And let's spend a little bit of time in prayer, then we'll spend some time in the book of Philemon together. So let's pray. Father, we thank you once again for your love, your mercy, and your grace that you've lavished upon us in your son Jesus. We just ask that as we look into the book of Philemon that your spirit would be moving and that you You through the power of your spirit would cause the words of scripture to work on our souls to make us more like your son Jesus. Help us understand your truth, help us understand your word, help us understand the things that are found here so that we may walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you called us. We thank you and love you for everything you've given us in your son's name, amen. There are countless times in my life where I look back and things have happened that you would say, well, we planned that, but we didn't plan it. And things came together so well and orchestrated so well that you would say, well, somebody had to have planned it. Somebody had to be moving, right? It's almost like there was this invisible hand moving pieces together so that things were absolutely perfect. It's been countless times in my life where I've seen the hand of the Lord work on people in a mighty way, and I've seen them change from one thing into another. And you go, well, who did that? What caused that? And you would have to walk away saying, well, that was the Lord. Countless stories, and I'm sure that I could spend the rest of the day talking about all of those stories and talking about how I've seen the Lord work in my life and the lives of others. In fact, I'm sure that we could have a testimony time and we could all stand up and we could all fill up hours of times that we've seen how God has worked, we've seen the power of God working on the hearts of those around us. However, sometimes when things are difficult, when things are challenging, there's other people that sin, sometimes it's really difficult to remember that, right? So right now, we can think about all that stuff, but you put yourself in the midst of a really gut-wrenching situation, or you have to forgive somebody, or you have to work with somebody that's not necessarily the easiest person to work with, you go, God's sovereign, God works in ways in the hearts of people and you almost forget about it. It almost empties out of the back of your mind. In fact, that's kind of where we find ourselves in the book of Philemon this morning, in Philemon. verses 15 through 16, we're going to see this. We're going to see these two profound truths at work. We're going to see the sovereignty of God in this situation. We're going to see the sovereignty of God as it works upon the life of Onesimus. And that Philemon, as he's looking at Onesimus, he's seeing God's sovereign hand in everything that's happening, and he's seeing the transformative power of God in the life of Philemon, based off of Paul. And the idea is, is that as Philemon has to work through this, this really difficult situation, The hope is, is that Philemon will remember these things, that Onesimus is a child of God's, and view him that way, and view him in the way that he should view him, based off of what the implications of the gospel, and they will come together and worship in the same church. Very unique situation. Very unique situation. So this morning, we're just gonna look at two things. Each verse has its own point. So verse 15, we're gonna see how God steers our life. God steers our life. He moves us. He moves us in whichever way he wants. We'll talk a little bit about that. Then in verse 16, what we're going to see is we're going to see that God shapes our life. He transforms us. He's the one that makes us from one thing to another. He's the one that takes us from who we are to makes us more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we're going to see that in the life of Onesimus. It's an absolutely necessary thing for Philemon to understand. And it's absolutely necessary for him to understand in order for there to be reconciliation in this relationship. And I would contend that even within our church, As we move together in unity, it is absolutely necessary for us to have the same perspective. If we do not have the same perspective, it is insanely difficult for us to move together, to function together, to forgive one another, to see each other as God has changed our lives. So let's look at this, let's first look at verse 15. where we see where God steers our life. So notice how Paul says this, he says, for this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while. So as any good Bible student, we know that verse 15 starts with the word for, and the adage is when you see the word for, you have to see what it's there for. Right? It's always connecting. It's always giving a reason. So what's the connection here? Well, it's what was just said. What's interesting about Paul, I was talking with Linda yesterday about Paul's interesting writing style. I think Paul writes in constant run-on sentences and participles. Really, verse 8, we could say this whole book is essentially three sentences, right? It's essentially three sentences in the Greek. So verse 8 is actually where the sentence starts. And remember last week as we talked about this, we talked about how Paul is wanting Philemon to view Onesimus the right way. And he says, I command you to do this, but out of love I'd rather appeal to you. and I'm appealing on behalf of Onesimus, and he's saying, this is the one whom I love, who I've led to the Lord, and he says, but I want you to treat him right, because this is God's will, but I want you to want to do what God wants. That's what I want. I want you to want it. I could command you to do it, but I want you to want it. And so part of that, Part of that reasoning now, Paul is now going behind the scenes, as it were. He's