I Lehman and I'm gonna be reading from verse 4 through 10 filemen verse 4 through 10 Reading out of the ESV I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have Toward the Lord Jesus and for all the Saints and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge Of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed through you Accordingly though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you.

I Paul an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ I appeal to you for my child onesimus whose father I became in I became in my imprisonment. Let's pray Gracious and loving father we thank you so much for this morning We asked Lord God that what proceeds from this pulpit would be your words That your children would hear your voice and follow you Protect us Lord God from wrong thinking That we may have right application.

I Pray that through this time your church may be sanctified that your word may be preached and Christ may be exalted We pray for your blessing and your presence with us in Jesus name. We pray. Amen Yeah, as you guys know Like we talked about last week you know the book of Philemon is a powerful book not because it has an exposition of the gospel or Or tells us the details about what propitiation is and all of these things are very essential to our faith But at the core of it it is the proof of the power of the gospel You know we can talk about How precious Jesus is and we can exposit scripture and know what the verses mean and and all the systematic theology But if there is no power all it becomes after a while just religious talk It doesn't have any practical effect in our lives It doesn't affect the way that we make decision or we raise our children.

The gospel was meant to be powerful Not just something to be regurgitated not just something for us to hold on to for security blanket But to challenge us to flip our world upside down That's what Philemon is Philemon is a testimony of how the gospel has changed the lives of these particular these three men Now we know the author Paul he's writing this letter in prison and You know we try to Sociologists always try to explain why the Christianity grew so fast and why so many people embrace Christianity 2,000 years ago, and they'll try to put a psychological sociological Economical spin to it say maybe the poor people are attracted because Jesus promised riches You know maybe maybe the people who had nothing it was a way Avenue for them to gain something But you look at Paul's life.

It doesn't fit any of that Paul is a man who was made possibly a member of the Sanhedrin leaders of one of the Senate's senators He was already come from a very rich family it was a Roman citizen and he lost all of that because he became a Christian and Now he's sitting in prison and instead of worrying about himself He's not writing a letter concerned about this runaway slave that he may be restored back to his former master as a brother So again, you look at the life of Paul and in the very author of this letter You see the power of the cross in his life.

You see on estimates a runaway slave you know, he became a Christian as Apostle Paul sitting in prison and continue to share the gospel with him and For him to go back to where he came from. I mean he escaped Imagine he risked his life. He risked everything to leave behind all of that and then he came out now Because he met Christ he's going back now Philemon had every legal right to put him in prison to beat him to to to mark him as a runaway slave Telling everybody the whole world.

This is a this is a man that you cannot trust and so only reason why Onesimus would even return is because he'd been deeply affected by the cross Same thing with Philemon. Why would this man who who lost a great deal because of this runaway slave? We even receive him What did he have to gain for doing this?

So Philemon even though it's a very short letter only have 25 verses It is a powerful testimony of what happens when people are affected by the cross Basically Philemon is a letter about forgiveness It's about forgiving those who's trespassed against you The idea of forgiving somebody is not natural to us You know how often have you fantasized?

Like somebody in the past who've wronged you maybe they said something to you. Maybe they cheated you in business You know how often have you thought and fantasize man if I were to go back in time and and if I was to do Something differently how often they have he's fantasized about taking vengeance on that person and and seeking justice.

We rarely sit around Fantasizing about being gracious. You know I go back and I should have been more gracious in that situation I think that's why if you look at majority of the action movies at the core of the action movies There is this idea of vengeance right You just going out and blowing up stuff isn't fun.

You have to blow up people who wronged you so Usually the action movie begins by somebody being wronged Right your family is killed or something's taking you know like somebody's taking hostage or something happens whether it's personal or whether it happens As a government level and then the rest of the movie is trying to pay back Right and I think there was a movie called payback, right?

Think about some of the movies maybe some of I don't know to me. This is new and fresh So - I don't know if it is to you, but gladiator V for vendetta is this new Kill Bill, I just looked up online to see okay count of Monte Cristo I don't I didn't see that but I read it and it was about vengeance quantum solace by James Bond movie Man on fire and I can go on and on and on if you basically Google and look at action movies the basic you know the The outline of it is somebody is wrong, and then they're gonna pay them back right.

That's a natural human response to ask somebody to forgive somebody and to get nothing back it's It's not natural because that's not how we function In fact just yesterday I was driving my car in a parking lot you know and I was putting air my tire and then I was in a hurry to get out of the parking lot and and I made a left turn and this guy it's kind of stepped out and he wasn't he wasn't right in front of the car I would say the distance was probably from here to maybe about that door and I saw him come out and so I could have Easily just kind of went by him, but I stopped the car and I waved toward I was being gracious.

