*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

How You Forgive | Philemon 12-14

 

Have you ever heard something that you never thought in a million years you would hear?

One of the most shocking decisions in the history of western civilization and I dare say the world was made about a year ago: 

That’s right, Twitter doubled its character limit.

That probably had a significant impact on most of you because like me you know all the Twitters.

What has happened over the last 12 months since the universe was allowed to use 140 more letters, numbers, symbols and emojis in every tweet?

Well, the folks at Twitter have been keeping tabs and they recently reported that the universe has gotten more polite. 

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5mac.com via Axios

54% more messages say “please” and 22% more use “thank you” since the character limit doubled.

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5mac.com via Axios

There’s a decline of abbreviations like “gr8”, “b4”, and “sry” in favor of the full words – “great”, “before”, and “sorry”.

“Look mom, I’m using my words.”

An increase in polite words is a positive contradiction to what are commonly known as “Twitter battles”.

This is where someone jumps on social media and makes some kind of statement on a hot-button issue (in 280 characters or less) and someone else takes a jab at their statement and then the two go back and forth in front of the whole Twitter world. 

Publisher, professor, and pastor Trevin Wax describes it this way:

 

Trevin Wax

The followers from both tribes act like fans in the stands, cheering on their hero either by praising them or by bashing their opponents. Everyone gets properly outraged and the conversation ends wearily.

But is that really the best way to thoughtfully, and for Christians thoughtfully and prayerfully, to communicate ideas on serious topics?

Trevin noted several reasons that Twitter battles are not best.

One of them is that they are dehumanizing. 

He notes:

Trevin Wax

This is one place where social media and technology let us down (or where we simply aren’t up to the task). We don’t really know the people we are bantering with.

Trevin Wax

It is all too easy to place people in camps, read into their every tweet the worst assumptions, and then create an ideologue of our own imagination rather than a real person.

Trevin Wax

I am not my avatar. Neither is my opponent. I don’t want to assume the worst of people I debate, and Twitter makes that hard for me.

There is a great deal of truth in that. 

We are real people and real people need real communication and real communication involves real words and three real words that can change the universe are please and thank you.

Why?

Because please and thank you are polite words that invite you into a conversation instead of forcing you into a conversation. 

Please and thank you are polite words that instead of making you do something, persuade you that you get to do something.

There is this one thing that if we are honest we feel like we have to do and if we are really honest, we often don’t want to do.

But at the end of the day this one thing is actually something that we get to do.

What is that one thing?

The Apostle Paul is going to tell us. 

And he’s going use some polite words to help us see it. 

Listen to Paul’s letter to his friend Philemon beginning with verse 12:

12 I have sent him back to you in person,

Who has Paul sent back in person?

A guy named Onesimus. 

Who is Onesimus?

He is a runaway slave. 

Where did he runaway from?

The house of Philemon. 

Don’t miss this math – Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon.

• He did him wrong
• He broke his trust
• He cost him money
• He stole from him

But Paul sends him back to face the music.

And what kind of music would he face?

Well, the customs and the laws of the time dictated that he might be beaten and forced back into slavery. 

Or he might be beaten and branded like cattle on his forehead with the letter “F” for “fugitive”.

Or he might be immediately executed for his rebellious escape.

None of that is music he would want to face. 

So, with that kind of danger, why is he returning?

And why is Paul sending him back?

What does Paul have to do with all of this?

Paul and Philemon were friends because Paul had led him to the Lord.

And Onesimus was some kind of slave or servant in Philemon’s house.

And Onesimus ran more than 1,000 miles away from Philemon’s house and tried to start a new life in the city of Rome where no one would know him.

And among the estimated 800,000 people who were living there at the time, by the cool and unique and amazing grace of God, he met Paul – the exact same Paul that shared the gospel with Philemon and led him to Jesus.

And just like Philemon, Onesimus met Paul and he heard the gospel and he was captured by the love and grace and mercy and salvation of Jesus. 

If you’ve ever wondered if God cares about people like me and people like you, then please look no further than Onesimus.

He ran as far as he could, and the grace of God still found him.

But it didn’t just find him – there is no rational geographic or statistical explanation for the uniqueness of how Onesimus became a Christian outside of the one, true God pursuing him from the front door of Philemon’s house to the front gate of Paul’s prison cell. 

