've gotten a little more advanced in age, as time goes by, I've always been thin and people say, oh, he's so skinny and tall. Well, as time goes by, weight starts to catch up with you. And so I've started to notice that like, can't really wear a suit anymore because my suit pants don't fit. So that's why I have on these khakis.

And I gave up on wearing a tie a while back because my shirt collars are too tight. So I've been losing weight. And I was trying to I was finally see starting to see the right direction. And so I have to scold you folks last night, you put sent me back in the wrong direction again. So anyway, thank you for the great food.

And maybe next time my neck will be small enough to put a tie on or something like that, and we can enjoy it. So if you weren't here, you missed out on that. Thank you for for the great meal that we had. Do you want to thank you all for your faithful support as missionaries? We we often call ourselves faith missionaries because we we aren't guaranteed an income.

We're not guaranteed. We're not given a salary. The only thing that sent us is what mission send to our mission agency and they forward that on to us. But I have to admit, God has blessed us now for twenty eight years as full time missionaries. We've never lacked anything that we need.

And I've written in a prayer letter recently that we've had some support needs. Officially on paper, we might be under supported, but God provides in such a way. I almost feel hypocritical to call myself a faith missionary because it doesn't really take that much faith because God always provides. And I think he does that because of people like you and because of faith promise and people making that commitment. So I want to thank you for that.

Just to give a little tie into faith promise, I always feel awkward as a missionary to talk about faith promise because it sounds a little self serving. That's not my intention. But I will tell you, I see that God blesses churches that make missions giving a priority. I've seen churches that were great missions minded churches, and they they would, kind of kind of slide away from that and reduce their missions budget, and it just seemed like in the same time, the church would begin to decline. And, I'm not saying it's a way to deal with God.

We're not making a deal with him, but, it just seems like God blesses churches because I think it makes the heart of the church missions and evangelism and reaching out. And as they support missionaries in other places, that makes them want to support missions right here at home. And I think it's a biblical principle that we can see. So I encourage you on that. You can't out give God.

And, when you think that you're making a sacrifice, God will, will bless you in ways you can't imagine. Like brother Rick said, you might not get if you put $10 in, you might not go out to your car and find $10 on the ground. But there just might be, an extra coupon that rings up on your grocery order, or you might be surprised that you get a little insurance refund. Does that happen? You might you might find that a bill comes in a little bit less than you expected, and, it might not be the cash in your hand, but God takes care of his people when they're faithful to him.

So I encourage you on that as well. Take your Bible to Acts chapter four. Last night, we started looking at Acts chapter three, and it was an amazing passage of scripture where we got to see Peter and John. And because of their position of where they were at, because of their faithfulness, they were able to see this miraculous supernatural thing take place. This lame man that had laid there at the beautiful gate for forty years was able to stand up and walk, and he went leaping and jumping and praising God because of what had taken place.

Well, today we're going go on and we're going to see another aspect of scripture. We're going to see an acts chapter four, something I think that can be helpful to us today. By the way, Debbie always tells me when I get up to preach, drives me nuts. She says, remember, preach short, keep support. So I will start my timer now.

All of that was free, so that doesn't count on my time. Alright. So here's a question for you. What does it mean to be bold? Think about it for a second.

Do you consider yourself to be a bold person? You know, in one sense, being bold is a good thing. In another sense, sometimes being bold is not a good thing. You know, imagine that you're bold enough, you see a car on fire, and you see someone trapped inside and you are bold enough to run over there and to dive through the flames and to pull the person out of the car. That's pretty bold.

Or sometimes being bold is not a smart thing. What if your wife looks at you and says, honey, does this dress make me look fat? And you say with boldness, yes, as fat as a barn. That is not a smart thing. Now you notice I said, you said, I would never say that.

So my wife looks beautiful in everything that she wears and she is more amazing than Wonder Woman as you heard last night. But being bold is good, but there's sometimes a negative side of being bold. Last night, we talked about the supernatural nature of missions. Today, I want us to talk about the boldness required for missions. I want us to see that there's a positive aspect, and that's what we want to concentrate on.

There seems to be a negative aspect as well. And so there's people that are bold. They go on zip lines. They go skydiving. They go climbing on the side of a rock.

And I I see those things and I'll say, no, I'll never do those. I looked up the dictionary definition of bold. And it says, not hesitating or fearful in the face of danger, courageous. So that's good. I would hope that when we think about our ministry for God, that could describe us.

Then there's the bad, scorning or ignoring the rules of propriety too forward impudent. Right? That's the bad. Now look with me at Acts chapter four as we consider this. I'm gonna start reading in verse one.

