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00:00 "In the beginning was the Word,
00:04 "and the Word was with God,
00:08 "and the Word was God.
00:11 "And the Word became flesh
00:16 "and made His dwelling among us."
00:19 2 Timothy chapter three says,
00:21 "All Scripture is inspired by God
00:26 "and useful to teach us what is true
00:30 "and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives."
00:33 The Word of God, it corrects us when we're wrong
00:36 and teaches us to do what is right.
00:40 God uses His Word to prepare and equip His people
00:45 to do every good work.
00:49 According to the Word of God, what is the Word of God?
00:54 The Word of God is a sword that pierces.
00:58 It's a light that shines.
01:01 It is a mirror that reveals.
01:04 The Word of God is a path to purity.
01:09 It is a meal that spiritually nourishes you.
01:14 It's a seed that reproduces.
01:18 The Word of God is a fire that consumes.
01:21 It's a defense against temptation.
01:25 It is the source of all of our faith.
01:29 The Word of God is the truth that lives forever.
01:33 Today, we open up the living Word of God.
01:39 (congregation applauding)
01:44 Our Father, we thank You that You are the Word
01:51 and that the Word became flesh
01:52 and that the Word made its dwelling among us
01:55 in the person of Your Son, Jesus, the living Word.
01:58 God, would You create in us a spiritual hunger
02:03 to feed on Your Word, to know You through Your Word,
02:06 to honor You and how we live by the power of Your Word
02:11 that doesn't just inform us but transforms us
02:15 to the image of Your Son.
02:18 Make us like Him through Your Word and by Your Spirit.
02:23 We pray this in Jesus' name and all God's people said.
02:26 Amen and amen.
02:29 Welcome to church today and I am excited to talk to you
02:34 about something that you have access to,
02:37 that many people around the world don't have access to.
02:43 In fact, you may or may not know
02:46 that being a disciple of Jesus
02:49 in some parts of the world is illegal,
02:52 there would be severe persecution
02:54 and it could even get you killed.
02:56 And so there are people that do not have access to a Bible
03:01 and if they can get their hands on a single page,
03:05 there might be 12 or 15 or 17 followers of Jesus
03:10 gather in a room by candlelight to read the Word,
03:14 to memorize the Word, to internalize the Word
03:17 because they don't have access to God's Word.
03:20 And yet we live in a place
03:23 where we have free access anywhere, anytime, right?
03:27 I mean, you can go to most hotels and open up the drawer
03:31 and there's a Bible in your hotel.
03:34 If you got a grandma, chances are on her coffee table,
03:38 there's a Bible as big as a Honda Accord
03:40 on her coffee table.
03:41 (congregation laughing)
03:42 If you have a device,
03:45 you can put the Bible on your phone, on your device
03:49 and yet so many Christians
03:52 take the Word of God for granted.
03:56 Why don't we value the Word?
04:00 Why don't people read and study God's living Word?
04:05 Well, there's a lot of reasons.
04:07 We know there's a lot of people that don't believe in God,
04:10 they don't care, they don't believe the Bible,
04:13 that they don't believe it applies to their life.
04:14 There are people that tried to read it and they got bored
04:18 or they didn't understand it.
04:20 But I would suggest to you that of those that are believers
04:24 and followers of Jesus,
04:25 the main reason that people don't read the Bible
04:29 is they just don't really understand how to do it.
04:34 They've tried and they didn't get very far.
04:36 So what we're doing is we're spending a couple of weeks
04:39 talking about how to study the Bible
04:43 and we're actually studying the Bible
04:45 in the book of Philemon to learn not only how do we do it,
04:48 but to actually do it.
04:50 So some foundational thoughts to prepare ourselves
04:54 for part two of how to study the Bible would be this.
04:57 If you're taking notes, it's important to understand
05:00 that the Bible is meant to transform us,
05:04 not just to inform us.
05:06 I don't know if you've ever been around
05:08 some Christian circles when there's almost
05:10 like a Bible war going on.
05:12 I've been to some Bible studies when they say,
05:14 turn in your Bible to whatever.
05:16 You got paper Bibles, there's like this contest,
05:17 like who can get there first?
05:18 Who's gonna win the Bible?
05:20 Who's gonna get there first?
05:20 And then if you've got that Bible verse underlined
05:23 or highlighted on your phone, that makes you more spiritual.
05:27 And there are some people who almost measure
05:30 their spirituality by how much they know
05:34 and knowledge is good, but scripture actually says
05:37 knowledge puffs up.
05:38 First Corinthians 8, one tells us that while knowledge
05:41 makes us feel important,
05:43 it's love that strengthens the church.
05:47 The Bible isn't just a book we study to know knowledge.
05:51 It's not a book that informs us,
05:53 it's God's word that transforms us.
