I love the words of that last song.
You're the same God. I think sometimes we read
scripture and we think of how amazing God was and we think of
all the miracles and the power of God that we see in scripture.
And, and I want you to know today that you came to worship
the same exact God that is still working, that's still healing,
that's still doing miracles. Do you know that today?
Are you glad to be worshipping the same God today?
You should be. This is a big deal.
We, we get the opportunity to gather together as the body of
Christ to worship an almighty God that still heals.
He's been healing this week, that still reconciles.
That's what we're going to be talking about today, a God that
is at work. So we're in our second week of
radical reconciliation. I feel like I need to start with
a disclaimer. We're really going to get into
forgiveness and reconciliation today.
And I just want to say today, some of you may be tempted to
think today that I'm preaching at you.
Sometimes I hear people say, well, you're just speaking at
me. No, no, no, no.
Please understand I would never personally write a message at
any one person. However, I do want to reassure
you today that I am speaking to you and God's Word is speaking
to you today. There's not a single person
that's here that God's Word is not 2:00 and 4:00 today.
And I believe that God wants to speak to us in a powerful way.
So we're looking at the Paul's letter to Philemon.
Philemon was a member of the church at Colossi.
And just to give you the background of the letter,
Philemon was probably a wealthy member of the Church of Colossi
and and he had a slave name, Onissimus.
Now we're not going to get too deep into this, but slavery was
a very common thing in that day. Slavery was for a lot of
different reasons. Sometimes families would sell
each other into slavery. Sometimes parents, and this is
awful and I, it's not OK. And let's just get this out of
the way at the beginning that, that in no way does God think
it's OK for people to not have value and to be treated that
way. But the reality was in this day
there, there was slavery and some families would sell their
children into slavery. Sometimes if you owed a debt and
you couldn't pay it, you would go into slavery.
Sometimes there was a battle or a war and if you lost, instead
of killing you, they would take you into slavery.
And so there was the reality was slavery was a thing.
And there was a guy named Monisimus who was a slave of
Philemon in the Church of Colossae.
And I'm going to say colossi, colossi, colossi like 50
different ways. Just forgive me.
Just laugh at me and move on, OK?
The Church of Colossi, Philemon had a slave named Onysmus, and
Onysimus ran away. Not only did he run away, but he
did some sort of wrong. We think by the context that he
probably stole from Philemon, and so he ran away.
And then he ended up in Rome, where Paul was.
Paul was in prison in Rome and Onissimus when he ended up with
Paul ended up, we don't know if he sought Paul out or, or what
happened, but he ended up accepting Christ as his savior.
He ended up coming to know Jesus and being a man of God.
And so, so the, the context of Philemon, the letter to Philemon
is that Paul is writing back to Philemon and he's sending
Onissimus back so that there can the right, the wrong can be made
right. Now let me just give you a quick
geography lesson. And yes, I googled this.
I did not know it from my studies.
Rome, where it's being written from, where Onissimus is being
sent from, and Colossi are 1300 miles apart, 1300 miles apart.
So let me just set the stage here that Onissimus did
something wrong. He, he stole, he wronged
Philemon in some way, and then he ran away as a slave and he
ran, I don't know if he ran 1300 miles, but he went as far away
as he possibly could and God got a hold of him and changed his
heart. And that's the context into
which we're reading this. So one of my thoughts, and this
is may have been your thought before as well, is why in the
world, why in the world would they go to all this trouble?
I mean, he accepted Christ, everything's good, right?
He's 1300 miles away. This isn't 2025 where everyone
has, you know, Twitter and or whatever X whatever it is now
and Facebook and Instagram. It's not like they were ever
going to cross past. They're 1300 miles away.
But but Paul thought it was really important for there to be
reconciliation. Why?
Why go to this these great lengths?
I think the answer isn't something Jesus said in John
chapter 10. Jesus said very truly, I tell
you, I am the gate for the sheep and all who have come before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
I am the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved.
Now listen to this line. This is going to be important
and I'm going to come back to this several times.
