How do I know I have forgiven?
- When I make the Choice (Phm 1:8-9)
- When I Value the person again. (Phm 1:10-14)
- When I Rejoice that God is working in them. (Phm 1:15-16)
- When the offense is a Non-issue to me. (Phm 1:17-18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles to the book of Philemon. Do you have your Bible?
00:06-01:23
Do you have your Bible? Hold up your Bible. You got your Bible? I hope you brought your Bible. Do you know that's our middle name? Harvest Bible Chapel. That wasn't an accident. Harvest Chapel. Nah, it needs something else. Not an accident. Open your Bible to Philemon. Where's that at? We'll go near the back of your New Testament the book of Hebrews. Take a left, it's the book right before the book of Hebrews. I shared with you a couple weeks ago how shocked I was when I went to get donuts and the people at Dunkin Donuts were like, "Uh, uh, uh, uh, hang on off to see if we have them." I'm like, "You're a donut store!" I was also shocked one time I went to get tires for my car. I went to the tire store and the guy was like, "We don't have them." "You're a tire store, what do you have?" Then he's like, "Well your tires are an unusual size." Like, I drive a Ford Focus. There's like an infinity of them on the road. Seriously? It's a weird size?
01:25-02:00
I expect donuts from the donut store and I expect tires from the tire store because that's their thing. And if you're a Christian, you know what your thing is? Forgiveness. Because what that means is you've come to God whom you've offended by your sin and you've received his gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. And we talked about that, didn't we? That God says your sins, there is now therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
02:01-02:12
Your sins are taken away, they're ancient history, they're not an issue because my son died for your sins and he rose from the dead so that you might have life.
02:20-02:28
We If you'll pardon the vernacular, sometimes we are knuckleheads when it comes to forgiving other people, aren't we?
02:30-02:34
Somebody does one or two little things to offend us and I'll never forgive that person.
02:34-02:39
And that's what we've learned from God's Word is that forgiving people, what?
02:41-02:41
Let's try that again.
02:41-02:44
Forgiving people, forgive, right?
02:45-02:46
That's what Jesus said.
02:46-02:47
Forgiving people, forgive.
02:48-02:54
I'm also learning, Mark Bloomingdale taught me, that forgetful people don't need to forgive.
02:56-02:57
At least that's what he keeps telling me.
02:59-03:01
Or something like that, I don't exactly remember how it goes.
03:02-03:05
But, forgiven people forgive, right?
03:05-03:21
When Philemon, just to catch us all up, Philemon was a letter that was written to a man named Philemon, let's try that again.
03:22-03:25
Philemon was a letter written to a man named Philemon.
03:25-03:26
And who wrote that?
03:27-03:28
The apostle Paul, right?
03:29-03:30
And why did he write it?
03:30-03:33
Well, Philemon had a slave named Onesimus.
03:35-03:39
And Onesimus apparently stole some money from his master and ran away.
03:40-03:41
So what's the big deal?
03:42-03:46
Well, a runaway slave was considered a criminal who can be executed.
03:48-03:51
So Onesimus flees to Rome, and he runs into Paul.
03:51-03:52
Was he looking for him?
03:52-03:53
Did he find him by accident?
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I don't know.
03:56-03:57
The scripture doesn't say.
03:59-03:59
Here's what we do know.
03:59-04:02
He runs into Paul, and Paul shares Christ with him.
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And Onesimus becomes born again.
04:08-04:11
So now here's Paul with this new Christian Onesimus.
04:13-04:20
And he says, the right thing for you to do is to go back to Philemon.
04:21-04:22
That'd be the right thing to do.
04:23-04:26
But he could kill me.
04:26-04:26
You realize that?
04:27-04:29
Slaves aren't considered people.
04:29-04:30
They're considered property.
04:30-04:32
And he could just kill me, right?
04:34-04:45
And Paul's like, OK, Penn, I'm going to write Philemon a personal letter telling him, in Christ, why he must forgive you.
04:46-04:49
And that's what we see in this really neat little book.
