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Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

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Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Studyheadquarters dot com.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Daily devotions with Pastor John. I'm John Stangey,

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Speaker 1: and today's devotion is inspired by Romans Chapter one, verse sixteen,

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Speaker 1: which says, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel,

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Speaker 1: for it is the power of God for salvation to

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Speaker 1: everyone who believes. To the jew first, and also to

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Speaker 1: the Greek. The Bible tells us that the message of

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Speaker 1: the Gospel sounds like foolishness to those who are perishing,

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Speaker 1: to those who live in ignorance of their need for salvation.

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Speaker 1: It might sound comical or even fanatical to think that

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Speaker 1: God would take on human flesh and willingly allow himself

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Speaker 1: to be nailed to a cross in order to atone

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Speaker 1: for sins he did not personally commit. But that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what Jesus did. So what will we do with that truth?

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Speaker 1: Knowing that there are many people who may regard that

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Speaker 1: message as silly or not applicable to them, it can

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Speaker 1: be tempting to act somewhat timid about the truth of

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Speaker 1: the Gospel instead of expressing it with joy. It's possible

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Speaker 1: for us to act like we're ashamed of the very

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Speaker 1: message that brings us hope. We don't need to be

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Speaker 1: ashamed of the Gospel. If our hope isn't anchored in

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Speaker 1: earthly prestige or the fleeting praise of men, we can

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Speaker 1: unashamedly and lovingly express that our hearts find great hope

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Speaker 1: and peace through the knowledge that Christ loves us enough

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Speaker 1: to rescue and redeem us. How audibly do your words

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Speaker 1: and your life express your love for Jesus Christ and

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Speaker 1: your great for the good news of his gospel message.

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Speaker 1: Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word, and

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Speaker 1: we thank you for the privilege that it is to

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Speaker 1: be able to look at this portion of scripture from

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Speaker 1: the Book of Romans today. And Lord, this is such

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Speaker 1: a pivotal portion of scripture because it gets down to

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Speaker 1: the essence of what motivates us. Are we motivated by

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Speaker 1: your gospel or are we motivated by something else? Are

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Speaker 1: we ashamed of you and ashamed of the truth of

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Speaker 1: your word? Or do we joyfully let others know about

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Speaker 1: the truth of what You've done for us? Lord, We're

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Speaker 1: grateful to be able to look at a portion of

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Speaker 1: scripture like this that encourages us not to be ashamed

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Speaker 1: of your good news, because in your gospel you have

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Speaker 1: demonstrated your power to save us. You save everyone who

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Speaker 1: believes in your son Jesus Christ. You rescue us, you

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Speaker 1: redeem us, You draw us close to yourself, and you

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Speaker 1: help us to go about life in this world as

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Speaker 1: men and women who have genuine hope. There's nothing about

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Speaker 1: that we need to be ashamed of. We recognize that

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Speaker 1: in this world there will be plenty of people who

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Speaker 1: castigate us because of our faith in You. We may

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Speaker 1: be ridiculed, we may be insulted, we may be looked

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Speaker 1: down upon, and that's exactly what your word tells us

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Speaker 1: to expect. But at the same time, our hope is

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Speaker 1: not anchored in the changing opinions of humanity. Our hope

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Speaker 1: is anchored in You, Lord. And again, there's nothing about

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Speaker 1: that we need to be ashamed of. So we thank

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Speaker 1: you again for this portion of your word. We thank

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Speaker 1: you for reminding us of the joy that we have

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Speaker 1: through faith in your son Jesus Christ. And we pray

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Speaker 1: that in every place that you put us, and in

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Speaker 1: every context we operate in, that we would joyfully make

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Speaker 1: the Gospel known because it's a privileged lord to be

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Speaker 1: the recipients and the beneficiaries of all you've accomplished on

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Speaker 1: our behalf. We're grateful for all of this, and we

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Speaker 1: pray in Jesus' name. Amen,