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I stand amaze in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me a sinner condemned unclean how marvelous how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous how wonderful is my Savior's love for me for me it was in the garden he prayed not my will but mine he had no tears for his own griefs but sweat drops of blood for mine how marvelous how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous how wonderful is my Savior's love for me he took my sins and my sorrows he made them his very own he bore the burden to now free and suffered and died alone how marvelous oh how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous with me ransomed in glory his face I at last shall see will be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me how marvelous how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous how wonderful is my Savior's love for me all right great job everybody let's all pray together thank you Lord once again for just allowing us to come together today Lord and praise you and worship you Lord and we just ask that you bless this service and fill this room with your spirit in Jesus name amen all right for our next song let's go to song number 150 song number 150 my faith has found a resting place song number 150 song number 150 everybody singing out real loud together on the first my faith has found a resting place not in device nor free I ever I need no and that he died for me enough for me that Jesus saved me this is my fear he'll never pass me out I need no other argument I need no it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me my heart is leaning on the word the written Word of God salvation by my Savior's name salvation through his blood my great position heals the sick the lost he came to say for me his precious blood he shed for me his life I need no other and that he died for me thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you didn't already get a bulletin you'd like one one of our ushers can come by and get you one just lift up your hand nice and high and one of our ushers would like to come by get you a bulletin also on the front we have our Bible memory passage we've been working on Revelation chapter 1 so if you're able to quote the verse of the week and you're 18 and under you can get a treat after our service as well as those who are able to quote the entire chapter they're going to get a treat or a prize once we've completed the entire first chapter on the inside we have our service and so many times we have our church stats and we also have the list of expecting ladies please continue to pray we have several they're listed continue to pray for them we also have our prayer list and we like to go over that on Wednesday nights we have the niguras we continue to pray for them for health we've been praying for miss Lucy's mother we've been praying for brother Cameron's leg we've been praying for brother Pendleton for brain cancer also been praying for brother Wallach's daughter who's also pregnant and then we've been praying for miss Cooley stepdad cancer treatment we've been praying for brother Sue Hale for his fiance's travel is that still going pretty good okay great and then also we've been praying for miss Linda for a new car and job so we have several prayer requests there we'll go ahead and say just a prayer together as a church family this evening thank Heavenly Father for our church thank you so much for these expecting ladies I pray that you please help them during their pregnancies I please help their children to develop and to have a timely birth I pray that you would please also grant favor unto our church family and friends that have a lot of chronic issues and health problems I pray that you please just give them healing please just help give them a miracle I pray that you would also just be with our church family abroad that you would help them with their traveling pray that you'd help give favor to those in our church that need for their car job for their housing and I pray that you would just continue to use our church to be a bright and shining light for your honor and your glory and in Jesus name we pray men upcoming events we have the Shreveport Louisiana soul winning marathon and there is a signup sheet out here so if you would like to sign up please do if you're planning on going please sign up either way but also a part of the signup should have if you can help give a ride or if you would like to try and carpool we will be taking the church van and then we might have other people that can help with carpooling and so if you would like to do that we are kind of on the favorable side towards three port so we'll probably have a meet up on this side and then we can go out there and then also we have down below the wedding for brother Suhail and miss Laurie May and it's gonna be on July 1st so it's a there's an RSVP wedding if you can please do so to brother Suhail his email address if you might have already met the no June 1st all right you still have a chance the door is not closed to the arc you can still get on so RSVP to brother Suhail and so that way he can prepare and plan for their reception and everything like that they also have a way to donate for them for a wedding reception or wedding gift registry but they're not doing a traditional route they would like to actually just donate to the church in honor of their wedding so if you would like to do that just ask brother Suhail and he can give you all the information he's got all that all the details on the back we have our church reminders please also pay attention to that and it's good to be back with you this evening I was in Oklahoma City on Sunday and just visiting them regularly and the church was going really well it was great to see evangelists for up there he's doing a really good job and to see all the brethren up there they're doing really good it's funny because their church always has like a bigger attendance in the evening than in the morning so you know they really have a unique group over there but everything's going really great and it was really fun to be up there and to preach for them I think they still have a YouTube channel so you can check out the sermons on YouTube for them if you'd like to steadfast OKC and that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned we can go to our third song which we're doing Psalm one hundred and fifty Psalm one hundred and fifty. All right that was Psalm one hundred and fifty. Everybody's singing out real loud on the verse. Praise him with the salt tree and harp, praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with stringed instruments and organs, praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, let everything that hath breath, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, let everything that hath breath, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Philemon, the Bible reads, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved, Ephea, 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 vows of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother, 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 an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten 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 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 therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he have 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 wilt also do more than I say, but withal prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucus, my fellow laborers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Philemon and I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and enable him to preach his sermon for us with clarity of mind and also Lord I pray that you help us to live for you and glorify you in all aspects of our lives. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. So we're starting a new 30 part series of Philemon, no I'm just kidding. So we're going through the book of Philemon this evening and it's obviously just a one chapter book of the Bible but it's packed with a really important message and it's kind of sandwiched here near the other pastoral epistles and I think that that's probably because it's likely that Philemon is either the leader or the pastor of a particular church and that's kind of why the epistle is titled Philemon. We see it addressing him and here in verse 1 it says Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brother unto Philemon our dearly beloved and fellow laborer and to our beloved Apphia and Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church in thy house. So in the address of the letter he's talking to a few different people, Philemon, also Apphia and Archippus and he's mentioning the church that is in this guy's house but it's mostly kind of focused in talking to Philemon and that's of course why it has the title Philemon as a little bit later in the passage he kind of seems to be isolating and talking about a singular person and that's where we kind of get the idea of the epistle being written here to Philemon. Also it doesn't necessarily mention the church name, you think about a lot of other epistles it's kind of like the Ephesians is because it's written to the church at Ephesus, right? Or Galatia, it's written to the church of Galatia. So whereas the other previous epistles that are definitely pastoral epistles are kind of just isolated to being either to Timothy or to Titus, this one has a little bit of a joint message but it's