I'll be reading from verse 8 to verse 25. Philemon, verse 8 through 25. E reading out of the ESV. "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 Jesus.

I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel.

But I prefer to do nothing without your consent, in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me your own self.

Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers, I will be graciously given to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we entrust this time to you. We pray, Father God, that your words that go forth would not be empty, but your Holy Spirit would convict us.

Judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Renew us. Remind us, Lord God, what it is that we have in Christ, that our lives may simply be a reasonable response. So we entrust this time to you, Lord God, asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to convict and renew.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we've been talking about, you know, hearing and seeing the testimony of the power of the cross, it really never gets old. In fact, if it ever gets old, it already tells us something has gone wrong in us. You know, we hear the testimonies of how other people became Christians and how they're following Christ, even in their struggles.

Because whenever we hear people's testimonies, it's not just about their testimony. It's a story that all of us are involved. So if we're somehow disengaged with that, again, that's a warning sign that something has severely gone wrong in our hearts. Philemon is a powerful testimony of what happens to people when they meet Christ.

To think that a former runaway slave will be restored back to his master. Again, you know, we have to take time to really consider what does that mean? What does it mean for Onesimus to return back to his master? If this didn't go well, if Paul told Onesimus to go back and be restored to Philemon, and Philemon says, "No, I can't do that." You know, think about my reputation.

I don't know if Philemon still owns slaves, but if I just forgive this guy, what's going to prevent these other slaves from taking off? What are the other people in this city going to think of me? And so, I mean, you can think of all kinds of reasons why Philemon might say that may not be a good idea.

And if that wasn't, what would happen to this runaway slave, now a Christian who's coming back with this letter? You know, typically, a runaway slave who was caught, at the minimum, they were brutally flogged as a punishment. They were often branded. They were sold for hard labor, saying, "I can't trust you anymore." So they would send him, and he would be a tainted worker, so he would only be able to work in the field for hard labor as a punishment.

Oftentimes, they would actually be crucified. They would consider him tainted. "How can I trust you over my farm or over my property if I can't trust you?" So they would basically extinguish him. So oftentimes, runaway slaves were crucified or thrown to the wild beast. And typically, according to historical documents, that they were forced to wear iron collars, which read, "Catch me, I'm a runaway slave," just in case.

That you branded him, and you forced him to wear a collar, and he would stand out everywhere he went. So think about the consequence of this man going back. And so everyone was taking a risk. Paul was risking his friendship for asking this. Philemon was risking his reputation, maybe his own property.

And Onesimus was risking his own life to come back. I mean, think about it. He ran away from slavery to find freedom, and now he's going back to the very place that could possibly ruin his life. You know, as Christians, as we know and study about the testimony of Philemon and what this letter represents, as we talked about before, forgiveness is at the core of Christianity.

Before we think about how we ought to live, and evangelizing, and Great Commission, the beginning of our relationship and ongoing relationship with Christ is about forgiveness. It's because you and I have been forgiven by Christ. It's because God continues to forgive us in our weakness, and He will continue to forgive us, to sanctify us until the end, that we are able to be here and to worship God.

None of us today, no matter how well you did your quiet time, no matter how much scripture you read, can ever come into the presence of God by our own merit. It's only because His work on the cross was permanent. So forgiveness is at the core. In fact, the scripture tells us if we do not practice forgiveness, there's consequences.

In Mark 6, 14-15, He says, "If we want our sins forgiven, when we come to God and ask for forgiveness, you must first forgive." Matthew 6, 14, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." I mean, you can't be more clear than that.

Right? Our ability to be able to come before God and ask for forgiveness is contingent upon our willingness to forgive others. In fact, if we don't forgive, it says our very worship will not be accepted in Matthew 5, 23. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. So He says, "Even our very worship and offering that we give to God," He says, "first go and be reconciled." It hinders even our prayers. Mark chapter 11, 25, "And whenever you stand praying, forgive.

