The Power of Reconciliation | Doug Sauder | Philemon

how a church is formed. You see, the gospel of Jesus takes all those divisions out there and makes them irrelevant. You don't build a church based on the color of someone's skin, or their gender, or their age, or their political affiliation, or how much money they have. You don't have the rich church and the poor church, or the red church and the blue church, or the young church and the old church. The church is a band of natural enemies, people who would not normally get along, but when they find Jesus, He's the one who makes their hearts one, and all those other things become so much less, right? I mean, today, we are experiencing the benefit of this letter. When you look around this room, you see people who probably all shouldn't be in the same room together. But this idea... Hey, good morning, Calvary family. Happy Sunday. You're happy to be in the house of the Lord this morning, are we? Amen. We're really looking forward to worshiping with you guys this morning. Before we do, I just want to take a moment just to pause and reflect. I want to encourage everybody to just take a quick moment to breathe and just acknowledge, where are you at today? Good morning, hard morning, rough week, good things. We can often hold good and bad in the same hands, right? And I just want to take a minute to just acknowledge some of those things. So I'd love everyone to just close your eyes, take a breath, and I want you to just picture one thing right now that maybe is not great. It could be really rough. It could be just a little annoying. But something that you are waiting for the Lord to move, something that you need Him to move on. You're praying. We need His power, healing, peace, provision. Grab that one thing right now in your heart. And we'll hold that proverbially in one hand. And on the other hand, I want you guys to picture a time or a season where you needed Him and He came through. You needed healing, you needed provision, you needed Him to be strong and fight a battle for you, and He did it. We all have at least one of those, maybe many. So just picture one of those for me. His character is that of a provider, of a healer, and we've seen Him do it. So even if we're holding right now that hard thing that isn't resolved, we know that He's good for it. He's done it before and He will do it again. Amen? Have we seen Him move in our lives? Yes. Hey, we're going to sing some songs today about fighting our battles for us, about calling on the name of Jesus. So would you sing this chorus with me? I think you guys know it. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. You guys sound great. Let's worship together. When all I see is the battle, you see my victory.

When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain move. And as I walk through the shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. We've seen Him do it. We know He'll do it again. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Lay at Your feet, I'll sing through the night, oh God, the battle belongs to You And if You are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for You When all I see are the ashes, You see the beauty When all I see is the cross, God, You see the empty tomb So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my head lifted high, oh God, the battle belongs to You Every fear I lay at Your feet, I'll sing through the night, oh God, the battle belongs to You Almighty fortress, You go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God You shine in the shadows, You win every battle Nothing can stand against the power of our God Almighty fortress, You go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God You shine in the shadows, You win every battle Nothing can stand against the power of our God Almighty fortress, You go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God You shine in the shadows, You win every battle Nothing can stand against the power of our God So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my head lifted high, oh God, the battle belongs to You Every fear I lay at Your feet, I'll sing through the night, oh God, the battle belongs to You Oh God, the battle belongs to You And we know the battle is won through Jesus Christ and through Him alone And we're gonna sing that gospel story, that gospel message You know this song, so sing out loud, sing along with us

In Christ alone, my hope is found And He is my light, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are still, when strivings cease My comforter, my all in all Here in the love of Christ I stand Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Here in the ground His body laid Light of the world by darkness slain The curse For in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me. For I admit that He is mine, born with the precious blood of Christ. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh The Christ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh No guilt in life, no fear in death This is the power of Christ in me From life's first cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever pluck me from His hand Till He returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I stand Oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh In Christ alone Oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh I find my strength, I find my hope I find my help in Christ alone When fear assails, when darkness falls I find my peace in Christ alone I give my life, I give my all I sing this song to Christ alone The King of kings, the Lord of all All heaven sings to Christ alone In Christ alone In Christ alone In Christ alone Oh we praise you Jesus, you are mighty in this place

Let's sing together I pray into the atmosphere Spirit of God you're here You have all authority I pray over my heart and mind I am healed by your stripes Your blood declares that I am free In the mighty name of Jesus I pray Calling on the power of heaven I proclaim Every weapon formed against me Must break In the mighty name of Jesus Do you believe that today church? I draw the permanent boundary line The enemy has no right to come near my family No sin could ever undo God's plans No matter the circumstance The cross has sealed my destiny In the mighty name of Jesus I pray calling on the power of heaven I proclaim Every weapon formed against me Must break In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know all the power of fear and darkness must go ♪ ♪ Every key to every victory I hold ♪ ♪ Hold in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪

♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I pray, calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me must break ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know, all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ My soul, every key to every victory ♪ ♪ I hold, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ Oh, thank you, Jesus. Yes, we praise you in this place this morning because you are worthy of all the glory, all the power, all the praise, because you defeated death and the enemy. You are seated at the right hand of the Father and you hold all authority. And thank you that because of the cross, we have access to the power that is in your name, that no weapon formed against us can prosper, because we are now your children. Thank you, God, that you have adopted us into your family. By the blood of Jesus, you have cleansed us, made us righteous. Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Lord. You have been so good. You have been so faithful. And we can count numerous times that you have come through, that you've brought breakthrough. You've brought freedom. You've brought healing. All these undeserved gifts, God, we say thank you. Thank you, God. Would you open our hearts today to hear your word? Spirit, would you move in this place, move in our hearts, convict us, transform us from the inside out? We need more of you. We ask for more of your power, more of your presence in our lives, that we would not just experience here, but we would take it home, take it to our families, our coworkers. Fill us afresh today, Lord. That is what we ask in your name, amen. Amen. Amen, church. Now, listen up. Before you sit down, turn to your neighbor and tell them your summer plans. So last weekend, if you were here, we talked about Jesus' prayer. The night he was arrested, you were on his mind. I was on his mind.