It said, and as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came unto them, being grieved, or as a matter of fact, some versions of the Bible that you may read will say there, they were highly annoyed. So when we think of grieve, we think of someone that's grieving maybe the loss of a loved one morning, but this is they were annoyed. Verse two, they being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Verse three, and they laid hands on them and they put them in hold until the next day. In other words, they arrested them for it was now even tight.

How be it many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the men was about 5,000. And it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes and Anna Anna Anna Anna, the high priest and Caiaphas and John Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had sent them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you done this? In other words, they're saying, in whose name did you do these miraculous things? Verse eight, and then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, that's that supernatural that we saw last night, said unto them, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, that's the lame man we saw last night in chapter three, by what means he is made whole.

Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you have crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him that this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught. In other words, this is a stone that they rejected of you builders, has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other for is none other name under heaven given among men whereby ye must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

We should understand that when we followed Christ, when we preach the gospel, when we make a stand for God, when we live for the Lord, we're gonna be the target of the enemy. We are going to stand out and the evil the evil one, the enemy is going to notice. The enemy is gonna be angry. When we live for the Lord, we're gonna be the target of the enemy. Now you don't have to turn there, but in Mark chapter 13 and verse nine, I have it printed here on my notes.

Jesus talking to his disciples and he says, but take heed to to yourselves. In other words, he's saying, be on guard, be careful, for they shall deliver you up to councils. And in the synagogues, you shall be beaten, and you shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony against them. So the idea is that when Peter and John, when the disciples, when these other people would stand up, and actually, I'd notice it's when these miraculous things took place, when the crowd started to notice, when 3,000 men came to understanding of Christ, when 5,000 men were saved here, what happened? At that point, they had drawn the attention of the Sadducees.

They had drawn the attention of these very, very religious people, and they began to feel threatened. The enemy was upset. The first thing I want us to remember today thinking about this boldness is when the gospel is proclaimed, when missions work is done, our enemy will be emboldened. It's a scary thing for us sometimes to think about, but we hear about it all the time. I I can say that I'm thankful that when we were missionaries in Lima, Peru, we definitely saw a spiritual warfare.

We saw a battle with the evil one. We saw it mostly in the hearts and lives of people that we would try to minister to. I'll never forget one time, preaching in a pulpit in Peru in a second church that we started. There was a lady that was sitting there. Her name was Irene.

I still remember her. Her husband was Manuel and and I was able to lead him to the Lord. I remember their daughter being led to the Lord But Irani was sitting in one of our church services. I was preaching a gospel message, and I could literally see her ringing her hands in and it was nerve it was nerve racking to her. She was being impact and I believe by the Holy Spirit.

She was listening to the message and the power of God's word was starting to have an impact on her heart and she realized that she had a need. I was really, you know, it's one of these things you you think you can't multitask, but I was noticing it. Here I am trying to preach and then sort of like on the back corners of my mind, was like really concentrating on her almost praying for her as I preached that the Lord would impact her life. And right as the as the message was continuing along, you could see conviction on her face. And then there was a big uproar outside.

Somebody started a squirmish out there and some guys I think they had their cars had hit and they started arguing and pretty much everybody's attention shifted and everybody was looking out the open door of the church. And I noticed that Irene san lost her train of thought, I believe. And then that was the end. Now, do I know that that was the evil one? I don't know.

But it seems like often that the enemy is going to be emboldened when we're starting impact people's lives, the evil one is gonna notice, and we have to make sure that we're ready for that, that we understand. When the gospel's proclaimed, the enemy's gonna be emboldened. By the way, Irene, I went to their home, spoke to her. Again, she was under great conviction, and she told me she said she called me pastor John. Pastor John, the problem is, if I believe what you preach, what you're telling me, I'm Catholic, and that means that all of my family now is in hell.

And I told her, I said she said, so I can't believe that. I can't accept that message. And I said, you know what? It ain't it? We don't know someone's heart.

Let's just pray that maybe they understood the gospel. I said, there can be people in a Catholic church that understand the gospel that turn and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Let's pray that they understood that. Maybe you didn't know their heart. But I said, what about your daughter?

What about your grandchildren that come along? And, as far as I know to this day, Irene never trusted the Lord. And so I think back to that day, did the evil one win that battle temporarily, at least in her heart, by causing a little car accident and a shuffle out in the street? When the gospel's proclaimed, when missions work's going on, our enemy's gonna be emboldened. Now flip back if you would to Acts chapter three, and, we're just gonna look at starting at verse 13.

I want us to see what caused this fuss then. Why was there a fuss that the enemy was emboldened? It says, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But he denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the prince of life whom God has raised from the dead, whereof all we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong.

Talking about the lame man that we saw last night, whom you see and know, yay, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Verse 19, repent ye therefore. Turn around, change directions, stop living like the the world. Repent you therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Now, look at verse 26.

Unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. You see what's going on here? What's the problem? The problem was really Peter's message. That's what emboldened the enemy.

This is what got them upset. Right after this lame man was healed at the temple, this crowd has gathered. There's all these people. We saw that last time. And because there's a crowd, Peter takes advantage.

Gospel. He's able to deliver this very powerful message. He confronts people with their sin. He confronts people with their need, showed them how they needed Christ, showed them what they needed to do. So pre Peter's preaching the gospel message.

He's urging people to acknowledge Jesus. He's urging people to understand this message. He's pointing out that Jesus is the Messiah that they all knew and were waiting for, and he wanted them to repent of their sins. You see, the problem was the message. They didn't like it.

It went against what they, were trying to promote. In a sense, we could say they were trying to promote salvation by works. Do all these good things, know the laws, know all the rules, and put on this facade, and everybody thinks you're religious. And, what Peter was preaching was contrary to that. That emboldened the enemy.

And so what was the problem? Well, they they had this anger angry response because of what we see over in in chapter four and four verse four. What was it? It's because about 5,000 people had believed the message. You know, I believe if we were to see revival really take place in America, if thousands of people came to Christ in single events like we see here in this passage of scripture, we would really quickly see people would get angry about it.

It seems like any time that Christianity or the cause of Christ even makes a tiny little step forward in in public eye, then people get extremely upset about it. You know, we had in God We Trust in the pledge of allegiance for a very, very long time, and now that just outrageous people. We might have had prayer in school, and the thought of having prayer in school just outrages people today. I know, I think it's a Florida thing. I don't know if it's just in Florida or if it's in Highlands County where we live, but every day now they they have a moment of silence.

So that, my daughter says that they have a moment of silence in school, and I've asked her, do the teachers actually keep it silent? She says, depends on the teacher. But heaven forbid that we call it a moment of prayer because that will outrage the enemy, And that's what we see here every time that there's is a message that's being proclaimed and people hear hear about it. That's what's gonna cause the problem. And you also realize it wasn't that the man was healed at the gate.

I don't think that's what upset them. What upset them was that he was healed in the name of Jesus. You ever notice how people are greatly offended by the name of Jesus? We can talk about God, and that's because people say, well, we all believe the same thing. And, we were talking yesterday to some folks about a coexist bumper sticker.

We see these coexist bumper stickers, and they have the different religious symbols. And basically, what they're trying to say is, well, you might call your God this, and we might call our God this, and you might have this book, and and you have the Bible. But really, we all believe the same thing. It's not true. And that's a sad lie that the enemy is using, and it's what the world is being deceived by.

And that's one reason why missions are so important because these other religious groups, they are sending out people by the thousands all over the world delivering a message that is not true. And so it's very important for us to remember. They were upset because of the name of Jesus. Verse five and six that we just read through even talks about how religious these people were. I like to tell people that our our salvation is based on a relationship, not on religion.

And so we can see here the Sadducees, the Pharisees, scripture describes describes them as vipers, snakes. They're evil. They're something that are deceitful. And so the problem there came because they mentioned the name of Christ. Well, the message of Christ is gonna be offensive to people even today.

John fifteen eighteen tells us, if the world hates you hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. It shouldn't surprise us that the world doesn't appreciate our worldview. The way we see things in the world is contrary to the way the world wants to see it. And so people today in America, in the Western world, they strive for freedom. We want freedom, and you people that are religious, you're trying to to to keep us.

We wanna be free to do what we want. We wanna allow ourselves to do and be and feel everything that we want. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what the world says. But really, they're not free.

They're enslaved. They're in bondage to sin. So the message of Christ today is just as offensive to people as it was back in Peter and John's day. Listen to a couple of verses I have noted down here. You know these by heart, I'm sure.

John fourteen six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh unto the father but by me. Who spoke those words? Christ. Alright.

So how many ways are there to get to heaven? One way. That verse is offensive to the world because they don't like the exclusivity of salvation through Christ. Acts four twelve says, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby ye must be saved. Wonderful verse for us as Christians, a verse, a message that is hated by the evil one.

The message of Christ often infuriates the world. And so, we can see throughout scripture, even the apostle Paul talked about that in Thessalonians, how there's gonna be this falling away. There's gonna be this acceptance of sin, how mankind is going to oppose everything that God does, and man is going to, exalt himself. So you remember how we started off, and I said there's the good side of boldness, and there's the bad side of boldness. Well, we've seen the bad side.

When we minister, when we promote missions, when we share the gospel with people, the enemy's gonna be emboldened. But the good news is is when the gospel is proclaimed, God will embolden us. God's gonna embolden us. So let's back at our our main passage again, Acts chapter four and verse eight. Then Peter filled with the holy ghost said unto them, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to this impotent man by what means he has made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified.

So he's he's saying right there, it's all because of the name of Christ. Well, I think the key is is that Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. Now we talked about the supernatural power last night. Well, Peter was filled by the Holy Ghost. Verse eight even tells us, then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost.

You know what? The world knows nothing of the power of the Holy Ghost. I dare say that many Christians, professing Christians, don't understand the power of the Holy Ghost. Sadly, there's some churches, there's some denominations, if I wanna use that term, that have misunderstood the Holy Spirit. They misunderstand sign gifts that we could see in the Old Testament, and they strive to have those sign gifts today.

And so this is not the time to talk about that, but you know, speaking in tongues or healing people, they they work so hard for that that they actually miss out on the real power of the Holy Spirit because they're so interested in seeing what they can get for themselves. But the Holy Spirit is for us to glorify God by him indwelling us, and then by us doing the work for other people. It's not for ourselves. It's for others and for God. And so, Peter was filled with the holy spirit and we can see that Jesus has used, the holy spirit and other people.

Matthew twenty eight eighteen, when we talk about the great commission, that one part says, all powers given unto me in heaven and in earth. So how are we supposed to go? Well, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit is gonna allow us to do these things. You also know Acts one eight. It says, but you shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria to the uttermost part of the earth. It's not our power. It's not our abilities. It's not our church. It's the Holy Spirit that emboldens us, that helps us, that helps us to proclaim, and we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's a continual action to live godly lives, to be separated from the world so that the Holy Spirit can work through us. Any sin, anything that distracts us from following after God is gonna hinder the holy spirit's working in our lives. So the key was being filled with the holy spirit but the message was Jesus Christ crucified and raised. Second Corinthians one eighteen tells us, for the preaching of the cross to them that perish is foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. So I want us to think about this today.

Are we allowing the enemy to be emboldened? Are we being emboldened by the Holy Spirit? One final thing I want us to see is when we are emboldened, it serves as a valuable testimony for Christ. You see, I've known people that were as timid as can be, and God put them in situations where they could share their faith, and God gave them the boldness to speak up. And you know what?

That's a very, very powerful thing. You hear the stories of people that will put themselves in harm's way to go save someone from a car that's on fire. But even greater to see the boldness of someone, perhaps a missionary, someone that goes into a difficult area. It takes boldness to share your faith with your family. It takes boldness to go talk to your neighbor.

It takes boldness to talk to your coworker. And when we have the boldness to do that, when the Holy Spirit's working in us and we yield to his power, that makes a great testimony for Christ. I can't help but think of the missionaries that went to Ecuador. We all know of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and those fellows that were down there. It took tremendous boldness.

And you know what? The world would say they failed. They they were killed by these Indians, the Aka Indians, and so the whole thing was a disaster. But you know what? How many missionaries felt the call?

How many young people heard that story and God used that to embolden them? I can't imagine the impact that those young men that died in that that disaster, what kind of impact they had on the world. When we're emboldened, it serves as a great testimony for Christ. Our said that our desire should be that other people notice Jesus, not us. Our desire should be that others come to Christ.

So what I want us to see this morning from this passage scripture is we better be careful. We shouldn't be caught off guard that when we proclaim truth, we see it here in scripture, we can see it all through history that when we preach Christ, the enemy is going to be emboldened. Instead of letting that discourage us, instead instead of letting that intimidate us, maybe it should embolden us to get to work. Because maybe when the enemy is starting to attack back, it shows us that maybe the work is just beginning to be successful. I could give you story after story, example after example of times on the mission field where we felt discouraged by things that were going on.

We would have a plan and it just would fall through. You'd have somebody you were sharing your faith with and there'd be a distraction. You would think you were making progress on something and then disaster would strike. The enemy is bold, but because of the Holy Spirit, because of Christ, we should be bolder. Let's make sure that we have a testimony for Christ.

Father, we thank you for what we've seen this morning from the book of Acts chapter four. There's a whole lot more that we could say. It's such a rich text. There's so many important things there. But father, my heart is challenged to see here that we remember that there's no other way.

There's no other name given under heaven. There's no other way that we can come to salvation except through Jesus Christ. Father, help us to be bold about that. The name of Jesus is not real popular in our world today. It's offensive to people.

Yet, father, help us to be bold enough to proclaim it proudly. Help us to live as Christians, meaning just little Christians everywhere that we go that people can see Christ in us. Father, help this not just to be a history lesson that we look back on and enjoy, but that it can be something that impacts our lives. Help us to live like the disciples did. Help us to be bold, filled with the spirit.

And I believe if we would, we'll see many come to you. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.