kind of opening up the hood and saying, why should you want to want this? Here's the reason. And it's interesting, because here Paul uses this phrase, perhaps. It's a word that Paul doesn't use. Paul doesn't speak perhaps. The question is, what does the word perhaps mean? kind of has the idea of a little bit of uncertainty. It has the idea of looking at the circumstance, seeing the circumstance, and drawing a conclusion. We must remember that the Apostle Paul's human, like us, and he may see something and say, I think this is what God's doing. Maybe God's doing it, maybe he's not, but from his perspective, from his theology, from what he understands of God and of the circumstance, he says, this is what I think's happening. That's what I think this word perhaps means here. Paul's looking at the circumstance. He's looking at this chance encounter that he has with Onesimus, this runaway slave from Colossae who somehow magically bumps into Paul while Paul's in prison in Rome. Paul talks to him, leads him to the Lord, and now has an opportunity to send him back. He's looking at the totality of this situation and goes, perhaps, Perhaps God's involved in all of this. Perhaps this was part of God's sovereign plan. Perhaps this was part of his pervasive plan or his permission as things go out. This is part of his plan that he allows. Perhaps, perhaps, that's a pretty big perhaps, and I think he's right. And then notice how Paul then describes this as he describes the will of God where he permits things to happen. He says, perhaps, for this perhaps is why he parted from you for a while. This word parted is interesting as well. We would say that a runaway slave is hardly parting ways. This isn't like two best friends going, see ya in a little bit. I gotta go on a way on a long journey. This isn't like when we said goodbye to Sam as Sam got back on the boat to go wander the Pacific Ocean. We parted ways. This is somebody who ran away. And you would go, well why would Paul use this word I think it's to demonstrate that this was all part of the plan. He could have used the word runaway, but really he uses a word that says he was taken away, he went away, and in the Greek this is in the passive, meaning that someone else is causing him to run away, and you would say, who caused Onesimus to run away? We would say Onesimus ran away. Was it bad that Onesimus ran away? Of course it was. Is he culpable for running away? Of course. But does that mean that God didn't have that included in his sovereign plan? To have a chance meeting with Paul in Rome while Paul's in prison? This is all part of God's plan. So Paul's saying, look, just think of this, Philemon. You had this guy run away. He meets me in Rome. Maybe he was taken away from you for a little while, right? And by the way, that word little while is literally for an hour. He was gone a lot longer than an hour. But notice, he says, he was taken from you for a little while, that you might have him back forever. You see, Paul's sending him back, and he's saying, look, he was parted from you for a while, but you're gonna have him back forever. Now, this then leads to a really interesting discussion. Leads to, I think, a rather awkward discussion as we talk about the church and we talk about this issue of slavery. Let me just say this, when the Bible talks about these subjects, there's several subjects, by the way, that the Bible talks about that we go, I wish you wouldn't say that. Why can't you be more dogmatic, Bible? Why do you have to say things like polygamy? Why doesn't it just outright condemn polygamy? and here's slavery, there's no outright condemning. In fact, as we've discussed, there's absolutely no condemnation of it, but there's no condoning of it, right? And in fact, with polygamy, you would read the New Testament and you would walk away going, it's really hard to sell the idea of polygamy, especially when you consider that the examples in the church are one-women type of men that really kind of puts the end to polygamy. You know, Paul never writes a letter and never says, you shall not have multiple wives, but we would look at those things and go, yeah, it probably wasn't God's intention for multiple wives. But in the Old Testament, he gives rules in case somebody does have multiple wives. Really strange. Why would God do that? Why wouldn't God just say it's evil? That wasn't part of my original design. Sometimes God does things in a way that we scratch our heads. But this is one thing that I do know. God isn't necessarily concerned with the outside behavior. He's concerned about transformation from the inside. That's what he wants. He wants inward transformation, which will then change. And so he allows certain things to happen and people to do certain things, but he gives rules inside of that. And as you look at the rules and you look at the greater context of the scriptures, you kind of go, even though God doesn't condemn it, he doesn't condone it, and it's probably not a good thing for us to do. Here, we land in this slavery thing. And this is exactly what I think is happening. Paul doesn't condemn slavery. He's not condoning it either, by the way. He just says, treat this one like a brother. And so this idea of, so that you may have him forever, notice that this have him forever has this idea of possessing him. Onesimus is still owned by Philemon at this point. Legally, he is. Paul does not say outright, you must release him. Now I think that there are things in this book that implies that Philemon should release Onesimus to serve the Lord. So when we deal with a subject like this, we have to remember that just because God doesn't condemn something, nor does he condone something, that doesn't necessarily mean that we have the right to do those things, right? We have to understand the totality of what's happening. We also have to understand this too. Paul's purpose