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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [ Music ]

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [CHOIR SINGING] Still away, still away to Jesus. Still away, still away home, I will not long.

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♪ This day ♪ ♪ My Lord, he calls me ♪ ♪ He calls me by the thunder ♪ ♪ The trumpet sounds within my soul ♪

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I can't long to stay. Still away, still away, still away to Jesus. ♪ See the waves, see the waves, oh ♪ ♪ I have no tears to shed ♪

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♪ Rain trees are bending ♪ ♪ Puss in a stand of gremling ♪ ♪ The trumpet sounds ♪ ♪ With venom I stole ♪

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♪ Hate that law ♪ ♪ To stay here ♪ ♪ Still away, still away ♪ ♪ Still away to Jesus ♪

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♪ Still away, still away home ♪ ♪ I've got love to say ♪ ♪ To save me ♪ ♪ My Lord, he calls me ♪

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♪ He calls me by the thunder ♪ ♪ The trumpet sounds within my soul ♪ ♪ I've got love to stay here ♪ ♪ Still away, still away ♪

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♪ Still away to Jesus ♪ Still the way, still the way home. I've got home to stay. Amen.

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[audience laughing] Hear this word in the epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans First chapter verses 14 through 16 I am debtor

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both to the Greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you

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that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

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Would you repeat that 16th verse after me? For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

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the subject unashamed of the gospel. We have a tendency to measure strength of character by determining what makes one ashamed. Some years ago I was on a flight during the night to Europe.

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We flew all night. In the course of the flight, alcohol was being consumed by many of the passengers. Some had purchased alcohol in the duty-free shops. And they were having a jolly good time eating, drinking, and making merry.

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Among those that were involved, there was a man who was dressed in clerical garb. and he joined with the others in being the life of the party. And in the course of the night he became intoxicated. And there was a bunk up in near the front of the plane

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where the airline hostesses seemed to retire during the night. And he became so intoxicated that he was trying to get up there in the bunk where the stewardess was. And had to be restrained by men who were on the plane. And when all of this was over, he finally fell asleep.

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And when he awakened, the stewardess was lecturing him. And among the things, she said to him, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You ought to be ashamed." I guess each one of us here has had that said at some time in your life

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by a parent or grandmother or somebody that you ought to be ashamed. Or they would put it this way, "Shame on you!" Well, Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome

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And he's saying to them, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." To be ashamed is to suffer guilt. To be ashamed is to be humiliated, to be embarrassed. And so we measure strength of character by considering one's sense of shame.

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Social diagnosticians say that one of the problems of our times is that we have lost a sense of shame. We are suffering today from churches being burned

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almost every week now we get additional reports of churches that have been burned. And those who are guilty of such crimes usually

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do it at times when they think that they're not going to be apprehended. They disguise themselves. Some of them wear hoods and robes and use other measures in order to escape

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detection. But just as it is true that we can judge the character of a nation by a sense of shame, we can judge a person by what he or she is not ashamed of.

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Listen again to the words of the text, Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." Now to be ashamed is to experience estrangement, a feeling of emptiness.

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To be ashamed is to recognize a serious gap between where you are and where you ought to be. Paul says, "I am not ashamed." Now there's some reasons why Paul

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was not ashamed of the gospel. let's consider some personal reasons that he could have been ashamed in the first place and let's look at his condition. Now he's a prisoner. Now most of the time when people find themselves in jail they're ashamed. They don't want

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people to know that they're there. He was a prisoner however because of the preaching of the gospel. From time to time he had been arrested, he had been beaten, and cast into prison. So while this is considered an embarrassing situation to most

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people, Paul says, "I am not ashamed. Though I'm a prisoner, Though I have been beaten and I've been dragged through the streets, I am not ashamed. So I'm not ashamed of the publicity. Sometimes we're wondering, you know, what will the news media do with this?

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Can you imagine the papers with Paul's name in bold print saying, "Apostle of Jesus Christ in prison, arrested to stand charges that have been made by the government." But Paul says, "I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of my prison record.

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I'm not ashamed because of the preaching of the gospel. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, it could have been that he could have been ashamed because of his race.

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He's a Jew. And Jews were considered a rejected and despised group. Under Claudius, the Jews were expelled from Rome. So they were looked upon as a peculiar people

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with strange religious beliefs, odd worship customs. It's possible that race and religion He could have made Paul ashamed, but he says, "Yeah, I am not ashamed." Some people are ashamed because of class.

