A Study on Philemon - Aug 17th, 2025 - Joe Step

So for those of you who don't know, my name is Joe Step and been at Water Springs last five years

get to teach their high school Bible. Old Testament, New Testament, worldview, done a lot of things over

the years. Pastored back home in Texas for 15 years, pastored out in North Carolina for a little

time, had a master's run out in North Carolina in Wake Forest. And so my wife, Jana, runs all

the elementary, so she's got K-3-5 at Water Springs.

So a lot of kiddos investing in the next generation, sharing Jesus.

We love the biblical worldview and getting an invest that way.

It's also cool because my daughter gets to work over there with her mama.

And that's a lot of fun because you get that connection.

They've been teaching side by side for the bulk of Aaron's life because we started a Christian school

and a preschool back in Texas.

And Aaron was teaching kindergarten by the time she was in third and fourth grade.

So she's been doing this stuff a long time.

My daughter's in college right now working on her associates, Lord Willen.

She'll be done in December with her associates.

And she's looking to go to Dominican Republic.

And if you remember when she was here talking about the sex trafficking stuff,

it looks like that might have some carryover.

She'll be back in Dominican for an education run January through May.

So I really appreciate your prayers for her.

and for me and mom.

That'll be a challenge.

My son is a junior at Hillcrest, and everybody's getting ramped up.

Everybody's ready for school, kiddos, you give me an amen?

Parents, give me an amen?

Let's go.

Yeah, you all figure that out later.

But it's always an honor.

You know, coming into Idaho and getting to know Scotty and so many others,

Another cool opportunity that we've had since we've been here in Idaho is within about six months of coming in and getting settled and getting into school, I had a chance to meet Vaughn Wood and Duane Lyseth and Max and Mary Martin.

How many of you know those guys down in Blackfoot?

Okay.

Some of you might know those guys.

They are part of a little cowboy church, Christ Cowboy Country Church, down in Blackfoot on Wheating Lane.

And I started filling in there just off and on every other month, every month, whatever it was, however their schedule would go.

And about three and a half years ago, they asked me to come on board and teach full time down there.

So our little cowboy church run and our cowboy, I'm sorry, our biker crew, Perry and those guys are here with us today.

They were down and we, yeah, I love what you guys do, going out shining bright in a lot of places.

Just watch out for pops.

Keep them in between, right?

All right.

So being a part of Cowboy Church down there has been a really beautiful thing.

We get to do that Saturday nights at 7 o'clock.

And so with Frizzell coming in here, what is it, the 7th, I think,

he is going to be down at our place the night before.

So if you want to get a double shot of Mr. Fizzle,

we're going to have him at Cowboy Church.

on Saturday evening at 7.

So anyway, that's a lot of fun.

So we've been working through Romans over there.

What I would like to do today is do a study through Phileman.

One chapter, not a lot of verses.

There's a lot of background.

There's some connections there.

And if you've never been through Philemon,

today will be a day to get you a little perspective on it

and take a look at some of the details

with the letter that Paul writes from prison

to a brother named Philemon about a row.

runaway slave named Omnesimus. And we'll talk about some areas there as the body of Christ

challenges that come up. How many of us have believers have had an issue with another believer?

Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? One of you? Two of you? Steve, you have? Really? I find that hard to

believe. Probably your bride, I guess, huh? No? All right, we don't talk about that. So let's pray

And I can't remember how Skyy does it.

Is everybody stand when we read the word?

Is that the way we roll?

I don't want to offend anybody.

I just, okay, if you want to stand, you can stand.

But let's actually read the word first, and then we'll dive in.

How's that?

Everybody good?

Okay, Philemon.

It's just one chapter.

But I would like to read it so we all have it together in our mind that the Holy Spirit

will have all of that to work with with us.

Is it fair?

All right, let's read.

Philemon?

one. And if you want to stand and honor to read God's word, you can do that. If not, it's all good.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved brother, and fellow worker,

and to Afia, our sister, to Archipus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.

Grace to you, peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always making

mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus,

and towards who?

All the saints.

And I pray that the fellowship of your faith

may become effective through the knowledge

of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake.

For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love

because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ

to order you to do what is proper,

Yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also what?

A prisoner of Christ Jesus.

