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Song number 449, sing it out. On the third. Let the stormy breeze blow there. I cannot alarm you. I am safely sheltered here. Protected by God's hand. Here the sun is glowing. An army. I am safe forever. In new love. Let's go. I'm living on a mountain. Underneath the cloudless sky. I'm drinking at the fountain. I never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm feasting on the meadow. Full supply for I am dwelling in new love. You guys are singing well, so let's finish strong. On the last. Viewing here the works of God. I sing in contemplation. I see the way He planned. Dwelling in the Spirit. Here I learn of full salvation. Gladly will I tarry in new love. One last time. I'm living on the mountain. Underneath the cloudless sky. I'm drinking at the fountain. I never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm feasting on the meadow. Full supply for I am dwelling in new love. Amen. Great singing. We want to welcome everyone here to Verity Baptist Church here on our Sunday evening service. We are so glad to everyone here this evening. Let's open the service with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for a great day you've given us and we thank you again for the opportunity to be in your house this evening. We thank you for these dear people who would come, Lord, and sing praises to your name. We pray for the singing. We pray for the preaching and the fellowship. We hope, Lord, that everything that would be said and done this evening will only bring glory and honor to your name. We love you and Jesus might pray. Amen. All right, it's now time for favorites where if you're selected, we will sing a stanza from the song that you picked. Brother Moses, go ahead. Song number 247. Song number 247. Saved. Saved. Song number 247. I found a friend who is all to me. That's why I sing it out on the first. I found a friend who is all to me. His love is ever true. I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you Saved by His heart divine Saved to new life, sublime Life now is sweet and my joy is complete For I'm saved, saved, saved I'm Madison. God. 210. Song number 210. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Song number 210. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Sing it out on the first. Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater than all my sin How shall my tongue describe it Where shall His grace begin Taking away my burden Setting my spirit free For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the master's grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparking like a fountain A sufficient grace for even me Rather than the scope of my own trash I sing it greater far than all my own My sin and shame will magnify the precious Name of Jesus Praise His name Miss Dogma, God. 29. What was it? 29 on the third. Song number 29. At the cross. And we're going to sing it out on the third. Well might the sun in darkness hide And shock His glories in When Christ the mighty maker died For men the creatures stayed At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Ah, brother Montauk. 27. The old rugged cross. Song number 27. On a hill far away stood an old Rugged crossing it out on the first. On a hill far away Stood an old rugged cross The emblem of suffering and shame And I love that old cross Where the dearest end passed For the world of lost sinners was slain Sing it out. So I cherish the old rugged Old rugged cross Tell my trophies at last I lay down And I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown I'm Miss Ava God. 455. Song number 455. Oh perfect love. Song number 455. Sing it out on the first. Oh perfect love All human thoughts transcending Lo, ye we kneel In prayer before thy throne That there's maybe The love which knows no ending Whom thou for ever more thus joined in one. The Johnny God. 173. Song number 173. Love lifted me. Song number 173. When nothing else could help Love lifted me. Amen. Song number 173. Sing it out on the first. I was sinking deep in sin Far from the peaceful shore Very deeply stained within Sinking to rise no more But the master of the sea Held my disturbing cry From the waters lifted me Now safe am I Love lifted evenly Love lifted evenly When nothing else could help Love lifted me Love lifted me Love lifted me When nothing else could help Love lifted me Let's sing one more song. Brother Mauricia go ahead. 215. Song number 215. Heaven came down And glory filled my soul Sing it out on the first. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day A day I will never forget After that wonderful darkness away Jesus, my Savior, amen Oh, what a tender, compassionate threat He met the need of my heart Shadows is felling With joy I am telling He made all the darkness depart Heaven came down And glory filled my soul Filled my soul Then at that cross The Savior made me whole Made me whole My sins were washed away And mine I wasn't today Heaven came down And glory filled my soul Amen. Amen, we welcome you of course to the Sunday evening service here at Rarity Baptist Church. We're glad that you're with us. Let's go and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. Of course, today we are celebrating 14 years of ministry here at Rarity Baptist Church this morning. We had a wonderful service with our family and friend day. And if you'll notice there, the verse this week, the works of his hands are Verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. And of course, that's a verse where we get the name of our church, Verity. It means truth. And if you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m. Like I said, we had a wonderful service this morning. We're glad you're back out for the evening service tonight. And we do invite you to be with us on Wednesday night for the Wednesday night Bible study. We're going to be in Psalm 8 this Wednesday night. So if you want to read Psalm 8 in advance and be ready to study it together, we'd love for you to join us of course on Wednesday night for the most encouraging service of the week. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. And then we have additional sewing times on Thursdays and on Sundays at 2 p.m. And if you'd like to go soul winning, we'd love for you to be at one of those times. And if you are a soul winner, don't forget to add your salvations. If you had somebody saved this week, we had a lot of soul winning that went on this weekend, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and today as well. If you had anybody saved, make sure you take a communication card and mark a salvation so that we can add it in the bulletin. If you did not finish a map, clearly mark what was done, what was not done, and you can turn it back in. There's a bin in the foyer so we can get that recycled through and get it done. And of course, don't forget, if you're a soul winner, if you're running late to one of our soul winning times, you can call us or text us at the number there, 916-868-9080. Let us know that you're planning on being there, but you're running late. That way the soul winning captains can make sure they have a map for you and a partner and all of that set aside. If you look across the page to the announcements and upcoming events, of course we had our family and friend aid this morning, and we gave out the anniversary mugs. We had a great attendance this morning. We had 357 was the total in church this morning, so praise the Lord for that. And even tonight I think is a good attendance tonight. Let me just look at it real quick. 226 in church tonight, so those are all good numbers there. And I think, unfortunately, I think we ran out of anniversary mugs. Now, if we ran out of mugs, and we apologize for that, obviously what we always try to do, I know it's difficult when there's a lot of people, but we try to make sure that all the guests at least get a mug. And then those of you that have been here for a while, we'll order you some and get those to you if we ran out. But let me just go ahead and say this. If you did not get a mug this morning, now you've got to be honest, all right? You're in church, so don't lie. But if you did not get a mug this morning, please see one of the staff guys. See Brother Oliver or Brother Shaw or Brother David, but probably see Brother Oliver back there after the service and let him know you did not get a mug so that we can get one ordered for you. And the choir did great, the orchestra did great, everything went well, and praise the Lord for that. And then of course, if you look at the announcements there, you'll notice that we're starting a brand new sermon series next Sunday morning. And you should have a card in your bulletin that looks like this as well. And we're starting a series called The Spirit World. And it is a study of heaven and hell, angels and demons, the devil and spiritual warfare. And we've outlined there for you what we'll be looking at every week. Next week will be week one of this brand new series. This is on Sunday mornings. And we're going to study heaven, what the Bible says about heaven. Week two, what the Bible says about hell. Week three, what the Bible says about angels. Week four, what the Bible says about demons or devils. Week five, what the Bible says about the devil or Satan. And then week six, spiritual warfare. So I want you to join us for this series and we want you to invite somebody. Use this card to invite somebody. This is a subject that people are interested in. Right around the time that we're going to be, weeks four and week five, looking at what the Bible teaches about demons and what the Bible teaches about the devil, that's going to be Halloween time. And we don't celebrate Halloween, but why don't we actually study something that is real. And that is our adversary, the devil. And we should not be ignorant about his devices. So we want to encourage you to be here for this series starting Sunday morning. And we want you to invite somebody. Bring somebody with you, invite them next week. And then tonight we're starting a brand new Bible study in the book of Philemon. Philemon is the shortest book in the New Testament. It's one chapter long. We're going to spend a couple of weeks, a few weeks studying the book of Philemon. And we're starting tonight, 6 p.m. We're glad you're here, of course, for that. And we just want to encourage you. We always tell people the best time to be in church is right at the beginning of a series. So since you're here as we're starting Philemon, we want you to be here every Sunday night as we study the book of Philemon together. We also want you to know that we have a Spanish service coming up on Saturday, September 28th at 5 p.m. And this is for Spanish speakers. If you're a Spanish speaker or you know a Spanish speaker, invite them to the service. It's on Saturday at 5 p.m. And then afterwards we're going to have a Spanish potluck or a Spanish-themed potluck. So we want to encourage you to please bring a dish to share. And this is not just for Spanish speakers. If you want to learn Spanish, then you can sign up and come to this as well. And we'll have a good time together. There's other things there, of course, for you to look at. Moms in our homeschool group. Don't forget that there is PE class this Thursday, September 19th at 10 a.m. So make sure you're aware of that. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of September. Today, September 15th, is Miss Kathy Maple's birthday. So happy birthday to Miss Kathy. Also Miss Patricia Courtney's birthday is today. And then tomorrow is my daughter's birthday, Hannah Jimenez. And Brother David and Miss Victoria Nellitescu have an anniversary on September 17th. My son, Joel Jimenez, has a birthday on September 18th. Max Maples has a birthday on September 19th. Brother Matt Taylor has a birthday on September 19th. Brother RJ and Miss Taylor-Marin have an anniversary on September 19th. And Brother Jacob Sheboyan has a birthday on September 21st. So those are all this week. A praise report, money matters, all of those things are there for you to look at. And I thought this was interesting. Brother Ray and Miss Denise, which along with, of course, my family, they were members of our church from the very first Sunday. The very first Sunday. They've been with us all these years. And they brought this picture. I'm sure you're not going to be able to see it. But I thought it was interesting. It's a picture of all 14 of the mugs that we've handed out over the years. And on the top, so you can see there's all the 14 mugs displayed. And then on the top, they have the original very first bulletin from the first Sunday. And I thought that was amazing. I don't know that my wife and I have all the mugs. And I know we definitely don't have the first bulletin. So this is pretty amazing. I thought this was a nice picture. It's our church's anniversary. We're 14 years old today. And I thought it would be interesting to just kind of get an idea of this. And I just want to ask this question. And maybe if you don't mind, raise your hand and we'll kind of look at this. If you've been at our church all 14 years since the beginning of the church, I know there's not a lot of you, obviously. But if you've been at our church all 14 years, would you just raise your hand? I just want to get an idea. All 14 years, of course. So that's a lot more hands than you would expect, of course. None of my kids are raising their hand. Maybe one of them. Well, actually, not all of them have been here 14 years. How about if you've been at our church since the house? You came when we were meeting in the house in the living room. Raise your hand. Since the house. All right. A few more hands. All right. If you've been at our church, let's do this. 12 years. 12 years. Raise your hand. 12 years. Okay. How about 10 years? 10 years. More hands. Eight years. Eight years. More hands. All right. Six years. Six years was not a good year for us. No, six years. Just kidding. Just kidding. All right. How about five years? Five years. Been at our church five years. All right. Praise the Lord for that. How about you're confused. You're not sure where you're at right now. No, I'm just kidding. Well, good. Praise the Lord for that. A church is built on faithful members, and we appreciate all of you. And I just think that's interesting. So you need to try to get them all. All right. Make sure you have them all, all the mugs there, of course, and we appreciate that. Okay. Well, if you're a first-time guest, you've been at our church for five minutes, we want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church, and we're glad you're with us. We have a special gift for you as you walk out of the church building this evening. If you go out our main foyer there, you'll see a little table set up, and on that table, you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one of these gift bags on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight. We have several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have, but the one we like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it, and we want to give this to you as a gift. It goes through the history of Christian people from Christ, and it goes through the history of Baptist people, and we think you'll enjoy it. So please make sure you don't leave here tonight without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest, we ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card, which is inserted in your bulletin, and you should have one of these cards there. If you need a pen, you can raise your hand. One of our ushers will bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen, and we'd love for you to take a moment to fill this card out. We would like to have a record of your attendance, and we'd like to actually send you a little gift in the mail, but we need your info to do that, so please take a moment to fill the card out. When we're done with the announcements here in a minute, we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering, and as the offering plate goes by, you can drop that card in the offering plate. And I think that's it for all of the announcements, so let's go ahead, and we're going to sing the chorus of the week, which is the insert in your bulletin, and we're going to sing I Stand Amazed as we prepare to receive the offering this evening, and let's go ahead and sing it on purpose and with passion, all right? On the first, when I examine that old rugged cross, when I examine that old rugged cross, the mighty golden span, it reaches down to the bricks of hell, to heaven's golden stand. I stand amazed, I stand amazed, of the love that has sought me, saved me, and bought me. I stand amazed, when I imagine in glory that day, when all of heaven stood still, as God incarnate, the Savior of man, died upon Calvary's hill, I stand amazed, I stand amazed, of the love that has sought me, saved me, and bought me, I stand amazed. Amen. Good singing. We do want to remind you, of course, that we have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience, so if you have a child that's being distracted during the service, make sure you use those, and of course, we'd ask that you please take a moment and look at your phone. Make sure it's on vibrate or silent, so it doesn't go off in the middle of the preaching. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time, and let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight. Lord, thank you for all the faithful people that have been part of our church these many years and all the blessings that you've given us for the last 14 years. Lord, we pray that you would continue to bless us and help us. We pray that you meet with us tonight as we take another portion of scripture and study it out together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please open up to the book of Philemon, Philemon 1. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand, and unless you could bring your Bible, just keep your hand up, or she'll come by. In the book of Philemon, Philemon chapter 1, Philemon 1, we read the entire chapter as our custom, Philemon 1, beginning of verse number 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, into our beloved Aphia, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Therefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such and one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have forgotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. Whom I have sent again, thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels. Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, but without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as if it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me there for a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account. I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it, albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord, having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou will also do more than I say. But withal prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that thou, that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for the great day that we had today, and I ask that you please give us all a tender heart to the message tonight, and as to be their pastor, please strengthen him, and from your spirit. We love you. We pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we're there in the book of Philemon, and we are starting a brand new book study tonight here in the book of Philemon, and of course, it's a very short book. It's one chapter, 25 verses, and tonight we are going to begin, of course, this study, and I want to begin by giving you some introductory statements about the book, but before we do that, I just want you to notice who the letter, of course, is written by, and who the letter is written to, and the Bible says there in Philemon chapter number 1 and verse 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, so this is one of the letters that Paul obviously identifies himself as a human