As you know, we're having different men speak tonight and we're going to ask
Jonathan Shelly to come and be our first speaker.
If y'all turn to Ephesians 6, 14, and I really appreciate the opportunity to
speak and for y'all suffering through coming here on a cold cold night.
Um, in Ephesians 6, Paul is talking about the whole armor of God.
And as we pick up in verse 14,
The Bible reads,
Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am in a bastard and bonds,
that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
And here we see just everything
that a Christian should have.
We have here in verse 14,
our loins gird about with truth,
knowing the Bible, having that wrapped around us,
having the breastplate of righteousness,
that we live holy, that we be a clean vessel
We see that we have the shield of faith and that we have the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit
Which is the word of God with us?
You know and
Where I'm going to focus today is in verse 19 where he says in that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my
mouth boldly and the title of this little
Messages that open my mouth boldly and so we're going to see how consistent the Bible is
I want to flip to a couple places if you'd flip back to Acts chapter 10 with me real quick
And in Acts chapter 10 we have Peter and he's called by God by a few men, a few Gentiles
to go speak to them, to go preach unto them.
And we pick up in Acts 10 verse 31, and said Cornelius, Thy prayer is heard, and thine
alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
Send therefore to Jopah and call Hither Simon, whose surname is Peter.
who when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.
Immediately therefore I sent to thee,
and thou hast well done that thou art come.
Now therefore, are we all here present before God
to hear all things that are commanded thee of God?
Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth.
I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
And so we see here a servant of God.
Peter, he opens his mouth.
And, you know, if we skip down to verse 43, he says,
To him give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them,
which heard the word.
And so we see when we open our mouth boldly, things happen.
We see that Peter opened his mouth boldly, preached Jesus,
and the Holy Ghost fell on a group of Gentiles.
Many Gentiles, as the Bible describes.
And if we flip one page back, we go to Acts 8.
Here in Acts 8 verse 34 we have another man Philip another servant of God
And he's told by the angel of war to go join himself
Unto a chariot and talk with the eunuch who's reading the book of Isaiah and he's reading about Jesus
And we pick up in verse 34 and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself
Or of some other man then Philip opened his mouth and he began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus
And as they went on their way, they came into certain water, and the eunuch said,
See his ear is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
So again, we see another man, a servant of God, who opens his mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel, and someone saved.
If you flip with me to Romans 10, we see the plan of salvation.
We see how someone is saved.
We see what the Bible is instructing us to do as servants of God.
And in verse 14, the Bible reads, How then shall they call in him in whom they have not
believed?
And how so they believe in him in whom they have not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written?
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things?
But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith Lord who hath believed our report
so then faith cometh by hearing and
Hearing by the word of God and so we see the only way someone's gonna get saved is by hearing the word of God
Well, how are you gonna hear it?
Someone has to open their mouth boldly and preach it.
And how are they going to preach it? Well, they have to use their feet to go.
And how are they going to go? Well, they're going to be sent.
And so, turn to one last place and we'll be finished.
Acts chapter 5.
And you know, when I think about Arden Road Baptist Church...
It's been a real blessing to us and when I look at all the other churches in Amarillo, I know I'm a little biased
But I can say honestly, I think this is the best church in Amarillo, Texas
You know and I I look at all the other churches and I think they teach work salvation many of them
They they package it up in all kinds of different ways. They teach all kinds of weird stuff
But that's not really the comparison we should be making we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to these churches out here
We should compare ourselves to the church and acts it was winning 3,000 souls in one day
And in verse 42 the Bible says,
And daily in the temple, and in every house,
they seats not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Let me read that one more time.
And daily in the temple, and in every house,
they seats not to teach, preach Jesus Christ.
And that's what we should do. Let's pray.
Thank you Jesus Christ for letting us come here today.
I just pray that as we head home that you just keep us safe.
I just thank you so much that we can come to a church to read your word.
I pray that you would just give all of us boldness, that we could open our mouths, that
we could use our feet to go and spread the gospel, and that we would teach at every house,
that not only would we go across the whole world, but that we would go to our own backyard,
and that we would knock the doors, and that we would preach and open our mouths boldly
and make known the mystery of the gospel.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thank you, brother Shalini.