and then we'll spend a little bit of time in the book of Philemon this morning. Let's pray. Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so very much for your word. We thank you for everything you've blessed us with. We just ask that as we spend time in your word, that you would teach us what does it mean to love one another, that you would teach us what does it mean to forgive. You would teach us these important lessons that we've been learning in this book of Philemon. We just thank you so very much for this book, and we thank you for This example, we thank you for the example that we have in the cross and in Jesus. We just ask that you would be working in our hearts and causing us to be more like your son. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen. So I once heard a story of a father and son who had a falling out. The son's name was Paco, we don't know the dad's name. It's a fictitious story, so you can call it whatever you want. But they didn't talk for years, decades. In fact, they were so estranged that the father didn't even know where his son was living. But he wanted to get reconnected with his son, so he went to the newspaper and took out an ad and said, to my son, Paco, This is your father, I deeply regret the things I said and I did, and I would like to apologize to you in person. Please meet me at the restaurant on 4th and Maple at noon on Thursday. When Paco's dad showed up, there were 200 men there named Paco. There's a couple lessons we can learn from that. First, don't name your kid Paco, because apparently there's hundreds of them out there. No, it demonstrates the idea that there's always conflict. And it's easier to be estranged than to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. But there is great need for that. There's great need for reconciliation. There is great need for forgiveness. There's great need for unity. And just like in the story, there was an estrangement, and I imagine that would have been very awkward for the father and the son to come back and try to rebuild that relationship. We have that type of situation here in the book of Philemon, where you have this slave, Onesimus, who ran away and became a believer and is now going back to Colossae to be under his master Philemon. And just imagine the awkwardness of that. And here we're at the final part of the book of Philemon, the final plea of the Apostle Paul to Philemon, and it's essentially this. Welcome your brother back. Welcome your brother. Receive him with open arms. Now, how is Philemon supposed to do that? Well, there's three things that we're going to see in this text. First, in verse 17, we're going to see that to welcome your brother means you must receive with open arms. There's this idea of receiving with open arms, saying, come, all is forgiven. Second, we're gonna see that there needs to be reconciliation by God's grace. We're gonna see that in verses 18 through 21. There needs to be reconciliation by grace. Realizing the grace that was given to us in Christ. be gracious towards other, and then lastly, we're gonna see in 22 through 25 is this reconnection with love, this loving reconnection. So let's look at this. You're welcoming back your brother. The first thing that needs to be talked about in this reconciliation is this, is receive him, receive with open arms. Notice in verse 17 what the apostle says. He says, so if you consider me, your partner. So just think of this, this phrase, the word so is a conjunction, so it's bridging the gap between what was said and what is about ready to be said. Last week we spent some time thinking of this idea of do not view onesimus as a bondservant, but view him as a beloved brother. So Paul is asking Philemon to think of Onesimus, to think about what has happened in Onesimus' life, to think about the sovereign, providential plane of God, that here is this runaway slave that runs away from Colossae. What's the chance that he ends up in Rome? And what's the chance that he ends up and he finds Paul, who's also in prison in Rome? that then Onesimus would then talk to Paul, that Paul would then lead him to the Lord, and now he's being sent back to Philemon. All this is part of God's plan. So understand this, Philemon, understand the situation. This one is now a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can vouch for this man, I can vouch for him, that he is now your brother. Do not view him like this any longer. So now we get to the ask of the book. Remember, the Apostle Paul In the beginning, he said, I could have commanded you to do this, but out of sake of love, I want you to want to do this. And so now we're getting to the thing that Paul wants Philemon to want to do. And he's adding on this extra thing to convince Philemon, if there's anything in Philemon that's gonna stop him from this, he's trying to give all of the ammunition that he can so that Philemon has really no excuse. And notice what he says, he says, so if you consider me, if you think of me, if you, literally, if you have me down as your partner, If you consider me, you list me, you associate with me, Philemon, as your partner, the idea here of a partner is those who have a common interest, common feeling, common work. Philemon, if you view me as your partner in Christ, partner in doctrine, partner in the church, partner in the work, in the gospel work, if you consider me that, By the way, the way that this is asked in the Greek assumes