04:50-04:56
And last week, when we started Philemon, we saw that Paul started off reminding Philemon who he is.
04:56-05:01
And we said, "I forgive because it's who I am in Christ." That was the message last week.
05:01-05:02
It's all about your identity.
05:02-05:03
It's all about your identity.
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If you're sitting here today and you're like, "You know what?
05:05-05:11
I'm not really a Christian," then I don't expect much from you in a way of forgiveness.
05:11-05:24
I don't mean that harshly, but for people that have received Christ and understand who Christ is and what he's done and who I am in Christ, forgiveness is a no brainer.
05:24-05:25
Do you know how many times I've sinned?
05:26-05:27
Take a guess. How many times have I sinned?
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Three, that was more than 300.
05:33-05:34
That was a good guess.
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Maybe 300 before I get out of bed this morning.
05:38-05:44
OK, all of the sin that I've ever committed or ever will commit, God said in Christ, forgiven.
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So when somebody sins against me, how dare I?
05:49-05:52
How dare I say I'm not going to forgive that person?
05:52-05:54
Oh, really? Really?
05:54-05:56
So obviously you didn't understand the forgiveness thing.
05:58-06:02
That's what Paul reminded Philemon, who are you in Christ?
06:02-06:03
That's where it starts.
06:06-06:07
So today, here's what we're going to tackle.
06:07-06:09
Forgiving people, forgiving, here's what it looks like.
06:11-06:19
Now, some might be sitting here as we've been going through the last couple weeks saying, I don't know if I have forgiven.
06:20-06:21
Have you ever wondered that?
06:21-06:22
Let's be honest.
06:23-06:25
This is a school, but this morning it's church.
06:25-06:27
Have you ever wrestled with that?
06:27-06:31
Like, I'm not sure if I really have forgiven that person.
06:31-06:32
I've wrestled with that.
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Have you?
06:33-06:34
I've wrestled with that.
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I've had issues with people.
06:35-06:36
I'm like, did I really forgive them?
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Well, that's exactly what we're going to be looking at here.
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That's where Paul's going to be confronting Philemon.
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So here's the question.
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How do I know I have forgiveness?
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How do I know?
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Do you have an outline?
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Jot these things down.
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Number one, when I make the choice.
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Keyword, I.
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when I make the choice.
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That's when I'll know that I've forgiven is when I make the choice.
07:09-07:11
Let's look at verses 8 and 9.
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Paul says, "Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you.
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"I, Paul, an old man, and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment." He means spiritual father, right?
07:50-07:55
So you'll know that you've forgiven when it's you that makes that choice.
07:57-08:00
Interestingly, you know, the word forgive is not in Philemon anywhere.
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Nor do we find long doctrinal teaching.
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Here's what we find in Philemon.
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It's an appeal to love.
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Based on character.
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And we saw in verse seven, didn't we, that they had a relationship.
08:20-09:09
I mean, Philemon wasn't a stranger. Paul said, "I've derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother." So they had a good relationship. So Paul here is saying, "I could make you." Did you catch that? He said, "I'm bold enough." Was Paul bold? Yeah, he was pretty bold. He said, "I could command you." That would have been an interesting letter, wouldn't it? Dear Philemon, forgive Onesimus because I said so, period! Exclamation point. Couple more. Love Paul. Because I said so. He said, but I don't want to appeal to you on that level.
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Verse 9, he says, "For love's sake." It's for love's sake.
09:18-09:23
Do you see the fatherly appeal, the emotional appeal he throws in here?
09:26-09:30
I'm an old man. I'm a prisoner.
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If you can kind of put yourself in Philemon's place, keep in mind this was before Skype and FaceTime and all these other things, He would have just gotten this letter from Paul.
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And when he got the letter, Tychicus, remember, was delivering the mail, Philemon would have been right in front of him.
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So could you imagine here, Onesimus, I'm sorry, would have been right in front of Philemon.
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So could you see this picture?
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Here's Onesimus.
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Is he gonna kill me?