still mostly talking to Philemon himself and he calls him brother. I mean if you look at verse 7, look what it says of the latter portion of that verse. It says the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. So thee there is obviously a singular denotion and it's talking about one particular individual and so again when you're reading the epistle it addresses a lot of people but he is mostly trying to talk to Philemon which also gives me the idea that probably Philemon is some type of leader in this particular church. Now he may not be a pastor, he may just be what sometimes is referred to as boots on the ground, right? He's just kind of like the main guy, he's helping take care of the church and that's why he doesn't get some kind of a title like an evangelist or a deacon or a pastor or an elder. He just simply refers to him as a brother, as a fellow laborer and he mentions these other guys as being fellow soldiers but nevertheless Philemon is kind of appears to at least be the leader of this church and make a lot of important decisions regarding this particular group and so that's why it's addressed to him. Now this actually kind of fits pretty well with a lot of the way we've done some church planning where sometimes we don't even have a church that has necessarily a defined pastor for it, right? We might have had churches especially in the past of steadfast or pure words where there's a person down there that's kind of leading the charge but they're not necessarily ordained as a pastor, they're not necessarily ordained as an evangelist or ordained as a deacon or anything like that but they're still in a way fulfilling that role, in a way they're still leading the charge, they're still very important and that kind of you know relates to me with this book written to Philemon where you have a guy that's very important, doing a really important job, you kind of have this church forming or formed and yet we don't know necessarily the particulars and of course he could have just been the pastor, he's just not getting that title, he just calls him brother. Plenty of my pastor friends will just call me brother Shelley and they may not call me pastor so and so and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that so I don't know but I do think that it's also likely that he may is not as a pastor and of course many of the churches that we see planted in the early stages of Paul's ministry don't have a defined pastor, that's the whole point of him sending Titus in the book of Titus, for this cause left I thee and create that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every church as I had appointed thee or in every city as I had appointed thee. So we have Titus essentially doing the job of coming behind him, coming behind Paul and ordaining leadership in churches that have been formed and started. So really when you think about it, a lot of church planting in the Bible is not necessarily sending out a pastor to start a church but rather it's an evangelist or an apostle going out and just getting a bunch of people saved and those people kind of start meeting together and forming a church and then later leadership is finally ordained or someone actually comes in afterwards and becomes the defined pastor or an evangelist or whatever it is to be the leadership there. But of course we understand that leadership is very important and so we don't want to just have a church be full of anarchy and just simply just everyone's the pastor, everyone's the leader, everyone's in charge because then you're just going to have chaos and in fact 1 Corinthians 14 deals with that issue a little bit of just how chaotic the church at Corinth was when they would even have just like everybody speaking and everybody's leading music and everybody's just kind of doing their own thing and he's like no, no, no, you guys need to figure this out. You need to have things in order and of course it makes sense that Corinth would probably have these issues because it's probably an early stage of a church plant. He doesn't necessarily have that pastor or that leader in place yet and so he's kind of giving them some instruction helping them along the way. Philemon is also, interestingly enough, he's very close with Paul and he was close with another guy, Onesimus, that's going to be mentioned here a little bit later. But the apostle Paul, he always starts off his epistles by kind of addressing a few people and then he says in verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you heard me preach a week ago or two weeks ago, I made mention of the fact that Paul's always extending grace unto each one of these churches and he, of course, wishing well for them, wishing peace, even though in many of his epistles he's offering a lot of correction, a lot of reproof, a lot of rebuke, he starts out with grace and he wants to extend grace and he wants good things to happen for them. Now in this particular epistle, this would almost arguably be one of the most positive chapters of the Bible just simply because there's not really any admonishment, there's not really any criticism that the apostle Paul is going to be offering in this particular epistle. It's mostly just encouragement, which tells me a couple things. It tells me that the apostle Paul did not feel the need to always criticize people. He didn't always have to criticize people. He didn't always have to say something negative. He didn't always have to bring up something that you could improve upon. He could be just positive. But of course, why is it very few or very seldom that that's the case is because very seldom is the case that people don't need some correction. It's very seldom that people don't necessarily need, you know, hey, you got some serious issues here. Often, especially when you read these epistles, these churches have a lot of serious issues, a lot of problems, a lot of things that need to be fixed. And so it's important when you think about how much the Bible is negative that it also still has the positive here. And so we don't want to get too far in either extreme. We don't want to just always be negative and we don't want to like only be positive. We want to strike the right balance. And you say, well, what's the right balance? Whatever is appropriate. You know, if you're addressing Philemon and there's nothing to criticize, you don't need to criticize anything. Whereas if you're addressing some other church or some other leader, maybe there's a lot to criticize. And so you may criticize them a lot more. You know, the epistle written to the Galatians is a lot different tone as far as how the Apostle Paul is going to address that church because they have some serious issues. They're struggling with the gospel itself. And so the tone of the Apostle Paul is a lot more extreme than you would hear in the book of Philemon. And so you notice that the Apostle Paul adapts his personality, adapts his attitude, he adapts the style of writing to the particular situation. And of course, this is what we want to do. We don't want to have an approach where I'm just always positive no matter the situation. And we also don't want to only be negative no matter what the situation is. We want to strike the balance of basically responding appropriately. Just like Jesus, you know, Jesus when he ran into certain people, he extended them a lot of kindness, a lot of grace, and he was very long suffering with them. But then he runs into the Pharisees and they don't get any grace, they don't get any love or kindness. In fact, he rebukes them very harshly. And so you see that even Jesus Christ treats people differently based on how they should be treated. And I think that that takes discretion, that takes understanding, that takes wisdom for us to realize not everybody should be treated the exact same way. We need to basically think about what's the appropriate way to admonish someone and think about the circumstances. Now he says in verse 4, 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. Now we've read the first six verses of this letter, and if you pay attention, it's actually one sentence. Do you realize that the first six verses were actually only one sentence? So that was a pretty lengthy sentence that the apostle Paul had written. He kind of addresses people, he's giving them grace, and then he's also explaining, I'm sorry, verses 1 through 3 is a sentence, I made a mistake there. Verse 4 starts on New Thought, but he says, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers. Now what the apostle Paul is alluding to here is that every time he prays to God, he's thanking God for Philemon. So he's saying, thank you God for Philemon, thank you for, you know, Archippus, thank you for their church. And notice that he's also doing it based on verse 5, hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints. So he's thanking God that Philemon is showing love. He's thanking God that this church is showing faith, and their faith is not just towards the Lord Jesus Christ, but all saints. So notice that the apostle Paul is very thankful that Philemon is walking in truth, that he's actually doing the things that he's supposed to, and this is important because he's not with Philemon. Now I thought of a couple verses here that I want to go to, but before I get into that point of just why he's thanking him, I want to address another thing that he says here in verse 6, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Now that's kind of an interesting verse. When you hear the word communication, it's not