that Philemon would unanimously say, of course you're my partner. Of course. This is rhetorical. It's not like Paul sitting here guessing, going, maybe Philemon doesn't think of me as a partner. No, it's assuming that Philemon definitely views Paul as a partner. And he says, so if you consider me as your partner, notice what he says. He says, then receive him. This word receive him is a beautiful word in the Greek. The word itself means to receive to oneself, to take, and literally the idea is to have open arms, and when the person comes, give them a hug, bring them in. By the way, that's what this picture is. This is a picture of Onesimus and Philemon, if you didn't know. I'm kidding, that's not, it just... It looks cool, though, but the idea is this embrace, right? Receive him. Come, take him. As he comes, take him to yourself. Bring him to yourself. Now, what does this imply? This implies forgiveness. That's what it implies. It implies forgiveness, that Philemon will forgive Onesimus. Now, forgiveness, friends, is, yes, it's like a pardon when somebody does an offense against us and we forgive them. We say, I'm no longer viewing you as being guilty. I'm no longer going to hold this thing against you. The debt has been settled. There's no more negative feelings. There's no more resentment. I have no sense of revenge. It's over. It's done with. It doesn't mean that it's forgotten, but it's done. It's dealt with. We can move on. We can move on. That's the idea. We can move on. Now, as believers, what's the basis of our forgiveness? Is this just so that Philemon can be a cool guy? So that Paul can go, this is a really nice church. If you're in Colossae, go to this nice church. Philemon's a really cool guy. No, for us as believers, forgiveness is rooted. in the cross. All of us are forgiven. And think about the forgiveness that's given to you by Jesus Christ. How much did you do to earn that forgiveness? Well, you did a lot of sinning, so there was a lot of that. But what did you do? When he forgave you, how much did you have to change for all of that forgiveness? He just pardoned you. That's it. Always and forever. Here's the forgiveness. This is what it is. And that's the example of forgiveness. And that's what Paul's asking Philemon. It's consider the forgiveness. You've been forgiven. So forgive your brother. You know, as Greg was reading what Paul wrote in the book of Romans about how we were slaves to sin, think about this. Think about how much Jesus has forgiven us. We had a huge debt, huge debt. We couldn't even begin to possibly pay off that debt. And he forgave us that huge debt. What can another human being do to you that is larger than the offenses you've done towards God? Really small in comparison, really small in comparison. So just think of this. Think about how much you've been forgiven, and then here's somebody that does this one thing. Can you forgive this person? Of course you can. That's what we're supposed to do. We are supposed to forgive. In fact, I would even suggest that we are to forgive even if the person doesn't ask for forgiveness. Now, I think it's important that if we've wronged someone, that we do go to them, that we admit that we have done something wrong, we declare that thing that we did wrong, we admit guilt and shame, and then ask them for forgiveness. I think that's important for us as believers to do that to one another. I am wrong for, I am sorry for, will you forgive me? And as believers, it's important that we're forgiving one another. In fact, our response should always be, you already are forgiven. Of course. Now does this mean that Onesimus now is, that Philemon and Onesimus are now gonna be best buds and there's not gonna be some awkwardness and there doesn't have to be rebuilding? No, that's not the implication at all. But the implication is that the believers should forgive. Because we've been forgiven. And you may say, well the person doesn't forgive forgiveness. Neither did you. But you were forgiven. So that's the idea. Receive him, forgive him. But he goes even further. Think of this. Receive him as you would me. Now, this doesn't mean that all of a sudden now, Onesimus is to be walking around like he's an apostle. He's not an apostle. He's not to be viewed as an apostle. In fact, earlier he's already stated what that looks like. So it's a brother. It's a brother. It's a partner. So Philem is to, accept this one as one who's a brother, one who's a partner. Forgiving, and the idea is this one is now part of the church. This one now is accepted inside of the church. What he was before Christ, well that's what he was before Christ. He's now in Christ, this new creature. And I'm now going to accept him as that. That is how I'm going to receive him. But just imagine for a moment, The Apostle Paul wrote you a letter and said, hey, guess what, by the way, I'm coming by your house later. How would you receive the Apostle Paul? Would it just be, hey, bud, we got some, just make yourself at home, I gotta go, we'll talk to you later next time you come through town. No, I guarantee you, we stop everything. We make the best food we have, we put on the best clothes we have, right? We would be incredibly honored to have the Apostle Paul near us, not because of how great he is, but because of the significance of the work that God has done in him and what he's done in our life. And we would say, of course the Apostle Paul, the author of these books, has taught us so much about Christ and so much about God. Yeah, I owe him a lot and I would treat him really well, the best I have. There's some of that implication too, isn't it? Here's this slave, and the idea is he's asking the master of the slave to now serve the slave, because the slave is now a brother in Christ. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? Man, receive with open arms. I know that all of us have been hurt by people. We've been hurt by people who are not believers, and we've been hurt by people who are believers. And I know that sometimes that hurt is really deep and really hard to get over, really hard. But sometimes the hard thing is the right thing. And we need to be like Christ, and Christ is gracious and forgiving. And when we consider how much we've been forgiven, we can forgive them. Now, this doesn't mean that the relationship will be the same, and that's not what I'm saying, but forgiveness is important. It's not healthy for you to harbor bitterness against other people. That's not healthy. It's not healthy for the other person to always get the sense that you're harboring bitterness against them as well. Forgiveness needs to be something that we constantly do towards one another. Even if the person has never asked for forgiveness, I can forgive them even if they haven't asked for it. Let's say they go on acting as if it never happened. Can I still forgive them in the midst of that? Of course. Do you know how many times I've sinned and I didn't even know I sinned and I haven't even asked Jesus for forgiveness of that sin? A lot. I don't know because I still don't know if I did the sin or not. but I've done it a lot. And guess how many times he's forgiven me? All of it. So receive. Now think of this. Not only is this awkward for Philemon, imagine how awkward this is for Onesimus. He's coming back. To be honest with you, this wouldn't be super exciting. I don't think Onesimus is running a marathon here going, I gotta get back as fast as I can to my good old buddy Philemon. As we're gonna see later, there were some things that happened. How reassuring would it have been to Onesimus, who's now a believer, walking with the Lord, having to go back to somebody he's wronged, and this person who's a mature believer says, I forgive you. Come, you are now my brother. What does that do to Onesimus? How does that encourage Onesimus Man. So notice what Paul does next. Notice this reconciliation that Paul's trying to seek. And there's this interesting relationship triangle that happens here as Paul has a relationship with Philemon and he has a relationship with Onesimus. Philemon also has a relationship with Paul and Onesimus and Onesimus has a relationship with Paul and Philemon and they're all different. And so Paul walks this really interesting triangle to try to bring about reconciliation. And notice what he says in verse 18. He says, if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge it to my account. Now there's a lot of debate on this particular phrase. I think Paul knows what happened. I think Onesimus and Epaphras kind of filled in what had happened. I think Paul knows what happens. what has happened with Onesimus and how he got there. I think Paul is trying to soften this on behalf of Onesimus as he's pleading for Philemon to be forgiving. I don't think he's lying. I think he's trying to soften. I think he's trying to be tactful in the way that he talks, which is really important for us to remember that You can use tact when you talk to people, and that's okay. And it's okay to talk this way to other believers. That's not lying. I don't think Paul is really implying that he doesn't know. I think he's just saying, look, brother, from what I know, now maybe there's more that I don't know, but from what I know, if he's wronged you and owes you anything, And I agree with Grimacki, as Grimacki talks about this, he says that these are probably two verbs that refer to the same event. He did both of them. And what's interesting is these two verbs. The first verb, when he says, if he has wronged you, this is in the aorist, meaning that it's a one-time action. If he wronged you, it's a singular action, one thing. And then two, if he owes you anything, which is an ongoing thing. So there's this one-time action of wronging, And then there's this ongoing owing of a debt. And it's based off of this that we conclude that most likely what happened is Onesimus ran away, but to fund his runaway, his getaway, he stole something of great value from Philemon to fund his runaway. By the way, this happened quite a bit in the ancient world. And it happens all the time when people run away and they don't have means to survive. What do they do to survive? They steal. So it's not a hard leap to imagine what happened here. So notice he says, he says, if he's done anything to you, the things that I know, and maybe there's some things I don't know. Maybe there's some things that he stole from you that I don't know, that you've been keeping count of Philemon. But we know what happened. Okay, he did this. If you still are holding on to something, there's still something, Philemon, that you go, look, I'm willing to forgive, but there needs to be some retribution. There needs to be some justice in this. Philemon, if you're still holding on to that, notice what he says. Charge it to my account. I'll tell you what. Apostle Paul loves Onesimus. How many of you would say, I'll