He prayed that all of those who would follow him for generations to come, that they would be one, unified, just like he and the father are one, so that the whole world would look on at these followers of Jesus and say, there's something about them that. It's different. I'm so curious that today we're gonna talk about what happens when all those divisions out there get inside here. You know, we live in a very divided world. People divide over politics. They divide over religion or denominations within religion. They divide over gender or race or language. They divide over all sorts of different things. But what happens when those divisions enter into a family, enter into a church, and now two brothers won't talk to each other? A father and a daughter can't be in the same room. Have you ever experienced division with a family member or friend or another Christian that was hard, confusing, painful? And you wonder like, well, where do we go from here? We know what the Bible says, to love and forgive. We know what Jesus' prayer was, but that's not what we're actually experiencing in our everyday Christian life. And that's where we come to this letter from Paul to a man named Philemon.

Listen, it's the shortest letter of Paul's 13 letters in the New Testament, but do not let the size of this letter fool you. Pound for pound, this is one of the most powerful letters in the New Testament. It's like a masterclass on reconciliation. What to do when two people who follow Jesus have conflict, have beef, have separation, and how does the gospel change all that? Here's a simple definition of reconciliation. Reconciliation is rebuilding trust and repairing a relationship after a disagreement or a separation. And so this letter's gonna require a little background, so if you will, just bear with me for a minute. Paul is writing to this man, Philemon, who is hosting a house church in the city of Colossae. Paul is 1,000 miles away. He's in prison in Rome, and he's gonna send two men to deliver this letter to Philemon and the letter to the Colossian church. One man is named Tychicus, and one man is named Onesimus. And Onesimus just so happens to be a runaway slave from Philemon's own house. Huh. So Philemon, follower of Jesus, converted under Paul's ministry probably in Ephesus, excited about what the gospel's doing, but like most Roman patriarchs, he owned slaves. And so in the Colossian church, in his house church,

there's probably slave owners and slaves in the fellowship. And so for us, this is sort of like a wait, wait, wait. Wait a second. All right, I gotta process this for a second. Like, slavery. Okay, so here's something to know as we read this account of a slave owner and a runaway slave. This letter was written not to us, but it was written for us. What does that mean? That means these first century Roman cultures, norms, laws, the way that the society worked, well, the gospel's gonna bring these moments of insight that we will actually be able to apply to our lives in 2026. And so I want us to think about context and I want us then to figure out how do we apply this to our lives? And so we'll see in this letter reconciliation on two fronts. The first reconciliation is between two people, two brothers who have this separation and division. But we're also gonna see what does the gospel more broadly do to bring about reconciliation between areas of injustice in our life? Like how does the gospel, how's it gonna address the issue of slavery? That one person can own another, they can be property.

How's the gospel gonna present a slave owner and a runaway slave that they can now be together and their whole relationship has fundamentally changed and the power of the gospel does both. You see, as Western Christians, we almost always think about the things that God does individually. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him doesn't have to perish but have everlasting life. Like God came for me, Jesus came for me. Aren't you glad that Jesus came for you? Like it's a beautiful thing, right? But Jesus came for so much more than just the individual reconciliation. He came to reconcile all the brokenness, all the division, all the injustice, all that's wrong and broken in the world. His death and resurrection is reconciling or making right all those things to God. The book of Colossians describes it this way. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, that's Jesus, and through him to Jesus to reconcile to himself all things. Everyone say all things. All things. Whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And so we're gonna watch. This letter do two things,

address a personal issue between two people and address a cultural issue. And the gospel's gonna bring reconciliation to both of these things. And so, just again for context, in the time that this letter was written, 10 million of the 50 million people living in the Roman Empire were slaves. Prisoners of war, people with debt. And that means one of every five people walking around is a slave. And again, it's hard for us to process like, what's it like? Because we live in a Western culture where, well, our own Declaration of Independence says this, I'll start it, you can finish it. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created. Equal. Endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Now, we've lived under that assumption. But most civilizations over the history of the world did not see that as self-evident. Every ancient civilization, if you go all the way back, had a form of slavery where people became property to pay back debts or as prisoners of war, whatever the issue was that brought them into slavery. And so, we need to know that the gospel's writing into those moments. Even Socrates and Aristotle,

