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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse eachday to learn more

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Speaker 1: about God and his will for our lives. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one of our sponsors,

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Speaker 1: we will continue with today's verse. Today's verse can be

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Speaker 1: found in First Corinthians, Chapter nine, verse sixteen. When I

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Speaker 1: preach the Gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled

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Speaker 1: to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach

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Speaker 1: the gospel. We all know that famous quote from Saint

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Speaker 1: Francis of this in all things, preach the gospel if necessary,

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Speaker 1: use words at its best. This quote gives Christians the

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Speaker 1: freedom to feel like they don't need to be experts

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Speaker 1: in every single question or every single situation. We can

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Speaker 1: display the truth about Jesus and the reality of God's

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Speaker 1: kingdom simply by how we live. This is sometimes called

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Speaker 1: lifestyle evangelism. It's the idea that we make the Gospel

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Speaker 1: attractive to people by how we live our lives, and

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Speaker 1: not just by fancy arguments or polished speeches. But there's

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Speaker 1: a danger of taking Saint Francis's quote too far. The

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Speaker 1: danger is that we downplay the importance of speaking about

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Speaker 1: our faith. This quote seems to let us off the hook.

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Speaker 1: We don't need to be diligent about talking about where

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Speaker 1: Jesus is in our lives or talking about what we

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Speaker 1: believe about the faith. In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians,

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Speaker 1: Paul reminds us about the importance of preaching the Gospel

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Speaker 1: of talking about our faith. He describes how he is

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Speaker 1: compelled to proclaim the Gospel truth. When Paul says that

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Speaker 1: he is quote compelled, the word he uses means meeting

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Speaker 1: a need that is put on him by some outside

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Speaker 1: or strong force. So Paul is describing how he feels

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Speaker 1: inwardly propelled divinely mandated to this action to work toward

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Speaker 1: the satisfaction of a pressing need. See Paul preaches not

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Speaker 1: just because he wants to, but because he was firmly

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Speaker 1: convinced that the people around him needed to know the

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Speaker 1: truth about Jesus and his resurrection. Now, when Paul speaks

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Speaker 1: about preaching the Gospel, he's not just talking about sermons.

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Speaker 1: He's talking about entering relationships with people and inviting them

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Speaker 1: into the reality of Jesus in this world. Later in

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Speaker 1: his letter, Paul will talk about how he makes himself

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Speaker 1: a servant to everyone in order to win as many

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Speaker 1: people as possible. Paul's preaching wasn't a facade, nor was

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Speaker 1: it something that he just pointed to as a way

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Speaker 1: to elevate his status before others. Paul simply spoke about

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Speaker 1: how he experienced the reality of Jesus in his life,

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Speaker 1: and then he would invite others to explore that reality

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Speaker 1: as well. And so he says, woe to me if

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Speaker 1: I do not preach the gospel, because the transformative and

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Speaker 1: life changing news of Jesus' resurrection was just too good

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Speaker 1: to keep to himself. Now, we may be tempted to

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Speaker 1: think that this verse only refers to Paul, or maybe

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Speaker 1: to established preachers after him. After all, isn't preaching the

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Speaker 1: gospel akin to giving a speech one that will address

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Speaker 1: all possible objections and questions, one that will put all

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Speaker 1: doubts to rest and fully and definitively convince every other person. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course Paul did that. He went to synagogues, and

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Speaker 1: he debated with philosophical, civic, and religious leaders. And so

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Speaker 1: doesn't this verse speak to Paul's role as a church leader.

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Speaker 1: Paul is called to preach. We'll thank goodness we are not.

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Speaker 1: But the divine compelling that exists behind Paul's statement is

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Speaker 1: still there and is still there for us. The necessity

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Speaker 1: for people to hear the good News is still in

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Speaker 1: effect two thousand years after Paul wrote these words, and

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Speaker 1: so the divine calling is still there. We are called

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Speaker 1: to that same fervor that Paul had in proclaiming the

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Speaker 1: truth of the Gospel. This is a verse that is

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Speaker 1: applied to each and every single one of us, not

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Speaker 1: just to preachers and teachers and church leaders. So take

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Speaker 1: a moment and think about the people in your life.

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Speaker 1: Think about the situations that they may find themselves in,

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Speaker 1: the struggles that they may have, or the obstacles they face,

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Speaker 1: or maybe think about the joys that they are experiencing.

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Speaker 1: How might Jesus be calling you to journey with that person?

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Speaker 1: How might Jesus want you to articulate the Gospel to them,

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Speaker 1: not as some theological argument that you will just slap

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Speaker 1: over their issues, but as a testimony about how Jesus

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Speaker 1: has touched your life and how Jesus can touch theirs.

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Speaker 1: The Lord calls us all to preach because God wishes

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Speaker 1: to use us to help make God's presence known. We

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Speaker 1: are called just as much as Paul was, to invite

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Speaker 1: others into the reality of Jesus in this world. And yes,

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Speaker 1: holy lives will do a lot, and it's a profound

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Speaker 1: witness to others. But as followers of Jesus, we also

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Speaker 1: have to be bold enough to speak about our faith,

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Speaker 1: to articulate the reasons for the hope that we have.

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Speaker 1: We simply cannot deny the importance of giving voice to

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Speaker 1: the place of Jesus in our life. As followers of Jesus,

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Speaker 1: we are called to speak about the availability of forgiveness,

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Speaker 1: to describe the healing that occurs when we know Jesus

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Speaker 1: in our life. We are called to speak about the

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Speaker 1: love of Jesus and the assurance of eternal life. And

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Speaker 1: this is both the truths that we have received and

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Speaker 1: lived within and the truths that we are called to proclaim.

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Speaker 1: Because the freedom that we have in Christ is the

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Speaker 1: same freedom that Jesus wants others to experience, and for

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Speaker 1: that purpose he sends us out to all Christians and

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Speaker 1: to all followers of Jesus. The call is the same

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Speaker 1: to all people preach the Gospel and use words,