09:59-10:03
And Tychicus is like, here's a letter, Philemon, this is for you, this is from Paul.
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And you see the emotional appeal here.
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Paul's like, look, man, I could command you, man, but listen, I'm an old man.
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I'm a prisoner for Christ, so please hear my heart on this.
10:19-10:22
You need to make the choice, OK?
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And with every bit of passion and emotion that I can try to convey in my communication, You need to make the choice to forgive Onesimus.
10:39-10:41
We do this with kids all the time, don't we?
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This authority thing that Paul didn't do.
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Say you're sorry.
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How many people have kids?
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You've gone through that drill.
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Say you're sorry.
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Say you're sorry.
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Say thank you.
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Say hello.
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You call him Mr.
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Bloomingdale, not Mark.
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You didn't go to high school with them.
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But we do that all the time with our kids.
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Look, here's what you have to do.
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And we're discipling our kids.
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We're trying to teach them what's right.
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That's all good.
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But Paul here is saying, I'm not doing that to you, man.
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I'm not telling you what you have to do.
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I'm appealing to you.
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You do the right thing.
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People can encourage you to forgive.
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People can pray with you.
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People can pray for you.
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But listen, nobody can make you forgive someone else.
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That ball is only in your court.
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Nobody can make you do that.
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You have to do it.
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Not-- if you heard these things, maybe you've said them.
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I'll be nice to him for mom's sake.
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Confession time-- how many people have said something like that?
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All right.
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I'll be nice to him for mom's sake.
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Or here's another one.
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I don't know if this is like a cultural thing or if this is a phrase that's used across the board, but I've heard people say this in these situations.
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I'll be civil.
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I'll be civil.
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Have you heard that one?
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Hey, look, you know, you know Tony's gonna be there, right?
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Look, come on, I'll be civil.
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You know what that means.
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I hate that guy.
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But so I don't start a riot or end up punching his teeth on his throat, I'm just going to smile.
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I'm not going to say anything.
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I'll say hi to him, but I'll be civil.
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Now, it has to start here.
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I am making the choice to forgive.
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Have you done that?
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I am making the choice to forgive.
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I'm not doing this for my wife or my mother or the preacher.
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I have to make the choice to forgive.
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So here's a question.
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Can you forgive someone if they are not seeking forgiveness?
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Oh, what about that?
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They're not seeking forgiveness.
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Do I have to forgive them?
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Here's your answer.
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In my heart, I have to make the choice that I want forgiveness.
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The answer to that is yes.
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Can you forgive someone if they're not seeking forgiveness?
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In my heart, I have to make the choice that I want forgiveness.
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You can't make their choice.
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You can make yours, though.
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Like, well, do you have a biblical basis for that?
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Yeah, how about Jesus?
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Remember Luke chapter 23 and verse 34?
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What did Jesus cry out to his heavenly Father while he was being crucified?
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He said, Father-- what?
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Forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.
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Now, when Jesus said that, the people that were crucifying him obviously were unrepentant, but you see the heart of Christ in that.
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He didn't cry out an imprecatory psalm.
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He said.
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Father, my cries for forgiveness.
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You know, someone else did that.
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Acts chapter 7. Stephen, remember while he was being pelted with rocks, do you remember what Stephen said?
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"Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And what we see in Jesus and reflected by Stephen is this.
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My heart is bent towards forgiveness, even if they are not seeking it.
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That's the direction that the compass of my heart is pointing.
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But here's the thing, the relationship is not restored until the offender wants forgiveness.
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I must say that again, the relationship is not restored until the offender wants forgiveness.
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But you have to choose to do your part.
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That's what Paul told Philemon, and by authority of God's Word, that's what I'm commending to you.
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Do your part.
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So how do I know I'm forgiven?
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Well, when I make the choice.
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Secondly, when I value the person again.
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When I value the person again.
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Look at verses 10-14 with me.
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Paul says again, "I appeal to you for my child Anesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment." And parenthetically, "Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me." I'm sending him back to you.