they thought it was self-evident that some people were created to be slaves. Lesser beings. Aristotle would say, isn't a slave only an inanimate object, just a tool to get work done? So the idea that all men are created equal comes from the Christian faith. Comes from the very beginning of Genesis where God says in Genesis 1, 27, let us make man in our image, in our likeness. This gave people of every civilization, of every age, of every race, a certain dignity. Every single person you will look in the eyes is made in the very image and likeness of God and reflects who their creator is. And this very idea, yeah, I think it's something we celebrate, right? This very idea undermined all the assumptions and prejudices that allow slavery to thrive in all of these civilizations. You see, Christianity doesn't take slavery on head-on. It does it subversively, indirectly. And we're gonna watch that happen in this letter. So are you ready? That sounded so unenthusiastic. Are you ready? Okay, here's the masterclass on reconciliation. Here we go. Paul riding to Philemon from 1,000 miles away. Sorry, I gotta put you in the moment.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay, so if you're a Nesibis and you're the runaway slave and Paul's like, hey, I know that you ran away. I know that you came to Rome. I know that you found me. I know that you became a Christian. I know you've been serving me, but now I'm gonna send you back to face your master. How are you feeling if you're a Nesibis? Nervous, because Philemon can arrest you. He can beat you. He can put you in jail. He might even be able to kill you in some point like for the crime that you committed. And so Nesibis is like, hey, this little Christianity thing sounds great, but you don't understand. And so Paul's wise enough to send with him another guy and he's gonna write this letter because reconciliation is always a risk. And so this letter itself is being delivered by the runaway slave himself. So imagine the tension of the moment, knock on the door, everyone's around the table. Everyone knows he's the runaway slave and the implications he stole something to get away. So this is what you call a tense moment. And now maybe it's Nesibis himself who's reading the letter. Get ready.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, also to Apphia, our sister, and Archippus, 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. I pray that your partnership with us in 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. All right, so Paul starts out. He greets Philemon. He greets what we think is Philemon's wife and their son. Hey, we wanna greet you. And we want to greet the church that's in your house. And he starts to say, man, when I think about you, I think about faithfulness and love and generosity. I think about your partnership in the gospel. And there is a tone of friendship. We're going to find out later in the letter that Paul's going to invite himself over to Philemon's house. Now you got to be friends with someone to say, hey, I'm coming to your house for pizza. Make sure the game's on.

Like you only say that to close friends. So there's a tone of friendship. There's an affirmation of all that Philemon has done. Philemon's become a Christian under Paul's ministry. So there's a sense of deep connection between both of these guys. And I want you to notice something, that this letter is actually public for the whole church, even though it's very personally appealed to one person, Philemon. Now that means that the church, the entire church is going to witness this reconciliation. And here's how we know this. Twice in this letter, we'll see the plural of you. And if you're from the South, the plural of you is y'all. Anybody from the South? Y'all, y'all, all y'all. So Paul's doing this in Greek. If you look at verse three, grace and peace to y'all, all the people in the church. At the very end, he does the same thing with y'all. So that means public address, public statement, but personal appeal. Now I'll give you an example. I did this twice yesterday. Twice yesterday, I did public address, personal appeal. The first one was a wedding. I did a wedding yesterday, talking to this young couple, amazing, and Vanessa sings here on the weekends. It's awesome.

And Grayson and I, I'm talking to them, but I'm also talking to everyone else about the vows they're about to make and the community that's made this relationship possible, the support system around them. And they made their vows and we celebrated. It was awesome. That's an example of a public address, but speaking personally to these two people. Then last night, we did an ordination of our newest pastor, Johnny Moses. I mean, it was amazing, amazing. It was good, yeah. So if you guys know Johnny Moe, and I'm talking to him and his wife, but everyone else is witnessing what's happening. That's what's happening here. The letter is being read together in a community in a house. And Paul affirms who Philemon is, and then he makes his request. And remember, everyone knows the tension of the moment. The runaway slave is in the room that's been hurt. This is not a secret. How in the world is Paul gonna address this? How is reconciliation even possible? Verse eight. Therefore, although in Christ, I could be bold and 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 a prisoner of Christ, that I appeal to you for my son, Anesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he's become useful both to you and to me. And I am sending him, who is my very heart, back to you. I would have loved to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I'm 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, would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. And he is 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 wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. Not my favorite part. Not to mention that you owe me yourself. I do wish, brother, that I may have 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 ask. And one more thing. Prepare a guest room for me because I hope to be restored to you and answer to your prayers. Now, Paphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ, Jesus sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, and my fellow workers. In the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. Do you get a sense of the wisdom and the tact and the love that Paul is craving in this letter? Remember, he can't control the circumstances. He's sending one of his, what he considers a son of his, into a very dangerous or difficult situation where he can't control what happens. He's so far separated. So the spirit of God gives him this beautiful wisdom to write. this letter to make this appeal. And he starts out by saying, I'm the Apostle Paul. I could make you do what's right. I could order you out of duty. I could shame you in front of your whole house church, but I don't wanna make you do something. I want you to do it on the basis of love. And he doesn't demand or compel. He invites a response for Philemon to search his heart and say, could I forgive? Would I receive him back?

