A Call to Grace: Philemon's Journey of Redemption
The Wednesday Evening service at Middletown Baptist Church, led by Pastor Josh Massaro, delves into the intricacies of the Book of Philemon. This sacred text, although brief, encapsulates profound themes of restoration, grace, and reconciliation. The narrative centers around Philemon, a slave owner, and Onesimus, his runaway slave who encounters the Apostle Paul and undergoes a transformative spiritual awakening. Pastor Massaro elucidates the cultural context of servanthood during biblical times, distinguishing it from the historically negative connotations associated with slavery. He highlights the significance of Onesimus's redemption and the appeal for Philemon to embrace forgiveness and grace, demonstrating the essence of the gospel in personal relationships. Through a thoughtful examination of the text, the sermon emphasizes the call to extend grace, reminding the congregation that, like Onesimus, all believers have been restored to a rightful relationship with God through Christ. Ultimately, Pastor Massaro invites listeners to reflect on their own experiences of grace and the necessity of reconciliation within the body of Christ, making the message both relevant and impactful for contemporary believers.
Takeaways:
- In the podcast, Pastor Josh Massaro emphasizes the importance of understanding the Gospel's role in reconciliation and forgiveness.
- The Book of Philemon presents a compelling narrative about restoration and the transformative power of faith in Christ.
- Pastor Massaro illustrates how Onesimus, initially a runaway servant, becomes a brother in Christ through redemption.
- The message calls for believers to act with grace and mercy, reflecting the love of God in their relationships with others.
- Philemon's response to Onesimus's return represents a critical decision point in embodying Christian love and acceptance.
- The episode highlights the eternal implications of our earthly relationships, reminding us of our unity in Christ.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast
06:38 - Paul's Confrontation with Philemon
13:48 - The Transformation of Onesimus: From Unprofitable to Profitable
16:38 - The Transformation of Onesimus
23:01 - The Power of Meekness in Ministry
34:17 - The Eternal Perspective of Loss and Gain
36:26 - Embracing Unity in Christ
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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
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My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
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Now, come along.
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Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
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All right, so we are in the Book of Philemon.
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If you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me.
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If you don't know where Philemon is, it's.
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If you know where Hebrews is, it's right before Hebrews.
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So try to find Hebrews and go back a chapter and you'll find Philemon.
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Philemon is only one chapter.
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We've been going through two small books in the New Testament.
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We went through the Book of Jude, and now we're going through the Book of Philemon.
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If you're just joining us, this is only our second study here in this book, and I will try to recap the best that I can here tonight.
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As we move forward, we're going to try to get accomplished as much as we can here in the time that we have.
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It's a short book, but there's a lot of information, and it would be very easy to skim through this book and look at it just as a historical narrative.
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Just, hey, this is what happened to a guy named Philemon and Onesimus and Paul.
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But there are obviously deeper implications when it comes to the message of the gospel.
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And so just in way of context, understand the situation that we have in this book.
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We have a fella named Philemon who had a servant, a bond servant, a slave named Onesimus.
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Now, we talked a little bit about this last week.
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This is not the same type of slavery that we are familiar with in our country's past.
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We know that God speaks against that type of slavery when it comes to stealing another individual and using them as property.
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The book of Leviticus, actually, with the law of God showing the heart of God said that that was an evil sin.
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And we even see that in the New Testament.
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Last week, we.
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We looked at the.
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The phrase in the King James Menstealers that is condemned by God.
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So this type of servanthood would be what we call bond servants, meaning they owed a debt to somebody and they went into an agreement with the master to say, you know what, I'll pay off my debt by doing this.
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I'm agreeing to what we're doing.
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And in many cases, we see through history that some individuals who were falling on desperate times, would actually seek after these opportunities because it gave them financial stability, it gave them a place to live, gave them an opportunity to.
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To have food and shelter.
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And so Onesimus, we don't necessarily know how he was treated, but we do know that Onesimus ran away.
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And so Paul is going to appeal on behalf of Onesimus to Philemon to say, hey, can you receive Onesimus back?
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Philemon?
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Now, the reason why Onesimus is different is because in the process of running, he comes across Paul in Rome and Paul leads him to Christ.
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Paul leads him in the Gospel and Onesimus is saved.
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And so now there's a different perspective.
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The perspective now was Onesimus, yes, was a runaway servant.
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He was in rebellion to his master, but now he's redeemed, now he's restored.
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Now he is part of the family of God.
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And so Paul is going to appeal to Philemon to have grace and mercy and receive Onesimus back.
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But before Paul does that, Paul talks about Philemon's testimony.