05:55 In fact, it was Rick Warren that said,
05:57 "The Bible should give us a bigger heart,
06:00 "not a bigger head."
06:02 I like that.
06:03 And that's why we're going to apply what the Bible says
06:07 in James chapter one, verse 22.
06:10 When James told us, "Do not merely listen to the word
06:14 "and so deceive yourselves."
06:16 But what are we gonna do?
06:17 Let's all say it aloud, we're going to do what it says.
06:21 Online type that in the comment section.
06:23 What are we gonna do?
06:24 Type it in there.
06:25 We're gonna do what it says.
06:27 So if people don't know how to study the Bible,
06:30 we're gonna talk about how to study it.
06:32 And we're gonna review what we covered last week,
06:34 the five big thoughts,
06:36 and we're gonna go a little bit deeper this week.
06:38 So how do we start in our study of the Bible?
06:41 The first thing we're gonna do, remember,
06:43 is number one, choose the translation you understand.
06:47 The second thing that we're gonna do
06:49 is we're gonna choose a time, a place,
06:52 and a plan to study the Bible.
06:55 The third thing we're gonna do
06:56 is we're gonna seek to understand the context.
06:58 Why?
07:00 Because context matters more than you can imagine.
07:03 The fourth thing we're gonna do
07:04 is we're gonna read slowly,
07:07 and we're gonna ask questions as we do,
07:09 and then we're gonna pray for God to speak to you,
07:13 and we're gonna apply what he shows you.
07:16 This is how we're gonna approach the Bible.
07:18 Now, on the screen, there's gonna appear a QR code.
07:21 If you haven't gotten this, I want you to get this.
07:24 If you don't catch it now,
07:26 your campus pastor will give it to you
07:27 at the end of the service.
07:29 If you're online, maybe watching on YouTube,
07:32 this will be at the end of the message again.
07:34 But if you haven't captured this, I want you to get it,
07:36 because on it, we've given you tons of free resources,
07:40 very valuable resources,
07:42 to help you effectively engage in God's Word.
07:46 So let's assume you were here last week.
07:48 Let's assume you've got what you need.
07:50 At this point, you should have a translation
07:52 that you understand.
07:54 Not only that, but you may even have a study Bible
07:57 like my study Bible,
07:58 or you're getting to know your way
08:00 around the YouVersion Bible app.
08:02 Hopefully, you've now determined a time
08:05 that you're gonna study God's Word,
08:06 because last week, if you did what we talked about,
08:09 for the last seven days, you've been studying God's Word,
08:11 and hopefully, you're developing a habit
08:13 around a specific time.
08:15 It might be morning before you go to work,
08:17 or it might be in the evening
08:19 after you get the last kid to bed who got back up
08:21 and said, "I gotta go to the bathroom,"
08:23 and he went to the bathroom, and he put it in bed,
08:24 said, "Don't get up again."
08:25 Then you read God's Word
08:26 because your kid is in bed to the glory of God,
08:29 and praise be to Jesus.
08:30 Or it might be on a commute that you take to work,
08:34 and you're riding on the train,
08:35 and you listen or whatever, but you've got a time.
08:38 Hopefully, you also have a place.
08:40 It might be at the kitchen table
08:43 with your coffee in the morning,
08:45 or it might be on a porch or your favorite chair,
08:48 or whatever it would be,
08:49 but you've got a place, and you've got a Bible,
08:52 and you don't just have a place,
08:54 but this is really important.
08:56 What do you have?
08:57 You have a plan.
08:58 You have a plan in how you're gonna read
09:01 and how you're gonna study.
09:03 Now, you might say, "Okay, Craig, what is the best plan?
09:08 "What's the best plan?"
09:09 And I'm gonna tell you right now,
09:10 there is no best plan to studying the Bible.
09:14 I wanna kinda give you some relief.
09:16 Your Bible study time does not have to be,
09:20 are you ready for this?
09:21 It doesn't have to be Instagramable.
09:23 You know what I'm talking about.
09:26 It doesn't have to be at the coffee shop
09:28 with the Bible laid out perfectly
09:30 and everything for the perfect photo.
09:31 Look how holy I am.
09:32 It doesn't have to be anything like that.
09:34 It doesn't have to be a specific amount of time.
09:39 One day, it might be an hour.
09:42 One day, it might be seven minutes.
09:44 There's not a specific time limit you wanna put on it.
09:47 You wanna put into it as much as you have
09:50 that works for you.
09:52 You wanna have a plan.
09:53 The only plan that is bad plan is no plan at all.
09:58 And so what I wanna do is I wanna give you
10:00 just five different options of what you might do
10:04 as you start to get into a rhythm of studying God's Word.
10:08 So five different approaches.