writer, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He's with Timothy, so he says, and Timothy, our brother. That's the writer. Now, we know that the writer is the Holy Spirit. This is inspired scripture, but the human penman is this Paul, and he refers to himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ because of the fact that at this time, Paul is in prison, and this is one of what we would call the prison epistles that were written by the apostle Paul as he was imprisoned, of course, for the cause of Christ, and he's writing to this man, Philemon, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and I want you to notice that this letter is unique in the sense that when you look at the New Testament, and when you look at the breakup of the New Testament, there's many different ways that people have put different books into different categories to help us understand them. For example, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, are put in the category of the gospels or the stories of Jesus, the narratives of the life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and we have the book of Acts that would be categorized under history, specifically church history. It gives us the history of the church, but then you have all these letters, and most of them are written by the apostle Paul, some of them are written by other apostles like Peter and John, and they're referred to as epistles, and the epistles are in different categories. For example, some epistles are referred to as church epistles, and they're called that because of the fact that they were written to churches, so 1 and 2 Corinthians was written to the church in Corinth, the book of Galatians, the book of Ephesians, the book of Philippians, all written to churches in those areas. Then you also have what are known as pastoral epistles. These would be 1 and 2 Timothy, and also the book of Titus. These are written to individuals that are pastors or were pastors, and they were written for the purpose of instructing them on how to pastor properly and how to lead a ministry, and of course, all of these books give us a lot to learn. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable. Philemon falls under the category of a prison epistle because it was written in prison, but it is unique in the sense that Philemon was not a pastor, and it is not a pastoral epistle. However, Philemon is also not a church. Philemon is not the name of a city. It is the name of an individual, and what makes the book of Philemon unique is that this is, in some ways, we understand that it's scripture, but in some ways, it is a personal letter between the apostle Paul and a dear friend by the name of Philemon. Now, it is not a private letter, and we'll talk about that here in a minute. It was written in a public way, and it was meant to be public, but what we're reading here is a letter between two friends, the apostle Paul and a man by the name of Philemon. Notice again verse 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and then in verse 2 the Bible says, and, because this is the address, this is the beginning, the equivalent of how we would say dear so and so. This is Paul's way of saying dear so and so. By the way, the way that we write letters in our modern day, in our western way, we begin by who we're writing to, dear so and so, and then we sign it at the end. We say sincerely, and we put our name. The way that we write letters, someone would have to read the entire letter before they would find out who is writing them the letter. The way that the letters are written in the Bible, in the ancient times, you would begin by saying who it is that's writing the letter, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, which in some ways makes a little more sense for you to begin with who it is that's writing the letter, and then he's addressing it to these individuals, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and, verse 2, to our beloved Afiya. Now who this Afiya is, we're not 100% sure who this is, the name only comes up once in the Bible, but we know this, that the name Afiya is generally a female Greek name, and of course, the letters being addressed unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Afiya, so I think it's probably safe to assume that Afiya would be Philemon's wife, and Paul is writing this letter addressing to his good friend Philemon and his wife Afiya, and then I want you to notice there's a third name, Archippus, so it's written to Philemon, it's a personal letter between Paul and Philemon, and Paul in this letter is going to address some issues that need to be addressed with Philemon, and then he also is writing to his wife, presumably Afiya, but then there's a third individual here, and we're told that he's addressing it to him, he says, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, now you might just assume like, well maybe this is just their son, you got Philemon, the husband, Afiya, the wife, and then Archippus, maybe this is the son, but the name Archippus actually comes up elsewhere in scripture, and I want you to notice that when the name Archippus comes up, it's given in the context of this, he says, and Archippus, and to the church in thy house, so I want you to notice that it's addressed to Philemon, it's addressed to Afiya, it's addressed to Archippus, and to the church in thy house, so let's look at the other time that this name Archippus is brought up in scripture, keep your place there in Philemon, we're going to come back to it, but go with me if you would to the book of Colossians, just real quickly, Colossians chapter number 4, if you're there in Philemon, if you go backwards, you're going to go past Philemon, you're going to go past all those T-books, Titus, 2 and 1 Timothy, 2 and 1 Thessalonians, and then you'll find yourself in the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter number 4, and I want you to notice what Paul says in verse number 17, Colossians chapter 4 and verse 17, this is Paul writing to the church in Colossae, and he says, he's giving instructions, I'm not going to read all of it in context, you can do that on your own if you'd like, but I want you to notice what he says here in verse 17, he's telling them, say this to this person, give this to this, you know, these instructions or whatever, and then in verse 17 he says, and say to Archippus, so he has a message that he wants them to get to Archippus, he says, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the Lord that thou fulfilleth. So in the book of Colossians, in chapter 4 and verse 17, Paul addresses Archippus, and he says, I want you to give a message to Archippus, here's the message, Archippus, you need to take heed to the ministry which thou has received, and that is a phrase referring to the fact that Archippus was a pastor, so what we can gather by comparing scripture with scripture, and I'd like you to keep your place there in Colossians, we're going to come back to it, if you can put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there, and then make your way back to Philemon, what we can gather is that Archippus is the pastor, and Paul is addressing this letter to Philemon, to Iphia, his wife, probably, and to Archippus, the pastor of the church, and to the church in Niahouse, he's addressing it to the entire church. So though this was a personal letter, dealing with a personal matter, I want you to notice that Paul addressed it to some public figures, not only Philemon's wife, but also his pastor and to the entire church, this was meant to be read and given to the church because of the fact that what Paul is dealing with is going to have some implications for all Christians in the first century, and it helps us to learn some things about how we ought to live the Christian life, so he's using this personal matter as an example as to how to deal with navigating relationships and rebuilding relationships, but I do want you to understand that this was a public letter written to Philemon, to his wife, to his pastor, and to the entire church, which is why it is included here in the canon of Scripture, and it is why we have access to it. It's not like somebody was looking through Philemon's stuff after he passed away, and they found this letter, and they said, oh wow, look at this, Paul wrote Philemon a letter, and they sent it to some New Testament committee or something, and they had it added into Scripture. The reason that we have access to this letter is because this was obviously written by inspiration of God under the Holy Spirit's guidance, and it was, yes, addressed to Philemon to deal with a personal matter, but also addressed to the church that was in his house, so hopefully that makes sense. Now, if you're not familiar with the Book of Philemon, which if you're not, why don't you just read it real quick? No, I'm just kidding. Don't read it. We just read it. We read the whole chapter together, but let me just give you some context so you kind of understand what it is we're talking about as we go into this, okay? Number one, the Book of Philemon is the shortest letter in the New Testament. There's, again, one of the prison epistles written from prison, and you could make the argument that it's a church epistle, but it's not addressed necessarily dealing with the issues of a church. It's dealing with one individual by the name of Philemon. Now the Book of Philemon is a letter written by Paul, the apostle, and just to give you some context, Paul is in prison in Rome. Philemon lives in Colossae because of the fact that we can attain that knowledge, because of the fact that his pastor is the pastor that is addressed in the Church of Colossians, but either way, he's not with Paul, which is why Paul's writing in this letter, and Paul is writing to Philemon, and he's writing to him concerning a runaway servant by the name of Onesimus. Now we're going to learn more about Onesimus next week, but if you read the chapter, you know that Paul is talking to Philemon about this man Onesimus. Now here's what you need