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And if you read verses one through seven, we can see that Philemon had a wonderful testimony.
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He was actually personal friends with Paul, served with Paul, as we see in verse one, he says, you're a fellow laborer, and he talks about the love that he has for God and, and the love that he has for God's people.
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And that's, that's an awesome testimony.
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Verse 5.
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If, if we could have someone tell us a good testimony, it would be this, that someone would love God.
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Or it says, as their love towards the Lord Jesus and toward all saints.
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And, and so Philemon's testimony was that he obeyed the first and greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment, which is what Jesus said to love God with everything and to love your neighbor as yourself.
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So, so Philemon is not a man who is characterized by his anger or his sin.
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He's characterized by his relationship with Christ.
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But even so, Paul realized that what he was about to ask Philemon to do was a very difficult thing.
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And that is to receive back someone who had wronged him.
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And this passage of scripture specifically deals with restoration as well.
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And, and if we're all honest with ourselves, we all ran away from our master.
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Um, we know that as human beings, we were created in the image of God, but we were marred by sin.
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And so therefore, through our sin, we were rebels against God.
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The Bible says that we were enemies against God.
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And so when God saved us, when we came to him in faith and trusted in his grace, he restored us.
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So all of us have experienced the greatest act of restoration in the concept of salvation.
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I preached in that church in West Virginia on Sunday morning, and I preached on Second Corinthians chapter 5, which speaks of the reconciliation that we have with God.
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So God reconciled us to himself, meaning he restored us.
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He brought us back to our original state, and that is a child of God.
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And then, as all of us are saved, we now have what's called in Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, you can check me on this.
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It says that now we all have a ministry of reconciliation.
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So the challenge is, is now that we have been reconciled to Christ, are we doing our best to serve others for that purpose of reconciliation?
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Are we trying to bring people to that?
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Now you would say, how can we do that?
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Well, he says that not only do you have a ministry of reconciliation, but you also have a word of reconciliation, which means we have a message.
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Now, you've been going to Middletown Baptist Church long enough.
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Hopefully you know this.
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But the ministry of reconciliation and the message of reconciliation all centers around the Gospel.
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We cannot have reconciliation without what Jesus Christ has done for us.
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The Gospel is the centerpiece of everything that we do.
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And the Gospel is the centerpiece of what Philemon is being asked here.
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In this case, you cannot forgive, you cannot restore, you cannot extend grace and forgiveness, as the Bible says, without the Gospel being at the core centerpiece of our lives.
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And so that's what we're going to talk about here.
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Paul is basically appealing with Philemon to enact the Gospel and how he deals with Onesimus.
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Okay, so I've kind of caught you up to that.
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And in so doing, what happens is, is that Paul says, hey, Philemon, I love you.
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You're my brother, you're my fellow laborer.
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This is how great you are.
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And so basically, he's complimenting him.
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He's not lying, but he's complimenting him, preparing him to ask him a very difficult thing.
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And now we have something of a confrontation in verse number eight.
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So we're going to pick up in verse number eight.
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And he uses that word there, wherefore.
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Okay, wherefore.
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Now, when you see wherefore and therefore in scripture, it's a reference back to what he had just been talking about.
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So what did he just get talking about?
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He was just saying, like, how great Philemon was in loving God and loving others.
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He was saying, philemon, you've trusted in Jesus.
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Philemon, you understand the gospel.
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So because you understand the gospel, I'm about to talk to you about something.
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I'm going to confront you in the gospel.
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And I think that's important and I think it's a lesson that we should learn as well when we're dealing with other Christians.
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Now, when we're dealing with an unsaved person, it's totally, totally opposite because an unsaved person cannot understand the gospel until they have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
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The Bible says that the cross is foolishness to those that are lost.
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So.
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But when we're dealing with a Christian and we're dealing with a confrontation, and we're dealing with something of an exhortation moment, exhortation again means coming alongside of someone and challenging them in something.
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That's what Paul is about to do.
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We should always start it with the gospel.
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We should always allow ourselves to not impart our opinions upon the situation, our experiences before the gospel.
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The gospel takes precedent.
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So he says, wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient.
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You say, what is he talking about there?
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He's saying this as an apostle, I have the authority to command you to do what I'm about to ask you to do.
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He says, you know, I, I could, but because I love you and because of the love of Christ in my life, I want to beseech you, beg you, being such a one as Paul the age and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
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And so what is he saying?
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He says, I could force you, I could command you, I could impose fear upon your life to get you to a place of restoration with onesimus.
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But I'm going to ask you, I'm going to request of you in love and in humility.