10:09 The first thing is this,
10:11 is you can start with a book of the Bible.
10:14 You can start with a book,
10:15 and you're gonna get the context.
10:17 And if you're looking for a book,
10:18 let me give you some ideas.
10:19 You can jot these books down.
10:21 If you're taking notes, where do you wanna start?
10:24 Well, let's say you wanna get to know the story of God,
10:27 the beginning of the story,
10:28 where you can read Genesis and Exodus
10:31 if you wanna go there.
10:32 Let's say that you wanna read about Jesus,
10:35 and you wanna get to know Jesus from the Gospels.
10:38 There's four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
10:41 They're all good.
10:43 Most people who trained me would recommend John
10:46 as a foundational Gospel.
10:48 You could start in the book of John.
10:50 Let's say that you've got somebody who's driving you crazy,
10:54 and you're trying to deal with difficult people,
10:56 or you're trying to learn to manage your money,
10:58 or you need to learn to handle your tongue,
11:00 or you need something practical
11:02 to help you live your everyday life.
11:05 What should we read?
11:06 We should read Proverbs or the book of James.
11:09 They're gonna give you very practical insight
11:12 into how you deal with everyday life.
11:15 Let's say you wake up and you're hurting,
11:19 and you need some comforts,
11:21 or you want more of a devotional time with God,
11:24 or you want to cry out to God,
11:26 or you want to be prayerful in your spirit to God,
11:28 or you wanna worship God.
11:30 What are we gonna read?
11:31 We're gonna read the Psalms if we're in a place like that.
11:33 Let's say that you want to go deeper in theology.
11:37 Maybe you've been a Christian for a while,
11:39 and you wanna go deeper.
11:40 Maybe you're a brand new Christian,
11:42 and you wanna understand what are the basics
11:44 about sin and forgiveness and repentance and the gospel.
11:49 Well, then you're gonna go to the book of Romans.
11:52 It is not light, but it is life-changing.
11:56 And so when you have a plan,
11:58 you could start with a book of the Bible,
12:01 or you could also study a person in the Bible.
12:04 For example, don't hurt my feelings,
12:06 but what person did we just study?
12:09 Before this series, we studied the person of?
12:11 Ruth, thank you very much.
12:12 And you can go through and study Ruth,
12:15 or you can study Elijah,
12:17 or you can just study, if you feel bad about yourself
12:19 'cause you keep messing up, you can study Peter.
12:21 He'll make you feel really good.
12:23 Or you can study Esther.
12:25 Why would you wanna study Esther?
12:27 Because sometimes it takes a woman
12:29 to get the job done right.
12:31 You can study the book of Esther.
12:34 And so what could you do?
12:35 Well, you can read a book of the Bible,
12:37 or you can study a person in the Bible,
12:39 or you can study a topic in the Bible.
12:41 For example, maybe you grew up
12:43 in a very rigid, legalistic home with all these rules.
12:48 You weren't allowed to watch "SpongeBob SquarePants."
12:54 So what are you gonna do?
12:55 I just made that up.
12:56 Is that even a thing?
12:57 I don't know.
12:57 But it is a thing?
12:59 Okay, so well, "SpongeBob SquarePants,"
13:01 anyways, it's a song.
13:02 What you can do if you grew up like that
13:05 is you might research grace,
13:08 and that might take you to the book of Galatians
13:10 or somewhere else where you study about grace.
13:12 Or maybe you're dealing with mental health issues.
13:15 And so you can go to a concordance
13:17 or the YouVersion Bible app,
13:19 and you can type in anxiety,
13:20 and you can read about,
13:21 "Oh, I'm supposed to cast my anxiety on him
13:24 "because he cares for me."
13:26 You can look up a topic.
13:28 Another thing you can do is you can do a daily devotional
13:32 or a YouVersion Bible plan.
13:35 What would be a daily devotional?
13:36 There are a lot of good books,
13:38 and I'll recommend three that I hear about all of the time.
13:42 "Jesus Calling" is kind of a classic
13:45 that a lot of people read.
13:47 "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers is a classic.
13:51 And then of course, "Daily Power" by Craig Rochelle
13:55 is an all-time classic.
13:57 It's actually, I'm not sure if anybody read it.
13:59 I do know that my father-in-law, Sam Fox, read it,
14:02 and he said it was really good,
14:03 but that's the only person I heard.
14:04 But nevertheless, those are there.
14:07 Or you can go to the YouVersion Bible app.
14:11 How many Bible plans do you think are available to you?
14:14 There, the answer is about 53,000 different plans
14:19 that are written towards specific things
14:22 that you might like,
14:23 and there are over 500 million of them
14:26 that have been completed,
14:27 and you could be 500 million in one.
