Well, I want to bring greetings once again from Arbor Church in Dayton, Ohio, and I want to extend an invitation. We are right on the 70-75 exchange, so if anyone ever finds their way up to Michigan, let's say, and you'd like to stop off maybe at the free Air Force Museum that just added yet another section to it. It's an incredible place. If you'd like to join us in worship on a Lord's Day, we would love to have you come and visit with us. We do share with you in the fellowship of the gospel. We enjoy the same truth, many of the same songs, and share many of the same friends. And I want to say thank you for Those who invited me to come and preach at the retreat, it really has been a joy to be here, to get to know the young people, and to finally be able to see Emmanuel Baptist Church in Coconut Creek. I do have a question, Pastor Smith. For some reason, for years, I always thought it was Deerfield Beach, or I don't know if it was Pastor Bob that lived in Deerfield Beach. Is there a connection there that I'm missing? OK. Okay, so maybe it was connected to that town at one point. Okay, good. Well, because somehow that locked in at one point, and that's kind of what stuck. I'm going to ask you to turn to Philemon once again, and if you're just joining us tonight, it's tucked in between Titus and Hebrews, a small letter of the Apostle Paul to a man named Philemon. Now, we have spent five sessions now, this is the sixth, that began as part of the youth retreat on Friday night, two more sessions on Saturday, and then a little bit in Sunday school, and then this morning worship. So I'm not going to take a lot of time tonight. If you've missed everything up till now, I think this morning is probably recorded and you can get some of that backdrop information. I'm mostly going to pick up where we left off this morning. But we are talking about the book of Philemon, the issue with Onesimus, the runaway slave, and Paul trying to convince Philemon in this letter to receive the new believer, Onesimus, back not only into his household, but into the Colossian church. And this is Paul's persuasive, gracious, and yet persuasive attempt to have Philemon receive Onesimus back. This morning we began looking at these additional appeals. There is a major appeal in verses 8 through 16, and then Paul brings several additional appeals here at the end of the letter. And as I was kind of jokingly saying this morning, almost like he's just emptying his toolbox, he doesn't want to have a bullet left in the gun when it's time to be done with this argument. And so he's just bringing everything that he has to graciously convince Philemon to do what Paul certainly thinks is the right thing to do. So what I'm going to do tonight is just read verses 17 through 22, and then we'll continue on with those six additional appeals. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. So that's Paul talking to Philemon about Onesimus. But if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. But meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted to you. Let's pray. Father God, as we return to your word now and finish this material from the youth retreat, Lord, we pray that you would work in not only the hearts of the young people, Lord, but all of us to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and some of the purposes for this book of Philemon. And we pray that you would teach us, Lord, teach us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ when it comes to some of these difficult things, whether we have to say them or receive them. Lord, help us to have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ worked into our hearts to be able to work through what are sometimes difficult situations. And we thank you, Lord, for the pictures we've seen of redemption here in this book as well. So continue to be with us, Holy Spirit, we pray tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, what we began looking at this morning is the beginning of these six appeals, and let me just mention them to you. We started off with number one in verse 17, the appeal of fellowship, where Paul says, if you count me as a partner, someone who is in the fellowship of the gospel, then receive Onesimus as you would me. And then secondly, the appeal of restitution. If he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. And Paul sort of put to rest the idea that there might be this permanent breach in the relationship. Paul said, I'm willing to try to help address that. And that's how far we got this morning after the extended introduction and review. Now tonight, we're looking at three through six. So first of all, the appeal of indebtedness, which is related to number two. Number four is the appeal of ministry. Five, the appeal of confidence. And six, the appeal of accountability. And so we'll continue on, then having looked at those first two, we'll continue on with the appeal of indebtedness found in verse 19. Now we've just talked about, at the end of the message this morning, we talked about the appeal of restitution. This is certainly related, but Paul says in verse 19, I am writing with my own hand. I will repay. We looked at that. He says not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. And so really what we're