Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's good to be here. I one of the things I love about what I get to do is the opportunity I have to visit and spend time, whether it's preaching or just going to our partner churches in Metro. And so let me take a second because I always like to the first time, first of all to say if you're on live stream and I disappear for a second, I'm a wanderer. I'm really going to try to stay right here.
We'll see.
Really going to try.
But secondly, let me say just on behalf of our team at Metro, thank you Emmanuel Fellowship Church.
It is an absolute blessing to have you as one of our partners along with the other 100, 900, I don't even know the number, 110, 115 churches we have all across St. Louis metro area, going from all the way to southern Jefferson county, all the way to north city, out to St. Charles over to the Metro East. We have churches everywhere in the St. Louis metro area. We truly are St. Louis Metro Baptist association. And you're one of those key partners and we're grateful for your gifts because you partner with us. You allow us as this greater metro area to do things that we could never do on our own. In addition to your regular mission partners that you have, you guys are helping us plant. I think right now the number is eight existing church plants and I know there are at least four or five in the pipeline that will happen before the end of this calendar year that you guys are involved with because you partner with us.
One of the things I think you guys are coming in March, we're hosting a pastor and wives retreat for the lead pastors in our association. And we're really trying to make this very inexpensive for them. Because you give, we're able to take a big chunk of money and bless our pastors across our association. So I just want to say, and I could run through a whole list of reasons why you guys are such a blessing and your gifts to our association are such a blessing. Those are just a couple. And so let me just say, if I don't ever get to say it again, thank you Emmanuel Fellowship for being.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: A part of Metro and we're super grateful.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: I love the opportunity to serve your church, to serve our churches.
My favorite thing to say these days is after 30 years of pastoral ministry, I don't serve a church, I serve the church.
And it's a huge blessing for me. So with all of that said, let's turn our attention to the Word. So if you have a copy of the Bible with you, whether it's on phone or in paper, I'm still preferential to the paper copies.
Turn to the book of Philemon, the Book of Philemon, that's in the. In the New Testament. It is page 1060 in my Bible, which isn't going to help you even a little unless you have the exact same one that I have. It's a little short book. It is 25 chapters, and you'll see me look over and under my glasses a lot because I'm too cheap to buy bifocals.
So 25 verses.
It's a great lesson for us. And what I want to do this morning is rather than treat this letter to Philemon from Paul to Philemon as the instructive epistle that it is, I want to back up for a second and kind of deal with this more high level and treat it more in a narrative fashion where we're going to learn some principles that I think the Apostle Paul is trying to teach us.
But before we do that, I want to tell you a story. And I was telling Sam earlier a story about how my life got flipped, turned upside down.
But I'm not the Prince. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Sorry. My mind thinks in TV shows and movies more often than not. But I do want to share a story with you, and I want to share that story by sharing a picture. And so if you'll have a look at the picture that comes up on the screen here in a moment, if it doesn't come up, I can describe. There it is.
Yes. Let's have the reaction for a second. Right.
It's somewhat cute, it's somewhat comical, but then when we think about it, it's horribly tragic.
Okay, so this is a picture. It's actually about 15 years old. This happens somewhere in the neck of the woods of 2010. And obviously you can see there's a couple of bear cubs. What you don't see out of the picture is a mama bear. Mama bears don't get very far from their bear cubs. But there's a couple of bear cubs, and one of them happens to have a jar on their head. And this little bear cub decided one day as they were going through a landfill and eating whatever they were eating in a landfill, landfill, that there was something inside that jar that that young lamb wanted to eat, or lamb that young cub wanted to eat. And so he stuck his head inside the jar and began to eat.
Bears don't have hands nor opposable thumbs, so there was no way for that jar to come off that little bear's head.
And so it stuck for weeks. I think that the number is two weeks. I kind of struggle kind of buying that because this bear wasn't able to eat for two weeks. This bear wasn't able to drink for two weeks. This bear had to smell its own breath for two weeks. If we remember back to Covid, we know that was like, it's a difficult time.
This bear was stuck, had his head stuck in a jar, and the bear could do nothing to help itself.
