Partnership in Mission

Today is a Day where or we, where we gather, where we come to the word, or we seek to hear from God.

But I want to start with something just a little bit lighter, to open us up.

Today is Mildred King's birthday and we celebrate that and are excited for that.

But I know that she's a Giants fan and I know that there's other Giants fans out here.

I'm an ace fan but with everything going on that might have to change, I don't know.

But but if you're Giants fan, you know that the Giants you probably know that the Giants fired Gabe Kapler, their coach, who they hired four years ago With high hopes that he would be able to continue a winning tradition that, as an organization, they they set about to to Win more World Series, to capitalize on the talent they had and to build something.

They had a mission that they were going to work towards and and and and move towards, and Gabe Kapler was supposed to be the man to lead them to that mission, and what they said this week is that he's not the man.

They said you know what?

We made a mistake.

We're gonna move on from this and and move in a different direction and when we're at, in in our in our Preaching today we we just came off of and if this is your first time with us you may not know, but we just had a guest preacher who's not really a guest, ian McConnell.

He's pastor, church planting partner.

That's been with us for about a year and a half now and is is gonna be one of the founding pastors of the church in San Jose but has not preached to us a lot.

But one of the things that we had been asked as pastors is that we would kind of teach and preach on on our mission as a church and the vision as a church and Some of the ways in which we wanted to preach on that we we believe that Pastor Ian was particularly gifted to preach.

So he just preached a series to us for the last two months and we were, we were blessed.

I personally was was very encouraged by his preaching.

I believe God used that preaching in my life and I know from talking to a number of you that he had used that preaching in your lives.

And one of the things that that pastor Ian had had focused on for the last couple months was using acts, especially in the last couple weeks using the book of acts as a as a Template might not be the right word, but as an example of Of what it is that that we're supposed to do as we seek to be faithful on mission to God.

And so so he held up the book of acts, and the book of acts is is extremely helpful in being an example.

It doesn't have a lot of direct Commands there are some, but it's not.

It's not like a command like, do this, do this, do this, but it's a they did this, they did this, they did this.

And as we look at that, we're like, yeah, I see that, yeah, I see that.

Though how do those things, how can we do those kinds of things in our world today?

And so the book of acts functions as kind of an introduction of a template of what a new testament church is supposed to look like.

And here we are also, as a new testament church, trying to be faithful to those things.

And so it's really helpful to look back to the book of acts and to see those kinds of things.

But what we want to do also is recognize that that there was a game plan, so to speak, laid out by Jesus as he, as he, went From this earth, as in the book of Matthew, he gave a what we call the great commission, jesus in in some of his kind of final words he he tells his disciples he says to go to all the world and preach the gospel, to baptize people, to teach them everything, and that Jesus was gonna give them the power to do that.

We call it the great commission because it's kind of the, the overarching, marching mission that Jesus gives to the church.

The church is not the organization, that is the church.

It's not the building, that is the church, it is the people, it is you in this room.

You are the church if you are Jesus's disciple.

A disciple it's just someone that follows him.

If you are Jesus's disciple, then you are the church.

And so the mission given to you is is to go and to preach the gospel, to, to teach, to baptize, to, to add people to the church, to Further on that mission.

And so there was a template that was established, that was implemented in the book of acts.

And then the book of acts goes on To give a number of examples of how, for example, the pos, the apostle Paul, would go into various towns and localities and and apply that that, that that mentality, that plan, that game plan, to that locality, but we're gonna fast forward about to about 80s in the 80s, 60s.

So 20, 25 years later, the church has now begun to be established.

Things have been built up, things have have played out, so they're they're kind of like in that year four of Gabe Kapler.

Okay, but but here here's the thing is what we see in scripture is that the game plan actually worked, and so what we're gonna look at is is what does it look like?

I'm going to use the word that Pastor Ian used last week Koinonia.

What does it look like when you apply Koinonia and I'll explain that.

I'll define that word in just a second what does that look like when it is applied to mission?

What does it look like to be partners in mission?

You see, koinonia it is a Greek word, and I don't always throw out Greek words, but here's one that was thrown out to you last week and it's a helpful word.

It's a word that has a lot of range of meaning.

In English.

We translate it in a lot of different ways.

One of the most common ways that it's translated is fellowship.