to understand, Philemon is a well-to-do householder. He is a man who owns not only a house, but property. He has servants that work on his property, and he is someone that is successful in that respect, and Philemon is a convert of the apostle Paul. Paul got Philemon saved, Paul discipled Philemon, and Paul and Philemon are dear and good and close friends. Philemon has a servant who, according to the book of Philemon, was lazy and dishonest, and this servant by the name of Onesimus had run away and had done some sort of wrong to Philemon. We're not 100% sure what it is, but based off the letter, it seems that he owed things to Philemon. He stole from Philemon. He also has a reputation of not being a very good worker. He's lazy and dishonest, and Philemon has ran away, excuse me, Onesimus has ran away from Philemon's house, owing Philemon money, running away in a way that's dishonest, and somehow comes across the apostle Paul in Rome. And what happens in Rome is that Onesimus gets saved. The apostle Paul gets Onesimus saved. Not only does Onesimus get saved, he gets discipled, and Paul begins to deal with him, and he goes from being a lazy person to a hard worker. He goes from being dishonest to being honest, and now Paul is orchestrating a reconciliation between these two men. Paul is having Onesimus go back to Philemon and to make things right in their relationship, and that's what this letter is all about. Onesimus gets saved, gets discipled, and is now ready to ask forgiveness and be reconciled to his master, Philemon. This letter is written, is a writing that Paul sent to Philemon as an appeal to Philemon to both receive and forgive Onesimus, not just as a servant, but as a fellow brother in Christ. All right, now I'm giving you all that information up front just so you can get your bearing and kind of understand what's going on here. I want to just show you one more thing by way of introduction, and then we'll get into the chapter. We're going to cover the first seven verses tonight, but I want you to notice verse 2. Philemon 1 and verse 2, the Bible says this, Paul said this, and to our beloved Aphiah, an archippist, our fellow soldier, and I want you to notice this little phrase. He says, to the church in thy house. To the church in thy house. And this is a reference to the fact that the church in Colossae is actually meeting in the house of Philemon. If you remember, Philemon is probably a very well-to-do householder, and he has a house big enough to hold a church, obviously, in the first century. They didn't have church buildings like we have today, so churches were meeting in houses. And here the Bible tells us that there is a church meeting in the house of Philemon. And Paul is addressing them, he's greeting them, and he wants this letter to be read to the church in thy house. Now this is something that's actually talked a lot about in Scripture. If you could go back to Colossians, if you kept your place there in Colossians, go back to Colossians chapter 4, and look at verse number 15. Colossians chapter number 4, and verse number 15, the Bible says this, Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphis, and the church which is in his house. So here we have this man, Nymphis, and he has a church which is in his house. So we see that Philemon has a church in thy house, in Colossians we have a man by the name of Nymphis, and he has a church which is in his house, go with me if you would to the book of Romans. Keep your place in Colossians, and go to Romans chapter 16. At the beginning of the New Testament you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then the book of Romans, Romans chapter 16. Look at verse 5, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Romans 16 and verse 5, notice what Paul says to the church at Rome. The book of Romans, obviously a very famous book, a theological book, about salvation written to the church at Rome, and the Bible says in Romans 16, 5, likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my beloved Epinatus who is the firstfruits of Iki unto Christ. So I want you to notice that he's telling them to salute, he says likewise greet the church that is in their house. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, you're there in Romans, just flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and look at verse number 19, 1 Corinthians 16 and verse number 19, the Bible says this, the churches of Asia salute you, 1 Corinthians 16, 19, Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, notice again, with the church that is in their house. So we see that in 1 Corinthians 16 we're told of a church in their house, Colossians we're told of a church in a house, Philemon we're told of a church in a house, Romans we're told of a church in a house. Now I find this interesting because of the fact that today is the 14 year anniversary of Verity Baptist Church and 14 years ago Verity Baptist Church started in our house. My wife and I started this church in our living room and I remember when we started our church in the living room, some people criticized us and said what kind of a church meets in a house and I'm thinking to myself, well have you not read the New Testament because a lot of churches met in the house. Now there's a theological implication here that I think it's important for us to understand and one of the implications is this, that this teaches us that a church is not a building. A church is a group of called out believers coming together, assembling together under the authority of a pastor for the purpose of fulfilling the great commission. Today people will say things about a beautiful building like this and we're thankful for the building that the Lord has allowed us to have, but people will say something like oh, I'm going to go to the church and they're referring to a building. They might, it might be a Tuesday, we're not having a service, someone's saying oh can I stop by the church and I understand people saying that and I don't correct them, I don't think they're bad people for saying that, but the truth is this, the church isn't here on Tuesday. There's a church building, you can call this a church building, you can call this a church house, I like calling it a church house because of the fact that this building houses a church, but this building is not a church, you say what's the church? The church is you and the church is me and when we gather together as a congregation we are the church and we could meet in a beautiful 400 seat auditorium or we could meet in the living room of a person's house and it would not make a difference, we could meet under a tree somewhere and we'd still be a church because a church is not a building, a church is a community of believers coming together to fulfill the great commission. So there's a theological implication here, but let me just say this as well, there's also a practical implication and the practical implication is this, the Lord has allowed us, my wife and I of course started 14 years ago this church in our living room, but over the last 14 years the Lord has allowed us to start a church in Vancouver, Washington, we started a church in Boise, Idaho, we started a church in Fresno, California, we started a church in Manila, Philippines, Bighole, Philippines, Pampanga, Philippines, they've started a church in Poland as well that came from the churches in the Philippines and the Lord has allowed us to be used to do some church planting over the last 14 years, I'm thankful for that and by God's grace we'll continue to do church planting, but you know I think if you ask the question why did Verity Baptist Church start in a living room, well one of the reasons was because it's patterned after scripture, but you know another reason that Verity Baptist Church started in a living room is because of the fact that we literally started with just a handful of people, there was, I mean at the time the Lord has blessed my family and I, my wife and I with six children, but at the time we only had two kids and we only had a few people that were coming on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and on a practical level and this is something that people will often do, they'll say I'm going to go start a church and they haven't, they don't have anybody coming yet, they've not launched yet, they haven't started a service, no one has came, but the first thing they'll try to do is go find a building somewhere and they'll go rent a building for thousands of dollars and it's like you don't have anybody coming and just from day one they put themselves under this financial pressure because now I've rented this building and I've got to pay the rent, but I don't even have anybody coming yet so I've got to try to get people to come as much as possible and I need them to put money in the offering plate because we've got to pay this rent so I better not preach anything that's going to offend them, do you understand what I'm saying to you? We started very Baptist church, you say how much did it cost to start the church? Nothing, because the church met in my house for the first year and a half for free, so we were able to grow and we were able to bring people and of course we tithed and other people tithed and when people tithed then we used that money to buy chairs and when people tithed we used that money to buy hymn books and when people tithed we used that money to and we just kind of bought things as we grew, bought things as we needed and here we are 14 years later, 4 acre property, 400 seat auditorium and I just think that this is a smart way to start a church. Now obviously the influence of our church and churches like ours has grown and now when we started we started with a handful of people, nowadays when we start churches they start with 40 people. Well if a church starts with 40 people I don't have a problem with them starting with a building, you've got 40 people to begin with, go ahead and start out with a building, but it took us 3 years to get to 40 people. So we see the pattern here of starting