It's like okay You know go you know and I'll wait for you so as he was crossing. He was mumbling something So I thought in my mind. I was like oh, he's saying. Thank you. Thank you for being gracious and letting me go But as as I was going he was saying something that I cannot repeat He was looking straight at me.

He was cursing me out, and I was like what? You know I just I was so gracious to let him go And I remember as he was passing by I was watching like what why would you be what I don't get it Like I was just letting you pass and and somehow I don't know what the miscommunication was but something was Miscommunicated and he got mad and he started cussing at me And then he walked into the store and as I was driving off.

I was thinking what just happened here I Was allowing him to pass by and then I got cussed out for it And the whole way that I was going to I was going to the girls softball tournament and the whole drive down I was thinking what is wrong with this guy You know and I just I tried to like we are gonna listen to sermon and turn on Christian radio But I just couldn't get it out of my head.

What is wrong with this guy right? You know in the back of my mind. I'm thinking man if I wasn't a pastor What should I what would I have done if I wasn't a pastor? If I wasn't a Christian what if I got out of my car and scared this guy?

I'm thinking that all this scenario and even all the way down to softball I was thinking like Peter you're Christian calm down tomorrow. You're gonna be talking about forgiveness You better calm down It's just humanly speaking That's not natural our natural response isn't forgiveness and that's why when God says to nation of Israel I for an eye tooth for tooth is not a Formula to carry out vengeance is to withhold our vengeance Because our natural response if you take my eyes, I'm gonna rip your head off Right you can teach you never to mess with me See this letter here in Philemon what Paul is asking Philemon to do is supernatural Because what he's asking him to do is here's this runaway slave at the minimum was financially He robbed from him at the minimum.

It may have been may have been embarrassing for him You know imagine what that would have done Maybe I don't know if he did it before he was a before Philemon became a Christian or not But whatever it was it's clear that he was the one who was wronged and on estimates was the one who wronged him and Paul is not saying if you receive him back, you know, he's gonna pay you back You know, he wronged you maybe he owes you a hundred grand He's gonna work his tail off and he's gonna give you everything that he has if you can forgive him Paul's not asking any of that Paul says forgive him In other words he's saying just drop it just humanly speaking Just drop it.

In fact, not only just drop it you lost him as a runaway slave, but now would you please receive him as a brother in Christ To love him like you are loving the other brothers in the church Humanly speaking it's impossible. How can we possibly even dare to ask somebody expect that of somebody?

But at the core of what you and I believe is about forgiveness At the very core of why we are here. It's about forgiveness Ephesians 4 32 says be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you In essence, that's that's the core of the gospel Because he forgave us Now you forgive each other Again in Colossians 3 13 is his bearing with one another if one has a complaint against another forgive each other as the Lord has Forgiven you so you also must forgive We all know love that passage in Romans 5 8 Where it says God demonstrates his own love toward us while we were yet sinners Christ died for us In a part of the reason why it's so difficult for us to forgive is Because we tend to see other sins other people's sins greater than ours, you know, we always say well You know, I'm not perfect but that guy and that's usually when somebody says I'm not perfect But that guy that's kind of a setup to like I'm justified in hating that person.

I know I'm not perfect, but that guy deserves this You know, I think part of the reason why athletic superstars don't make good coaches is Because they're superstars and they can't stand mediocrity, you know And so because they function at such a high level when they're coaching other people who are kind of on the average You know, they don't have the patience or the grace to to build them up So you don't perform this up to here.

I can't have you But here's a problem Spiritually, there's not one Michael Jordan No, Kobe Bryant's The scripture says all have sin and fall short in the glory of God but the problem is We don't really see that the gravity of what it is that Christ has saved us from Because the motivation and the power to forgive others comes from understanding the forgiveness that Christ has given us So when we don't understand the gravity of where we stood before God and where we are without him It is difficult to be forgiving Because it just sounds like take it Just forgive just drop just drop it One of the scripture says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, you know, typically, you know If you've been at a Bible teaching church for a while You know that the most common word for sin is hamartian and what does hamartian mean?

Yeah, I hear mumbling but I hear to miss the mark right and again if you've been a Christian for all you already know that the basic meaning of Sin means to miss the mark But in and of itself we don't get the gravity of what that word means because it just sounds like you know We were shooting at something and we missed It doesn't sound too bad Right.