Would I even be willing to send him back to Paul? And this is, again, it's important for us to know. There are some times that someone can just command you to do something. I could say, you guys, you need to serve in the kids' ministry. You need to give faithfully. You need to share your faith. You need to, you need to, you need to. But you know, you might get people to do things out of duty or guilt or shame, but that's not the best way to lead people. The best way to lead people is for them to pray, God, how do I take my resources and give them back to you? How do I take my time and give some, offer them back to you? How do I take all that you've given me and share it with other people? And when the spirit of God teaches it to you, you never forget it. It's deeply ingrained in your soul. And so Paul knows, I'm not gonna take the shortcut here. I'm gonna invite Philemon to think differently about this whole situation and invite him to make a decision based not on pressure, but on love. And then in verse nine, he says, and I'm an old man, and I'm in chains. He mentions in this letter twice that he's in chains and twice that he's a prisoner for Jesus. That's his way to say, hey,

you think this is a hard decision for you? I'm in a dungeon. And so I'm suffering, I'm sacrificing for the gospel. And the sacrifice that I'm asking of you is way less than what I am. I'm not asking you to do anything I haven't done myself. And so he offers him that. He says, you know, I wanted to keep Onesimus with me. You're a runaway slave. Not only became a Christian, but he became a great support for me. His son, I'm sending you like, he's my very heart. I'm sending my heart back to you. So take good care of my heart. And here's what Paul's saying. When it comes to reconciliation, often when there's a divide between us and other people or a divide between people, we just wanna like sweep it under the rug. Let's like, it's easier not to think about or talk about because to go back in there, it could make it worse because reconciliation is always a risk. And Paul says this, the gospel of reconciliation of two brothers who are estranged is too important to sweep under the rug. So I'm gonna send this guy a thousand miles into a tense situation to pray that reconciliation can take place. I wanted to keep him, but I sent him so that this reconciliation could take place.

And then he says, and he was useless to you, verse 11, but now he is useful. So here's an interesting word. Onesimus' name means useful. So Paul is saying something very powerful. He's saying, this guy whose name is useful became useless to you and ran away and stole something. But now that he knows Jesus, he's living up to his name. He's useful again, and not just for me, but he's gonna be useful for you and possibly useful for the kingdom of God. Look at me at verse 15. Then he says, perhaps all of this happened. This brokenness between you, his running away, your embarrassment, humiliation, the sense of betrayal, all that stuff happened to you so that you would get him back, not as a slave, but as a brother. He gets Philemon to think in front of all these other witnesses, maybe all these bad things that happened, the bad conversation, the hurt feelings, maybe all that happened for a greater purpose that God is orchestrating that you can't see yet. You see, if he hadn't run away, he wouldn't know Jesus. If he didn't know Jesus, he wouldn't be useful like he is and how God might use him in his life. And again, in reconciliation, sometimes we get stuck in all the brokenness

and hurt, they said this, they believe that, I can't believe they did that. And we can't see the broader view. And Paul wants Philemon and the entire church to see the possibility that something greater is happening in this moment. And then the most revolutionary part of the letter, verse 16, that you would take Onesimus back no longer as a slave, but as a dear brother. Philemon, Onesimus is not your property. He's your family. And this is unheard of in the Roman world. This is about to upset the entire status quo of how things work in Roman society. And this is how the gospel is subversive. It's not just repairing the relationship between two. To people, it's undermining all the assumptions that allow a Christian to own another Christian and see them as property. And Paul is breaking a lot of the social and cultural norms at the time, because think about it, he is a religious Pharisee writing a letter to a converted Gentile talking about a runaway slave who is now their brother. To us, it doesn't register in the same way, but here, people are like, wait, what is going on? This is not how the world works. But Paul would later write this. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,

for you are all one in Christ Jesus. What? You can no longer relate to that person through this social construct of master and slave. You are now brothers in Christ. And so, Paul's talking about how a church is formed. You see, the gospel of Jesus takes all those divisions out there and makes them irrelevant. You don't build a church based on the color of someone's skin or their gender or their age or their political affiliation or how much money they have. You don't have the rich church and the poor church or the red church and the blue church or the young church and the old church. The church is a band of natural enemies, people who would not normally get along, but when they find Jesus, he's the one who makes their hearts one and all those other things become so much less, right? I mean, today, we are experiencing the benefit of this letter. When you look around this room, you see people who probably all shouldn't be in the same room together. But this idea for the Christian church was brand new. It was one of these revolutionary moments about the power of reconciliation. Then verse 18, every spiritual matter has practical implications.

And here's the practical implications. Paul says, and if he owes you anything, which means he likely took or stole something when he ran away, I will pay for what he stole. Charge it to me. So this is dealing with the idea of restitution. When there's a brokenness between people, you can't just say, forgiven, forgiven, let's move on. Wait, wait, well, what does repentance and restitution look like? Does something need to be repaid? Does something need to be apologized for? Does something need to be mended? And Paul is conscious of the fact. And so he says, put it on my tab, give me the IOU. If he owes you $1,000, put it on my tab. And just by the way, Philemon, I think you have a tab with me. And here's what Paul's saying. Paul didn't have a lot of money. I'm sure Paul didn't give Philemon $1,000 at some point. You know what Paul gave Philemon? The gospel of Jesus Christ that saved his soul and changed his life. And that's why his whole life is different, right? So Paul's like, there is a spiritual debt you owe me. So if you can process this, that Jesus forgave you all your stuff, then you can forgive that guy $1,000, put it on my tab. So Paul deals with the social and cultural issues.