looking at in the appeal of indebtedness is the second part of verse 19, the first part we looked at this morning where Paul uses the language of a promissory note and says, I'm good for that, for that debt, if that's what you need. Well, the idea in the second half of verse 19 is that Paul was instrumental in Philemon's conversion. I think that's what it's saying, where Paul says, you owe me even your own self besides. We've seen this weekend that it's very possible, very likely that Paul had influenced Philemon, perhaps in his ministry in Ephesus, and I think this text indicates that Paul was instrumental, probably the primary instrument in Philemon's conversion. So you could say any spiritual blessing that Philemon had was through the human instrumentality of the Apostle Paul. including an abundant spiritual life that's available to believers now, life with God here, as well as eternal life in glory. And in light of the sacrifice and hardship of the ministry to which Paul had given his life, what he was asking of Philemon was relatively small. Paul was willing to pay Onesimus' debt, So when you combine Paul's willingness to pay off the debt and the fact that Paul was used to bring Philemon to Christ, how could Philemon refuse Paul's request now? So we said this morning that Paul's offer to pay off the debt, however that had harmed Philemon, it appears to have been legitimate and that Paul may very well have had access to funds. But he takes it even beyond that and says, I'm willing to pay that off, but let's think about this, Philemon. You basically owe me, I mean, as far as human instrumentality is concerned, as far as how my life and my ministry have affected you, you owe me your very life. You came into the faith through God using me, and so if we wanna start talking about who owes whom, if you think about it, you owe me your very life. We don't have a lot of details. I don't know that there's any reason to conjecture much beyond the fact that Paul was used in Philemon's salvation, but it certainly is a powerful argument. And again, you can't help but think about our debt to God, as we've been kind of relating this picture back to our own salvation. When Paul mentions the indebtedness of Philemon, because Paul was instrumental in his conversion, it is a picture, I think, of the debt that we owe God that we cannot pay. And there's an implication here in this statement by Paul that You know, there's a sense in which Philemon could never pay back everything that he had in the Lord Jesus Christ, could he? Philemon could never pay back what was owed because of the mercy of God that had been extended to him. And we really cannot possibly pay back either all that we owe to God, including what God has done for us through other people. So we should be very careful about exacting justice on those who we might think owe us something, especially if they're believers. I think this is kind of along the same idea where we shouldn't be taking other believers to secular court. Well, I think there's a similar idea here that we need to be really careful about exacting justice from those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. especially some who may have been used by God. I mean, we think about how much we owe God. We need to be very careful. You know, the idea that, you know, we've been forgiven this much, then we're gonna turn around because we're owed this much and demand what we're owed. There's a good principle here for us. It's so good for our souls, brothers and sisters, so good for our souls to regularly think about how much we've been forgiven, how much we owe, and how much we just simply could never pay back for what we've been given. And if that spirit, that attitude marked our attitude toward other people, how much more grace, how much more gentility, How much more humility would we have if we consistently in our lives remember how much we owe and then we turn around and out of that we treat one another. It would impact the way you young people interact with one another. You know, you think you've been offended? How much did you offend God? You could never, never possibly begin to match in our relationships with one another the amount of offense or the amount of forgiveness in our relationship with God. So it's kind of an argument you could say from the greater to the lesser. If God has forgiven us so much, how could we not forgive one another? Or how could we withhold forgiveness from one another? Recognizing our indebtedness to Christ and being merciful to others I think ought to be one of our themes as we live our Christian lives. Number four is the appeal of ministry. We'll call it the appeal of ministry. This has come up previously in the book. Verse 20, Paul says, yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. I wonder if I were to ask some of you from the retreat especially, I wonder if some of you maybe immediately had your mind go back to a verse previously. You know, it just immediately takes us back to verse seven, doesn't it? Paul has already said when he was thanking God for Philemon in verse 7, we have great joy and consolation in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. He's already rejoiced in what God has done in Philemon and through Philemon. God has