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Sending my very heart.
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I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel.
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But I prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord.
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So the second thing is, how do I know I've forgiven someone when I value that person again?
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Remember, Onesimus came to Christ, born again, repentant.
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How did we know he was repentant?
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Because he was going back.
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Right. That was a sign of repentance.
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And Onesimus was also fruitful.
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That's what Paul says.
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He's useful to me.
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Actually, verse 11 is a wordplay.
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Do you know Onesimus means useful?
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That's what that name means.
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useful. So Paul's sort of doing this little play on words.
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He's like, you know, your slave useful.
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Well, he was kind of useless and you probably still think he is useless, but now he's useful and he's useful to me and he's coming back and he can be useful to you.
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So Paul's point is what he is useful.
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I want to remind you again, church-- I know we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but we've got to keep hammering this home.
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Here's how we typically handle offenders.
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We write them off.
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We avoid them.
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We don't need them.
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That's typically-- that's what I've seen.
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When somebody offends, people are a lot less likely to go to that person and say, Wilson, man, you offended me. How likely is that? That's a lot less likely than I'm just not going to talk to him anymore. Right? Am I right? Is that what you see? That's what I see. I'm just not going to talk to that guy. And we just write them off. And there's this underlying bitterness and tension and my way of dealing with it is not dealing with it and that's just not biblical. It's not. It's not biblical. You are in the wrong if that's how you're dealing with an offense, by just avoiding the person. And what do we do in our culture? I'm mad at someone in the family, I'm not going to call them, I'm not going to see them. In fact, I might even unfriend them on Facebook. That's the ultimate sign by the way. Or what do we do in churches? Somebody offends me in the church? What do we do? Come on tell me. Don't be shy. I'm going to the church down the street. Isn't that what we do? I'm just gonna go to another church. I don't like what the preacher said instead of talking to him about it, sitting down like mature adults and talking about it, I'm just gonna go to the church down the street. I don't like what one of the leaders of the church said or one of the elders of the church or I don't like, I don't like, you know, what Sam said up here. I'm offended. I'm offended at the way, you know, Beth to Beth about that, I'm going to Northway.
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That's wrong, man. That's wrong. It's just wrong.
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We're like first-year church plant infancy years, so this probably isn't like in the manual things to say to the church. But listen, if you're here because somebody offended you at another church, and instead of dealing with the offense, your way of escaping is by coming to this church, you should go back to that church.
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I mean that.
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God's glory in the kingdom is a lot bigger than what he's doing just in this church or that church.
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If you're here like, "Man, you know why I'm here?
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It's because one of the elders at this church offended me." You need to go back and talk to that guy and make things right.
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Because hiding out in this church isn't going to do you any good.
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Because the next thing that's going to happen is I'll offend you, and you'll just keep on moving down the street.
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John Price down at Covenant, he's going to be calling me like, "Hey, did you have this guy in your church?" "Yeah, watch out, because in ten minutes he's going to be mad at you, and he'll be going down to the Episcopalian church." True or false?
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Is that true?
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Deal with it.
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If you have an offense, deal with it.
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Go to the person, "Hey man, we gotta talk, man. I'm struggling with this." Deal with it.
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Well, how do I know if we're given?
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Well, it's when I can honestly say, "He means something to me." That's when you know.
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It's when no longer in your heart have you written that person off.
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Which, by the way, remember Jesus said hatred was the same as murder.
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Do you remember that?
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Do you know why?
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It's because in your heart, you might not say it, but you wish that person was dead.
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You've written them off.
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You've killed them in your heart.
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That's unforgiveness.
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How do I know I'm forgiven?
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Is when you say, "Well, you know, he means something to me.
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He means something to me." Here's a hint. When someone offends you and they know that you're upset with them, they are feeling useless to you. They're saying things like, "Well, he hates me.
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She's never really going to forgive me." So I want to encourage you, if you're at this point of the process, like, look, I'm seeking forgiveness, I'm seeking restoration. How do I make people know they're valued? Here's some real practical things. Jot these things down. How can I make somebody know that they're valuable? First of all, don't be fake about it, okay? You're gonna do the business with God first. God, restore the value of that person to me.