Another way that it can be translated is partnership.

One of the ways that it's used is to describe a certain church giving money to help another person in mission, and that giving of money is called Koinonia.

It's called partnership.

It's the idea that you are together, able to lock arm in arm with someone for a purpose.

So an army might have Koinonia in seeking to accomplish their objective.

The San Francisco Giants were supposed to have Koinonia fellowship partnership in the objective of winning baseball games, and apparently they failed.

Well, as Christians, we have gospel partnership in mission.

That is what we are called to, and so we are going to look at a particular church and even a particular person in a particular church in a two-part short series in the book of Philemon.

So if you want to turn there, if you are in your pew Bibles it's page 1032, so there's Bibles there in your pew.

You can do that.

Philemon is a very small book, no chapters, only 25 verses right after Titus and right before Hebrews.

So if you want to take a moment to turn there, do that.

But we're going to be in Philemon and we'll get there in just a moment.

But first I want to set up a little bit of the situation.

What is it that we are looking at?

So the situation is this In Acts 1910, it said this went on for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

This is significant because this is all we really have about the establishment of a church in a city called Colossae.

The city called Colossae has a letter that was written to it and that letter is the book of Colossians.

So if you look in your Bible you'll say, oh, there's a book of Colossians.

That is a letter that Paul wrote to that church in Colossians to give them specific instruction.

And something interesting is that that letter in Colossians, that letter to the Colossians, was written at the same time as, for example, the book of Philippians, which we just had a series on.

Paul was in prison you'll remember from our series on Philippians and he wrote a number of other books, but the other one that he wrote, the other significant book, especially for this, is Philemon.

Philemon is a more personal letter written to a man named Philemon, but not meant to be only a personal letter, and we'll see that when we get into the text that it is written for a broader audience.

But just know that the book of Colossians we call it a book.

It's really a letter, the letter of Colossians and the letter of Philemon.

So these are like personal letters written to a specific congregation from Paul saying, hey, do this, do this, and giving encouragement.

So he's written these two letters and he's sending them Colossians and Philemon at the same time, and these would have both been read publicly, probably one after another.

Probably Colossians was read first and Philippians was read later, and in fact it even gives instructions in the book of Colossians to then take the letters and go read it at another church in Laodicea and for them to read the letter from Laodicea.

And we don't have that letter.

So apparently that wasn't inspired scripture.

But the point is these letters were meant for public reading, public proclamation.

They were meant to be shared and spread from the very beginning, and so we are dealing with a situation in the church of Colossae and a man in that church named Philemon and his servant or slave named Onissimus, and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

But I want to first point out to you what the church in Colossae had become known, as you don't have to turn to Colossians one, but I'm gonna read some verses from Colossians, chapter one.

They'll be on the screen, and so this is just after the greeting that Paul gives.

He then kind of gives an introductory statement explaining what he is thankful for, and that's really small and I'm sorry.

So hopefully you have good eyes.

If not, the next week sit a couple rows more forward and we'll be good.

So, starting in verse three, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people.

So they're known for the love that they have for all of God's people.

It doesn't mean that they don't have love for the people that are not Christians, but in particular here they have love for God's people.

Verse five the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

They believe the gospel.

Paul is reminding them and praising them, encouraging them that he has heard, that the gospel has been made real to them, that they have believed it, that they have internalized it and therefore they are acting on it.

And because they are acting on it, they have a community of love towards one another, where they are bearing each other's burdens, where they are building each other up, where they are helping each other live life.

Some of those things that we read about last week I wasn't even here last week but I, through the magic of podcasts, I was able to listen to Pastor Ian Sermon last week Some of those things about when he was talking about fellowship or quinonia, that community that they have, where they had everything in common, where they shared with each other as need presented itself.

Those kinds of things are what Paul is basically praising the Colossians for living out.

So that game plan that was presented in the book of Acts is still holding true here, 20-some years later for the church in Colossae.

So verse seven you learned it from a paphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the spirit.

I just wanna take a moment here to clarify, because this is important.

You see, in a moment I'm gonna tell you the story of Onissimus, and I told you already that this is gonna be a two-part, so we're not gonna get into all the text in Philippian about Onissimus, in Philemon about Onissimus, but I'm going to tell you the story.

