The Whole Enchilada of Philemon
First B Jackson
2017-01-08

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Hey. What do you say we stand up, offer up praises to the Lord? Psalm one forty seven. How good to sing praises to our God. How delightful and how fitting.

It truly is fitting. In fact, I'd like to pray, and then we'll sing. God, I I thank you for a new day. I thank you for a new morning. I thank you that your mercies are made new every day, and it truly is fitting and right to sing praises to you for you're our creator, our sustainer, our God.

Amen. Alright. All creatures of our God and king.

Let's see what's on the announcements today. I have not looked over the announcements. It's January. It's cold outside. We have a winter storm warning until Thursday.

Did y'all get that message yesterday? Like we weren't in the middle of a winter storm already. It started about Halloween. Anyway, there's a church on fire weekend coming up. It's not literal.

It's figurative. It's actually church on fire, prayer on fire is the focus prayer And about not being about Jesus, but being an experience with Jesus. So Don and Marlon Young, Don was the, interim pastor here before I got here. I love him dearly, but he hasn't had a chance to preach here since then. So, it's been quite a while but this weekend, the twenty eighth, twenty ninth, and January 30 and it ought to be really good.

I've read over some of the materials but it's going be less material, less slides, less stuff, and more about actually experiencing God in prayer. That'll be really good. Connect hours happening between services, down the in the fellowship hall, and that goes on about 10:00 or where whenever we wrap up in here, and it'll go till almost 11:00 when we start up again here. It's the cat's meow. Yeah.

Monday nights at first b.

A basket of kittens, but there is a message tomorrow about what we say flowing from our hearts. It's really good. It's really good stuff, and so I encourage you. The door is always open. Mule, music, message, tomorrow.

Music, 06:00 tomorrow in the fellowship hall. That happens at the same time as Awana, which happens in this room. You can tell by the big game circle on the floor. That's not for a helicopter. This is this is Owana Game Circle.

So that happens at 06:00 also. Come on up, Eric.

I wanted to give you an update on our fundraising campaign to improve the kitchen in the fellowship hall. I have some very exciting news. It's been a great year. You've heard of me or Kevin Olsen stand up here for a couple months now encouraging you to consider giving and certainly praying for our kitchen and fellowship hall improvement project. And at the end of the year, we have $175,000 pledged towards that project, which is amazing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We have a $153,000 that has actually been given, that has been received. A couple weeks ago, we we asked for some specific giving to get a $10,000 match. That that giving was more than enough to receive that match, so that that takes us to the $153,000 in the bank as of the end of the year to go towards that project. So with that in mind, we are moving forward with at least the kitchen part of the improvements.

That $150,000 is more than enough, we think, this point to cover the kitchen side of things. And so starting about April 1, we're going to be knocking holes in walls and remodeling and improving the kitchen. So you're going to hear fewer announcements from us about that going forward, which I'm sure you'll appreciate. But if you'll recall, we we estimate that we need about $250,000. That does include a little bit of contingency, but about $250,000 to do everything that the the church that you guys identified as as needed in the fellowship hall and the kitchen.

So there still is time to give. There's we we still would like to move forward with the fellowship hall portion of the work. So please consider giving. You can pledge and give over some time, anytime between now and June really would be great. So don't let it drop completely off your radar just because we're not going to stand up here every week and say, hey, we need money for the kitchen.

But the great news is that God is providing and we are moving forward. We are now entering into a construction planning phase with construction on the kitchen scheduled for about the April 1. So thank you.

And so there probably are a few more announcements. If you'll check your bulletin or grab a bulletin on the way out to put on your refrigerator and let you know what's coming up, that'd be great. But mostly, it is smooth sailing of normal stuff that goes on here. Welcome back, Wally. It's good to see you.

Wally's been out of town for a while, and I just saw his face and thought, hey. Gotta say, hey. Hey. Would y'all stand up and greet one another? And we'll bring you back together with a song.

And our glory, honor, power is yours. May our glory, honor, power is yours. Amen. Our glory, Jesus sought me when a stranger

God, I I thank you for this morning. I thank you for your great grace. This gift this gift that really wasn't free. It came at a cost but free to us that we would simply receive and for that, I I I give you thanks and I pray that that grace would propel us into into service for you. Really, that we'd see how much you loved us, how much how hard you have worked and are working for us and that we would we'd return the favor.

