"The Difference the Gospel Makes" (Philemon 1-25) by Hiram Kemp

There are all sorts of things, we spend a lot of time learning throughout our lives

and then maybe after giving so much time and attention to them, we learn later on in life

maybe they weren't as necessary as we thought in previous times.

Think about all the time you might have spent as a student memorizing the abbreviations

and the various designations for the periodic table and then you start thinking about your

life in the current and thinking how often do I use that?

How practical, helpful, or useful is that to me?

Or maybe when you learn the different types of clouds.

I guess there's a sense in which it's something beneficial to know the difference between

the various clouds but today you just open up your weather app and it's there that you

learn whether you need an umbrella or not.

Then there's math equations, Pythagorean theorem, A squared plus B squared equals C squared.

Maybe you spend a lot of time learning long division and you can even be thinking to yourself

when's the last time I actually used that in a practical sense?

All the teachers right now are like get him out of the pool pit, he's ruining our lives.

Stay in school kids, it is important but there's a lot of things we learn all the time and

if we're honest we say to ourselves all of the states and all of the various capitals

of what practical use is it really in my day to day life and what concerns me is that this

same thing can happen to us as it relates to Christianity.

You think about the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ

and maybe you believe that that actually happened, that it's a factual event that took place

and you might even go so far as to obey the gospel and become a Christian.

But maybe you say to yourself you know what I'll put that on the shelf in the same way

that I would the periodic table and that knowledge will be useful and practical to

me maybe on the day of judgment but as for the day to day way that I live my life the

realities that I cling to, the things we sing about as it relates to the gospel, they don't

really have an impression on me.

And maybe you don't put it in those words but maybe deep down inside we do think of

Christianity and all of its tenants as something that's completely divorced from what we sometimes

refer to as our real lives.

The gospel is obviously designed to change our relationship between the God in heaven

and our relationship on earth.

The gospel is designed to forgive us of our sins and reconcile us to God.

But embedded in the New Testament is also this idea that the gospel changes our relationships

with one another and the way that we live our lives on a day to day basis.

The gospel is designed to make a difference not just in what we believe in our head and

the facts we memorize but also the way we go about living our very lives.

The book of Philemon teaches this perhaps in a way that no other New Testament book

does.

You know sometimes people struggle with the book of Philemon and why is it even included

in the New Testament canon?

It's one chapter with 25 verses and sometimes people think to themselves as you read this

book there's no deep theology about salvation or the plan of salvation or about the church

contained in this book but the book of Philemon needs to be studied.

It's real, it's practical, it's earthy, it's even disturbing at times.

The book of Philemon is designed to teach us not just an ancient account of something

that happened in the first century but how the gospel makes a practical difference in

our day to day lives.

There are three main characters or personalities in the book of Philemon.

From Philemon verse one we learn there's a man by the name of Philemon who's a member

of the church in Colossae and he's a slave owner.

The second major character is a man by the name of Onesimus who was owned by Philemon

as a slave.

And then the third major character in the book is the apostle Paul who is a friend and

mentor to both parties.

Paul starts this book in the first seven verses by praising Philemon for his work, for his

faithfulness, for his involvement in the work of the Lord in the church, thanking him for

the great influence and impact that he's had on Paul's life and on all others that Paul

has heard about.

But then in verses eight and nine Paul gets to the heart of why he actually wrote.

He wrote this letter to Philemon who was formerly the master of this slave Onesimus and he really

has two requests for Philemon towards Onesimus.

He wants him to treat him as a brother and he argues for Onesimus' release.

It's assuming too much to assume from this book that Onesimus was a runaway slave.

The Bible never says he ran away.

Perhaps he departed on business from his master to run an errand, but whatever the case is

Onesimus the slave found Paul in prison in far off Rome and it was there that Paul converted

him according to verse 10 and verse 11.

Paul sends him back to his master with this letter to argue for his release and his proper

treatment.

Paul even signs it in verse 19.

He says if Onesimus owes you anything in relation to why he was put into slavery, I Paul write

it with my own hand, I will repay it.

And then he says in verses 21 and 22 he believes he'll be released from prison soon and he'll

be able to check on these matters in person and see whether or not Philemon and Onesimus

have responded in the way that Paul wants them to.

The wrong way to read this book and people sometimes do this is to come at the book of

Philemon with all sorts of questions about the Bible and about slavery or to just see

it as an ancient text that talks about the reconciliation of two people from an ancient

time largely divorced from the time in which we live.