It was powerless. It was, as we sang here a minute ago, it was helpless.
Someone who cared enough had to come alongside and help. So biologists discovered this. Obviously, they took the picture of it. They had to tranquilize the mother bear, because, you know anything else about bears, you don't get anywhere near bear cubs. When mama bears around tranquilized the mother bear, tranquilized the cubs and took the jar off the cub's head, and then moved them to an area safely away from the landfill. So there were no more jarhead moments. In fact, that's what they nicknamed this bear cub, jarhead.
And there's something inside of us, right? When we saw the story, our initial reaction was, aw.
And then it was, oh, right. And now, yay, it's free.
There's that thing in us that when we hear of something that is trapped and set free, it makes us feel good.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Now.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: There are a lot, and we've.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Already addressed it some this morning, There.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Are a lot of people in our world, in your community, and maybe even.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: In this room, who are living trapped.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: With their head stuck in a jar, so to speak. Now, obviously not literally, that'd be really weird.
But they're stuck in a jar and maybe not even physically trapped.
Their head isn't covered with something. They're not in physical bondage. But their hearts are a different matter.
They're certainly covered with brokenness, with suffering.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: With lostness, with emptiness.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: They're starving.
They're thirsty for more in this life than what they're experiencing.
And maybe they're just hoping they can.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Take a deep breath for a minute.
The cub couldn't set himself free, no matter how hard it tried.
It took someone, something caring enough, with.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: The ability, with the time to do for the cub what the cub couldn't do for itself.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: You see where I'm going with this, right?
Whatever your covering is, today.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: We need.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Someone outside of ourselves with power that we don't have to love us enough to remove the jar from our head.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: What you need, what I need?
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Is someone who cares enough.
We're here, we've already sung about him. And we can proclaim with super confidence his name is Jesus.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Whatever is the jar on your head, in your life, whatever is the brokenness.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: The bondage that you feel?
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Jesus has come to set us free. And it's not just freedom for freedom's sake. And it's not freedom to do what we want.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: It's freedom to glorify him, to honor him and to serve him.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: And if Jesus sets you free, I think the New Testament even alludes to it, you're free indeed.
We'll find the freedom in him. And it's not just a religion. It's not an observance we have as we show up to church or service once or twice a week. It's a relationship we carry with us in every aspect of our life and into eternity.
It's a freedom that really is fulfilling.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Here's how I know.
Because my head was stuck in a jar once, not literally, but figuratively.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: And when I was 16 years old, a sophomore in high school, Jesus set me free.
He took the jar off my head.
He did for me what I couldn't do for myself. And for the very first time in my life, I was able to breathe.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Philemon.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: It's an amazing story of redemption, of transformation.
Now, let me say at the outset, if you, if you know anything about the book of Philemon, Paul writes a letter to a man named Philemon who happens to be a slave owner. So let me just address that as we kind of jump in. I don't want to spend a lot of time with it.
This is not a glorification of slavery. Even though first century slavery is different than the chattel slavery we knew in our history in the past, owning of one human by another human is a bad thing.
Okay, I just want to get that clear at the outset, Paul. Jesus scripture is not glorifying slavery, is not idolizing slavery. In fact, we're learning lessons that happen in spite of the evil and horror of slavery. Okay, so I just want to say that at the outset because this is one of those things, this is one of those books that kind of gives us a little bit of trouble because it does talk about slavery a lot, but not necessarily in a positive way. It really is just kind of an incidental kind of a thing. Okay, so I just want to get that out of the way.
So I want to take a minute and just give us a 20,000 foot view this morning of the entire book. But we're going to focus On a few verses, actually most of the book. Verse 8 through probably verse 22. We're going to read that here in just a moment.
But I want to remind us really of the three main characters involved in the book before us this morning. Philemon really is a story of three men.
Three very, very different men from three very, very different walks of life. We have, first of all, Paul, a former religious terrorist. Let's just put him into the occasion that he was. When he met Jesus on the Damascus road, he was on his way to imprison and murder Christians. He was not a good dude until he met Jesus. There's this other guy, Philemon, who is a wealthy worldly humanist, a slave owner until he met Jesus. And then there's this dude, Onesimus.