He deals with the practical issues in this letter. And then verse 19, I love Paul's, like, the power of suggestion. He starts with, you've refreshed people and you're a partner. And he says, and if you will do this, you will refresh me and many others. And if you do this, you'll prove that you're a partner. He compliments him, this is who you are. And so he's like, this is who you are. And you're gonna do more than I expect. And I'm confident that you're gonna make the right choice. And the whole community is gonna witness this. And when I come, you're gonna have a room for me because I'm gonna check on you to make sure you did the right thing. You see what Paul's doing? I know you're gonna do the right thing. I know who you are. I know that you're gonna avoid all of that pressure socially happening in your life. And people say, you can't do that because Jesus means more to you than all those other voices. You know, making changes like this is hard. When you grow up a certain way, you see the world a certain way, but the gospel has a way to get in here and get in here and change the way you think. To where your friends look at you and it's like, but man, since you've gotten to know Jesus,

you think differently, yeah. You act differently, yeah. That's what the gospel does. It changes you, right? It's the relationship with Jesus that changes you. So here's my question. What does Philemon do? It doesn't say. Oh, wow. So how do we know that Philemon did the right thing? How do we know he embraced his runaway slave now, not as his property, but as his brother? Here's how we know. Thousands of copies of these letters, tens of thousands of copies of these letters circulated through the early church. And if they circulated through the early church, it was a story that would be told. Ignatius, one of the early church fathers, wrote a letter, and he wrote to a bishop of Ephesus named Onesimus. And that makes me curious. Could it be that when Paul says to Philemon, who knows that the slave who ran away, who hurt you, betrayed you, that if God would bring him back, he would be useful not just for you and not just for me, but for the church and the kingdom of God? And this is the power of reconciliation. And so I want us to let this sit on us for a second,

because when I said this is a masterclass on reconciliation, not just personally, but in all of the created order, when I say that even though we don't live in a first century Roman society where all these issues exist, all the principles that are here, they exist for us today, and they're so important, because we live in a time of social distrust and culture warfare and all the issues of things people agree that separate families and friends, and we've got to figure out what do we do with that? And this is a template for us. And so three things. And I'm gonna use the word practice, because Jesus said, if you hear my words and you put them into practice, you'll be like a wise man who builds your house on a rock so that when the storms come and the waters rise, you're not shaken because you know who you are and you know where you stand. And this is the power of God's word. And so here's the first one. Practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is something you have to practice. C.S. Lewis would say, everyone loves the idea of forgiveness. What a wonderful idea, until you have something to forgive. And then it's not wonderful. Like, I think you should forgive, and you should forgive, and you should forgive, but you don't understand what happened in my situation

with that friend or family member. And so when it's personal, when there's hurt, what applies to everyone else sometimes doesn't apply to us. And Ernestus is hurt. I mean, he's been exploited and used and manipulated. He's a victim of injustice in an unjust system. Philemon has been humiliated, betrayed. They're both hurt, they both have a perspective, and they both have a decision to make. There's a divide, a separation. And their choice will reflect their relationship with Jesus. And the same thing is true of you and me. We're given a simple command as New Testament Christians. Here it is. Forgive each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. There's nothing hard to understand about this. Some people are like, Pastor, I wanna go deep in the Bible. I want, you know, prophecy and revelation. I'm gonna show you the, this is the deepest sentence you'll see. I'm gonna put it back up there just for a second. Look at this. Look how deep this is. Deep means it's easy to understand and hard to do. Easy to understand. Forgive people as Christ forgave you. Easy to understand.

Very hard to do. You could spend the next decade of your life on this one. And right when you get it figured out, another offense will happen and you'll have to do it over again. And that's why we have to practice forgiveness. And so how can we practice forgiveness? Well, I want you to know that you are not a helpless victim to your feelings when you are hurt. That you don't have to listen to your heart, but you can speak to your heart. You can speak God's word to your heart. And you want to be around people who practice forgiveness. Like at the Freedom Encounter, people were practicing forgiveness. They were forgiving their parents or the people who hurt him. Some people were even forgiving abusers for what happened in their life as children. We watch people who've gone through divorce and betrayal, people who forgave other Christians. And when you watch people offer forgiveness and get free from bitterness, and it happens here and here and here through prayer and worship, there's something beautifully contagious. Like, wow, that person's getting free, and that person's getting free, and that person's getting free. Maybe I could be free.