brought joy to Paul because of that testimony, and that joy came largely because Philemon had been used to refresh the saints. So now here in verse 20, it's kind of like Paul saying, give me a little piece of that. I want some. You ever said that? Have you ever had your mom or dad bring out this delicious, whatever you want to eat, delicious pie, delicious, whatever your favorite dessert is, and they're handing some out and you're like, give me some. I want a piece. That's good stuff. And it's kind of like Paul is saying, okay, now you refresh the saints by your, Your ministry to them now give me some I'm here under house arrest in Rome And I want you to respond to my plea in such a way that that my heart is filled with joy Not just because I hear of what you're doing for the Saints But now I want joy because of what I know you're doing in response to this plea Refresh my heart in the Lord And so there's a sense in which he's saying, minister to me. That's why we're calling this the appeal of ministry. I mean, Paul is essentially saying, Philemon, you've ministered to others. You're known for this. You have a reputation for this. Now give me some. Minister to me like that. Make my heart happy, filled with joy, because I know that you're responding to Onesimus with Christian love and brotherly kindness and the heart and humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, I wanted to point one other thing out too here. You know how the other day we talked about that little play on words, where Mr. Profitable had become unprofitable, and then by God's grace been made truly profitable again, and he lived up to his name, which means profitable? Well, here now in verse 20, where it says, let me have joy from you in the Lord, that verb to have joy or to derive pleasure or advantage from, to gain a benefit from, that may very well be another play on words because that's the verb that's related to Onesimus' name. So if you were to look at that in English, you would see onesimus, the noun, and then a verb that sounds similar and is related to onesimus, and that verb is what Paul uses here. Basically, he's using a verb related to onesimus' name to say, let me have joy from you. Let me derive pleasure or gain a benefit from you. In other words, I want you to play onesimus for me and be profitable for me in this way. I told you I loved words, and I can't pass telling you that. You have brought joy to many people, Philemon. That is your consistent testimony, and now I'm asking you to bring a blessing to me. Now here's a question that we can ask when we think about the appeal of ministry in verse 20. How would Philemon's forgiveness of Onesimus' offense bring joy to Paul? I mean, I bet if I asked you this in a Sunday school setting, you could come up with a number of things. The joy that Paul would feel from Onesimus being forgiven by Philemon, one of the ways is that it would indicate fruit in Philemon's life, and we all know how much Paul loved fruit. I mean, Paul loved to see the fruit of the Spirit operative and being developed in somebody's life. He longed for it. He prayed for it. He wrote about it. When the churches received his letters, they were exhorted in their pursuit of Christ. Paul loved nothing more than to see people following after Christ, putting off the members of the flesh and the deeds of the flesh, and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, even as he teaches the Colossians in that accompanying book. And to see this fruit born in Philemon's life, this what would obviously be supernatural fruit of the Holy Spirit, to be able to respond in this kind of a godly fashion to what Onesimus had done to him, that would indicate fruit. And Paul loved fruit. It would make Paul joyful to know that Onesimus was being received as a brother into the fellowship. I mean, Paul took a certain amount of personal interest, personal responsibility. Onesimus had come to him in prison under house arrest. Onesimus had come to faith in Christ under Paul's ministry. And now as we've read before, Paul says, I am sending him back. Remember the likely scenario is that Onesimus and Tychicus are bringing the book of Colossians and the letter to Philemon back to the church in Colossae. And Paul would have probably been wondering to some extent in prison, how is Onesimus going to be received? I mean, he had confidence that Philemon would do the right thing, but there had to have been some lingering question. And for Paul to know that Onesimus had not only been received back into Philemon's household, but had been received as a brother into the Colossian church would have made Paul's heart This also would have been a powerful example to the saints in Colossae, Laodicea, Hierapolis, some of those places where the people knew one another and had something of a relationship. That would have certainly brought joy to Paul as well, to know what the Lord was doing through that example. I mean, how powerful of an example would that have been? As other people heard. You know, people that very well may have known of this situation. Maybe they were praying about this situation. Hey guys, we need to be praying for Philemon in Colossae. Onesimus took off, he hurt Philemon badly. Philemon's trying to work through some pretty