He is a runaway slave.
Three guys, three very different life experiences, three very different backgrounds, three very different types of jars on their head, but all three of them in their own way, trapped with a hunger and thirst to get out.
And the one thing they have in.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Common is Jesus set them all free.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: So that's really kind of the first seven verses that we're not going to get into. Now we come to verses 8 through 25. And after Paul says to Philemon, hey, this is who you are now. He says, philemon, this is what you need to do.
You've been given freedom. You need to treat Onesimus in the right way. And so let's quickly look at verses 8 through 25. And I don't know what your normal course is. I'm. I'm an old school dude. So if you would honor me by standing to honor the reading of God's word, I would, I would greatly appreciate that.
My core belief. Do you guys do this every week? Stan for Scripture. Here's my core belief. And it's not a problem that you don't. But if we were having a wedding here and a bride walked in the room, we'd stand.
When a judge walks into a courtroom, we stand. When a politician walks into the courtroom, we stand.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is in the house and we have his Word in front of us. So let's stand to honor it. All right, verse eight of the book of Philemon. And I'll read through about verse 22, the apostle Paul's writing. And he says, for this reason, although I have great boldness in Christ to command you to do what is right, I appeal to you instead on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus, appeal to you for my son Onesimus, I became his father while I was in chains.
Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me. I am sending him back to you. I am sending my very own heart.
I wanted to keep him with me so that in my imprisonment for the Gospel he might serve me in your place. But I didn't want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will.
For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave. As a dearly loved brother, he is especially so to me. But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord? So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me. And if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you that you owe me even your very own self. Yes, brother, May I benefit from you in the Lord, Refresh my heart in Christ. Since I am confident of your obedience. I am writing to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. Meanwhile, as also prepare a guest room for me, since I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you. Jesus, bless the reading of your word.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Speak to our hearts through it. In Jesus name.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Thank you. Please be seated.
Man there's so much in these verses that I want us to explore.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: And we could do a whole message on forgiveness. We could do a whole message about reconciliation.
But I want to really drill down on three things this morning.
And here's the first one.
The first thing I want us to think about, and this is the bulk of what I want us to talk about, is that God's work is relationship transformation.
God's work is relationship transformation. Now, if you look at verse 17, I want to camp out there for a second.
It says in verse 17, if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me.
If you, Philemon, consider me, Paul, a partner, receive him Onesimus, as you would me. One little verse three. Pronouns and pronouns are important.
You, him, me, Philemon, Onesimus, Paul. Let's keep those in our mind. Let's keep our pronouns straight here. You, him, and me.
That's the world we live in. We live in a you, him, me world. Our life is tied together with other people. You and I are in relationships with family. We are in relationships with friends. We are in relationship with church, family. We are in relationship with people at Walmart, at Aldi's, at Dearboogs, at Snooks or wherever it is you shop at, whatever, whatever restaurant you frequent. And here's why I know that. Because we're creatures of habit and we tend to get to know the names of the people that we spend time with.
And if we think of verse 17, the you, the him, the me, specifically those three men, there couldn't be three more radically different human beings on the planet than these three guys. Again, you have Paul, Saul, before his conversion, absolutely bent on destroying the church prior to his conversion.
In Philemon, you have this Roman aristocrat, a live for the world, all about me, kind of a pagan guy.
And in Onesimus, you have, in the eyes of society, the lowest of the low, a runaway slave deserving of nothing but death.
These three guys, you, him, me, Paul, Onesimus, Philemon, couldn't be any more different in their life stories.
But in one verse, verse 17, they're all in the same verse because they've all experienced the same thing. They've all experienced transformation by the person of Jesus. Jesus brought them together. Jesus transformed them and transformed their relationship.
And now all their past differences don't really matter anymore.
Radically different life stories, totally different backgrounds.
But their salvation story, their.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: What's the song?
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Their freedom hymn.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Is the same.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: It's Jesus changing their life and bringing them together.
And we have to understand now, let's move into modern life, 21st century America. We have to understand how radically different we are.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: But it's about his story through us.