God, I I thank you for being with us in in all times in every season, the good stuff, for the things that cause great joy, and and great celebration. We we offer our thanks to you. And even, God, the things that are harder and maybe some of the valleys that that some of us are walking through right now. I there's there's always something to thank you for. There's always something to praise you for and so I pray that you truly would tune our hearts to sing your praise in Christ's name.

Amen.

And This is my prayer in my hunger and need. My God is a God who provides. That's my prayer. This is our prayer in the battle. I have a reason to sing.

I have a reason to worship.

So true. Let's sing that again, shall we? All my life.

All my life and every season you wish to guide. I have reasons to sing. I have a reason to worship, and I'll give you praise. I won't bring praise. I won't bring praise.

No weapon for me against the shall

This is my prayer in the harvest.

This is my prayer in the harvest when favor and

Amen. You can be seated. I'll invite the frontline team to come forward, and I'll pray before we begin here in the worship through giving. God, I'm amazed at how generous, how kind you are and for meeting our our every needs. I thank you, God, how you can make a lot with a little.

And I think of this verse that we sang that we are filled to be are filled to be emptied again. And we shouldn't worry really about how much we have because you are the generous provider who can continue to fill and fill and fill as we give in every way, Lord, with our resources, our time, our talents, our treasure. And I pray that that would be our story that as you have been generous, that we would be generous and we would continue to to give and continue to be filled by you. And so that is my prayer for us, God, and I and I thank you for the gifts that you've given. And I pray that you would use them and multiply them so that those who don't know you yet here in this valley would come to know you, and and same story to the ends of the earth.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. I need you. Oh, I need you. The the kids church children's church is starting downstairs right now. So there they go.

I mentioned the winter storm thing. Thank you for coming out. This is the the Nixle alert that I got yesterday said, it will lull, but it will not stop. I thought, my goodness. I actually forwarded that to my family in Georgia, and they forwarded back a pray for Atlanta with a lawn that had about a half an inch, you know, half an inch of snow on some of the yard.

Today, we're gonna do we finished the book of Romans last week. So we have been for one year, almost exactly a year, a little less than a year, We have been going through the book of Romans. 16 chapters Romans. We did a whole chapter last week, mentioned a whole bunch of names like 28 names of people he's writing to and then several four or five guys that he that were with him. But this week, we're going to do the whole book of Philemon today in this service.

And it's a short book. It's Philemon, just one chapter, 25 verses. We're gonna do the whole enchilada. Okay. We're just gonna go for it.

Is this thing popping? You're all hearing this thing popping? Something else. Okay. The whole enchilada of Philemon.

But first, I need to go back and do something. It's a quick retraction from last week. There were a lot of names. There was a lot going on. I read so much.

But Sassipater or Sassipater, whatever, was one of Paul's running buddies. I mentioned him last week because it's in the text. It says with Lucius and Jason and Sassipater. When I got to it, I said, you remember the guy that got his fanny kicked? I think I said that in this service, and I know I said it in the next service.

And he was probably the same guy that's mentioned in Acts 24 that is Socetor. That's just Socetor and Socetor are the same guy. Paul was accompanied by Socetor, a berilla, blah blah blah blah blah when they went on this missionary journey. Sossipater was probably not the same guy that got his fanny kicked. Okay?

I saw a couple of eyebrows like, are you sure about that? And no, I was not sure about that. I thought that I was. It was Sosthenes and Orion in Corinth. I've been reading the end part of Acts from about 18 forward over and over lately trying to get all of my facts in order about where things were and what was going on.

So y'all remember this. All they the and they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and they began beating him in front of the judgment seat, but Gallio was not concerned about these things. How we know where Paul was at different times are tagged on things like Gallio was the guy in charge right there. We know exactly when he wrote Romans because of little context clues like that. So I missed out on Sassy Potter and I just wanted to say I'm sorry.

I appreciate y'all kinda just looking at me like that and nobody mentioned it. I couldn't believe it. Nobody said anything about it. Approximate dates of New Testament events and books. Y'all know that we've been going in order.

So, we did the life of Jesus which is a later book, John and we did the early church in Acts, the life of the early church in Acts and we've been going forward with a chronological scheme. These are the approximate dates of these New Testament events. So '33, some people say '30, some say '30 '3 for the crucifixion, the life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ. '33, Jesus dies and is resurrected. Death, burial, resurrection, and then Pentecost not too long.