serious stuff. Onesimus is gone. We don't know where he is. Pray for Philemon. He's in a bad spot right now. And then those same people, those same churches here, well, guess what? God answered our prayers. Maybe not quite. Maybe we needed more faith, but Onesimus has just come back. He's come to faith in Christ, and Philemon has received him back as a brother into the Colossian church and into the Christian fellowship. How powerful would that have been for those believers in those other cities to have seen God's work in that church? And that would have made Paul's heart jump for joy. So all of those things together would be refreshing to Paul and bring him great joy even under house arrest in Rome once he finally would have heard of it because Paul lived for God's work in people's lives. The appeal of ministry is number four. Number five, the appeal of confidence in verse 21. The appeal of confidence. Paul says, having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. Now, Paul had to have had a certain amount of confidence to write Philemon an open letter to the Colossian church. I mean, remember that when Paul writes this, he actually writes it in verse one to Philemon, in verse two to Aphia, as well as Archippus, and then at the end of verse two, to the church in your house. So it's right there. So we know he wrote the book of Colossians to the Colossian church, but he essentially wrote Philemon to the Colossian church as well. Even though it was primarily to Philemon about a specific event. So you can see Paul had a confidence in what he had heard about Philemon that there was going to be receptivity. Now what obedience is it that we would be talking about? After all, didn't Paul say in verse eight that he wasn't going to command? So what obedience is he talking about if he says in verse eight, I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you. And here in verse 21, he says, having confidence in your obedience. Well, I think that obedience is really obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wasn't saying to Philemon, well, you're free from any constraints. I'm just gonna kind of give you some ideas. Now Paul knew that Philemon was a man of devotion to God and to God's law. And that was actually where Paul's confidence lay. Paul was confident that Philemon was devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ and was subject to the Lord's commands. And so I think what Paul is referring to is obedience to Jesus Christ, what we might call gospel obedience. It's implied in the statement where he says, knowing that you will do even more than I say. And so I think the essence of it is, because of your obedience to Christ, Philemon, I have confidence that you're going to go beyond my appeals. Paul was not going to demand obedience to himself as an apostle, but he was convinced that Philemon was going to continue to subject himself to Christ, and that kind of motive would produce a greater and holier kind of obedience than Paul could ever solicit. And again, it's interesting, verse five indicates that Paul did not have a current intimate relationship with Philemon. And we've been noting that passage in Colossians where Paul says, I haven't actually been to be with you. And so while Paul had met Philemon, as we've been saying, perhaps in Ephesus, Paul felt a koinonia with him, he loved him in Christ, and he had been instrumental in Philemon's conversion, but much of his confidence in Philemon and what Philemon would do is due to the solid testimony of his love for Christ and things that men like Epaphras and again, even Onesimus himself would have been telling him. Now, in what way would Philemon do even more than Paul said? I mean, what does that mean? I mean, how could Philemon go beyond what Paul was saying? Paul was asking Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a brother and as a profitable worker. Well, there are some possibilities I just wanna present. I don't know exactly, but there are a number of possibilities here. You know, there's some indication in the text that Philemon could end up sending Onesimus back to minister to Paul. Remember, Paul says, I would love to have Onesimus stay here with me. God has been using him to minister to me. I don't wanna presumptuous, I don't wanna be presumptuous, so I'm gonna send him back to you, but I would love to have him here if you could spare him or if some way you could figure out a way where you could do what you need to do and do it without Onesimus. Now, we don't really know, I mean, we're not given the details, so I'm not gonna go way out on a limb here, but I mean, I have thoughts that come to my mind like, okay, so let's say that with Onesimus being gone for an extended period of time, Philemon would have had to have found a way to carry on without him. So he may very well have already replaced him or found a way to do what he needed to do without Onesimus' help. And while it was not the best of circumstances that brought them to that point, what a providence of God that would have been if Onesimus came back and Philemon would have said, oh, so wonderful to see the work that God has done in your life, but I don't need you anymore, so why don't you go back and minister to the Apostle Paul? Wouldn't that