It's kind of like when you were at school you tried so hard to get an a and you stayed up all night and you worked and you studied and you Turned in your paper on time and you got a B It doesn't sound that bad It's just we just couldn't do it like I was trying to stay on this path But I fell asleep and I just kind of fell off and I missed the mark See we have to understand what mr Mark is in a context of what the scripture says about what sin is In fact, if you look at scripture, there are more than 40 different words used to describe sin The most common word is hamartian in the Greek But when we examine these words It gives us a broader and deeper picture of what it is that we have been saved from And I'm just gonna go over a few words with you because we're not gonna sit here and go through all 40 In Hebrew, there's a word called Raha, which means wicked or evil anything that goes against God's nature is Raha or Avon it means to be crooked or twisted and the root word means to be perverted It doesn't it doesn't just mean that we shot for something and we missed it.

It means that there's a perversion There's something crooked inside of who we are for sure. The word means to rebel It's not just somebody who was walking the narrow path and then just stepped on something or tripped over something It is a willful rebellion to shake your fist at God's a I don't want you That's the word for sure another word a sham to be offensive To offend him.

We didn't just mr Mark, we didn't just live up to a certain standard that he had the scripture says that we were offensive the word ha ha In Hebrew, it means to deliberately deceive to hide Because we want to go this path and God says to go here and so we would deceive Deceive ourselves deceive others and deceive God See that in Hebrew the word for sin is not simply we just missed the mark.

It means there's wickedness There's badness corruptness in our nature. There's perversion. There's a willful rebellion There's offensiveness to this God and we deceive to hide all of this In the Greek the word Martian again to mr. Mark But perhaps basis basis is to violate something Whenever somebody is wronged, you know was L we've been sinned against but when it's when it's been really perverted when it was really deep And offensive we say that person has been violated Well, that's the word in Greek another word for sin to violate a Sabia ungodly Ponras diseased Corrupted in nature Kakos depraved Adhikas unjust anomos To have no law lawlessness plana to go astray These are some of the words that describe sin and when the scripture says all have sin and fall short of the glory of God He's not just saying that we tried but we couldn't make it The Bible describing a willful rebellion against God.

I don't want you as my God I'd rather experience this pleasure now than to submit myself to you Deliberately rebelling deliberately offensive disease in our nature and That's why Romans chapter 3 verse 10 when it says no one seeks God. No one does good It seems like an exaggeration but in reality, that's what the scripture says we were when we don't understand the degree of Sin that we were seeped in that he saved us from that's why the Bible describes us It describes us as dead in our trespasses not just sick not just corrupted but dead in our trespasses There's nothing that we could have done to move out of there.

It was it was a we're so deep into this quicksand There was nothing that we could have grasped by ourselves that we could have come out He says so when the scripture says God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners yet depraved yet Wicked yet in rebellion Christ died for us.

I Think the more we live You know what it means to grow as a as a Christian is to recognize what it is that we have in Christ And the deeper we recognize what we have in Christ We give a reasonable response. So everything that we give to God is a response It's not something that we we muster up within It's not something that if we meditate enough if we memorize scripture It is simply a reaction towards some seeing something and experience something Beyond ourselves and that's why Romans chapter 12 in view of God's mercy.

It says Presents your body as a living sacrifice You know Luke chapter 18 11th 14, you know that password Jesus is basically rebuking the Pharisee for his self-righteousness And this is what he says The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God. I thank you that I am NOT like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector Before we judge the Pharisee too quickly Everything he said was true in this passage.

He didn't extort He he was not an extortioner He was an obeyer of the law. He kept it so precisely He memorized scripture Jesus said that they would travel miles and miles just to proselytize people He prayed and he gave and he was at the temple constantly So on the surface everything he says was true.

He was not an extortioner. He was not unjust He wasn't he was not an adulterer and he wasn't like the tax collector. He didn't betray his country He wasn't going around and taking money from people unjustly so on the surface He can look at it. We can look at that and says yeah, I mean what he's saying is true He but the corruption is much deeper than that You look at this tax collector in verse 12 is I fast twice a day or he he himself the Pharisee said I face twice I said that I give tithes all that I get in verse 13, but the tax collector standing far off Would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner Our relationship with God begins when we recognize that that's me That's me.

I'm that sinner I'm the one who rebelled against God I'm the one who's constantly wanting to deceive. I'm the one who's going astray I'm the one who was not deserving of this grace and He forgave me Peter asked a question in Matthew 18 21 to 35 Peter says Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times?