with a church, starting in a house, not only is it biblical but it's practical, it makes sense and for those of you that maybe one day were to start a church somewhere then you might want to consider those things. Now let me say this, it's a lot of sacrifice, I mean my wife and I were very happy when the church finally moved out of our house one day because it's a lot of sacrifice of course and you've got to count the cost, but I think it's interesting here and I want to highlight the fact that there's a church in the house. Now what we're going to do tonight is we're going to, we've already covered verses 1 and 2, we're going to look at something else in verses 1 and 2, but we're just going to look at the first 7 verses and the first 7 verses of this letter are really just the introduction and it's the Apostle Paul writing to Philemon and introducing himself and saying some things about Philemon and it really gives us some insight into the life of Philemon. Let me just say this, Philemon was a good guy, Philemon was a great man and what we can learn in this introduction of this letter is some things about this man Philemon and what's interesting to me is this, that there are 3 statements made about Philemon and the 3 statements all are related to the are coupled together in the sense that they have these 2 statements that are coupled together for a set of 3, so there's 6 things that are said, but they're said in this coupled way and what we're going to do is we're going to look at those quickly tonight and get to know this man Philemon and here's what we're going to do, tonight we're going to look at Philemon the householder, there's 3 main characters in this book, Philemon the householder, Onesimus the runaway and then the apostle Paul and he refers to himself in the book of Philemon as Paul the agent, he calls himself that because according to Paul he's an old man when he's writing this letter, so because there's 3 main characters to this letter we're going to spend 3 weeks looking at these main characters through the book of Philemon, we'll begin tonight with Philemon the householder, next week Onesimus the runaway and then after that Paul the agent, we're going to look at these 3 sets of coupled statements about Philemon and we'll see what we can learn from it, if you're taking notes and maybe you'd like to take notes and I do encourage you to take notes on the back of course you can do that, maybe you can write these things down, number 1, as we look at this letter and as we look at the life of this man Philemon, we get an insight into his life, what we see is number 1, the dual work of the Christian life, the dual work of the Christian life and I say it that way because of the fact, remember there are 3 sets of coupled statements, I hope that makes sense, 3 sets of coupled statements and I want you to see these 3 couplings together, they give us some insight not only into the life of Philemon but into the life of a Christian, the first thing we see is the dual work of a Christian life, I want you to notice it there in Philemon 1 and verse 1, Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brother unto Philemon our dearly beloved and then I want you to notice this little phrase and if you don't mind writing in your Bible or underlying in your Bible, maybe you can mark these words, he says and fellow laborer, and fellow laborer, the apostle Paul references Philemon and he speaks to Philemon and he says you know what Philemon is, Philemon is a fellow, meaning he's a co-worker with me, he says he's a fellow laborer, a laborer, what does that mean, he says he's a worker, he works with me, he's a laborer and he's a co-laborer with me, so Paul says that Philemon is a fellow laborer, but then I want you to notice the next statement that couples this together, verse 2, and to our beloved Iphia and our archippist, and I want you to notice the coupling statement here, now he says our fellow soldier, our fellow soldier, so Paul uses these two statements to talk about this group of individuals, Philemon and Iphia, an archippist, and he says you know what they are to me, they are fellow laborers and they are fellow soldiers, what's a laborer, it's a worker, if you talk about I need to hire a day laborer, what are you talking about, you need to hire like a construction guy, you need a guy to do some work, to go out and to labor, to do manual labor, he says he's a fellow laborer, but then he also says he's a fellow soldier, what's a soldier, a soldier is different than a laborer, a laborer is a worker, a soldier is someone who fights, a soldier is someone who battles, and I think it's interesting because this theme is seen all throughout the Bible, and what we see is this, that the dual work of the Christian life is to do two things, to be building and to be battling, building and battling, I preached a sermon I don't know maybe one or two years ago entitled building and battling, because of the fact that this is seen throughout the Bible, and I hadn't even seen it here in the book of Philemon, but I want you to notice the emphasis, what are we to do, what did Philemon and his wife and his pastor and his church, what did they do, Paul would say you know what they are, they are fellow laborers and they are fellow soldiers, and I'm here to tell you that in the Christian life we need to be both building and battling, this is the dual work of the Christian life, and this is emphasized all throughout the Bible, let me highlight this for you, and I'll just read some of these for you because I don't want to spend too much time, go with me if you would to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 16, and do me a favor, keep your place there in Matthew, I know you have your place in Colossians, but keep your place in Matthew, and while you turn there let me read to you from the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 16 is a passage dealing, if you remember Nehemiah came to Jerusalem to build the wall, but when Nehemiah began to build the wall what often happens when people begin to do something for God is that the adversary, the opponents, the enemy shows up, and here's what Nehemiah wrote in Nehemiah 4 16, he says and it came to pass from that time forth that half of my servants rot, the word rot means they work, half of my servants rot in the work, that's the building, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, the bows, and the havergens, those are all weapons, and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah, so what did Nehemiah say? He said half of my servants rot in the work and the other half they held the spears, what does he say? He's saying half of them were in the building and half of them were in the battling, because of the fact that they were building a wall while being threatened by the enemy and Nehemiah had to make a choice, and Nehemiah said look we're trying to build something, we didn't come out here to fight with anybody, we didn't come out here to battle with anybody, we didn't come out here to be soldiers, we came out here to build something, but when we began to build something people got upset with us and began to attack us and began to threaten us and Nehemiah said we have to make a decision and we have to make a choice, either we're not going to fight but we're also not going to build because what's upsetting them is the fact that we're building so we either stop building or we're going to have to do both, we're going to have to build and battle, so Nehemiah 4.17 says this, they which build it on the wall and they that bear burdens with those that laid it, he says everyone with one of his hands rot in the work, that's the building, and with the other hand held a weapon, that's the battling, and let me tell you something in the Christian life you're just going to have to figure it out that the Christian life is both building and battling, you say I don't want to fight the devil, I don't want to fight the flesh, I don't want to fight the world, I just want to try to build my family up for the cause of Christ and I just want to build things up and root it and ground it in the Lord, praise the Lord, good for you, but the minute you start building for the glory of God your adversary the devil as a roaring lion is going to begin to attack you, and if you're going to keep building you're going to have to pick up a hammer with one hand and a sword with the other and you're going to have to do both building and battling. We see it with Philemon, he says my fellow laborer and my fellow soldier. We see it with Nehemiah, he says everyone with one of his hands rot in the work, that's the building, and with the other hand held a weapon, that's the battling. Are you there in Matthew 16? Look at verse 18, notice what Jesus said about the church, we actually read this this morning but I want you to see it tonight. Matthew 16 verse 18, Jesus said this, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, look at this, I will build my church. That's the building. Don't you like that? I like that. We started Verity Baptist Church to reach people, to help people, to disciple people, to grow. He says I will build my church, but then Jesus in the same statement says realize something, when you begin to build you're also going to have to battle. He says I will build my church, that's the building. And then in the next breath he says and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's the battling. You cannot build without battling. You cannot build something for God, a life for God, a family for God, a ministry for God, a church for God, a testimony for God. You cannot build without battling. So you and I are going to have to learn and something I love about Philemon is that Paul could look at Philemon and say, fellow laborer, fellow soldier. He's building and battling. Let me give you another example, go to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, keep your place there in Matthew, you've got Mark and then the book of Luke. Luke chapter 14. In Luke chapter 14 and verse 