C.S. Lewis made some fascinating statements about how he became a Christian.

C.S. Lewis

I had a notion that somehow, besides questing, I was being pursued.

C.S. Lewis

You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.

C.S. Lewis

That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

Is that you?

Are you an atheist or an agnostic with no desire to meet God?

Are you experiencing the slightest hint of God pursuing you?

But you are still reluctant and pushing away?

Please know that based on his very character, God cares for you.

In fact, he so cares for you and so deeply prizes you that he sent his very own Son to substitute and sacrifice himself for you so that the curse of sin could be removed from your soul and that you might be released from the grip of the wrath that is to come.

Please don’t be reluctant, because God cares for you.

Or maybe are you a believer and you are reluctant to listen to what God is calling you to do right now. 

Don’t ignore the purpose and the power and presence of the cross of Jesus.

1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Jesus became your atoning, repairing, appeasing, absolving, redeeming sacrifice so that you could be right with God. 

Don’t be reluctant toward God, he cares for you.

C.S. Lewis

The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet.

C.S. Lewis

But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?

C.S. Lewis

The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

Onesimus escaped in hopes of finding liberation from slavery, but even though he was free from the rules of Philemon’s house, he wasn’t really free. 

He was confronted with the hard and harsh reality that sin is real and there are consequences for sin and he was also confronted with the hard and harsh reality that the wrath of God is real and right and just.

And if the wrath of God is not real and right and just then there will never be justice for any of the evil that is in the world. 

I was listening to a sermon this week that reflected on an American missionary that was with a group of Americans in an area of the world that had never heard the gospel. 

One of the things used on the visit inside this area was a seemingly poorly produced Christian movie that communicated some type of information about the wrath of God and Hell.

The Americans were embarrassed by the movie and the content about the wrath of God and Hell – almost like the message just needed to be about the love of Jesus.

But the people who lived in that area of the world were intrigued the most with those portions of the movie. 

Why?

They had been severely abused possibly for generations and the shear notion that there was a God who cared enough to own and establish and promise wrath and accountability was deeply encouraging to them because they truly believed that there would never be justice for the horror and terror of their lives.

They found hope in the harsh.

So did Onesimus and the compulsion of God to pursue him all the way to Rome was what ultimately made him free. 

So, Onesimus met Paul and Paul shared the gospel with him and Onesimus got saved and as the connection with Philemon was made, Paul told Onesimus:

“You gotta go back and make things right.”

Now, did Paul really, really, really want him to leave?

Listen to what he wrote next:

12 I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, 13 whom I wished to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel;

 

Paul had developed a serious friendship with and appreciation for Onesimus.

Onesimus had become a big help to Paul and his ministry and since he was in prison Paul needed all the help he could get.  

This friendship and ministry partnership is not a small thing.

Remember, Onesimus is a runaway slave. 

He’s an outlaw and an outcast. 

He would not be invited to anyone’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, and yet here we find Paul sending him home for the holidays to Philemon.

Why is that significant and why does it matter to this story and maybe most importantly why should it matter to you and to your life today?

1. Vernon McGee

When I was a young preacher I thought that the grace of God had to go way down to reach the bad sinners but didn’t have to go down so far to reach others who weren’t so bad.

1. Vernon McGee

But now I know that God’s grace has to go all the way to the bottom to get all of us. Each one of us is completely lost outside of Christ.

1. Vernon McGee

Either you are absolutely saved in Christ, or you are completely lost outside of Christ. All of us need the righteousness of Christ. There is no difference.

When it comes to being saved, everyone is on the same level and has the same starting point. 

This is what Paul told the folks at Galatia:

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If there is any place on earth that race and social status and gender should take a back seat it is within the church of the Most High God.

Why?

Because of Jesus!

Romans 3:23

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I just found something I have in common with:

• An African-American woman
• An Asian man
• An illegal immigrant
• A militant atheist
• A foreign terrorist
• A domestic terrorist

We all fall short of the glory of God!

Ephesians 2:1

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…

Everyone falls short of the glory of God!

Everyone is dead in sin!

Is that all?

No.

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

So, I was just like every other human being in the world:

Dead – but God made me alive!

