- Because I Trust Christ, I forgive. (Phm 1:4-5)
- Because I Love Christ’s people, I forgive. (Phm 1:5)
- Because I Belong to Christ’s church, I forgive. (Phm 1:6-7)
- Because I am Growing in Christ, I forgive. (Phm 1:6)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:01-02:34
Forgiven people, now I want you to say the whole thing. Ready? Go. Do you believe that? Amen. Let's get back to it. Forgiven people forgive. How are we doing? Who in your life needs forgiveness? Last week, for those of you that weren't here, we To find forgiveness, forgiveness is the decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted from injury. You did something wrong against me, you owe me. Forgiveness is you no longer owe me. I'm releasing you of that obligation. And the New Testament theme of forgiveness is this. We looked at a whole bunch of verses last week, didn't we? But here it is. There is a connection between forgiveness from God and forgiveness to others. There is a connection. And we saw that forgiveness is not the plan of salvation. Forgiveness is the proof of salvation, right? Like, well, is this really such an important thing that we need to spend four weeks on it? And I believe that it is. And just to make it very personal, jot these three things down in your notes. Failure to forgive is going to result in three negative consequences on yourself, okay? So jot these three things down. Failure to forgive, first of all, keeps me in prison to the past. Keeps me in prison to the past. If you're someone who has been holding on to bitterness and holding on to hurts, and we talked about this a little last week, you know, you replay those conversations in your head, and I can't believe he talked to me that way, and you're holding on to that. What you've done is you've imprisoned yourself to the past. You can't move on from it. And you know, the Lord wants to take you to better places, but you can't go there. You've locked yourself in the past. So, unforgiveness, failure to forgive, keeps me in prison in the past. Secondly, failure to forgive will grow bitterness in your hearts. Not only will you be in prison in the past, but you'll become a bitter person.
02:37-02:38
And that can be a whole nother sermon.
02:40-02:43
Bitterness will destroy you from the inside out.
02:45-02:49
And much bitterness comes from I'm just choosing not to forgive.
02:50-02:56
Then thirdly, failure to forgive opens the door for Satan.
02:59-03:01
It opens the door for Satan.
03:01-03:02
I want you to think about that.
03:04-03:06
That door that I mentioned that Johnny's going to escape from.
03:07-03:13
If somebody was pounding on that door, and I said, "Oh, Satan's at the door.
03:13-03:16
Who wants to open the door?" Like, who's going to volunteer for that?
03:17-03:18
Who's going to volunteer?
03:18-03:19
I'll let him in.
03:20-03:21
Absolutely not.
03:21-03:22
Keep him out of here.
03:22-03:36
But understand that Ephesians 4, verses 26 and 27 say this, "Be angry and do not sin." It's okay to be angry, but you have to deal with it in a godly way.
03:36-03:37
Was Jesus ever angry?
03:38-03:39
He was.
03:39-03:40
Some people think anger is a sin.
03:41-03:41
It is not.
03:42-03:46
There's a righteous way to deal with anger, and there are righteous things to be angry about, right?
03:47-03:55
So Paul says, "Be angry and do not sin." He says, "Do not let the sun go down on your anger," meaning you don't let these issues linger.
03:58-04:08
And then he says, "And give no opportunity to the devil." The longer you leave these things open, the more you're inviting Satan in, you're leaving an open door for him.
04:10-04:11
It's a failure to forgive.
04:12-04:20
So last week we sort of took a little tour through the New Testament, kind of camped out on Matthew chapter 18.
04:22-04:25
But we're going to get really specific over the next three weeks.
04:26-04:50
I want you to turn, you know there's a book in your Bible that is all about human to human forgiveness. Did you know that? There's a book that's what the whole book is about. It's just person to person relational forgiveness. You know what book that is? Who wants to take a stab at it? It's Philemon. All right, I I want you to turn there.
04:52-04:53
Philemon is a little book.
04:54-04:55
It's only like one page in your Bible.
04:56-04:57
It's the shortest of Paul's letters.