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And, and so Paul even uses his age and his status as a prisoner to basically say, I'm, I'm humbly coming before you.
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I'm but the aged and imprisoned Paul for Jesus Christ.
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And so essentially what he's doing is he's saying, I love you enough to not force you to do this.
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And so a loving appeal is often better than an authoritative command.
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And I think that's something that we can learn in our own lives.
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If we're always, and maybe some of you hold leadership positions, if we're always enacting an authoritative command without a loving exhortation, a loving appeal, loving, you know, challenge, then you know what, the people that are receiving these challenges are going to receive them in the flesh instead of in the spirit.
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So, so Paul wasn't hesitate to command situations.
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We see that throughout the New Testament there was a time and a place for Paul to put his foot down and.
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And use authority.
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But in wisdom, he knew that this was a time and a place with the discernment of the spirit to appeal in love to Philemon.
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And so it was clear Paul would ask a favor for Philemon.
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He's.
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He's literally getting to that here in a moment.
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But before he asks Philemon to do what he's about to do, he kind of explains his situation.
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Maybe for lack of a better phrase, he's trying to explain to Philemon, hey, be sympathetic for me, okay?
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I'm getting old in the ministry.
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I'm.
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I'm.
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I'm a prisoner in chains here in Rome.
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So just understand this would really be a favor for me.
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This would really benefit me.
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Even though we're going to see here in a few moments that Paul really doesn't want to let go of Onesimus, because actually he's.
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He's benefiting him.
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But.
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But we're gonna see that Paul puts God's plan before his own.
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There's so much that we can learn here.
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I won't try to get ahead of myself too far, but verse 10, he says, I beseech thee, beg the.
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For my son Onesimus.
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I.
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I think we talked a little bit about this last week, but this is not literally Paul's biological child.
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This is Paul's son in the faith.
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Um, we know that Paul references Timothy that way in the New Testament, and this speaks to Paul's relationship to Onesimus.
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So not only did he lead Onesimus to Christ and send him on his way, but Paul has now taken a fatherly figure in his life, a spiritual father figure in his life.
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And I think that that's a relationship that all of us should have.
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A mentor, if you will.
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And so he says, hey, I have a son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
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And so Onesimus, the escaped slave, escaped bond, servant of the one who left.
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Philemon now has gone off to Rome.
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And, and it's interesting that he would go to Rome.
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Um, I don't believe that he would have been seeking out Paul.
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Right, because if one wasn't saved, he's coming to Rome.
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And Rome, as you well know, is a highly populated city at this point.
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It's really the capital of the world.
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And so Onesimus is trying to run away from his master.
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But in so doing, I believe God providentially brought him to a meeting with Paul because there's a purpose in his life.
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And so Onesimus runs.
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He flees to Rome.
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He meets with Paul and Under Paul's guidance, he comes to Christ.
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He believes in him, and he is now a man of faith.
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It's.
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It's actually if.
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If you know a little bit about the.
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The history of Rome, it would be logical that Onesimus would go to Rome.
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It was the biggest city in the Roman Empire, and.
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And it was a place where he could hide, right?
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He couldn't probably hide in a little small town.
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They might be able to find him, but he could go to Rome and possibly go unnoticed.
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But I believe in God's providential plan.
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There was a meeting of Paul and Rome, and Onesimus meets the very same man that led his master, Philemon, to the Lord.
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If you go back, you know that Paul led Philemon to the Lord and was discipling Philemon.
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And now the very same person that led his master through the Lord, Onesimus finds.
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And God makes this an opportunity, I believe, what I call a providential opportunity.
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When Paul makes his appeal to Philemon, for Onesimus, he.
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He actually is following Roman culture.
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Roman culture was that a runaway slave could hide and find refuge in a religious altar.
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And it could have been someone's home, it could have been at a temple.
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And so what happens is, what most likely would have happened was Onesimus was running and trying to find refuge at a religious spot and therefore came across Paul, and therefore he came to Christ.
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And so Paul says, my son Onesimus, he led him to Christ.
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He's now discipling him.
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This is where it gets really interesting.
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I don't know if you know what the name Onesimus means, but there's a lot of names in the Bible that have great significance.
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And Paul actually plays off of Onesimus's name here in this next verse.
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Onesimus means profitable.
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Believe it or not, it literally means profitable.
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So Onesimus means profitable.
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Now look at verse 11 with me.
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It says, which in times past was to the unprofitable.
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So he makes a play on Onesimus's name.
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He says, okay, there was a time in your life that Onesimus was not a profitable person for you.
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Why?
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Because he ran, right?
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He.