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That was Paul's whole point to Philemon. Hey, he's not useless. Don't write him off. He's useful. You need to see them like that. Here's how you can make people know their value.
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Number one, pray with them. Pray with them. When you sit down with them. Mike's like, Jeff, you offended me. And I'm like, man, I'm so sorry. I didn't I didn't realize.
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And I will you accept my apology.
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OK, let's pray.
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That's that's a way of affirming value in a person that we will go to our heavenly father together.
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So pray with them right on the spot, all in favor of on the spot prayer.
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OK.
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Invite them to something.
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Number two, invite them to something.
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That's a real practical way to affirm value in someone.
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(congregation laughing)
23:53-23:55
Wilson might say, "Jeff, I forgive you.
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Thank you." In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, is he still mad at me?
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But you know, when Wilson calls up and says, "We're having a barbecue and I'd like you to come." Like, all right, what time is that by the way?
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(laughing)
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That's affirming value.
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Or take them to lunch or coffee.
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Hey, let's just get together and talk, man.
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That affirms value.
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Number three, here's practical stuff.
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Send them a handwritten card or a letter.
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Handwritten.
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What I mean is, okay, text and emails are okay for their purpose.
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But in these situations, nothing beats just a handwritten card, like, hey man, thanks so much for sitting down and talking with me the other day.
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It meant a lot to me.
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Number four, appreciate them, appreciate them.
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Maybe you're having an issue with someone in the church.
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Appreciate them.
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You know, Dan, I'm just, I just want you to know how thankful I am to know every week you got that soundboard taken care of and it'd be rough going if you weren't back there working with Aaron.
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Thank you for that.
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And affirmation, another way you give value, one more.
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The list is infinite.
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I'm just giving you some practical things.
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Chew over how to make people know their value.
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Number five, ask them their opinion on something.
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Ask them their opinion on something.
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When you do that, you're automatically communicating to that person, I value you so much that I wanna know what you think about that.
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I get why are we doing these things?
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Because the person feels like dirt.
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I've offended him.
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And that's your way of saying you're back in the circle of trust, man.
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Right?
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I value your opinion.
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So how do I know I've forgiven?
25:57-26:04
Well, when I make the choice and when I genuinely value the person again, I go from useless to useful in their eyes.
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Number three, when I rejoice, when I rejoice that God is working in them.
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When I rejoice that God is working in them.
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Look at verse 15 and 16.
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Paul says, for perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while.
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that you might have them back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave.
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As a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and.
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In the Lord.
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So you'll know that you've forgiven someone when you can rejoice that God is working in them, first of all, Paul here points out that God's sovereignty is at work.
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He uses the word perhaps just so he doesn't in any way communicate presumption.
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But what he's saying is, you know what?
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Here was a bad situation.
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This guy stole money from you and ran away.
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Bad situation, right?
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And Paul's like, you know what?
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Maybe that was the thing that God used Because God was after him.
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I mean, God uses some pretty crazy things to go after people, doesn't he?
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Like swallowed by a fish, right?
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Burning bush, right?
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God goes after people in pretty unique ways, and that's what Paul's saying.
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Maybe I'm not excusing what he did, but Paul's saying, you know, when God looks down in his sovereignty, do you believe God's sovereign?
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I do. Do you believe that God knows and is in control of every single thing in the universe?
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According to the Bible, that's true.
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And that's what Paul's saying, maybe this whole thing, a bad situation, God used it for his glory.
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Perhaps that was why he parted from you for a while.
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So he could come to Christ and then you could have him forever.
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Like, not just like master-slave on the earth, but brothers in the Lord on the earth, and like neighbors in heaven.
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You think maybe that's what God was doing?
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He's more than a slave now, He's your brother.
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When we're dealing with unforgiveness though, it's impossible to feel good for the offender, right?
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It's impossible to feel good for the offender.