04:58-05:03
And how I always find it, go near the back of your New Testament and find the book of Hebrews.
05:03-05:05
And Philemon is the book right before Hebrews.
05:06-05:07
All right, so turn there.
05:10-05:11
Turn louder so I know that you're doing it.
05:15-05:15
That's better.
05:16-05:16
Better.
05:19-05:27
Again, Philemon is unique. It's an individual letter regarding an individual issue.
05:30-05:35
You know, the other letters that Paul wrote were to churches or to pastors dealing with congregational issues.
05:35-05:45
Philemon is unique because Paul's like, "This is just to one guy because of one issue." It was written at the same time as Colossians during Paul's Roman imprisonment.
05:47-05:55
So who was Philemon? Well, he was a man who was led to Christ by Paul and he had a slave that ran away.
05:55-05:59
Anybody know the name of the slave? Onesimus.
06:01-06:08
Onesimus. Well, Onesimus runs from Philemon and he ends up in Rome and somehow he finds Paul.
06:08-06:10
How did he find Paul? I don't know.
06:10-06:18
I don't know if he stumbled upon him somehow or if Onesimus was actually looking for Paul.
06:20-06:24
The scripture really doesn't say how he found him, but we know that he found him.
06:27-06:29
Well, what's the big deal with a runaway slave?
06:29-06:33
Well, in Roman culture, a runaway slave was considered a criminal.
06:35-06:44
And actually, in verse 18, that we'll be looking at in a couple of weeks, It looks like Onesimus might have stolen some money from Philemon when he hit the road.
06:46-06:56
So now you have this runaway criminal slave that stole money, runs into Paul, and when he runs into the Apostle Paul, what do you think the Apostle Paul talked to him about?
06:58-07:02
Like, you know, "How about them pirates?" Right? No.
07:03-07:06
What do you think Paul talked to Onesimus about?
07:07-07:23
He shared the gospel with him, right? That's like what Paul did 24/7. Great inspiration. Everybody he ran into. "Hi, I'm Paul, but let me tell you about Jesus." Well, he shares Christ with Onesimus and Onesimus receives the Lord, so now we have a little bit of a situation.
07:27-08:07
Onesimus, you're a Christian now, but you're also a criminal, technically, and a thief. So what should he do? You need to go back. You need to go back to Philemon, the one that you ran from and the one that you stole from. You need to go back. And actually he was sent back. He was sent back to Colossae with Tychicus. Remember when we went through our series in Colossians, Tychicus was actually Paul's mailman. He was delivering these epistles and Onesimus was sent back with him.
08:09-08:31
Well, here's the danger. Philemon could have killed him. He could have killed Onesimus because slaves were not treated as human beings. They were treated as property. They were sold. They were exchanged. They were given. So that's what prompted this letter.
08:32-08:41
Philemon, in his day, would have culturally been in the right to kill Onesimus when he showed up.
08:44-08:46
But Paul says, I'm sending a letter with you.
08:48-08:49
And make sure Philemon gets this.
08:51-08:55
Before we get into the text, let me just take a second here to talk about slavery.
09:00-09:02
Slavery was part of Roman society.
09:02-09:10
In fact, in the first century, a third of the population estimated to be slaves, one third.
09:13-09:18
When you get to New Testament times, the conditions for slaves were actually improving.
09:18-09:19
And do you know why?
09:21-09:26
Because the masters had found that contented slaves actually worked better.
09:27-09:29
That's what led to improvement in conditions.
09:30-09:42
And the truth is, they were better off than the free poor people, because the slaves at least had food and lodging and could even learn trades from their master.
09:44-09:48
But understand this, the New Testament does not attack slavery.
09:53-10:26
The purpose for that-- the New Testament certainly doesn't condone slavery encourage slavery, except to Christ. But you see, as the gospel was spreading, there would have been a real danger for the gospel to be swallowed up in social reform. And sadly, that's what's happening with a lot of churches. God forbid we ever get down this road where our goal is, "Let's just go after social reform.
10:26-10:35
Let's go after social reform. Let's go out and try to correct some wrongs in society." And that doesn't do it.