necessarily evident what he means specifically, but in general when we think about communication, just thinking about what people say, the things that they're doing verbally. If you go back to Ephesians, go back to Ephesians chapter 4, it also mentions communication. The word communication is mentioned a few times in the Bible, around a dozen or so. Most of the time, interestingly enough, the word communication is kind of used in a negative sense, the word itself, but that doesn't mean that the word itself is negative. It's just used often in a very negative connotation. There's another place where it's used in a negative connotation, but it's also kind of balanced in this particular section. Look what it says in verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto yours. We see that coupling of corrupt communication, but notice it kind of gives the opposite, but that which is good, so obviously it's implying that there's good communication. There's good communication and there's corrupt communication that exists. What is the good communication? Well, it edifies and it ministers grace unto the hearers. What is edification? Building someone up. So when you communicate with another individual, you want to try and build them up, make them stronger. What else is another way to kind of build people up is to give them knowledge, to give them wisdom, to strengthen them. These are ways to kind of build them up. What about ministering grace? Grace is unmerited favor, so we don't deserve certain things, and if you get it anyways, that's grace. Right? I may not deserve love or friendship. I may not deserve for you to help me or something along those lines, but you do it for me anyways, that would be grace. And so sometimes people may not grow at the rate that they should spiritually. Maybe they're lacking in growth or they're not performing the actions that they should or perhaps they're screwing up or they've made mistakes. And ministering grace unto those hearers would not necessarily giving them what they deserve for that mistake, but rather still affording them maybe some love, charity, the benefit of the doubt, trying to help them along. Sometimes I'll preach a sermon and I'll have someone come up to me and ask me a question that I answered in the sermon. And initially you might be thinking, like, weren't you listening? But let's be realistic. Who listens to every single word in the sermon? No one can. I mean, you might hear it all, but it's not going to always all register. Sometimes you hear something and it may trigger a few thoughts or you may think of something else and then you miss whatever else was being said during that particular moment. Obviously, if you have children or a toddler or anything else, you're hungry. You might miss a few words there, right? And yet I already delivered the particular answer, so I could just be like, what, didn't you listen? But is that really ministering grace unto the hearer? No, that would be giving them what they deserve maybe if they're just not paying attention. What if they slept during the sermon, right? Now that happens, okay? People will sleep during the sermon, especially in this evening sermon, right? But I'm thinking, like, bed's more comfy, just go home, right? But what if they sleep in the sermon and they ask you a question about it? Maybe if you give them what they deserve, it might be kind of like, how was your nap? But if you're going to minister grace, you might just explain it to them anyways, right? You might be kind. And again, that's kind of what the Bible is talking about in the sense that we don't want to do the opposite, though, where if we keep reading, it says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed in the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So I could get real bitter, oh, well, if you're going to sleep, I'm not going to tell you, right? Or I could be wrathful and be like, you know, coming over there and slapping you silly while you're sleeping during the sermon, right? Or, you know, I could be angry and just change the tone of my voice or clamor or just evil speaking like, he's probably a reprobate since he sleeps during the sermon, but is that really the type of communication we want to have during, you know, with our brethren? Or do we want to try and minister grace and be kind to them and give them the benefit of the doubt? It says in verse 32, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake have forgiven you. So our communication should be good communication, and that kind of gives us an idea of what communication is. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 18, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. So according to the Bible, your tongue has a lot of power. It can cut people up, it can destroy them, it can also encourage them and build them up and give them help. You know, ministering grace could also just be like someone may have lost a loved one, gone through a death, gone through a personal health crisis. Someone could have lost their job, lost their home, lost their, you know, their car, right? They could have lost anything. They could be going through a hardship, a difficulty. Their marriage could be failed or ruined, or they could have a problem with their child. And by ministering grace into this person, you could say, hey, I'm going to pray for you, you know, trying to encourage them, trying to comfort them. And sometimes these issues are not their fault at all, but sometimes they are their fault. Maybe they're, hey, I've just been lazy at work and I got fired. Well, you could just be like, stop being lazy. Or you could be like, hey, I'm sorry for you, I'll pray for you that, you know, the Lord will help you during this and, you know, is there some way I could help you or I could be an accountability partner for you if you want someone to encourage you. You know, just you could try to minister grace in that person even when they made a mistake, even when they did something wrong, as opposed to just always condemning them, thinking that they're bad, treating them harshly. We don't want to have that kind of communication. And if you go back to Philemon here, notice that what the Apostle Paul is appreciative of is the communication of their faith. Now, verse number six, let's just read that again, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So he says in verse four, I thank my God, and he's thanking God because he's hearing of thy love and faith and that they're doing all these things, that the communication of thy faith. So what would be the communication of thy faith? It sounds like to me what the Apostle Paul is trying to say here. He's trying to say by me talking about your faith, by me acknowledging the good things that you're doing and talking about how you're helping people and loving people, I'm hoping that that will have an effect on you. It will be effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So it's kind of like by me acknowledging some of the good things that you're doing, I hope that that will somehow incentivize you or encourage you to do every good thing. So this is to me important when it comes to children. Children, you want to encourage them and so children aren't going to necessarily be great at everything yet, but let's say they're just starting out at a particular task or schooling or maybe you're teaching them a skill, maybe building or a sport and they just start out, well, whatever they're doing good, sometimes it's often good to acknowledge that to them, give them some good feedback so that it will motivate them to keep trying and working harder so that they can become a perfect sports athlete or a perfect student or a perfect builder. We need criticism, but we also sometimes need the acknowledgement of the good things that we're doing because it will help them. You're training someone going soloing. Let's say you go out, you have a silent partner, but they want to start learning how to give the gospel and let's say they do something really good in their gospel presentation. It's often good to point that out to them to maybe try and motivate them to become the best soul winner, to get even better at preaching the gospel so that they realize, hey, I really like how you approach these people or you did a really good job explaining this point or whatever it is. Just by talking about communicating of their faith and communicating of the things that they're doing may help bolster them to become a more complete Christian and to even do even more things for the Lord. We want to encourage people where they're succeeding. Someone preaches a good sermon. If Brother Ben preaches a good sermon, hypothetically, then you could be like, Brother Ben, that was a really good sermon. By just telling him that he preached a good sermon, it might motivate Ben to also improve in other areas of his life, Christian speaking, because he might think, wow, people noticed that sermon and they liked that. That means that it's important for me to also be a good example at church or to show up at church regularly or maybe they ask you a question about your sermon and it motivates you to study more in your Bible or to learn more. Just by communicating positive things, it can have a positive impact. I think that's what the apostle Paul is trying to say, especially when you consider the rest of this epistle because he's constantly making a mention of things he wants Philemon to do, but then he's kind of like, but I know you're going to do it anyways. It's almost like self-fulfilling prophecy, which