The book of Philemon is designed to teach you and me in the 21st century if we're Christians

this is the kind of difference the gospel should be making in our lives and if we're

not Christians, if we'll submit to his lordship and to the tenets of New Testament Christianity,

here's the kind of difference that the gospel can make.

So if you have your Bible, open it up to the book of Philemon and this morning let's notice

six ways in which the gospel makes a practical difference and it's designed to be a difference

maker and make a change in our lives.

Here's number one, the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it introduces us to true

love or real love.

Paul starts in Philemon verse one by mentioning several different individuals.

He mentions Archippus and Apathia and then he starts saying some things about Philemon

and the church that he says in verse two meets in his house.

In verse one, their fellow laborers.

In verse two, the church meets in his house.

In verse two, their fellow soldiers together.

Notice verse four, Paul says he prays always and at all times for Philemon, giving thanks

to God on his behalf.

In verse five, he praises Philemon for his faith and works toward God and toward all

Christians everywhere and in verse seven, Philemon's faith has become so prominent that

it's spread throughout the city of Colossae so much so that Paul says in verse seven,

he describes it as the hearts of the saints are refreshed by you.

The first way the gospel makes a difference in our lives is it produces real love and

Paul illustrates this in these seven verses to show the great difference that it's already

been making in Philemon's life and this is the motivation for what he's going to call

Philemon to do later on in this book.

Maybe you've noticed this in our world and in our society, we've got various ways of

describing love.

When love first begins in the initial phases, we talk about puppy love.

If we really have to do something hard towards somebody but we want them to know there's

been no love lost, we talk about tough love.

With all of the counterfeits of love in our society, sometimes when we want to show someone

our love is genuine and sincere, we'll talk about true love and if we mean to communicate

to somebody that this love is unending and it will continue throughout our lives, we

talk about unconditional love but the New Testament knows no such distinction.

In the New Testament, love is simply love and it's what Christians are designed to do

by God as we live our lives for him and so Jesus could say in John 13, 34 and 35, a new

commandment I give to you that you love one another.

By this will all people know you're my disciples if you have love one toward another.

It seems as Jesus got closer to the cross, he doubled down on this idea and so in John

15 and verse 12, he says love one another as I've loved you or love one another as I've

commanded you.

In John 15 and verse 17, the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it produces

real love in those of us who submit it to his teaching.

It challenges us because it says in a world where love is just thrown around, look at

the first seven verses of Philemon and Paul says this is what love is all about.

It's tempting to view your life and think to yourself, I really love the people that

I have a lot in common with or the people that I have good vibes with.

Paul says no, here's the criteria for what real love looks like and maybe you start out

in the book of Philemon and you think, Paul, why all of these pleasantries?

Just get to what you want to talk about.

You want Philemon to release Onesimus but there's a reason why Paul delays because what

Paul wants to say to Philemon before he makes his request is the gospel's already been changing

your life.

Think about the kind of person Christianity has turned you into and this is the kind of

real love it produces.

If you want to know who you love and who loves you, Paul says these seven verses will tell

you who.

Verse one, it's the people you work alongside in spiritual endeavors.

In verse one, he talks about fellow laborers.

Paul says this about Timothy in Philippians 2 in verse 22.

He says, you know the proven worth of Timothy that as a son with the father, he's labored

with me in the gospel.

Who do you work alongside?

Number two, who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with?

Look at Philemon verse two.

There's a church in his house.

Who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with?

That's an indication of the people you love.

Who do you go to war with and who would you go to war for?

In Philemon verse two, he says, we're fellow soldiers together.

Whoever you would go into combat with, whoever you would go to bat for, Philippians 127,

Paul says, stand fast with one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

That's an indication of who you love.

Who do you pray for?

In verse four, Paul says, I pray for you all the time.

And then whose heart or whose life do you refresh?

Or another way to ask it would be, who refreshes your life?

For whatever else we think, this is the definition of true and real love.

And Paul says, it's what the gospel produces in people.

It changes you so that you don't just say, I love you with your lips, but you learn to

say it with your life.

First John 3 in verse 18, John says, my little children, let us not love in word or in talk,

but instead in deed and in truth.

It's easy to say it, but Paul says, if the gospel makes a difference in you, you'll show

it by the way you live and by the way you treat other people.

Look at Philemon verse 12, because in verse 12, Paul makes one of the strongest statements

about love in the entire Bible.