10:37-10:43
God actually did something better to turn the course of slavery.
10:44-10:47
He changed the hearts of the slaves and the slave owners.
10:48-10:51
And that is eventually what eradicates the issue. Do you get that?
10:52-11:00
Instead of God saying, "Let's just attack the issue," God says, "I'm going to change the hearts of people." That's what's going to change it.
11:05-11:59
It was always a horrible thing. And even in cases where slaves preferred to be with their masters, you know, bond servants. We still see that the gospel did something better than social reform. It's heart transformation, right? So let's look at Philemon. Are you there? Look at the introduction here, verses 1 through 3, where the Apostle Paul writes, "Paul, a prisoner for Jesus Christ." This is the only letter where he starts that way. Paul, a prisoner for Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother. Remember a few weeks ago when Dave Whitcomb shared with us about Timothy. What did you call him? A loser?
12:03-13:34
to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Aphia, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier. Some scholars believe that Aphia is actually Philemon's wife and Archippus is his son. And the church in your house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now the purpose of this letter, as I said, you have Onesimus coming back home but he's a believer now and he's coming to Philemon who is a believer, so the purpose is to bring reconciliation between now Christian brothers. So because this is the goal, Paul's going to start this letter by reminding Philemon who he is in Christ. See, this is really important. Paul didn't just say, you know, "Dear Philemon, forgive him." Love Paul. He starts this by saying, "Philemon, remember who you are in Christ. Not forgive Forgive Onesimus because I say so, or forgive Onesimus because he's a good guy, or forgive Onesimus because the offense really wasn't too bad.
13:35-13:39
You need to forgive him because that's who you are in Christ.
13:42-14:03
I'd like to remind you, church, that if your forgiveness is always based on the nature of the offense, or the frequency of the offense, or the other person, you're always going to be all over the board. Well, I'll forgive him for this because I like him, but that was a bad offense. But if that guy does that to me, I'm never going to forgive him.
14:04-14:25
And we start seeing all these inconsistencies and your forgiveness can't be based on anything other than who you are in Christ. And that's what makes it across the board, right? Because forgiven people do what? What do they do?
14:26-14:43
They forgive. So today what we're going to learn is forgiven people forgive because that is who I am in Christ. What we're going to be looking at today, this This is an identity issue.
14:45-14:49
And after the sermon last week, I had several people come to me and talk to me.
14:51-14:54
God's really working on this forgiveness thing in me.
14:55-14:58
He's stirring my heart and I realize that I have some bitterness.
15:01-15:02
This is an identity issue.
15:05-15:07
Who are you in Christ?
15:10-15:19
Because that is going to be the basis from which you're going to learn how to forgive like Christ.
15:21-15:23
You know, this week I was trying to think of a way to illustrate this.
15:23-15:28
Why would Paul start this letter talking about who he is in Christ?
15:28-15:31
He's not trying to flatter him or, you know, tell me something I don't know, Paul.
15:32-15:38
Why does he start this letter in verses 4 through 7 that we're going to look at here in a second?
15:39-17:55
saying all these things about him, well he's saying, "I'm going to talk to you about forgiveness, but we're going to start with this foundation, knowing who you are in Christ." And the best way to illustrate that, my wife and I were talking, actually when we first met the Whitcombs, I didn't know them from any, but they invited us over to their house and they had like some amazing cheesecake and some even better coffee and we got to meet them and I had no idea who they were. So a lot of times when I meet new people interested in the church, I like to ask questions to sort of get a feel for where they're at doctrinally with the Bible, you know, church philosophy, etc. And something came up about origins, right? So I've been sort of a armchair, you know, creation science student over the years and I sort of threw that out. Like, you know, here's what I believe about creation and here's some reason I believe in creation science. Typically how people respond to that tells me how they believe in the Word of God and what studies they've done, etc, etc. Well, later on that evening, Chris actually handed me a copy of the Genesis record. She's like, you know this book?" And I'm like, "Yeah, who doesn't know this book?" You know, back when churches were trying to accommodate evolutionary science by, "Maybe the Bible doesn't really say that." Here's a man named John Whitcomb saying, "We, you know, we have reason to believe. God's Word is true and science actually backs it up." And Chris is like, "Yeah, John is Dave's dad." And I'm like, "Oh, so what you're telling me is, I don't need to sell you on creation, right?" Like, that was completely taken off the table. I didn't need to sit there for a couple hours and say, "Well, you know, because I believe the Bible is literally true, here's why I believe in creation, and here's..." I'm like, "You guys are already sold." Well, see, That's sort of what Paul's doing to Philemon here.