I didn’t make me alive - God brought my dead soul to life in Christ!

There is no race or gender or social status at the cross.

We are all dead people needing to be brought to life. 

There are no second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God.

Believers are one in Christ!

• Paul was an imprisoned missionary
• Philemon was a wealthy businessman
• Onesimus was a runaway slave

But they were all one in Christ.

That didn’t cancel out their other titles.

It gave their other titles defining meaning:

• Paul was a Christian prisoner
• Philemon was a Christian businessman
• Onesimus was a Christian slave

Our differences in race and social status and gender and denomination and music and clothing and whatever else you want to put in there should not create a dividing wall in the church. 

Rather those things should reflect what it means to be in Christ!

That my differences are never more important than my God and my Savior and my salvation and my identity in Christ. 

Where do I get that idea?

From Jesus. 

One day, Jesus was at a well and he asked a woman who was there at the well if he could have a drink of water. 

This is what she said to him:

John 4:9

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?”

• “Mister, we are from different backgrounds.”
• “We are from different religions.”
• “We are from different towns.”
• “We are from different sides of the tracks.”
• “We are from different races.”
• “We probably vote different.”
• “We probably cheer for different teams.”
• “Plus, you are a man and I’m a woman.”

“Mister, you shouldn’t even be talking to me.”

And yet Jesus was talking to her. 

Philip Ryken

She was a poor Samaritan woman, so Jesus was separated from her ethnically, socially, and sexually. But that did not stop him from loving her and dying for her sins.

Paul is sending Onesimus back because he knows it is the right thing to do.

Now that he is a Christian, he needs to make things right with Philemon.

And now that he is a Christian, Paul is going to ask Philemon to do something unique and against the grain of what would be normal in those days:

He’s asking him to forgive his runaway slave. 

Is he demanding that he do it like an official declaration from Pope Paul?

Listen to what he writes next. 

14 but without your consent I did not want to do anything,

Paul is politely dropping some please and thank you here.

He’s asking and putting the ball in Philemon’s court.

He’s not starting a Twitter battle. 

He’s not assuming the worst of Philemon.

He’s assuming the best of Philemon. 

And what is the best of Philemon?

Why should he forgive?

14 so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will.

He should forgive not because he has to.

He should forgive because he gets to. 

And why does he get to?

Because he’s no longer short of the glory of God.

Because he’s no longer dead in his sins. 

Because sin no longer has an eternal grip on him. 

He should forgive because he’s been forgiven.

Scotty Smith wrote a prayer about this letter from Paul. 

I’m going to read just a portion of it, but before I do, let me ask you a gracious question:

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, is there someone you need to forgive this week?

Or is there someone you need to forgive today?

Scotty Smith

Jesus, I’m a lot like Onesimus. I’m a rebel. I’m a runner. I want freedom on my terms. I thank you for not giving up on me – for coming after me when I was running away from you as fast as I could, just like Onesimus ran from Philemon.

Scotty Smith

…you came after me; you found me; you bound me to your heart through the cords of the gospel, and slowly but surely, you’re changing me.

Scotty Smith

Jesus, I also know what it’s like to be Philemon. I’ve been failed and I’ve been hurt. I’ve been betrayed and suffered loss. I’ve been used and played for a fool.

Scotty Smith

But forgive me for labeling anyone as useless. There is simply no such thing as a worthless, useless image-bearer of God.

Scotty Smith

Help me forgive those who have harmed me, intentionally or otherwise. May your beauty trump my bitterness – your redemption rout my resentment.

Scotty Smith

Jesus, I want to love like Paul. Paul saw something in Onesimus that Philemon didn’t see. Jesus, you saw something in me that no one else saw.

Scotty Smith

Please give me your gospel eyes to see what you see in others – especially in people who disappoint me or bail on me.

Scotty Smith

Who have I branded “useless,” with either my actual words or unspoken words? Who have I written off?

Scotty Smith

Who have I renamed “failure,” “worthless,” “you’ll never amount to anything,” “you’re never to be trusted again”? Whose failure stories do I love to retell as a way of paying them back? Have mercy on me, Lord.

Scotty Smith

Many times, and certain people, I simply do not want to love with gospel love. Forgive me and free me. For none of us is beyond the need of your grace and none of us is beyond the reach of your grace.