After that, Stephen was martyred. Jesus said that he would build his church, and he's doing it through the obedience of his disciples, and they were huddled up in Jerusalem. The disciples were huddled up right around Judea, Jerusalem, maybe Galilee. They're huddled up, and they're not spreading out. And Jesus said, I'm gonna build my church, and it's gonna go to the ends of the earth, and the martyrdom of Stephen was where the church was finally scattered.

Okay? That happened in the early thirties. Paul, Saul, was converted on the road to Damascus in the early thirties just within a couple of years of the crucifixion. Thirties and forties, Peter and Philip are ministering, and I put Palestine because that's what it's most commonly called today. I know that it's a bit of a a slur for Israel, but Peter and Philip minister around that area where we read of Galilee and Judea and all around those parts of first century Israel.

Forty four to forty nine, Paul and Barnabas are ministering together on the first missionary journey, and we went through these books. We tried to go through them in order. So, did James first. James is written to Jewish Christians in the late forties, early fifties and we covered James. Paul, on his second missionary journey in the early fifties, he writes first and second Thessalonians.

He writes them both from the city of Corinth. He's been ministering in Corinth and so he sends these letters out to encourage this church that is not just steeped in sin. They're doing what they ought to be doing. They've got the missionary mandate and they're spreading the gospel and things are going well in Thessaloni Thessalonica, but they are having a few questions about the end times. Do you have a few questions about the end times?

Yes. Paul wrote to them to try to clear that up. My wife says, he didn't really clear that up, but he wrote to them to clear it up from Corinth. Paul then takes his third missionary journey, '53 to '57. About '55, he writes first Corinthians from Ephesus.

He's been ministering Ephesus for some time and he writes first Corinthians. Now, the Corinthian church was steeped in sin. And oh my goodness. It is one page after another of and this and this and this. He had received a report back and knew, and so we went through first Corinthians just to break it up instead of going more of second Corinthians more sin sin sin sin sin.

I broke it up by putting Galatians in between those two. Some people believe Galatians was the first book, and some people believe it was much later. I put it in the middle like I do. Put it right there in the middle. He wrote Galatians either to Northern Galatians or the Southern Galatians.

We're not sure but it's it is a sketch for Romans. So I put it right between first and second Corinthians. Who knows what order it came in? Are you with me? I'm just rehearsing this, going through it again.

Second Corinthians was written from Macedonia, which is up around Philippi, Thessalonica, up in that area. Second Corinthians, he writes from Macedonia, and then he goes to Corinth and he writes Romans from Corinth. And we know that. He says he's in the region of Achaia. He might have been slightly out of town, but he's right there and he's writing.

I wanna put this in into the world. The world that you and I live in. You can still go and visit some of these places, but this is the way that it was. He was in Corinth when he wrote Romans, and we see from the book of Acts that he went up through all the region of Macedonia. He's going back and encouraging churches that he started on either the first or the second missionary journey and the ones that have been planted since then by others.

So he's going to encourage them. It says that he next went across to Troas, so he sailed across back to Troas, which is kind of backtracking the way that he had been on his second journey. He's going backwards now to encourage. He goes from Troas to Miletus. He meets with the elders from Ephesus, and he has a tearful meeting on the beach and says goodbye to them.

He's while he's in Miletus, he's well, when he set sail from Miletus, he sails by way of the coast, hits Petara, the entire Ptolemais, Caesarea. And then in Caesarea, we have Acts twenty one ten. As we were staying there for some days, Caesarea is a great big output. It's called Caesar, Caesar, Ea. So it's a it is a military place.

It's a place of a lot of government. As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul's belt and he bound his own feet and hands, and he said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when he'd heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go to Jerusalem. That's not far from Caesarea to Jerusalem.

It's an inland journey. It's pretty easy walk as walks went, especially for a guy as well traveled as Paul. Then Paul answered, what are you doing weeping and you're breaking my heart? For I'm not only ready to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded because he really wanted to stay in Caesarea.

Since he wouldn't be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, well, will the Lord be done? They're surrendered to that. Y'all are you with me? Okay. So he goes from Caesarea into Jerusalem, and then we have in Acts 21, about 27 or so, all the way for the next seven chapters, we see a fascinating story of Paul's arrest.

Agabus was right. He did get arrested. There was a riot ensuing. He knew the way out of a riot to start a theological debate. Still still works today.

He threw that out there, and while they were confused, he was able to get away safely. Now safely into the hands of the Gentiles, which is what Agabus had said would happen. The Romans took him in to arrest and gave him a trial there at Caesarea and another trial at Caesarea. So we have his stay and his trials that were there. And then him setting sail for Rome because he appeals to Caesar.