17:55-18:05
Like, I'm going to talk to you about forgiveness, but listen, you already know something about forgiveness because you're forgiven in Christ.
18:06-18:07
And what are forgiven people do?
18:08-18:09
Forgiven people forgive.
18:10-18:11
So that's why he started that way.
18:11-18:12
Does this make sense?
18:12-18:13
Are you with me?
18:14-18:15
All right, do I need to start over?
18:16-18:17
No. All right.
18:19-18:20
Here it is.
18:21-18:22
Draw these notes down.
18:24-18:26
I forgive because of who I am in Christ, first of all.
18:30-18:33
Because I trust Christ, I forgive.
18:35-19:02
Let's actually read through the passage and we'll go back and pick up some of these points, but Paul says, I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
19:04-19:15
For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
19:18-19:24
So laying the foundation, number one, first of all, because I trust Christ, I forgive.
19:26-21:27
Did you see that in verses four and five? He says, "I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers." Why? Well, look at the middle phrase in verse five. He's saying it's because of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus. How many people here are big fans of Paula Deen? Paula Deen fans? One. I was afraid this illustration was gonna tank, but we have one. Well, who's Paula Deen? Anybody know who Paula Deen is? She's a chef, right? So if, other than Dale, who I'm sure we all suspected, but if you came to me and you're like, "I'm a big follower of Paula Deen." Well then you know something about cooking, right? You're like, "Oh no, I don't know a thing about cooking." Like, wait, Paula Deen the chef? Right? Or is there like some other Paula Deen, like your next-door neighbor, or like, you know, this co-? Obviously if you follow Paula Deen, you probably know something about cooking, right? Well that's why Paul, starting this letter to Philemon, says, "You know Christ, so you already know something about forgiveness. As a Christ follower, my life is dedicated to the one who is all about forgiveness." Understand this, the unsaved, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ, you don't have the resources to forgive, as we'll be talking about these next few weeks. You don't have the resources. So if you don't know Christ and you're coming to me saying, "You know, I just can't I can't forgive. I hate that person." If you don't know Christ, I'm just like, "Well, that makes sense." But if you're someone, you know, "I've been walking with Christ for months or for years, and He's been changing me and leading me," then the forgiveness issue is sort of off the table.
21:27-21:31
Like, you know what forgiveness is all about.
21:34-21:38
So I shouldn't have to sell you on it because you trust Jesus Christ.
21:40-21:41
You have the resources, don't you?
21:42-21:45
He models it, he commands it.
21:47-21:53
But more importantly for us today, I'd like to remind you that he empowers it.
21:55-21:58
It is Christ in you that gives you the strength.
22:00-22:04
Remember, Jesus said in John 15, apart from me, you can do what?
22:04-22:08
Nothing. That includes forgive and offense.
22:09-22:10
You can't do it.
22:10-22:17
You can't in your flesh try to muster up enough magical forgiveness power.
22:17-22:19
You can't do it. You don't have it.
22:19-22:23
It's only Christ in you that gives you the ability to do that.
22:25-22:26
But isn't it freeing?
22:27-22:30
Isn't it freeing that the decision is made ahead of time?
22:30-22:31
Isn't that freeing?
22:32-22:34
The decision is made ahead of time.
22:36-22:47
Like if I say, "Jane Auer, if you get offended tomorrow, are you going to seek to forgive the person that offends you tomorrow?" Absolutely. I knew he was going to say that.