He's talking about the slave, Onesimus, who has made his way to him in prison.

And he says, Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back to you, sending my very heart.

This is some of the strongest language in all the Bible.

Paul doesn't just say now that Onesimus has been baptized, he's a Christian, though that's

true.

He doesn't just say this man is a fellow brother in Christ, though that's true.

He says, I'm sending you my very heart because when people become Christians, if the Bible

defines for us what love actually is, the people in this room aren't just people you

go to church with or you sit on a pew with or you share a building with for an hour,

they're people you share your ultimate life with.

What does the Bible say about the relationship between David and Jonathan?

David loved Jonathan as his own soul, first Samuel 18 in verse one.

And if you want to know whether or not the gospel is actually making a difference in

you or whether or not you've equated it to a spiritual periodic table or a long division,

if it's actually changing you, you've got to start asking yourself, is it producing

real love in me?

Who do I pray for?

Are these my people?

Who do I go to war with?

Who do I voluntarily share my home and my life with?

What am I doing as far as refreshing the lives of other people and who refreshes my life

as a result?

Paul says, Philemon, the gospel is designed to make a difference.

And when it does, it'll produce real love.

Verse number two, it changes how you approach people.

Look at verse eight and verse nine.

Paul is now about to get to what he wants to talk to Philemon about.

He says in verse eight, though I'm much bold in Christ to command of you what's required.

He said, yes, for love's sake, I'd rather appeal to you.

I, Paul, who am an old man, Paul knows he's an apostle.

Paul's writings were guided by the Holy Spirit.

And whenever Paul was writing under inspiration, his writings were as good as God himself speaking.

In first Corinthians 1437, Paul would say, if any man thinks he's a prophet or spiritual,

let him acknowledge the things I'm writing to you.

These are the commands of the Lord.

Paul has apostolic authority and Paul could command, but Paul's life has been changed

by the gospel.

And so even though he has authority, Paul does not view his authority as that which

should be wielded and abuse toward other people and making people do things.

But instead it should be stewarded in humility.

In second Corinthians 1018 and in second Corinthians 13 and verse seven, Paul says,

I've been given this authority not to destroy your faith, but to build it up.

And he's about to ask Philemon to do a difficult thing.

And instead of commanding, Paul says, I appeal to you in love.

Throughout the New Testament, one of Paul's greatest ways, or I'm going to argue his favorite

way to try to get people to do stuff, just read his letters and see if this is true.

Paul doesn't often say thou shall and thou must do this or that.

Paul's favorite way to try to get people to do the things God would have them to do

is he says, I ask, I urge, I appeal, I even beg in faith.

He'd say in Romans 12 and verse one, I beg you, therefore brethren, present yourselves

by the mercies of God as a living sacrifice unto God, or I therefore the prison of the

Lord.

I urge you walk worthy of the calling that's called you with all lowliness and meekness

and long suffering.

Ephesians four, one and two, I urge you fulfill my joy.

Philippians two, one and two, Paul realized something.

You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar and so Paul says, I want to approach

people kindly.

A soft answer turns away wrath, Proverbs 15 and verse one.

Solomon's wisdom is right in Proverbs 25 and verse 15 when he says, patience can turn the

heart of a ruler and a soft tongue breaks a bone.

How does the gospel change us?

What difference does it make?

It literally changes how you approach people.

Some people have a problem with the New Testament and especially with the book of Philemon.

They say to themselves, why doesn't Paul or any of the other writers of the New Testament,

I mean, why don't they just come out and denounce it?

If God's good and holy and perfect and right, why doesn't Paul just come out and say, thou

shall not own slaves, just condemn slavery outright.

Paul never does that and it's because Paul knew better.

Paul knew if he would have done that, it would have never worked.

Paul doesn't write the book of Philemon as a piece of legislation against slavery.

It doesn't read like that.

The book of Philemon reads like a love letter between siblings.

Paul's not saying to Philemon so much, you should let Onesimus go because it's the law.

Instead, he's going to argue, you should let Onesimus go because of your love.

The love of Christ compels us, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 14.

And what Paul mentions in verse 9, I, Paul, an aged man.

It appears that age has sort of softened Paul.

You know, there was a time in Paul's life where Paul could make people do things.

Before he was a Christian in Acts 26, 11, Paul says, I compelled or I forced Christians to blaspheme.

Paul used to operate through might, but now he says, the gospels changed me.