Okay? Are you with me still? Are you with Paul? So he's shipwrecked on Malta. He says in second Corinthians, he's already been shipwrecked three times.

This is the fourth time. Okay? Arrival at Rome. And then funniest verses to me in Acts, it says, he's under house arrest. It's the very last part of the book and it says, and he continued in ministry there for a couple of years unhindered.

Unhindered. He just had a shipwreck. He's under house arrest. He can't just get up and go like he wants to, but he's unhindered in ministry. And the next three or so more books that we're gonna study are gonna be his prison epistles.

So his ministry is unhindered. We might not have the letters that we have from Paul about Colossians to the church at Colossae, Colossians, to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians, or Philippians. If he had not had to slow down because he was kinda stuck there. So this is where we are. That brings us to Paul's epistle to Philemon.

It was written about '61 or '62, so that is four or five years after the writing of Romans. He's had a lot of experiences in that time. I just wanted to bring you up chronologically to get you there. So this is a fragment. It's not an it's not the original manuscript from Paul, but it's a fragment of verses thirteen and fourteen.

It's very early. It's a couple 100 years after. So here we go. Philemon. And I'm gonna pronounce it like we do in Georgia.

Okay? Philemon. That's what it is. If you're in Mexico, but it's Philemon to me. So Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

He is under house arrest. He is in Rome. We're pretty sure of this. As far as theologians go, if y'all watch the history channel or the learning channel or any other channel that promotes these guys that that speak about the Bible and they say, well, Paul didn't really write so and so. That was somebody years later.

This was written in four hundred AD and they're guessing at stuff. This one is undisputed by anybody. This is the work of Paul. And unlike most of the books that we read, it's not written to a church or to a group or to a geographical location. It is written to one man.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy the brother, technically. Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker. He puts him on fairly even playing ground with the brother Timothy. You're our beloved brother, Philemon, and we're giving you that. We know that you're a believer.

We know that you're a man of God. We trust that you're a worker, that you're working for the glory of God and for his the advance of the gospel. And to Aphia, our sister, and to Archippus. Now Aphia and Philemon, most people believe, and I do too, that they were husband and wife. It's nice when you get a letter for it to be for you.

Spousal privilege says you're gonna tell your wife anyway, but it's to you and it's to Ephesians and also to Archippus. These people were known to Paul. Our fellow soldier, another guy that I'll trust and love, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house. Now the your is Philemon's house. So he is a man who has a house big enough to have church in it.

Could be small too, but probably a wealthy man. Most people believe, and I do too, that he was a wealthy guy. To the church that meets in your house, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Pauline. No doubt.

That's the way he starts off with grace and peace. Always, people always start with grace and peace. I had a guy in here one Sunday, and I I proclaimed this message in between Thessalonians and first Corinthians, and I said, take from Paul and always start with grace and peace. He told me after the service, I want to be nailed to the wall. I don't want for people to start with grace and peace.

I want you to hold me accountable immediately and I want for you to hit me with the hard parts of the gospel right away. I want to be pinned to the wall. I said, gracious. Really? I want hard preaching.

I said, man, grace is hard preaching. Excuse me. This is hard preaching. Grace is extending to someone unmerited favor, unmerited love. Peace, grace, and peace to you from God our father.

I did guy give the guy a list of names for other pastors to talk to. Grace to you and peace is not an easy message to deliver. It's easier to give people what they deserve, right? That's what we want to do. Grace and peace is what he starts out with.

And it's more interesting because Paul has an axe to ground. He has a little bit that he wants to say to Philemon, and he still starts with grace and peace. I thank my God always making mention you in my prayers. Amen. Because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus.

So he's got faith toward the love Jesus. Lord Jesus, he's got love towards Jesus and toward all of the holy ones, the saints. I mentioned that because it comes up a couple of times here. I mentioned Paul says to him, I know that you love Jesus. I know that you're a faithful man.

I've already called you a Christian. I've already called you a fellow worker, and I know that you care about your brothers and sisters in Christ. And I pray that the fellowship, this actual sharing that goes on, Corinoneia, of your faith may become effective. So not just here, may become effective in the real world through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. I'm appealing to your supernatural, your Christian nature, not just your human nature.

I'm appealing to you through who you are in Jesus. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, Philemon. This is true. Paul means that he cares a lot about this brother because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. The hearts of the saints have been refreshed.