has its level of truth in the sense that people that are very confident often are very successful. Especially in sports, I've noticed this a lot in sports, is that people that are very good in sports, they have a lot of confidence in their ability, whether that be, it doesn't matter the sport, it doesn't matter the task, even just construction. The people that get a nail and they put it right up to the board and they're going to hit it with a hammer, you know the people that are the best at it, swing really hard. They're not just tapping it, afraid that they're going to hit their thumb or finger or whatever. The guys that are really good are just like, bam, and they just nail it. They have a lot of confidence, whereas the person that's kind of timid, they're actually probably more likely to hit their finger, just because for some reason, confidence has a big impact on your performance. The same with sports. The guy that thinks he's going to make the three pointer usually is the guy that makes the three pointer. The guy that thinks he's going to throw the football perfectly is the one that usually throws the football perfectly. Of course, often it transfers into arrogance for these people. They go beyond just being confident to being extremely arrogant and prideful, but you'll notice that there's a correlation there, because people that have a lot of confidence end up performing the actions that they believe they're going to do. I believe the same with Christianity, in the sense that you kind of should have a certain confidence or a certain expectation for things that are going to happen, and often when our trust is in the Lord, when we're putting our confidence and trust in the Lord, He will help us to perform that action, to perform that task. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't know for sure they were going to come out of that fiery furnace, but they said that the Lord was going to deliver them. They said, hey, the Lord's going to deliver us. But did they know that, or did they believe that by faith? They believed that by faith, but they communicated beforehand what they believed, and they're kind of putting it out there, and that helps them to end up going right into the fiery furnace and come out unscathed. I think one lesson we could learn from this particular epistle is that we should try to communicate positively about the faith that we see in our brethren. When we see our brethren exercising faith, let's come alongside them, encourage them, and tell them they're doing a good job, and praise them for their faith so that they will then be encouraged to continue, and to the point where they're doing every good thing. Look at verse 7, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Now again, the bowels of the saints, this phraseology is used often in the Bible, Philippians even brings up the bowels. Bowels is just kind of a euphemism for emotion. And if you think about, like your bowel is just kind of like talking about your stomach area. So if you think about it, when you're really nervous, where do you really feel it? You feel it in your stomach, don't you? And in fact, sometimes you have to use the bathroom if you get really nervous, right? Who knows what I'm talking, you don't have to raise your hand, okay? That's why some of you all use the bathroom so much, you're so nervous during the sermon. I remember when I would do like a, if I performed in high school, like in a play or something like that, you just kind of feel a little bit weird in your stomach maybe, right before the show's going to go on. Or maybe you get on a roller coaster, and it's one of the big ones, you've never been on it before, and you're like, oh yeah, I'm tough. But inside, it's like, woo, you know, you can kind of feel it, right? And so it's just kind of a feeling that you have. Also, if someone gets really bad news, don't they sometimes, they kind of like bend over or whatever, it's like, it feels like they got punched in the gut when you get really bad news, doesn't it? And it's just because the Bible is kind of alluding to how a lot of times your feelings and emotions are tied to this part of your body, and in fact, in times past, science and doctors actually thought that your emotions were literally there, that it wasn't like your brain, that it was actually like somehow in here, you know, your kidneys, your reigns or whatever, and your bowels, that's where your literal seat of emotion is. But obviously, scientifically, we kind of understand that your brain's the control center, but that doesn't change the fact that we've experienced, humanly speaking, feelings in that part of our body. And he's saying he has like a great relief, or he's refreshed in that part of his body because of their love. Well, what does that mean? Well, go to 2 John, chapter number 4, go to 2 John, chapter number 4. The Apostle Paul's going through a lot of difficulty, you know, he's in jail, literally. He's been beaten and shipwrecked and suffered a lot. Well, what helps keep him encouraged is that he realizes that his work is not in vain, and he brings us up in other epistles, but what would be his work in vain? Well, wouldn't it feel annoying if you walked up and you preached the gospel to someone and they prayed with you and you felt like all excited, you thought you got them saved or whatever, and then, you know, you kind of walk away and you come back the next week and you see them and you're running to them and you're like, oh, hey, how's it going? And they're like, oh, great. It's like, oh, do you still, you know, believe in Jesus? And they're like, no, I'm an atheist, I was faking it the whole time with you. You'd be like, well, that kind of seems like it was a wasted effort on that person. It wouldn't be, you'd be like, that kind of seemed like it was in vain, right? Whereas if the person's like, yeah, I got plugged in in church and yeah, I'm preaching the gospel, you like feel better because that person's actually getting plugged in and they're changing their life and they're preaching the gospel to their people. And so the same as what the Apostle Paul's trying to say about Philemon, he said, hey, we, we're constantly refreshed when we hear about all the great stuff that you guys are doing. Look what it says in 2 John 4, I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. So you get joy from watching your children walk in truth. Look at 3 John 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. When you see a child finally learn something and finally succeed at something, there's no greater joy. You know, if you're teaching your kids how to read, there's no greater anguish. No, I'm just kidding. But once they finally learn how to read, it's like, wow, that's great. You know, you teach your kids how to, how to eat, you know, especially the toddlers and it's frustrating. But then when they can eat a meal without getting messy, I don't know when that is. Maybe when they're adults. It's like there's no greater joy. Because they can finally, they finally succeed. But it's like, what, that's, that's joy. But how much more joy when you see your children getting saved, getting baptized, reading the Bible, loving the Lord, serving God, doing things that are spiritual. There's no greater joy than to see them to walk in truth. And that refreshes their spirit. That makes them feel really good inside. I kind of alluded to that in my Mother's Day sermon, about how my mother would always talk about how that was the thing she wanted the most, is just that her children would know God and love Jesus and want to serve Him. You know, it didn't care to her what job they had or where they lived or how many children they had or any of these things. She just cared that they loved Jesus. And, you know, for the apostle Paul, he's just so refreshed to know, hey, my labor here is not in vain. Even though I'm in jail, you guys are still loving the saints and doing the work and preaching the gospel. I mean, if I got thrown in jail for preaching, it could happen. What would make me feel better is when I hear, hey, we had a record attendance at church. Hey, people were preaching really good sermons. Hey, we got a bunch of people saved out soul winning even though I was thrown in prison. That would make me feel better. You know what would not make me feel good? Oh, yeah, you were thrown in prison? No one came to church. It shut down. No one's there. No one's now an atheist. It would be like, wow, that's kind of rough. You know? I wouldn't believe it. But I'm just saying, like, you can see how other people's reaction is going to impact you. And it's impacting the apostle Paul when it talks about Philemon. He says we have great joy. And notice this. And consolation. What is a consolation? It's not the winner. Right? Consolation prize is for the loser. So what does he mean by consolation? He's in jail. But he's saying, but the consolation is the fact that I know that you guys are serving God. I have a consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. It's like I would wish that I was the one refreshing them, but at least my consolation is that you're getting the job done. Right? It's like I would like to preach the sermon, but I'm consoled at least, you know, brother Ben ripped the house down, right? He preached the good sermon. You know, and so he's consoled by his love. Verse 8. 