take on somebody's debt and pay it, to demonstrate that they have now a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they should be fully accepted inside of a church, and you say, you know what, just to make it easier, since he doesn't have anything, if he owes you anything, I will pay it. How much does he owe? We don't know. How's Paul gonna get the money? I don't know, but I guarantee you this, the Apostle Paul is good for it. How he gets it, we don't know, but he will pay it. I don't think this is a rhetorical device. I think this is legitimate. By the way, I think about this and I think about how we should respond to others who, there's plenty of times where there are brothers and sisters who have sinned. They've repented and now they're walking with the Lord Sometimes you need someone like Paul to step in and go, I can vouch for their character, and if there's anything that's owed, talk to me about it, we can figure something out. Man, how many church problems would be solved just by people being advocates for repentant sinners, right? And people forgiving. I knew a guy who was part of a Bible college up in Montana and the Bible college was poorly run and ran up quite a bit of debts and had a really bad reputation in the area. And when this guy came on as the president, he saw all the debts and he personally paid for many of those debts out of his own pocket. And when the business owner said, well, why are you doing this? He says, because it is right for us as Christians not to be in debt to anyone. I don't think it's good that we borrowed money from you and never had, and the previous administration had no intention of paying that back. That's not good. And so he paid for it out of his own pocket. That's kind of like the Apostle Paul, what Paul's doing. If he owes you anything, charge it to me. And then notice, to further show and emphasize that the Apostle Paul means this, this isn't rhetorical, he says, I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I think the Apostle Paul wrote this whole letter, by the way. I think there was no secretary. He wasn't dictating this letter. I think he's writing this whole thing. And he says, I write this with my own hand. I will repay it. I think he's emphasizing and saying, this is a promissory note. This is a check. This is as good as cash. I will pay this. Brother, if there is something that he's wronged you and you cannot get over it, and you really do care about the money in your bank account, I will pay it so that you receive Onesimus, so that there is no animosity between you. so there can be reconciliation, because that's what Paul wants. He wants reconciliation. He doesn't care about the other things. He wants the church walking in unity, people of the church looking at each other with peace and love and grace and forgiveness. Now, the Apostle Paul says something else that's kind of interesting. He kind of says it in a way that's kind of, I think, kind of in passing. I don't think this is manipulation, what the Apostle Paul says next. I think this is to help Philemon put things into perspective. He says, to say nothing of you owing me even your own self. He says it in passing, to help Philemon put things in perspective. It is likely that what this means is that Paul had a a huge part in Philemon's salvation. Now whether he led him into the Lord or he was indirectly responsible, we don't know. I don't think we really are meant to know, but this is what I do know. Paul did something significant in Philemon's life. So notice this, he's saying, I will pay this debt for Onesimus. But remember, brother, you owe me a debt, a big debt, your life. Just remember, put this in perspective. I don't think it's manipulative. I think it's helping Philemon realize, man, I've been forgiven a lot. I've had debts forgiven. I've had things forgiven. Yeah, I can easily forgive this debt. By the way, Greg said this a couple weeks ago. Who goes to the Apostle Paul in prison for the sake of the gospel and goes, yeah, you owe me money, buddy? Who does that? That would be a little awkward. So I think about this idea of reconciliation. I think about this and how as much as it depends on us, we should be at peace with all people. Sometimes this means even helping people when, and acting as a advocate for repentant people, for believers, to even absorb some of the troubles of other, right? This is exactly what Paul talks about in the book of 1 Corinthians when he says, love bears all things. He's willing to absorb the debt. Man, this is how we should view one another. This is the type of reconciliation we should have. We want people to be at unity and to be at peace with one another. And you know what? However I can be a part of that, I will. I will be a part of that. I will be an advocate for it. I want people to come together in unity. Our problem is that most of the time when we stick our nose into problems, we don't act like a... unifier, we act like a divider, right? We like to stick our nose in things and then cause more problems in the situation. But here Paul wants to bring about unity. And he's talking to this one saying, remember how much you've been forgiven. She reminds us of that parable. Remember that parable that Jesus taught about the one guy who owed his master this insane amount of money, like millions of dollars. And he goes to his master and the master says, yeah, it's all forgiven. Then he goes out in the street and he