I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to you,

circle useless in your Bible or highlight it, but now is what?

useful, profitable. Highlight that. Both to you and to me, Paul says. I have sent him back to you in person

that is sending my very heart, whom I wish to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me

in my imprisonment for the gospel. But without your consent, I did not want to do anything so that

your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but of what?

your own choice or your own free will.

For perhaps he was for this reason,

separated from you for a while,

that you would have him back forever.

No longer is a slave, but much more than a slave,

a beloved brother, especially to me,

but how much more to you?

Both in the flesh and in the Lord.

If then you regard me as a partner,

accept him as you will,

would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, what's he asked

Phileman to do? Put it, charge it to my account. Wow. I, Paul, am writing this with my own

hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you that you owe me even yourself as well. Yes, brother,

Let me benefit from you and the Lord, refresh my heart in Christ.

Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.

At the same time, also prepare a lodging for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you.

Epaphrus, my fellow prisoner, in Christ Jesus, greet you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demus, Luke, my fellow workers.

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

Let's pray.

Father, thank you.

Allowing us in to the lives of several men, three in particular,

Paul, Onesimus, and Philemon.

But there's a dynamic here that plays out very effectively, very practically here,

among our own selves, with husbands and wives, with parents and children.

children with maybe families that have been separated, maybe larger work of the body of Christ,

that there have been offenses, there have been things that happen.

What is a right response?

And we've read your living word, and we know that you are present with us today to help us work

through this.

And we know that your word is so deep and wide, Father, that there's no way we're going to

touch on everything today.

but maybe it's just seeds that are being planted right now by your spirit as we work through this.

But what we do know is it won't stop here.

There will be weeks ahead, months ahead, years ahead,

that there are going to be these things that come back up that we're going to be reminded of.

Because every day we've been called to give our eyes fixed on Jesus,

to walk by faith, not by sight,

and to not get caught up in the circumstance,

but walk according to the identity,

as we talked about last time together,

the beauty of that identity,

because we have been crucified with our Savior Jesus Christ,

and we no longer live.

He lives in us.

So help us to truly walk by faith in this flesh every day.

As Paul said, this flesh is wasting away,

and we're not going to get caught up in the surface stuff.

but what we are reminded of, the inner man.

Father, you begun a good work, you will continue it.

The inner man is being renewed day by day.

So help us to walk by faith in this flesh, our eyes fixed on Jesus,

because he's the one who loved us and gave himself for us.

Thank you.

In Jesus' name, everyone said.

Amen, amen, amen.

All right.

So, Philemon.

A couple of background things.

And these are getting the context.

in the backdrop. So when you think about Philemon, and if we've never been in the run with this,

what we have is Paul the Apostle in prison, and what we know is that during this Roman imprisonment,

probably early 60s, we think Paul probably died around 67 or 68. The last letter he would have

written would have been 2nd Timothy. All right. And so now this letter that he is writing in prison,

Does anybody know the prison epistles?

It's Philemon, Colossians, Philippian, and Ephesians.

So if you ever read those four layered, you're going to see tons of terminology and themes that are super consistent.

So just for the Bible scholar and just a little context on the New Testament, you have those four prison epistles would have been written probably within a year or a year and a half of each other.

So you can look at imprisonment, Ephesion 6.

Philippians 1, Colossians 4 in here in verses 9 and 10.

So he talks about imprisonment in all four of those.

And now writing to Philemon, we also see here a unique connection.

Does he by nowhere onesmus?

Onesimus has only mentioned one other time in the New Testament.

Does anybody know where?

Turn with me.

Keep your finger here in Philemon.

turn back to Colossians 4. Colossians 4, I want to show you something that I think is really

phenomenal. So another reminder is you and I continue to read the New Testament. How many of you get

a little confused and feel like you're out of whack on context and things like that as you read through?

I know y'all are in a study in Zachariah right now. How many of you feel like you're in a whirlwind?

Yeah, that's a challenge, man. Some of these can be really difficult. But when you can understand

time, date, place, to whom it's being written? What are some of the backdrop issues that are going on?

Where in the life of Paul is it being written? This is towards the end of his life. He's not going to be

physically on the earth for another seven, eight years. He is at the end of his run. So it's

pretty amazing. So Colossians chapter four. Now drop down to about verse seven. So again,

we're just looking at some backdrop here, some context.

Colossians 4.7.

As to all my affairs, Tickicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond servant

in the Lord, will bring you information.

For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know of our circumstances

and that he may encourage your hearts.

So while Paul is in prison, Tickicus is there.