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Well, they're in the underclass, and so they would like to be in the upper class, and when they're around the upper class, they feel out of place, and so they're ashamed. could be a reason for being ashamed. So many people were poor, call themselves Christians. They were poor but they were believers and it is said that that Rome

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had two million people during this time and about a million of them would be slaves. And so this is not looked upon as a situation or a condition of which to be proud. Paul is identified with the Christian religion, a religion where the leader, the founder, was one who grew up in an obscure town. Where did he grow up? Well in Nazareth. Even one of his own

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countryman said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Here is one that was born of poor parents. Here is one that was crucified. He suffered an ignominious crime, crucified on a on a cross for treason and yet here is Paul preaching the

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gospel about this Jesus Christ who was crucified on a cross. And Paul says as he writes to Rome, "I am not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. No matter what others may say, I am not ashamed." Because, he says, the gospel is like dynamite.

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It's the power of God unto salvation. In other words, you notice those fors in this particular paragraph, for. In other words, for the gospel,

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this is why I'm not ashamed, the gospel is the power of God. For the power of God. The real power of the eternal is wrapped up

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in the good news that we have. It's like dynamite. Oh, I have had times in my life when I've gone to the church

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and I've felt down in the dumps and didn't have a penny in my pocket and somehow going to church anyhow. And somehow in the midst of the service

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that there was something that happened that gave me new courage and hope. And you come out feeling like you're on top of the world and you still don't have a penny in your pocket. Not ashamed of the gospel.

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Here is a man that is being humiliated as far as the social structure is concerned, But he said, "I don't need to apologize." And we don't need to apologize. We don't have to beg the question, for God reveals his power through the gospel of Jesus

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Christ. And this gospel, my brothers and sisters, is the story of Jesus Christ. It's the story of His birth. It's the story of His life, His suffering, and His death as well as His resurrection.

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And that's good news, not just because this is a historical incident or event that happened in Palestine 2,000 years ago, but because it's an event that happens in our lives today. that Christ was born in us, that somewhere along life's way

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we encountered Jesus Christ and his spirit was born in us and it gave us a new vision of life and we entered

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into fellowship with the eternal through Jesus Christ and his works are in our lives and we find ourselves being raised up.

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The resurrection experience happens over and over again. And we know He is alive because He walks with us and talks with us and tells us that we are His own. So He has a continuous presence with us.

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His Spirit is with us. says, "I am not ashamed for it is the power of God for salvation." I'm not ashamed because the gospel is for us. It's for everybody and it is the power of God. It has that

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explosive power that is wrapped up in God. It's God's It's God's design for our wholeness. It's God's design for our healing health. It's God's design for our deliverance.

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Oh, that impotent man that was at the Pool of Bethesda, he had been there for a long, long time. But Jesus says to him, "Do you want to be made whole?" And he is healed.

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With courage and confidence, he declares that he has been healed. "I don't know the man who healed me, but this I know, that I have experienced healing health." So I am not ashamed says the Apostle for the salvation of God

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Everyone that believeth is in the gospel slaves as Well as the masters The rich as well as the poor

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The learned as well as the unlearned. I am not ashamed of of the gospel and it says for the Jew first. Well, why one may ask is the gospel for the Jew first? Well, the divine revelation of this God

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of the biblical faith comes to us through the Jewish people. It is through the Jewish people that this revelation comes And it is to the covenant community that the gospel comes first.

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The covenant community of God. Those that were married to him there at the foot of the smoking summits of Sinai, they entered into a marriage where they took their vows.

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He promised to be their God and they promised to be his people. So it's to the Jew first. So the gospel comes first to those

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who receive the divine revelation. The Jew first. And then he says, for the Gentiles.

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Then for the Gentiles. To the Jew first, and then for the Gentiles. Well, Paul lived in a Greco-Roman world. It was a world that was largely dominated

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by Greek thought. And so when we think about revelation, we also think about reason. Greeks were concerned about reason, reason.

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Paul is not ashamed. The Greeks could boast of having Plato and Socrates, but Paul was not ashamed. Paul had sat at the feet of Gamaliel,

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and he too had been exposed to one of the best educations of his day. But the gospel comes first by way of revelation. Not based on how much we may know

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as far as reason is concerned, because we can never fully know God. We have God revealed to us. He just comes to us and manifests himself to us

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through his son Jesus Christ. And oh how wonderful it is that he reveals himself. He has chosen to let us know him. He has humbled himself in human flesh

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to come to be with us. So Paul says, "I'm not ashamed, for the gospel is first for the Jew and then for the Gentiles." And that means it's for everybody. It's not limited because of race.

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It is for everybody, of every region, of every class, of every race. It is for everybody. and he says, "I am not ashamed. "I am not afraid.

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"I have no regret. "No need to fear censure. "No shame whatsoever, "for the gospel is wisdom and power.