in life is not to change every single societal ill. He wants people to know Jesus. And he wants people to have their hope in Jesus. That's the hope, the hope's in Jesus. And there are several people who get saved with inside of the church who find themselves in a sinful world. And it's messy and it's difficult and we have to navigate in the sinful world even with things that are not nice. And so here is advice for Philemon of how to navigate through this. He's not demanding that Onesimus is released from slavery. Rather, he's causing Philemon to see Onesimus different. And I think this is where he's starting to begin to chip away and to show Philemon, look, he was away from you for a while, but you're gonna have him back forever. God allowed this situation to happen. allowed Paul to meet Onesimus, to send him back, and this is all part of God's sovereign plan. Philemon, just think of this. Is it possible that God allowed Onesimus to run away so that he could hear the gospel and come back as a believer? Is that possible? Of course that's possible. Is that what God does? Of course. There's several passages in the Bible we could turn. We could turn to Genesis 50. We could think of Joseph, right? His brothers did what? Sold him into slavery. He raises, what, to be second in command of Egypt? There's a great famine. Guess who gets to come back? His brothers. They get a bag in front of Joseph for food. They don't know it's Joseph, but man, that would have been some reveal when they find out, hey, you know the guy you're talking to is your brother you sold into slavery. That would have been a interesting moment. Talk about awkward. Probably wasn't the most fun reunion. But what was Joseph's response? You meant this for evil, God meant this for good. So here, is it possible that Onesimus by his own sinful rebelliousness runs away? Of course. Can God turn that into a good? Yep, and he does. This is part of God's providential plan. In fact, I think we could all look at our lives and we could, there's moments where we've done stuff that was sinful, was bad, but that sinful thing that we did that was bad led us to one thing that then led us to another thing that then led us to another thing. that actually the Lord used to turn us around, right? To cause us to see him. He worked on our hearts like he does. He works on each of our hearts in the midst of circumstances. God's playing a different game, right? We're playing tic-tac-toe, he's playing four-level chess. He's doing stuff that we don't even know. He's working in the lives of people we can't even understand so profoundly, so deeply. This is all part of his plan. Now, he's gone for a while, probably a couple months, but you might have him back forever. The question is, what does this mean that you're gonna have him back for forever? Well, I think verse 16 kind of explains this forever, because notice what he says. He says, in verse 16, no longer as a bond servant. I'm gonna, though I like the ESV, and I think the ESV's a good translation, I'm gonna quabble with them on this particular translation. Bond servant is, a very, very light phrase. We would hardly say that somebody who's sold into forced labor is a servant. We would go, yeah, that's, you know, they serve, but it's not like they're willfully wanting to do this. The word doulos here is slave. That's probably the best way of looking at it. He's not coming back, no longer as a slave. Now, he still is a slave, okay? Remember, legally, he's still a slave. But notice, we have to finish the phrase, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave. A beloved brother. Think of this. Paul's saying, he's coming back to you forever. What does that mean? He's not coming back as a slave. He's much more than that now. He's completely different than that. He's now your brother. Now think about this. Philemon owned Onesimus. In the ancient world, they viewed slaves as subhuman. Is it possible for a believer to have bad theology and look at another human being and say, that other human being is not a human being? Yeah. Is it wrong? Of course. Is it sinful? Absolutely. Does it cause lots of problems? Of course. It's evil. It's never been part of the plan. God doesn't want that. We should unequivocally condemn that. Every single human being is made in the image of God. and therefore they have dignity, and we should treat them with respect. There's no such thing as subhuman. Could Philemon have had that view? Of course he could have. We don't know, but it's possible. Is it possible for Philemon, as he's thinking, man, I had that guy, spent a lot of money, ran away, and he has like this whole case that he builds. We do that, right? We build that case, and we argue a case of how bad someone else is. Is it possible for Philemon to do that? Of course. Could he have been really upset about Onesimus running away? Of course. And then imagine Onesimus showing up at his door. Yeah, that would have been awkward. But what's Paul asking him to do? Don't view him like this. View him as he is, as a brother. Now before we talk about this brotherhood, I wanna let you know that whether Philemon accepted it or not, Onesimus was a beloved brother. Philemon could have continued in sin, could have continued to exploit his brother, He could have seen him as being subhuman, but does that change the fact and the reality that from God's perspective, Onesimus was transformed or shaped from one thing to now a beloved brother? Nope, that's what he is. He's brother, he's a brother, regardless, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of how Philemon feels or views it. That's the truth. So realize this. We have brothers and sisters all around the world. Whether we know their names or not doesn't change the fact that they're still our brothers and sisters, right? Do we have squabbles with brothers and sisters? Yep, we do. Does that change the