22:48-22:54
Because for him, a follower of Jesus Christ, the decision has been made ahead of time, right?
22:55-23:03
Amanda Frederick, at work this week, if somebody offends you, are you going to seek to forgive that person?
23:04-23:11
She didn't even hesitate. I didn't even have the question out. She's like, "Yeah." Why? Because the decision is made ahead of time.
23:12-23:15
Because I trust Christ, I forgive.
23:17-23:21
Secondly, because I love Christ's people, I forgive.
23:21-23:28
Look at verse 5 again. The structure in the Greek, it's a little unusual to us in the English.
23:28-23:38
It says, "Because if I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints." Like, wait a minute, are you saying that you have, you put your faith in the saints?
23:38-23:43
It's really not that type of structure. It's more like an A-B-B-A type structure.
23:44-23:49
But the word love really goes with the phrase, for all the saints.
23:53-23:55
Because I love Christ's people, I forgive.
23:59-24:01
Relationships are more important than my being offended.
24:02-24:03
Can you say that?
24:05-24:07
I'll tell you what, it's been hard for me at times to say that.
24:09-24:18
My offense and holding onto this grudge is more important than me having relationship with that person. I've been there. And God said to do some work in me.
24:19-24:40
How about you? Relationships are more important. Relationships. And if I asked you, "Well, do you love the people here?" Some of you are like, "Well, this is my first time here. I don't know these people." Do you love the people here? We'll see.
24:43-24:45
Yesterday, it was easy to love everybody from here.
24:46-24:54
'Cause we're like playing and, you know, Aaron and I are like trashing people at Ladder Golf and trashing people at Ladder Golf.
24:55-25:01
I mean, it was like Derek Jeter showing up at a wiffle ball game.
25:06-25:07
At least that's how I choose to remember it.
25:09-25:12
But it was easy, we're eating, we're having a good time.
25:12-25:13
Johnny Tatum's here, we're having fun.
25:14-25:16
And it was easy to love people there.
25:16-25:18
But let's see what happens when you're offended.
25:19-25:20
Do you still love?
25:22-25:24
Again, the decisions made ahead of time.
25:24-25:26
Because I trust Christ, I forgive.
25:26-25:29
But also because I love Christ's people, I forgive.
25:30-25:32
I care more about people than my grudge.
25:32-25:34
I care more about relationships than revenge.
25:37-25:40
You may not become best friends with the person.
25:41-25:45
But you have released them from the debt of injury.
25:49-25:51
Pastor Jeff, it's so hard.
25:52-25:55
It's so hard to love someone you don't like.
25:57-25:58
Can we get a testimony on that?
25:58-26:00
Is it hard to love someone you don't like?
26:02-26:03
It is.
26:05-26:06
But that's grace.
26:08-26:09
That's the Jesus way.
26:10-26:12
You know, the word for love here is agape.
26:12-26:15
That's the "you ahead of me" type of love.
26:18-26:29
That even though you've wronged me, even if you've offended me, I'm still going to seek to put you and your needs ahead of me and mine.
26:31-26:32
That's not easy.
26:35-26:36
But that's Jesus' way.
26:38-26:45
So because I love Christ's people, I forgive. Thirdly, because I belong to Christ's church, I forgive.
26:48-27:00
This is where I want to camp out for a couple of minutes because verse 6, verse 6 is like sucking in a bullion cube.
27:00-27:06
There's like, it's like so much in there, you know, and so let's camp out here for a second.
27:08-27:11
Sorry to give you that, that thought.
27:12-27:13
So is there anybody doing that right now?
27:16-27:16
Okay.
27:18-27:20
Because I belong to Christ Church, I forgive.
27:20-28:02
Verse six, "And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective." stop there for a second. When he talks about the sharing of your faith, when I first read that I thought he was talking about handing out gospel tracts. You know, I'm sharing my faith, sharing my faith. Here, here's a gospel tract. Here, here's a gospel tract. Read it. Jesus loves you and here's... that's not what he's talking about actually. Actually the word sharing in the Greek is koinonia. It can also be translated communication or fellowship or partnership.