Humor me here for a second this.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Morning, as if you haven't been already. But. But humor me. I want to do a little brief poll. So this is kind of the. The congregation participation part of the sermon, which is always open, by the way.
But I want to do a poll, so just listen to the questions and then raise your hand on your appropriate response. Okay? Not what somebody else thinks. Husbands and wives. You may even be different here. Okay, so here's the first one. These are not super complicated. Here's the first one. Dogs or cats, okay? If you're a dog person in the room, raise your hand.
Be proud.
This is a great group of people.
Amen.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Put your hands down.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: If you're a cat person in the room, raise your hand so we can pray for you.
All right?
Right here's how radically different we are. Everybody's ready to go fight. All right, but that's it. Right here's. Here's number two.
And you can look around the room because none of these are super embarrassing. And I'd be willing to bet with some of these, most people, if you're really close with each other, already know.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: The answer to these questions.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Night or day.
If you're a morning person, raise your hand.
I used to be, and then I hit 50.
If you're a night person, you know, when. When the sun goes down, life starts for you, Raise your hand.
Okay.
Some of us, we don't really know where we are.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: I just.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: I don't really like day or night. I just.
I just live retired all day. That's right.
Okay, here. Here's number three.
You have a vacation coming up. Mountains or beach?
Mountain people.
Beach people.
My answer is yes.
My ideal situation is a Beach within 10 minutes of the mountains, right? Then you. Then you get it all. But here's the thing.
This is a good reminder to us with funny stuff. And there are dozens of other this or that's. That I could have pulled out. That could have been super divisive. Have no intention of doing that. But I do want us to look at something, to realize, even in this close fellowship of a church, how radically different we are. There are cat people and dog people, and a lot of times they don't always get along. There are night people and morning people. A lot of times they don't always get along. Beach and mountain people. We can kind of tolerate each other pretty well because, hey, we're just on vacation, okay? But we're radically different in this church. Can I tell you something? Years and years of pastoral ministry and.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Education taught me not everybody's the same.
Not everybody's the same.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: And unity in the church isn't about everybody being the same.
It is about everybody being different but.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Having the same transformation.
All living to grow, to become like Jesus, not to become like each other.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Because here's the truth. I mean, I like me pretty well, but if this church was full of.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Me, it'd be really bad.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: It would.
And the converse is true. Do I have to say it out loud? If the church was full of you.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: I. I work with churches all the time.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: I probably do probably have to pay.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Attention to that clock back there, Sam, or we'll be here till tomorrow.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: But they get hung up here and they try to make their church all about everybody being the same. We like the same things, we like the same music, we like the same preaching, we like the same people, we like the same restaurant. We like dogs, we like cats, we like day, we like night. Everybody's got to be the same and it's not possible. And those churches begin to struggle. It's not our sameness in terms of our background that makes us unique and powerful. It's our sameness in relationship to Jesus that makes us unique and powerful.
How God can take people from all those backgrounds, cats and dogs people particularly, and put them in the same church. And we like each other and love each other and want to hang out with each other. It's powerful.
Jesus is in the life transformation business.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: We're radically different, but we are one in Christ and that's what unites us.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: The one who created cats and dogs.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: In day and night and mountains and oceans is the same one who sent his son to die a bloody, brutal death on a cross for our sin.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: And once we repent of our sin by faith and come to Jesus, he sets us free.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: And we can see from the book of Philemon.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Did these three guys have perfect relationships?
[00:22:09] Speaker B: No.
They're trying to reconcile the relationships in the book.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: But we've been set free. And it doesn't matter what we used.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: To be, it matters what we are now.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: And that's the relationship that will change marriages, it will change homes, it will change families, it will change schools, it will change communities, it will change states, countries and the world.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Let me put it this way, and.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Here'S the big statement.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Then I will break it down into something smaller. As the saved, as the born again people.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Our goal is to build relationships with God and with each other. And through these relationships, God transforms people into fully devoted followers of Jesus.
None of you are going to remember that.
So let me make it more simple. And it's almost kind of what you have on your three pictures back there.
It's this.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: In me, Jesus transforms me.