We also know Timothy is there with him.

We also find, I believe it's a papyrus, is another.

Another guy named Aristarchus is also in prison with Paul.

So Paul's not by himself here, which is interesting.

So he's got a guy named Ticchus.

He's going to give him the letter, and he's going to carry that letter.

But watch this, because Ticchus is not alone.

Look who goes with him.

Verse 9.

And with him who?

Onesimus.

Onesimus is the runaway slave talked about in Philemon.

Philemon's runaway slave onesimus is the one Paul is sending back.

Get this.

Onesimus is going to be part of Tickicus, the duo, to carry the letter to his own slave master.

Can you even imagine?

the guy who runs away we don't know why he ran away but he's run away and paul now is appealing

on behalf of onesimus and onesimus is going to be part of carrying the letter his own letter

to hey take me back man can you imagine now look how onesimus is defined here by paul verse nine

and with him onesimus our faithful and beloved brother who is one of our number

they will inform you of the whole situation here.

So Onesimus has been entrusted with information by the one Paul to go back to his own slave

master and hand the letter off. Can you imagine? That's amazing. So what is it that we gain here?

What are some things that we see in Philemon? So let's make our way back.

Philemon 1. Paul just simply, as he always does, gives a pretty consistent opening.

If you read all 13 of his letters from Romans all the way through Philemon, he've got 13 there,

and most of the openings are going to parallel this. So we're not going to spend a lot of time there

other than what does he have to say specifically to Philemon. Look at the personal encouragement here.

So open up and take a look at verse 5.

or verse four, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers.

So let's ask a very obvious question here.

How many of us in this room are praying for other believers?

I pray that that is a consistent commitment daily.

Now, it wouldn't seem like we need to be reminded of that.

But how many of us can get caught up in our own run and forgive,

about the needs of others because we get so caught up in our own needs.

Everybody with me on that?

So I'm just putting my hand up to say, I can get caught up in my own little bubble.

How many of us love pity parties?

I throw the best pity party, just nobody else knows about it unless you see my face.

Because I can't hide when I'm feeling down.

If I'm busted up, you're going to know it.

but I hear of verse five because I hear of what two things of your love and of the faith

are you known for love and faith Paul is encouraging Philemon here saying buddy I know you love

the saints I know that your faith is real do others know that about us and by the way how many

of us get caught up in our love and faith even though

it's public, how many of us are looking for affirmation or the pat on the back because we're

Christian because of our, y'all with me? Because this is very different than I think what God has called us to.

Whether we're performing, whether we have this time as musician, as a drummer, I know it's a very fine line

that when we go to do something, we really want to do it for the Lord, but how many of us like the

pat on the back and the affirmation? Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't give it. It's a very fine line. It's

ought to be given in a very honest, sincere fashion, yes?

But how many of us deep down, and this is something you've got to deal with personally,

but I'm just going to hold up a mirror because that's what the Word of God does,

how many of us are seeking the affirmation from man and not God?

Philemon wasn't looking for this, Paul gives it out.

If somebody else wants to say that about you, praise God, and give God glory,

and be willing to say thank you, right?

Because of your love and your faith,

which you have towards the Lord Jesus

and towards all the saints.

And I pray that the fellowship of your faith,

verse 6, the fellowship of your faith,

how many of us think that our Christianity

can just be this lone ranger run?

We need this.

Now, there's no way everybody in this room

is going to know everybody, right?

that's going to be pretty difficult.

But how many of us in this room have somebody or maybe a couple of

somebodies that we go deep with, somebody we can trust,

somebody I can call up and say, man, I'm in a rough spot, pray for me.

That's what the body of Christ is really all about,

that we're not going to be deep with everybody,

but there's going to be people we are deep with.

How many apostles?

How many disciples did Jesus call?

He had 12, right?

How many of them went deep and were unique?

uniquely in places with Jesus that no others did.

Three.

So that says something unique about the kind of relationships that we have.

And I love reading this because Paul is not blowing smoke here.

He is appealing to a brother that he knows.

This guy has a church in his house.

He's all in for the Lord Jesus.

He's making an impact on the saints.

But he also has a live situation going on.

on. He's got an undercurrent. He's got a slave that has left him. And I don't expect that would

have been a happy place. That would have been difficult. Yes? Now back to verse six. I pray the

fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you

for Christ's sake. Isn't it interesting? As you read through the scripture, he says it in Romans,

it's everywhere pretty much, I think of Colossians especially,

where it says all knowledge and wisdom are hidden where in Christ Jesus?