28:04-28:05
That's what koinonia is.
28:08-28:09
It's fellowship.
28:10-28:11
But understand this again in the church.
28:12-28:14
What do we typically think of when we hear the word fellowship?
28:16-28:18
Oh, that's when we get together and eat, right?
28:19-28:20
We're fellowshiping.
28:20-28:21
We're eating together.
28:23-28:36
When I was a kid, Darren, you remember, we'd go to those potluck dinners, and it would just be like, this was, God's growing me, but as a kid I was just like, I gotta find the thing that mom made.
28:37-29:02
Because that's the only thing I'm sure came from a safe house, right? Oh come on, you've thought it too. That's not fellowship. That might be suffering for the cause of Christ, but that's not fellowship. If you would have had some of that meatloaf, you would have been like, "Amen!" Trust me. Here's what fellowship is.
29:03-29:18
It's also more than, "I like you. I like you. Welcome to Harvest Bible Pittsburgh, North. I like you. You're my friend. It's more than that.
29:19-29:28
Here's what fellowship is. It's this. We belong together. We belong together.
29:30-30:05
We are individual parts of a body. That's what fellowship is. Paul was telling Philemon, "Onesimus, he's your brother in Christ now, so your love for the fellowship, your partnership for the gospel, is even more incentive to forgive." And he writes that your fellowship of the faith, your partnering in the gospel, may be, my Bible translates this, effective.
30:09-30:12
Actually, the Greek word literally means powerful.
30:14-30:17
That's the effect that forgiveness is going to have on the church.
30:17-30:19
It's going to be powerful.
30:22-30:26
Every week when we close the service, what are the last three words that we say every week?
30:26-31:50
say one two three you are loved we say that every week right listen this can't be a place of people harboring resentments and will these people sit over here because they don't like these people over here and no resentment no resentment you know Johnny had talked briefly about you know harvest core groups getting together and working towards launch and look I'll tell you what the leadership here and our leaders will tell you we have had to deal with issues haven't we Ken and we had to deal with issues don't be shy Michelle we had to deal with issues we've had to deal with issues we've had to there have been times that I've had to ask for forgiveness which God is still growing me in. There have been times that I've had to forgive. But don't picture like, you know, last September, like this core group, we were all walking arm-in-arm down the yellow brick roads singing that ridiculous song. There were some times of this. Wonder Sammy. There were times I'm like, "Sam, I need you to to come over to my house.
31:50-31:50
Like, why?
31:50-31:53
Because I want to headbutt you in the nose.
31:55-32:00
He's like, well, I'm on my way with the back of my hand.
32:02-32:03
We've had those times, didn't we, Sam?
32:04-32:05
Those were good times, weren't they?
32:06-32:07
The answer is no.
32:08-32:10
So like, what kept us going through that stuff?
32:10-32:11
What kept us going?
32:15-32:18
because we were partners in something bigger than ourselves.
32:19-32:30
My little disagreement about this, that, or the other with any of the leader teams, or their disagreement with us, we didn't let that drive a wedge because the bigger picture was, God wants his church planted, right?
32:31-32:34
He's been providing in miraculous ways.
32:34-32:38
Hello, just in the last couple of months, the way God has provided.
32:40-32:41
Like, did you see our new podium?
32:43-32:48
God has been providing in amazing ways because we knew that God wanted us to plant this church.
32:48-32:52
God wanted the name of his son lifted high and glorified.
32:53-32:57
God was seeking worshippers to worship him in spirit and in truth.
32:57-32:59
That's the thing that drove us.
32:59-33:03
OK, so we had some issues and we dealt with them and we moved on.
33:03-33:05
What were the issues? I don't even remember now.
33:05-33:07
But that's how it is in the church.
33:07-33:09
We deal with them and we move on.
33:11-33:14
Right? Because what matters is the mission.
33:16-33:19
We love God and we love people, but we're committed to the mission.
33:19-33:25
And Johnny, I'm sorry the whole phrase didn't fit on the sign, but if you grab a Sharpie, maybe we can fix that.