Through me, Jesus transforms the world.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: God's work is relationship transformation. Our relationship with him is transformed by Jesus and our relationship with other people is transformed by Jesus.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So many people are struggling in our world today.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Because they're doing everything they can do to think about how to fix some relationship or, or some problem.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Looking for love in all the wrong places, right?
It has to start up here before it's ever going to get out here.
The beauty of transformed relationships, that's what it's all about.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Everyone's not like us. And that's okay because here's number two. Here's the second thing I want us to think about again. Overarching principle from Philemon. God is working in your life story to set people free for his glory.
Think about that for a minute. Again, radically different, radically different paths. But God is working in your life story to set people free for his glory again. Now look at verse 15. Back up a second.
Paul says for perhaps this is why he, Onesimus, was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently. No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a dearly loved brother.
Paul was speaking about bigger purpose here, the salvation of Onesimus.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Think about all the twists and turns.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: That happened in these guys lives Paul.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: But I'm probably getting ahead of myself.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: So I'm going to back up and I'm going to say it here but I'll back up and cover it again. Paul, Paul met Philemon in Colossae.
Paul's now in prison in Rome. His life has taken a radically different turn than it did in those first days. And think about all, just the twists and turns in all of their lives.
Think of all the things that had.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: To take place then for God to bring them together in one story.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Again you have this guy Saul doing everything he can do to destroy the church, has a life, life changing encounter with Jes on the Damascus road. And this guy who once sought to destroy the church is now planting churches all over the known world. And Paul is now on mission to take Jesus to the world. And in Acts chapter 16 he gets what is now famously called the Macedonian call to take the Gospel into the Roman Empire and all the millions of people there.
And God somehow worked it out that Paul, now set free, runs into the pagan rich guy named Philemon. And Philemon, through the preaching of Paul, has a life transforming encounter with Jesus.
And Paul disciples him for a while. They become friends, they become close and then Paul moves on with his mission. And Philemon continues his life in Colossae. Paul then is arrested and he becomes a prisoner in Rome because of his faith. Philemon doesn't know that. Philemon's back in Colossae living his life.
And Philemon has this slave. And again can we just say that's, that's not good, but it's the reality.
And he has this slave. And for whatever reason we don't know.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Why the slave runs away and finds himself in Rome, oddly enough.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: And somehow God brings Paul who is in chains in Rome together with this slave named Onesimus who is on the run.
And through the preaching of Paul, Onesimus has a life transforming encounter with Jesus and they have this huge small world moment.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: I know him, you know him.
God knows all of us and has.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Brought us all together.
This isn't coincidence.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: It's not chance or whatever. This is the sovereign providence of God.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Working out his plan in our lives.
God is at work in your story and in my story and the relationships and the people that we run into, that we meet are so important.
When I was growing up, particularly in youth group and know this, I started going to youth group before I started following Jesus.
I went on mission trips before I started following Jesus.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: I did all the things right and.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: As a friend of mine said, I was still lost as a ball in high weeks.
But I remember going to youth conferences back in the day. And if it wasn't a youth conference on why we should wait to have sex, which is what was super common in those days. It was a conference with some guy who had been a drug dealer, a murderer and a gang member who had been radically changed by Jesus, telling us why we should all come to know Jesus. And I remember thinking, I am none of those things. My testimony stinks because I was just a kid from rural Missouri.
The worst thing I did, at least in my mind, was steal gum from a gas station.
And I didn't feel bad about it.
And I would hear that story from that guy who was mean and burly and ugly and violent and cruel and all of those words we can use and how Jesus had transformed his life. And I'm like, God, why couldn't you make me a drug dealer?
I want a cool story.
Until I met someone just like me who grew up in our small town, who probably didn't even steal the gum from the grocery store.
And my story related to their story because we didn't have the big sin in our past.
We just had the sin of ourselves to overcome. And Jesus did that for us.
And I realized that through what I thought was my boring story, I was able to connect with people who were just like me. I could never connect with that guy who was a drug addicted murderer, a woman abuser in a practical way, because I don't understand that life.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: But I do understand life of a rural kid from rural America who just was a liar and a thief.
