The Book of Philemon: Part 2

Well, you received a little package of honey when you

came in today.

Hold on to this. I'll explain what we're gonna do

in just a moment.

We've been in a message series looking at the Book

of Phi Leman in the New Testament.

It's one of the shortest books in the Bible.

And we've been learning how do we read the Bible

for all its worth?

How do we read to get the most out of

the Bible.

And today I want to share some helpful tools and

how to read the Bible. But before we do that,

I need to clear up some confusion. How many of

you pronounce the name of this book Phi Lehman and

how many of you pronounced it Philammon? Okay, let me

clear up some confusion. This week I did some research

and I read some Bible scholars.

I read a few.

Published articles looking at some of the archaeology experts who

understand the ancient language.

And the consensus in.

The Bible scholar world is that they're there is no

correct way to pronounce the name of this book.

I pronounced it phile Eman because that's just the way

I was taught.

Now, let's talk about this honey that you have the

oldest parts of the Bible are written in the Old Testament,

and the Old Testament is the foundational Hebrew Bible.

It's the Bible of the Israelite people.

It was written in the Hebrew language the majority of it,

and Jewish tradition tells us that when Jewish children started

to go to school, they went to school around the

age of five, and when they started school, they would

learn to read the Bible. They read the Old Testament,

the Law of God. And typically when these children learn

how to read the Bible, their teacher or their rabbi

would give them a taste of honey while they read

the Bible.

They associated the taste of honey with God's word. And

so that's what we're gonna try today.

If you'd like to, you can go ahead and open

your honey and give it a little taste.

And if you're tasting it, listen.

To these words from the Bible. So I one nineteen,

how sweet are your words to my taste? Sweeter than

honey to my mouth? Proverbs twenty four. Eat honey, my son,

for it is good. Honey from the comb is.

Sweet to your taste.

Know also that wisdom is like honey for you if

you find it, there is a future hope for you.

Just like honey is sweet and delicious, the Word of

God is sweet to our souls. The word of God

satisfies our souls. It teaches our hearts to know God.

You know our taste buds love the taste of something sweet,

whether it's honey, or it's cake, or chocolate or ice cream.

We like that sweet taste and it leaves us wanting more.

The Word of God is the same. It creates a

desire us for the ways of God. It speaks to

our heart and to our soul. Last week, Pastor James

did an excellent job of sharing how we choose a

Bible translation, how we understand context of scripture, and if

you missed out last week, you can find the sermon

recording on the church app. Today, I want to help

answer a question some people have, and that is why

should I care about reading the Bible?

Why care about it?

There are some who think that the Bible is just ancient,

it's old, it's outdated, it's written for another time. Why

should I care about it? Others see that the Bible

is more mythology, more you know, inspired literature, poetry.

It's beautiful, but does it really mean anything to me?

And I think there's a lot of us that we

would like to read the Bible, but it's confusing, it's

it's difficult to understand why should I care about the Bible.

But one reason is that the Bible is not just information.

The Bible is transformation. It transforms us. Last week, James

talked about different translations of the Bible. I want to

mention today that there are different publications of the Bible

that can help us get the most out of it.

For example, a new publication came out this year called

the Lectio Bible. Lectio is Latin for reading, and this

is actually the Bible that I'm currently using in my

personal prayer and devotion time. The Lectio Bible is published

in a way that removes chapters and chapter headings and

verse numbers because those things were not in the original text.

Those were added later for organization and publication, and so

it's designed to read like in a devotional, personal way.

There's also the Recovery Bible for someone who's on the

journey of recovery. This Bible has annotations and footnotes, commentary

that connects the scripture to the recovery journey. And then

this next Bible was just published this year. It is

the dyslexia friendly Bible, and it's written in a way

and published in a way that helps those with dyslexia

read it. There's certain fonts, there's certain paragraph structures, there's

even overlays that you can put on the pages to

help read the word. There are different publications that we

can use because the Bible is transformational. These are the

words of God that his Holy Spirit inspired authors to

write down so that we can be drawn.

Into relationship with God.

The purpose of the Bible is to reveal God's heart

to our heart and invite us into relationship with him.

It is transformational. You see, the.

Bible is alive, not dead. The Bible is old, but

it's not dead.

It is alive.

It is the living, breathing words of God. Look at

what Hebrews four says, for the Word of God is

alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It

penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

God's Word is alive. It reveals us God's will.

It reveals us God's heart, God's word shows us God's love.

It's transformational. I want to tell you a story.