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He ran from you.
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He wasn't benefiting you.
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There was no benefit of holding Onesimus there because he was in rebellion.
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And so he.
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He made a play on that name.
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And so now he was like, hey, there was a time where he was unprofitable for you, and you're probably angry at him, and you have every right in the Roman law to punish him, to maybe even put him to death.
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But what does he say now?
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He says, but now profitable to thee and to me.
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So he says, now Onesimus is onesimus for you.
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Mr.
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Profitable is now profitable for you.
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Why?
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Because he is now a brother in Christ.
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You now are on the same standing as Onesimus in your standing before God, though there was a time where you held a higher status because of your master to servant relationship.
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Now, in the eyes of God, the Bible teaches very clearly that we all stand equal.
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And so he says now, hey, there was a time where he was not profitable for you, but now, because he is a brother in Christ, he is going to be profitable for you and he's profitable for me.
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And so it's.
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I believe it's significant to note that Paul claims that in Christ, the.
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The person who has, at one point, useless.
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That's what he's saying.
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Basically, Onesimus was useless to you, specifically when he ran, right?
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A servant is useful if he is there, but if he runs, he's not useful anymore.
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So he says, hey, this person who had no benefit, this person who had no usefulness now in Christ has been made useful now has a purpose, now has a plan, now can work together with you for the cause of the Gospel.
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And so by making this clear to Philemon, Paul really, I think he's.
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He's gently stirring, gently hinting to Philemon that he would like to retain the services of Onesimus, though he's not gonna force that to happen.
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He says, hey, he's.
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He could be profitable for you, but he's very profitable for me.
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He's helping me out here in my ministry.
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And we're gonna get to that here in a few moments.
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But I think we can't gloss over verse 11 because there's so much to be said about that even in our own lives.
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I mean, before we came to Christ, if you think about it, what was our purpose?
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You know, for.
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For many of us, our purposes might have been different before we came to Christ.
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But after we come to Christ, we now have, really, biblically speaking, one purpose, and that is to glorify God, that is to have a ministry of reconciliation, that is to walk in the love of Christ, to demonstrate the love of Christ.
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And so, just as Onesimus went as a runaway servant, useless to his master, now that he comes to Christ, he now has a purpose and a plan for his life.
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And I believe that Paul is speaking to specifically Onesimus in this case, but I think he could be speaking to all of us when it comes to our new hope in Christ.
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So verse 12, he says, whom I have sent again, so Paul is going to send Onesimus back with the hope that Philemon will allow him to return again unto Paul.
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So what Paul is saying is this.
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I'm going to send Onesimus back to get all this restoration, but my prayer is that you would send him back to me because he's a great help to me.
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And this shows just how much Onesimus has changed.
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He once was a person who ran from his responsibilities.
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Now Onesimus is having people basically fighting over him.
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Now, Philemon's not going to fight over him yet because he doesn't know that he's changed.
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But once he gets the letter, he.
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He will know.
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And so, verse 12, whom I have sent again, thou therefore receive him.
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So here's.
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Here it is.
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Here's Paul's thesis, here's Paul's challenge.
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Receive Onesimus back.
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But he's actually going to tell him to receive him back in a special way.
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He says, that is mine own bowels.
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Now, if you.
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If you're not familiar with two different things, if you're not familiar with King James English, and if you're not familiar with Koine Greek, Koine Greek is the common Greek of the day.
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That this was actually written in, this is not going to make sense.
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Okay?
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He says, receive him.
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That is mine own bowels.
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You like bowels?
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Bowels.
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What is he talking about here?
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Well, again, if you understand their culture, the.
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The seat of emotion was not their heart.
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Today we would say my emotions are found in my heart.
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Right?
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Your heart is broken, your heart is overjoyed.
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For them, the.
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The heart was the mind, if you will.
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So if they were talking about thinking, they were talking about the heart.
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But if they were talking about emotions, they were talking about the bowels, the.
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The stomach.
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And so the reason why they would do that is because some of you know you'll feel your emotions in your stomach, right?
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And sometimes you might even have a feeling, butterflies in your stomach of something.
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So he's essentially talking to Philemon to receive him as his own heart.
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Meaning this Onesimus had done something wrong in the fact that he had escaped his master.
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And it was time to set that right.
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So Paul was willing to send him back, but what Paul wanted him to do was to receive him in a special way.
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So like I mentioned before, under Roman law, Philemon had every right to have total control over Onesimus.
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And.
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And it wasn't unusual for people like Onesimus to be crucified for things that were less serious than this.
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And so what Paul is saying is his receive him back, but receive him back in this way.