My story, my boring story.
God used to transform people for his glory.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: God wants to transform people's lives and he is working through your story, whatever it might be through your story right.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Now, bringing people into your life that.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: He wants to use your story to bring transformation in their life for his glory. Isn't that amazing?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Listen, we don't need to know how this story ended and we don't.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: I don't know if Philemon did as Paul instructed or not church. History does tell us that the church in Ephesus, they had a pastor by the name of Onesimus.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: I don't know if it's the same guy or not.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: And I'm not sure it really matters.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: We do know how this story ultimately ended.
All three of those men eventually breathed their last breath on this earth. And all three of those men stood face to face with the man who transformed their lives. And they are worshiping him forever in eternity together.
I don't know how things will go in your story.
I don't know how things are going. My story, I'm really glad I don't know the end of it right now. I mean, I know the ultimate end of it, right? I don't know the twists and turns my life is going to take between here and there.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Let me share with you just another story with some pictures and there's a couple of them. And these pictures really don't do it justice. Now, if you've been to Central America or South America in a car, okay, you kind of know, right? And there's another one. You can go ahead and go to the next one too.
Okay, Just. Just let that. Yes, just let that soak in for a second.
January 2014.
I'm on my third or fourth trip to Panama. These aren't Panama. There's somewhere in Central America. But my third or fourth trip to Panama, we had a partnership in our association there. And I always gone with someone.
This was my first trip leading a group of people outside of the country, which meant I had to be the driver.
Did I tell you I grew up in rural Missouri?
Okay.
This didn't, well, didn't often happen in rural Missouri. Occasionally in our one stoplight town and the stoplight turned red. It kind of messed things up. But I got two guys with me. One guy named Brian, one guy named Tom. Brian's a deacon in our church. Tom's a pastor of a sister church. It was a fun trip.
First trip leaving, we land in Panama City at the airport. And I've done this a hundred times as a passenger, but nobody told me that there are certain times of the day you really don't want to land in Panama City if you have to go outside of the city. So we just got our tickets and we booked the trip and we landed. And what should have been a 10 minute drive outside of the city took two hours to get outside of the city. And all this gray hair showed up in that trip because buses would just kind of pull out. And here's what I didn't know. The law of the land is buses have the right of way. It doesn't matter who you are and what you're doing. Bus gets to go. Motorcycles just jet in and out between cars.
People just stop in the middle of the road to talk to each other.
Honking is a form of communication, and it's not always violent communication.
It was a very different ride.
I've driven cars in the US Before.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: I've driven cars in Canada. It is not the same.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: It's just not the same in any way, form or fashion. I think Brian and Tom laughed the whole way out of the city because I think if they didn't laugh, they would have been stressed out as I was. And then they were laughing at me. Not to mention, and this isn't part of the story, once we got to the city where we're going, I actually got pulled over by a cop and thought I was going to prison.
It takes about 24 hours for my Spanish to kick in. And I'm trying to communicate with this officer. Finally I told him, hey, we're going to the church right around the corner. Oh, you're going to the church. Okay, you're fine.
But I think this is a picture of our life story, isn't it? Doesn't your life feel like that sometimes?
Zipping in, zipping out, tight spots. Oh, no, look out. Are we going to make it? I don't know.
That's a picture of my life.
That's the world we live in. It's an unbelievable ride that God has us on.
I'm really glad, aside from the ultimate end of eternity, that I don't know how this journey is going to come to its conclusion.
I think it'd be really scary if I did.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: And I probably would never leave my house.
Here's how one preacher friend of mine put it. I want to quote it to you.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: As the story of our life unfolds, God is at work behind the scenes.
His hidden hand is putting the piece of his plan together to set people free for his glory. Our life story is his story.
With all of life's twists and turns, the eternal ending of our story is.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Beyond our wildest dreams.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Life gets scary sometimes, doesn't it?
[00:34:52] Speaker B: But don't close your eyes.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Keep your eyes open in the hurt, in the painful and confusing times, in the glorious, wonderful, incredible times.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Know, what we see in this book is the hidden hand of God at work putting all the pieces together.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: He did it to bring three guys.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: Together who had a transformed relationship with him and with each other.