be just like our God to do something like that? We don't know for sure, but it might have been something along those lines. Or perhaps, along with receiving him back as a brother, would Philemon give Onesimus ministry opportunities? Now here again, we don't know for sure, but there is some sense in which Paul has been ministered to by Onesimus. Verse 13, he wished to keep Onesimus with him, that on your behalf, Philemon, Onesimus, he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. Now that might have been something very simple. that we could call ministry. We don't know that it was gospel ministry or, you know, obviously Onesimus is fairly young in the faith. But who knows? Who knows what Onesimus may have ended up doing? Maybe we'll be able to figure that out in Gloria. I've got a few questions I'd like to ask about this book. It makes you wonder, I mean, would Philemon, and not just Philemon, but the church in Colossae, would they have given him ministry opportunity? You know, I mean, let's face it, there would have been some people that probably would have said, he's a runaway slave, he doesn't deserve opportunities in the church. But people who had grace and wisdom would have said, well, he is young, but let's see what the Lord will do. I mean, the Lord saved him. Let's give him some opportunities as it's appropriate, as wisdom dictates, and let's see how he handles them. And let's see what God will do in our brother Onesimus in our assembly. That's a possibility. I wonder if This whole episode would maybe change the way that Philemon interacted with slaves or maybe thought about them. Would he encourage other slave owners to treat their slaves with respect and forgiveness? Or would it just have become a wonderful testimony for Philemon to be able to say, even though I'm a master and he's a slave, look at what the gospel has done to our relationship. What a powerful testimony that would be to other slave owners and to other slaves, especially maybe in the church in Colossae and some of those surrounding places. By the way, guys, one of my Swedish Bible study question marks would be this. Was a slave ever made an elder or a deacon in a local church? Now, I am going to quote an esteemed theologian here tonight. The following is from a Facebook chat with Dan Wakefield. A while back, I had the opportunity to present some of this material where Dan was present, and afterward, we talked a little bit about it at one point on Facebook, and let me read, I don't know if I've ever done this before, I'm gonna read part of a Facebook chat here in my message tonight. As we were talking about it, this is what Dan wrote back to me. He said, I'm at a seminary module with Michael Haken teaching on the early church, and I asked him about it, this idea of deacons, or slaves being deacons or elders in a church. He said there is good evidence that there was a slave who was an elder in a church in Rome and his master was a member of the congregation. How cool is that? Just like John Owen would have said it. And then a little bit later, Dan says, he really didn't say any more about it other than that it was a house church in Rome in the pre-Nicene period. So in the first couple hundred years of church history, Michael Haken, Dr. Michael Haken has come across this, a man much better in church history than I, that there is indication that at least in this case, there may have been a slave who became an elder where his own master was in the congregation. And we shouldn't be shocked by that. That's what the gospel can do. It can take an upside down broken world with all of the sin and the brokenness and the difficulty, and even without completely radically overhauling the societal structure, the gospel comes in and changes hearts, Jesus is glorified, and people are being prepared for the next life. So the answers are not particularly clear, but Paul knows that a heart that is motivated to obey and glorify Christ would go beyond the minimum human suggestion. Philemon would not just stop at Paul's suggestions because Philemon was most interested in pleasing Christ. It's a good time to ask the question, what is my reputation? What is your reputation? You know, when you're called upon to do something, is there a question mark over how it is going to get done? You know, and one of the answers to that is really the answer to the question, are you primarily trying to please someone human? Or are you primarily trying to please an even greater master, the Lord Jesus Christ, the creator and redeemer of your soul? And that will change how we answer that question. Am I engendering confidence in others that because of my love for Christ, quality is going to be written all over this task? I'm going to go beyond even what is expected or required if that's what would glorify God? Are we motivated by love for Christ more than by the love or approval of man? Those are some good questions to ask when we see how Paul addresses Philemon and challenges him in this way. Number six, the appeal of accountability. That's verse 22. He says, but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. I'm coming to see ya. I would like to have a guest room. Philemon, maybe it'll be at your house, or maybe you'll find it easier when I come to have it