Now, at this time, there was the beginnings of persecution. It was not to the point that it would be later but there were the beginnings of persecution. It was spreading. Christ's church was growing in all groups in free, slave, Jew, Gentile, stripes were coming together because of the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. We'll see.

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper. Now Paul is asserting his his authority like he has the confidence in Christ. It says, I have the authority to tell you what to do. Paul was the guy that Philemon was with or what Paul was the guy that led Philemon to Jesus. He led him to the Lord.

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you by my apostolic authority or by the authority that I'm the one who introduced you to Jesus in the first place, maybe. I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper. Yet, for love's sake, because I love you, I'm appealing to you. And I'm appealing to you for love's sake rather than telling you what to do. I want for you to do the right thing, but I'm gonna leave that up to you because I love you.

And since I am such a person as Paul, I'm now aged and run down, and now I'm also a prisoner. I'm kinda stuck here of Jesus. It's not on my authority. I love you, and I make mention of you in my prayers. I care about you.

For love's sake, I rather appeal to you. I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus. Now this is where we're getting to the point. Right? He's starting he has a plea on behalf of another man named Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment.

His ministry was unhindered. Paul's ministry in Rome was unhindered, and at some point during this time, Onesimus comes along. Now Onesimus was somebody that Philemon knew very, well. We'll see that. But I'm appealing to you on behalf of my child, the one that I brought into the faith.

You remember how he called Timothy, his true son in the faith? I'm appealing to you on his behalf. Whom I begotten in my imprisonment, the begotten is about his spiritual birth. For who formerly was useless, now you'd now this is this is kind of funny if you know what Onesimus means. Onesimus actually means useful.

He said, who formerly, in the past, way back when, was useless to you completely, but now he is useful. Onesimus is living up to his name these days. Both to you and to me, he's a useful man. I've sent him back to you in person. That is, I'm sending my very heart.

He wants to know the depth of the level of how his feeling for Onesimus, and he wants for Onesimus to be the guy carrying this letter when he gets there whom I wish to keep with me. I'd rather have him around. He's really useful to me, and I'm stuck here. I'm in prison, and he has been helping whom I wished to keep with me so that on your behalf, Philemon, I knew that he was your guy. On your behalf, he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel.

Okay. Now I haven't mentioned the word slave, I don't think yet, except for saying slave or free. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon. Now this is a hard book for a couple of reasons and at different times in history. It's been a really hard book.

When we were going through the slavery debate before, during, after the civil war, both sides used this book. Paul never decries the practice of slavery. Slavery was a given. There was no doubt slavery existed across the whole Roman Empire. Now they had very clear striations from slave to freed man.

There was no doubt about the status of those. And there were striations and almost like castes, slaves and their owners. Their owners had pretty much absolute authority, especially with a runaway slave. A runaway slave could be cruel and unusually punished, and he could be killed, and that would be within the bounds of Roman law. So Paul is in prison in Rome, and this true son of the faith, this his child that he begot while he was in prison in the gospel, he sends him back with this letter for Philemon.

I'm sending him back to you personally. He's handing this over. And all along the road, along the way, any body that stopped him and wanted to see that or it was discovered on him, runaway slaves, they had a pretty efficient system of capturing runaway slaves. And they would deliver them back to their owner and they'd say, do with them as you will. But we're gonna uphold this institution of slavery.

And so Paul may be subtle in this letter. I don't think it's subtle. I think it's fairly thinly veiled. I mean, I do I do think he's subtle. I think it's thinly veiled, But I I don't see how you could use it to say slavery is good and alright because of the book of Philemon.

He does not outright decry it, but listen to the rest of what he says. Without your consent, Philemon I'm recognizing that you have some authority here. Without your consent, I did not want to do anything so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but by your own free will. I wanted to send them to you to give you the choice, and I wanted for you to make the right choice. And he's already said it's by love that I'm doing this, and it's not by order, but your free will because I trust that you are a believer and a fellow worker.

Perhaps he was, for this reason, separated from you. We do not know all the plans that God has. We don't know how he moves us about. Perhaps, Paul says, this might have been the reason that he was separated from you in the first place for a while, that you would have him back forever. Forever.

No longer as a slave because he's your slave before. No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me. But how much more to you because you know him. And you knew him as a slave and you knew him and he ran away from you. I'm sure it hurt when he ran away.