So who is it that God's bringing into your life story that he wants to transform for his glory? I want you to keep that question right here.
One last thing I want to say.
No one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
That's a lot of years of education paid for right there.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: But it's such an important truth.
No one can help everyone, but everyone.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: Can help one in studying this book. This verse just left leapt off the page for me.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: Let's go back to verse 10.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. I became his father while I was in chains.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me.
Wow.
Onesimus is one guy.
That's all he is.
The I here, of course, is Paul. And he's in chains. Paul is a busy guy. He's an apostle. He's a preacher. Even in prison, he's busy.
The most in demand preacher at every Bible conference in the first century, he was the guy.
The guy God used to write most of the New Testament. And Paul would never say this, but Paul was the guy in his day. And Onesimus is just one guy out of millions of slaves in the Roman Empire, not to mention the millions of citizens in the Roman Empire. This is a guy who is nothing in the eyes of Rome.
The guy in chains is the Apostle Paul. He's nothing in the eyes of Rome.
But Paul, the great apostle, the guy.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: In the church, took time to love one guy.
He told one guy about Jesus. He helped that one guy begin to serve. And in verse 13, that one guy began to spread the gospel.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: He took the time to write the.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Letter to one guy.
And there's a great truth in Philemon. None of us can help everyone, but all of us can help someone.
We are to love God, to love people, and let's be more specific, to love the person that God puts right smack in front of us. And that takes time, energy and effort.
We all do the group thing, right?
[00:37:50] Speaker A: We do, but we're to love one person.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: And at the end of verse 13, it says, Love that person for the gospel.
I normally don't bring my phone up here, but I did it for a reason.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Have any of you ever looked at the world population clock?
[00:38:06] Speaker B: Don't.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: But we're going to here for just a second.
I looked at it Wednesday and I just want to look at it live here right now. Population of the world at this moment is 8,273,372,000 and let's say 425 people. Because it's counting up faster than I can add. Okay, so eight point.
Almost 3 billion people on planet Earth and is counting up today.
As of right now, there are 176,326.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: 78933 births that are happening today.
83,100 deaths happening today.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: So far this year, 11,421. Oh, no, 11 million. I apologize. 11,421,900. And let's say 40 people have been born. 5,382,079. 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: 87, 88, 89, 90 have died this year.
As of right now, this moment.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Now. I don't know. I don't think somebody is sitting there.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: With a counter clicking off.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: So it's really based on some mathematical formulas and those type of things.
But when you watch it, the population.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Clock'S always counting up.
The death clock is always counting up.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Eight point three billion people.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: The disturbing number that jumps out to me on that page is the almost 6 million people that have died so far this year. And it's one month into the year, a good number of those, a significant majority of those passed into eternity and never heard the name of Jesus, much less had an opportunity to encounter the life changing power of Jesus.
That's overwhelming to me because I'm just one person.
I'm just one.
We're talking about 8.3 billion people in places on the globe I've never been.
And some of the places on the globe I really don't care to go to.
Can we just be honest about that?
And then almost 6 million people so far in one month this year have died.
And well, more than half of them, probably close to 75, 80% of them, if not more, met their death and met their judge and parted this world into an eternity in a place that was never meant for us.
That's overwhelming to me.
Let's get a little smaller.
Let's just think about your community. Community of Ellisville propers around 10,000 people. You get into Wildwood and Baldwin, some of the extended communities. You have tens of thousands, if not close to well over a hundred thousand people. That's pretty intimidating.
Let's think about our county, St. Louis County. Nearly 1 million people in St. Louis county, if not more.
Let's talk about our association, the counties that make up St. Louis Metro Baptist Association. Just around 3 million people. Did you know that 42% of the population of the state of Missouri lives in the St. Louis metro region.
A large number of those are lost and headed for Devil's Hell.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: And here's the reality. In the United States of America, a large number of those right here in.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Our own Metro association have never heard the name of Jesus. That wasn't a curse word.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: The United States of America as of.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Last week was the third largest unreached country in the world.
That's supposed to be somewhere else, isn't it?