They will come in and they will go out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it to the
fullest. Jesus is saying I am the gate, I
am the way to salvation and sheep will come in through me
and they will receive salvation. But then he says that second
thing and I think it's a board. He says then they will go out
and they will find pasture. I think what Jesus is trying to
say here is it's not just come and receive salvation, but then
he says, I want to give you life and life to the fullest.
As Christians, sometimes we could think, well, he's talking
about eternal life, He's talking about heaven.
No, no, listen, God wants you to receive salvation through Jesus
Christ today and then to go out and find pasture to live in that
salvation, to live life to the fullest.
Come in, go out and find pastor. So some of us I fear and I
don't, I don't, I'm not thinking of anyone personally.
I think some of us in today's society are settling for less
than life to the fullest. I think we have a partial
obedience to God. I think we have a partial
commitment in our faith. And I think because of that, we
aren't experiencing the life that God has for us to the
fullest today. Come in, receive salvation and
grace, and then go out and live life to the fullest.
So we're in the second week. Last week we talked about the
fact that we're invited in. Last week was all sunshine and
rainbows and nice, and you're invited into Koinonia
Fellowship. You are invited into the body of
Christ. Listen, it's great news, every
single one of us, if you're here today and you do not know Jesus
as your Savior, I want you to know that that Jesus Christ, the
Son of God came and died on a cross so that you could be
invited in, so that you could have life.
And today, all it takes is a surrender of your heart to say,
hey, I've done it my way and it doesn't work.
Forgive me, Lord, I want salvation.
Come in and receive salvation. And today God wants you to have
life and life to the fullest. So we are invited into Cognia
fellowship. But today we're really going to
focus on the tough stuff. If last week was sunshine and
rainbows, today is tough. We're talking about
reconciliation. We're talking about forgiveness.
And Philemon is 25 verses of some incredible reconciliation
and freedom and forgiveness. A quote I came across this week
that I think is really good is from Corey 10 Boom.
And Corey 10 Boom said forgiveness is setting the
prisoner free, only to find out that the prisoner was me.
Forgiveness is not just about letting someone else off the
hook. Forgiveness is about you being
free and living life the way God wants you to live it to the
fullest. So we're called into the Colonia
Fellowship today. We're called to reconciliation.
Stand with me if if you can. And we're going to read God's
word. And once again, God doesn't just
want you to come in today and receive salvation.
He wants you to go out and he wants you to live in it, to live
life to the fullest. I'm going to read the whole
chapter. It's 25 verses.
Listen to the powerful letter that Paul wrote to Philemon,
Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother, to
Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker.
Also to Afia, our sister and Archibus our fellow soldier, and
to the church that meets in your home.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. 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 Christ.
I pray that your partnership with us and the faith may be
effective in deepening your understanding of every good
thing we share for the sake of Christ.
Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you,
brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people.
Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and I could order
you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on
the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul,
an old man and now also a prisoner in Christ Jesus, that I
appeal to you for my son Onissimus, who became my son
while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you,
but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
I am sending him who is my very heart back to you.
I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take
your place in helping me while I was in chains for the gospel.
But I did not want to do anything without your consent,
so that any favor you do would not seem forced.
But we'd be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was
separated from you for a little while was that you then might
have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but better than as a
slave, as a brother. He's very dear to me, but even
dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the
Lord. So if you consider me a partner,
welcome him as you would welcome me.
If he has done any, he has done you any wrong or owes you
anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this to you
with my my own hand. I will pay it back.
Not to mention, you owe me your very self.
I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in
the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
Confident in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you
will do even more than I ask. One more thing, prepare a guest
room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to
your prayers. Apophis, my fellow prisoner in
Christ Jesus, sends you greetings.
So do Mark, Aristarchus, Dimas and Luke, my fellow workers.
And he ends the letter with this, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, be with your spirit, you can have a seat.
So last week we talked about the fellowship we're invited into,
we talked about Koinonia fellowship, We talked about the
body of Christ. This week we're going to focus
in real closely on reconciliation and, and three
things. There's the reason for it and
then there's the two sides of it.
That's what we're focusing on today, the reason for
reconciliation and the two sides of it.
First Paul says we'll, we'll focus on the reason and verse 8,
he says, therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and I
could order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to
appeal to you on the basis of love.
