What Boldness Looks Like, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. On the cross, as Jesus completed the great sacrifice on behalf of our sins, the curtain of the temple that separated the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. Now, through the blood of Christ, we can enter the holy place and come before God the Father, not just as his servants, but as daughter and son.

Everything has changed. Our life objective has a name. Our source of life has a name.

His name is Jesus. Our beautiful confidence and safety in our relationship with God flows out in streams of living water through our outward expression. It looks like boldness in the way we live and love. Listen as Pastor Rich unpacks Hebrews 10 19-25 in this message titled, What Boldness Looks Like. This is part 3 of the message, which was first preached on October 14, 2012. Peter speaks of this very clearly. I love what he says in 1 Peter 1, verses 5-8. You who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, though now for a little while if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold which perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

What is that? That's a big picture. That's why I like Peter so much because he's into the big picture.

And when we lose sight of the big picture, then we become myopic and we're focused on the troubles and we draw back and we lose our hope. That's not the picture of boldness. Boldness means that I persevere with joyful expectation, joyful expectation. And my hope, my confidence is not based on the strength of my trust, but on the merits of the one who is trustworthy. Big difference.

Did you hear that? The strength of my confidence is not in the strength of my faith, but in the merits of the one who is trustworthy. We have to really understand that difference. And therefore, because he is trustworthy, I can persevere, not fretful of the unknown, not fretful of tomorrow, not fretful of the next play in the game. As he said in verse 25, as you see the day approaching, God is in control of history. He has shown us the last chapter of the book. We have glimpses of what happens. We have glimpses of the victory and the victory parade and the celebration banquet. We have glimpses of that. We've read the last chapter of the book. We know God wins.

And if I am with him in Christ, then I'm on the winning team. And it's like if I were to choose, there's going to be football games today, right? And that's why you want me to get done with this, because you want to go watch a football game.

But that's why you have ways that you can record that. So you're going to watch this football game. It's going to come on at one o'clock. You got to eat lunch and all that stuff.

Go out to the restaurant. By the time it'll be half over. So you're going to record the game. So you're going to watch that game tomorrow night. But you already know the outcome of the game.

You've read the headlines. You know the outcome of that game. But you want to go back and watch it anyway.

See how it all played out, right? Now, if you know the outcome of the game, are you going to get preoccupied and all worried over one incompletion? In football terms, that means somebody didn't make a pass.

Somebody didn't catch the pass. That's okay for you, those who don't care for football. But no, you're not going to get upset about it, because you know the outcome of the game. As you see the day approaching, it is his day of victory, his day of judgment, and his day of victory.

When you know the winning outcome of the game, you're not distraught by the little mishaps. So that's joyful expectation. What does boldness look like?

It's a downward movement, and it looks like joyful expectation. Verse 22 and 23. And then the third thing that boldness looks like is in verses 24 and 25. It begins with another, let us.

Verse 24. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as an error of some, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. The third thing that boldness looks like is active love. Active love.

That's what boldness looks like. When he says, let us consider one another, that word consider means, it's the word katanoeo, it means to be attentive to something. And what am I attentive to? If I consider Colin, I am attentive to Colin.

About what? His needs, his God-ward movement, his relationship with God, and the outflow of that is his relationship with others. I'm attentive to that. Are you growing in the Lord? Are you suffering?

Are you being challenged? Am I attentive to that? And as I am attentive to that, that katanoeo, then there's that continuous care that happens. And as there is that continuous care through that attentiveness, that means that we end up stirring up one another to love and good works. To stir up means to incite. We come together to incite one another.

How's that? You see, that word can be used negatively, it can be used positively. Are you using it negatively or positively? Are you holding back the church? Are you an irritation to the church? Or are you stirring up the church to love and good works? To incite one another, to stimulate one another to love and good works. You see, there's real personal benefits to this as well.

That's not the reason why it's given in the command. But I can truly guarantee you this, that the more you are invested in others, the less preoccupied you will be with your own limits and inadequacies and frustrations. That's why we are called to walk together God-ward. As the writer of Proverbs says in Proverbs 27, as iron sharpens iron, we help each other develop into the image of Jesus Christ as we walk with each other. That's his intent for the church. And so there's that relationship with each other as the church, and the outflow of that as we are walking together, stirring one another up to love and good works, then we leave the same footprint that Jesus did on the earth.

And what was that footprint? Love and good works. He sacrificed himself for others. That is his reputation. Some don't choose to believe that he sacrificed his life for them.

That doesn't make it false. But the truth is that he sacrificed himself for others. Now, verse 25 makes it very clear that you can't do this if you abandon fellowship, if you marginalize fellowship. The intent of God's people is that they're together for the purpose of being together to help one another, to walk together in a God-ward direction. You see, the one anothers of the New Testament, about 35 of them, they can't be done by yourself.

You can't go home and sit in a room by yourself and do the one anothers. You have to be in the presence of God's people to do them. And that's what we are called to do. And it uses the word exhorting in verse 25. But exhorting one another, that's the word parakaleo, which means to come alongside. Exhorting one another.

Bring someone alongside of you. You step up and come alongside someone else to help them walk in a God-ward direction, to stir up love and good deeds. Here's a key identifying mark of the one who is in fellowship with God, and that is that he is much more concerned about the donation of his life than he is about the duration of his life. A key identifying mark of the one who is in fellowship with God is that he is much more concerned about the donation of his life than he is about the duration of his life. And here's the order to these three, because the apostle has given us first this encapsulated form of the indicative.

This is what's true. We have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The new and living way. Jesus is my high priest and he guarantees the promise of forgiveness, relationship, presence and transformation. And I have free access to God. I can approach and engage in conversation anytime. That means anytime of the day or week 24-7, I am in fellowship with God.

Are you taking advantage of that? If that is true, if you are in fellowship with God, drawing light from him, if number one is true, then number two and three will also be true. Don't try two and three without first accomplishing number one. You as Christians, as believers, you are to be labor intensive in your passionate fellowship with God because that means you're drawing life from him. And if you're not drawing life from him, you will not have that joyful expectation and you will not have that active love.

Try to do it in the flesh and it doesn't work. So that's why he begins with, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Because the grounds of your confidence, this is the summary of the message today, the grounds of your confidence is your relationship to God. The outflow of that relationship is boldness manifested in God-ward movement, joyful expectation and active love.

This is what boldness looks like, faith, hope and love. Boy, that sounds distinctly biblical, doesn't it? That's what the word of God teaches us. If you've not ever responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ as you heard it this morning previously in the message, then I encourage you please respond to the gospel. God loves you and he's drawing you to himself by virtue of the fact that you are sitting here today under this word.

You need God, you need to be reconciled to him. Christians here today, does your life manifest boldness? Are you drawing near to God? Do you have that joyful expectation in life?

Are you becoming preoccupied with the frustrating characteristics of creation? And does your life exude that active love, the outflow of your walk with God? Let's be challenged by the word of God this morning. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.