You want to be around people who are practicing because the world will say, cancel them. I mean, we think it's archaic, but Philemon had permission of the Roman government to brand Onesimus with a letter F. And the letter F would stand for fugitive. And the rest of Onesimus' life, he could have worn that brand that said, this man cannot be trusted, he's a runaway. And so literally, Philemon has a choice. I brand this guy, or I forgive this guy. Now, we're like, branding's so archaic. It's so, but listen, that's just us canceling people. I can't believe. Those Christians think that I don't like him and I'm not talking to him or anyone like him, all done. What's for lunch? It feels so clean. It feels so like we're right and they're wrong, but that's not the gospel. That's something other than the gospel. And so we want to practice forgiveness. So I wanted to say this, if you got like some deep hurts, I don't want you to start with the person who hurt you worse than anybody else. I want you to start in a very small way, like tomorrow, someone's going to cut you off in traffic. And when they do, I want you to practice forgiveness. Do this, bless you, my child. You're going to go to work

and someone's going to say the wrong thing, not respond to an email, blame you, take credit for you. Bless you, my son. Bless you, my daughter. Now what's going to happen? When you start to let little things go and forgive people that maybe you don't know, you start to develop a muscle. But muscles develop in response to resistance. And the more you resist that muscle, the more it tears. And the more it tears, the more it heals. And the more it heals, the more it grows until you can lift way more weight after you work out than before you started working out. And what is true for the body is true for the spirit, is true for the soul. That's why Paul says to Timothy, train yourself to be godly, practice forgiveness until you can let go of the deepest hurts and burdens of your life and live a free person because Christ has come to set you free, right? So, and so this opportunity to practice forgiveness. Second one, practice reconciliation. For forgiveness is I let this go and I take away the burden, but reconciliation is now, maybe I need to sit down and have a conversation with this person. That's a whole nother part of this process. Sometimes it's easier to forgive, I'm going to let that go, but I don't want to see that person again

because it's going to be stressful. We're not going to agree, there's going to be an argument. And so how do we build that bridge? How do we restore that trust in what was lost? How do we take what was wrong and make it right again? And again, Philemon is a template for that because we watched Paul do this for these two men who were in conflict. And here's what I wonder if you noticed. In the 335 words that are in this small little letter, did you notice that not once does Paul mention the cross or the resurrection? I mean, of all the 13 letters he wrote, he always mentions it, but this is the only one he didn't mention. And you're like, Paul, were you missing the spirit of God here? Like, what happened? Why did you miss that? You always talk about the cross and the resurrection. And then I got curious. Like maybe it's because Paul is embodying the cross and living out this action. Think about this. Think about Paul's language. Listen to me. See the gospel in this. Onesimus has a debt he cannot pay. I will pay his debt. Charge it to me.

His sin has separated him from his family, but I've made a way for him to come back to his family, to be restored into his family. Do you see it? Picture of the gospel. Paul is living out the power of reconciliation of the cross and what the church was called to do. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it. That's why Paul says this in 2 Corinthians about the power of reconciliation. He says, so from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here. And all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. What? What is the Bible saying? The same thing Jesus did for you, you now have a chance to do for others because you were once separated from your father because of your debt. Jesus stepped in, paid your debt,

reconciled you to the father. Now you're family. And when you go, wow, I can't believe God did that for me. Now you're starting to look, who can I do that for? Who can I help? And so I wanna put you in a moment, in a place where you can practice reconciliation. So I want you to think of a person right now who you were once close to, a family member, a friend, a coworker, but some things have gone on and now there's that separation. There's that divide. There's that lack of agreement, that lack of trust. And it's sort of like a low grade bothers you. Like when your mind's at rest, you think about that person, that relationship. Maybe it's fresh, so it's like all the time. Maybe it's been a decade and you try to put it out of your mind. sort of canceled them, you avoid them, what would it be like if you not only forgave them, but texted them at the close of the service and said, hey, God put you on my mind, I'd love to have a cup of coffee. Now some of you are getting nervous. I said, I don't know who this person is, and they didn't tell me to say this to you, so no one called me and said, hey, say this. This is the spirit of God doing what he does.

So imagine this conversation, and let's use this as a masterclass. How would I begin to approach this conversation? So here's the first thing Paul does. Paul points out every positive attribute he can about Philemon. You're a great partner in the gospel, you love your family, you love God's people, you've opened your house, and can you think of anything positive about that person? That they were generous, that you had some great memories back in the day, that they were filled with courage, they inspired you at a certain point, they opened a door for you. Like, could you think of anything positive? And could you open with that? Could you give up your right to be right? Your right to actually win the argument? Notice, Paul's not digging into all the conflict that led to Anesimus running away. He's not digging into all those little minor details, like we're gonna talk about all these details for five hours. He's like, what if that conflict, and he elevates the whole conversation, is something God could use for your future and mine, that helps all the people around us? What would happen if you had coffee with that person and you're like, I'm not here to win an argument.

I'm not here to be right. And I wanna be a type of person who avoids an insult. I don't wanna be so easily offended, so easily triggered by what people say. And Paul, he knows this well because he's dealt with a lot of stuff in his life. He's currently in jail. He's like, I'm an old man, I've been shipwrecked, I've been beaten, I've been whipped, I've been falsely accused. You can't hurt me, you can't kill me because I'm already dead. What are you gonna do? And there was this unoffendable nature to him because Christ had been so formed in him. And if you can be a person who's unoffendable, not so easily triggered, you don't have to win the argument, you don't have to be right, and you can think of a higher view, you can reframe this conflict in the light of the gospel, then maybe you could rewind that person and that trust and begin a whole new story with him. And maybe you're hearing like, I honestly don't have any conflicts like that. Well, praise God, but I know this, the people around you do. And so you're called to watch two people who have a conflict and not to go, that's not my business, but to actually walk towards it. Paul is walking into two people's business