fact that they're brothers and sisters based upon whether I think they're a brother or sister or not? Nope. This is the truth. This is what the gospel does, is it transforms. Now just think of this idea of, Don't view him as a slave, now view him as a brother. Just imagine that. Just that change. How could anybody in good conscience look at another human being and say, that's my family, and then say, I am now going to enslave them. I'm now going to continue to exploit them. That's really hard. That's really hard. Can't do that. Now, is it possible? Of course, but it's really hard if you have that right perspective. So as we look at our brothers and sisters around us right now, what does that mean to be a brother in the Lord? What does that mean to be family? Well, we're gonna turn to a couple passages, so keep your finger here in Philemon, and we're gonna jump around a little bit, so hopefully you brought your, fast fingers, because we're gonna be going to different passages. Let's first go to John chapter one. It's important that we see this in John chapter one. To get the context, let's start up in verse nine. We're gonna focus on 12 and 13, but just to get the context. It says, the true light, which gives light to everyone. By the way, the true light is Jesus. And there's this idea of this universal illumination, right, that Jesus illuminates, and we would refer to this as natural revelation. What was coming into the world, and notice this, he was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. And then here's a really sad verse. He came to his own, being the Jews, and his own people did not receive him. So here's the Messiah of the Jews coming to the Jews, and guess what? They didn't know him and they rejected him. But just so that we understand what's happening when we talk about our salvation, I think John then adds this next thought, because it's an important thing for us to remember. But to all who did receive him, so this is talking about those who received Jesus. By the way, here I think the idea of receive is the same as believe. For us as believers, what are we believing? We're believing the person and work of Jesus. We believe that Jesus came, died on the cross for our sins, because we're sinners. He was buried and he rose again on the third day. We're trusting solely on Jesus and his work for our salvation, namely, that we have the right relationship with God, right? That's what it's about. We don't know God. How do we come to know God? Through Jesus, by placing our faith in him. So here's this idea of receive him. Now notice, he then says, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. So notice that the right of becoming a child of God isn't innate inside of us. We have to be given that, and we're given that by His grace, and we receive that birthright on the basis of faith. And then notice this in verse 13. Who were not born, or who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor the will of man. You see that? That's a really important phrase. It means it doesn't matter who your dad is, doesn't matter who your mom is, doesn't matter what country you come from, doesn't matter how much money you have in the bank account, doesn't matter whether you're a slave or you're free, it doesn't matter. All that stuff that we would look at as blood and flesh and man and this will and this, all of that is erased. Just because you have parents that brought you to church doesn't necessarily mean that you get five extra points, and it's a little, now it's inevitable that you're going to become a believer. That's not the point here. The point is it has nothing to do with family heritage. Which, by the way, is one of the things that Jesus argues against in the book of John, is that there were people who said, well, we're Jewish, therefore we're right with God on the basis of our parents. No, no, no. But how were we born? We were born of God. So you understand this, understand this. When somebody expresses faith, they express faith because God is the one who bore them. Children of God, every single one. Does it matter where they come from? Nope. What matters is that God is the one who has caused the new birth. So therefore, we all who have placed our faith in Jesus are born spiritually from the same Father. I couldn't help but think of this as I'm thinking of Philemon. The companion book of Philemon is Colossians, and the companion book to Colossians is Philemon. And you can't help but think about some of the things that are said in Colossians would speak directly to this issue that's happening in Philemon. So just notice what he says in Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, verse 11. Now in the first couple verses, as Greg has pointed out in Sunday School a couple months ago, notice that from five to 10, there is this phrase, put off, put off, put off, take off, take off. So there's all this stuff you have to take off. I'm sorry, verses five to nine, then in verse 10, now you have this put on, so notice what he says, and he says, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Namely, we're being renewed to the image of Christ, right? That's what the Holy Spirit's doing, making us more and more like Christ, okay? But notice this next part that he says. Here there is no Greek. And Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, scathian, notice this, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. So notice, as we're brothers and sisters, there's no such thing as this free, slave, circumcised, Jew, Gentile. All of those earthly markers that we have, those categories that we have, they're obliterated in Christ. Right? Why? Because we're all being made into the image of Jesus. We're not becoming a better version of me. I'm becoming Jesus. That's what he's doing. He's working me to be more like Christ. So it would be absolutely antithetical to the gospel to say, well, the