finds some guy that owes him 200 bucks. And he goes, how dare you didn't pay me the 200 bucks? and he throws him in the debtor's prison, right? Because how dare that guy doesn't pay back the $200 when this guy owed millions of dollars? And Jesus' point is, think of this, who had the greater offense? The guy who was millions, but he was forgiven. And so the idea for us is that we should be forgiving, realizing the debt that we've had, that we've been reconciled in Christ. Now, before we start thinking that Philemon is this terrible guy who's gonna not forgive, the Apostle Paul actually says something really interesting in the next couple verses. Notice in verse 20 he says, yes, brother, yes, brother. I love that, yes brother. The significance is this. This is what I want and yes brother, yes. This is the thing I want you to do, yes. This is a good thing, yes, and he says, I want some benefit from you. Now, this is a really good translation. This is a very literal translation, and it's a terrible translation at the same time, right? Because it doesn't capture the sense. It almost seems like the Apostle Paul's going, by the way, I also want something else from you. That's not what is being said here. It's probably better paraphrased if we said, if you could do me this favor, If you could do me this favor, this is a favor I'm asking of you. Here's the favor. And notice it's, I want you to do this favor in the Lord. See, the only way that Philemon could ever forgive Onesimus is because he's in the Lord. This favor is done not on the basis of just cold, hard ethics. It's because they're in the Lord. This is something that's for the unity of the church. This is something that will bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is done for Him. This is done in the body of Christ. This is done in the name of Christ. And then he says this thing, and you gotta love it, because notice, there's Paul as he's on this weird side of the triangle, and you could tell he's really wanting this to work. He really wants the reconciliation, and so he says, refresh my heart in Christ. Now remember, we talked about how Philemon, in verse seven, was one who was known who refreshed the hearts of the saints. And so now the Apostle Paul is saying, if you do this for me, I will have this incredible joy and I will be revived. Why? Why will he be revived? Because his brothers in Christ, his partners in Christ, his fellow workers in Christ will all be getting along, working for the sake of the gospel. That's what he wants. That's why it's refresh my heart in Christ. Don't just do this just to do it. This is all for the honor and glory of Christ. This is done by the power of Christ, for the glory of Christ. We should be the most joyful when we hear about reconciliation amongst brothers and sisters who have been fighting. When we hear about reconciliation, we should be revived. You want a revival in the church? Here we go. This is what a revival looks like. Start forgiving each other. Start bringing about reconciliation in broken relationships. That revives the hearts of a soul of the believer. Now Paul will now go on and talk about this Connection, this incredible connection and unity and love. Notice what he says here. As they reconnect in love. Notice in verse 21, as we conclude this book, he says, confident of your obedience, I'm confident of your obedience. By the way, the way that Paul writes this, he writes this as if he, He knew before he wrote the book, as he's writing the book, as the book is delivered, he is confident the entire time of the obedience of Philemon. What's that obedience? That he will forgive Onesimus. He will welcome Onesimus into the church. He says, I already knew this. I know this. I am so confident of this. I was confident before, I'm confident now, and I'll continue to be confident in your obedience. And he says, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. Now, there are some people who really spend a lot of time on what does this mean that he will do more than what he says. To me, the implication is very clear. You're gonna bring him into the church, you're gonna treat him like a brother, you're gonna treat him like a fellow worker in Christ, You're gonna follow through to the complete logical conclusion of all of the stuff that we said, and I believe that Paul is winking almost as if it were saying, you're gonna set this guy free. I think that's the implication here. Why? Because he's a fellow worker. He now has a new master, Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the one that dictates what he does. Can a human dictate? No, Jesus now is the new master. So notice in verse 22, it says, Paul says, at the same time, prepare a guest room for me. Gotta love that. Apostle Paul's gonna come and visit Philemon. Oh, that'd be sweet. He wants to come and see his brother. He wants to come and see the church. He wants to come see his brothers and sisters. No doubt he wants to come and see Onesimus. He wants to come and see them functioning as a church and brothers and sisters, and wants to see Onesimus functioning inside of that church. That's what he wants to do. And he says, prepare a guest room. Now Paul's in prison, so what does this imply when Paul says prepare a guest room? Paul believes, hey, I'm gonna be set free. And guess where I'm coming when I'm set free? I'm coming to your house, Philemon. We're gonna minister together. And he says, for I am hoping through