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Basically, this.
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Consider him as my own heart.
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Consider him like me.
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Receive Onesimus like you would receive me.
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That's what Paul is saying here.
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Paul is basically saying to Philemon, don't receive him back as a runaway slave.
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Don't receive him back as someone who is unprofitable for you, who has wronged you.
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Receive him back as you would your fellow brother in Christ.
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Receive him back as you would receive me.
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There's individuals in my life that are very special to me because of their investment in my life when it comes to leading me to Christ and discipling me.
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I can think of some of.
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You Remember Pastor David Goforth, who came here for the marriage conference?
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It was two years ago.
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He's my spiritual mentor.
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I love him to death.
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And Pastor Goforth came up for my ordination.
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I remember we put him up in our house, and I was so nervous.
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I was like, pastor, go for.
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It's coming to my house.
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I mean, this guy's my hero.
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And I'm like, he's.
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So I told Alicia, we got to get everything ready.
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We got to take care of him.
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We got to take them, all the nice restaurants.
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The reason why I did that, why, is because I love him, right?
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He means something to me.
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And so I wanted to give him the best reception that we could have.
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And he got there, and he is like, what are you trying to be all fancy for?
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You know, we're fine.
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But the truth is, is that what Paul is saying is, hey, if you respect me, if you love me as your spiritual father or your spiritual brother, hey, receive Onesimus the same way.
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Because that's how we're supposed to receive all saints, all.
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All believers.
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So he says, receive him in my own heart.
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Be merciful unto him.
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And.
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And so that's.
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That's what he's talking about here.
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He says, re receive him on this regard.
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In the verse 13, he says, whom I would have retained with me, meaning Paul has a desire to keep him.
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Paul's like, you don't know how beneficial Onesimus is to me.
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He's helping me.
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He's encouraging me.
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He's lifting me up.
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Now, we don't know exactly what Onesimus was doing for Paul, but remember, Paul is in bonds here.
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Paul is in house arrest.
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So Paul's limited in who he can reach.
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But what we can probably understand through context is that Onesimus is carrying messages for Paul out to those that were being ministered to.
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So.
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So he's doing a great work here.
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So he says, whom I would have retained with me that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the Gospel.
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So not only is Onesimus ministering to others around in Rome, but, but he's really, as you see here, he's ministering to Paul, he's encouraging Paul.
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He's, he's an encourager.
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He, he's being a Barnabas to Paul, right?
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He's encouraging him as he's there in change.
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And so, and so Onesimus, if he stayed with Paul on behalf of Philemon, he would be serving Paul.
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And, and secondly, if Onesimus stayed with Paul, he would be helping a man who was limited.
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So he's extending Paul's reach and we see that he would be working in the gospel ministry.
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And I love how Paul puts it there.
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At the end of verse 13, he says he would minister unto me in the bonds of the Gospel or the chains of the Gospel.
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Wouldn't it be amazing if we were all bound to the Gospel in every area of our life, that that was what we were servants to?
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Instead of servants to our culture or servants to our own opinions or servants to our own self exaltation, but servants to the Gospel, like hey, whatever it takes.
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A good servant follows his master.
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And if our master is the Lord, then our heart should be based in the Gospel.
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And that's what he's saying about Onesimus.
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But this is what Paul says, verse 14.
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This is, this is great.
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And I think this is a good example for all of us in, in deference and meekness.
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Remember what meekness means?
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Meekness means strength under control.
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So if you think about it from this perspective, Paul could say, look, finders keepers.
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Onesimus is mine now.
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I have every right to keep him under my ministry because look what he's doing here.
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It's profitable for us.
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But Paul exercises meekness.
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He has the strength to do that and no one would question him.
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But Paul in his meekness says, I'm gonna put Philemon first.
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I'm gonna put another brother first.
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And, and so he does.
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Verse 14, he says, but without thy mind would I do nothing meaning this without your consent?
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I won't do anything.
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I, I'm going to send Onesimus back to you and it'll be your decision.
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He defers to his fellow brother.
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He puts Philemon in a place where he can make that decision.
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And that's a respectful decision.
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That, that's a, that's, that's a demonstration of respect for a fellow brother in Christ.
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A lot of times this kind of dynamic can happen within churches.
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And you can have pastors who are trying to steal other people from other churches.
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And there's this competition, and there's this whole idea that, hey, they're at my church now.
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And instead of seeing everything in the gospel ministry as a competition, we should see it as we're all on the same team.
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And me helping you is me helping the gospel.
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Me helping this ministry is how we can both lift each other up.