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Think about it.
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Somebody offends you.
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I mean, really offended you. Really offended you.
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You sit down and turn the TV on.
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They're a contestant on The Price is Right.
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They just won the showcase. How do you feel?
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"I can't believe it!
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I hope their boat rusts."
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(congregation laughing)
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I hope when they're tripped to Puerto Vallarta, they drink the water.
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That's not nice.
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But it's impossible to feel good for the offender.
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It's impossible.
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I just saw this recently where somebody who, I hate to confess this, but there are some people that don't like me.
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Oh, don't laugh.
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I'm sure there are people that don't like you either.
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It's not me, but I'm sure there's someone.
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But someone who, there was an issue like years ago and I'm like a dealt with that come and gone, but this person is still holding onto some stuff.
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Well, friends had visited this church.
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friends of this person visited the church and they said, how was Jeff's church?
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It's not my church, but that's what they said.
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How was Jeff's church?
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And the person that visited said, "Oh, it was really nice, a really nice church." The person went, "Oh." Like so disappointed because God was doing some things.
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Well, when you see the big picture, what is God's ultimate goal for the offender?
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What is God's ultimate goal?
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If somebody offends you, what's God's ultimate goal for them?
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Actually, it's the same goal that he has for everybody, right?
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What's God's goal for everyone?
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He wants to conform you into the image of his son.
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So how would you feel to find out that God has restored that person to himself?
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How would you feel?
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This person offended you and then you found out they became a Christian.
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How would you feel?
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How would you feel to know that God was blessing that person?
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This is so much easier said than done.
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That's why it's a work that only God can do.
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If somebody burned your house down intentionally, went to jail for arson, came to Christ in jail, How would you feel about that?
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How would you feel?
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"Oh, I bet you that was one of them jailhouse conversions.
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Oh, I bet you he's not sincere." Could you honestly say, you know, maybe the Lord allowed him to do this and get arrested in order that he would go to jail and receive the gospel?
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You need to look at people, not according to how they've offended you, look at people according to what they can be in Christ.
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What they can be in Christ.
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Offender now, useless now, but you know what, in God's sovereignty, maybe he's getting that person's attention.
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One more thing.
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How do I know I've forgiven?
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How do I know?
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Well, when I make the choice and when I genuinely value the person again, and when I rejoice that God is working in them, And here's the last thing. How do you know you've forgiven?
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When the offense is a non-issue to me.
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When the offense is a non-issue to me.
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So you thought Paul laid it on thick before. Look at verses 17 and 18.
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That's what I love about Paul. He's hard to argue with.
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He's just hard to argue with.
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Because at this point Philemon might be reading this thinking, "Okay Paul, I hear what you're saying, but he stole from me.
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He owes me.
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He owes me the amount of money that he stole, the work that I had to pay to get done because he was gone, and maybe he had this all calculated. He stole from me." Well, you'll know you're forgiven when the offense is no longer an issue.
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Verse 17, Paul says, "So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me." Again, do you have a scenario in your mind? Here's Philemon reading this, here's Onesimus.
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Paul says, "Philemon, are we partners in ministry?" "Yeah, we are, Paul." See this guy standing in front of you.
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Take him back like it's me standing there.
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Who?
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But but but but he stole from me, Paul, verse 18, if he has wronged you at all.
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Or owes you anything.
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Charge that to my accounts.
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Forgiveness is hard because restitution must be made.
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And really, that's what's happening any time there's an issue of unforgiveness.
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We feel that we've been robbed.
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Maybe it is something physically.
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Somebody stole something physical from us, right?
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Actually took something that belonged to us.
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Sometimes.
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What people stole was a nonphysical thing like your honor.
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Right, or your dignity.
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They took that from you. And there's a sense in which you owe me and nothing is right until you make it right. And to combat that path of thinking, that's why Paul says Philemon, put it on my tab. Does he owe you something? I'll pick up the check for that. Put it on my tab. It's hard to have an issue then, isn't it?