He says the word. Therefore, anytime there's a
therefore in Scripture, we should look at what's before it
because what it's saying is because of what I just said.
Now, because of that, this is what should happen.
So therefore, let's look back to what was before, before he said,
I always thank God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear
about your love for all this holy people in your faith.
I pray that our partnership of every good thing that you that
our partnership with 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.
Your love has given me great encouragement because you,
brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people.
Therefore, therefore, what's the Therefore, Philemon, you're a
man of God, you're a part of the fellowship.
You have loved well. You have a strong faith.
I've heard about it. I love it.
It's great, he says. Philemon, you're 1 of God's
people. Therefore, although in Christ I
could be bold and I could order you to do what you ought to do,
yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love.
Paul says. Hey, I have the authority and
the right to tell you what to do.
I have the authority to tell you that you need to be reconciled.
See, Paul did not start the church at Colossae, but Paul was
the leader of, I mean, basically the leader of the whole movement
of, of the church growing and moving.
He started so many churches. He wrote letters back to them.
I mean, he was, you know, the if in our, our Nazarene Church, a
Superintendent. He was, if you look at like the
Catholic Church, maybe like a Pope.
I mean, he was he was an authority figure.
And he says, listen, I have the right to tell you what to do as
a member of the church, but that's not what I'm going to do.
See, I've heard about your love for others.
I've heard about your faith. I've heard about this
partnership. Therefore I appeal to you on the
basis of love. He says, I could force you to do
it, but there's a better way. And that's for you to come to
reconciliation because of love. The word that he used here is
the word agape. There's four kinds of love that
we see in in Scripture, 4 words used for it.
And the four types are there's romantic love, there's
friendship love, there's family love, and then there's agape
love. OK, I think you probably
understand the first three romantic love, friendship, love,
family love. But then there's this 4th agape
love and, and agape love. Listen, you probably in your
life will experience all three of those other kinds of love.
Hopefully you've got friends at some point.
Maybe you'll have someone that you love romantically and, and,
and, and you probably have family, whether it's, you know,
biological family or, or church family, whatever that, that you
are, you have the opportunity to love as a family.
But agape love, Agape love means selfless, unconditional,
sacrificial love. It's the highest form of love.
Here's the thing. As a follower of Christ, if you
are a follower of Christ, if you call yourself a Christian, you
are called to have agape love. Not just have like some people
that there's romantic love and some people that there's
friendship love and some people that there's family love.
Agape love should encompass all of those.
In your romantic relationship, you should have agape love.
In your friendships, you should have agape love.
In your family, you should have agape love.
Agape love is all-encompassing and it's what we are called to.
In fact, first John 4 says since he first agape loved us
unconditionally, loved us selflessly, loved us
sacrificially, loved us, so we ought to love agape one another
selflessly, unconditionally, sacrificially.
So he says, listen, I could quote rules to you.
I could pull the Paul card. I'm appealed.
I'm going to appeal to you based on love.
It's what we're called to be. It's who we're called to be.
Guys, as a church, I think I've said this before.
I hope you've heard it. We as the body of Christ are to
be known for our love, not for what we're against.
Too many churches are known for what they're against.
Too many churches are known for for a power grab or anything
else or whatever it is even listen, we are not meant to be
known for our wonderful worship team and we have a wonderful
worship team. That's not what we should be
known for. We don't need the community to
just think, hey, that church has some good music or anything
else. What what we're supposed to be
known for as followers of Christ is that we are a people of agape
love. That's who we're called to be.
So he says, I appeal to you for reconciliation based on love.
True agape love compels us, requires us, commands us to
reconciliation. Romans 12, What does that look
like? I love this text.
It says verse 17 says do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
Verse 18, if it is possible as far as it depends on you, live
at peace with everyone. I'm down in verse 21.
It says do not over be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good. We as the body of Christ are
called to when it comes to me, when it comes to you as far as
it depends on you do everything you can to be at peace, to be
living in agape love in Queenia, fellowship with everyone and and
listen, I know there's evil, there's evil, right?
People can be evil. Let's just acknowledge that that
it is not just like our world has a lot of evil in it and can
I be honest sometimes the church, it invades the church.