I operate through love.

And if the gospel makes a difference in your life, listen, it won't be theoretical,

it will be real, and it'll be in how you approach people.

Everybody in this room approaches people typically in one of two ways.

You're using one of two approaches in your day-to-day life and how you engage with people.

One of those approaches is what we'll just call one method is the courtroom method.

The courtroom method is where you approach people and you gather your evidence.

You present your case, you structure your arguments, you cross-examine,

and above all, you want everybody to know, I'm right.

It's what the brother does that approaches Jesus in Luke 12, 13, and 14.

He says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Jesus says, man, who made me a ruler or an arbiter between you and your brother?

The courtroom method says, I'm right, I want you to know it.

And when you approach people, you've got arguments and cases and you call witnesses and you want

to prove yourself right.

The second approach is what we'll call the living room approach.

This is where you sit instead of stand.

You lower your voice, you open your heart.

You listen before you speak.

You ask rather than you assume.

You try to get to know what the other person is thinking.

And everybody in this room, you are typically using one of these two approaches with the people

in your life.

But let me tell you, if you go around in life using the courtroom approach with people,

people will be about as happy to see you coming as they are when they learn to have jury duty.

But if you use the living room approach, people will embrace you, fall on your neck, and kiss

you even when you have to tell them hard things like a homeless man that you've just invited

over for Thanksgiving dinner.

See, what this tells me is that some of us are great lawyers, but we're terrible neighbors.

Oh, we've got our arguments, we've got the truth, we're even right.

But our delivery of such, it turns people away.

Leviticus 19, 18, Moses writes, love your neighbor like you love yourself.

And you're typically using one of these two approaches.

And so am I.

And what does this mean?

It means in your marriage, you can be right with your spouse.

But if you never use the living room approach that says, you know what, I'm right about this,

but I would rather...

Don't you see Paul?

Paul says, I could command, I have authority, but I'd rather appeal to you in love.

If every time your kids mess up, every time it's the courtroom method, the gospel hasn't

really changed you.

If people in your family always feel like they're on trial rather than in a home,

that's how you know.

What about the people on your job?

It won't matter what you're saying here.

Just ask them, they'll tell you.

They'll tell you which one is your favorite.

You might be thinking about Facebook.

How do you engage with people?

Courtroom or living room?

What about your friends?

And especially when you're right, the gospel makes a difference because it

radically changes how you approach people.

And there's two important things to take away from this.

Number one, Paul could have used the one rather than the other.

He was right.

He had the arguments, he had the authority, but he didn't.

And the second thing is to think about Jesus.

And Jesus comes to earth and he could take us to court and prosecute us,

but instead he sits to reason with us.

The living room approach was Jesus' favorite way to deal with us.

What does he say as he's heading to the cross?

I could call 12 legions of angels.

That's the living room approach, Matthew 26, 53 to 54.

Pilate, you'd have no power over me at all unless it was given to you

from heaven, John 19 and verse 11.

There it is again.

That's the living room approach that says, I could, but I'd rather not.

If you be the Christ, come down from the cross, then we'll see and then we'll

believe.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, Luke 23 and verse 34.

Over and over again in Jesus' life with us, rather than take us to court,

he sits us down in the living room and says, I could exercise all of this power

and authority, but I won't do it.

And people who've been saved by a man like that, in a way like that,

if the gospel actually changes us, it changes the way we engage

with everybody.

Second Corinthians 5.17, Paul says, if any man's in Christ,

he's a new creature.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, everything's become new.

And if you know you've really been saved by the living room approach,

it'd make no sense to live the entirety of your life through the

courtroom approach.

See, the gospel is not just facts.

It actually makes a difference.

Why can Paul appeal to Philemon instead of command him?

Because it changes how you approach people.

You realize how God's approached you and it radically reforms how you

approach everybody else.

Here's number three, it changes your past.

Philemon, verse 10, Paul says, I'm appealing to you for Onesimus,

whose father I became in my imprisonment.

He formerly was useless to you, but now he's useful both to you and me

in the Lord.

Here's Paul, where he really wants to be.

Here's his argument.

He says in verse 10, I'm writing to you, Philemon,

about this slave of yours, Onesimus.

And he says, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

Evidently, when Onesimus came to Paul, Paul converted him.

He became a Christian.

And Paul writes this letter back and he says, hey,

everything with Onesimus is different now.

And Philemon, you've got to receive him this way.