If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses." We have all these things that the Scripture commands and tells us that it is absolutely essential that Christians practice forgiveness. But the fourth and final thing that the Scripture gives us about forgiveness is forgiveness is ultimately, vengeance ultimately is the Lord's, He says.

Romans 12, 18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." So in other words, He's saying the vengeance and the carrying out of justice and judgment, that's what God does.

No matter how justified we believe we are, He said, everything that we carry out, our justice and our desire for vengeance is always tainted by our own sin. Our own selfishness, our own pride affects proper judgment. That's why He says, "Vengeance is mine." On the contrary, it says in verse 20, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him." He's not just talking about a stranger.

He's talking about an enemy, somebody who has offended you, somebody who has wronged you. He said, "On the contrary, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head." In other words, win him over with your kindness.

That he may desire to hurt you, but you're going to reverse this curse by being kind to him. So what he means by putting burning coals on his head, meaning that he just put him in a situation where he can't do anything else. He said, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Paul says, he says, "As an apostle of Jesus Christ, I have the boldness to command you in the name of Jesus." You know, when Paul calls himself an apostle, it's not like the general meaning of the word apostle basically means a messenger.

But that's not how Paul uses the word. When Paul calls himself an apostle, he's talking about a unique gifting, unique calling that was given to a very few group of people. Now, there's a debate as to whether that's 13 to 12 plus apostle Paul, or some debate maybe Barnabas was an apostle.

So, whether you believe there's 12 or 14 or maybe even 15, that office does not exist today. These were uniquely gifted, anointed people that God used for that particular period to give us revelation of the Scripture, to be the first witnesses of Christ. So, when Paul says in his letters, he begins the letters by saying, "I, an apostle of Jesus Christ." He's not just saying, "I'm just a messenger like everybody else." He's uniquely saying, "This letter comes to you with authority." Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1st, 2nd Timothy, Titus, all of these letters have a stamp of his authority.

And so when he starts his letter he's basically saying, "You need to pay attention to this. I'm not just speaking as a man. I'm not just speaking as a messenger who has a message for you. I'm speaking with the authority of Jesus Christ. And you need to listen to this as if Jesus Himself is speaking to you." And that's why he puts that stamp, "I, an apostle of Jesus Christ." You know, today, if you were to receive a letter, you know, certain letters come with more authority than others, right?

If you receive a letter from, you know, some clearing house, something, and you won a lottery, and please contact us in the next five minutes or you're not going to get it, it's like junk mail, right? Or, you know, "Oh, you're trying to refinance your house? Come, contact now.

The interest rate's going to go up tomorrow, so contact us." Junk mail, right? But it's stamped with IRS, right? IRS, Internal Revenue Service to Peter Kim. Now, that doesn't go on a junk mail, right? Maybe some of you who haven't been paying taxes for a long period of time, because like, "Ah, IRS, whatever." You do not mess with the IRS, right?

Because people go to jail for going to, messing around with the IRS. The IRS can actually tap into your bank account. Did you know that? The money that you put in, they can take out, like that, right? In fact, like I said, people have gone to jail for not, for neglecting the IRS.

So, when a letter comes with the IRS, with the stamped IRS, you open it, whatever it has to say, and you pay very close attention to what he said, what they say, and you have to reply to it. You say, "We need these documents. We need to verify this." You don't just put that over there, "Ah, whatever," right?

Because behind the stamp of the IRS, the US government stands behind them with all their power and authority. So, when Paul calls himself an Apostle, he's not just saying, "Yeah, I get the title, I'm just a messenger here." He said, "No, I'm coming to you with the authority of Jesus Christ." In fact, he says in Ephesians 4:11 that the Church was founded upon the Apostles.

The Gospel ministry was first and foremost was given to the Apostles. His authority. In fact, here he says, "I could speak to you with the authority of an Apostle and command you to do this." And it's not like he hasn't before. In fact, often times you see him coming with that authority, because he needed to.