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"The gospel is the good news of God." And the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. The gospel is foolishness to the Greeks. The gospel is a stumbling block to the Jews.

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We today can witness as did Paul to the gospel by saying as he did, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is God's good news." It's good news to know that Jesus saves.

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It's good news to know that God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. It's good news to know that through the gospel, we are made right with God.

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In other words, we come to experience the righteousness of God. In other words, we get right with God through acceptance of the gospel.

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And we sing that song, get right with God and do it now. right with God, He will show you how. Down at the cross where my Savior died, get right with God, get right, get right with God." It's good news, my brothers and sisters, to know

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that God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that He is the one in whom we are to believe, and that God so gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

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but have everlasting life. That's good news. Good news to know that Jesus loves us. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

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when he was asked, that great theologian was asked to give his theology in a brief statement. He paused for a moment and he said, "Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so." Now here's a man who had written volumes and volumes on theology, and yet he reduced it to just these simple lines, "Jesus loves me."

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That's good news, because we live in a world where there is so much hatred, just to know that Jesus loves me. That we are accepted by him no matter who we are or how we have drifted away, that he loves us.

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And he stands saying, "Come home, come home." So it is this Christ who is our salvation. He makes the lame to leap. He makes the blind to see.

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He makes the deaf to hear. He makes the dumb to speak. So when we are right with God, we have nothing to worry about.

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Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel. "I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, Well, he has brought me a mighty, mighty long ways. He has led me, he has fed me, so I'm not ashamed of him.

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Well, I remember some sisters in our congregation when I was much younger, and they sat on the back there, and quite often they would say, you know, Reverend, Father Pastor said

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you were preaching so-so, I just wanted to say amen. I said, "Well, why didn't you?" Sometimes they were ashamed because somebody else was going

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to look around and say, "Who is that saying amen? Who is that?" And one lady shouted and she happened to be a teacher. Another teacher came up and said, "You know,

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our church is sophisticated and we have this and that. You ought not carry on like that in the service." But when God has done something for you,

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God has really lifted you up when somehow you've had your feet in the bunking mine.

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God has lifted you up, placed your feet on the solid rock, put a new song in your mouth.

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You can't be ashamed to hold his name. And so Paul said, I'm not ashamed.

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Paul couldn't forget what God had done for him. He had been on the wrong road, traveling in the wrong direction and God turned him around and put him in the right course.

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And Paul said, "I'm not ashamed." This is the man who gave his life, who was beheaded. He was not ashamed of the gospel. So that's our task today, not to be ashamed, to own on Him wherever it is to proclaim His name, that He is the God who reveals Himself through

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Jesus Christ. And that good news of His life and His ministry and His work among us is the salvation not only for each one of us, but for the world. And the good news is there's There's room for every one of us at the cross. There's room at the cross.

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And as we sing room at the cross, we extend the invitation to Christian discipleship to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. The door is open. It's an open door that no one can shut that he sets before us.

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Don't be ashamed to accept him, to own him as your Lord and Savior. As we sing, there is room at the cross. (soft music) ♪ There's room at the cross ♪

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♪ There's room at the cross ♪ ♪ I will praise your name ♪ ♪ It's the reason for me ♪ ♪ And in this world ♪

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♪ As wide as the sea ♪ ♪ Can truth ever cross the U ♪ ♪ Can truth ever cross the U ♪ ♪ Oh, visit us ♪

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♪ As heroes of old ♪ ♪ Yes, as good as the foe for you ♪ ♪ Come give yourself up in our praise ♪ ♪ And the virgin's kiss may have saved ♪

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♪ Now still he'll wait to know the day ♪ ♪ That well the sinner before him to lay ♪ ♪ And who but the Lord by His right hand ♪ [MUSIC]

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♪ Oh, there you have come ♪ ♪ Yes, you have come, Lord ♪ ♪ Yes, you have come at the cross for me ♪ ♪ The hand of my Savior is strong ♪

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♪ Like the love of my Savior is love ♪ ♪ To sunshine or rain ♪ ♪ To dawn or evening ♪ ♪ My blood flows on Calvary ♪

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♪ To make every stain ♪ ♪ Let gold and the cross for you ♪ ♪ Let gold and the cross for you ♪ ♪ Oh, let it be found ♪

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♪ There's still room for one ♪ ♪ Yes, they do ♪ ♪ There's a God for you ♪ - Amen.

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I'm gonna ask the Hutskis if you'll go down to the rear of the sanctuary, celebrating their wedding anniversary, 31 years.

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All right, you may go now, please. Remember at 3.30 we are to worship with the Metropolitan AME Church. We'd like to have... [BLANK_AUDIO]