But before I tell you that story, it is important to remember what Paul reminded the church in Colossi of.

In those verses that I just read to you, he used the word gospel and you might say I know the gospel, but let's be reminded of what the gospel is.

The word gospel just means good news.

Gospel means good news.

So what is the good news?

Well, the good news is this that even though you and me, even though the people in Colossi, even though the apostle Paul, even though we have no claim on being a child of God, we have no ability in and of ourself to say, yeah, I have hope that one day I will be in heaven with God, we don't have that hope.

We don't have that hope because we all the Bible says all have violated God's standard of righteousness.

So there is no hope apart from the good news.

The good news is this that Jesus, being fully God, took on flesh and paid a infinite price, meaning that his Godhood was on display on the cross and that his death is able to redeem all whom God will call to himself.

So that means that because of what Jesus came and did by taking on himself our punishment, we all had no hope.

Remember there is a consequence for that and that consequence is eternal separation from God and hell.

But Jesus came and paid that price.

He took on himself that penalty so that we, through Christ, can now claim to be a child of God.

We can claim that gift as our own, and God calls us to that and has redeemed us, bought us out of slavery to sin and given us life.

He has forgiven us of so much.

He paid an infinite death because, you see, the consequence of our sin was an infinite punishment.

Yet he paid that price to bring us life.

That's going to be important because it is the basis of our own reconciliation as a body.

It's why, no matter what any of us does to another one in this room in Christ, we should be able to reconcile those things and lock elbows with each other and move forward in ministry.

That is why Paul is going to be able to make a significantly culturally inappropriate request of Philemon regarding Onissimus.

Let me tell you Onissimus's story.

You probably already know this.

But Onissimus was a servant or a slave of Philemon.

Philemon, being a relatively wealthy merchant like others in his day, would have had slaves Now.

Philemon is not a commentary on slavery, in support of or against slavery.

I think when you apply the principles you could make a argument from Philemon that it would support a principle against any slavery.

But that's not the point of the book, that's not what we're going to dig into.

But this is the culture in which they lived and they had a certain system of slavery and that was present in their world.

Onissimus in some way, in some manner, wronged Philemon.

We don't know the details, but what we do know is that Onissimus ran.

It seems likely that he ran and stole while he ran.

He took Philemon's silverware or treasure or who knows what, but took something of value on his way to be able to go forward from there.

Philemon had every legal and cultural right to demand a harsh punishment on Onissimus for that crime, potentially even including death.

That was a serious offense, completely unacceptable in the culture.

But through one means or another, somehow this worked out, whether Onissimus sought Paul out because he had known Paul from Philemon's house, or whether it was just through the providential working of the Holy Spirit.

Somehow Onissimus the slave came into contact with the apostle Paul.

The apostle Paul shares with Onissimus, the gospel, the good news that I just reminded you of that, onissimus, you think you've sinned big against Philemon.

But let me tell you you have actually sinned really big against the Creator, god.

But the good news is that Jesus Christ has made a way for you to be reconciled.

Onissimus believed and repented of his sin and Paul goes on to say now he is useful.

He was previously useless but now he's useful.

But now Onissimus, through one means or another, now recognizes a need to be reconciled with his former master, whom he had run away with Philemon.

Paul is writing a letter to Philemon to facilitate that reconciliation.

In this week's part one we're going to look at the opening section of Philemon and we're not going to get to Paul's culturally outlandish request.

But I'll preview it right now.

I'm not going to hold you in suspense until next week.

The request is that Philemon will accept Onissimus back, forgive him of his wrongdoing and welcome him as a brother into his community, into his church, that he would welcome him into his Coyonia fellowship and be reconciled with him and even potentially free him to the point where he can go back to Paul because Paul wants his help In that culture.

That is a scandalous request, but Paul's going to make it anyway.

But in this portion, in this part versus one through seven that we're going to look out today Paul is going to lay a foundation on which that culturally radical request can be made.

That request is one that is self-sacrificing, humbling and deeply personal.

It's one that requires a reminder of who we are and how it is that we have reconciliation to God in the person and work of Jesus.

And so we're going to look at seven verses today, and these seven verses you can quickly read them in your English Bible and that's okay.

But let me tell you there is more there than meets the eye.