I've seen it plenty. This is a great church.
You guys are awesome, but sometimes evil infiltrates in
and the devil's at work in the church and and and scripture
tells us don't be overcome by it, but overcome it with love.
That's who we're called to be. So as it as far as it depends on
you live at peace. You have a responsibility to do
everything you can to live out agape love and reconcile and
live at peace with all people. Overcome evil with good.
That's the reason. So turn to someone and say
agape. Turn to someone and say love.
That's the reason that we reconcile.
Guys, if there's anything broken in your life, any relationship,
anything that's messed up, the reason we're called to fix it is
love. Go ahead, tell them love.
Tell someone love. Yeah, sing it.
That's fine. That's good.
I like that. All right, so that's the reason.
Now let's look at the two sides. I got to get it moving here.
So the first side is Nismus's side.
I think when we read this letter, we focus on Philemon's
part. The letter is 2 Philemon, and
the idea is that Philemon's been wronged.
And so the letter is really sent to Philemon with the intention
of helping Philemon to forgive Onissimus.
But there's two sides to this guy's and and the first side is
Onissimus's side. See, he's the one that's
committed the wrong and reconciliation has two sides.
In every situation, there are people that do wrong and there
are people that are wronged. Nod your head if you've ever
done somebody else wrong. If you didn't nod your head, nod
your head that you're a liar. Every single one of us has
wronged somebody else. Every single one of us.
All right, now nod your head if you've ever been wronged, OK?
Nod your head if you're human, because we've all been wronged.
There's two sides of it. The first side is Onis missus
side. And and man, he, he committed a
pretty bad wrong. Not only did he steal and in
fact, I think we know that he committed a pretty bad wrong
because he didn't just run to the next town.
He ran 1300 miles away. He ran away.
He stole or did something terrible to Philemon and he took
off. And then he got to Paul and God
got a hold of his heart. And now we see this happening
and Paul says, I'm sending him Onissimus, who is my very heart
back to you. Now picture this guys.
I like to think of how this conversation went.
Onissimus accepts Christ, hey, I'm all in.
And Paul says, awesome. Hey, you know that thing, You
know that thing with Philemon over there in colossi?
We got to make that right. And Onissimus is like, OK, cool.
Like we can, you know, I'll say a prayer.
And Paul's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We got to make that right. Well, what are we going to do?
Well, we're going to send him a letter.
OK, I can get behind that. Let's send them a letter asking
for forgiveness. Great.
All right, Well, how's the letter going to get there?
Well, Onisamus, you're going to take it.
Think about that. He ran 1300 miles away to Rome.
And Paul says, hey, now that you're a follower of Christ,
you're going to go 1300 miles back and you're going to make
the wrong right. Now this is a huge deal because
as I told you last week, the penalty just for a slave running
away, the penalty could be as harsh as death on a cross.
So not only does he have to journey back 1300 miles, not
only does he have to trek all the way back there, not only
does he have to walk into the House of the man he's wronged,
but he's risking his life. Philemon could say you're going
to a cross. Paul says, listen, I'm sending
you back because if you're going to be a faithful follower of
Jesus, you're called to agape love and reconciliation.
And if you've wronged someone, you need to make it right.
Matthew chapter 5, This is Jesus teaching.
He says, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar
and there you remember that your brother or sister has something
against you, leave the gift there in front of the altar.
First go and be reconciled to them, then come back and offer
your gift. You know what Jesus is saying?
Don't come here and, and, and give us half of don't, don't
come here and give God half your obedience and say, yeah, I
praise you, Lord. Yeah, you're the same God.
Yeah, you heal. Yeah.
No. If there's something wrong, as a
member of Koinonia Fellowship, as a follower of Christ, as a
person of love, you need to go make it right.
Jesus says don't come in with major things going on, with hurt
in your life. Don't come in and sing songs and
offer things and pretend that things are good.
Go make it right, then come back.
We, we often think of worship as our singing, maybe listening to
the word of God. I think what Jesus is saying is
the most important act of worship is complete surrender
and obedience. And if there's something off, if
there's a broken part of your life, a relationship or a
situation that's not healed, don't come fake it.