In 1 Timothy 1:20 he says, "Hand over Him and Alexander to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Remember, the Apostles actually had authority to raise people from the dead and actually carry out capital punishment. I mean, we don't have Apostles today, so you and I are safe.

I don't have that authority. Nobody here has that authority. But the Apostles did. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? Because they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, they lied to the Church. And Apostle Peter basically carries out capital punishment right there. The Apostles had that kind of authority. And that's why he says to Timothy to set these guys apart.

So we're going to teach them not to blaspheme. 1 Corinthians 4 20-21, "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and spirit of gentleness?" Apostle Paul historically was known to be a short, skinny, bald guy.

You know? And that's why he says his letters are impressive, but his presence is weak. Right? Because there's nothing intimidating about this guy. He doesn't have a booming voice. He's just a small, petite guy. So when he says, "Shall I come with you with a rod?" You know, it's like, "Come on, Paul.

We can take you." You know what I mean? It's only two minutes to take you down, put you in an armbar, and tap out. You know what I mean? That's not escape. Paul is not talking about his physical presence. He's not saying he's been working out and check out his muscles, and I'm going to flex it on you.

Right? He's talking about his apostolic authority. That if I come there and you do not repent of your sins, I may have to come to you with a rod. So again, it wasn't like Paul didn't flex his muscles before. There are times when he did do that. In fact, the Scripture gives us many examples where the Apostles tell us, "You are obligated.

You are obligated to be obedient to Christ. You are obligated to follow Him." In fact, there's warnings. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God. In fact, there are, you know, encouragements of rewards. That great reward is waiting. The crown of life is waiting for you if you persevere and endure.

Oftentimes, we're told and we're commanded to fear, to live out our Christian life in fear and trembling. So, the Scripture doesn't give us just one motivation. You know, some people have a tendency to think that if we're not motivated by love, that everything else is legalism. That is not true.

Because that's what the Scripture says. There are times when Paul flexes his muscles. Paul, Peter, John, they all flex their muscles and say, "You need to do this whether you want to do this or not, because there are serious consequences if you do not." But the primary motive, it is not the only motive, but the primary motive is always love.

That's why Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, he says, "I remember your response, your genuine response to the gospel. I remember your work of faith, but your labor of love." Steadfastness is hope in Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "Of the three virtues of Christianity, of faith, love, and hope, out of these three, what is the greatest?

It's love." Not only is it the greatest, he says in 1 Corinthians 13, that if you have all these other things, if you give your body even to be burned, even if you're martyred, he said, "If you don't have love," he says, "it is nothing." It is not the only motivation, but by far it is the greatest motivation.

So Paul, instead of commanding him, is really giving him an opportunity. He could command him, and now if Philemon doesn't obey, for the sake of Onesimus, he may say, "You know what, if you're not going to obey, I'm going to command you in the name of Jesus Christ. But before I need to get there, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond in grace." So how does he come out?

He appeals in his weakness. Look at verse 8 and 9. He said, "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 for Christ Jesus." So his first appeal is in his weakness.

I'm not coming to you with this great authority. I'm not coming to you with this power. I'm coming to you as an old man sitting in prison and appealing to you in love. Why? So that you would not respond in compulsion. In 2 Corinthians 12:10, it says, "For the sake of Christ, and I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong." You know, if there's any one particular lesson that I have learned in ministry, and I believe that Apostle Paul, at the end of his life, if there's any one lesson that he probably learned over and over and over again, is that the greatest obstacle in bearing fruit is always us.

And we tend to think if the church is this way, if the community is this way, if the organization is this way, if we have more of this, more of that, but it's always us. That's why Paul, so many great things were happening to him, but God deliberately slows him down.

God deliberately humbles him, where he's begging the Lord three separate times, "Take this away from me." He says, "No. I did that on purpose to keep you humble. That my grace should be sufficient for you." In other words, that my grace is enough for you. It is not your ability.

It is not your power. It is not your backing. I mean, think about Apostle Paul. You know, humanly speaking, this guy had personal connections. He had personal friends in the Sanhedrin. I mean, if somebody in that position became a Christian, wouldn't you automatically think, "Man, that's a great resource.