Now, I know you guys know that passage. I don't think Peter was asking a hypothetical question I Think he was wronged now. I don't know who it might have been James. It might have been John maybe Judas You know, it might have been maybe people from the outside, but I think Peter was genuinely wronged And he was probably thinking to himself I'm not gonna be stepped on anymore How can I possibly just let this go probably Jesus kept on telling him like what do I do with this guy this guy?

You know every time we cook fish we come back and he eats all of it, you know Like this guy this guy is just so insensitive You know the things that he says all the time He's not aware of what he's saying what he's doing and so Peter was probably wrong and he was probably asking this question because Every time he came to Jesus Jesus said to him forgive him So I believe it's in that context not knowing Exactly what it was He's actually a personal practical question How often do you really expect me to forgive them?

All right. So again, it was not hypothetical. He's not asking a broad theological question He's just asking do you really expect me to forgive them this many times and Jesus says and he says seven times again seven times Being like, okay, you know, I've already given them forgiving them three times because you kept on telling me up to seven times That's not human, but you're the Messiah.

So we're gonna live a higher standard, but seven times Jesus's response to him said I do not say to you seven times but 70 times seven It doesn't record for us Peter's response But you could imagine what Peter was probably thinking You know up to seven time. Okay, I said seven because you know, I'm already I'm already up to here with this guy, you know Three times four times.

Okay, seven times maybe because you're from God. You're the Messiah, you know, but 70 times seven It doesn't say anything there's there's no response from Peter and he probably was dumbfounded But Jesus responds to him in that answer and he gives him the why this is reasonable Completely unreasonable in any other circumstance to expect any of you who've been wrong to forgive seven times Completely unreasonable.

I would never ask that of you, but that's exactly what Jesus says and then he gives a reasoning behind it And you know the parable he gives a story about his this man who old this King 10,000 talents and he could not possibly pay this back So he begs for mercy and so the king decides to show mercy to him and he allows him to go completely free and Then he goes back home and then here's another servant that comes to him and he owes him a hundred denarii and he same situation Except this this time.

He's the one who was wrong and he asked for forgiveness He said how can I forgive you you have to pay me back? And if you don't I'm gonna put you in jail and that's what he practices in it end of it Jesus says you wicked servant You've been forgiven ten thousand talents and you couldn't forgive him a hundred denarii Now in order to understand the gravity of what he is saying, you have to understand the amount that he's talking about He's not talking about ten thousand talents like what he he forgave you ten thousand dollars and this guy only if only have a hundred dollars a Single talent was equivalent to 20 years of an average laborers pay Okay, 20 years Average laborers pay now.

I'm not gonna do the math Okay, cuz I'm gonna be mocked for it at the end no matter how hard I work I it's probably not gonna come out right you do the math. Okay, it comes out to somewhere near in hundreds of millions Okay Maybe a billion But it's a ridiculous amount of money for an average worker.

Imagine if one talent is 20 years of pay At minimum even if he's getting a little bit We're talking in the millions versus a denarii one denarii is one day's pay So he owes a hundred denarii Right, so we're talking about 20 years times 10,000 okay 20 years of pay times 10,000 10,000 times 20.

Okay, you do the math Okay, I I think it's in it's in the hundreds of millions possibly in the billions of dollars And here's this guy a few thousand bucks, right? Why does Jesus use this analogy? I mean, it seems like an exaggeration say, you know, the early early Jews at that time were very temperamental So instead of instead of saying he owed a couple hundred thousand and then and a few thousand He said a billion dollars and a few thousand dollars Was he simply exaggerating?

I Don't think he was for the purpose of exaggeration I Think Jesus was trying to teach Peter You don't understand the debt that has been forgiven you Because you don't recognize the debt that has been forgiven you you have a difficult time for even the debt that others have on you Everything that we talked about The violation the ungodliness that disease that depraved the unjust the lawless go going astray Every part of this is a description of who we are And that's why universalism is so so offensive to God I mean you can we can understand why it would be so offensive if there was any other possible way That a sinner could pay his debt to enter into heaven.