33:26-33:27
But it was the mission.
33:28-33:31
We want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
33:32-33:34
We kept our eyes on that.
33:36-33:38
That is the fellowship of the faith.
33:42-33:47
Oh, what would the church be like if we were still hanging on to these pockets of unforgiveness?
33:47-33:48
What would the church be like?
33:49-33:51
Well, first of all, nobody in the leader team would talk to me.
33:53-34:03
It'd just be like I'd show up on Sunday, and it'd be like, "I'm still mad at you, boy." And frankly, there's some people that I wouldn't talk to.
34:04-34:08
Like, yeah, you go park out back. I don't want to see you.
34:12-34:14
Well, the ministry would be stifled, that's what would happen.
34:14-34:15
The ministry would be stifled.
34:16-34:21
I don't want to talk to the worship team and the finances people don't want to talk to me and the children's ministry.
34:22-34:25
Forget them. The ministry would be stifled.
34:25-34:35
You see, that's why he says at the end of this, at the end of verse 6, "For the sake of Christ." We're on a mission together.
34:35-34:38
We're on a mission to experience God's glory together.
34:42-34:45
So because I belong to Christ's church, I forgive.
34:49-34:54
And finally. Because I am growing in Christ.
34:56-35:00
I forgive. Because I am growing in Christ, I forgive.
35:01-35:03
Look back at verse six again.
35:03-35:06
This is a really meaty verse.
35:06-35:21
He says, "But I pray that the sharing of your faith, you know, the fellowship, the partnership that you have may become effective or powerful." You're like, well, powerful for what?
35:21-35:23
Well, look at this phrase very closely.
35:27-35:45
for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ." Now, when he talks about knowledge here, he's not talking about facts, okay?
35:46-35:54
Literally, this is deep, rich, full experiential knowledge.
35:55-35:57
That's what he's talking about here.
35:58-36:00
This is not just here's something I learned from a book.
36:01-36:02
I read this this morning.
36:02-36:03
Now I know this.
36:04-36:07
He's talking about you've experienced this.
36:07-36:10
So you know this on a whole nother level.
36:12-36:13
For example.
36:16-36:20
Moms or moms to be, Alicia, have you read What to Expect, What you're expecting?
36:21-36:21
You've read that.
36:22-36:23
We read that, didn't we, Aaron?
36:23-36:24
Okay.
36:27-36:30
How many other mothers read that book, What to Expect, We Were Expecting a Few?
36:31-36:31
Okay.
36:33-36:39
Now tell me, moms, when you read that book, you learned some things, right?
36:41-36:52
But after having a child and dealing with the up all night, not sleeping, fussy baby, That's how it was in our house.
36:54-36:59
Did you learn the facts from that book in a completely different level after experiencing them?
37:00-37:02
Did you learn that in a different level?
37:04-37:05
You're in for a treat, Alicia.
37:07-37:07
Right?
37:09-37:12
Because you're learning. I have no doubt. Alicia is an extremely intelligent woman.
37:12-37:13
She's learning.
37:16-37:22
But once she's here, you're going to be like, "Now I really get it.
37:23-37:33
Now I really understand." Well, I haven't had any babies personally, so when I was thinking about this, I thought about, have you ever seen this exercise program called Insanity?
37:34-37:34
Have you seen that?
37:35-37:37
There's infomercials on it all the time.
37:39-37:42
Well, I've shared with you before weakness.
37:42-37:44
I'm a sucker for infomercials.
37:44-37:44
I just am.
37:46-37:49
Literally, insanity is the only thing I've ever bought from an infomercial.
37:49-37:52
Actually, Aaron bought it for me, so I still have a squeaky clean record.
37:53-37:55
But I love infomercials.
37:55-37:59
Well, that Insanity one just completely-- I was enamored with it.
38:00-38:05
Because you get these guys on there, they're all sweating, and they got like their six pack gone.
38:07-38:08
They're like, there's no secret to this.
38:08-38:09
It's hard.