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And the desire would be that as I lift you up, you lift me up.
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And I hope that you've seen our church striving to do that as we bring other pastors in.
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I mean, that's unique for me.
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It's unique for me to say, hey, let's bring another pastor in across the state, across the, you know, country, and say, hey, let's go help him.
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Because you know what?
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Truthfully, can I.
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I'll be transparent with you tonight.
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And if you're still with me, you'll.
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You'll get this.
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There's a lot of things that we need to be done at our church, okay?
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I.
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I could use more volunteers at Middletown Baptist Church.
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And so my flesh would say, why would we want to go help another church when we have enough work here?
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But that's not the heart of God, right?
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That's not the heart of the gospel ministry.
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And we can see that here with Paul, right?
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Paul sitting here in Roman house arrest with most likely a centurion chained to him.
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He could have really used Onesimus in his ministry.
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But he says, you know what, Philemon, you first.
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I hope this helps you.
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Now, if you see so fit for him to come back, send him back, but I'm gonna defer to you.
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And so Paul makes this appeal, and.
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And he makes it in wisdom, but at the same time, he wants to leave it up to Philemon.
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So he appeals in love.
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And he didn't trample over the rights of Philemon.
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And I think that's important to notice.
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I mean, we could, in our Christian life, trample over others if he's like, whoever's stronger, right?
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That's how our culture is.
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Whoever speaks the loudest, whoever has the most type A personality, usually gets the.
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Whatever they're going after.
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But as a Christian, sometimes there is wisdom and love and deference, meaning, I don't have to have that.
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I don't.
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I don't have to win that.
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And, you know, we realize that in.
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In conversations and with family and with spouses, like, we don't have to be the one who comes out every time the Victor, it's, it's, it's.
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In this case, Paul says, I'm gonna take the back seat.
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So.
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Verse 14.
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But without thy mind would I do nothing.
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That thy benefit should not be, as it were of necessity, but willingly.
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What he's saying here is this you receiving back Onesimus.
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I want this to be something that you do willfully in the Lord.
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I don't want this to be something that I'm forcing you to do.
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And so, so Paul makes his appeal and, and he says, hey, I want you to do this, but I don't want to force this decision on you.
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If I demanded would be a good deed that you were basically, you know, you were.
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It was a compulsion, right?
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I, I forced you to do this.
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But if it was voluntary, it would make the whole situation more pleasant and I believe have a greater impact in the life of Philemon.
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So, so what does that look like in the Christian life here we, we can try to force people to obey scripture.
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I could and I have.
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We could set up a list of rules and I could police you and I could be out and about Middletown with my little notebook and saying, okay, what are they doing?
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I'm going to follow them around and oh, oh, oh, did you do that?
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Oh, you know, you.
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But the truth is, is that I could sit here and take roll on Sunday morning for church.
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Okay, so, and so wasn't here this Sunday.
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So I'm gonna make a, you know, Baptist buck.
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Take that off there and you know, add a Baptist buck.
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Cause this person came to every service this week.
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And you think about that.
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In many ways, we, we, we do that.
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But how much more profitable, how much more of a blessing is it when someone does something for the Lord out of their own will, right?
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They're because they love God, not because they were forced to do something.
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I could sit down and have my children like.
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And I have.
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And I do.
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I force my children to read the scriptures.
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I do that.
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Okay, guilty.
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I say, guys, you need to read because if you don't spur some people on, they won't do it, right?
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So you gotta set a standard.
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But if I constantly tell my children and force my children to do these spiritual disciplines and there's never a connection about the why behind it and they never want to do it, you know what's going to happen?
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The moment that dad's thumb of pressure is on them, they're going to say, well, that doesn't mean anything to me because I was doing it because dad forced me to.
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But if there is a Love that's fostered in that environment and that one day, hopefully that they're doing the things that God has called them to do in love and not out of fear, out of fear of being punished.
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And so I think that that's what Paul is doing here.
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Paul says, I could force you to do this, Philemon, and receive him back and I could sit there and get you guys together.
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But what I want you to do is I want you to do this out of your love for God and your love for Onesimus.
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And so it's so much more beneficial to do it that way.
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I had an English teacher in high school and she was like, I'm tired of spoon feeding you guys, okay?
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You guys better get it on your own.
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I'm spoon feeding you guys all this information.
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And she would get onto us and she says, you guys need to be little birds and fly it out of the nest, okay?
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I remember her saying that.
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And, and I could sit here and, and read Bible verses and give you all the, the, the commentaries.
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And that is beneficial, right?
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Being spoon fed still nourishes you, but how much more beneficial is it that you as an individual take those, those thoughts and those directions and say, you know what?