You know, all of these guys, you know, they're chasing us, and they're putting us in prison. Why don't you talk to some of your friends?" And Paul could have said, "Okay, let me use my influence." Here's a guy with a Roman citizenship. I mean, this guy, it was privileged.

He had family backing. He has finances. And yet God allowed him to experience, you know, having plenty and not having enough. I mean, here's a guy who may have already been sitting in the Sanhedrin making tents to make ends And here he says, "For the sake of Christ, I am content with my insults and hardships and persecutions, calamities; because it is when I am weak, He is strong.

It is when we are weak, when we recognize our weakness" you know, whenever somebody says "I've done this and I've done this and I've done this and I experienced this and I've seen this and I learned this immediately, that's the biggest obstacle in that person's life, because they think that somehow they're more effective because of their past experience.

The greatest lesson I believe in ministry, whether it's Apostle Paul or us or myself, is recognizing that I am the biggest obstacle. It is when I am abiding in Christ, when I am depending upon Him, He is the greatest. Paul appeals not to his authority, but to his humility.

I mean, if you really think about it, what attracted you to Christ? And what continues to attract you to Him now? How many of you became a Christian because you were walking down the street and saw the magnificent of, how the mountains were so magnificent and you looked at the universe and how vast it was and you looked at all of that and said, "I want to worship this God." Some of you, maybe, I've never heard that yet before, you know, maybe some of you, I'm not saying it can't happen.

From my personal experience and from counseling people, majority of you, and I'll be even bold to say maybe all of you, were attracted to a God who humbled Himself. We were attracted to His weakness. In fact, isn't that what the Scripture says, that Jesus Christ forsook everything and He became a humble servant?

He learned obedience through suffering. He became a sympathetic high priest so that we would recognize that in His weakness, that we can come to Him, that we may be able to come to the throne of grace with confidence. And He didn't draw us with His power. He drew us in His humility.

And even to this day, what is the greatest attraction of Christ? Yes, we understand He's an omnipotent God. We understand that He is an all-powerful, omniscient God. He is immutable. All of these things are true. But what is the greatest attraction of Christianity? It's Jesus on the cross. This Almighty God who was equal with God in every way, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, and He humbled Himself and became nothing.

It is in His humility He brought life. It is in His sacrifice that He reversed the curse. And so Paul here appeals in his weakness that you would recognize this opportunity that God's given you. Secondly, he appeals as a son, as a father to the son, and as a brother to brother.

As a family, he doesn't just say, "Hey, here's this runaway slave that's coming to you." He says, "No, he's my son in the faith. I've become his father." And to see him not simply as a runaway slave, but as your brother who's being restored to you. And that's exactly how the Bible paints the picture about the church.

We call it the temple, we call it the body of Christ, and all of these things are true. But in the end, the picture that we are given in the church is that we are family of God. And that's what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, 5, 1 and 2.

Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. If we see ourselves as a, you know, this is a church and we have so many people, and this is my brother, but that person, like, you know, just brother in name.

Think about it in, if you were in the early church, the word brother was not created by Christians to call other Christians. That was like today. If we said, "That's a brother," we use it in various ways, right? It's a, you know, a lot of times we think of it as, "Oh, Christian.

He's a brother. He's another Christian." But in the early church, when they used the term brother, it just meant family. And I think that's exactly how it was being used. That my brother, my mother, my father was my other Christians. Imagine if you're in a, if you're in a home and I, you know, I have four kids and my oldest comes in and says, "You know what?

Isaiah, I love Isaiah. You know, he's like a puppy in our house. I love him. He's my brother. But these other two, they don't listen, so they're not my brother." Right? Imagine if he said that. It's like, from a parent's perspective, a parent is never at peace until all of the children are safe.