Would he have sent his only begotten Son? Wouldn't he have allowed you to at least at least give it a try The only reason why the Son of God would come was so that because the debt was so big That another human being could not possibly pay that debt My life could not possibly pay for your life My debt could not be canceled by yours Only way that this debt could have been paid if the Son of God Absorbed all of it upon himself Think about the magnitude of How deep our sin must have been?

that the God of the universe that everything was created by him and for him and Everything is sustained by him. Look at the size of this universe that he who created all of this Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped and came and became nothing for what?

to pay our debt God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us It is because we do not recognize what it is that we have in Christ we have such a hard time With forgiving others. That's why Jesus says I'm telling you seven times seventy Because you don't realize what was has been done for you seven times seventy doesn't begin to describe what you have in Christ Not seven times seventy seven thousand times seven thousand would not describe What the God of the universe did for us See Paul is not telling this to file a man because file a man was not a good Christian and he wasn't practicing grace In fact Paul described file a man as a great man practicing great love file a man Verse five because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the Saints Again in verse seven for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother Because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed through you So he's not telling this to file a man because he wasn't a good Christian.

He wasn't practicing this grace He said you need to practice some of this grace Says no, just like he says to find the Philippines 1 9 and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment More and more Wait, I don't know about you.

But when I read that and skim through it and I say I know you're practicing love But it's not enough that you practice more and more I mean, oh my gosh, it sounds like you know Your child is working hard and he came home with an a and he says I'm thankful that you're getting an a but a plus a plus You come up with the four point three GPA.

He's like the four point five four point five is your goal, right and That's what it may sound like if you don't really understand what he is saying He says it again in Thessalonians 4 9 through 10. Here's this model church Concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you brothers to do this more and more You know almost kind of like hey Paul back off These guys are being persecuted They're sacrifice.

They've already sacrificed so much and they're model Christians And he says your love is being proclaimed all throughout Macedonia when they talk about a church that loves one another they talk about you But Paul says it is not enough to do this more and more Now again if we leave it right here it says okay go do it Right, whatever you have whatever you bro, whatever righteousness that you think you have whatever love and grace you're practicing great We commend you for it, but do more and more We need to understand what he is saying first of all, he says Thessalonians I don't have I don't have a need to tell you this because God himself is teaching you this He's not I don't think he's saying that they had some special Revelation that the other churches didn't have that God was audibly speaking to them That the other Christians were not hearing When he says I don't need to teach you about this because God has already taught you he's talking about their own salvation At the very nature of what we proclaim every song that we sing every passage that we read It's about his great love for us That's why John says in John 1st John 3 1 see what kind of love the Father has given us That we should be called the children of God and that's what we are In some of you in a NASB translations It says behold, you know because the word seed just kind of sees like I see this I see that but really is the word really captures to take a minute to take a look and examine behold What manner of love is this?

That we will be called the children of God and that's exactly what we are How often have you fantasized About being Bill Gates son or daughter All right. I think I can use Bill Gates because Most of this crowd is younger, right? Thinking if I was Bill Gates son, I could fly to Europe anytime I want You know, I Could go to the Himalayas.

I don't have to go to school. I have to wake up to go to work How many times have you fantasized every time you didn't want to go to work? And I only if he was my father You know, I could do this and I could do that and Yet the scripture says Behold take a look What manner of love is this that we are called the children of the Almighty God?

How foolish and short-sighted are we that we would sit and fantasize about being a son of somebody who has riches that will fade When we have the riches of heaven waiting for us in eternity That's why he says behold what manner of love is this it is not any special revelation that the Thessalonians God It was a revelation that every Christian has Every single Christian who confesses Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior behold What manner of love is this that you are here and able to understand what is being preached this morning Behold what manner of love is this that you can pray and the God of the universe listens to you Why does he listen to you?

Why does he care about you? Why does he care about me? What manner of love is this? Because we have potential because we were better looking While we were yet sinners he did this for us Ephesians 3 17 19 says that you being rooted and grounded in love May have strength to comprehend with all the saints that what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love Of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God You know again on the surface may look like yeah, that's great but he wants us to do more and more at what point do we Get to rest Well, I what point is it enough?

I name it was already practicing all this but he says do more more Again, if we understand it superficially we make we may actually leave burdened by this but look what he says in verse 6 and I pray That the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ I used to think that when he says the sharing of your faith may become effective.

I thought he's talking about evangelism But in reality the word sharing here in Greek is corn on Nia where we get the word partnership or fellowship and in the context He's not talking about evangelism He's not all of a sudden talking about forgiving your brother practicing love and then say now evangelism.

All right, it wouldn't fit the context What he is saying is as a Christian to practice the faith that you profess The love that Christ poured out upon you when you are practicing this grace and you are practicing this love That it may be effective powerful For the full knowledge look at here.

I want you to pay attention to this because this is the key That you would practice this grace and this love So that it may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ The word for full knowledge here is not talking about something study that you go to seminary and you study about The gospel you study about some knowledge.