Jews are better at understanding what does it mean to be more like Christ. And that if you're Jewish and circumcised, you're better. Nope. Or if you're Greek, you're better. Nope. We all are family. Another passage I want to turn to, it's 1 Corinthians. Paul says something else that's really important for us to remember. Speaking about this mutual brotherhood of who we are in Christ. Notice what he says in 12.12, 1 Corinthians. He says, for just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. You see, we're all members of one body. But who's the head? Christ. We're all together, right? It doesn't matter. Ethnicity doesn't matter. Social status doesn't matter. How much money you have in the bank account, that doesn't matter. We're all in Christ. That's what matters. We're in Christ. And he says, for in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Wow. We're all one. That's it. We're all one. We're all in Christ. Did you do this? No. Jesus did this. You're born of God. You are his. You belong to him. And because you belong to him, we all belong to the family together. Now notice what he then says next. He says, for we're all baptized into one family, or into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. The way that we all grow is the way we all grow. There isn't a different set of rules for different ethnicities or different economic status. Nope. It's all through Jesus. We all have the same Holy Spirit. We all have the same commands. That's why we could take this book anywhere throughout all the world, and it's the most relevant message there. Because it doesn't matter. Culture doesn't matter. This is reality. So as we go back to Philemon, this phrase, You're gonna have him forever, not as a slave, but more than a slave. A beloved brother. So it's not just that Onesimus is coming back as a beloved brother. Notice what he says in verse 16. It's not that he's just coming back as a brother, he's coming back as a beloved brother. Now, this is incredible. In this letter, think about all of the things that were said about Philemon and his family, go up to verse one. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker. He puts the slave in the same category as the owner. Doesn't matter. You both are beloved brothers. You're loved. Loved by who? Loved by Paul, obviously. Paul loved them both. Loved by who? Loved by Jesus. Loved by God. Redeemed by Jesus. Beloved that way. Beloved by who? Beloved by the church. This is how you're supposed to view him, as a beloved brother. Was there an issue that happened before? Of course there was. Here's this runaway slave who probably stole from Philemon, ran all the way to Rome. Guess what? He left as a criminal, coming back as what? A beloved brother. Then notice what Paul then says next. Beloved brother, especially to me. Wow, especially to me. So imagine you get a letter from the apostle Paul talking about somebody who you knew who ran away from you, stole from you, and he says, look, he came back, he's a believer, and this one's really special to me. How would you view this one? Well, if Paul thinks this one's special, then I should too. Now what makes Onesimus so special to Paul? Is it that Onesimus was such a great guy? Couldn't be that. It couldn't be that. They both were in prison. Why? It's because of the power of God working in the hearts of believers. That's what makes us special to each other, the work of Christ in our hearts. But notice what he says next, especially to me. But how much more to you? More to you now. He's special to me. Oh, but now he's really special to you. He's really special. This guy ran off, now he's coming back. He was useless, now he's useful. He was reprobate, now he's a believer. He's coming back, and how much more special is this one? Out of all of the other slaves, this one's special. This one came to know Jesus. This one's now a special beloved brother by Paul. This one is special because of the work of Christ on his heart. And notice how he says this, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Let's not forget that phrase. I don't want us to skip over this. I don't think that it was incredibly easy for Onesimus to come back to Philemon. I don't think that just because there was a letter and there was Tychicus and Paul's there that all of a sudden Philemon just like a switch goes, oh yeah, no, this guy stole from me, ran away. Yeah, no, everything's cool now. Let's be best friends. That's not how this stuff works. This probably took some time. Was this probably a really rocky friendship at the beginning? Of course it was. I guarantee you it was. So let us not forget when he says both in the flesh and in the Lord, when he says in the flesh, what he means is the human relationship. They had a relationship before. They're going to continue to have a relationship, remember, forever into eternity. Okay? That's still there. It's awkward. It's going to be really awkward. But man, think of Paul as he's talking to Philemon going, yeah, it is awkward, but do you know how great this could be? Do you know how wonderful this could be with forgiveness and reconciliation? You know how wonderful this could be? And I'm hoping that you're going to do what's right, Philemon, because this is great. This is incredible. Yeah. Onesimus and Philemon have the opportunity to have a beautiful friendship, beautiful reconciliation. And then it's also in the Lord. Why? Because they have lots in common now. They have lots in common. They come from the same place. They lived in the same house. Now they have the same Lord and they're worshiping the same Lord. Now they know the same people. They're worshiping together. Wow. They could come together. He was part. Now he can come back. Who caused all this? Who orchestrated all this? It was the Lord. So as I think about this and as we conclude, why is this important for us to think about? Why