who have conflict because he says, this is my responsibility. Now listen, stepping into someone's conflict and helping them reconcile is not easy. It's messy and difficult stuff. It sounds super cool like, oh, I'm gonna be a reconciler, a peacemaker. Yeah, I did that a couple of times this week, it's hard. I mean, at one point, two people turned toward me and attacked me, but that was the first time they were unified in the conversation, so that was good, right? That's a win. This is not easy stuff, but what Jesus did for us was not easy. And Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. They'll be like their daddy who loves to reconcile broken people, right? And so we wanna practice forgiveness. We wanna practice reconciliation. And finally, we wanna practice advocacy. We're gonna watch Paul advocate for someone who's vulnerable, who doesn't have the power. He's sending someone who has no social power into a situation where powerful people can determine that person's future, and he's gonna advocate for him with wisdom and creativity.

And this is a template for how the church deals with powerful and powerless people, and what does this advocacy look like? And we're commanded in Scripture, Proverbs 31, speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. And speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and the needy. We're commanded to notice people who don't have the type of power they need, that if it was us, we could make the phone call, make it happen, and they have no resources or ability, connections to make those things happen. And the reason we do this is because Jesus does this for us. I don't know if you know what Jesus is doing right now, but there's an image in 1 John 2, verse 1, that shows him at the right hand of the Father. And so I'm gonna show you why this is important. Right now, Jesus is advocating for you. So if you drove here and someone cut you off, and you didn't say, bless you, my son, but you cursed them out, and you came here and have that kind of low-grade sense of guilt, yeah, God heard you, it's okay, it's all right. How does God feel about you right now? All right, so check it out. Here's what's happening in heaven. First John 2, 1. My dear children, I write this to you

so that you will not sin. Don't curse the person who cuts you off. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Jesus at the right hand of the Father, looking at us when we sin, when we fall short. We don't live up to our own values and saying, Father, forgive him, just take my death on the cross as payment for their sin. I got them covered. Something beautiful about having an advocate. And so we forgive because we've been forgiven. We reconcile because we've been reconciled. We advocate because we have an advocate in Jesus. And the church is always at her best when we're doing this. So I wanna share with you a story about an advocate, a guy you've probably never heard of. His name is Josiah Wedgwood. He lived in Great Britain in the 1800s in a time of great social challenge. He was a potter, he was an entrepreneur, and he was an abolitionist. He believed as a Christian that everyone's made in the image of God, and he opposed the slavery that was driving the entire engine of England. And so he thought, what can I do? And so as he began to talk to former slaves and slave traders and began to think about, how can I use my business to speak

for those who can't speak for themselves? And so he was one of the fathers of modern marketing. He would take all these ceramics and he would send them all over and sell them all over in catalogs. And he thought, what if I did this for abolition? And what would I create as a single message to create thousands of printed ceramic coins and spread them all over? And how could I send a simple message to Christians who say they love Jesus, but who are living in this world that doesn't represent him? And here's the coin he created that went to thousands of people's homes in that time. Am I not a man and a brother? A simple sentence that comes right from the letter of Philemon. Isn't he a man and a brother, not your property? And when you sing your songs in church and don't think about that contradiction, Jesus wants to reconcile all that. And after decades of distributing thousands and thousands of these coins, Josiah Wedgwood made justice fashionable. A sustained campaign of public persuasion that the gospel compels us to see every man, woman, and child made in the image of God, no matter what the social constructs or the laws of the land say, this is our script. And so that makes me wonder,

are there people today around us that are vulnerable, that need our voice, that need us not just say, that's just the way it is? Who around us doesn't have a voice? I think of an unborn child who cannot speak for himself or herself, who needs someone to say that child was born, created in the image of God, worthy of protection, worthy of a voice. I think of an elderly person, thousands of elderly people all around this church, sitting all by themselves with no family to visit and no way to articulate the loneliness or sadness that they feel. I think of an immigrant family in this country whose lives are threatened to be split apart because of the way the system is working at this point and wondering, does anyone care or see, will anyone speak and be their voice as their application is on a stack of paper somewhere not moving anywhere, and they live in fear. And you can think about the child with disabilities or the prisoner who's been incarcerated justly or unjustly. And how do we not just post about what we think on social media and think, well, I like that, so I'm good. How do we practice what Jesus did? The theology of proximity, we get close. We visit that person in jail. We talk to that adult with mental health issues.