By the way, Onesimus' name means useful.

There was a time when he was not living up to his namesake, but Paul says,

now he is, and now his whole life is different.

And Philemon, you've got to appreciate the gospel has changed his past.

This terminology in verse 10, whose father I became in my imprisonment,

it means that Paul was responsible for converting Onesimus to Christianity.

It's what he says about the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 15.

He says, you might have many teachers in Christ, but I'm your father,

and I brought you forth to life through the gospel.

It's what he says about Titus in Titus 1 and verse 4, his true son in the faith.

And it's what he says here about Onesimus.

But there's a bigger point underneath all of this.

It's not just that Onesimus has becomes Paul's son in the faith,

or that he's Philemon's servant.

It's more than that.

When he became a Christian, when he was baptized, Paul's saying,

he's now the son of God, and everything's different about him.

Galatians 3 and verse 26, Paul says, for we are all the children of God by faith

in Christ Jesus.

For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

The gospel makes a difference because it really does change your past.

The Bible doesn't say if you become a Christian, you become like a new creature

or you receive like a new life.

It says you literally receive a new life.

You're literally a new person.

You rise to walk in newness of life.

It's not a mirage.

It's not a metaphorical statement.

You really are a new person.

What does that mean?

It means if before you became a Christian, you lived a terrible life and you did

terrible things, the gospel makes a difference when you learn you don't have

to keep going back to the past to try to fix your mistakes because God's already

forgiven it.

Jeremiah 33 and verse 8, he says, I'll forgive their iniquities, their sins,

their rebellion against me is forgiven.

It means you see your past differently if you lived a relatively moral life before

you became a Christian.

You no longer look back there to appeal to your own good behavior.

I really wasn't so bad a person.

No man's righteous.

No, not one.

The gospel's made the biggest difference and it's made a change in me.

What you see on the screen is an example of what AI technology is called the

magic eraser.

It was created by Google in 2021 and other platforms have since come up with

their own.

You take a picture with your phone or your tablet and through this technology,

if you want the perfect picture, you can just kind of go in and remove people,

photo bombers from the background, other images, and AI-generated technology will

fill in the gaps with what it would have looked like if those people had never

been there.

What this picture is not saying, the final frame, is that those people weren't really

at the beach with this girl on that day, but the final frame and the final picture

makes it as if they were never really there to begin with.

And the gospel is God's ultimate eraser.

It's not to say the mistakes in your life weren't actually made, but it's to say,

in the final frame of your life, the one that will actually be hung in the

hallways of heaven, it won't be there and people try as they might.

They can look it up and dig it up and bring it up, but God's balled it up and it

won't be held against you.

Hebrews 8 and verse 12, God says, I will be merciful to their

unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities, I'll remember no more.

Paul writes this to say to Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back.

But when he walks through the doors of your house, I want you to know he's a

different person because the gospel can change somebody's past.

Just think about the man writing those words.

Paul knows what he knows because he could say, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor.

I was a violent aggressor, but the gospel changed him.

And Philemon, you're a Christian, you know what the gospel has done for you.

And it's done the same thing for Onesimus.

If you're a Christian, the gospel makes a practical difference in your life

because it changes your past.

Here's number four, it fixes broken relationships.

You could say this is the heart of the book of Philemon.

When you get to verses 12 through 17, Paul says, I'm sending Onesimus back to you,

sending my very heart.

Paul says, I could have just done what I wanted, but I didn't want to do anything

without your consent.

And verse 15, which Nat read for us, he says, perhaps this is why he departed

from you for a season, that you might receive him back forever,

no longer as a servant, but as a brother, both in the Lord and in the flesh,

to you and to me.

Paul says, the gospel, it fixes these broken relationships.

The gospel makes a practical difference because it puts these

relationships right.

The preaching of the gospel is sometimes referred to in the New Testament as the

ministry of reconciliation.

That means you and God were enemies, the gospel puts you back together,

2 Corinthians 5, 19 through 20.

The preaching of that message is the preaching the message of reconciliation,

2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18, to make people friends again.

And what Paul's saying to Philemon is, Onesimus is coming back.

And if the gospel has made a difference in you, you're not allowed to see him

as a slave anymore.

You've got to see him as a brother in Christ and you've got to treat him.

Look at verse 17, he's going to literally command him,

receive him just like you would me.

And what we've got to ask ourselves is this, do I believe the gospel?

You say, yes, I'm a Christian.