is it important for us to think about the sovereignty of God and the fact that God changes the hearts and God moves in the hearts of people to cause us to become one? Let's say you walk away going, well, this stuff isn't important, and you fail to embrace this. You fail to understand God's sovereignty, and you're unaware of God's power to shape us. What will happen? I think a couple things could happen. There's probably more, but I'll be honest. First, I think you're at risk of navigating life without a clear vision. It's like playing music with no notes. It's like reading a poem with no grammar, right? No spaces. It's really difficult to decipher. You have no way of where you're going. Imagine this. Imagine if you fail to understand that it's God who's sovereign and it's God who transforms lives. the weight that you would put on your own shoulder as you would feel compelled that every single change that would happen in my neighbor's life and in my family's life resulted in my performance. Could you imagine what that would feel like? That the weight of everyone's soul around me is based upon my ability to say, to speak, to say the right thing at the right time? And what happens if they walk away? And you go, well, it was on me. It was on me to say the right thing at the right time. Oh, you'd go crazy. You'd go insane. That's the worst kind of existence. That's the worst kind of Christianity. What else would happen? I don't know. I could imagine you could fall into cynicism. You become irreverent. I think it would hurt your worship and your thankfulness to the Lord. I also think it would be really challenging to forgive, right? If I fail to see God's grace and how much he's forgiven me, why should I forgive you if you hurt me, right? If I don't see God's working in all of this. But man, how incredible would it be, actually, if we could embrace this and think about this? we would look at each other and go, well, look, each person in this room is a trophy of God's grace. Each person in this room. God is intimately involved with their life and has maneuvered their life and shaped their life and guided them to this point. So we're here at the same time together because of God's sovereign working. This wasn't by accident you're here this morning. This is all part of God's plan. And who you are now is not an accident. It is because of God's transforming power. And so we look at each other and what does that do? It causes us first to say amen to God. Look around, look at every single person here. Each person is a product of God's power and sovereign grace. How could we not say, thank you, amen? How could we not do that? It's really hard not to forgive somebody when you see somebody as, God has been working on this person for a long time. All of their life circumstances have led them to here. It's really hard to dismiss somebody as being unimportant. Why? Because God doesn't think that. He's worked intimately in your life and has transformed you. I think it helps us in our forgiveness. I think it helps us in our thankfulness. I think it helps us as we see each other. I think it also helps us when we see those who don't know Jesus. And we say, God, you're the one that changes hearts. So I'm gonna pray for that person. But God, I also know that you put me in circumstances that you may use me like you used Paul in the life of Onesimus. Think about this. We, on Wednesday, we pray. And there's times where we pray for people in families that the Lord would open their hearts. And they don't live in this town. And so we're praying that the Lord would strengthen another believer in another town that they would be obedient to share the gospel with somebody that we love that doesn't live next to us. How many people you think live in Astoria that have saved brothers and sisters family members, friends that live in other parts of the country, and they're praying the same things that we pray for their family. How do we not know that God hasn't orchestrated all of this, that you and I be in Astoria at this time, at this place, to share the gospel with those people? Because this is part of how God works. So now all of a sudden, now we're just thankful to God. We see every opportunity as an opportunity to love Jesus, to praise Jesus, to speak about Jesus. When we talk with each other, we're forgiving, we're thankful for each other, even though we're all weird and we all have these weird idiosyncrasies. You're a product of God's grace. Amen. And I'm thankful to God for each of you because I see it. I see what God has done throughout your life. Amen. This is the attitude that I think Paul wants Philemon to adopt when it comes to Onesimus. And I think this is the attitude that we should have when it comes towards each other. This is why it's important. Not just so we can say big words, but so that we view each other as a product of God's grace. May the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we've heard today. Let's pray. Father, we are just so very thankful for what you've done in our lives. It's amazing. It's amazing to think that you have sovereignly been leading us and steering us and guiding us and that you've been shaping us and transforming us into the image of your son. And here we are right now. And we're here because you're leading us and guiding us to this moment. And we all are experiencing this moment because of your sovereign grace right now. Help us understand this. Help us have a grasp of this. Help us appreciate this. Help us appreciate our brothers and sisters around us, that we see them as brothers and sisters, objects and trophies of your grace. Help us as we live the life that you've called us to live here and all around. Help us be observant, help us be aware of your sovereign control, help us be aware of your power so that we may honor and glorify you. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen.