Lessons from Philemon: Embracing Forgiveness and Acceptance

And church family for your faithfulness and serving the Lord where you're at here in Haslett, Texas.

And I just wanted to show that video for which I'm very grateful that you gave your attention to it.

I know it's a little bit lengthy, but for us to really show you in such a way that would impact your heart of what you have invested in since we've been here would be really like trying to give a haircut over the phone.

Okay.

It would be really difficult to do.

And the best way that we know how to speak in a growing language is videography in our culture.

And so for us to really show something that is of great, eternal value is just hard to encapsulate.

And so you won't fully understand your investment until you see it.

And so I know you all are going to Uganda, but if you want a real mission field, come to Leawood, Kansas, you know, and so I kind of tease tongue in cheek a little bit, but I'm very grateful to be where we're at for a variety of reasons.

And it's just really mainly because of the people who the Lord has brought.

And one of them is actually here today.

He lives, him and his parents.

They live about an hour, hour and 15 minutes from here, which is only, I think, three miles in Texas length, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Keel brought his parents and Akhil came.

The Lord led Akhil here to.

Or I say here, to Ironwood Baptist Church in Kansas City through education, continuing education, and getting a master's degree in a university just not too far from where we're at.

And he, like a lot of others, lived within communities and found Ironwood Baptist Church.

The Lord led him there.

He praised.

The Lord had a mother who taught him Jesus Christ, and he had come accepting Christ as a savior.

And then he was taught more about what God's word said and our responsibility to Jesus Christ and the Great Commission, et cetera.

And I just know that through the life in which he had lived underneath the tutelage of his parents and combined with being faithful underneath God's word, that he's learned and growing more and has a burden and a fire in his own heart that continues to be kindled.

And so anytime that we've been in Texas over the last seven, eight months, almost a year now, we let him know when we're going to be in the DFW area.

And so he comes and finds us.

And I'm very grateful for that.

So thank you all for being here when kind of like, you know, parents and children as A parent, you pour yourself into them.

Oh, man.

And you want, you know, your own flesh and blood to suffer for them, to make it with Jesus.

And I do wish that for my kids.

And as much as we still have them forever long, however long we have them, we want to invest in them and show them to live a life that's pleasing and honoring to the Lord.

But then those who are not a part of the family as the.

The Lord brings them to you, who may have come from a background of Hinduism or Buddhism or New Ageism, or just an atheist or an agnostic or a Catholic convert, you know, you want what's very best for them, and you know that that life is through Jesus Christ.

And so you pour yourself into them.

And if you've ever planted a church, you know you need faithful people.

But honestly, the Lord needs them more.

So I'm grateful for those that just surrender the same attitude we have.

And that is, Lord, here am I, just send me wherever.

And I have to remind myself of that as we're starting to work.

You'd expect that the church plant or pastor just be rooted and grounded and stay there forever.

And that's kind of the mentality.

Whenever the Lord decides to move us, remember that we own nothing.

We're just stewards of his grace in which it has given us.

And sometimes that's people.

And so we realize that they are His.

And so he can keep them there for a while, but then bring them along his way.

And that may be even to the foreign country of the DFW land area.

It's good, though.

We love some of our fondest friends.

Our Texans are very grateful for the relationship that we have with you all.

And I'm going to be honest with you, this evening is a book that I preached through all 25 verses.

It is a short book, and so I'm going to invite you to turn there.

It's the book of Philemon, if you know where that's at.

It's tucked in between Titus and Hebrews.

Okay, I'll give you about 10 minutes to find it.

No, I'm just kidding around.

The book I already worked through once before as part of our theme, but honestly have gone back through it, and especially in recent days, as you know, our country is going through some things, processing.

And so this kind of came back to my lap again and wanted to go back through it with a different lens and just to.

To share with you.

And so this is kind of a combination of a variety of different messages built into one.

And I haven't preached this one before, so you'll have to bear with me if you could.

I really appreciate that.

Now, back home, we stand to honor the reading of God's word.

If you wouldn't mind doing so, I sure would appreciate that.

And stand with me.

We're going to start in verse number 10.

We're not going to read all 25 verses, so we'll just start in verse number 10.

This is the apostle Paul writing a letter to his friend.

And he says this.

I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in times past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee, and.

To me whom I have sent again.

Thou Therefore receive him that is mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.

But without thy mind would I do nothing.

That thy benefit should not be, as it were of necessity, but willingly.

For perhaps he therefore departed for a.

Season that thou shouldest receive him forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother, beloved, specially to me.

But how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?

If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.

If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee, ought put that on mine account.

I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand.

I will repay it, albeit I do.

Not say to thee how thou owest to me, even thine own self.

Besides, yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord.

Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote.

Unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say, but withal.

Prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.

Therefore salute thee, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus.

Marcus and Aristarchus and Demas Lucas, my fellow laborer.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Amen.

Written from Rome to Philemon by Onesimus, a servant.

Will you pray with me this evening, Lord?

Gracious God in heaven, you're so good to us.

And, Lord, we'd be remiss to approach the throne room of grace just flippantly.

Lord, I pray that you'd allow, Lord, the glories of heaven to, Lord, open up our hearts and our minds to you.

Because oftentimes I feel as though that is, we are raised in church or we become numb to it, and it's just a part of a routine, and we're here Monday through Sunday and then again Monday, and it just.

Just feels like normal.

And, Lord, we don't catch what it is that you have for us in this place called the sanctuary, this house of worship, this house of praise, the house of prayer.

Lord, we come before you, Lord, just thinking that it's another evening or another year of focusing on missions or whatever the case may be.

Let it just not be mundane, Lord.

That with open hearts and an open.

Mind that we would receive the holy and grafted word, Lord, knowing that you are speaking to us, we take what it is that you've said and saying to us, or that we'd apply it into our life to bring great glory.

To you, Lord, for our good, for.

Which it is that we're very blessed to have, Lord, I just pray a special blessing upon each and every single soul, Lord, here in this place.

You know their heart and their mind.

You know what it is that they're dealing with in their heart of hearts, Lord, what they're not dealing with.

Lord, I pray that you help them, Lord, tonight.

Encourage them to follow you whatsoever may come about.

Lord, I do love you and I thank you for loving us.

We pray for a holy unction, not only to hear but to do.

Lord, help me in this hour.

I pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

May be seated.

Thank you for standing, boy.

And I mean, honestly.

In recent events, there's been such a turning of the heart, if you will, and no pun intended, but honestly, you can't help but be in the culture, even in this spiritual moment.

I'm going to say it like that because really the focus is spiritual.

When you come to church, what makes it even more relevant is when you.

Apply that which it is that you experience.

And our culture is experiencing something.

I can't help but think about it.

So maybe many of you are tired.

Of it, especially if you spent any amount of time on social media.

I'm not so much going to talk.

About that, but we could draw out from it some things in which we could learn and apply in our own life.

But it gave me cause.

It gave me reason to think about Philemon and some of the things that was happening in Paul's day and even in our history, much further down the road than recent days.

Do I have to use this?

Can I push this way?

All right, I'm going to point this towards you so I could hear you say amen.

Okay, that was a bad joke.

Okay, apparently it wasn't a joke.

No one's laughing except for me and another guy.

So that's all right.

But just reading through the passage, I couldn't help but pick out some of these words, or the Lord just really kind of lifted them up off of the pages for me.

And I hope that you're able to see them, too.

I don't want to give it away because I'd like for the Holy Spirit.

Of God just to speak to your heart in a special way this evening.

So if you can imagine with me.

Just a little bit, our country and the time also that the Apostle Paul is writing, he is certainly going through some cultural difficulties as well.

Thankfully, within the birth of our country, we came from a mother country called England.

Christianity helped pave both roads to the freedoms that we enjoy today, both for the United States and unfortunately, we still see England losing theirs.

Quite frankly, that is what had influenced me just to surrender.

About four rows back at South Nola Baptist Church is JA Green giving a testimony of the changes that was happening in England, as he was a missionary over there for over 30 some odd years, knowing that at one point in time it was extremely difficult for both countries who are extremely educated and really powerful.

Over the course of history, we understand.

England's world power dominance, but again, very educated and very powerful.

But both countries had experienced the most grotesque atrocities.

And if we're not careful in this society, we could allow just a particular isolated incident to overwhelm us.

But us never having been in this particular day, we could only read of its history like our grandchildren would read.

Of the history in which we're experiencing today.

So demonstrating of great resolve, there was.

A single influencer in England that moved the hearts and minds of people himself.

He was bold, he was courageous, he was persistent.

He was a great orator.

He was very effective in his language, in his words.

And he was probably.

The single individual of which other powerful men filed behind to see a great.

Movement happen in England.

This is what he said.

Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.

Let the consequences be what they would.

I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had affected its abolition.

That was William Wilberforce speaking of slavery.

Slavery was not effectively abolished in England.

With William Wilberforce by himself.

It was with other men, other people with power.

Thomas Clarkson raised awareness, gathered necessary information and the evidence and the petitions needed.

Granville Sharp was a key leader and influencer in the formation of a committee for the abolition of slave trade.

William Pitt the Younger, a prime minister of England, provided the political backing and the means to investigate into the slave trade.

And it Was John Newton, the former.

Slave trader himself, who became a preacher and influence an entire community with his writings.

And change the hearts of men and change the hearts of men in policy of government.

So what does it mean for us as Americans to know those names?

Back in England, they were the individuals.

That were consulted by were influencing Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Tubman and John Brown and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

These people were moved by them.

You would say, well, we don't know the exact numbers, and we don't.

I mean, historians say that in the United States, 6 million people were affected by slavery, but over nearly 20, over almost 20 million people were affected by.

The transatlantic slave trade.

If the battle for freedom in the United States, Even through the 19th and the 20th century, with civil unrest in the civil rights era, et cetera, struggled, can you imagine how much more of a struggle it would be for Paul, who is writing this letter from prison?

And he is inside of a culture that has over 60 million slaves in the territory.

Caesar, the head honcho, is wanting to hunt down and to kill and to get rid of it.

As we know, Paul meets his surmise.

What psychological and physical persuasion would it take there?

What of the highest level for someone to revolt and just start 60 million people as a domino effect come and just flip over a government?

I mean, it could happen in the blink of an eye.

So can you imagine the political pressure?

Can you imagine the physical pressure that was put on these people to convince them otherwise?

It was ugly.

It was grotesque.

The intensity of a rising popular teaching called the Gospel of Jesus Christ prophesied that a king would come and rule the world and setting the captives free?

Well, just that teaching alone came with its own struggles.

So whether it's political partnerships and organizations that move the youth and compel and motivate and change government in our nation's history, or whether it's a political movement of abolitionists that move against human slavery that changes world history, the Christians in Rome could not, through local democratic efforts, bring about change through political power.

They couldn't do that.

You see, for any change to take.

Effect in many people on the outside, real change must start in one person on the inside.

See, primarily, it's the message of Christianity that forever begins to change the individual first, and then as an outpouring of that change affects many outside The Gospel.

Of Jesus Christ influenced first a single heart before it changed the hearts of the masses.

Please know that and practice this idea.

That the Gospel is not a political movement.

The Gospel is the basic fundamental principles of living.

That is first believed in and then worked out in the person singular in the home, and then outward in the home, in the community, in the church.

You see, during this time, many people had many cultural issues and I believe Paul felt them all.

He didn't not only feel them physically, but he also felt them spiritually, as.

As he himself desired that his own name be removed, that his people would come to know Christ as their Savior.

That's a heart.

A heart not for self, but for Christ.

Not for a political movement, not to change it to a republic nation, but to have the riches and the rewards of Christ Jesus.

See, Paul chose in this particular letter not to make the issue at hand political, not to make the policies of a governing nation that allowed and permitted slavery to even commonly be discussed.

Rather, he chose not to allow even his spiritual authority over a man who had authority in leading him to Christ and trying to persuade him into a decision.

No, Paul did this.

Paul chose to use the influence of Philemon's reputation of the faith and love.

Towards Jesus Christ and other people to.

Lead him to make a decision.

He didn't force it upon him.

Paul reminds Philemon, excuse me, that they are all together.

All together in Christ and all for each other.

He was giving us this idea is that there are some over here and some over here, and you come from here and this individual comes from here.

But all of us collectively together in the spirit of unity for one cause can affect the heart and mind of.

Individuals and lead them to Jesus Christ.

Paul uses these words in verse number one.

Fellow laborer.

Look at verse number two.

He uses another word there called fellow soldier, describing a special relationship between him and these individuals.

These are individuals whom he loved in the church and in the ministry.

But he also uses a different word.

If you look at verse 17 for a moment, he said, if thou count me therefore, a partner, receive him as myself.

A partner.

One who shares a common connection with another individual by birth, by blood, physically and spiritually.

Paul and Philemon were partnered with a potential problem.

Praise the Lord that they were partnered together in Jesus Christ, as Paul had led Philemon, as I mentioned before.

But they were not only partnered with a potential problem, but also with a.

With a solution.

And Paul cannot leave Colossae himself, so he has to send another, and he sends one named Onesimus.

Philemon's runaway servant.

He sends him alone with a couple of different messages from Paul.

Two epistles, we call them Colossians and.

Philemon.

Verse number 12 and verse number 17.

If I may give me liberty, to paraphrase Paul, speaking of Onesimus, he said, he's as close to me as my own heart.

And the way that you treat him is the same way that you treat me.

And if there's any love for me and there's any love for Christ, well, then you'll treat him this way again.

He's not in this moment pushing or pressuring him to make a decision, but rather uses his reputation, as mentioned there in verse number five and six.

Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus Christ and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus.

For we have great joy and consolation in thy love because of the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee.

The word bowels is just a seed of emotions.

It's like where your gut is to your heart.

You know, everything is right there.

And it moves you, doesn't it?

Okay, your heart moves you.

It moves you and compels you to do some certain things.

And for some of us, our stomach moves us.

You know, at midnight, you get up out of bed, you go to the refrigerator, it moves you.

There's emotions there.

What a wonderful illustration this passage is of Jesus Christ and what he's done for the believers.

Because the believer identifies with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father then receives each believer as his own Son.

And this is what Paul's after the believer is accepted and beloved because of the righteousness which is bestowed upon him to the praise and glory of his grace.

Paul writes, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, for he hath.

In another book, he writes, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

You see, we cannot approach God on.

Our own merit, but we are received by Him.

Look again at verse number 17.

It says, but if thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.

Receive.

Accepting into the family.

Families that have pets, specifically dogs or cats.

You receive that animal into your own home.

And where we're from, you treat that.

And I almost said it.

Treat that pet as if it's an individual, as if it's a family member.

There's hotel spas and there's doggy manicures.

And they're matching outfits.

There are a variety of different things.

I'm not insulting the pet owner.

I'm just letting you know there are living creatures in which you welcome into your family.

You receive them, but yet you'll keep the estranged uncle way over there, way over there, maybe even thousands of miles over there.

It's hard to imagine standing on a sail block.

If you ever ran horses through the sale barn, get them in the corral and you move them from one side to another.

But these stood still as the market of individuals crowd in.

And the auctioneer begins it with a gavel slam.

And the bidding begins on a on a living soul.

It's hard to imagine that that servant would have no rights outside of those that it has been given to by what we would call a master.

But instead of being treated poorly, that word received means that the master accepted that servant, that slave in as family.

Now it would.

It would be very difficult to imagine as even a guilty sinner right before the Holy God.

And all you think is that how unworthy you are.

But he, in receiving you as his child, you have become worthy.

It's hard to imagine that he is right now making a place for you.

And I to reside forever.

It's pretty awesome.

But notice what Paul is offering.

Something I don't know if a lot.

Of us would do.

Verse number 18 says that if he hath wronged thee or oweth thee ought put that on mine account.

19 says, I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it.

This is a wonderful illustration of that, as you all probably are more familiar with in these recent days.

A promissory note.

It's a legal tender, legal document stating that, hey, you know what?

I am going to make good on this debt.

I'm going to pay it in full.

Is that not what Jesus Christ did for us?

He absolutely did and he came through.

Paul was giving Philemon basically assurance that if anything was going to be owed, it would be Paul that would be paying it.

He's promised it that he would not just pay it forward, but remove the debt completely.

I'm so thankful that Jesus Christ did that for me.

God in his holiness could not ignore that debt that we owe.

God must be faithful to his word.

So God paid the debt for both you and I.

You see, the message of selfless love demonstrated by the Savior must be shared.

And just as this letter was given to Onesimus to give to Philemon, but also to other churches, to the church that was even there out of Philemon's Son's home.

It's made effective because of the messenger.

I say it like this.

The gospel message is most effective when it is delivered by the hand of one who has personally experienced the freedom from the bondage that held them to sin.

Does it make sense?

I know that God can use anybody.

And my brothers and I tease around all the time, if God could use.

You, he could certainly use anybody.

But if God could use a donkey, he can use anybody.

But oftentimes the effectiveness of the deliverance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is made yes, the power and the message, but also from the person who has experienced the forgiveness firsthand.

And that effectiveness never really takes place half of the time because most Christians are not even willing to get outside of the comfort zone in a conversation or an interaction to share that testimony of what God has done for them.

I'm not even talking about quoting like the Romans road.

I mean, maybe have a John 3:16, as Little Brooklyn had quoted it to me earlier.

Maybe have that in your back pocket.

I mean, that's a gospel in a nutshell.

But I mean, just to be willing, just to share what Jesus has done for you is all that it is that Jesus is asking for you to do.

It is the very least that we could do for him, considering all that he has done for us.

The effectiveness of this letter from Paul would have had to have a specific effect on the heart of Philemon, because how Paul had led Philemon to the Lord and to have Onesimus standing before him would have brought a greater impact.

Because the forgiveness that Philemon experienced now he's going to have to exercise on.

The person who ran away from him.