somewhere else, but could you prepare for me a guest room, a place for me to come? I mean, I know that I have brothers and sisters all over who are praying for my release, and I have some expectation that I may indeed be released. And so when God answers your prayers, and I am no longer under house arrest, I'm going to come visit. And that's why we call this the appeal of accountability. The apostle Paul expected to go and to see for himself what actually happened. Now the word your here in verse 22 is plural. I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. So the indication here is that Paul is saying, I know that you, Philemon, and brothers and sisters there in the Colossian church, and maybe in some of those surrounding churches, that you're praying, that you're praying for me. And God may very well decide to answer those prayers in my release. John MacArthur says, prayers are the nerves that move the muscles of omnipotence. And while Paul didn't know for certain, he had expectation that if this would be good for Philemon, if this would be good for Onesimus, if this would be good for the Colossian church, God's gonna get Paul out. He knew that God answers prayer and that if he were released, it would be God granting them their request and granting them Paul's presence. And he seems to be expecting to be released from this imprisonment. So Lord willing, he's saying, I'll be there in person and I'll be able to see firsthand and hear firsthand from your own mouth, Philemon, how this went, what happened, how did you receive him? Maybe Paul would say, Tell me the very first thing you thought when you saw Onesimus coming. Did Onesimus send Tychicus to you first to kind of shield, you know, pave the way, be the buffer man, you know? Or how did it go down? Tell me. I want to hear. I want to know how this happened. And what did God have to do in your heart when you heard this to get to the point where you could respond how you knew you had to respond and yet in the flesh, what was that struggle like? There had to have been a struggle. And yet Paul's expectation is that he's going to be able to get this story from Philemon himself. Certainly this whole thing would have been made known within the congregation and it would have been quite public. And Paul is certainly responding in a very public way with this appeal. So the accountability factor here is strong. If Philemon, think of it like this, if Philemon is going to pray for Paul to be released, then he's going to have to forgive Onesimus. It's kind of what's being said. If Philemon, and he may have already been doing this, if Philemon was going to pray for Paul to be released, he's going to have to forgive Onesimus. It's kind of like Philemon would have to say to himself, if I am not going to forgive Onesimus for this wrong against me, then I'd better quit praying for God to set the apostle Paul free. because he's coming for me. And he's gonna check up and see what I did. You know, when we think about this issue of accountability, I kind of have a definition of it like this. Accountability is sanctified pressure to do the right thing because a saint knows you and expects that of you. Accountability is sanctified pressure to do the right thing because a saint knows you and expects that of you. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. One issue that sometimes we need to be careful about when we have accountability relationships, or maybe even an accountability group, or you could say, even if we don't have a name for it, there's a sense in which you could say, you know, all the young people at Emmanuel Baptist Church, especially that know the Lord and are committed to Him in discipleship, should be committed to holding one another accountable in gracious and helpful and spiritual ways. So you don't even have to call it an accountability group. Maybe that sounds, you know, it just sounds too weird to say that, but in a sense, you have an accountability group when you say, I'm a believer, you're a believer, I'm gonna expect you, brother, I'm gonna expect you, sister, to follow the Lord and to do the right thing, and I'll do it with you. Let's do it together. But let's hold one another accountable. You know, maybe you say, I have this particular situation where I tend to sin. or where I tend to not respond well, or I have a relationship that's broken and I'm going to go talk to them about it. And a brother or a sister comes alongside and says, okay, let's pray about that. And then I want you to come and talk to me about that. And I'm going to expect that by God's grace, you're going to do the right thing. And I want to hear about it when you're done. That's a wonderful thing. That's a beautiful thing. And that's something that the Apostle Paul seems to be doing here. We don't just want groups who are kind of wallowing around together in sin or enjoying each other's dirty little secrets. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about holding one another accountable with appropriate questions and conversations, letting each other know that we're not only praying for God's help to do the right thing, but we are expecting one another to follow Christ in our decisions. And even the sense that we'll be kind of disappointed if you don't follow Christ in this, we're going to be disappointed. I mean, we'll still be there with you. We'll still put an arm around you and we'll help you. let's encourage each other to follow the Lord in even these difficult things and understand that we're going to be interested afterward to know how it went. And so Paul brings to Philemon the appeal of accountability that he will come and he will hear how it all went. Well, when you look at all that Paul has said in this letter, and then these six appeals in 17 through 22, you know that when Paul puts his toolbox away at the end of this letter, or when he, you know, reholsters his gun, so to speak, and he's emptied everything that he has in this argument, he could have been confident, I think, that he had delivered his conscience on this issue. He had graciously yet powerfully made his position clear, and in love he had encouraged Philemon to continue following Christ. And of course we know that Paul's desire in all of this is that Jesus be glorified in Philemon's house, in Philemon's life, in the Colossian church, and that is what motivated him to get involved and to make a difference in the kingdom. Now as we bring these things to a conclusion, I wanna kinda highlight something as we bring this to a close. I want you to think about these three primary characters that we've been looking at. Of course, that's the Apostle Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus, who I think stick out more than anyone else in this narrative. And I want you to think about the lesson, maybe the primary lesson that maybe we should follow after as we kind of close the book on this youth retreat. With the Apostle Paul, we have a beautiful illustration of how to handle biblical confrontation. And you know, even though we've come through the entire book of Philemon in this youth retreat, we could actually come back to the book of Philemon and take it from that perspective, and that would be profitable. To say, lessons in biblical confrontation, or how should we go about the process of confronting people in a biblical fashion when it needs to be done. And it's a great lesson. So from the apostle Paul, we certainly can learn a lot about the grace and the gospel-centeredness with which he handles this situation. Because, you know, biblical confrontation can be difficult. There are some of you who have probably been through things where you had to say something hard to someone, and it doesn't always go well. Sometimes, in fact, that's why we don't want to say those bad, horrible, hard things to people that we know need to be said because we've seen those things blow up in our face. And it hurts, and it's hard, and sometimes relationships are lost over it. But I think we still need to be committed. Because the scriptures compel us to be committed to one another's lives and in that relationship, when we need to, confronting and rebuking and gently working through situations where maybe we've been offended or we know that someone has offended someone else, there are times We need to be careful not to insert ourselves where we don't belong, but we'll have plenty of things in our own relationships that need to be addressed. Biblical confrontation can be difficult, but this letter, I think, gives us a great example of how to be guided in biblical confrontation by wisdom, by legitimate praise, as we've seen, by good theology, by a healthy understanding of the gospel and gospel implications, by grace, and by what we might call holy persuasion. I mean, think about what Paul has just done here. This is kind of counter-cultural, certainly in our culture. Paul just wrote Philemon about this, but in an open letter to the whole Colossian church. Now part of that was because he had great confidence in Philemon's love for the saints, his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had confidence that Philemon would ultimately respond well. But he didn't have an absolute guarantee. And yet he did it, he wrote it. And the Lord, we can assume, and this is one of those things that I wanna ask the Lord when we get there in glory, in the eternal state, is what happened? What happened when those guys showed up? Now, even if it didn't go well, even if things fell apart, it's still a beautiful letter and a wonderful example. You know, we're not responsible if things completely fall apart. That's not ultimately up to us. We're responsible for the grace and the wisdom and the tact and the holy persuasion that we're to use. We're not ultimately responsible for the way people respond. And this is a beautiful example of biblical confrontation. And then with someone like Philemon, you know, one of the big lessons we can come away with with Philemon is to just think about the whole issue of how should we respond if someone comes to us with this kind of argumentation? How should we respond if someone comes to us with this level of biblical confrontation? Or even somewhat smaller. I mean, how should we respond? And the indication is, by testimony, that Philemon was going to respond, ultimately he would respond, because of his relationship with God. And even though we don't ultimately know what happened, you know what I think is very powerful here? Is that Paul had such a strong expectation that