Go fix it first. Go be reconciled, then come off
for your gift. Seeking forgiveness is seeking
reconciliation is a matter of obedience.
Even bigger, it's a matter of worship.
And so Anismus was wrong. Maybe you're sitting here
thinking, you know, hey, I have a situation and I did something,
but I've never felt like God's telling me to go make it right.
I've never heard God say go make it right.
God's Word says before you come, sing praises, offer gifts.
If you've wronged someone, go make it right.
There it is, you heard it here. If there's brokenness, go make
it right. You won't be able to truly
worship, to truly surrender, to truly be fully obedient until
you reconcile. That's the first side on this
mess. There may be some of you in here
that are living in that side. Maybe you've wronged someone.
I'm guessing we all have. If you haven't fixed it today,
you're called to go fix it. Second side is Philemon's side.
Paul sends hey here, I'm sending him to you.
Sends sends Nismus with a letter and he asks something crazy.
Hey, you know that guy that ran away from you, You know the guy
that probably stole from you or hurt you in a major way.
You know the guy that found him 1300 miles away and he's
accepted Christ and praise the Lord.
Hey, that guy, I'm sending him back and I'm not just asking you
to say you're forgiven. I'm not just asking you to do
the right thing. I'm asking you to welcome him to
love him as a brother. Verse 17, he says, so if if you
consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.
If he's done anything wrong or owes you anything, charge it to
me. This is incredible to me.
Paul says if you consider me a part of what?
What he's basically saying there is if you are a part of the
fellowship, if you are a part of the body of Christ, if you are a
brother of mine, if you are a Christian, then love requires
you to forgive. Guys, let me say that again.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ agape love requires you
to forgive others. He says welcome him back.
He says, welcome him back as if you're welcoming me.
Remember, this is Pope Paul. This is Superintendent Paul.
This is the guy who has all this authority.
And, you know, everybody looks up to him.
He writes letters to churches. He wrote a bunch of the, you
know, books and letters of the Bible.
I mean, this is Paul. And he says, I'm sending him
back. And if you're a follower of
Christ, you'll welcome him in incredible Luke chapter 6, Jesus
says, but you who are listening, I to you who are listening, I
say listen to what Jesus says. Look at the the commands that
Jesus gives. He says love your enemies, do
good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray
for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one
cheek, turn to them the other. Also, if someone takes your
coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs
to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have
them do to you. But love your enemies, do good
to them, lend to them without expecting anything back.
Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the
Most High because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Do you hear that language, guys? It doesn't say if somebody's
wronged, you just say you're forgiven.
It doesn't say if somebody's wronged, you just do the bare
minimum of forgiveness. It says love them.
It says do good to them. It says bless them.
It says pray for them. It says give to them, then your
reward will be great. Once again I want to point out I
don't think this is just hey if you forgive in this life, then
someday in heaven you'll experience a reward.
I think what Jesus is telling us is if we can learn to forgive
and to reconcile, we will experience life to the fullest.
Even now we free the prisoner only to realize we were the
prisoner. Do good love, bless, pray,
forgive another. Paul says it in in his letter of
the Colossians, which was probably delivered at the same
time. Therefore, as God's chosen
people, wholly and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another.
If any of you have grievance against someone, forgive as the
Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put
on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.
All right, So if you're Onissimus, if you've wronged
someone, agape love says go make it right.
If you're Philemon, agape love says forgive, love, do good,
bless, pray for, serve. It says forgive as Christ
forgave you guys last week we talked about the the penalty for
Onissimus would be death on a cross.
And, and I talked to you about the fact that that Jesus Christ
came and died on a cross to pay the price for Onissimus sin for
your sin, for my sin. The truth of the matter is not
one single one of us can come into this sanctuary today on our
own merit and say I'm good enough to be here.
I can stand before God. Not one of us, all of us have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
But praise be to God that our Savior Jesus Christ came and
died on a cross so that we could be offered salvation and we
could have life and grace. You've been forgiven much.
Now you're called to forgive others.
It's what love requires. It's what Koinonia fellowship
requires. We are called to reconciliation.
So whether we've wronged someone else or whether we've been
wronged, Holiness Koinonia fellowship agape Love demands
reconciliation. It's not optional.