Right? You don't have to have all of them missing. All you need is one. Right? If one is not home and he's not in bed, I'm never completely at peace. And see, from God's perspective, He said, "We're his children. We're part of his family." When he says, "He's my brother," there's automatically, what he is saying is, "He's somebody that you need to care for.

He's not just an ex-runaway slave." You know, when I was in high school, I had various groups of friends. I had some jock friends, and I had some fob friends. Right? And then I had some Hispanic friends. And those, to be honest, those are the guys that I felt the closest bond to.

I felt culturally, I don't know what it was, but there was a connection with these guys. Right? And, you know, this is during, I was at Burbank High School at that time, and this was during a period when there aren't too many Asians. So Asians typically have to kind of find your little niche.

And that was the group that I felt the most comfortable with. And so whenever I would hang out with them, you know, the other guys would say, "Hey, what's this chinito, what is he doing here?" And then usually one of my friends, one of my Hispanic friends would say, "Oh, don't worry, Peter's a homeboy." That's what he would say.

Right? And I don't know if they use it the same way today, but at that time, when they said, "He's a homeboy," basically it meant, "He's one of us. You can trust him." Like, "I vouch for this guy." And so when they call me homeboy, that means I can hang out with them.

That means if somebody causes me trouble, we're going to back this guy up. And that's probably one of the reasons why I like this group. These guys stuck together. I mean, basically, if somebody jumps you, he's jumping all of us. You know what I mean? That was kind of like the community.

They had a tight-knit community, and I was a homeboy. And that's what it meant. That term, at least at that time, if you were called a homeboy, no one messed with you. Because behind him, everybody else is like, "No, you don't mess with that guy. He's a homeboy." Right?

The term "brother," again, we use it kind of generically. Like, "Oh, everybody who's a Christian, everybody who professes to be a follower of Christ, he's a brother." But imagine in the early church when they used that term. He's saying, "That's my sister. That's my father. I became his father.

He became my son." In other words, he's using illustration as a family. And that's exactly what Paul says in Philemon 15.16. "For this, perhaps, is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me.

But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord." See, what you lost was a slave. But now you're getting back a brother. And not to see him that way. So Paul is trying to see him in a larger context and picture. You're receiving something much better than what you lost.

At one point he was useless. Now he's going to be very useful to you in the greater work. Not just to take care of your farm, but your very household. He's going to come to you as a brother. You know, as a pastor, one of the things that I have to do, and as leaders in the church, is we have to sometimes discipline.

We have to say things that we don't want to say. We have to point out sins that we don't want to, because the easiest thing to do is just kind of sweep it under the rug, because I don't want to deal with it. You know? Sometimes, a lot of times people will come up to me, "Hey, this person's doing this and this and this." Deal with it.

Right? Well, that's one of the dirty jobs of being a leader. And again, this is not, it shouldn't be just a job of the leadership, but you know. And so whenever that happens, I have to caution my own heart. How much of this, how much of this righteousness that I feel, or this I need to carry out, would I do that if that was my own son?

And that's how I measure my own heart. Would I speak of him in that way if that was my own kid? If that was my wife? If that was my husband? My mom? Or my brothers? Okay? That's how I measure if I am actually practicing, say, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So sometimes I don't even know, you know, what's happening in my heart.

And I would measure it that way. Well, I picture my son in that situation. Would I say that? Would I do that to him if that was him? And I would have to measure my own heart. And that's how I am able to see. It's like, okay, if I'm not, then that means I need to be on my knees and pray.

I'm not ready to confront that person because I'm not doing it in love and grace. I want to hurt that person. Or we're hurt. We want to, you know, retaliate because that's our natural, you know, disposition. And that's why Paul says, "I'm coming to you to see." I'm not asking a slave and a former slave owner to be reconciled.

I'm asking a brother to be reconciled with a brother. And I'm asking as a spiritual father to be gracious to my son. And that's, in reality, that's how God sees all of us. He's not just a person in the church or a person in our lives. He says, "No, it's your brother.