38:09-38:10
It's hard work.
38:10-38:13
And if you stick with the program, you'll be ripped like me.
38:13-38:19
And I'm watching it and watching it, And I'm just like, that looks hard.
38:20-38:23
You know, you do all these, my wife describes it.
38:23-38:28
She says, when I do insanity, she says, I'm dancing around the living room like a ninny.
38:33-38:40
But you do all these movements, you know, plyometric circuits and things like that, all these jumping jacks and all these goofy things.
38:40-38:44
So I'm watching it and I'm like, yeah, you know what, that looks hard.
38:45-38:46
Well, I got it.
38:48-38:50
And the first day is just a fit test.
38:50-38:53
You do these little exercises just to see how in shape you are.
38:53-38:56
No joke, the only thing I could think the whole time was don't throw up.
38:57-38:57
Don't throw up.
38:58-39:00
Seriously, the whole time.
39:00-39:03
And then you get to the first actual series of exercises.
39:04-39:06
I was like, who does this?
39:07-39:10
I mean, this dude on TV is like ripped.
39:10-39:17
And he's face down on the floor in a puddle of sweat, like scooping his lungs back into his body.
39:18-39:22
Like insanity, aptly named, I would say.
39:24-39:35
But here again, I saw and understood that it was going to be hard, but I didn't really understand until I actually did it.
39:36-39:36
Right?
39:37-40:21
Well, see, that's what Paul is driving at here knowledge. He says full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. Let me ask you, do you want to know Christ or do you want to know about Christ? Which one do you want? If I gave you a choice this morning and said how many people here want to know about Christ? Some of you would raise hand. I'm like, OK, how many of you instead would want to actually know Christ? How many people would sign on for that? I don't just want to know about Jesus. I want to know Jesus.
40:24-40:28
That's what he's talking about here, every good thing that is in us.
40:28-40:32
You see, that's the beauty of growing in Christ, because here it is.
40:34-40:35
You already have.
40:36-40:39
Every spiritual blessing in Christ, you already have it.
40:42-40:57
Growing in Christ is His way of taking you on your journey through life, so that you are discovering what He has in you.
40:59-40:59
Do you see that?
41:00-41:06
He says, "Every good thing that is in us," He says, "it's already in you." If I leave it, you already have it.
41:08-41:10
But you need to grow in the experience.
41:13-41:15
You need to discover it through experience.
41:15-41:19
You see, or to put it this way, I could preach all day giving you Bible facts.
41:20-41:26
But the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us comes only when you experience Jesus at work in you.
41:29-41:30
That's when you know.
41:34-41:43
You will know grace and forgiveness when you let Jesus Christ work grace and forgiveness through you.
41:49-41:50
That's what Paul is driving at here.
41:54-41:57
You can tell he is really setting him up because this is a big issue.
41:57-42:08
So He is setting him up in a big way to say, "Listen, I don't want to tell you what I am about to tell you before I remind you thoroughly of who you are in Christ.
42:12-42:23
And you need to learn what it is that Christ has for you, because He already has it in you.
42:24-42:31
He just wants you to discover it." And that's going to manifest itself through forgiveness.
42:34-42:51
And there's somebody still sitting here, I promise you, there's somebody still sitting here saying, "But I don't want to forgive." Jeff, I hear what you're saying, I see what the Bible's saying, but Jeff, I'm just going to be completely honest.
42:51-43:29
You don't have to raise your hand, but there's somebody sitting here right now saying, "I you but I don't want to forgive I don't want to well which is going to take you to a better place forgiveness or unforgiveness which one which is more in line with your identity in Jesus Christ forgiveness or unforgiveness which one Which is going to accomplish God's purpose to conform you to the image of His Son?
43:30-43:33
Forgiveness or unforgiveness? You know that's God's goal, right? Romans 8, 29.
43:34-43:39
God's goal for you is to conform you into the image of His Son.
43:40-43:43
What's going to accomplish that in your life?
43:44-43:49
Choosing to forgive or choosing unforgiveness?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philemon 1:1-7
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.