14:30 (congregation applauding)
14:33 So what can you do?
14:35 You can start with a book of the Bible,
14:37 study a person in the Bible,
14:38 study a topic in the Bible, do a daily devotion,
14:41 or if you wanna go for it,
14:42 at some point you may read through the whole Bible.
14:46 This is something that I've done for years,
14:48 and the reason I started doing it years ago
14:51 is because I was a young pastor,
14:53 and I'd even graduated from seminary,
14:56 but I still didn't feel like I knew a lot about the Bible,
14:59 especially in the Old Testament.
15:02 And so I just started reading through the Bible
15:04 year after year.
15:05 I'll do it in different versions
15:07 because I kinda get used to one,
15:08 and it helps me this way.
15:10 If you wanna do this,
15:11 I would recommend my very favorite plan
15:14 is by my good friends, Nicky and Pippa Gumbel.
15:16 There is a book version of this
15:18 called "The Bible in One Year."
15:19 There's also a free version on the YouVersion Bible app.
15:23 This one is not,
15:25 you're not gonna be done with this one in 10 minutes a day.
15:27 It's gonna take you a little bit of time,
15:28 and it's very, very, very good
15:30 if you wanna go through the Bible.
15:33 The bottom line is this.
15:35 You want to have a good plan.
15:38 If your plan isn't working, what do you do?
15:41 Change it up.
15:43 Do something else.
15:45 If you're not getting something out
15:46 of the way you're doing it,
15:47 there's other options.
15:48 The key is when you wake up tomorrow,
15:52 you already know when you're gonna study,
15:54 where you're gonna study,
15:56 and what you're gonna study.
15:58 So what do we have?
15:58 We got a good translation.
16:00 We got a place.
16:01 We got a plan.
16:02 And now let's go back to filet mignon.
16:05 Let's go back to filet mignon,
16:07 and we're gonna study it like we did last week.
16:11 What is the first thing we need to know
16:13 whenever we're gonna study a book or a passage?
16:16 We need to know the what?
16:17 The, begins with a C, ends with text.
16:19 We need to know the context, right?
16:21 What three questions are we gonna ask?
16:23 The primary questions is who wrote it,
16:26 to whom was it written, and what was the purpose?
16:30 Before we start just picking a verse out of the Bible,
16:33 we wanna know who was it that wrote this,
16:35 what was going on in the time,
16:37 to whom was it written, and kind of what's the big story?
16:39 And so let's try to answer these questions,
16:42 and this'll be a little pop quiz
16:44 to see how close you paid attention last week.
16:48 So, Philemon.
16:50 Who was the author of Philemon?
16:52 Who wrote it?
16:53 The answer is Paul was the author of Philemon.
16:55 Now, this was a trick question.
16:58 Don't let this one fool you.
17:00 But Paul wrote the book of Philemon.
17:03 To whom did Paul write the book of Philemon?
17:07 The answer is Philemon, there you go.
17:10 It's right there, way easier than you thought, okay?
17:12 So he wrote the book to Philemon.
17:14 Now, who was Philemon?
17:15 Do you remember?
17:16 We learned that Philemon was a successful business owner.
17:20 We know that he had a house church that he met
17:23 that met in his home,
17:24 so he's kind of like a pastor of a life group.
17:26 We know that Paul actually led Philemon to Jesus,
17:30 and we know that even though this is wrong,
17:33 and we hate it, and it's always been wrong,
17:34 and we're sad about it,
17:35 at the time, slavery was a thing, a horrible thing,
17:38 but it was a thing, and we know that Philemon had a slave.
17:41 Who remembers what his name was?
17:43 His name was Onesimus, okay?
17:45 He had a slave named Onesimus,
17:47 and what did Onesimus do to Philemon?
17:49 He stole something from Philemon, and he ran away.
17:53 And where did he run to?
17:54 Do you remember, he ran to Rome,
17:57 and who did he meet by the providence of God in Rome?
18:02 He met the apostle Paul.
18:04 When Paul was writing there from a prison, he met Paul,
18:08 and what did Paul do?
18:10 Paul led Onesimus to Christ.
18:12 And so all of a sudden, you've got this runaway slave
18:15 who's become a follower of Jesus,
18:17 and Paul is writing to Philemon.
18:19 What was the purpose of the letter?
18:21 What was Paul asking Philemon to do
18:24 with the runaway slave who stole from him?
18:26 He was asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus.
18:30 That is the context.
18:31 So when we understand the context, we see a lot in there.
18:35 If you were with us last week, Paul was saying,
18:37 "Hey, Philemon, you're so loving.
18:40 "You're so amazing.
18:41 "I know you're gonna do the right thing."
18:42 So either he was kind of buttering him up a little bit,
18:45 or he was just being very sincere.