Scotty Smith

Jesus, give me a much bigger heart. So very Amen I pray, in your chain-breaking, slave-freeing name.

Dow Welsh | November 18, 2018 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scotty-smith/a-prayer-about-formerly-useless-people-and-my-small-heart/

So have you ever heard something that you never thought you would ever hear in a million years? I mean, you never, ever, ever thought you'd hear about a year ago. Maybe the most shocking decisions that's ever been made in the history of Western civilization. Maybe even the world was made about this time last year. That's right. Twitter increase the number of characters you could use. Yeah, it's a big deal. Big thing for most of you, you know, like me that, you know, all the twitters. So you know all about this stuff. And, boy, this is just really changed your life. That Twitter increased all of their characters. Now, how has the universe change? Since people have one hundred forty more letters, numbers, symbols and emojis that they can tweet? How has the world changed? Will Twitter has been paying attention there watching these things. And a report out recently says that with these new characters, it seems is if the universe has become Mohr polite, the words of the report go like this. Fifty four percent maur messages say, please. And twenty two percent Mohr used. Thank you. Since the character limit double please and thank you has increased atleast on social media. Another part of the report goes like this. There's a decline of abbreviations like gr eight BEFORE and S R. Y in favor of the full words. Great before and sorry, Look, Mom, I'm using my words the whole words. This is the culture of the tweeting. Now here's the thing, though, Maur. Politeness is much better than some of the things that normally happen on Twitter, which are known as Twitter battles. This is when someone goes on and in two hundred eighty characters or less. They make some statement about some hot button issue that's happening in the world. And then someone else responds to their statement, and then the two of them go back and forth and back and forth for the whole Twitter world to see. Publisher, professor and pastor Trevon Wax describes it this way. The followers from both tribes act like fans in the stands, cheering on their hero, either by praising them or by bashing their opponents. Everyone gets properly outraged, and the conversation ins were Lee. There's a Twitter battle, really the best and most thoughtful way, especially for Christians. The best, the most thoughtful and most prayerful way for us to share our thoughts on Sirius ideas. Traven, go zone The note. Several reasons that Twitter battles air, not best, and one of the reasons he gives is that they be human eyes. People. This is what he writes. This is one place where social media and technology led us down, or where we simply aren't up to the task. We don't really know the people we are bantering with, he goes on. It is all too easy to place people in camps read into their every tweet the worst assumptions and then create an ideologue of our own imagination rather than a real person. I am not an avatar, he says. Neither is my opponent. I don't want to assume the worst of people. Our debate and Twitter makes that hard for me, it's a great deal of truth in that we are really people. We are not avatars, and really people need riel. Communication and real communication involves riel words, not abbreviation. And there's three riel words that have the ability, in a sense, to change the world. And those three words air, please and thanks. See those three words are very different because what they do is they invite you into a conversation instead of forcing you into a conversation. Please. And thank you are the kind of words that help you see that this is something that you don't have to do, but you get two. There is one thing that all of us face really on a weekly basis. And it's something that if we're honest, we feel like we have to do it. And if we're really, really honest, we don't want to do. But the reality is, this is one of those things that if we see it rightly, we get to do So what is that one thing The Apostle Paul is goingto help us see that he's going to use, um, plight words to help us see it as well. So we look now at Paul's letter to his friend Feli man, beginning my verse. Twelve. Paul writes, I have sent him back to you in person. Who is Paul sent back in person. We sent back a guy named Messiness. And who is an s? Emus? Well, he's a runaway slave. And who did he run away from? Where he ran away from the Lehman. We'll miss the math. Here. You have this slave, this servant from Philly Mons house who ran away. Paul is sending him back to Philly, man. So here's someone who did him wrong. He broke his trust. He cost him money he stole from him. That's what we know of the story that Paulson's him back. What kind of music is he going to face when he gets back? Well, according to Customs and the laws of the land at the time, he might be beaten and forced back into slavery. He might be branded like cattle with with the letter F for fugitive on his forehead. Or he might be immediately executed for his rebellious escape. None of the music was something that he would want to face when he got back. So with that kind of danger, Robert Gilder And why would Paul sending back? And what does Paul have to do with any of this to begin with? Well, Paul inflaming our friends because Paul let Fleeman to Jesus and so