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I'm going to study the Word for myself.
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I think all of you that have retained something or grown in your own personal study, it's way more beneficial to do that than have someone tell you about it.
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Like it's me getting up here and saying, guys, and pretend like none of you guys have ever had chocolate, Okay?
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I think that's a pretty universal thing.
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Most people like chocolate, okay?
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What?
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Pretend like none of you have ever had chocolate in your life.
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And I get up here and I'm trying to describe it to you and you could maybe understand it to a degree.
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You go, well, that sounds good.
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It sounds similar to this.
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And I bet you I would like it.
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He seems like he really likes it.
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You know, there's a lot of Christians out there today that that's how they're receiving the gospel message or that's how they're receiving different elements of scripture.
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It's like, well, it sounds exciting for him.
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I don't know if I can really relate to that.
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The, the, the truth is is that now let's say new hypothetical, all of you have had chocolate and I explain it to you and you can understand what I'm saying.
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You can say, yeah, I know exactly what he's talking about.
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That's the same thing when it comes to the area of Scripture.
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Okay, so we what, what he's doing here is he's trying to teach.
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I believe Paul is trying to teach Philemon a spiritual lesson that I don't want to force you to do everything.
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There's a time and a place for that.
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But at this point, I want you to do this in the decision of love.
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And so Paul gave Philemon the freedom to do what was right in love before God, and he gave him the freedom to do it in his own choice and not out of Paul's compulsion.
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So that's what verse 14 is talking about.
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He says that it would benefit you not out of necessity, but willingly.
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And that's, and that's exciting.
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That's exciting for all people who are working in the ministry, pastors, teachers, when your students or when your congregation has that light bulb moment and when there's that idea of, hey, you know what?
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I read this in Scripture.
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I, I can't tell you how much my heart is warmed and excited and lifted up when someone comes up to me and says, hey, I've got a question about this passage of scripture.
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I was reading this, and even if it's like, I'm confused and I don't know what this is, that's exciting for me because that shows that, hey, we have people that are hungry and thirsting after righteousness.
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And, and I, and I've had some people even say in the past, hey, Pastor, I didn't want to bother you with this, but I, I had a question about scripture or had an observation about scripture.
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There's a lot of things that would bother me in my life.
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I tell you, the top of my list that doesn't bother me would be talking about scripture.
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And, and I, and I would encourage you to talk more about scripture to people that are around you.
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So he says, do it out of love, for perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.
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Now what is he saying here?
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Well, Paul explains God's hand at work in Onesimus's life because he says, like, hey, you ever heard someone say, well, I don't know why that had to happen.
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Maybe Philemon was even thinking that maybe Philemon was like, why did Onesimus have to leave me?
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He really left me in a tough spot.
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Well, Paul is going to, basically, to the best of his ability, explain to Philemon why Onesimus left.
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And, and he essentially says this.
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He departed for a little while.
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Yes.
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So, so Paul is admitting Onesimus's wrongdoing.
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But Paul then says, hey, he's coming back.
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And so he departed for A while.
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But what does he say?
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He says, but then he's going to come back, that you may receive him forever.
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And this was one aspect of the purpose that Paul saw in God's hand.
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In the escape of Onesimus, Philemon had lost a servant.
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But through Onesimus's runaway and through his transformation, Philemon had gained a Christian brother who.
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A brother in Christ is something forever.
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A servant is temporary.
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So he says, you lost your worker, so to speak, for a temporary time and that was a minor inconvenience.
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But what you gained in this process is a brother in Christ that will last forever and that's way more valuable.
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So Paul is basically explaining this was the hand of God.
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Onesimus had to leave so that he could come to Christ so that you could then gain a brother, so that there could be a greater spiritual impact.
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And so what Paul is doing here is he's highlighting the eternal perspective.
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The eternal perspective of I might have to go through something so that something else happens for the cause of the Gospel.
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He gained a Christian brother.
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And I, I think verse 15 is a, a beautiful, beautiful picture of, of this aspect of what really matters in this world.
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Philemon could have been so upset that he had lost one of his workers.
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And that might have been a financial loss, that might have been whatever type of loss, an embarrassment to his community.
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But now he has something even greater.
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And that's.
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As Christians, you know, we could focus on the here and now.
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We could focus on the material, the things that are as, as Jesus mentions in the Gospels.
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These things are going to have rust and be corrupted and pass away.
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Or we could be excited about what's going to last for eternity.
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And what I would say to you is this, and, and this is, this is.
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I'll end with this kind of.
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But this will be a challenge.