28, Jesus gives this parable about the Christian life and the parable is in the context, I don't have time to develop it, but it's in the context of counting the cost. It's about discipleship. If you're going to follow Jesus, you need to count the cost. And in order to explain that, Jesus gives two parables. Notice what they say, Luke 14, 28. For which of you intending to build? That's the building. He says, for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest happily, the word happily means by chance, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that beholded begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. So Jesus in Luke 14, 28, 29 and 30 gives this parable about building and he says before you start building, you need to count the cost. He says counteth the cost to make sure you have sufficient to finish it so that people don't mock at you. And in the Christian life, you better count the cost. Don't start this thing of the Christian life and begin to walk down this road and you begin to change your life, you begin to live differently, you're going to church on Sunday night, church on Wednesday night, becoming a soul winner, changing the way you dress, changing the way you live, you're not drinking alcohol anymore, you're not partying anymore, you're not listening to rock music anymore, you're not going to clubs anymore, you're not doing all those things. But then you didn't count the cost and then you go back and you backslide. You know what your family's going to say? They're going to laugh at you and mock at you and say, ah, we knew it was just a phase. Why? Because you did not count the cost. So he gives this parable about building, but then I want you to notice he gives a second parable in the same context. In verse 31 he says, or what king going to make war? That's the battling. See these are all connected. They're always connected, building and battling, building and battling. For which of you intended to build a tower? That's the building. Or what king going to make war against another king? That's the battling. Sitteth not down first and consulted, whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth in a message and desired conditions of peace. Now I want you to notice, I'm just highlighting for you, you go to Nehemiah and it's building and battling. You go to Matthew 16 and it's building and battling. I will build my church, the gates in hell shall not prevail against. You go to Luke, it's building, which of you intending to build a tower and battling. Or what king going to make war? You don't have to turn here, you can go back to Philemon, let me read to you from Psalm 127. Psalm 127 and verse 1 says this, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. That's the building. And then he says this, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Those are military terms. That's talking about a soldier, a watchman standing guard over a city to protect it. He says except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. That's the building. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. That's the battling. And I just want you to understand this. The Christian life is a life of both building and battling. Building and battling. You say I just want to build, I don't want to battle. You cannot build without battling. Because the minute you start building, they're going to want to start battling. David said I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war. And I would say I am for peace, but when I preach they are for war. And often times when we begin to build and we begin to reach people, we begin to disciple people, we begin to help people grow, the devil begins to battle. And we need to make a decision. Are we going to quit or are we going to do both building and battling? Nehemiah had to decide. And Nehemiah said we'll put a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other, we'll do building and battling. And look again, today is our church's 14 year anniversary and you know what the history of Verity Baptist Church is? It's a history of building and battling. Building and battling. I can take you through the years and talk to you about the growth and how we outgrew this building and then outgrew that building and then outgrew the other building and we had to raise money and we did and the Lord has built this church over the years, but we also had some battles. We're an embattled church. And that's the Christian life. You just have to realize it's a life of building and battling. Go back to Philemon if you would. So we see, number one, the dual work of the Christian life. It's building and battling. But then I want you to notice a second statement. And the second statement is this, in verse three we read this, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a common introductory statement that Paul would use. That exact same verse is told to the Ephesian church as well. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verse four Paul says this, I thank my God making mention of thee always in my prayer. We're not going to deal with that tonight because we're going to deal with that in week three when we look at Paul and the ministry of Paul. We'll come back to this verse, I thank my God upon making mention of thee always in thy prayer. But I want you to notice verse five. Paul says this, hearing of thy love and faith, we'll come back to that in a minute, which thou hast, and I want you to notice the second of these coupled statements. The first was this, fellow laborer, fellow soldier. Now Paul says, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast, and notice what he says, he says toward the Lord Jesus, so he says I've heard of your love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and I would call it this, and if you want to write this down, maybe you can write this down. We saw number one, the dual work of the Christian life, it's building and battling. But then I want you to notice the dual emphasis of the Christian life. The dual emphasis of the Christian life. And I would say when it comes to the emphasis of the Christian life, a way that you can think of it and the way that I've heard it taught in the past is this, there is a vertical emphasis and there is a horizontal emphasis. When it comes to the Christian life, when it comes to developing our relationships within the Christian life, there must be a vertical emphasis. What does that mean? That means we look up to God and look up to heaven, look up to Christ, and we are concerned with our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not talking about salvation, we're talking about people that are already saved. But there's also a horizontal emphasis. As we look horizontally at those around us, the people in our lives, we must be concerned with our relationships with them as well. And I want you to notice that Paul says about Philemon that he does this well. Look at verse 5. Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast, he says Philemon, you have love and faith and you have it toward the Lord Jesus. That's vertical. It says Philemon, your vertical relationship is good with Jesus. I've heard of thy love and faith toward the Lord Jesus, but then he says this, and toward all the saints, that's horizontal. Paul says about Philemon, I've heard about your love and faith that you have to Jesus and to your brethren. Toward the Lord Jesus Christ, vertical, and toward all the saints, horizontal. Not only is there a dual work of the Christian life, building and battling, but there's a dual emphasis of the Christian life, vertical and horizontal. Vertical and horizontal. And I would say this, this is emphasized in scripture as well. Let me give you a few proof texts. Go to Matthew. Go back to Matthew. You kept your place there in Matthew 22. Look at verse 35. Matthew 22 and verse 35. Just like building and battling is emphasized throughout the Bible, I showed you several examples where we see the building, we see the battling, vertical and horizontal is also emphasized all throughout the Bible. And I won't give you as many examples for sake of time, but I'll give you probably the most famous example. Matthew 22 verse 35. Matthew 22 verse 35, the Bible says, then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him, this is talking about Jesus, a lawyer comes to ask Jesus a question. Now the lawyer wasn't asking a question simply out of pure curiosity. The Bible says that he came tempting him and saying. So he's trying to catch Jesus in his words. Verse 36. Here's the question. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? So Jesus gets asked this question, what is the great commandment? What is the greatest commandment? The idea is what is the main commandment? If there's one major commandment, what is it? I want you to notice that Jesus says the main commandment is a vertical commandment. It has to do with our relationship with God. Look at verse 37. Jesus said unto him, you want to know what the main thing is? The main, the great commandment, it's this, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Now when you love someone with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, you love them with everything. Jesus says this is the first and great commandment. This is a vertical commandment. It has to do with our relationship with God and our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But then Jesus says, then Jesus says in verse 39, and the second, I like it because he was just asked about the first, but Jesus says, let me give you the second, here's the second, and the second is like unto it. He said it's similar but in a different direction. The first commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and other places as with all thy might. He says the direction is vertical, but then there's a second commandment Jesus says. In the second, it's similar, but the direction is different. The direction is horizontal. Verse 39, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. He says there's two emphasis in the Christian life, vertical relationships, horizontal relationships. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, but also love thy neighbor as thyself. The second is like unto it. And then Jesus says in verse 40, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Jesus said, if you can get these two right, you don't have to worry about the rest. If you can love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and you can love your neighbor as yourself, you don't have to worry about thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt not, you know, bear false witness. You don't have to worry about worshiping some false idol. He said just take care of these two commandments and you'll be fine. But I want you to notice that there's a vertical emphasis and a horizontal emphasis. Go with me real quickly to 1 John chapter 4, towards the end of the New Testament. First John chapter 4, if you start at Revelation and go backwards, you have Jude, 3rd, 2nd, and then 1st John, Revelation, Jude, 1 chapter, 3rd John, 2nd John, 1st John. And here's what people say, well, I care about the vertical, but I don't really care about the horizontal because all these people are crazy. Let me let you in on a little secret. Everyone's crazy. You look at everyone else and say, look how crazy they are. They're looking at you and saying, look how crazy they are. You know, oftentimes we're just kind of surprised at the ragtag group that God brings together and calls it a church. We look around and we think to ourself, you know, I'm just kind of surprised. Someone said that there's a song that goes, you know, I'm so glad that you're part of the family of God. I don't know if it's a good song and I know it's just a famous song, but what you should say is, I'm surprised you're a part of the family of God. I'm just kind of surprised who it is that God has brought into these churches sometimes. And people will have this attitude and say, well, I'm concerned with my relationship with Jesus and my relationship with God, but my vertical relationship, you know, I just don't like these people. I just, I don't want to worry about those relationships. I don't want to have a good relationship. But here's what you and I need to understand, that our vertical relationship is connected to our horizontal relationship and vice versa. You say prove it, 1 John 4, look at verse 20. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, I love God vertical, and hateth his brother horizontal. If a man say, I love God vertically, but I hate my brother horizontally, here's what the Bible says, he is a liar. You cannot say you love God while saying you hate your brother. For he that loveth not his brother, look, I didn't put this in your Bible, John said this. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also. And look, I understand that some people make it hard for you to love them, I get that. And we're not saying you need to like everyone, we're not saying you need to be excited with everyone, I'm not even saying you need to be friends with everybody. But I am saying this, you should love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And there is an emphasis in the Christian life of vertical and horizontal relationship. And what's interesting to me about Philemon is that Philemon and his wife and his pastor in his church, Paul could say, you are balancing this idea of building and battling, you're a fellow laborer, and you're a fellow soldier. But then he also says, you are balancing this idea of vertical and horizontal love. He says, I know of thy love and faith, which thou has toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. And we must learn to balance that. And look, whether you like it or not, you and I just have to realize that God connects our horizontal relationships and how well they go to our vertical relationships. Let me give you another example, go to 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3. You're there in 1 John, if you go backwards, you'll go past 2 Peter into 1 Peter. From 1 John, go backwards, 2 Peter, 1 Peter. Here's a very specific, and we could do this all night, I'm not going to do it. I already showed you in 1 John, just a general, if a man say I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar. How can you not love your brother whom he hath seen and say that you love God whom you've not seen? He who loveth God loveth his brother also is what the Bible says. Here's a very specific example about a human relationship called marriage. And here's what God says, 1 Peter 3.7, likewise ye husbands dwell with them, 1 Peter 3.7. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, talking about the wife, he's commanding husbands to dwell with the wife according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life. Now notice what he says. Here he's saying husbands and wives need to have good relationships, and you say well I don't care about that, I don't care about him, I don't care about her. And Jesus says, and Peter says, well you should care, and here's why, that your prayers be not hindered. You say well what does that have to do with, what does my prayers vertically to God have to do with my marriage horizontally to my spouse? God says he connects the two. He says if there's a break in your horizontal relationship, there's going to be a break in our vertical relationship, and don't think about praying to me, your prayers are hindered. You say well what do I do with that? Repair relationships? Repair relationships? That's what the book of Philemon is all about, restoring a relationship between Onesimus and Philemon. So we see, go back to Philemon if you would, the dual work of the Christian life. What is it? Building and battling. We see the dual emphasis of the Christian life. What is it? A vertical relationship and a horizontal relationship, and these two are connected. You cannot say I love God, I'm right with God, but I hate all my brothers and sisters in Christ. It doesn't work that way. You cannot love God and not love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And then I want you to notice there's a third, remember there's three sets of coupled statements. The first is the dual work of the Christian life, building and battling. He says fellow labor, fellow soldier. The second is a dual emphasis of the Christian life. He says your love towards the Lord Jesus Christ and your love towards the saints. A dual emphasis of the Christian life, vertical and horizontal. But then I want you to notice quickly tonight, we see the dual characteristics of the Christian life. The dual characteristics of the Christian life, and I'll give them to you up front. They're love and faith. Love and faith. Are you there in Philemon 1? Look at verse 5. Hearing of thy, I want you to notice these words, love and faith. A coupled statement. Love and faith. Now for sake of time, I'm not going to have you turn to all these passages. I'm just going to read these to you. But if you haven't noticed it, I want you to notice that all throughout the Bible, there is a connection between love and faith. They're often brought up together. You don't have to turn here. I'll just read these for you. Ephesians 6 23, peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. First Thessalonians 1 3, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God our Father. First Thessalonians 5 and verse 8, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, a hope of salvation. Second Timothy 1 14, the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Second Timothy 1 13, hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Why don't you notice that these words are brought up together and they're brought up in Philemon. Faith and love. Love and faith. They are connected. And you say well what's the application? Well let me give you some other examples that I'd like you to go to. Go back to Colossians. Remember you kept your place in Colossians? Go to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 4. Love and faith. Faith and love. These are dual characteristics of the Christian life. In the Christian life, your life and my life should be characterized by these two words. Faith and love. Love and faith. You say well you just read a bunch of verses that mention faith and love, love and faith together, but what's the application? Here's the application. Let me give you three verses. Colossians 1 4. Here's what Paul says to the church in Colossae. Since we heard of your, look at it, faith in Christ Jesus. Now notice how this connects to the previous point of vertical and horizontal. Our faith is in Christ Jesus and of the love which he have to all the saints. You say pastor you don't understand, I don't have a lot of faith in my fellow believers. You don't have to have faith in your fellow believers, you just need to have faith in Christ. Faith and Christ. Well what about horizontal? That's the love. Love which he have to all the saints. That's what you need. Go to Ephesians 1. Look at verse 15. You're there in Colossians. You'll go past Philippians into Ephesians, Ephesians 1. Look at verse 15. The faith isn't in God, the love is towards our fellow believers, towards our fellow man. I think it's interesting and look, because I'm telling you that the book of Philemon is about restoring a relationship between Philemon and Onesimus and we're going to get into the life of Onesimus next week, but I want us to understand that though there was a break between Onesimus and Philemon, I don't know that it was necessarily Philemon's fault because Philemon seems to be a great man. Paul looks at Philemon and at his wife and at his pastor and of his church and he says you guys are doing a good job at balancing out the dual work of the Christian life, building and battling. You're fellow laborers and fellow workers and you're doing a good job at balancing out the dual emphasis of the Christian life, vertical and horizontal. I've heard of your faith and love towards the Lord Jesus Christ and towards your fellow saints. And he says you guys are doing a good job at