And Paul would say, okay, how's the gospel making a difference

in your life and is it fixing broken relationships?

In my life, not just with God, but with other people around me,

how do I go about letting it change my life and my relationships

with other people?

Because in the first century, churches were just like ours,

they weren't perfect.

Sometimes there'd be two women in the church that didn't get along and Paul would

write like he did to the Philippians.

Yoda and Syntyche, I want you to fix it, Philippians 4, 1 through 3.

But Jesus expected that people that believed in him would have the spiritual

maturity to fix their difficulties.

He says, if your brother sins against you, I want you to go to him and solve it,

Matthew 18, 15 through 17.

And if you realize somebody has a problem with you, I want you to go to them,

Matthew 5, 23 through 24.

He says, leave your gift at the altar.

That is, don't even come to worship until you get this fixed.

That means if there are two spiritual people with a problem,

they should actually meet on the way because they want to fix it and they want

to solve it.

And if you believe the gospel, the difference it makes is it fixes

broken relationships because the gospel is the ultimate confrontation.

I've already confronted my sin in the gospel and my God.

And because I know I'm not perfect, I can engage with other people freely and

regularly under that reality and I can allow it to do its work on me and

change me.

But, you know, people typically have two responses to this.

They say, well, Hiram, wait a minute, I'm not the confrontational type,

I don't like problems.

Or on the other side, they say, I really don't want to have a confrontation

with anybody because I'm liable to go off.

I've got a bad temper and I don't want to explode on anybody.

And both of those are incorrect and cowardly responses.

The gospel won't let you stuff it down, it won't let you hide under it,

it won't let you push it aside.

If the gospel makes a difference when there are broken things in

relationships with people, you've got the wherewithal to fix it

in Jesus's name.

Romans 12, 18, Paul says, as much as is possible,

as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.

There are two ways people typically clean.

There's the rush clean and then what we call the real clean.

The rush clean is when unannounced company comes to your house and you start

cleaning like a teenager, just throwing stuff in drawers,

everything goes in the garage, coffee mug, you just want it to appear nice.

Whether it's actually clean or not, this is what I want people to see.

The real cleaning is when you actually throw things in the trash that need to go

in the trash, put things in a place that actually belong in a place,

and you do the hard work.

And I'm telling you, it's possible to be a Christian and to hear this and say

to yourself, yep, somebody else needs to hear that.

And all you've ever done with hard relationships in your life is what we'll

call rush cleaning.

You stuff it down, you can't have hard conversations without losing your cool,

or you avoid people.

And if you do that, just like a drawer with stuff just thrown in it,

your heart will be filled with junk, you won't have real reconciliation,

you won't have real peace, you'll avoid these relationships.

And if the gospel has made a difference, Paul says, Philemon,

Onesimus is coming back and you won't be able to duck him,

you've got to face him.

And how many churches, and how many families, and how many jobs where people

that claim to be Christians, I mean, we can't even do this,

we can't have the hard conversations.

Paul says, if you're a Christian, and if the gospel's changed you,

you'll allow it to.

It'll fix and mend those relationships.

We won't simply say, well, how are y'all doing?

We're all right, when you know it's all wrong.

When you know there hasn't been real peace that's been made.

See, the gospel is not just theoretical.

It's not just words on a page, it actually invades our business and

gets in our lives and it says, you know what?

I've been made right with God, but when I find out I'm not right with others,

I really want to do a real clean.

I want to have hard conversations and I want to keep my cool, keep my Christ.

We can talk to one another in love and we can fix it.

Paul says, Philemon, you've got to do this because the gospel

has really changed you.

Here's number five, it empowers us to do hard things.

He says, receive him just like you would receive me.

I want you to receive this brother just like you would receive me.

And he says, by the way, if he owes you anything, I'll repay it.

I, Paul, verse 19, write it with my own hand, I will repay it.

He says, to say nothing that you owe me, even your own life.

How does the gospel make a difference?

It empowers us to do hard things.

Paul's probably asking Philemon to do the hardest thing he'd ever do in his life.

Everybody around Philemon has slaves and Philemon, I want you to let Onesimus go.

He's a brother, I want you to receive him like that.

He now has a different master and I want you to accept it.

You know there are some things in the New Testament in Christianity

that are very easy for you to do.

And when you come across those things in the Bible,

God wants you to do those things.

And then there are some things you read in the Bible

and they're terribly difficult for you to do.