On December seventh, nineteen forty one, a young military pilot

named Mitsuo Fushida led the Japanese bombing attack on Pearl Harbor.

That day, more than two thousand Americans lost their lives.

And this was the event that drew the United States

into World War Two, and many many Americans enlisted and

volunteered to go defend our country. One of those Americans

was Jacob de Chazer, who became a pilot in the

United States military, flying airplane missions during the war until

his plane was shot down and Dshazer was captured by

the Japanese military and he was held in a pow camp.

And while he was a prisoner of Wardshazer was tortured,

He was beaten, he was abused, he was starved and humiliated.

But somehow, while the Chazer was in this camp, he

got his hands on a Bible and he began reading

the Word of God. And the Word of God transformed

his life. The hatred he felt toward his enemy was dissolved,

his bitterness and his anger was replaced with forgiveness and

he surrendered his life to Jesus. At the end of

the war, the Chaser was released and he returned to

the United States, but only briefly, because he traveled back

to Japan as a missionary and spent his life sharing

the good news of Jesus.

Teen forty eight years.

After World War Two, Fushida, the Japanese pilot, was living

in Tokyo, Japan, when he heard the story of Jacob

DeShazer and his conversion to Christianity.

Fushida was so intrigued.

And curious that he got a copy of the Bible

and he started reading God's word, and God's Word transformed

his life, and he surrendered his life to Jesus, becoming

a Christian. And two years later, Fushida and de Shazer

met for the first time face to face, and these

men spent.

The rest of their life proclaiming the gospel.

This is the power of God's Word to transform.

Now.

You and I may not be caught up in a

war like that or were responsible for violence like the

people in this story. But God's Word can transform every

life because there is supernatural, living power in the Word

of God. There is power to break addiction. There is

power to forgive sin. There is power to reconcile relationships.

There's power to give you hope when you're hopeless. There

is power in the Word of God to give you

a purpose to keep living in life. The Word of

God is powerful and it transforms us. The Bible is

also useful. Do you need help? Do you need advice?

Are you trying to make a decision? Open the Bible. Parents,

do you want to raise your children well? Open the Bible.

Are you trying to lead well, lead a business, lead

a team? Open the Bible. The Bible is useful for

everything in our lives. Two Timothy chapter three says all

scripture is God breathed and is useful.

Would you say the word useful?

The Word of God is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

and training in righteousness. Notice this scripture says all scripture

is God breathed. The Bible comes from the breath of God.

Sometimes when we open the Bible, it will shout, it'll

get our attention. Sometimes it'll shout and it's real clear,

it's right there. Often when we open the Bible, it's

the whisper of God. It's the breath of God that

teaches us.

And guides us.

You see, the Word of God brings life. Now, it's

tempting to read this scripture and the Word is useful

for teaching, rebuking, and correcting, and it's tempting to read

that and then think to myself, I've got a friend

that needs some correcting, or I wonder if there's a

scripture that I can use to train my spouse. This

scripture doesn't mean that we weaponize the Word of God.

It's meant to encourage, to build up, to bring life.

It says all scripture is God breathed. You know, there's

another place in the Bible where we talk about the

breath of God.

It's in Genesis. It's in the creation story.

God created the world, he spoke into existence, his word

created and then when he created the first man and

the first woman, he formed human beings out of the dust,

and then.

He breathes life into their bodies.

You see, the word of God, the breath of God

breathes life.

It does not.

Bring death, it does not bring condemnation, it does not

bring shame.

But the Word of God elevates and breeds life. And

so yes, of.

Course I want to share scripture with my friends, with

my family.

But I want to do it with life, giving, with

encouragement that brings hope, because the Word of God brings life.

And so we come to the Word and we listen

for the whisper of God to guide us, to correct us,

to show us the heart of God.

When I was a teenager, my mom taught me the

value of God's word.

When I was sixteen, I was eager to get my

driver's license.

And I know some.

Teenagers here are ready to get your driver's license and

your permit. I wanted that freedom and that independence, and

so I was excited.

But my mom made a deal with me. Before I

could get my.

Driver's license, she challenged me to memorize one book of

the Bible. And I thought, no problem. I memorized Phi Lehman,

It's really short. But the rule was I had to

memorize a book that was more than just one chapter,

at least two chapters.

And so I chose Philippians.

And I worked really hard, and I studied Philippians and

I tried to memorize it. In the end, I did

not memorize one hundred percent of Philippians. Mom was graceful

she's not legalistic. She appreciated my best effort. I wish

I could stand up here and recite the whole Book

of Philippians, but I didn't retain it all. But you

know what stuck with me, the value of God's word.

