Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed | Crossroads Daily

All right, welcome back. My name is Caleb. I'm Mish. I'm Dani. And I'm Jamie. We're looking at Acts chapter 4 today to finish up the week. And the word of the day is boldness, boldness, boldness. Peter and John and the disciples all through this chapter show different degrees and pray for boldness. One of the things that's really interesting to me in this chapter is Peter and John were fishermen, right? Before Jesus called them, not known for being eloquent speakers, not knowing for being leaders of people, right? Like, just not on the radar for them to do that. And that's actually what they're doing here. The people, the religious leaders arrest them because they're so good at it. They're so frustrated at them talking about Jesus. Verse 13, it says, when they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated, they were amazed and they knew that they had been with Jesus. Something is different about these people because they had been with Jesus. So I don't know if it's going to be uncomfortable for you, but we're going to serve it up. You got to talk about yourself in a positive way, which people don't do a lot. What's something that's different about you because you have been with Jesus? What's something that Jesus has changed in you that shouldn't be this way without Jesus? I'll let you think, okay? I'm going to let you think. I'll go first. The fact that I'm talking on a microphone is something different about me. I grew up with a horrible stutter, speech impediment, could not communicate all through elementary school, middle school. Like, teacher calling us to read in class was the worst fear-inducing thing that could ever happen because I was like, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. I just could not get words out. I can't explain it. I honestly don't know how I'm here, except for Jesus. Jesus put me in opportunities to get reps. Didn't do it perfectly all the time, but here I am talking about his word with you lovely people, something I should not be able to do, and it's because of Jesus. That's wonderful. That's amazing. You have a clear gifting of being able to talk about the word of Jesus as well. Thank you. Thank you. What else? What has changed for you guys? I say this humbly, my ability to apologize. That's something I feel like, well, let's be frank, my family does not, like the family I grew up in, they never apologized. They never said sorry. Even when someone clearly did something to hurt someone else for the purpose of hurting someone else, when someone was wrong about, like factually wrong about something. I think a term I've heard is like a generational stronghold. I don't know if this was true for generations beyond my parents, but maybe it was. That was something

that was so ingrained in my family is to look at someone else as the problem. Sometimes even our own family as the problem. Now, I'm not saying I do this perfectly, but recognizing the importance of just saying I'm sorry, or I was wrong, or yeah, you were right. I don't know. I could have done better. I don't know. That's great, man. That's huge. I mean, that's key. That's key to relationships, right? Fantastic. What about you ladies? Mine feels trivial, but I'll share it. It's not trivial. I grew up in a household where our family fun time was pointing out when someone else was wrong. Like, oh, that was the wrong word, or wrong verb tense, or that's not a real fact. If that was commonplace in my family, I made it an Olympic sport to the point where it just caused damage in my relationships with my siblings. There was just this need to be right, and it permeated a lot of things. I would say in the last couple of years that that's been something God has transformed in me. Someone will still say something wrong, and on the inside, I'll keep it together until somebody else around the table makes a comment about it, and then I'll crack up. I don't think I realized in how it made me feel good, it made others feel so bad. I think Jesus being transformed into his likeness is like, well, he would never do that. I feel like that's been something he's just been softening the edges. It was a very sharp edge. Sanding it down. Sanding it down, yeah. Now it's duller. I won't say it's dull. It's duller. That's not trivial at all. I think that's fantastic. I do too, yeah. Very practical. That's right. In my household... old growing up we kind of swept everything under the rug, never talked about it, never fought, I never saw my parents fight, nothing and that's obviously living a false life because if everything's under the rug you're not sharing anything truthful with each other or whatever and what that can lead to for me at least was performance type issues where it's like everything has to look perfect it's like the worst Instagram life ever right it's like we didn't even have Instagram because that wasn't a thing back in back in the old days but but that's what we were doing we were essentially just make sure everybody thinks everything's perfect on the outside and don't share any of the