Can I say comfortably, I don't want to be Philemon.

That's an awkward situation.

But God uses both the message and the messenger.

He said to the church of Corinth, for the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all.

And that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him.

Which died for them and rose again.

So it is not only of greatest pleasure and privilege, but it is a most sincere desire that our family, among with all the other families that may be represented by these flags here, partner with churches like you remember, partner in verse 17 and how it defines that it is one who shares a common connection by another and by birth or by blood, physically or spiritually.

In the Greek it says koinonus nonos, partakers, companion, fellowship.

That word fellowship has the same meaning in Greek as it does partner.

It's to participate.

It's to share a gift.

Collected, contributed.

You see, the partner and the partnership and the fellowship that Paul had with Timothy and Philemon, he also had with Marcus and.

And.

And are a tarkus.

And also Demas and Lucas as fellow laborers, both in verse number one and in verse number 24.

But he also.

Excuse me.

Yeah, verse 24.

But also as.

As.

What is her name?

What is her name?

Fear.

Yeah, Fear.

And.

And Ericopus.

These are individuals whom he said fellow soldiers.

And then he.

He named Epaphras as a fellow prisoner.

They all had a common unity, a common bond together.

That partnership is worked out into the ministry.

But if there's no partnership between those who are willing to be sent or willing to share, it makes it more difficult for people to receive the forgiveness of God, the same forgiveness that you have received.

So what is it that we can partner on?

Look at verse 21.

Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say, but withal prepare me also lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.

Verse number 21.

I believe that one of the things.

In which we are going to partner.

On and have been and need to continue to partner on is the obedience of God's word through a relationship, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now, our personalities will separate us to a varying degree.

Our last names may separate us.

Our occupations might separate us.

Our hobbies might separate us as well.

Our geographical locations certainly separate us.

And more.

But the greatest connection that we have together is our companionship with the Lord.

Jesus Christ through the word of God.

Hey, listen, you can go through the.

Process of being in church.

That's perfectly fine.

I mean, it's a safe place.

I was actually in the womb.

I was cooking for nine months in an independent Baptist church.

I didn't know any better.

And I grew up into the Baptist church.

It was a fun.

I had my friends there.

My parents came there.

Every time the doors were open, we were there.

But there was a time in my life I made a conscious decision not to follow God's word.

I knew that I had the fire insurance.

So let me just test the market, see what happens.

Man, I can't tell you how bad I fell flat on my face.

You might kick me out of here.

I'm not really for sure, but this.

Is what I do know as this.

As the father waited for this prodigal, he came.

He came running, for which it is that I'm very grateful for.

And there may be stories out of.

This church and there may be stories from other places.

I just want to let you know.

Not to give up on them and partner in prayer.

God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son.

Jesus Christ our Lord.

And he said in verse 24 and.

Verse 4 the power of prayer, a.

Spiritual connection to Jesus Christ and our church.

Families together and those whom we partner with in the ministry are also sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But none of these things happen without prayer.

If the church is the vehicle for which missions is driven, then prayer is the engine that keeps the vehicle running.

Prayer calls out missionaries from the church pews.

The local church ought to be the manufacturing plant for preachers.

Prayer empowers the message of the messenger.

Prayer effectually opens the door to the hearts of men to receive the message of Jesus Christ.

Prayer mobilizes members in the church to engage their communities with the Gospel and fortifies the spiritual protection of the messengers whom carry the Gospel to places that they cannot.

Philippians 1, verse 3 through 6 says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Additionally, we partner together in the work of ministries such as giving and missions.

And Second Corinthians 8:4 explains that our giving must be first demonstrated in giving of ourselves and then making missions within the church more possible by partnering with other churches to send the gospel out, that is through Galatians, chapter two, verse nine.

Listen, I digress and I'm coming to a close because of my time.

I want to let you know that like Paul partnered with Philemon in a very difficult situation, in a very exhausting and difficult culture, Christians can partner with Jesus Christ and partner with other individuals to accomplish their will for, or excuse me, his will for their lives.

And it's going to help you.

It's going to help them help us.

Love Christ and live for him.

Glorifying God, yes, for his glory, but also for your good.

Bow your head and close your eyes.

Lord in heaven, thank you so much for the time which you allowed me.

To be behind the pulpit.

Lord, I pray God, Lord, that you.

Had effectually used your words to minister.

To the heart and mind of the believer.

Lord, thank you for loving us.

Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to.

Be able to share your word.

I thank you Lord for this church.

Family and their willingness to support others to share your word.

Lord, I love you and I thank.

You for loving us.

And in Jesus name, amen.