You see, what is in these seven verses is a foundation for Paul to be able to make that outlandish request that he is about to make.

And don't worry, it feels like I just finished a long introduction that was part of the sermon.

It was not just introduction.

We're going to go through this part pretty quickly, but it's setting up a foundation for what we're going to finish next week.

But I encourage you, listen to these words as we go into them.

Let's look together at Philemon, verse one, no chapters.

Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

Now, remember, this is the same time that Paul is in prison as he was writing to the church in Philippi, philippians we just did a series on that.

Paul is a prisoner of who?

No, he's a Paul prisoner of Nero, the Roman emperor.

And the verses wrong.

No, he can, it can be both.

Okay.

So, yes, he is a prisoner of the Roman government, but Paul in the book of Philippians, if you remember.

This is really hard to go back from Philippians to Philemon, so forgive me if I mess up, but in the book of Philippians Paul makes the case, makes the argument that his imprisonment is Actually for Christ and that through his imprisonment he is able to reach people he wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise.

He's able to do certain things in ministry that he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

He probably wouldn't have had time to write all these letters if you hadn't have been in prison.

But also he makes the argument that through his imprisonment the whole church is actually energized and encouraged to be faithful in ministry rather than discouraged.

And so Paul, when he says I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus, he is saying hey, I, yeah, I am suffering, but don't feel sorry for me, because my suffering is not in vain, it is for Jesus.

It says on Timothy, our brother.

So Timothy is with him, a part of his you know crew, so to speak, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker.

That phrase dear friend is reserved in Paul's writings for people that Paul has actually Been in the trenches with.

Okay, so when he says my, our dear friend and fellow worker, he is emphasizing that he doesn't just, he hasn't just heard of Philemon, he hasn't just heard good things about Philemon, but that he has actually been in the trenches with Philemon.

So at some point, somewhere along the way, paul had been to Colossae, had been to this church, had met Philemon, had had engaged in ministry with him.

I there.

There was a season in my life when I was in seminary where I worked at Starbucks and there's at least one person in here that also works at Starbucks, so I don't know if they still use this language, but but when I worked at Starbucks, I didn't have co-workers, I didn't have people who I didn't have, you know, fellow employees.

I had partners that would do.

They still you, they still use the word partners and, among other things, one of the things that Partnership that that word emphasizes is that you are sharing a mission, you have a vision of what you're trying to accomplish.

In the case of Starbucks, it's it's you know, it's very specific toward providing Towards the, those that would be your guests, the, the customers a product and an experience and a place for, for enjoyment of those products and enjoyment of Community and fellowship and some of those kinds of things.

They have a very specific mission, but they choose that word very intentionally.

No other place that I had ever worked had chosen that word, but they chose that word for particular reasons.

Well, this word is chosen to emphasize that by Lehman has been in the trenches with Paul.

He is not just writing to someone random Says verse 2 also to aphia, our sister, probably probably his wife, but we don't know and our, our sister, and a Crippus, our fellow soldier Pause for a second, I don't know how to say these.

Great.

So, raiden, thank you for reading for us.

That was great.

I I'm very thankful that I didn't have to read those names and stumble over them.

So, our Crippus, our fellow soldier, someone else who has been in the trenches with them, and then listen to this and to the church that meets in your home.

So today we have most churches seem to meet in church buildings, right Like here.

We're meeting in this building, but in this time there were no church buildings, they met in homes.

Well, if I leave, and was apparently Wealthy enough that he had a home large enough to accommodate this church, and and so, presumably, churches would Choose to meet in whoever had the biggest home, and so he was hosting this church in his home.

He doesn't he's never kind of held up to be a pastor or elder in the church, but is held to be a fellow worker, someone who is so given into this cause that he opens up his home.

And bear in mind, this isn't just Sundays, this is probably most nights of the week.

He has a gathering in his home of people.

So so this is a, this is a man who is deeply committed to the mission of spreading that gospel, to Living out that great commission of making disciples or making followers of Jesus.

Then verse 3 says grace and peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace, words that we see all the time in scripture, but words that are very important because they are the foundation Upon which, especially that word grace, it's the foundation upon which we have reconciliation with God.

Remember, paul is about to ask him to reconcile with someone who he probably has a legal claim to have put to death.