And if the Holy Spirit, as believers, is living in us,

how much knowledge do we have?

That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Now let me challenge you, Body of Christ.

Are you checking the box and hanging your hat on your biblical knowledge

based on 30 to 45 minutes on a weekend?

or are you spending time in the word consistently?

Are you there because it's right and good to do?

Are you doing it because we're called to meditate on the word?

We're called to dive in.

Are we going to understand everything that we read?

Not at all.

But if you and I have been called out,

that's what Ecclesia is, the church, we're called out ones,

if you and I have been called by God, then the Word of God, the Holy Spirit of God, guess what?

Do you remember the last time we were together?

What's the Holy Spirit never miss?

He never misses the Word of God and the will of God.

They're always one.

Isn't that awesome?

So the Holy Spirit that lives in you, lives in me.

And as we read the Word, as we go out to do God's will, is he going to miss anything in our lives?

How many of you have been in a place, and all of a sudden you got engaged in a situation,

And God downloaded in you something you never would have said yourself.

You responded in a way.

You never would have responded.

And you walk away from that and go, oh, what just happened?

And I put that on the table to remind you that it isn't something you and I are manufacturing.

You and I aren't going in to make some miracle.

You and I aren't going in to make some impact.

You and I aren't going in manufacturing something.

We've been told very clearly in Matthew 28, as you are going, do what?

Make disciples.

Do I always know what that's going to look like?

When I share the gospel, does everybody get saved?

Have you experienced that?

Have you talked with people that actually push back?

Have you talked with people that ask questions?

Have you talked to people when you put Jesus on the table?

They get offended?

Have you talked with people and giving them really good advice?

and it's like it hit a wall.

There was nothing there.

And you gave them right, good advice,

and they had no ear for it.

How many of you got discouraged, walked away,

and said, well, I'll never do that again.

You took it personal and didn't put it on Jesus' account.

You and I have been called to be light and salt.

That means you and I are about the father's business.

Not about mine, and whether it went my way or not.

everybody with me on that this is a big deal because if you and i are going to walk then to walk

disciplined means that we do what god said do regardless of my emotion or the circumstantial or the

what if but how many of us plan our day based on the what if we react based on circumstance

rather than truth that doesn't change does that make sense this is this is a

a big deal because if you watch anybody that is disciplined in a thing how many of us do we have any

ultra runners in here or do we have any cowboys in here ranchers okay let me ask you what's it mean to be

disciplined as a cowboy and a rancher do things get cold around here do things freeze up does it get

negative around here in the winter yeah uh do you just say it was sure is cold outside i don't think

I think I'll go break ice, get water to my animals.

Because the circumstances are difficult.

Do you give up on your animals because you're inconvenienced?

You would never, ever do that.

But let me ask you a very practical question.

How many of us give up on the commands of Jesus because of circumstance?

Because of what somebody might do, might not do,

God says go and repent.

God says go and do.

Go and share.

Go and serve.

Go and give.

Love your enemy.

And you and I go, yeah, but if I went over and did that, I know how they would respond.

Or am I the only one?

Everybody with me here, though?

See, what I think is missing by and large in the church, and why I love the way Scotty teaches,

why I love churches like this that are going to dive into the word and we don't back off.

We're not woke.

We're not all this other mess of a culture of what man says.

To be biblically disciplined means that I'm going to be all in to do what God told me to do.

Does that include failure?

Does that include things not going my way?

I think God already factored that in.

But if you and I are going to be disciplined to do, regardless of what the circumstance says,

we're going to go out and make a difference

because that will be God's framework to work.

You and I get to go out, plant, water.

We get to go serve and give and do.

And who brings the increase?

God does.

But will we be committed to simply do what he said do?

So the encouragement that Paul gives here,

I wonder if these are the kind of words we give one another.

He goes on, for I have come to so much joy, verse 7,

in comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you,

my brother.

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper,

now what authority is he talking about there?

There's actually two layers.

One comes up later.

Number one, Paul's an apostle.

He can command him, hey, you're going to.

to take this brother back because I said so.

But what does he do? He said,

I could command you, but I have confidence.

Yet for love's sake, I'd rather appeal to you,

since I am such a person as Paul, age now a prisoner in Christ.