That's your sister." It's because sometimes we don't see them that way. We just see them as an inconvenient person that's in our lives. But it's like, "No, would I do that if that was my brother? Would I do that if that was my sister? Would I do that if that was my mother or my father?" Thirdly, ultimately, he's appealing in love.

He's appealing in love. The greatest appeal in the Scripture is love. He says, "So that you wouldn't do this out of compulsion, but out of free will." In NIV, it says, "Spontaneous and not forced." And then in the ESV, it says, "For this, not under compulsion." Look at that.

Not under compulsion, but to do it out of your desire. You know, if you look in Scripture, Old Testament, there was mandatory gifts and free will gifts, free will offering. Mandatory offerings in the Old Testament was satisfied in Christ. What is necessary for us to come to Christ was satisfied in Christ.

But the Old Testament also has free will offering, where you just, out of desire, say, "You know what? I want to give this to God." Best worship is always done out of our desire. When we are moved, right? When we do things out of compulsion, we always just do the minimum, right?

If you come to worship in compulsion, you're very calculating the time. You know, it's like, how long is the worship? You know, start at 11, usually ends about 1230. So we start at 12, people don't get there. You know, we start music, so I'll show up about 12, you know, 11, 15, 11, 10.

I won't miss anything, as long as I get the sermon, right? And then if my sermon goes a little bit long, it's usually about 45 minutes, you know, where I should shoot for 45 minutes. Sometimes it goes longer. I know what you're thinking. No, a lot of times it goes longer.

Okay. I heard you. I heard you. Okay. If it goes a little bit longer, you know, I hear the grumbling. It's like, "Dang, it went long today." Right? Because I've given you one hour and a half, and you took an hour, you know, 40 minutes. How dare you? When we give worship out of compulsion, it's always measured.

You know, I do quiet time, and it's like, "Oh, I read three verses," or I put 10 minutes, or even the way we pray, you know, it's like, "Oh," I said, "I'm going to pray 10 minutes." And we're all like, "10 minutes?" You know? "Five minutes?" You know? And then you say some things, and five minutes and 10 seconds, and then you say some things, and you're always measuring.

Like, "I got to put in my 10 minutes." Right? Even, even the offering. Like, "Oh, I got 10 percent." It's like, "How much is 10 percent of whatever?" Right? And then once you give that, it's like, "I've given. I've given. I've given my, it's like, there's nothing more, and like, I've given it to you." Right?

When we're doing out of compulsion, it's always just, just what you need to do. But true worship is when we are moved. When we are inspired by His sacrifice, by what He's done for us. And we give. You know, I think the greatest example of that that I've seen, you know, years ago, I went to Romania, because China had SARS, and we were forced to go to Romania last minute.

And we went to these Baptist churches to do presentations. And I remember, you know, Pastor Aaron's wife, Tina, she prepared all these, like, body worship skits and all this stuff, and found out that the churches in Romania were very offended by it. You know? That they're so conservative that, you know, I remember the very first time that we did the body worship presentation, I was in the back, because they didn't want me in the team.

So I was in the back, and they were doing all this stuff. And then we saw people crying, you know, one particular lady crying in the back. So I thought, "Wow, they're being moved." You know? That's what I thought. Then after it was over, I went to an interpreter and asked him, and he was very reluctant to share with me what she was saying.

But I said, "Hey, what's going on? It seemed like she really liked it." And he's like, "No." She was saying in Romanian, "What kind of a church is this that allowed this kind of stuff on the stage?" And I didn't share this with our team, because I didn't want to ruin the trip, because that was the first church we went to.

And then every church that we went to, we realized that they were so, like, so rigid that - one time we got yelled at because we were supposed to do a special presentation singing songs, and some of our guys forgot the lyrics, and they were giggling. Because they forgot.

They were embarrassed. And then the pastor got so mad at us and said, "How can you be so irreverent?" You know? And crack a smile up there. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, you know, I don't think we're coming back here again." But I remember going through that just so discouraged.