That's how grievous the Onissimus is wrong towards Philemon was, and Paul is about to write to him and ask him not just to forgive him, not just to welcome him back as a slave, but to welcome him back now as a brother, as a partner in ministry, as someone who.

I mean.

It's a big deal, and it's based on the grace that God has shown us in Christ that, yeah, philemon, better reconcile with Onissimus, because what has Christ done for Philemon?

And so this, this, this concept of grace and peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ, is the foundational Theological bedrock on which our reconciliation with each other stands.

It's what allows for partnership in mission and and it is deeply counter cultural in our own day.

I'm gonna use a word that that tends to be used in political discourse these days.

I'm not using it in a political way, I'm just using it to point out what our culture is Saying, and that word is canceled.

You've heard of so and so being canceled because they, they, they, committed some offense against the, the broader Standard of what is right within our world.

Some of those standards might be right, some of those standards might be wrong, but violating one of those standards leads to someone being quote-unquote canceled, which basically means hey, if they're like an artist, if they're an actor, we don't hire them to act anymore, we don't watch their old movies that they're now like, they're now anathema, they're now put away, they're canceled.

That is a that is a form of Legalism.

Legalism is essentially the opposite of grace.

You see, in a, in a Church, in a gathering of people, we must have grace between us.

Yet the world would have us Not extend grace but the what.

What we see here is Paul reaching out to Philemon to ask him to extend grace to Onesimus, who had wronged him so deeply, and not just grace but to bless him abundantly.

All of this, all of these first three verses, they work together To remind us of something important.

They work together to remind us that that, first of all, we are partners.

That's that coino Nia, that that fellowship word.

We are partners in mission, and partners in mission are called to serve side by side, by the grace of God, partners in mission are called to serve side by side.

By the grace of God, that means that that you and me, we could have our differences, this side and that side, you know one, you know One might have one opinion, one might have another opinion and we might argue about it, we might sin against each other, but in the end, by the grace of God, we extend grace towards one another and we put first and foremost that partnership that we have in mission, partnership in the gospel, in a preeminent place.

We give ourselves to that.

We lock arm in arm, we engage in the trenches and we can say towards each other despite whatever it is that we may do amongst ourselves, we can call each other dear friend and fellow worker.

And what Paul doesn't say yet and he doesn't really say it literally in this passage, but what Paul goes on to eventually say to Philemon, as he tells Philemon, he says you are a dear friend and fellow worker Because of Jesus.

I want you to feel that same way about Onissimus, who had wronged you, who had stole from your family, who had done so much against you.

I am gonna call on you to do that Now.

Let's quickly go through these last few verses here, verses four and five I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus.

Paul is saying hey, I am thankful for you.

You are a servant, you have been doing this side by side ministry.

You are an encouragement, you show love, you lift each other up in prayer and I'm gonna lift you up in prayer.

And then he gives an example in verse six of that prayer.

He says I pray that your partnership so that's that word partnership, right, there is that Coyno-Nia word I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.

What Paul is praying is that the fellowship that they have, the partnership in the gospel that they have together, that that is ultimately going to bring them closer and closer together.

That, even as Paul is preparing to make this outlandish request, that that even that request, even it being granted, even welcoming Onissimus, as he would ultimately welcome Paul, even that will serve to further deepen their understanding of every good thing of the gospel that they share for the sake of Christ, verse seven.

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people.

Partners in mission that's the phrase I'm using in this sermon to describe what it is that we're supposed to be.

Partners in mission are called to lift each other up in prayer and love.

You see, fellowship lived out, community lived out, coinonia lived out, is not some inactive feeling, it's not something we do just like.

Oh, we like each other.

We like to hang out, we like to talk about sports or go to a game or whatever.

Those kinds of things, those should happen, those do happen.

Those are great.

You should like each other, you should be in each other's homes, you should know each other well.

But if it doesn't extend beyond that, if it doesn't extend to partnering together in mission, if it doesn't extend to legitimately knowing each other well enough that you pray for each other and actually praying for each other, if it doesn't extend to the point where you know each other well enough to recognize when each other is in need, and in your love for each other, you go and you step in and you say, hey, I can help in this way, let me love you by helping you in this way, then we don't have it.