We're a Christian nation, aren't we?
If we were, we're not anymore.
That's not a political statement.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: That's a statement of theological reality. I'm not trying to bum us out, but here's what I'm trying to do. Let's stop for a minute thinking about the big numbers. I did it to help us realize.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: No one can help everyone.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: But can we in this room of 70ish people in the room, if each one of us will focus on one person to develop relationship with them so that God could use our story to transform their lives for his glory, then that's 70 less people. Not who will die. They will die.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: But that's 70 less people who will.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Meet that eternity in a place that.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Was never meant for them.
I don't know how the work is going in Panama.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: I haven't been there in about a.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: Decade, or any other partner we partner with.
But I do know as we head into February, God is going to put one person in your life to the world again. Some other preacher. I wish I could tell you who, but I can't. So I'm going to steal their stuff.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: And say that other guy.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: To the world you may just be one person, but to that one person you may be the world.
Just one.
I want you to think about that for a minute. I'm going to ask our, our worship team to go ahead and start moving this direction.
Just one.
The one person you're going to pray for, the one person you're going to.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Engage with and listen, this isn't the who's your one strategy, although it is the who's your one strategy.
I'm being very careful, other than just saying it right there, to not use that phrase because it's trademarked and I don't want to get in trouble.
But it's that who's the one person you're going to pray for, the one person you're going to engage with. Just one. That's all you have to think about.
Hey, we're having this thing at church.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: Would you come in here?
Hey, can I just share with you my Story.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Hey, we're learning about freedom in church. We're learning how to share our testimony, whatever you want to say. Can I just practice and tell you my story?
[00:44:16] Speaker B: And when that one comes and responds to the gospel through your patient, loving, life transforming relationship with them, God will give you another one at a time in your lifetime.
I don't know the exact number, so I'm probably going to over inflate it. But I'm a Baptist preacher so that's what we do with numbers.
I think the numbers are between 70 and 80%. 70 and 80%.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: And let's just get it in.
[00:44:54] Speaker B: Our own tribe of Southern Baptist Church members will never share their faith with another human being in their lifetime.
Freedom in Christ.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: We've been set free not for our own pleasure, not for our own freedom's sake, but we've been set free to.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Be changed and transformed by the power.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: Of Jesus so that he might use.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: Our story to transform lives for his glory.
I don't know your circumstances, I don't know your story.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: I don't know the people in your life that God's going to put in your face.
I don't know how it will happen.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: But God is bringing an onesimus to you.
Will you be faithful with them?
And remember, no one can reach everyone, but everyone can reach someone.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: I'd like for you to bow your.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: Heads, close your eyes.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: I'm not going to ask you to stand at this moment, but look around.
That's the weird part of every sermon, right? When we ask people to do that, we're not going to do anything weird. I just want you to focus right.
[00:46:13] Speaker B: Now on you, on Jesus and what he's doing.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Is there a face in your mind right now of that one person that God has brought into your path?
A name, family member, friend, waitress, waiter that you see every week at the restaurant you go to on a regular basis to sit at the same table and order the same thing.
Is there a name?
Or maybe you're here this morning, you're watching online and you think, you know what? I, I really don't know that I know any people who are not in relationship with Jesus. Well, figure that out.
Get to know some people.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Just one.
That's all it takes, just one.
Maybe you're here watching online, maybe even the room this morning and you think, you know what, Chad?
[00:47:07] Speaker A: I'm a lot like you when you were 15.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: I do the church thing, but if I were honest with myself, I'm as lost as a ball in high wheats. I've never been transformed by the power of the gospel.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: You know that.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: I don't know that.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Maybe that's not the case for anyone.
[00:47:28] Speaker B: In this room or anyone online, but maybe it is.
I just want us to take a moment. I'm going to come sit here, and I want us to pray, and I want us to think about that one.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Person or think about that one place where we need to go meet that one person, or think about us as that one person right now that needs to have their life transformed by the power of Jesus.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: True freedom in Christ is allowing God to transform your life, to use your story to foster life transformation in someone else for his glory.
Let's pray for a moment, then, Pastor Sam, when you're ready.