real stuff that's happening and through I've I've I've always grown up in church because that's what you do when you have a family that wants to look perfect on the outside you go to church and but when I was in high school I found that there was actually the thing of a relationship with Jesus and once I found that I found it through Young Life it was absolutely transformative and I realized that oh wait when you actually bring things out into the light there's freedom there there's freedom and people actually like you a lot better when you're truthful and vulnerable and willing to share your ugly uglies or you know whatever let stuff out from underneath the rug and that's that's just something that you know can only come through Jesus you know yeah it's great so these men who were fishermen again who had no reason to be doing this we're out boldly talking about Jesus boldly doing miracles boldly leading this early church movement you think about your life where's God asking you to make a bold move maybe you've been putting it off maybe it's still in progress and you haven't you're like in the middle of doing it where's God calling you into boldness my mom passed away in July unexpectedly and my not all of my family has a faith and so I feel like there's a there's a lot of really incredible things that have come from from her death it's such a sad thing but there's some so much beauty that's coming from that one of which is this like God's calling me into a bold space of I need to be bold about this faith because my mom I know is in heaven and I'm gonna see her again and I want to make sure I see my other family members in heaven you know what I mean and so someone really wise told me they were like you know what you're not responsible for their salvation but you're absolutely responsible for the introduction and so that's where I'm like feeling this because normally we wouldn't you know wouldn't bring it up or wouldn't talk about it I'd be like oh they can just watch my how I'm living my life and maybe they'll see Jesus and it's like no step into the bold thing and do the bold thing yeah yeah it's life or death yeah totally yeah totally yeah proclaim with the like your mouth like yes seriously yeah that's amazing I am I like not too long ago realized I

didn't have any spaces where I felt like I was interacting with people who don't know Jesus like at my small groups and that kind of thing and everything just felt really isolated and so I started playing board games I go to this board game store a couple times a week and go play with people and there's this one individual who now um no less than three times has said well I used to have faith but I lost my faith and then I'm like so it's my turn to take a turn on the board and I feel like I'm supposed to wade into that with that individual and I've avoided it and we've known each other for like a year now and I'm like okay God the next time that door opens I think I'm supposed to be bold and like walk through it with this individual which like also just makes me like really nervous but like but on the flip side of it is life or death and so like I would love for him to rekindle his relationship with Jesus and if it means me being bold then I just got to do that well and I get that too because it's like speaking truth in that moment you don't want to hammer him over the head with it you know I mean we live in a weird time right now where truth can sometimes be received in a non-loving way yeah and so like how do you do that how do you wade into that but I trust that if you're stepping into the boldness and that's where God's calling you he's gonna meet you there and he's gonna actually whatever comes out of your mouth is gonna be massaged wonderfully before it hits their ears you know yeah and it's just taking the next the next step yeah you don't have to get them all the way down the path like Daniel was saying it might just be an introduction it might just be one conversation but yeah being obedient to the next step and I think that's where like relational capital we talked about relational capital and sometimes I assume It's just like getting to know some people. Actually, I think there's a trust that's building up like even for you. If you're just saying like, well, knowing Jesus would make your life better

to someone like that, they might not actually receive that. They might receive that negatively. You might've hurt your witness because there was nothing. They don't necessarily think you care for them. But in these instances, I can just imagine that your friend, what board game are you playing also? Silence of Catan? Silence of Catan, I'll trade you a couple. It's an entry game. All right, I'm fine. I'm just saying. Dang. We go down the deep end. But yeah, for me, it's actually, it's not boldly sharing my faith with people who don't know Jesus. It's actually kind of the opposite. It's caring for people who do know Jesus, but I think so differently from them. And I've specifically been challenged by this one person the past three weeks where I do not want to like him and I'm starting to like him more. I love everything about this. I did not suspect this was going to happen. How much time do we have? Just as a person. And I just hear God just like challenging me and that to care for them.

And I think also share some truth, but more than that, humbly receive him. Yeah, I'm feeling kind of similarly, but called to be bold at my house with my kids who are 10, 10, and nine. Like not just saying rote prayers at night, but like, let's push into like, you're feeling sick, let's pray for healing. You're feeling confused, let's pray for God's direction. Like there's a widow across the street. You know, Bible says, take care of widows and orphans. Like, let's go see what we can do for her. And just, and being bold there, forming that next generation of bold followers of Jesus. Yeah, so Peter and John finished this chapter actually by praying for more boldness. And so we're just gonna do that together. Let's do it. Let's do it. God, thank you for my friends here on these couches. Thank you for the people tuning in with us at home over their apps and phones, tablets. God, we ask for opportunities for boldness that you would grow us in that today. We're gonna keep our antenna up and our eyes open looking for what you're gonna do. We wanna have muscles that are primed to jump in when we see you at work. Thank you for being so good to us and for giving us boldness

that can help transform other people's lives. It's your name we pray, amen. Thanks. We'll see you next time.