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 an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. So he finally kind of gets into the meat of the whole point of this epistle. He hasn't really been saying much yet. He says in verse number 8 that he could be bold to enjoin them. Enjoin kind of means to direct or to command. So he's saying, what I'm about to say, I could have just said, you need to do this, or been forceful and said, thus saith the apostle Paul, do this. But he says, instead of enjoining you, what I'd rather do in verse 9, yet for love's sake I'd rather beseech thee. So he's saying, instead of just commanding you or telling you what to do, I'd rather just kind of request in a loving and an admonishing way of saying, hey, this is what you should do. You know, an earnest request. I'm not going to tell you have to. I'm just saying, please do it. So he's kind of saying, the way I'm approaching you is not like I'm trying to just tell you what to do, but rather I'm just trying to encourage you and trying to beseech you. And he's doing it because, you know, he says he's Paul the aged. I don't know if he means by that, just like over the years I've learned that I'd rather kind of beseech you rather than enjoin you. Maybe when I was younger, I was a little bit more of a stickler, more of just kind of hardcore. But now that I'm the age, I'm kind of like, hey, why don't you just, you know, follow, why don't you just do this? Because it's the right thing to do. He's also a prisoner. So let's say, let's say he tells him what to do and Philemon doesn't do it. Well, it's going to be pretty hard for the apostle Paul to back up and enforce his commandments, to enforce his direction. He kind of gives us a stick to second Corinthians. He kind of is saying like, hey, if you don't do this, then I'm going to come, you know, with power. Hey, I'm going to come with boldness and, hey, I'm going to deal with you all a lot differently if you don't follow my direction here. But in this epistle, he's kind of saying like, well, I'm not going to just tell you what to do. I'd rather just beseech you because I'm kind of old now and I'm in prison. So, you know, that's kind of what he's kind of saying here. But he wants them to still do this, obviously. Verse 10, I beseech thee from my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. Now, Onesimus has kind of become the subject of this epistle and Onesimus, according to the Bible, is begotten of Paul in prison. Now, go to Galatians for a moment and I'll show you a couple of verses here, but the Bible uses a lot of different ways to describe salvation. Obviously, we understand that Jesus is the one who saves people from hell. Jesus is the reason why we're saved. But the vehicle by which the person receives the Gospel is mentioned in the Bible as someone begetting someone. It's a spiritual birth and somehow we're a fellow laborer with Christ. And so the Bible uses this language. Look at Galatians 4, verse 19, my little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Now, in Galatians, he's afraid that these people aren't even saved. So he's alluding to what he would have to do again. He's like, man, I have to travail in birth again? He's like, I have to do all this labor again to try and get you saved? Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter number 4. So that's another way that it's kind of mentioned. It would be like you preach the little Gospel to someone and you thought that they got it and you're ready to pray and then they don't get it. And it's like, I got to travail again? Or sometimes, in fact, sometimes people have heard the whole Gospel and prayed and then they still didn't even get it. And then you have to explain it to them again later. Or you have to explain it to them right there. And so it's kind of like what he's saying there. It's like, I got to travail again? But it's reality. 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 15. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. So the apostle Paul says, hey, I begot you through the Gospel and I'm a father unto you in a sense. And just the sense that he delivered them the Gospel and so they're kind of a son to him in a sense to the Gospel. Obviously he's not taking the unbiblical title of Father Paul. And we never mention him as Father Paul like the Catholics do. But rather he's just saying he's like a father in a sense to them. They're like a son unto him in a sense. And it's just kind of how the Bible words things about getting someone saved. Go back to Philemon. So this Onesimus is someone that the apostle Paul ministered to the Gospel. He begat him in the Gospel. He begat him while they were in prison. That also tells me, hey, even in prison you could still work for God. Notice even if you were in prison, you could still get someone saved. Joseph worked in prison. A lot of people are still capable of doing things while in prison. In fact, a lot of the epistles that we're reading were written in prison. So praise God for prison. The prison industrial complex was at work back then and it's alive today. Now, would to God I don't work in the prison. I don't want to work in the prison. But I would hope that all of us would have the right attitude if we found ourselves in that position to say, you know what, I'm still on the clock. And you know what, maybe there's an Onesimus in here that I can work on. And he may have been a rough guy in the past, but you know what? Now he's profitable to me and to thee. And to thee there is talking about Philemon. Now apparently there's a past between these two guys. He says in verse 12, whom I have sent again, thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that 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 it were of necessity but willingly. Again, the apostle Paul's handling Philemon with kind of like kid gloves or just respect, maybe respect is a better way to word this. But instead of just forcing Philemon to do the right thing, this entire epistle, he's basically saying, I'm gonna let you do the right thing, but I'm not gonna force you. And he says in verse number 12 that he's sending Onesimus back to Philemon. And he's wanting him to receive Philemon. And he said, I wanted to just keep Onesimus here in my area to constantly minister to me while I'm still in prison. Because I, frankly speaking, need people to help me in prison. And I don't know what prison was like back then. The day in prison, they'll make food and they'll take care of supposedly all your needs. But perhaps at times past or this particular prison, in order to get food or needs, you basically have to have outsiders coming and bringing it to you. Or you're going without. And I don't know if that's entirely the case, but it seems to be to some degree how things work. Perhaps if he needs an extra coat, it might get cold in the prison. Or if he needs a book, or if he needs, just things that he might need. He just has someone on the outside. How about just fellowship? Just someone to keep him from going insane. You know, just visiting him, talking to him while he's in prison. These things, and so he's saying, I wanted to keep him with me. That in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, saying like, you guys are supposed to be ministering unto me? So I could have just kept Onesimus to be ministering unto me like you should be doing, but he says, but without thy mind would I do nothing. But without hearing what you would actually do or what you want to do, I'm not going to do it yet. That thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willing. Meaning like, I'm not going to just make Onesimus minister for me because I told him to, I'm going to send him back and then let you guys figure out how you're going to minister to me. Let you guys basically handle it, but you know. And that, to me, I really appreciate this mentality of the apostle Paul. And you know, sometimes it's good for other people's personal growth to let them have the freedom to make the right decision and not always just force them to make the right decision. In fact, again, I don't have teenagers. I've only been a teenager myself. But my personal just thought process of how to handle young adults and teenagers is that you need to start giving them more and more freedom to make the right decision on their own as they start to grow up and develop. I don't know what the right age, it's probably different for every child a little bit. But especially the young men, you probably don't want them to just go directly from your house to their house, having had zero freedom ever. You probably want to slowly wean them into, hey, I'm giving you some freedom to make the right decision, make the right decision. But I'm not going to force you to make the right decision. And so that they have kind of that opportunity to work on that. Now, of course, I'm not going so far as the Amish in saying Rumspringa and just be like, hey, just go and party and do wicked things. But at the same time, as they get older, they might become of driving age or age to do a lot of different tasks. And you might start giving them more and more freedom as time goes on. And help them. Now, of course, some decisions I'm not going to even let my children make. You know, like when it comes to my daughters and sons, I don't want to enable them to commit fornication. So I'll take that decision off the table. And I don't think that they're capable of making the right decisions there. So, and then once they get married, they're going to be fine. But today's world's so wicked and so evil, you pretty much are just going to allow them to make really bad decisions if you don't force them to make the right decision in that area. But