We help that child in foster care. And once we enter a world that's totally foreign to us, and then we went to our world where we have power and influence, and we build a bridge to those two things, and we begin to see change happen. The gospel has reconciled all of these broken spaces in Christ through us, his church. What a holy opportunity. And I just wanna say this, just because we have all sorts of people telling us all sorts of things, like these vulnerable people matter to us, or these vulnerable people matter to us, but all vulnerable people matter to God. And so let's not take our script. from the ideologues and politicians of our day about who matters to God. All people matter to God. All people are made in His image, and we, the church, need to put that message out. And so, I'll just give you a quick example. Got a phone call six months ago or so, and a young girl who was a foster child in our home 20 plus years ago was in college, and she was struggling because of financial aid and the pressure of paying bills, and the stress was making her think, maybe I should just drop out of college. And now she's far away, and so I'm like,

what do I do? Okay, I don't know anybody at that college, but I'm gonna start calling people. I'm just gonna try to find a way, and so I started calling people, a bunch of dead ends. I finally got a text back, another call back, and now I'm to the vice president who's working with scholarships for that particular college, and I tell this person Jeanette's story and the anxiety she's feeling, and a week later, she calls me back and said, I have good news, we have a scholarship for Jeanette, and so thank you for your advocacy. And I got to tell Jeanette this story, and she burst into tears, not just because of the money and the pressure that was going, but because she was seen, she was heard. Someone heard her and gave her a voice with someone who had power. That's building a bridge, taking the world that you live in and the connections you have with someone who has none of those connections and building that bridge so that they can find this beautiful new life. This is what Paul did for Onesimus. That's what we get to do for other people. And listen, our hearts, as human beings, we long for reconciliation. Final story.

Ernest Hemingway wrote about a father and a son who lived in Madrid. And the father and the son, they had a conflict, and the son named Paco ran away, and the father searched all over Madrid to find his prodigal son and couldn't find him anywhere. And in a moment of last second desperation, he's like, you know, I'm just gonna put an article in the paper, I'm just gonna put a line in the paper to see if my son might by chance read it and respond. And so this father put this line in the newspaper in Madrid. Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven, Papa. Think about the longing in that sentence. Paco, my son, meet me at Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven, Papa. On Tuesday, that father went to the hotel and saw a squadron of police cars because 800 young men named Paco showed up. What does that story tell you? There are so many sons and daughters who long to be reconciled to their fathers. There's so many friends who long to be reconciled to friends. Our hearts long to bridge the divide that we somehow can't figure out how to do. And so this is our invitation. If you don't know the love of your father, listen, you have a father in heaven who created you in his image and for his purpose,

and your sin has separated you from him, and now you're far away from home like a prodigal. And he writes to you. Meet me at Calvary Chapel at 11 o'clock on Sunday, on June 7th. All is forgiven, Papa. And this is the message of reconciliation that goes out every single day all around the world. And this requires a decision. Do I come to meet the father? Jesus has already made it possible. He's already paid for your sin debt. He's made the way, but this decision is something for you to make. And we wanna give you a moment to make that decision. So we're gonna play a song. It's called Run to the Father. It's called Run to the Father. It's called Come to the Father. And you have a chance to get up out of your seat and walk here and just pray a prayer of repentance. God, forgive me of my sins. I wanna, I want you in my life. I wanna follow you. I want you to be my Lord. And he will embrace you at this space and forgive your sins, take away the shame of your sins, write your name in the book of life and give you a whole new life.

This is his invitation. If you're ready and you know this is for you, we're gonna play. You stand, you come, and we will celebrate with all of heaven as you come. If that's you, come now. He's waiting for you. ♪ I've carried a burden for too long on my own. ♪ I wasn't created to bear it alone I hear your invitation to let it all go I see it now, I'm laying it down I know that I need you I'll run to the Father, I fall into grace I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father again and again I'll run to the Father, I fall into grace I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father again and again I just want to give another moment, I know it's a hard thing to think about standing in front of all these people and saying, I need Jesus, I need forgiveness I need a second chance but I know a little bit about the patience of God and the kindness of God to sit with us in our indecision so we're not going to play another song but I just want to give you one more moment if you're like, I should be up there someone else would have gone, I would have gone but no one went and now I don't want to be the only one like all the stuff we do in our head He's waiting for you He loves you so if you know that's you, wherever you are just come to the Father forgiveness is this way, freedom is this way

family is this way come on so glad you're here church let's celebrate these decisions we're really glad you're here good this is why Jesus came, to seek and save the lost watch prodigals come home alright come on up, we'll wait for you, come on wherever you are, we'll wait for you you're in the back, you're in the middle this is worth the wait I hope you feel in this moment the love of God and the embrace of God your Father He's waited a long time for this moment I want to say on behalf of Him, welcome home we're glad you're here and so, if right now you could just repeat a simple prayer out loud after me, pray this to God He will hear this prayer and He will answer it because God keeps His promises repeat this prayer out loud after me say this, Lord God I open my heart and I invite You inside forgive my sin

today I repent now fill me with Your Spirit and I will walk with You all the days of my life I pray this in Jesus' name Amen Amen guys welcome to the family of God so guys, you just made the most important decision of your life and we just want just a few minutes to process this with you so I'm going to ask you to follow me and our crew over this way we're going to give you a Bible and have a quick conversation you'll be back with your friends in just a few moments Church, can we give them a hand as they go this way and let's respond in worship to our Savior Jesus who is worthy of our praise Praise. ♪ I sit on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I break, calling out the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim, every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ Must break, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know, all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ Must go, every deed to every victory ♪ ♪ Victory, I hold, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪

Amen church, you're so good. We love you all so much. If you need prayer for anything at all, our prayer team is gonna be up here at the front of the altar. If not, we'll see you guys next time. Go in peace, we love you.