your prayers that I will be graciously given to you. So he goes, I expect, and this is my desire, to be released, to come and visit you, as you've been praying for me. Philemon has been praying for Paul's release. And he goes, I'm praying that I may come and I may be with you. That's what he means here when he says, be graciously given to you. I'm coming to you and you will receive me. And then he gives these final greetings. And notice all of the brothers, how they greet Philemon. They also are confident of Philemon's love and obedience. They love Onesimus, they love Philemon, And notice how all of them are coming together, and there's this unity of this church. Notice he says, Epaphras. Now we believe that Epaphras is the pastor of Colossae, who is on loan to the Apostle Paul. And so he says, Epaphras, they would know Epaphras. My fellow prisoner in Christ sends greeting to you. Wow, that would have been neat, wouldn't it? So by doing this, it implies that Epaphras also agrees with the Apostle Paul. It agrees about Onesimus and he agrees with what should be done by Philemon. But he greets you, he greets you, he loves you, he says hi, he's praying for you. As you're praying for him, he's praying for you. And then he says, and so does Mark. Oh, this is a sermon in among itself right here in this book. Do you remember a long time ago in the book of Acts? When Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey, who'd they bring? Mark. What happened to Mark? Mark, for whatever reason, ran away. Then they wanna go on a second missionary journey, what happens? The two brothers have a disagreement on whether they should bring along John Mark. I don't think one was right or one was wrong. I think it was just a disagreement. Paul says, look, he deserted us in the middle. We can't have that. And Barnabas says, yeah, but we can encourage him. I see both sides. I don't think either one is wrong. I don't think they ended in a way, by the way, that was sinful. I think they disagreed like brothers disagree. But notice this, in this letter, when Paul had problems viewing Mark as a ministry partner, is now writing to Philemon about Mark, who is with him, saying, he greets you as well, meaning that Paul now views Mark as a ministry partner. So Paul himself had to do this with Mark. It's not as if Paul's never had to do this. Of course he had to do this. Then there's Aristarchus, Demas, and then Luke, the great doctor, right? The great doctor who wrote the book of Luke and the book of Acts. All these people are with him, and notice what he says. my fellow workers. The implication is your fellow workers. The implication is they know about this situation. They agree about this situation. We are confident of your love and your work and we are confident of your obedience. Notice the unity, the love. Notice how they're connecting and these are brothers from all around the ancient world. I love this. I grew up a very independent Baptist to the point that we thought we were the only ones that were going to heaven. All the other churches were, there were no believers in it. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not a lot. And I remember the first time I left my area and met other believers and was like, oh, There are other Christians. Wow, that's amazing. As I've been involved in the IFCA, it is amazing to me how many brothers and sisters we have who are like-minded with us all around the world. From India to Africa, down to South America, all over the United States, even in the Pacific Northwest. And it's incredible when you get around these fellow believers from all around the Pacific Northwest who are like-minded. You don't have to... You always have your discernment guard up, but you don't have to have it up that high, right? You're maybe on yellow. And you could just talk and fellowship and talk about what the Lord's doing, how the Lord's encouraging you. You can encourage one another. This connection and the encouragement that comes from this. Imagine Philemon as he gets this letter and he gets all of the encouragement from all these other men, fellow workers, and he's reading this letter He's looking at Onesimus, he's looking at Tychicus, he's realizing that Onesimus left useless, now he's come back useful for the sake of the gospel. And so notice this last thing. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. May God give you the grace to do what is right, to act in love, What a powerful, powerful statement. As I was thinking of this, it reminded me of one passage. Forgive me, I know we all want to eat the chili, and we all want to go down to potluck, but I got this in my brain, and unless I say it, it's like holding in a sneeze. I won't feel right for the rest of the day. So go with me to the book of Romans quickly. As I was reading this this morning, this passage came to my mind, Romans 12. As Paul's dealt with this church in Rome, as he's shared all of the wonderful promises and truths of the gospel, this incredible, incredible truth that you are now in Christ, and when you believe in Christ, You now are given the righteousness of Christ and you can now say no to sin and yes to righteousness and understand that there is nothing that will be able to separate you from the love of Christ and the security that we have in Christ and this incredible truth of the gospel. And as Paul begins to deal with some of the practical applications, notice what he says starting in verse