He's talking about experientially The full knowledge and understanding of what it is that you have in Christ when you are practicing this love And I can honestly tell you that the most difficult thing about Ministry has not been money You know somebody say I've you've been on pass. It must be hard financially I mean, I don't know too many pastors who come into ministry thinking I'm gonna be rich Right, and if they are they stand out like a sore thumb, you know right away You can tell and not to say that there isn't temptation for it But I don't know too many people coming into ministry thinking that they're gonna make money So when we have financial hardship, it's you know, we were prepared for that The hardest part of our ministry is loving people.

That's hard to love and That to be honest Ministry forces you to but that's not about that's not ministry. That's just being a Christian Ministry just have extra because people are watching You know, you're a pastor you have to Even as I was preparing for this, you know, I have to think about it What am I think I'm struggling with you know that make sure that I don't come up here as a hypocrite So this is extra accountability for me, you know But the practice of love and grace and forgiveness is not human It's not something that I search deeper than go to the closet and really like, you know Practice yoga and tap into this inner being and then when I tap into it, it's like I love everybody You know The deeper I dig the more vengeance I want The more I think about it the more undeserving these people are the deeper I dig It causes me to come before the Lord and recognize If it's this hard to love a fellow brother A fellow sister and It wasn't it's not even that offensive.

It's just it doesn't take a sinful human being It doesn't take much to trigger us Right all in all I said, oh they said they said what about me what? They didn't like my tie what? You Cook some food and they thought it was too salty what? That guy it doesn't take much for us to do if it's this hard for me to love another brother in Christ How much did it take for God of the universe To have pity on me That he would leave a whole of that to come walk among us in this filth So that while we were yet sinners not because we were running to him Not because we were running to him and he was trying to catch us.

He jumped into the mud that we were unwilling to come out of And that's why he says See the sharing of your faith the practice of this faith this grace this love That he would become effective so that you would have the full knowledge of every good thing that you have in Christ And the more we practice this love The more we recognize what it is that we have in Christ and the more we recognize what we have in Christ The more we're able to practice this grace and the more we have able to practice this grace the more we're able to know his love and this cycle goes on and on and it gets us deeper And deeper in understanding of what it is that we have in Christ So you may say thank you today and you may say thank you tomorrow But the thank you that you say every single year is deeper and deeper and deeper Because we recognize just how far we are without him When I first got saved I loved I loved the fact that he loved and he died for me I'm who wouldn't love this guy But every year that I live I See the darkness in this world.

I See how difficult it is for human beings to just have Relationships How easily we misunderstand each other how easily we point fingers at each other? It's a miracle that human relationships last for a long period of time And how all of that is inside of me Despite all of that He gave himself He's in first John 4 12.

No one has ever seen God if we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us See practice of his grace and love It's not simply to burden us It's to free us It's just free us from our own sins And when Jesus says I have come to give life and to give this life abundantly this abundant life is in his love and if you're in a habit of Giving into your rage.

Yeah. I mean that's that's how we are I mean if what when we're misunderstood when we feel like somebody's not on our side, you know It's our natural response to to seek justice If you're in a habit of giving into that you'll never fully comprehend The love that Christ has for you Just how difficult it is What he must have gone through that I can speak to him that I can come here and worship him As we again as we look upon this testimony of the power of the cross upon their lives I pray that we would not just look through this as oh, yeah, I know what Philemon is about But I pray that the power of the cross would affect you so deeply That our worship may simply be a response That we're not just singing songs We're praising him for his goodness We're not just crutchingly forgiving That we would forgive with all our hearts and that would be our act of worship because you forgave me I forgive him Because you've been gracious to me.

I'm gonna be gracious to him not because they deserve it Because you gave me a love that I did not deserve so I will practice love that they don't deserve and That is why Paul is able to say so boldly to this man Forgive him Because he's been affected Would you close your eyes with me this morning as you come before the Lord?

Are there people in your heart that you've been holding grudges against and as a result of that your walk with God has been strained You're living with this Toxic Hatred or bitterness in your heart and God wants you to wants you to be freed from that To recognize Just how great of a love he's shown us Behold what manner of love is?

That we are called the children of God What does it mean for you to worship God this morning? What did it take for you to be here this morning? To have this communion with God Well, let's take a few minutes as our praise team comes up to take some time to pray and ask God Lord Help me to forgive help me to recognize that what I have in you that I may give a reasonable response Let's take some time to pray