These guys are so seeped in legalism that there was no true worship. There's no joy in their face when they worship. It was just, "You're supposed to do this, you're supposed to do this, you're supposed to do that." And then one day we went to a gypsy church. And gypsies were kind of looked down upon, and they always kind of had the worst building because they just traveled from place to place, and they just had a bad reputation.

And we went to a gypsy place, and they said, you know, as a pastor, they said, "Prepare a sermon, you know, but the worship structure is kind of loose, and they just allow people to share and stuff, so just be prepared. When we're ready, we'll ask you to share the message." So we went in, there was a group of maybe about 30 people, and there was probably about eight or nine of us that went together.

And then we're sitting there, and the pastor just started out, sang some songs, and said, "Anybody here want to share?" And so one by one, just the congregation members would share, and then they would share about their stories. And because Romania's economy is so bad, you know, you don't see a lot of young men.

Like our church age people, you just don't see. All the young men who are able to work, they're all outside the country. So you had older ladies, older men, and young children everywhere we went. And so one by one, these ladies would be standing up, and they were sharing, like, you know, they, the husband had to leave, haven't seen him in five years, and how difficult it is, and how they came to church and heard the gospel, became a Christian.

And so one lady would share her faith and sit down, and then another lady would stand up, and she would begin to share and start weeping. And so every one of them had just gut-wrenching testimonies. And obviously, every one of us was being affected by this, and so, you know, our team started standing up and saying, "Oh, man, we're so blessed by this.

We're so blessed by this." And then at the end, in the context of doing this, there was a non-Christian who stood up and said, "You know what? I've been coming, you know, for a few weeks, and I'm hearing your testimonies, and I really feel like, you know, everything that you're saying, I believe this, and I want to become a Christian." So a lady just accepted Christ.

You know, there was no preaching, there was no altar calls. It's in the context of worship and giving testimonies. Every single one of us, we came out of that worship thinking like, "That's worship. That's true worship." You know, when people were affected, you see the effects of the cross in those people, just eager to say, "I love Jesus.

I want to proclaim Him." And it's not like, "Man, I'm a Christian. I should do this. I should do that." The greatest motivation, the greatest appeal of Christianity is always His grace. It's always His love. That's right. In 2 Corinthians 8, 1 and 4, Paul talks about the churches in Macedonia, and how there was a famine in Jerusalem, and he was taking an offering, and these churches in Macedonia, they themselves were experiencing famine.

But Paul says, you know, let me just read to you what he says. He says, "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a sort of severe test of affliction," he's talking about them, the Macedonian church, "their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." So did you hear that?

They're not giving because they were blessed and they had so much left over. He said, "In their severe testing of affliction, in extreme poverty," right? Extreme poverty. I don't care how poor you were when you grew up. I don't think there's a single person here that has ever experienced extreme poverty.

Extreme poverty means you can't feed your kids. They can't eat. They get a cut. There's no antibiotics. There's nothing. No medical attention. That's what, if you've ever traveled outside of the United States, you know what extreme poverty may look like. He says, "In their extreme poverty, they have overflowed in wealth of generosity." Even though they were poor physically, they were wealthy in spirit.

And it says in verse 3, "For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will." They weren't coerced. They weren't commanded. They didn't, they weren't given a guilt trip. They actually begged, he says in verse 4, "Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints." That's what worship looks like when it is not under compulsion.

That's what evangelism looks like. I mean, some of you guys remember when you first became Christian, how eager you were to share the gospel with people? It wasn't a mandate. It wasn't because you heard a sermon. I remember that so clearly. The very first, I mean, Andy shared that this morning, but the very first thought that I had when I met Christ is like, "Man, all those people, my brothers, you know, all my friends, everybody that I knew, they need to know this too." This is what worship looks like when it's not under compulsion.

That's why Hosea 6.6, it says, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offering." That's why Paul says, "I have the authority to command you, but I appeal to you as an old man, as a prisoner, to consider my son in the faith, your brother in Christ.