To treasure God's word, love God's word. Read what Psalm

one nineteen says, I have hidden your word in my

heart that I might not sin against you.

Have you hidden the Word of God in your heart?

Have you absorbed it, meditated on it, memorized it. You

may or might not know that our church is a

part of the Church of God movement. The Church of

God is a movement across North America around the globe,

thousands of churches, and for more than one hundred years,

the Church of God has had a nickname. The Church

of God has been called People of the Book. That's

our nickname because we love the Bible and we obey

the Bible. There are some Christian denominations that have creeds

and denominational documents and doctrinal statements, and those are good

and those are appropriate. For Often the Church of God

has informally said, we have no creed but the Bible,

which kind of sounds like a creed or a motto

when you think of it.

We are people of the book. We love the book.

And recently I googled Church of God movement just to

see what the Internet had to say about our heritage.

Can I tell you what Google said about the Church

of God. This is from Google. The Church of God

is a Bible based community that believes the Bible is

the ultimate source of authority and guidance.

We are people of the Book.

And I was so encouraged recently when I peeked my

head into our children's ministry and I saw our elementary

children in the gym sitting in a large circle, and

every child had a copy of the Bible in their lap,

and the adult teacher was teaching them how to read

the Bible, how to understand the Bible, how to understand

the table of contents and where things were in the Bible.

We are people of the book. The Bible is useful. Earlier,

we tasted some of that honey. Did you know that

honey has medicinal properties. It acts like medicine. Anytime I've

got a sore scratchy throat, I put honey in some

tea to help soothe the throat for centuries. Honey's been

used against bacteria, It's been used against inflammation. Honey can heal.

The Bible can heal. There is healing in the Word

of God. The Word of God heals our deepest wounds,

our deepest hurts. The Bible gives you courage when you're afraid.

The Bible gives you confidence when you're insecure. The Bible

gives you hope when you're hopeless.

Do you need help? Do you need comfort? Do you

need encouragement?

The Bible has the power to heal. The Word of

God can heal. The Bible is transformational. The Bible is useful.

And I want to help all of us get the

most out of the Bible. And that's why today I

want to share some helpful tools as you read the Bible.

I want to mention five different ways that you can

read the Bible. You can choose any one of these

or a combination of them, but five ways to read

the Bible. One you can start with a book of

the Bible. Now, what I'm going to share might sound

a little bit academic or maybe a little bit nerdy,

but I think it's helpful to understand the genre in

the Bible. See the Bible is organized by genre, from

Old Testament to New Testament, and the first genre in

the Bible is the Law from Genesis to Deuteronomy.

These are the first.

Five books of the Law, written by Moses inspired by God.

These are the laws of the Israelites. The law books

are often called the Pentateuch because pentamines five. Then there's

history from Joshua through Esther, and the history books recounts

the history of the nation of Israel and how God

related to his people all throughout his history. And then

you come to the wisdom and poetry genre Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes.

These are all full of symbolism and metaphor and written

as songs in poetry and literature. My grandfather was one

of the wisest persons that I knew. My grandfather was

a successful businessman and entrepreneur, and every day before he

started work, he would arrive at the office, typically before

anybody else arrived, sometimes before the sun was up, and

my grandfather would sit down at his desk and in

one hand he would hold a cup of coffee. In

the other hand he would hold his Bible. And he

told me that he needed God's wisdom and advice to

run his company.

He needed wisdom to make decisions.

My grandfather told me that Proverbs was his favorite book

of the Bible because Proverbs was full of practical advice

and wisdom and teaching about how to manage finances, how

to lead, how to have integrity. So my grandfather told

me that there are thirty one chapters in the Book

of Proverbs. That's one chapter a day in a typical month.

And so if you want wisdom, if you want advice,

read one chapter of Proverbs every day for a month

and see what God does in your life. These wisdom

and poetry books are full of emotion, and some of

my favorite scriptures are in the Wisdom books, which brings

us to the prophets Isaiah through Malachi. Whereas some people

say Malachi the Italian prophet.

He's not Italian. I guarantee you that.

But these are the prophets that God raised up to

speak his word to Israel, to provide correction, direction, and hope.

And then when you turn to the New Testament, there

are three primary genres in the New Testament. First, you

have the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gospels

are more than.

Just Jesus's biography.

The Gospels were written by these four different authors for

a very specific purpose to communicate the good news of

Jesus and inspire their readers to know the way to salvation.