How much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord? He's saying, he became a Christian. Now, you don't have this slave that was in a different striation than a different strata from you. You've got a guy who's a brother, a beloved brother. Beloved by me, and I'm sure by you too just to know he's coming to the family of the Lord.

If then you regard me as a partner, accept him just as you would me. Is Paul forcing his hand right here? Have you ever gotten a letter where somebody was trusting you to do the right thing? I have. It's been written to me and the church that meets at this house and telling me exactly what it is that I need to do.

And I preached a sermon before in Acts. It was earlier in Acts around Acts four or so where the widows were being ignored or some of the widows were being ignored. It was unlevel. And how my my point that rings in my ears all the time is consider the merits of their murmuring. Consider the merits of the murmuring.

If people are crying out and if people are saying, this is not right and this should be that. You have to consider the merits of that and you need to act on it. And so I'm working on that. Another one of those. If then, Paul says, you regard me as a partner, accept him just as you would meet.

But if he's wronged you in any way or if he owes you anything, a lot of people feel like he went off with some money. He stole a little money for traveling. He says, if he owes you anything, if he's wrong with you anyway, charge all of that to my account. I'll pay you. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, and I will repay it.

You know me. You can trust me. I'm cosigning for this guy right now. I'll pay it. Not to mention to you that you owe me even your very own self as well.

Ain't that great? Yes, brother. Let me benefit from you and the Lord. Refresh my heart. Now he said earlier, you refresh the heart of all the saints.

There there's a way of reading that where it looks like he might have been a financial, like a benefactor or a patron of what of the work of God that was going on and even of Paul. Yes, brother. Let me benefit from you in the Lord and refresh my heart in Christ like you do for all the other saints. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you since I know that you will do even more than what I say. At the same time, also prepare for me lodging.

I should have put that in green too. And just in case you think, hey, he's stuck in prison. I'll just put back to work like I always did. Go ahead and get the bedroom ready for me too. I hope that through your prayers, I will eventually get there to see you.

So there's a little bit of a nudge there to say, I'm gonna come check up to see how things went. But I do have confidence in your obedience, and I'm writing to you. I know that you'll do even more than what I say. Now he goes into his kind of standard clothes. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ, Jesus, greet you.

He was also under arrest there. As do Mark and Aristarchus and Demas and Luke, who are my fellow workers. And then he ends right where he began. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. He wants him to be strengthened in his spirit because fleshly, he had every right to keep Onesimus as a slave.

But what Paul is asking for here is for his genuine Christian faith to have a genuine outworking in the real world where he sees this guy not as his slave, but as his brother in Christ. And that he would no longer be a slave, but he would be a fellow worker, and he would be able to be free. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Unmerited favor completely. Paul starts with that.

He ends with that. And what it would be if Philemon set Onesimus free would be grace because he didn't have to. The law didn't say he had to. Are there things that are legal that are immoral? Still, yes.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, he says. And that is the end of the book of Philemon. I put the maps in the beginning part of Acts to get you up to speed. Philemon is a very, very practical book. It was written to one man on one specific problem that was going on, and it was about peace and grace and reconciliation and being real about your faith.

So word to the wise. The band, y'all wanna come on back up? I think we have I saw the light. I pray that Philemon saw the light. I think he probably did.

Maybe scared that Paul might come along. I don't know. But I I feel like he did. We don't have it recorded whether he did or not. We don't have Onesimus mentioned anywhere else.

But the church that met in Philemon's home was at Colossi, and the next book that we'll be studying is Colossians. So we'll go into Colossians as a book either next Sunday or the following. I might shoot the cannon as Carl calls it next week and just do a one off sermon but we're going to start Colossians next. So, if you want be reading ahead, that's where we're going. Lord, help us to see the light in Jesus name.

Amen. Would you stand with

Alright, I've won. So happy. I soar without. Just like a blind man, I wandered alone. Worries and fears I've been for my own.

Been like a blind man who got me back in sight. The Lord. I saw light. So happy the sorrow inside. Ries alone, I saw the night.

I was a fool to wonder straight. The street is the gate, and they roll the way. Now I have traded wrong for the ride. Raise alone. I saw the light.

I saw night. I saw night. No more darkness. No more night. I'm to bit

present you faultless before the presence of his glory and exceeding a joy. To the only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever. Amen. That's from Jude twenty four and twenty five. Little bitty books have to stick together.

Okay? It's just one chapter in Jude too, but it's a good one. It talks about snatching people from the fire, carrying the gospel forward. The glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever. Amen.