fa Lehman has a relationship with Paul, and then you have a ness Imus. There was some kind of slave, some kind of servant in the house of Phil Eamon and an SMS ran away more than a thousand miles to Rome. And he felt, Man, I can get away and and go start my life over somewhere where nobody would know me. And somehow, among the eight hundred thousand estimated people that live in Rome at the time he meets Paul that the same Paul that lead for Lehman to the Lord somehow about the unique and crazy grace of God in the middle of a hundred thousand people unless Miss Met Paul. And just like Feli, Muneer, the gospel from Paul and he got saved he was captured by the love in the grace and mercy and the salvation of Jesus. His life changed. Listen, if you've ever wondered if God cares for people like me and people like you, all you have to do is look at Essex. He was running as far away as he could and still the grace of God found him. But it didn't just find him right. I mean, there's no rational explanation for the geography and the statistics of this moment. The ability for a nessim is to become a Christian is beyond explanation. The only way something like this could happen if you look at all of the information this gathered is that the one true God was pursuing him from the front door. Philly Mons house to the front gate at Paul's prison cell C. S. Lewis has made some interesting comments about how he became a Christian. He said this. I had a notion that somehow, besides questing I was being pursuit, he goes on. You must picture me alone in that room at Magdelin, the university where he wass that room at Magallon night after night feeling whenever my mind lifted, even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of him whom I so earnestly desired not to me. That which I greatly feared has at last come upon me. In the Trinity term of nineteen twenty nine, I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and pray. Perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all in. That feel like maybe a little bit of your story? Or maybe, is that your story today? Are you and agnostic or an atheist and you have no desire to meet God. But maybe there's a hint that, you know he's pursuing you and you're lucky you're pushing away. You don't have anything to do with him. Please know that based on the very character of God, he cares for you. How do we know that? Well, he cares for you and so deeply prizes that he would give his own son. He sent his own son to substitute and sacrifice himself for you so that sin would no longer grip your soul so that sin would be removed and the curse of sin would be removed. And the wrath of God that is to come would have no sway over you. That's how much he cares. That's how much he deeply prizes and deeply loves you. So don't be. God cares for you. Or maybe you're a believer, and you're reluctant because you don't like what God's calling you to do. You're not interested. You're comfortable where you are and what's happening. So you're you're not really good with warning to obey what God's calling you to right now. Don't ignore the purpose and the power and the presence of the cross in your life. First John, Chapter four, verse ten says this and this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perp initiation for our kins. Big word, Great word, fantastic work, Amazing word. Put it in your in your language of things that you say per pitchy ation because what it means is that Jesus became you're atoning, appeasing, absolving, repairing, redeeming sacrifice so that things will be right between you and God. That's what God does, baby, relax, because God cares for you. This'll Lewis goes on, the prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that love, which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? Hi, Mrs. The hardness of God is kinder. Then the softness of men and his compulsion is our liberation. Here's what happened with an estimate. It took off. He ran away and he was hoping that he was going to get some liberation from his slavery. But even if he did, when he got to Rome, he realized he he wasn't free. He was away from from demon sounds. He was away from those rules, but his heart and his mind and his soul kept on him. He wasn't free, and he was confronted through Paul with the hard and harsh reality that sin is riel. And there are real consequences force in. And he was confronted with the hard and harsh reality that the wrath of God is real. And it is right. And it is just because if the wrath of God was not riel and was not right and was not just then, there will never be justice for the evil in this world. Was listened to sermon this week that was reflecting on an American missionary and a team of Americans that were, in a certain area ministering a closed place of a closed country, an area in a foreign land that it never heard the gospel on. One of the things they did is part of their time. There was a show, this this video, and the video was seemingly very poorly made. It was some kind of Christian movie, and somewhere in the movie there was some kind of depiction of the wrath of God and of hell. And for the Americans on the group, they kind of cringe because they just didn't like. They were kind of embarrassed about this party. It seems that they were embarrassed because they were thinking, Man, we don't need this. It's not even well done. We just need to talk about the love of Jesus but the people who had never heard the gospel, the part about the