I appeal to you why. Look at verse 10.

For my child, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment,

who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and me.

Now, this theme continues as you read through, and our time is short, but I want to put a couple of thoughts here as we finish out.

Number one, you have Paul here, calls Onesimus his child. What does that mean?

What does that tell us from a biblical context?

That Onesimus has come to faith. He is a believer now.

What does that say about when he left?

Was he a believer in the household that he was a slave in?

No, but now he is.

So the context here has changed.

And now Paul is helping Philemon understand, Onesimus, my child, while I've been in prison,

I don't know how they cross paths.

We get no background on that.

All we know is that by God's hand, by God's grace, God's sovereignty,

Onesimus crosses paths with Paul.

and Paul leads him to Jesus.

And now Onesimus is a born-again believer.

I speculate that because of Paul's influence before

Onesimus knew about Paul,

and once he ran away, who knows?

Maybe it was a prodigal run.

Maybe he stole some money.

Maybe, right?

All we can do is speculate.

Maybe he got down and out,

and the region he was in.

He was like, oh, I remember a guy named Paul,

and he goes to him, and God used that situation.

all right we don't know i'm just speculating based on some of the other things we have but let's look

at something very practical here verse 11 who formerly was useless to you but now is useful to both of us

paul is appealing to onesimus i wonder what mindset what attitude is onessamus in because a slave is

run away do you think he'd be happy about that now in the roman context you

You could be a slave because of birth.

You could be slave because of a lot of different things.

Right?

But in this situation, we don't know why he's a slave.

We know that he is a slave.

And within Rome, you got a large percentage of slaves.

So don't take an American history idea of slavery.

It may not have been that kind of situation.

But what we do know, that in the context of Rome, that runaway slaves could be punished

on multiple levels.

Now, I don't know if that was Phileman's gig.

I don't know.

But Paul comes in and he makes two terms, useless, he used to be useless to you.

That might indicate there was some past trouble.

But in the current trouble of him running away, what's he call him now?

Useful.

Does anybody know what Onesimus names means in Greek?

Useful.

What a coincidence.

Just, wow.

I wonder if God's sovereign or not.

Amen?

But get this, Philemon.

He's not only useful now completely because he's born again,

but he's useful to you and to me.

There's one more thing I want to hit on before we close out.

We won't be able to cover the hole.

But I want to move down here because Paul goes on to say in 12 and 13,

basically, I'm sending him back.

but buddy, I'd rather keep him with me because he's really, really helpful.

But I want you to see a verse here, verse 15.

Because he says in 14, without your consent, I want you to do this because you want to.

Look at 15.

I have pondered this verse for years.

So I'm going to let you join me in the pondering and the wrestling, okay?

Now let's look at it very closely, and we'll finish here on this verse.

For perhaps he was, for this reason, separated from you for a while that you would have him back forever.

What is Paul appealing to here?

Where's a situation where you've been hurt?

Where's a situation where you've been offended?

I think about Paul's statement in Corinthians where he says, you know what, I don't judge anything.

I don't want to make a call on anything.

I think I'm innocent in this.

I believe I'm innocent in this.

But I'm not going to say I am

because the day of the Lord

will reveal the reality of it.

So don't judge anything

before the day of the Lord.

How many of us had made final calls

on temporary issues?

What are we doing at that moment?

We are kicking God out

in the process that he said,

He says he's already begun.

Now, again, we're in a biblical context of believers here.

Philemon, a believing slave owner, a church leader.

Onesimus, now a believer, returning as a slave.

I imagine there's some offense there, yes?

Do we offend one another in the church ever?

And let's be really gut on us, can we?

Let's call a duck a duck this morning.

how many of us have been offended by somebody else

because of food, drink, day, circumstance, or preference?

Now, I'm just saying, 25 years past year, and I've seen it a couple of times.

From paint on the wall, the pews or chairs or color of the carpet, y'all with me?

Type of songs, all this stuff.

And all of a sudden, doggone it.

We need to repent.

We need to back off because I'm telling you,

we have too many skirmishes between each other over things that don't matter.

They don't matter.

Stop fighting over the stop.

If my brother Steve wants to celebrate a day, let him celebrate a day.

He does it to the Lord.

If my brother wants to drink, Gray, if the other brother doesn't want to drink,

If the guy wants to eat or not eat, they do that to the Lord.

That's between them.

Stop letting preference kick Jesus out.

Get over it.

Is that fair?

And I don't mean to hurt your feeling.

Just saying, I just read in Romans last night in chapter 15 that we ought to admonish one another.

Now, why can I do that?

Because I'm somebody?

No.

Because as the body of Christ, this is our soul.

standard. We're all submitted to this. We should all humble ourselves to this. And if you and I are doing that,

we're going to see God do some stuff. Because that's going to be his work and not me manipulating

and trying to get you to do certain or not certain or, oh, you wore that and you sat there and what in the

world, right? Get over it. Stop it. And find out where those little things are. Find out where the

porcupine comes out in you. And get before God and say you're sorry. And if that crossed the

and I was a porcupine.

Say, I don't know, who would I be?

Maybe Scotty and I got in, we duke it out.

That's between me and Scotty.

You don't need to be posting on Facebook about us dukeing it out.

Is that fair?

So what would happen?

What would be the dynamic in this body right now if you and I would trust the word of God

and hear the word of Paul to say,

you receive Onesimus as you would me?

let the offense go. Now, why would we do that? Because in Ephesians chapter four, what is it that we should do in the body of Christ?

Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. So let me ask you, what offense is greater than our sin being taken care of at the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ?

anybody get to take Jesus's place and say you have a better one you all with me now let me be very clear

I'm putting it in the preference eat drink day all the things that old me don't matter if we have a

division over doctrine if we have a division over resurrection death burial you with me if we've got

issues when it comes to the word we need to play that out and make sure that we know what's up let's have

alone. But let the body of Christ be the body of Christ. We live and die to the Lord, every one of us

individually. And so if you and I can take a step in that direction and get over the stuff,

I think we're going to see a direction of a wider and deeper unity that Paul really is calling

for, isn't he? And what does it look like when you see a reconciliation and somebody get over

themselves and make it about Jesus, what does that do to the rest of the body when they

recognize something like that has happened? Does that deepen your faith? Does that challenge you

and put you on notice? Because I tell you what, the greatest thing you and I will ever do in this walk,

keep your eyes on Jesus and simply do what he says and let him work out those details.

But let us keep our word. Let us do what Christ calls to do. Let us deepen that identity in what it

means to be disciplined and a lover of Jesus. And if we're a lover of Jesus, we're going to be a

lover of the body. Right? I keep saying I'm going to be done. I got one more point.

We talked about this last time, but just a quick reminder. How diverse is this room?

That goes back to the preference issue. Are we getting all caught up in the fact that we're just

different. Are we embracing the beauty of diversity in the body of Christ that there's going to be

people that can do things I don't do? I should welcome that. Are we looking and encouraging one another?

And I really challenge you on this. If you see somebody do something unique, you go up and

hug their neck and you look them in the eye and said, thank you for being Jesus. Thank you for your

love and your faith. Thank you for going out and doing the thing because it honors God. You weren't looking

for a pat on the back and I appreciate that.

Y'all with me? What would that mean if you and I would take those steps to build one

another up and watch God work and grow? Amen? Because that's the guarantee. He begun the good

work. He's going to continue it. Don't forget that and stop making final calls on the journey.

For perhaps somebody failed. Something broke. Division happened. Something happened. Perhaps for a time,

that God might work something greater.

Amen?

Let God have his way, church.

And let's keep our eyes fixed on him.

Can we agree on that?

Love you guys.

It's always a blast.

I love getting a chance to be with you all.

Y'all encourage me.

I see your faith in love.

I see your impact.

I see your service.

Keep it up.

And keep Scotty in line, would you?

Y'all do that for me?

Steve, come home, my brother.

Father, thank you.

As we go into communion now, all of these things matter

because we look back constantly on the broken body of our Savior and the blood shed.

And as we get to remember that today, we do that till he comes.

We get to celebrate the beauty and be humbled by the passion,

the amazing gift of grace through our Savior.

and to at least get a little bit of a touch with Paul and Phileman and a dynamic of a runaway slave

and a reconciliation, I pray at least that that would be an opening to dig deeper and dive deeper,

that perhaps things are going on in our lives, that you're at work in a way we would never

expect and let us give you place and trust you. No matter how we feel about it, we're going to trust your work.

we're going to trust you and we thank you thank you for this body help us to continue to love

one another well and be unified in the gospel and all god's people said together amen love you guys

good to see you all right my