You may have been calculating what it costs to lose a slave, but you're not thinking about the gain of a brother. Consider him your brother. If he's a gain to me, if he's become useful to me, how much more to you?" Lord in Goliath, what a testimony it would be for people to see this is what happens when a curse is reversed between a slave and a slave owner, a Pharisee, a tax collector, a former prostitute.

This is what it looks like when the curse is reversed and a community of people are living not under compulsion, but in reasonable response. We don't know what happened to Philemon. We don't know what happened to Onesimus, at least not in this letter. Now all of, everything we know about church history isn't 100% accurate, but there are records that we can rely on that tells us what happened, at least the history behind what happened after this letter.

Philemon becomes a pastor at Colossae. Now we don't know a whole lot more about that other than the fact that we have letters and documents that claim that he was a pastor at Colossae, which is where he is, where the church is now. So he became respected, he became the leader of this community in Colossae.

Ophelia, his wife, we have records that she was martyred for her faith. So we're assuming if his wife was martyred that probably he and his son, that's mentioned in the beginning of this letter, was probably martyred. In fact, I mentioned this before, that many of the names that are mentioned in the New Testament, we have records that they all got martyred.

These weren't just words. When he encouraged them to persevere in 1 Peter through trials, I mean, it was serious. It was life-threatening. Onesimus becomes the pastor of Ephesus. Now, for some of you guys who don't know the church of Ephesus, the church of Ephesus is where Paul spent most of his time when he was on his missionary journeys.

In fact, when he was about to go to Rome and to be captured and imprisoned, he spends all night with the elders of Ephesus. And there are several letters that are written because he's concerned about the church of Ephesus. So this was a very prominent church in the early church that was very dear to Paul's heart and it says Onesimus eventually became the pastor of Ephesus and we have records that he was martyred.

We don't know. Again, the scripture itself doesn't tell us. But sometimes we can be so removed in the way we read the scriptures, but these are actual events. These are actual things that happen. And it is because of the power of the cross. How did the gospel, who, you know, thousands of people throughout 2,000 years of corruption, how did it still get here today?

You would think with all the chaos and all the false doctrines and even within the church that we know in the last 2,000 years, how did the church get here? That's how powerful the cross is. That's how powerful. How deeply people were affected and even now being affected today.

Our greatest response, our greatest worship to him is always in response to what we already have in Christ. What we already have in Christ. You and I do not naturally act in grace. If somebody slaps you on the left cheek, you don't naturally say yes. This side. Right? If somebody cups you up on the freeway, you don't wave at them, say, you know, "I'm glad I was able to save you some time." You don't cut somebody off and then they wave it to you and say, "Hey, hey, hey." You know?

Anytime. Anytime. Right? Our natural response is, "Why you? How dare you?" Right? What we see in Philemon, what Paul is asking Philemon to do is unnatural. Is unnatural. Christianity, by our own effort, is unnatural. Being gracious is unnatural. Forgiving? Are you kidding me? In our flesh, it is absolutely unnatural.

Only people who have been affected by Christ and his sacrifice can demonstrate this grace. I pray that again, as we have examined Philemon in his life, that one that we would recognize, it is in our weakness that he is strong. That the church is my family. These are my brothers, these are my sisters, that I am my brother's keeper.

And thirdly, that we would not be under compulsion, but by the grace of God, that we would respond in a reasonable manner. Let's take some time to pray. As we ask the praise team to come up, I'm going to ask all of us to take some time to pray and come before the Lord, that the grace of God would affect us deeply.

If there's people in our lives that God convicts us to be reconciled with, to bring that to God. Lord, give me strength. If I've been drifting away from God, to take some time to remember what it is that you have in Christ. Maybe some of you are sitting here so frustrated because you have some things that you want and you're not able to get it.

But you forgot, you've taken your eyes off of Christ and forgotten what it is that you already have in Christ. So let's take some time, come before the Lord to reflect. Lord, I pray that my heart may be affected by what Christ has done. So let's take some time to pray.