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And this is a challenge for me.
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Look, look, don't literally look around right now.
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Cause it might be awkward, but look around your fellow and brother, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
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This is who we're spending eternity with.
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Can you ever think about that?
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And, and you know, I think that so many times we allow minor material, fleshly things cause division amongst us.
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But if we see it from the greater picture like this means nothing in the grand scheme of eternity because that's going to be my brother forever.
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And, and that's why, all the more reason why we shouldn't fight now because, because I think there's.
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I don't know how this will be in heaven, but I think there might be some awkward moments when we get to heaven and we see some people that we were like, wow, I know you're a brother in Christ.
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But now we've got.
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But we're just not gonna be.
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There's not gonna be a sin nature there.
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So I don't know how that's all gonna be.
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I hope there isn't any of that.
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But the reality is, is that I think that we should grow more because thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Right?
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That was Jesus's model prayer.
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So.
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So as it is in heaven, there's complete unity.
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I don't believe that there's Christians fighting in heaven.
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So I believe it's God's will that we as Christians should be walking in unity now and therefore thinking about the eternal thing.
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So let's say, for example, a brother slights me, and it's something that greatly offends me.
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Am I going to approach that situation from the fleshly perspective, the material perspective, or the eternal perspective?
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I'm gonna have a lot more grace with an individual.
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If I'm thinking about that's my fellow brother, that I'm gonna spend eternity with one.
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And I've been trying to work on that.
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I've been trying to see individuals not as an enemy, but as a brother in Christ.
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And then he we'll have to do 16, because that's.
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That's the thought.
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And then.
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Then we'll be done.
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We'll come back another time.
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He says, not now as a servant.
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Don't receive him back as a servant, but as.
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But above a servant, a brother, beloved.
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This is the main verse.
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Like you could take any verse with you in.
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In Philemon, it's this.
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Don't receive him back as a bond servant.
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Receive him back as a beloved brother, especially to me.
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But how much more unto thee?
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Both in the flesh and in the Lord.
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He says, hey, look, you could receive him back in many ways, but how I'm challenged you to receive him is receive him as a brother.
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He basically here is reintroducing Onesimus to his master.
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He's like, hey, by the way, this is your new brother, Onesimus.
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I remember when we brought Silas home to Nora and Micah.
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Actually, believe it or not, I remember when we brought Nora home to Micah.
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Micah was 2 years old, and we still have a video of it.
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Micah's like, I want to hold my sister.
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And we put Nora in his hands.
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And of course, we were watching, and Micah had his hands like this, and Nora just laid across here, and he looked at her, and he like, Looked away, looked at her.
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And then he just was like, I'm done.
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And we took her away.
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And then, you know, when Silas was born, Mike and Nora a lot older and they didn't get to see him when he was born.
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It was the.
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He was in the nicu.
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And so they weren't allowing children in the nicu.
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Well, we got.
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Long story short, we got permission to bring our kids in.
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And I remember that day when they got to introduce.
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We introduced Micah or Silas to, to Micah and Nora.
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And it was an exciting moment.
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That's basically what he's saying here now.
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He says, you lost a servant, but now here's your new brother in Christ.
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That's an exciting moment and hopefully one that Philemon understood there to be that way.
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And he says, hey, you know what?
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This is an exciting thing.
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He's not your servant, he's your brother.
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And in this relationship as brothers, Paul basically says, hey, remove the master servant relationship.
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It is now a brother to brother relationship under the bond of love in Christ.
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We'll talk more about that.
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I'm at my end now, but we'll pick that up next week.
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Actually, no, we won't make it up next week.
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Silas's surgery is next week.
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So I won't be here next week.
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But in two weeks, Lord willing, I will be back.
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And we will be doing, starting at verse 16, just talking about the beauty of that because there's so much more to talk about.
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Paul speaks of there's no longer bond nor free, no longer Jew or Gentile.
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And we're going to talk about what that verse means, because that verse doesn't mean that, hey, none of us have any more differences when it comes to how we act and how we look.
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No, that still, we still have differences.
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Right?
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We all look different.
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We all can walk in here and realize that this person's different than this person.
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So we're going to talk about what the spiritual implication of that means one day.
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So we'll.
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We'll talk about that when we come back.
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So thank you so much for attention.
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I know that was a long lesson, but through the study of Philemon, I've just really grown to appreciate this book more and more when it comes to the idea of the gospel and restoration and be praying about that even in your own life there.
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Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
Speaker A
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
Speaker A
If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Speaker A
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
Speaker A
Thank you so much.
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God Bless.
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Have a wonderful day.
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