18:47 We're not sure, but he's saying,
18:49 "Hey, I really want you to do this.
18:50 "Remember, Jesus forgave you," and stuff like that,
18:52 so you should forgive him.
18:53 We got the context, and now what we're gonna do
18:56 is we're gonna read slowly,
18:57 and we're gonna see what God says to us.
19:00 So we're gonna read Psalm.
19:02 Look for anywhere God speaks to you.
19:04 Here's what the Scripture says in verse 12.
19:06 Paul says, "I'm sending Onesimus,
19:10 "who is my very heart, back to you."
19:14 So you can imagine this conversation.
19:15 Onesimus, you stole from him, but now you're a believer.
19:19 What'd Paul probably say?
19:22 You need to get back there and repent of your sins.
19:24 That's probably what he said.
19:25 "I'm sending him back to you,
19:26 "and I would have liked to have kept Onesimus with me
19:30 "so he could take your place in helping me
19:32 "while I'm in chains for Christ."
19:34 In other words, remember he said last week he's useful,
19:36 he's valuable.
19:37 We don't know.
19:38 Maybe Onesimus is getting him meals.
19:40 Maybe he's delivering his letters to other Christians.
19:42 We don't know, but Onesimus is helping Paul.
19:45 But Paul says, "I didn't wanna do anything
19:48 "without your consent, so that any favor you do
19:51 "would not seem forced, but would be voluntary."
19:56 Remember last week, what did Paul call himself
19:58 when he introduced himself?
19:59 He said, "Paul," not an apostle,
20:02 which he almost always does, but he said,
20:03 "Paul, a slave of Jesus."
20:05 He wasn't writing to force his will,
20:08 even though he had the apostolic rank,
20:11 but he was writing brother to brother, friend to friend.
20:14 He says, "I didn't want this to seem forced,
20:16 "but I want you to do this 'cause it's the right thing."
20:18 Perhaps the reason he was separated you for a little while
20:23 is that you might have him back forever.
20:25 It goes on to say, "No longer as a slave,
20:28 "but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
20:31 "He's very dear to me and even dearer to you,
20:35 "but as a fellow man and a brother in the Lord."
20:37 Now, is God speaking to you about anything?
20:42 Not much to me, not yet, honestly.
20:48 So what am I gonna do?
20:50 I'm gonna keep on reading.
20:51 So I'll read some more.
20:53 "If Onesimus has done you any wrong or owes you anything,"
20:58 Paul says, "charge it to me."
21:00 Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
21:02 My mind pauses for a moment.
21:04 I think of another story.
21:05 There's a parable called the parable of the Good Samaritan.
21:07 When a Good Samaritan sees a man beaten
21:08 and left half dead by the road,
21:10 and he picks up the guy, bandages him,
21:12 puts him on his donkey, takes him to an inn,
21:14 takes him to a hotel, and pays the bill,
21:16 and says, "If he owes anything else, I'll come back.
21:18 "Charge it to me."
21:20 And all of a sudden, I'm thinking, oh my gosh,
21:22 this kind of sounds a little bit like the gospel.
21:25 I read the next verse.
21:27 Paul says, "I'm writing this with my own hand.
21:31 "If there's any expenses, charge it to me."
21:32 And what will I do?
21:33 "I will pay it back, not to mention
21:36 "that you owe me your very self."
21:39 And all of a sudden, I'm starting to see, wait a minute,
21:42 this sounds a little bit like what Jesus did for us.
21:46 Paul says, "I'll pay a debt that I don't owe."
21:49 And it reminds me of the gospel.
21:51 So what you might do when you come to a place like this,
21:54 if you happen to have a study Bible,
21:56 you might use a cross-reference,
21:58 and I'll show you what a cross-reference looks like.
21:59 This is my study Bible.
22:01 This is actually a picture of mine.
22:02 If we zoom in to the right,
22:03 what you're gonna see is we zoom in here.
22:05 In the middle, you see verses
22:07 that are exactly where you studied
22:09 that take you to other verses in the Bible
22:11 that might say something similar.
22:13 So when I cross-reference this part
22:15 about someone else doing something for you
22:17 and paying the bill,
22:18 it actually took me to the Old Testament to Isaiah 53.
22:23 Now, if I'm gonna read Isaiah 53,
22:25 I might wanna know the context of Isaiah 53.
22:28 And if I look up the context,
22:29 I might find that it was written seven centuries
22:32 before the birth of Christ.
22:34 And then when I see it,
22:36 I also might find that it is one of the most famous
22:38 prophetic verses prophesying about Jesus to come.
22:43 And here, seven centuries before Jesus was born,
22:46 it says, prophesying of Jesus,
22:48 that surely He took up our pain
22:52 and He bore our suffering.