wrath of God and Hill, that was the part they were most interested in because see, they had lived a life maybe for generations of some type of abuse and pain and for them the notion that there was a God who cared enough to create an own an established and promise wrath and accountability for evil that encouraged their heart because they thought that there was never going to be justice for what happened to. They found hope in the harsh. They found hope in the heart And so did an estimate. Nessim Assi. He found hope in the heart. He found hope in the fact that the compulsion of God pursued him. And it was on ly by the pursuit of God that he actually became free truly for And that's Miss Met Paul. Paul share the gospel. Yes, Miss got saved. Paul finds out the story about Phil. Eamon me goes Dude, you got to go back now. You've got to go make this right. Now, How badly did Paul really want to send him back? Listen, what he writes next. I have sent him back to you in person. That is sending my very heart, whom I wish to keep with me so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel part of wanting to go and they had formed a friendship. Nesmith's have become useful to him. He was like this fantastic intern for his ministry. Paul is in prison, so he needed all the help he could get. He didn't long send him away. They they were now friends. And don't forget this picture either. Paul now has a ministry partnership with a runaway slave. He was an outlaw. He was an outcast in that day. And yet Paul has a relationship with. He would not have been invited over for Thanksgiving dinner. And yet Paul sends him home for the holidays. Tufa Lehman of all places. Why does that matter? Well, why does it matter that this story? But maybe more importantly, why does that matter to you? J. Vernon McGee said this when I was a young preacher, I thought that the grace of God had to go way down to reach the bad centers, but didn't have to go down so far to reach others who weren't so bad. He goes on. But now I know that God's grace has to go all the way to the bottom to get all of us. Each one of us is completely lost outside of crying. And then he says, either you're absolutely saved in Christ are you are completely lost outside of Christ. All of us need the righteousness of Christ. There is no difference when it comes to being saved. Everybody starts on the same level. Everybody has the same starting point. This is what, Paul? It'll the folks that Glacier calculations three. Verse twenty eight. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. Jesus, if there is ever any place on the planet where rations social status and gender and all the other divisions of life should be put on the back burner. It is in the Church of the most high God. It's who he is. It's his family. And why is that true? Because of Jesus, Paul told the Romans this Romans, three twenty three for all, have send and fall short of the glory of God. I just found something that I have in common with an African American man and an Asian woman and an illegal immigrant. A militant atheist, a foreign terrorist, a domestic terrorist. I just found something I have in common with all of them and many more. All of us fall short off the glory of God. That's not all. Pulse of this to the church of deficits, officials to one. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. So everyone falls short of the glory of God and everyone is dead in there. Great news. So glad I came to church today. This is fantastic. Please continue. I will, because there's great news. Next. Fusions two, four and five. By God, when we were short of his glory, when we were dead in arson. But God being rich and mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saying so. I was like every other human being in the world, past, present and future, dead in my sin, short of the glory of God and God made me alive. I don't make myself alive. I didn't bring my soul to life on my own. God brought my dead soul to life and I was saved. See. That's why the cross matters so much. There is no race. There is no tender. There is no social status. There is no division at the foot of the cross. We are all dead people in need of life. We're all short of God's glory in need of being brought together with him. There are no second class citizens in the Kingdom of God because believers are all one in Christ. Paul was an impression. Missionary for Lehman was a wealthy businessman. Nessim A CE was a runaway slave, but they were all one in Christ. Now does that completely remove all the other titles in their life? No. Now it just It almost brings in assistant because it meant that Paul was a Christian prisoner and fa Lehman was a Christian businessman and an SMS was a Christian slave. See, we look at things like this and the differences, and we begin to go Well, that's the definition. No, the definition is Christ. See, we use things like race and social status, denomination and then music styles and clothing styles and whatever else you want to put in there. And we begin to say what this is our identity. But that's the opposite of the gossip. Our difference That should never create a dividing wall. It actually shows the beauty of who Jesus is because it shows Christ and it means this. We sang earlier that my identity is in my God and my savior and my salvation. And whatever else my is in that list, none of it trumps my identity in Jesus. Where'd I get that idea from? From Jesus. One day Jesus was at a well. He asked