balancing out the dual characteristics of the Christian life because I've heard of your love and faith, your faith and love, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love unto all the saints. Now let's finish this up, verse six. Now in verses six and seven, the Apostle Paul, because Paul's an intellectual, these are great verses, but they're a little wordy and you kind of have to work through them, so I want you to understand it, Philemon one, verse six. Paul says to Philemon, that the communication, communication, and the word communication is not talking about talking, we use the word communication today about communicating and talking, but the word communication here in our King James Bible has to do with sharing, has to do with passing along, it does, if you think about sharing the gospel, we communicate the gospel, there's that sense to it. He says that the communication, and when you see the word communication I want you to think about passing something along, sharing something with others. He says that the communication of thy faith may become effectual. The word effectual means effective. He says, Philemon, I'm glad that you're building and battling, I'm glad that you have a vertical emphasis and a horizontal emphasis, I'm glad you have faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and love toward the saint, he says because all of that is going to help you in the communication of your faith, in the sharing of your faith, in the passing along of your faith, and it's going to help you become effectual, effective, how Paul, here's how, by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Jesus Christ. So you know what we learn about Philemon in these introductory statements is that he had a powerful testimony, and we learn about the power of a powerful testimony. He says when people acknowledge every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus, that's going to make the communication of your faith more effectual, more effective. I've said it many times, we do not believe here in lifestyle evangelism. We don't think that the way we share our faith is by just living a good life and then hopefully people will see the way we live and fall on their knees before us and say, what must I do to be saved? That happened to Paul once, but you're not Paul and neither am I. We are to go, go ye therefore. We are to take the gospel to them. We don't believe in lifestyle evangelism, but I will say this, and I've said it before, we do believe that your lifestyle and my lifestyle should match our evangelism. And maybe one of the reasons that when you try to give the gospel to your friends, your co-workers, your family members, one of the reasons they laugh at you, they don't take you serious, because maybe it has to do with the fact that you say you've got a good relationship this way, but you owe a whole lot of money this way. And you're always talking crap about people this way. And you're constantly gossiping about people this way. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? And the communication of thy faith will become effectual when they can acknowledge every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. You say, they don't respect me because I'm battling. No, they don't respect you because you're always late. Because you're always not doing what you're supposed to be doing. So Paul talks about the fact that Philemon had a powerful testimony, and he talks about the power of his powerful testimony. And Jesus said it this way, you don't have to turn here, I'll just read it for you. Matthew 5 14, he says, hear the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle than put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That's the Jesus equivalent of that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus. Then Paul says to Philemon in verse 7, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee. And then he says this very dear word, brother. You can see the love that Paul has for this man, Philemon. Now we're there in verse number 7 and I want to say this, it is believed that Philemon, that Onesimus, excuse me, the runaway, actually brought the letter to Philemon and that's probably true, we don't know that for sure, but I'm sure that there's probably some truth to that. When Onesimus would show up, of course Philemon would probably be surprised, he'd see Onesimus and say, what are you doing here? I can't believe you have the guts to show up here again after what you did? And maybe Onesimus would say, please read this, who's that from? Just read it. Philemon would open this letter and read the words, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Maybe that's how it happened. Maybe Paul sent the letter in advance. I think that's probably how I would do it. Maybe he would send the letter in advance and I think that he might have done that because in the letter he's telling Philemon how he's going to send Onesimus and he could just be referring to the fact that he's sending Onesimus with the letter or maybe he's sending him out behind the letter, but maybe Philemon gets this letter in advance in preparation for Onesimus to show up. And if that's the case, Philemon would read the letter this way. Here's how he'd read it. He'd say, he'd open the letter and he would read these words, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And he'd say, oh Paul, Paul, Paul, hey honey, Paul wrote, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brother and Philemon our dearly beloved and fellow laborer and to our beloved Apphia, Apphia, Paul says, hi, and Archippus, oh he mentions our pastor, our fellow soldier and to the church in the house, he wants this letter to be read to the whole church. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and then Philemon begins to read these words, I thank my God making mention of the always and my prayer and Philemon might think, that's nice. I'm glad that Paul's praying for me. Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints and Philemon, I'm sure smiled and said, what's real nice that Paul, Paul is saying this. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus and I'm sure Philemon is happy to be reading this but if Philemon is anything like I am, he's probably at this point thinking to himself, what are you getting at Paul? You ever had one of those conversations where he's talking to you about something and you're like uh-huh, uh-huh, what's the point? What is this all about? For we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the vows of the saints are refreshed by thee brother and Philemon is just kind of reading this and then Paul says this, wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee being such and one as Paul the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ and then Philemon might read these words, I beseech thee for my son and I would imagine that if this letter was sent in advance, he would read it this way, he'd say Onesimus? Is this what this is about? That rascal, that thief, that lazy? I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bones and that's where we're going to pick it up next week. I hope you'll join us as we continue this short book of the Bible, the book of Philemon. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord we do love you and we thank you for your word. And these shortest books of the Bible are filled with doctrine and teaching and good things. Lord, I pray you'd help us as we study these passages. Help us to learn from them. Help us to have the right balance in the Christian life, building and battling to be concerned with both our vertical and horizontal relationships, to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love towards the saints. Thank you for this book of the Bible. In the matchless name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen. All right, well we're going to have Brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song. Just want to give you some final statements here today. Of course, first of all, I'd like to say this, please don't forget, if you don't mind looking around your area, kind of picking up, cleaning up, maybe putting the hymn books away. If your kids made a mess, maybe clean that up and it would help us, of course, it helps the cleaners tomorrow with that. And then, of course, I want to say thank you today being our church's 14-year anniversary. Not only our church's anniversary, my wife and I are celebrating 14 years in the ministry today, and we just want to thank you for being on this journey with us. I know it's been both building and battling. It's been hard at times along the way, but we appreciate you and we love you, we appreciate your faithfulness, and I'm excited about what the Lord has for us in the future. I do want to encourage you to be with us on Wednesday night, we'll be in Psalm 8, and then, of course, Sunday morning, we're going to begin a brand new series, The Spirit World, and I want to encourage you to be here, invite somebody, bring somebody with you. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know, and we'll have Brother R.J. come up and lead us in a final song. Amen. Amen. Let's grab our song, books, and turn to page number 379. Song number 379. Ringing in the sheets, song number 379, sing it out on the first. Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, sowing in the noontide, in the dewey. Waiting for the harvest and the time of weeping, we shall come rejoicing. Ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheets, song number 379, on the second. Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows, fearing neither clouds nor winds or chilling weeds, by and by the harvest. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets, ringing in the sheets. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheets. Finish on the last. Going forth with weeping, Sowing for the Master, Though the lost sustain, The Spirit often weeps, When weeping so low, He will bid us welcome, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves. Amen. Thank you.