22:54 In other words, He paid the price for that which we owed,
22:58 but He was pierced for our transgressions.
23:01 He was crushed for our iniquities.
23:03 The punishment that brought us peace was on Him
23:08 and by His wounds.
23:10 We are healed.
23:14 The debt that we owed, Jesus paid.
23:18 Whatever we needed, He provided.
23:21 And we see right there in Philemon.
23:25 If there's any charge, charge it to me.
23:28 Now, as you read the Bible,
23:31 you wanna tell yourself,
23:33 the Bible isn't about you.
23:35 It's never about you.
23:38 It's always to you, but it's not about you.
23:42 What is it about?
23:43 The main story is always about God's love for the world
23:47 and His redemption through Jesus.
23:50 The Bible isn't about you, but since it's to you,
23:53 it's not wrong and it's not unwise
23:56 to see yourself in the story
23:59 and see what God would say to you.
24:02 So as we're reading Philemon,
24:04 we have three main characters.
24:06 And I would ask you, of those three,
24:09 which one do you relate to?
24:10 Which one?
24:12 Let's start with Paul.
24:13 There's Paul.
24:14 And what's he doing?
24:16 He's taking a risk on someone.
24:18 We also have another character who's a Nesimus
24:21 and he needs forgiveness.
24:23 We have another character and that is Philemon
24:25 who's being called to forgive.
24:28 Which one of those three do you relate to at this time
24:33 in your relationship with God?
24:35 Now, here's what's crazy,
24:37 is if you read this book once a year
24:40 for three different years,
24:42 three different times,
24:44 God may speak to you in a different way.
24:46 One time, you may be a little bit more like Paul.
24:50 You're called to take a risk on someone.
24:52 There's someone that you're leading to Christ
24:54 or there's someone that you're investing in
24:56 or there's someone that messed up
24:58 and you're loving them back into the fullness of God.
25:01 Another time, you may be like a Nesimus.
25:04 You did something dumb.
25:06 You lied to someone that you loved.
25:09 You went back into that same old addiction
25:11 that held you hostage.
25:12 You lost your temper and something that you regret.
25:15 And so what do you do?
25:16 Well, you might go to a concordance.
25:20 What is a concordance?
25:21 It's at the end of your Bible
25:23 and you look in there and go,
25:24 "Oh my gosh, I need forgiveness."
25:25 So you look up forgiveness and you look here
25:28 and you're looking under forgiveness
25:29 and it takes you to 1 John 1:9.
25:31 And you say, "I need forgiveness
25:32 and I'm seeing that in here.
25:33 So I go to 1 John 1:9 and what does 1 John 1:9 say?
25:38 It says, "If we confess our sins,
25:40 God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins
25:45 and purify us from all unrighteousness."
25:49 And so if you find that you've done something wrong
25:53 and you're reading this
25:55 and you're a little bit like the runaway slave,
25:58 you may dig a little deeper in God's Word
26:02 and it may take you to your knees
26:04 in a moment of holy repentance.
26:06 When you just say, "God, I'm so sorry."
26:09 And God says, "You are forgiven."
26:11 And you stand up whole and forgiven,
26:14 not because you deserved it,
26:16 but because someone paid for a debt you couldn't pay.
26:20 Maybe you relate to Onesimus
26:23 or maybe you relate to Philemon.
26:26 Remember Onesimus betrayed him?
26:29 Maybe someone hurt you.
26:31 A friend talked behind your back
26:34 or someone that you trusted lied
26:35 or somebody that you admired and looked up to
26:38 took advantage of you or just let you down.
26:40 And so you know, okay, I'm a Christian,
26:42 I'm supposed to forgive, but you don't wanna forgive.
26:46 And you're sitting there reading this book
26:48 for Paul's asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus.
26:51 And you remember the context.
26:52 Wait a minute, okay.
26:53 Onesimus stole and then he ran and then he came back.
26:57 And what would Philemon have had the right to do to Onesimus?
27:01 If you remember last week,
27:02 he would have branded an F on his brow,
27:05 which stands for fugitivist.
27:06 We get our word fugitive from it.
27:08 He could have beaten his slave,
27:09 he could have killed his slave.
27:11 But here's what Paul said.
27:13 He said, "Don't receive him as a slave.
27:15 "Receive him as a brother.
27:18 "Forgive him the slave
27:23 "that you kind of owned and wronged you.
27:27 "Forget all that.
27:28 "You don't know him now.
27:29 "He's a brother in the Lord.
27:31 "Love him like a brother."
27:33 And so you say, "Man,
27:35 "I'm supposed to forgive this person that hurt me
27:38 "and I don't know how."
27:40 So maybe you open up your YouVersion Bible app
27:42 and you ask, "How do I forgive?"