You guys know I'm not a real tough creature.
I don't get after you. And I've even heard people say
you need to be tougher. Here it is.
You don't have an option to reconcile.
You don't, as much as it depends on you.
To your very best effort, everything you have, give
everything. If you need to go 1300 miles and
you need to walk in and put your life on the line, do it.
And if someone comes to you, receive them, welcome them, love
them, forgive them. Love requires reconciliation.
I want to end with a little bit more of Coryton Boom story.
If you don't know her story, her and her family, they, they
helped Jewish people escape from the Nazis.
And so they would take people into their home, and they would
hide people from the Nazis to try to keep those Jewish people
from being put in concentration camps and killed.
And so Corey, 10, Boom, and her family did that.
But then they were eventually caught by the Nazis, and they
were put into a concentration camp, and they suffered.
And her father and her sister were killed.
And she was tortured and dehumanized and abused.
Listen to what she writes. It was at a church service in
Munich that I saw him, the former S S man who had stood
guard at the shower door in the processing center at
Ravensbrook. He was the first of our actual
jailers that I had seen since that time.
And suddenly it was all there, the room full of mocking men,
the heaps of clothing, Betsy's pain blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, and he was beaming
and bowing and he, he said, He said, how grateful I am for your
message for a line. He said to think that, as you
say, he has washed my sins away. His hand was thrust out to shake
mine, and I, who preached so often to the people in Brahmand
all the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I
saw the sin in them, the sin in her own hateful thoughts.
Listen to this line. Jesus Christ had died for this
man. Was I going to ask more or
Jesus? I prayed Forgive me and help me
to forgive Him. I tried to smile, I struggled to
raise my hand, but I could not. I felt nothing, not the
slightest spark of warmth or charity.
And so again I breathe the silent prayer.
Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.
And as I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened.
From my shoulder, along my arm and through my hand, a current
seemed to pass from Him to for me to Him, while into my heart
spring a love for the stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it's not on our forgiveness anymore,
that it's on our goodness that the world's healing hinges.
It's on His, the healing and the goodness of Jesus Christ.
When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the
command, the love itself. Praise the Lord worship team
coming up. Everybody stand with me.
The reason we reconcile is because we are a people of agape
love. It's because love requires it.
There's two sides of it. You may be an Onissimus.
You probably have been. I'll just go ahead and tell You
have been. You may be, Philemon.
I'll tell you. You probably have been.
You have been love requires reconciliation.
I love her story. She says Jesus, she recognizes
that her own lack of desire for reconciliation is sinful.
And she says forgive me and then help me to forgive him.
And then she says this when he tells us to love our enemies, he
gives us not just a command, but he gives us the love to do it.
Paul ends the letter verse 25 by saying the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
See, Paul knows that Onissmus doesn't have the ability on his
own to make things right, and Philemon doesn't have the
ability on his own to make things right.
But the God who calls us to agape love and reconciliation is
the God that gives us agape love and reconciliation.
So here's the thing. Today I'm not naive enough to
think in a in a group this size, there aren't brokenness, there
aren't broken things, there aren't broken relationships.
You may have been holding on to something for a long time.
Someone may have hurt you long ago.
You may have hurt someone else long ago.
If you are onissimus and you've done wrong today, you're
required to reconciliation. If you've been wronged today,
you are required to forgive. Why?
Because we're a people of love. Selfless, unconditional, life
giving love. May God give us His love and His
grace that we can love others. Father, I pray and speak to us
and I pray in this time as we sing, I pray, Lord, that if we
need to bring something to you that we would come to you.
Lord, if there's brokenness, I pray we would come to you.
If we have a piece of our heart that we just, we can't do it,
Lord, help us to bring it to you.
If we're struggling because we've wronged someone or we're
struggling because someone's wrong to us, Lord, I pray that
today we would come to you, that you would give us the grace and
the love to make it right. Lord, speak to us.
Help us to be fully obedient to you in Jesus name, Amen.
Listen, don't just come and sing.
If there's something off, make it right.
The altars are open. If you need to come pray, come
pray. If you're going to make a call,
make a call. Let's worship in full obedience.