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"But, but he stole from me!" Paul's like, "I'll pay you back." "But, but..." Oh.
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No longer an issue. So here it is. You know you've forgiven when the offense has vanished from your heart. When the offense has vanished from your heart. How do I know if forgiven? If I'm still dwelling on it, if I'm still thinking about it, if the conversation is still going on and on and on and on in my head, I haven't forgiven yet. Forgiveness says I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to bring it up, I'm not going to mention it next time we talk, it's gone It's history, it's finished.
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I commend that to you.
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Married people, married people, you gotta learn that lesson.
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Gotta learn that lesson.
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Whether you've been married for 10 years like Aaron and I, or three weeks like the Fredericks, for four years or however long, married people.
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You gotta let things vanish from your heart.
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'Cause you know what we do?
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We tuck it away in our little filing cabinet in our heart.
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Next time we get into a fight, oh, oh, you wanna fight, do you?
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Hang on.
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Give me just a moment to retrieve your file.
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Oh yes, yes, yes, yes.
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I see here, November the 17th, you did this.
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And then on March the 3rd, you said this.
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And we bring up all this stuff like, seriously, did that happen?
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Let it go.
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Let it go.
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It's a call to grace.
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It's a call to grace.
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Grace is God giving to us what he requires from us.
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We owed God a debt, we couldn't pay it.
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God says, "I'll pay it." That's grace.
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Unless we're perfectly righteous, we can't be in God's presence.
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Do you have it?
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Not yourself.
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God requires it, so God says, "I'm going to give it to you because I require it from you." Holiness?
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We're commanded to be holy.
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Do you have holiness in and of yourself?
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God says, "I require that, so I'm going to give it to you because I require it from you." That's awfully nice.
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That's grace.
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That's grace.
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And see, as we deal with forgiveness, That's what we're saying, like, "Man, you owe me. I'll pay. I'm going to give you what I require from you." So now the offense, whatever it was, it's a non-issue. It's a non-issue.
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We are most like God when we forgive. Do you know that?
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Ephesians 5 says to be imitators of God.
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Do you want to imitate God?
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Do you want to fulfill that word of Scripture?
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How many people in favor of that?
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Be imitators of God.
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That's what it says.
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Read it.
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Ephesians 5.
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Be imitators of God.
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How do we do that?
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I'd suggest to you that we're not any more like God than when we dispense grace.
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You've forgiven me or you've offended me rather.
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You've offended me in, you've offended me in a horrible way.
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It's not an issue anymore.
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I forgive you.
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So you're not anymore like God when you forgive, but as I close, we could get ready to worship here and pray.
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You're not any more like Christ than when you pay someone else's debt on their behalf.
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What I want you to see here as we close, here's a picture of the gospel.
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Did you see it?
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Here's a picture of the gospel.
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Philemon was offended.
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He was sinned against.
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And you could say in this picture Philemon sort of represents God.
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Here's someone who was sinned against, and Onesimus represents man.
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Somebody who rebelled and sinned against now owes a debt and is unable to pay the debt.
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So who does the Apostle Paul represent in this little picture?
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You see that?
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It represents Jesus.
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Because the Apostle Paul stepped in and said, "I don't owe the debt, but I'll pay it on your behalf." That way, the debt is a non-issue.
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And as we close, I just want to ask you, "Who paid your debt?" Who paid your debt?
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Because the truth is you have sinned against God.
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And sin isn't a mistake.
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It isn't a whoops.
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My bad.
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Sin is flagrant rebellion against God.
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That's what sin is.
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There is a holy, perfect, sovereign, righteous God who created us to have a relationship with Him, to live in Him, to glorify Him.
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And what do we do?
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We run off.
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We decide that we're going to do whatever we want to do.
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We've sinned against God.
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And God would be in His rights if He was just going to dispense justice.
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The soul that sins shall die.
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The wages of sin are death.
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The first time you sin, the first time you say, "Well God, I know what You want me to do, but I'm going to do what I want to do." The first time you sin, God would be justified to say, "Straight to hell.