And when you come across those things, God wants you to do those too.

Sometimes I talk to people about the Bible

and they act as if I've been a preacher my whole life.

Like I came out of the womb with a KJV right under my arm.

You know, people think I'm not a real human being.

They'll say, Hiram, oh yeah, the Bible says that but,

and then they'll start in.

Here is the thing, everybody struggles with this,

including the person preaching this lesson.

But the gospel makes a difference when we stop saying,

the Bible says that but,

and we start saying the Bible says that and.

The Bible says that and, I'm just gonna do it.

I can, I will, I must do hard things, Luke 9, 23.

Philemon, I want you to receive him just like you would me.

How can he do that?

That's onesimus.

I want you to treat him just like you would me.

For some of us, that means you've got to forgive a deep hurt.

People have hurt you, people have wronged you.

How long are you gonna be a prisoner to it?

The Bible says you can do hard things.

You can forgive it.

You've got to.

If you want to be forgiven, Matthew 6, 13 and 14.

For some, that means you've got to repent

and turn loose of a sin that appears to have you

as gripped as tight as your skin on your bones.

But you can do it.

You can do hard things, Acts 3 and verse 19.

For others of us, that means you've got to confess this,

surrender of self-reliance,

and I can't do anything without him, John 15 and verse 5.

But the gospel makes a practical difference

when it says to us, you can do challenging things.

Philemon had to do this and he could.

And here's the last thing, number six.

It saturates our lives with grace.

If you're writing your Bible, look at verse 25.

At the end of this letter, Paul gives some salutations.

He sends greetings.

He says, there's Aristarchus, there's Demas,

there's Luke, there's Mark, there's Epaphras.

All these people are with me.

But the last verse, and it goes along with the song

Mike sung right before the sermon.

He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with your spirit.

Earlier, he mentioned grace in verse three,

and now the last thing he says in this book is,

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

Paul sandwiches everything he says so far

with the idea of grace, and that's on purpose.

And Paul does this a lot in the New Testament.

Commands a host of things of us and then says,

by the way, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with your spirit, because that's exactly

what it's gonna take for you to do

what God's asking you to do,

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says we're saved by, yes, Ephesians 2, 8, 9,

but we're also sustained by.

Grace isn't just what gets salvation going.

It's what sustains us throughout.

I mean, imagine being Philemon.

Tychicus or Onesimus comes back with this letter.

You're in your house, you start reading this letter,

and you start saying internally,

Paul, there's no way I can do this.

You have no idea what Onesimus has done to me.

I just couldn't possibly forgive him.

And then you lay your eyes on the last verse in this book,

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,

and then you start imagining God saying,

there's no way I can forgive them.

You've got no idea what they've done to me,

but of course you know better.

And you know that God's forgiven you,

and because the grace of our Lord

has led to our forgiveness.

Everything that Paul asked in the 24 verses before it

is possible and it's required because grace does reach us,

and it changes everything about us.

Our entire lives are saturated with it,

and it's how we learn to move out in the world.

Because he's been gracious toward us,

we're gracious toward others.

There's a lot of things you're gonna learn in life

that in the end won't really make a difference.

Christianity is not one of those things.

I'm telling you, it's tempting

to come to church your whole life.

Read the Bible, study, and pray, and think.

These are great little spiritual truths,

great little spiritual nuggets.

All the while forgetting the gospel is designed

to really change the kind of people we become.

It redefines love.

What's true love?

What the Bible says.

Not just the feeling, the people you love

and serve and do life with.

How do you approach people?

Living room or courtroom?

Ask the people in your life.

They'll tell you.

What about your past?

Does it cling to you or have you left it behind?

And can you do the hard work

of fixing broken relationships to the best of your ability

because the grace of Jesus Christ has done it with you

in the most important relationship with God?

The gospel makes a difference,

but first it has to be heard, obeyed, and believed.

And if you wanna do that this morning,

we'd be happy to be witnesses to it

and assist you in any way we can.

If you believe Jesus is the Son of God,

you're ready to turn away from sin.

We'll take your confession that Jesus is the Messiah,

baptize you in water for the forgiveness of your sins.

You'll rise to walk in newness of life.

And in conjunction with this lesson,

it won't just be theoretical.

Everything will be different.

It'll change your relationship with God, but with people,

and most of all, it'll change you.

Mike's gonna lead us in a song to encourage us

if you need to respond.

Come nice together, we stand and as we sing.