that doesn't mean you couldn't give them other freedoms and help them to make other good decisions. And in some cases, the apostle Paul doesn't give people option. Why does he give Philemon the option? He must obviously trust Philemon or have seen some good character in Philemon to then give him a little bit more freedom. And that's what you should do with your children. Hey, if your children, you give them a small task and they can't be faithful with that, well, don't start giving them unlimited freedom, then. You know, let's be faithful in the small things first. And then we'll just escalate that freedom as time goes on in the relationship. Same would be with church or anything. You know, you give people a little bit, see how they do, and then you just keep giving them more and more freedom as they respond appropriately. He says in verse 15, 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. This is where we get a clue that there's some kind of a past between these two guys, cuz he's saying somehow the relationship between y'all is like more special than his relationship with him, meaning that they probably knew each other. And then something bad happened, cuz in verse 11 it said which in time past was to the unprofitable. So somehow they had some kind of a relationship. Somehow something bad went down between the two of them. But he's saying, you know, now he's gonna be profitable to you. Now he's gonna end up, you know, helping you. And perhaps that's just what God wanted to do. Perhaps God just allowed him to be put in prison, to be departed for a season, so that now y'all can be friends forever. And that sounds great. You know, think about the prodigal son. Now this is a much more extreme example. But the prodigal son ends up going off and doing a lot of horrible things, wasting all of the inheritance on harlots, and writes his living as the Bible describes. But then when he finally comes back to his father, it's like they're gonna be together forever. He's not gonna go down that road again. You see him now realizing the error of his ways. And so he departed for a season, but so that he could then be received forever. And, you know, sometimes people are like this. Sometimes people will screw up, mess up, do wrong, go down a bad path. But then when they realize the error of their ways, they could be converted for a long time. Think about Peter. Peter denied Christ and kind of went down a little bit of a dark road for a season, it was a short space, but then what happened? Then he's received forever in the sense that now he's willing to die for Christ. Now the apostle Peter has been converted, he's been strengthened, his faith is not gonna fail, and so he's a different person. And I think the admonishment here is that sometimes we're gonna have people in our church or our family or our friends that fail us, do wrong, screw up major, hurt us, harm us, but there could still be a road to recovery. There could still be a way in which this person ends up getting restored. And we don't wanna just, we don't always have this attitude of burn me once and I'm never gonna let you be back in my life. We wanna give people grace, turn the other cheek, as Jesus Christ said, and allow people to have an opportunity to repent and to be forgiven and to get right. And that's kind of the essence of this particular statement here, that he's saying, hey, maybe this is what God wanted to happen. And of course, when he comes back, not in the lower level, right, when you think of the prodigal son, he wanted to just come back as a servant, didn't he? But then the dad's like, no, you're my son. And so he received him back as a son. He restored him 100%. And this is kind of like how we should be, we should treat people, because this is how Christ treated us. You know, this whole thing's kind of similar to the gospel itself, because you have him screw up, which is like us being sinners. And then you have someone make a petition on his behalf, the apostle Paul, which is like Jesus Christ, who interceded for us. And then we get restored, but not just as a servant, as a brother. A brother beloved. And so it's like the apostle Paul's acting out a mini gospel in this particular example. And notice how he says this in verse 17, if thou count me therefore as a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oeth the ought, put that on mine account. So just like Jesus Christ, we get his imputed righteousness. And the same is how the apostle Paul is saying, hey, however you would receive me, receive him. And that's how Jesus kind of does it for us, that we get to be received by God the Father, the way that God the Father would receive Jesus. And we don't deserve that at all. Just like Onesimus doesn't deserve that, we didn't deserve that. And so we're supposed to show the exact same care, love, affection, grace, that Jesus showed us to our brethren, to those who get saved. And of course, Onesimus is not like doing nothing. Onesimus got saved, and Onesimus is repentant, and Onesimus is trying to get right. And so of course, it's being restored in this particular scenario. It's not like we would show this much grace and love and forgiveness to someone that's unrepentant in our particular life, where someone's just going out there and just doing whatever they want, and it's like, hey, let's just keep them in the church, right? No, no, no, there's church discipline for a reason. There's obviously these things. Now, praise God, our salvation itself was free. And for Onesimus, getting saved was free. But now Onesimus also wants to be profitable. And that's what we should do. That's the right response to the gospel. Once we get saved, is we should want to be profitable for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we notice that you can't profit without works. That's what James 2 hammers, right? That what does it profit? Can faith save him? And it's like, we need to also add works. But at the same time, when someone is willing to be repentant and be restored, we need to restore them. And I love the apostle Paul's words here. It's great. Put that on my account. How many of us are willing to pay someone else's debt, pay someone else's burden? And to literally step in and say, hey, if this guy ripped you off for 100 bucks, I'll pay the 100 bucks just so you can receive him back as a brother. I'll make it right. And that's exactly how Jesus was. Jesus is like, hey, whatever is the mess up between God and you, I'll pay it. And I'll put it on my account, and I'll literally, I mean, he paid the full token, he paid the full price. And so how much less of a sacrifice is it for Paul to pay this guy's debt? It's like if Jesus could pay all of our debt, how much little is it for us to be willing to pay someone else's debt or to help someone else out? And notice what the apostle Paul just really wants is just unity. He wants unity between Philemon and Onesimus. He wants them to be buddies, he wants them to be pals, and that's what we should want. Now, what the apostle Paul doesn't, I've got a new buddy, Onesimus, and he's my friend, not your friend. No, he wants them to get back to being friends with Philemon. In fact, he's even arguing that they're going to be even closer friends than him and Paul because they have that past, they have that shared relationship. He's saying, even more are you guys going to be close than I would be close with him? Says in verse 19, I, Paul, have written it with my own hand, I will repay it, albeit I did not say to thee how thou owest unto me, even thine own self besides. So he kind of says this, you actually owe me, but I'm so willing to help this guy that I'll just pay his debt and you still don't even owe me anything. I mean, that's the type of attitude the apostle Paul has towards this restoration of being in good relationship with Onesimus. And he just wants to keep unity and keep the brethren in unity. Says in verse 20, yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord. So he's saying, make me feel even better by restoring relationship. And when you see people having a hard time or not being friendly to each other, it can be annoying. And what makes you feel better is when they get, when they, they restore. Like whether that be, if you're a parent, seeing siblings, being friends again. That makes you just feel better as a parent. Or perhaps just anybody in the family. I know my family has had its serious issues at times. And it just, it felt so much better when my brother and sister would just be fine with each other. But when they were just at odds, it was just like, it was just like, argh. And it was annoying. And I'd be like, come on, just, just work it out, right? Or if you played in a sport, and you have two people on the same team that are mad at each other, not working well together, it's annoying. And the only thing you want is just like, come on guys, just get it together on the same team, figure it out, make peace, get it right. I don't care, hey, if they screwed up, I'll pay it. Just, just forgive them, just get it right. And you know, to make application here, as a pastor, you know what, it makes me really annoyed when I see church members being mad at each other. Or having tiffs amongst one another, or having issues with one another. It doesn't make me feel good as a pastor. And the, the thing that wants, you know, the thing I want more than anything, is for those two people to just figure it out, and have restored fellowship. And it's like, I don't care if you're my friend, I want you guys to get along. I want you guys