a woman who's drawing water that well, if she could give him a drink. And this was her response. John, Chapter four, verse nine. How is it that you being a Jew, asked me for a drink? Since I am a Samaritan woman. Great scene, Mr. We're from different backgrounds. We were from different sides of the track. We're from different religions. We're from different families. We probably vote for different people. We probably cheer for different teams. And And I'm a woman. And you're a man, mister, you should not even be talking to me. And yet Jesus Wass talking to her. I love what Philip Rankin says. She was a poor Samaritan woman, so Jesus was separated from her ethnically, socially and sexually. But that did not stop him from loving her and dying for her. So we get the beauty and the majesty of our identity and Christ in Christ himself. He becomes the definition of who we are because he did not look at any of us and look at the Mai's of our life and saying, No, I'm not going to die for Tao because of this. Now. Jesus saw all of our mouths and he still was our perpetuation. He still was our atoning sacrifice. He's still for the glory of God and the love of your soul gave himself for us. Nessim has found that out and suppose sending him back because he knows it's the right thing to do. He's a Christian, gotta make those relationships right the best he can, but but then something else is happening in this letter. It's not just that he sent an SMS back to Fleming. He's asking for Lehman to do something. He's asking for Lehman to forgive that that was against everything in culture, everything in society, what he's asking, but but that that's all he's doing is asking. He really doesn't come as Pope Paul. This is a declaration and decree because I led you to Jesus. You must do what I say. That's not what happens. Listen to Verse fourteen, but without your consent. I did not want to do anything. I love this policy is being polite. Been gracious. Well, please, and thank you. Hear in the conversation. Paul's not starting a Twitter battle with Philemon. He is not expecting and thinking of the worst. A filly? No, he's he's assuming the best a filling and what's the best? Listen fourteen so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, But out of your own free will that's That's the best right there. See why I should fill Eamon, Even think about forgiving anus. And why would he be compelled to do it? Well, he should not forgive because he has to. He should forgive because he gets to What does that mean? What? Why does he get to well do the math? It's it's really you should forgive because he is no longer short of the glory. Oh, God. He should forgive because he's no longer dead in his sins. He should forgive. Because the thin that had gripped his life has now been removed. The curse of sin no longer held sway over. In other words, he should forgive because he had been forgiven. Thie best in Philly. Lehman Wass Christ. That was the best inside of him. But here's the thing. The new bath and then estimates wass Christ. Forgiveness should happen, especially for believers, because we have been forgiven. Scotty Smith wrote it Fantastic prayer based on Philly man, and I'm worried just a few portions of it. But before I do, I just want to ask because I want you to listen to these words as if it's kind of your prayer. But as we head into this Thanksgiving week, is there anybody you need to forgive? Or maybe it's not even this week. Maybe maybe it's today. Is there anybody you need to forget? This's what Skye wrote. Jesus, I'm a lot like an s amiss. I'm a rebel. I'm a runner. I won't freedom on my terms. I thank you for not giving up on me for coming after me when I was running away from you as fast as I could. Just like own s amiss Ran from Philly, Man, you came after me. You found me. You bound me to your heart through the cords of the gospel And slowly But surely you're changing me Then he switches characters. Jesus also know what it's like to be for Lehman. I've been failed and I've been hurt. I've been betrayed and suffered loss. I've been used and played for a fool. And I have been there this week goes on. But forgive me for labeling anyone is useless. There is simply no such thing as a worthless, useless image. Bear of God, help me forgive those who have harmed me, intentionally or otherwise. May your beauty trump my bitterness. Your redemption route my wrist. Any changes Characters for more time. Jesus. I want to love like Paul. Paul saw something in a Nessim. Is that for Lehman? Didn't see Jesus. You saw something in me that no one else. So please give me your gospel eyes to see what you see in others, especially in people who disappoint me. Our bail on me. And then he asked some questions. Who have I branded useless with either my actual words or unspoken words who have are written off, who have already named failure worthless? You'll never amount to anything. You're you're never to be trusted again. Whose failure stories do I love to retail as a way of paying them? Have mercy home a lord. And then he says many times and certain people, I simply do not want a love with gospel of forgive me and free me. For none of us is beyond the need of your grace and none of us is beyond the reach of your grace. Any closes with these simple words. Jesus. Give me a much bigger heart. So very amen. I pray in your chain breaking slave free. May the Lord have mercy on us. And may he give us a desire to forgive because we have been forgive.