27:45 And what's gonna come up is Ephesians 4, verse 32.
27:49 And you're gonna read it and God's gonna speak to you.
27:51 Be kind and compassionate to one another,
27:53 forgiving each other.
27:55 Say this aloud with me.
27:56 How do you do it?
27:57 How do you forgive?
27:58 Just as in Christ Jesus, God forgave you.
28:03 And so you're reading the book of Philemon.
28:07 And one time God speaks to you
28:09 like you need to take a risk on someone.
28:10 Another time that you need to be forgiven.
28:13 Another time you need to forgive someone.
28:15 How do you do it?
28:16 You look somewhere else, you say,
28:17 "Oh, I forgive in the same way that Jesus forgave me."
28:22 What is God showing you?
28:26 What did God show you in His Word today?
28:31 Imagine if every day, could you answer that?
28:34 What did God show you about Himself?
28:37 And what is God saying to you?
28:40 Because the Bible is not meant to inform us,
28:43 but to transform us.
28:47 If you'll commit to knowing Him through His Word,
28:50 He will speak to you, love you, guide you,
28:54 correct you, empower you, forgive you, transform you,
28:58 and conform you to the image of His Son
29:01 a little more every single day.
29:04 So we're studying the book of Philemon,
29:06 but we're hungry for more.
29:09 And so we dig a little deeper.
29:11 And when you dig a little deeper,
29:13 you may find what I call an Easter egg,
29:15 a little hidden treasure.
29:17 If you keep studying, what you're gonna find,
29:19 if you read a little bit more,
29:22 is you're gonna find something outside of the Bible
29:25 talking about the Bible.
29:27 And if you fast forward about 50 years
29:30 from when this story took place,
29:31 you're gonna come across a guy named Ignatius,
29:34 who was Ignatius.
29:36 He's a famous martyr,
29:37 that means he gave his life for the gospel,
29:40 and he was the Bishop of Antioch.
29:43 If you study about him,
29:44 you're gonna find that he was very likely
29:46 discipled by John.
29:48 And so this guy was a strong Christian who was discipled,
29:51 and he wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus.
29:55 And in the letter, this guy Ignatius brags about
29:59 the Bishop of the churches in Ephesus.
30:01 And he calls him a man of inexpressible love.
30:05 He says, "This man was blessed by God,
30:08 "who granted unto you,"
30:09 the church was blessed by God,
30:10 "to be blessed with such an excellent Bishop."
30:14 And he's bragging on this Bishop.
30:17 What?
30:21 Do you think was the name of that Bishop?
30:26 The name was Onesimus.
30:32 And we can't prove it, and we're not sure,
30:36 but scholars agree that that's about the right age,
30:40 and the right time, and 100% the right name
30:44 of the runaway slave that was transformed by Jesus.
30:48 Right there, a treasure to show you what is possible
30:53 when God works in your life.
30:57 So what will God's Word do in your life?
31:02 And the answer is, it depends on what you need.
31:06 Because if you're hurting, his Word will give you hope.
31:12 If you're lost, his Word will direct your steps.
31:18 If you're doubting, we all do sometimes, right?
31:22 His Word will build your faith,
31:24 'cause faith comes by hearing,
31:27 and hearing by the Word of God.
31:29 If you're anxious, you'll learn to cast your anxiety on him.
31:33 Why?
31:33 Because he cares for you,
31:36 and he will give you a peace from heaven
31:38 that goes beyond your human ability to understand.
31:40 If you're trapped in a life that you never wanted,
31:46 he will give you a truth that will set you free.
31:49 I love God's Word, I need God's Word, I crave God's Word.
31:57 I was saved reading God's Word.
32:01 And I want you to fall in love with who God is
32:07 through his Word.
32:09 There are people that will risk their life to get a page,
32:15 and there are Christians who leave it set aside.
32:19 I'm gonna ask you that if you're truly serious
32:25 about being a disciple of Jesus,
32:27 that you make his Word a serious part of your life.
32:30 Very simple, we're about to move into a new month.
32:34 Last week was easy, seven days.
32:36 This time, I'm just gonna ask you for a month.
32:37 A month, a time, a place, a plan.
32:40 Do it for a month.
32:42 That's about how long it takes to establish a habit.
32:45 And if you bring this into your life,
32:48 the Word of God will transform you
32:50 in ways that you could never imagine.
32:52 And years later, you will look back and say,
32:54 I'm different, not because I'm better,
32:57 but because the Word of God is alive and has changed me.
33:00 So Father, I ask that by the power of your Spirit,
33:03 you would create a hunger, a desire.
33:05 We already have the need, God,
33:06 but help us to see our need
33:08 to get to know you, to feed on your living Word.