And then you have the epistles Romans through Jude. Epistle

simply means letter, and many of these letters were written

to churches corporately, and some of them were written to individuals,

like the Letter of Philemen written to one person. And

then finally there's Revelation and a genre all on its

called apocalyptic And if you want to learn more about Revelation,

we went through a twelve week long teaching series last

summer on the Book of Revelation and you can find

those archives on the church website. So you could study

a book of the Bible, you could also study a

person in the Bible. The Bible is full of historical

figures that we can learn from. Now, can I give

you one piece of advice if you're going to study

a person in the Bible, there's one piece of advice,

and this is true of every single person you read

in the Bible. Every single person in the Bible is flawed, sinful,

and imperfect.

Except for Jesus.

David was an adulterer, Moses was a murderer, Abraham was

a liar, Solomon was a fornicator, Saul was insecure. Samuel

was a really lousy parent. So when I read these

people in the Bible, I'm in good company. You can

read a person of the Bible and learn from their life.

You can also study a topic in the Bible. There

might be a topic that you want to learn more about.

Do you need marriage advice or relationship advice. The New

Testament is full of teaching about families, or maybe you

struggle with legalism and judging other people. Grace might be

a topic that you want to read and learn more about.

You could also read through the entire Bible. Now, this

is ambitious. This is an exhaustive approach, and it's helpful

because maybe there are some parts of the Bible that

you've never read, you don't know much about some of

those prophets, or you want to learn more about the

kings of Israel in the history. Well, this approach helps

you cover exhaustively the whole Bible.

And if that's something you want to take on.

We prepared a reading plan the Bible all of the

Bible in one year, and you can find it on

the church app There's also a paper copy at the

grow desk in the lobby. And finally, the fifth way

that you can read the Bible is to try a

daily devotion. And this is the one that I personally

like in my life. I like reading a daily devotion

with a little bit of scripture that applies to my

life and helps me know Jesus more. And this is

the approach that I want to emphasize today. We're gonna

get really practical right.

Now, just for a few moments.

And so I want to say, if you've got something

to write with a pen and paper, go ahead and

take it out. If you've got a phone and want

to take some notes, go ahead and take it out.

Because I want to get really practical to help you

read the Bible for.

What it's worth.

And so we're gonna approach the Book of Phileman and

I want to show you how you can do a

daily devotion with a.

Small section of scripture.

There's a popular Bible study tool called SOAP SOAP and

it stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. It's a

very simple model it's the model that we use in

our daily devotion books and guide books.

That we hand out around here. But I want to.

Walk through how to do this, So if you're taking notes,

you can take down a sample soap devotional. So last

week we learned some of the context about Philemon.

Paul is the author. He's writing to his friend Philemon.

Phileman owned a slave named Onesimus, and Onesimus ran away.

He stole from Philemon, and Onesimus found his way to Paul.

And so Paul.

Writes to Philemen imploring him to reconcile with Onesimus. And

so as we go through soap, we start with scripture.

We're going to start in verse nine of Philemon.

It says, it is as none other than Paul, an

old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus,

that I appeal to you for my son Onessemus, who

became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he

was useless to you, but now now he has become

useful both to you and to me.

I'm sending him, who is my very heart, back to you.

I would have liked to keep him with me so

that he could take your place in helping me while

I'm in chains for the gospel. But I did not

want to do anything without your consent, so that any

favor you do would not seem forced, but would be voluntary.

Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a

little while was that you might have him back forever,

no longer as a slave, but better than a slave,

as a dear brother. He is very dear to me,

but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man

and as a brother in the Lord. So if you

consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything,

charge it to me. I paul am writing this with

my own hand. I will pay it back, not to

mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother,

that I may have some benefit from you. The Lord

refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I

write to you knowing that you will do even more.

Than I ask. So that was our scripture.

We read verses nine through twenty one, and now we

make some observations. What do you notice in the scripture?

What stood out to you? What caught your attention. Here's

some observations that I made first. I noticed in verse ten,

Paul says, I appeal to you for.

My son Onesemus.

This word appeal caught my attention. It reminded me of

something else that Paul wrote and set in Corinthians five.

He said, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God

were making his appeal through us. We implore you, on

Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. So I'm observing here

that Paul is imploring if I leave in Anestemus to

be reconciled. He's appealing just as God has appealed to

you and me to be reconciled to God. There's another

observation I make in verse eighteen. I notice that Paul writes,

if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything,

charge it to me. I Paul, I am writing this

in my own hand. I will pay it back. So

this stands out to me. I noticed this when I

was reading this. Paul offers to pay back on us

missus debt. It reminds me of how Jesus paid my debt.