nine. He says, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. We could say that about this book. That's essentially what Paul has been asking Philemon. Genuinely love this man. Distance yourself from what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Notice what he says in 10. Love one another with brotherly affection. Wow. With brotherly affection. Brotherly affection. Love one another as family. Outdo one another in showing honor. Don't outdo one another in your chili, though we hope we do, because there is going to be a winner, and I've been praying all week that it's me. No, we're supposed to outdo one another in showing love towards one another and respect for one another. It's almost like we're in a competition of who can serve each other more. Notice what he says, he says, do not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Be very proactive in your service. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. How can you do that? You do that based off the power of the spirit, remembering the gospel and how much you've been forgiven, how much I've been forgiven. Then notice what he says, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one, evil for evil. Philemon's not meant to repay Onesimus evil for evil. Philemon legally could have sent Onesimus to jail for stealing. He could have legally beat Onesimus to death. legally, under Roman law. Don't do that. It's wrong to kill, especially your brother. He says, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. And then verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all. That's it. You wanna know the message of the book of Philemon? It's that, this. I've often read these passages and I've thought, how do you illustrate this? And what does this look like? And I often would say, man, I wish the Apostle Paul would give us an example of what this looks like in a church setting. That's the book of Philemon. Philemon is, one of the great examples, other than the cross, of what does it look like for believers to forgive one another, to live with one another, to reconcile with one another, to live in unity based off of the gospel. So my hope is that as we've studied this little book of Philemon, it's been an incredible blessing to you, it's been an incredibly blessing to me, in fact, One of the great joys of expository preaching is all the surprises you get. If you don't get any surprises when you're teaching expository, you're doing it wrong. There is supposed to be some of this, huh, I thought I knew what I was gonna talk about, but now I know what I'm gonna talk about. And I was overcome by the complexity, by the depth, overcome by the message and the meaning of the book, the practical implications, It seems like ever since I've read the book of Philemon, I've been very conscious of how I talk to people about, and remembering that I'm an object of God's grace and mercy. And I need to demonstrate that grace and mercy to others, and forgive one another, and love one another, and view the people around me, those who are believers and non-believers, being created in the image of God, and that my brothers and sisters are my brothers and sisters, and I'm not better than you, and you are not better than me. We all serve the same God. We all get the same blessings in the end. We all serve the same master, Jesus Christ. And on the basis of that, we can live in harmony, unless Richard wins the chili contest, and in that case, we're kicking him out. I'm joking. No, we can live in harmony even if Richard wins the chili contest. Because does it really matter who wins? No. Does it matter that we all encourage one another to live for Jesus? Absolutely. Does it matter that we live in harmony with one another? Absolutely. That's what's important. And that's what we should strive for. Grace, forgiveness, love. May the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we heard today. Let's go ahead and let's pray. Father, we thank you for this example that you've given us in the book of Philemon. We just ask, Father, that as we fellowship, that our fellowship would be in harmony. Father, if there is anything in this room between any one of us where we are harboring bitterness, there is no reconciliation. I pray, Father, that you would move in our hearts to bring about that reconciliation. that you would move in our hearts to forgive those in this room and those outside of this room, that we would strive to be at peace with all people as much as it depends on us. Father, that you would help us have an attitude which is like Christ, and a spirit that's like Christ, that is full of love and grace and mercy. Give us wisdom on how to navigate through these things, that even though there is forgiveness, Father, you understand these hurt relationships and the awkwardness and the change of that relationship, and give us wisdom of how to navigate those things and discernment on the right thing to say at the right time. But we are just so very thankful that you have forgiven us, that you have lavished your grace out upon us, that we are forgiven. We just ask for the rest of the day that you would be honored and glorified in everything that is said, thought, and done. We thank you for the opportunity that we have downstairs to fellowship with one another, to have a little bit of fun. But Father, may our conversations be to encourage one another to live for your son. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen.