Speak Boldly

Alba 8-27-2023

SPEAK BOLDLY

Ephesians 6:18-20

The night I was going to ask Janine to marry me, I had a plan. I was preaching in North Platte, Nebraska and she had come there for the weekend. She was staying with one of the ladies of the church. My plan was to wait until the end of the evening service. And when everyone else had left, take her to the front of the sanctuary and sit her down on the pew. I was going to kneel down before her and ask for her hand in marriage.

Well, it didn't happen. It could have. Everyone else had left, and all was in place for the plan to go forward. But I lost my nerve. So we left the church building in my car and I drove to the house where she was staying. It was December 10th, and in North Platte, it was way below freezing that night.

So then I suggested that we should go get some hot chocolate at a fast food restaurant, which we did. After that we went back to the house where she was staying. We sat and talked for a bit. And then, fortified by the hot chocolate, I asked her to marry me. Thankfully, she said yes!

I needed boldness that didn't seem to be there. If fact, Janine said later that I was acting so strange that she thought I was going to break up with her! All I really needed was to find the courage to use the words that I wanted to say.

There are times in our lives when we need to speak boldly. The apostle Paul realized that when he asked the Ephesian church to pray for him. He had a specific prayer request. And it was for boldness.

As he challenged the church to put on the whole armor of God to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, he wraps it all up with the reminder that prayer is an essential part of what is needed to win the spiritual battles we face daily.

Ephesians 6:18 is where he tells us that we should be, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Then he adds a personal request for prayer. He says in verses 19 and 20, “and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

He wanted boldness. He asked that the right words be given him and for the courage to speak them. Remember where he was! He was a prisoner in Rome, and it was his words that got him where he was; chained to a prison guard.

But he didn't ask the believers in Ephesus to pray for his release. Instead, he only asked that they pray that he would be given the words to proclaim the gospel with boldness.

Paul is being persecuted. He’s in jail for proclaiming his faith in Jesus. Did he ask for money so he could hire a lawyer to get him out? No. Did he ask them to take up a collection so he could have plenty of food and blankets in his cell, and maybe a TV and a coffee pot? No.

Given a similar circumstance as Paul, what might have been our request? “Pray that God gets me outta here!” “Pray that God protect me.” “Pray that more people come to see me.”

“Pray that my circumstance changes for the better.”

In his second letter to Timothy, when Paul is in jail again, he did ask Timothy to send his warm coat before winter and his favorite books and parchments, which may have included scripture and some of his own writings.

But Paul’s primary concern was the effective communication of the Gospel. He is concerned about two things: Words to speak, and boldness to speak them. Maybe that's why Paul's letters so often direct our attention toward the spiritual and away from earthly needs.

For example, as I said, when Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he was in prison. Similarly, when Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians, he was also in prison. Yet even then, Paul focused on how his imprisonment made others even more fearless in their witness.

In Philippians 1:12-14 he said: “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”