to have peace. I want you guys to have unity. Go to Psalm 133, Psalm 133, and I'll be honest, and I'm not trying to, like, put shade on the ladies in here. But men have an easier time with this than ladies, okay? Ladies, for some reason, it's a little bit easier for them to get mad at another lady in church than it is. The dudes usually just don't, they don't like each other enough to care. You know, they're just like, whatever. You know, I don't care, so and so. I mean, I, and I very rarely hear about guys just like, really disliking another guy in church. Like, that's usually just not that much of a thing. If they don't like the other guy, they just don't talk to him. You know, they don't really care. But they still just don't care. But for some reason, for ladies, it can get extreme. It gets weird. And, and not this church, but other churches, okay? So other churches, I've heard and known and seen. Some ladies will be like, I can't even sit by her in church. Like, you'll have a family come and sit over here. And the family they don't like will sit right behind them, and they'll move. Not because they're like, you know, like, it's not like they're kicking the back of their chair during the service. Or, it's not like their kids are throwing rocks at them during the service or something like, just because they can't even be near their physical presence. And it's just, it's just like, really? Like, what's the point in that? And, you know, you get, you get these big tiffs, and you get these big clicks, and sometimes you'll have just like, here's, you know, click A and click B, and it's usually revolving around one person. It's like this one person said this mean thing about this other person. Which team are you on? You know, are you on my team or their team? You, and if you're, if you pick them, then it's like you're justifying the wicked thing they said about them too. It's like, so you agree with what they said about me. No, I don't agree, you know, I don't, I don't think that terrible thing about you. You know, it's like, she said I had an ugly dress on Sunday. She's like, so if you're friends with her, then you think I had an ugly dress too. It's like, no. I don't, I don't even know what dress you wore ever, cuz I don't care. You know, it's like, but that's how it is. I guess that's the benefit of everybody in the dress cult, is nobody gets mad about everybody just wearing the same dress. No, I'm just kidding. But I, I'm just saying like, you see this happen, but it'll tear a church apart. And it, it starts real small like this. It's just like a little bit of saying. But then it just starts escalating. They say uglier things and uglier things, and they're not invited to the birthday party. And then they, they invited every one of our friends at the birthday party but her. You know, or but me, or they, they did this, and everybody just gets all upset about dumb things like birthday parties. You know what, I'm thankful when I'm not invited to birthday parties. So, so, so like, I don't even know why you're so upset about it. Right? Just kind of a blessing. Okay? I mean, do you really like the two-year-old birthday party? I'm not mad if you invited me to one, okay, I'm just, I'm just saying. It's like, people just get all mad and then frustrated, and, and they'll hold, they'll hold all this bitterness, this anger, this resentment towards people. But look what the Bible says in Psalm 133, behold, how, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. You know, Onesimus may have not invited Philemon to his birthday party in the past, but get over it, right? Just don't, don't allow these past grievances to continue to fester. Forgive and forget like Christ did for you. Aren't you so glad that every day you wake up, Jesus isn't just starting the day with like, all right, I'm gonna remind you of every sin you committed from the time of you being 12 to now. Do you remember what you did when you were 13, and 14, and 15, and 16? Do you remember what you said last week? Do you remember what you did, you know, two weeks ago? But you know what? That's how sometimes people are. Well, you don't know what she did to me three years ago. You don't know what they did. It's like, get over it. You know why I don't know? Because I don't care, and you shouldn't care. And if you're gonna hold all these little grudges against everybody else, you know what, is, is Jesus gonna be as gracious to you then? You know, you're really just doing yourself a disservice when you hold bitterness, and when you don't let things go, and you don't restore the brethren. You know, take a, a, a page out of Paul's book and be willing to pay for someone to just get it right. They're like, I don't even care what the problem is. How about I just buy both of y'all dinner? So you can just be, so you can just be friends with each other. It's like, well, we went out to dinner and they didn't pay or, you know, whatever. You know, they invited me over and they made me a vegan burger. I can see why you're mad. Let me buy you a good burger, and you can just forget about it and never go over there again, okay? And we'll pray for them. But what we need, what we need as a church is just to dwell together in unity, okay? Is to love each other and to not let these issues fester. Now, I'll, I'll be honest. In times past, I feel like our church has been worse in this issue. Right now, I feel like it's, it's probably the best it's been in a while in this particular issue, but let's not get, go backwards. Let's not, let's not start having even more conflict and more gossip and more drama and more issues. Let's be the church that's constantly letting things go and being gracious and being loving and trying to restore fellowship. And you know, if you're in here and you have bitterness or an issue with someone in the church, try to forgive it this year. Or try to forgive it today. I mean, try to get, try to get rid of that. Try to restore fellowship. And I'm not saying you have to be best friends with everybody in the room, okay? If you don't want to be friends with someone in this room, you don't have to be. But what you should do is at least be cordial and be respectful and to not hold bitterness and to not hold animosity towards our brothers and sisters in Christ and to receive them as a brother or sister, okay? And, and that's the point that he's really trying to drive in, drive in here. He says in verse 21, having confidence in my obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. Now, this is really spicy. It kind of, he's kind of like saying, hey, I wrote to you and all these other people about how you're going to do the right thing. And I didn't have to tell you to do it. I just know you're going to do it. But at the same time, I don't think he's necessarily saying it that way. I think he just genuinely believes it. I think he just, he knows that Philemon's a really good guy. And he knows they had this issue. He's just writing a preemptive letter. But he's like, you know what? This Onesimus guy, he's saved, he's on the right track. And I want you to receive him. And I know, I know that me saying this, you're probably going to go above and beyond. Just like, think about the prodigal son and his father. He didn't just receive his son, he threw a feast for him, didn't he? And you know, maybe if you've had an off time with someone, or you have a broken relationship, when you restore, don't just go back to neutral, go a little above that. Maybe, maybe do even something nicer or kind, more kind, or, or help them out. Or, or whatever, pray for them more. Whatever it is, do more. Says in verse 22, but withal, prepare me also lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. So the, the apostle Paul has a lot of confidence in prayer in itself. I want to go to one more place, and we'll finish. Go to Matthew 21 in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 21. But, we need to have confidence in our prayers. And, and, and God wants us to have confidence in our prayers. Ask with, in faith, nothing wavering, as James says. And, of course, that's the, that's what faith really is. You know, faith is actually having confidence, and having trust. You know, it's not that I hope I'm going to go to heaven, or wish I'm going to go to heaven, or want to go to heaven. I know I'm going to heaven, because I put my faith in Jesus Christ. I put 100% confidence in him, 100% trust. I'm not like holding on to my rosary, too. I'm not like also kind of counting on, well I do, I am a pastor, you know. I mean, that's gotta count for something, right? Right? Or, man, you know, I, I have done a lot of soul winning. You know, I'm not gonna get up there and Matthew 7 it, and be like, well Lord, I was a pastor, and I, I did all these wonderful works. He's gonna be like, I never knew. If that was my true belief, if that was my true understanding in my heart, no. If Christ asked me why I'm going into heaven, I'd be like, I put all of my faith in you, and I knew you were gonna save me. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say, hey, I'm not going to the fiery furnace, you're gonna deliver me. Hey, the Lord's gonna deliver me from that. I'm not going to hell. I have confidence, I know. But you know, the same confidence we have in our salvation. God wants us to also have similar confidence in our other prayer requests, and our other walks of life. Look what it says in Matthew 21, verse 22, and all things. Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Notice he says, I want you to ask, believing it. Not, not just like, well, I just, I just asked for it, but I don't know if it's gonna happen, I don't, I'm not even trying. You know, if you're not even giving any effort towards it, do you even really believe it? Think about it this way, if you say, I really want to get someone saved. Maybe you've never gone soul winning, or you've never been a, you've just been a silent partner, but you just want to get someone saved. But then you're never going soul winning. Well, I just, I pray every day that I'll get someone saved. But if you're not even going soul winning, then it's like, are you really even putting any confidence in that prayer? It's like if you really believe in that prayer, then you should be doing the things that the Bible's saying for that prayer to be accomplished, right? Hey, Lord, please help my children to be godly. Please help my children to get saved. Please help my children to get baptized. But it's like, but I never take them to church, and I never read the Bible to them, and I just send them to the Catholic school. Well, good luck on them becoming godly, right? I mean, of course, that doesn't sound like you have much confidence in the Lord when you're just like, just asking, but not really doing anything. And so we want to be people that, when we pray, we actually believe it. And think about this. The apostle Paul is asking, hey, go ahead and start preparing me a place. He's saying, already start doing things, because you already know God's going to answer my prayer, right? He's already putting into action. It's just like how when the children of Israel are going to cross the sea to go into the promised land with Joshua, they have to actually put their first foot there in the water, right? And by putting that foot in the water, then the water's going to go. But it's like, they had to still put their foot in there. And it's like, sometimes we need to just go ahead and start putting our feet in the water of life, believing that God is going to do what he said. You know, it's like, I don't know if I can afford children. Well, I'm going to have children anyways. Well, I don't know if my wife is going to be faithful to me, but I'm getting married anyways, right? Well, I don't know if church is going to fix my life. Well, I'm going to go to church anyways. I don't know if tithing works, but I'm going to tithe anyways. You know, it's like, whatever the thing is, it's like, hey, I'm going to pray and ask God to bless me financially, or my family, or my health, or whatever. You know what, I'm going to step out in faith anyways. Hey, this person in church doesn't like me, and we have a tiff, and I don't know if it's going to be resolved. You know what, I'm going to pray, and then I'm going to go and I'm going to go ahead and ask them to lunch anyways, or pay for something for them, or help them. And by faith, I'm just going to go ahead and put my foot in the water, knowing that God's going to somehow restore that relationship. Knowing that God's going to do something, perform a miracle, help me. I mean, do we have faith or not? And God wants us, when we pray, to actually put into practice our prayers. I see the Apostle Paul here, go back, read this verse again with me. But with all, verse 22, but with all, prepare me also lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. He says, hey, go ahead and already start preparing me the place that you've been praying for me to come to, because I already know that God's going to somehow get me out of jail, and I'm coming back to see you guys. Go ahead and already start preparing. I mean, doesn't that take a little bit of faith to already start preparing the place for Paul when he's in prison? But that's the kind of faith that God wants us to have. Go ahead and start preparing that place. Go ahead and start doing the things that God said, anticipating him to answer that prayer. And of course, we're praying things according to his will. It's like, you know what, I cleared out the garage for the Ferrari. God's going to give me. Well, that's not really in the Bible, is it, okay? But of course, there are promises in the Bible that we can go ahead and just start putting our feet in the water, and can't we? Knowing that God is going to deliver us on. Verse 23, there salute the 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. Now, he salutes them with a lot of other people. A lot of other people care about them. He includes their names. This gives us a little bit of indication that the Book of Philemon's actually earlier than 2 Timothy. Because in 2 Timothy chapter number 4, he says, Demas hath forsaken me. So apparently, this is earlier in the ministry. But it gives us a clue that Demas wasn't always a bad person. Demas was doing right at one point in time. Demas was helpful. Demas was on the right course, but then Demas forsook Paul. And I think that's just an admonishment to us to realize that just because you're on the right course now doesn't mean you couldn't be a Demas later. And we need to take heed and make sure that we're doing right and staying faithful. I mean, I'm preaching the Wednesday night crowd, and you might wonder, why do I come on Wednesday night? Well, you don't want to become a Demas, do you? And a lot of times, people, they start, oh, I don't want to go to Wednesday. Sunday night, eh, it's so far to drive to church. Why do I even, I can just listen online. It's hard to find the new channel after it got nuked. Pastor Shelly just screams a lot, you know. This is another negative sermon, I don't know, I don't want to listen to that one. Reading the Bible is hard. And then pretty soon they're just Demas. And then pretty soon they're just like, you know what, life's way more fun just going out here and doing my own thing, or just becoming lazy. I knocked on a door in Oklahoma City, and there's a bunch of kids, and I was preaching the gospel, or we were trying to preach the gospel to them. And they weren't quite getting it, and we knocked on the door, and it was one of the kids' parents, apparently. And they opened the door, and there's this 30-year-old man, just like four, I don't know, I was going to say inches, that's too close. He's like one foot away from this 50-foot-inch screen playing video games. And it was just like, hey, we're trying to give the gospel to these kids and you. He's like, I'm really busy. He was just like, really? Like, you're just so busy on a Sunday afternoon playing video games that you can't even hear anything that you're, I mean, most parents would be concerned with information being passed out to their children, at least. Just figure out what it is, let alone if they want to hear it or not. But it's just like, people just become so apathetic, and they just don't care, and they'll forsake Christianity for dumb stuff like video games, or sports, or drinking, or friends, or just being lazy, because let's be honest, most people just forsake God because they just want to be lazy. It's way easier to be lazy than to go to church on Wednesday. It's way easier to be lazy than to have a lot of kids. It's way easier to be lazy than to read your Bible. And really, the reason why so many Christians are failing is they just want to be lazy. Don't be a lazy person. Don't be like Demas. Keep working. Because if you start becoming too lazy, God will be like, what's the point of keeping you around? It might just take you home early. You know, if you want to be here, then find something to do, and do it with all thy might. Let's go over some prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this book. Thank you so much for our church. I pray that you would just help us to have unity, to have care and love for one another. Thank you so much for the example of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was willing to put all of our sins on his account. I pray that we would also follow in light footsteps of the Apostle Paul and your son, that we would be willing to bear the burden of our brethren, put things on our account that we don't have to pay for, but we're willing to just to keep unity, to love one another. I pray that you would help us to restore fellowship and relationships in our church. And I pray that you would just help motivate us to continue to be a Christian who prays with faith and to not get lackadaisical and lazy and apathetic and end up forsaking the things of God. But rather, we just continue in faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 160. Song number 160, Crown Him with Many Crowns. The Lamb upon His throne, Hark, how the heavenly angels crown, All music but His own. The Lamb upon His throne, Hark, how the heavenly angels crown, All music but His own. The Lamb upon His throne, Hark, how the heavenly angels crown, All music but His own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee, And hail Him as Thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown Him the Lord of love, behold His hands and side, Rich wounds yet visible above, in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight, But downward bends His wandering eye at misery so bright. Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave, Who rose victorious to the strife for those He came to save. His glory's now we sing, who died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death they died. Crown Him the Lord of heaven, one with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given from yonder glorious home. To Thee, the endless praise, for Thou for us has died, Be Thou, O Lord, through endless days adored and magnified.