Jesus forgave me. I noticed Paul's generosity. Is there anything

that you notice, anything that you observe anything that stands

out to you, make a note of it.

So we start with scripture.

It makes some observations, and then application. This is where

it's personal. This is where what is God asking me

to do or where is God teaching me or or

showing me something to do. And as I was looking

at this scripture this week, I felt like my application

is that God was asking me to become more generous.

Generosity is what stood out to me. Generosity is what

the Lord spoke to me. Just as Paul was generous

to pay back Onesmus's debt.

God was inviting me to be more generous.

At the beginning of a new year, every year I

ask the Lord for a word for that year, something

that I can embody for the year, something that I

can grow, and something that I can.

Practice in my walk with Jesus.

And at the beginning of twenty twenty five, I felt

the Lord put on my heart the word generous that

I want to be a generous person with my words,

generous with my resources, generous with my time. And so

as I'm reading this scripture, this theme of generosity is

my application. Now when you read the scripture, God may

show you something different for your life. Perhaps you relate

to Fi Lehmann and God is showing you there is

somebody that you need to forgive and reconcile. We're on

the other hand, you identify with onesmus you need to

ask for forgiveness. Do you know what's beautiful about the

Word of God. It's alive, it's useful, it's helpful, and

there will be different seasons in your life, even years

from now, where you returned to the Word of God

and you read something that you've read before, and God

will show you something new that you didn't see before.

It was always there, but you just hadn't seen it,

it hadn't applied to you.

That's the living word of God.

So we start with scripture, we make observations application to

our lives, and we end with prayer. And when I

was doing this soap, I just wrote this simple prayer.

I said, God, I want to be more generous. Give

me opportunities this week to practice generosity. Open my eyes

and open my heart. I encourage you to try this

model if you haven't before. Is a helpful tool. It's

not the only way. There are plenty of ways to

read the Bible, but it's one of the ways that

we can allow the Word of God.

To get into our lives.

As we close today, I want to share a story

from Christian history. According to Christian tradition, years after Paul

wrote the Book of Phileman, there was another Christian leader

in the city of Ephesus. In the first century. Ephesus

was a leading Roman city.

It was very.

Influential, very powerful, and this Christian leader that lived in

Ephesus was called the Bishop of Ephesus. He was a

great leader, He was influential, and one ancient church author

described the Bishop of Ephesus as a man whose love

is beyond words. The Bishop of Ephesus was influential. The

Bishop of Ephesus was a great leader, and under Roman persecution,

the Bishop of Ephesus was arrested for preaching the Gospel

and eventually he was executed for being a Christian. Do

you want to guess what this leader's name was. His

name was Onesmus, and many scholars believe that he is

the same Onesemus that Paul is writing about in the

Book of Pailehman.

Talk about a dramatic transformation.

This man was once a slave hiding from his master.

He becomes an influential Church leader in the first century.

He was likely discipled by Paul in the faith. He

went from being a thief who stole to being a

martyr for the faith.

The Bible is not just information, it is transformation.

There is no limit to what God can do in

someone's life. Who will become obedient to the word of God.

There is no problem too big, there is no challenge

too great. There's no personality flaw too troubling that God

cannot transform and use someone's life if we will obey

his word. The word of God is alive, the word

of God is useful, and the word of God transforms.

Would you pray with me, Father God, thank you for

the gift of your word. Thank you that you speak

to us in the pages of the Bible. And God,

there's two things I want to pray for.

Two things that I want to ask for.

First, God, I want to pray for anyone listening who

has been wounded inappropriately.

By the words of the Bible.

The scripture has been weaponized against them to shame them

and to condemn them.

So God, I ask that you will heal those wounds.

In the name of Jesus, we renounce shame. In the

name of Jesus, we reject condemnation. In the name of Jesus,

would you heal those wounds. There's two things I want

to pray for. God. Want the second one. God, I

want to pray that you would put.

A desire in each one of us.

God, from the youngest child listening, that you would birth

a desire in them, to the oldest adult listening, that

you would give us a renewed desire for your word.

God.

Would your word come alive to us? Would it speak

to our hearts? Would it break down assumptions? Would it

bring truth to lies? Would it correct false teaching that

we've listened to? But God, give us a desire, a craving,

a want to read and obey your word. God, we

thank you for your word, and we thank.

You for Jesus. And it's in his name we pray Amen.