Philemon would respond. And as a pastor, I have people like that, and there are probably people here like that, where there are certain people that I know that if I have to say something hard to them, even though it might be difficult at first, I have real confidence in some people that they will respond in a godly fashion, even though they might kinda take a hit up front, that they're gonna respond to the godly exhortation. And I have great, great confidence in certain people because of what God has done to them up to this point. And I think that's one of the questions, really, I wanna leave you with, with Philemon, guys, is, Do you have that kind of a reputation? Or maybe because you're young, it would be more fair to say, are you building that kind of a reputation? Are you building the kind of reputation where if your pastor, you know, your pastors or your parents were to come to you, or maybe even one of your friends, and they were to bring something difficult that they needed to say to you by way of rebuke or challenge, maybe in preaching or maybe in a personal exhortation, are you building the kind of reputation as a follower of Jesus Christ where they would have confidence saying, I know it's gonna rock her for a few hours, I know it's gonna mess him up for a night, but I really believe they're gonna respond because I've seen God's work, I've seen God's you know, the Holy Spirit's fruit being worked out in their lives. I have confidence that they're gonna respond in a godly fashion ultimately. Are you following after Christ in such a way that you're developing that kind of a reputation, a Philemon-type reputation where people say, I have every confidence that ultimately they're gonna follow Christ in this, they're gonna do the right thing. You know what a blessing that is? You know how we were talking about Paul being thrilled and joyful because of how Philemon was responding to things? I mean, Paul's joy came because Philemon had already had such an incredible testimony. And then Paul said, give me more of that joy by responding well now. You know how much power I don't know if I should tell these guys this. Do you know how much power you have in your hands to bring joy to your parents? Do you know how much power you have in your hands to bring joy to your pastors? What I mean by that is you guys have, you may not think about this, you have the ability, simply by godly living, by humble responding, you have the ability to bring joy to those the Lord has placed over you. And I'm telling you, there is joy when people see young people following after Christ and responding with humility and grace to exhortations. You produce joy in the hearts of those that God has placed over you. And in that way, you can be like Philemon in this book. And then, of course, Onesimus. We've talked about this actually quite a few times. Did you know the gospel was so much in the book of Philemon? We've seen it, haven't we, over and over again in this book, whether it was the outright conversion of Onesimus and the grace of God, or the pictures of salvation that are seen in these relationships like we saw this morning. Well, how do you be like Onesimus? Well, the best way you can be like Onesimus is that you haven't placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you haven't turned from your sin, then be like Onesimus. Quit running, quit rebelling, quit sinning against people. Submit yourself to the holy God who made you. Return from your sin, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you know what, if you have to, go back, make restitution. Go back and deal with those offenses. Go back and tell people that you've offended, that the Lord has changed my heart and I just want you to know, I'm sorry for being such a jerk. and by God's grace, I'm gonna stand with you in the gospel, and I'm going to help hold you accountable, and I want you to hold me accountable as well. Be like Onesimus and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for the time we've had in this book, for the examples that lie before us, And Lord, even that anticipation that we have that perhaps one day we'll be able to have some questions answered as to what you did in the lives of these people after this letter was written. Lord, we know that even though things certainly would not have been perfect, and people would still have been fighting sin, and maybe things even broke down in some ways. We don't know, but what a wonderful illustration we have here of Paul handling this conflict, and Philemon's testimony that gave such confidence that he would respond, and Onesimus coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we have every confidence from what we see here that when we get to glory, we'll see Paul, the apostle, with Philemon, the business owner, standing next to Onesimus, the one who had been a slave here on this earth. Brother next to brother next to brother. And Lord, we long for that day ourselves, and we can glimpse even more into the glories that you will reveal to us. Thank you, Lord, for this book. Continue to work in our hearts, we pray. Be gracious and bring the lost into a saving knowledge with Jesus Christ, and then make us devoted followers of our Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.