We don't have gospel partnership.

We are not partners in mission.

Being a partner in mission involves locking arms, going into the trenches together, being faithful towards each other and in service of the mission in all that we do.

And so, as a church, we have ways that we try to facilitate this, that we try to encourage this.

One of the ways that we facilitate this kind of community, that we try to encourage this kind of community is by providing space for it in community groups.

So we have a few community groups that meet in various times and locations.

There's information about them in the bulletin.

But I would encourage you be connected in one of our community groups.

That's a place that we provide to be able to engage in relationship with each other, because there is a very real way where we partner with each other, even in the service, where we serve one another, where we love one another, where we pray for one another.

But what we do when we gather together as a large group does not facilitate this kind of partnership.

It can be an outflow of it, it can be an encouragement for it.

It is central to who we are as a church, but it does not give feet to the mission, and so I encourage you, find a way to connect, to go deeper.

If none of the community groups work for you, talk to me, talk to the pastor Ricky, say, hey, none of the community groups work.

Is there something else?

We'd love to start more community groups.

They don't have to be huge, they don't even have to necessarily be led by a pastor.

We can talk about adding more, but that's one space that we provide to be able to facilitate this kind of partnership.

We would encourage you to engage in this kind of work in your own homes, with one another, with your neighbors.

Extend the hospitality and grace of God to those around you and then pray with each other.

For that we are not so.

We are called to mission.

Yes, we are given the commission to go and make disciples.

A disciple is just someone who follows Jesus.

We are called to do that.

But it's not an individual commission.

It doesn't mean that you don't have individual responsibility in the commission, but it is not.

He does not give the commission to each of his disciples.

He gives it to them as a group, he gives it to them as a church, and so that commission is something that we share amongst ourselves, and you do have an individual partner to play in faithfully living out that great commission, but you're not giving it just alone, but you have to engage with one another in a way that provides for the opportunity to be able to live out this mission in faithfulness.

And so that would be my encouragement to you to recognize that if you call Godfather, if Jesus is your savior, if you are indwell by the Holy Spirit, then you are called to partner with the other people in this room on the mission that Jesus gave to us.

And so that is what we want to work towards, and so I encourage you to do that.

In a moment we're going to come together and we're going to gather around this table.

You know this table there's different words.

A few weeks ago, I think it was Pastor Bob Emphasize the word Eucharist, thanksgiving, that this meal is a Thanksgiving meal and it is.

There's other words that we use, but one of the words that we use is communion.

When we use the word communion, we emphasize that what we are doing is coming as a community, as a fellowship, as a partnership in the gospel, and together we are coming to Jesus for the sustenance of Him to us, and so we have these elements, we have these parts that we partake of the bread and the juice, the fruit of the vine, and these represent Christ, his body and His blood that was given for us.

They remind us of the gospel and that we need Jesus as we engage in mission.

So I'm going to pray here in just a moment and after I pray I'll go down and Daniel's going to come and help me serve the table today.

But I'm going to encourage you, as we prepare, to take the table together, as we pray together and then, after we pray together, we eventually sing together and then we partake together.

I encourage you, take a moment to reflect on your part of the mission.

It's not given to you individually or me individually, but it's given to us as a community to be faithful to the task, and so I want to ask you how are you participating?

Paul uses the example of a body, and you have hands and you have feet, you have eyes and you have ears.

You are a part.

Are you being good at being that part?

We don't like it when our ankle doesn't work.

We hobble around.

Can we still get places?

Yeah, but we don't work as efficiently.

So I encourage you reflect on your part.

I'm not telling you you had to have done it perfectly or you need to do it perfectly now, but recognize that Jesus, by his grace, by his goodness, has given us a church to work with, to be faithful to this task.

So I encourage you reflect on that.

Talk to God about how you can do that.

Reflect on what Jesus has done and the fact that he has reconciled us to him through this sacrifice, and prepare your heart to come and to partake together.

Father God, we thank you this morning for bringing us together.

We thank you for the Book of Philemon.

We thank you for the Book of Colossians.

We thank you that the apostle Paul wrote those and you preserve them for us and the teaching that you give us in them.

I pray now, as we make preparation to come together to your table.

I pray that you will prepare our hearts, that you would help us to be faithful together in mission.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.