33:12 Today, as you're praying, nobody looking around,
33:15 I'm just gonna ask, and I wanna kind of just,
33:19 no, no, no, no, forget this.
33:20 Look up, everybody, look up, eyes open.
33:22 Ha, we're gonna go real here.
33:24 I'm gonna ask, would you commit to do this for a month?
33:28 We're gonna do it with a little bit of accountability.
33:30 And I'm gonna tell you right now, there is no pressure,
33:32 meaning like some of you are not ready for this,
33:33 and I'm gonna tell you, don't raise your hand
33:35 if you're not ready for this.
33:36 There's a time I wouldn't have done it.
33:37 Just don't do it.
33:38 But at all of our churches today,
33:40 those who say, I'm gonna commit for a month,
33:42 I'm gonna make the God's Word a part of my life for a month,
33:44 see what happens, would you raise your hands right now?
33:45 Accountability, raise 'em up, raise 'em up.
33:47 Man, thank God for you guys.
33:49 Thank God for you guys online.
33:50 Just type it in the comment section,
33:51 I commit to read the Word of God for a month.
33:55 Now, Father, I pray that,
33:57 that your Word would be a part of our conversations.
34:03 When we're amongst your people,
34:04 we talk about what you show us.
34:07 In our life groups, we share what you're doing in us.
34:10 God, I thank you that tomorrow,
34:13 there's tens of thousand people
34:15 that are gonna meet with you.
34:17 They got a date set up.
34:19 There's a time, there's a place, and they got a plan.
34:22 And God, I thank you in advance
34:25 for the way you're gonna speak to them
34:27 when they commit to meet with you.
34:30 As you keep praying today without looking around,
34:36 I want you to know there are two things
34:39 and only two things that live forever.
34:43 Do you know what lives forever?
34:45 The Word of God lives forever
34:47 and the souls of people live forever.
34:49 You will live forever somewhere.
34:52 You'll live forever somewhere.
34:54 And Scripture says you'll live forever
34:57 in the presence of God
34:58 or you'll live forever separated from the presence of God
35:02 in a very real place the Bible calls hell.
35:04 How is it that we qualify for heaven?
35:08 And the answer is not on your own.
35:11 Scripture tells us very clearly,
35:12 every single one of us, we have all sinned against God.
35:16 Sin separates us from God.
35:18 But in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.
35:22 And the Word became flesh.
35:24 What does that mean?
35:25 That means God became flesh in the person of his son, Jesus.
35:28 Jesus is the Son of God who was without sin
35:33 and died in our place so our sins could be forgiven.
35:36 This is what the Bible says.
35:38 For God so loved the world, he so loved you,
35:41 that he gave his one and only Son.
35:43 Whoever believes in him would not perish
35:45 but would have eternal life.
35:48 There are those of you watching right now,
35:49 you don't know where you stand with God.
35:50 It's about to change.
35:51 What's gonna happen is you're gonna step away from your sin
35:53 and you're gonna trust Jesus.
35:54 Jesus is the Son of God.
35:55 When you call on him,
35:57 Scripture says he will forgive your sins.
35:59 They'll be separated from you.
36:00 You don't become better, you become new.
36:03 The old is gone, the new comes today.
36:05 Wherever you're watching from, those who say,
36:07 yes, I need Jesus, what are we gonna do?
36:08 We're gonna step away from our old life.
36:10 We're gonna surrender to him.
36:11 We're gonna call on him.
36:12 He's gonna hear our prayer.
36:13 He's gonna forgive your sins.
36:14 You're gonna become brand new.
36:16 Wherever you're watching from today,
36:17 those who say, yes, I need Jesus.
36:18 Yes, today I surrender.
36:20 I give my life to Jesus.
36:21 That's your prayer.
36:22 Lift your hands high right now all over the place.
36:24 Lift them up and say, come on, church, let's thank God.
36:26 As we've got people today saying yes to Jesus.
36:29 All of all men, praise God for you guys online.
36:32 Just type it in the comment section.
36:34 I'm surrendering my life to Jesus.
36:36 Type it in right there.
36:37 And as we see people around the world surrendering to him,
36:41 would you pray aloud?
36:43 Nobody prays alone.
36:44 Pray, heavenly Father, forgive my sins.
36:48 Jesus, save me.
36:50 Be first in my life.
36:53 Be my Lord.
36:54 Fill me with your Spirit so I could know you,
36:59 so I could know your word, so I could live your word,
37:03 and I could do your will.
37:05 Use me, God, to show your love to those who need you.
37:10 Thank you for new life.
37:13 I give you all of mine.
37:16 In Jesus' name I pray.
37:18 Could somebody right now celebrate, worship God?
37:20 Come, thank you for new life in Christ.
37:22 (congregation applauding)