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You've rebelled against the Holy One of the Universe.
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You've spit in the face of God.
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We deserve His worst." But instead, God gave us His best.
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That though we've sinned against God and deserve His wrath, God said, "I'm going to pay the Yeah, a debt must be paid. An infinite holy God was sinned against. A debt must be paid.
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In our ignorance, sometimes we try to pay it. "Well, I'll just go to church and I'll just try to be nice to people and I'll hand out bread at the soup kitchen or something and I'll do all these things and God will look at me and say, 'Okay, yeah, I guess you missed your life, Bob.' But you sort of made up for it by trying to do these good things. The problem with that thinking even though doing those good things, it's good, it's good, good things. The problem with that is the guilt still stands, right?
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If you were arrested and you appeared before the judge and the judge says, "Oh, okay, I see here that you are guilty of breaking every law that you can break in our country," which by the Of course, if you've broken God's law at any point, you're guilty of the whole law, because rejecting the law is rejecting the lawgiver.
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So if you stood before the judge, and he said, "Oh, I see that you are guilty of breaking every single law that somebody could break in our country, everything, everything from jaywalking to rape to murder to Grand Theft Auto, your chances of getting off? What are your chances? Oh, but your honor, you're right. You're right, your honor, but here I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. From this day forward, I will get out and work at the Salvation Army every day. And the judge might say, well, you know what, that's very nice of you to think that, but you're still guilty. The price must be paid. Your good works aren't going to bridge the gap. Payment must be made. And that's the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God says, "You can't pay it. You can't pay it." But God says, "I'll pay it." And the Bible says God took the form of man. The Word became flesh.
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Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to this earth.
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And when he died on the cross, don't think that he was some like religious martyr, like, oh, poor guy was out preaching and they didn't like his preaching, so they killed him.
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The reason he came was to lay down his life as a sacrifice for sin.
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That was God's plan.
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That was under God's providence.
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and it happened under the sovereign watch of God that his son was offered up as a sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven. Jesus Christ is our substitute.
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The Bible says that after the third day of being in the tomb, do you know this story?
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Jesus rose from the dead. That's why we were singing these songs of victory. We're not here to sing about some dead religious figure. We're here to worship a risen victorious king and when he rose from the dead it was to give us life. It was to restore that relationship to God that whenever our time on earth is done we have no fear. We walk with God and serve God while we're here and death is merely being ushered into his presence. Why? Because someone paid your debt on your behalf. Like I shared earlier, it's been an exciting time in our church. But as life goes, there's victory and suffering hand in hand.
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And this past week, many of you are aware Phil Simons from our church had passed away.
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He'd been battling leukemia and he him and Debbie used to sit actually right behind where the gates are sitting. But the leukemia was rapidly progressing in his body and.
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I was with him in the hospital quite a bit Tuesday, and I said, Phil, what kind of what kind of What time frame did they give you?
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He said, "Imminent." He knew.
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The only difference between Phil and you was that he had more of an idea of when his time was up.
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But your time is going to be up too.
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The question is, what have you done about the guilt of your sin?
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What have you done with that?
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My prayer is that like Phil, I mean, he loved the Lord.
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His tears were for his family, but this man loved the Lord.
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And he knew that his time on the earth would be to finally be personally in the presence of his Lord and Savior.
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He was so excited for that.
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Is Phil having a good day today?
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Do you think Phil's having a good day?
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He is.
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His confidence and his hope was knowing that Jesus Christ paid the price for his sin, and rose from the dead so that he could have eternal life.
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Are you there?
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Have you done that?
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Have you received this gift of eternal life that God has given?
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We're going to close our service.
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If you haven't, I'm going to be sticking around.
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or if you're not sure if you have, come up and talk with me.
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If there are a few of you, we have some other people here that we'll grab, that'll be glad to sit down and talk with you and pray with you.
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If you're not sure, have I made that decision?
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Have I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?
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Today's the day.
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Okay?
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Let me pray and then let's close.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philemon 1:8-18
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.