other to have effective communication, right? I mean, I would desire that everyone here has effective communication in whatever realm they are communicating. And whether it would be as you go out, outreach, Whether it be whatever ministry you may partake in in the church, whether it might be teaching a Sunday school, teaching youth, preaching, the pastor, whoever it might be, as you go out in the workplace and you share the gospel there, or wherever it might be, I would desire that everyone here has effective communication. And I would hope you realize that that should be your desire as well. That as each one of us goes through this week, brothers and sisters, that we would have effective Communication. Let me tell you a little bit about where this sermon came from. And while I'm saying these things, I'll tell you where we're going to be, because you might take a while to find it. A lot of times when you preach, you're only on spots. You're sitting there, you're hoping, boy, I hope nobody heard a sermon from this book recently. Or, you know, I hope Stephen didn't preach from here this morning. I don't think he did. But turn to the book of Philemon. What? Turn to the book of Philemon. I'll help you out. That's one book before Hebrews. And that's where we'll be this evening. Look at a few verses that Paul penned to Philemon. Where this message came from? Scripture memory. Memorizing the Word of God. And now you're all sitting there saying, there's no way this guy's memorizing the Book of Philemon. You're right. I opened the wrong page. I passed Timothy. I wanted the Philemon. I start reading it. You see, I did it again. And if you look in the first verse of Philemon, it says, it refers to Timothy. And so I thought I was in Timothy. So I start memorizing this thing. And I said, boy, there's something wrong here. This doesn't look familiar to me. But then I said, hey, I'm here. Might as well go for it. Let's do a little bit here. And that's where it came from. And as I'm memorizing, one of the verses here One word stood out at me. It just jumped out. It's not a word that's going to jump out at you, but it jumped out at me. And that's part of the greatness of the Word of God, that when you're reading the Word of God, something's going to jump out at you that doesn't jump out at anybody else. So you better read the Word of God. There's going to be something in the Word of God as you read it that may jump out at you that never jumped out at the pastor. And he's not going to preach it. This is no offense to him. But that's why you need to be in the Word of God yourself. What is God going to say to you? And I believe what God said to me that morning in the front seat of a truck at work, 7 a.m., God could use that in you as well. I saw that and I said, boy, that'll preach. I don't know if that happens to other people, but I've been I've had times in different churches where every now and then they'd ask me to preach, and I'll see something, and I'll just jump out like that. And the next time they ask me, this is where we're going. And it's kind of noteworthy that oftentimes when that happens, it's not too much later that a pastor might ask me, hey, can you do a service here or there? So that's where we're at. That's how we got this from a simple verse memorization I was doing on a Wednesday morning. That's why we're in the Book of Philemon here this evening. And I will share that Word with you when we come to it as we go through the verses. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You this evening for Your Word. We thank You for the instruction that can be received in it. We thank You for the work You desire to do in our lives. And I just pray now You do a work through Your Word. that you'd use me as an effective communicator of what you desire to do in the lives of each one here. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. If we look down to, let's just take a look at the verses, verses four, five, and six. Paul writes, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. And there you see the word communication I'm focusing in on verse 6, that communication may become effectual. And I think too often times that we consider communication and we're thinking of people as communicators. And that's not really what we're talking about here in verse 6. We're not talking about who's a good communicator and who's not a good communicator. We're not talking about the communicator. We're talking about the communication. Do you realize a worse communicator can have a better communication? And we're looking at the communication here. So we're not really looking at the communicator. And too often times we put the emphasis on the wrong thing. So what makes for effective communication? I think we see three things in these three verses that makes for effective communication. And the first thing is found in verse 4. If the desire of Paul is that this man would have effective communication, How does he hope for that to happen? How is he going to get to that expectation? In verse 4, he says, I thank my God, making mention of Thee always in my prayers. And if we can skip verse 5, go to verse 6. that the communication of thy faith may become effectual." So what does he pray? I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual. That is what he's praying. And if Paul's praying that, shouldn't we be praying that? I don't believe that there's a single thing for any minute or any second that Jesus did as he walked upon this earth that was pointless. Everything he did had a point and a purpose. I don't think it's anything like any other man. But if there was a man I could speak that of, I think it'd be the Apostle Paul. I don't think he did anything that was pointless or purposeless, and I certainly don't think it is kept from us in Scripture. So there's a great point, a great purpose to what he's doing. There's a great purpose to Paul that he's praying that Philemon would have effectual communication. Well, if he's praying that for Philemon, should we not be praying that one for another? If there's going to be effectual communication, and that is emphasized in this church every single week, if there's going to be effectual communication, there needs to be prayer going behind that effectual communication. And I think the prayer might be, and I believe the prayer is more important than the communicator. Praying one for another, that our communication would be effectual. What is What is communication? Well, oftentimes I think communication, communication is for me to get what's in here out here. That's my thing of a communication. That's sometimes not too easy for me. I mean, oftentimes I'll be saying something to somebody at work and I'll say, do you understand what I'm trying to say because I don't think I said it? And thankfully they'll understand even though they think communication was terribly flawed. And sometimes I think of communication as simply being getting what I have in here into your ears and for you to understand it. That's another step in communication. But this word communication is also translated in our New Testament as the word fellowship or commonness. that the communication of thy faith, or the commonness of your faith, that it might go from one to another and become common. You know, someone at some point, we trust, led you to Christ. What happened at that point? They communicated to you your need for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And you not only, they not only got that from their brain and out their mouth, they not only got that out their mouth and into your ears, but they got it from their heart to your heart. And now you had a commonness with them. That's effective communication. You know, it's so important in so much of our lives, so many aspects of our lives. Just in people, communication is important. I mean, what do you go to school for? The purpose you go to school, whether it be kindergarten, first grade, or college, is so that information can be communicated one to another. And again, sometimes it doesn't really matter on the communicator, does it? I mean, you've got the same teacher, you've got the same professor, and somehow they're getting that information through all of your brains and it just somehow missed this. It never got in there. It met like a block wall and just never succeeded, the communication. So it wasn't the communicator. It was the communication. The communication needs to be effectual. Communication on the job. Now how important is it for on the job, the communication, to be effectual? To have an effect? For you to learn what you're supposed to be doing on the job. If the communication doesn't work, guess what? You're not gonna have succeeded your job. So it's important that communication between people is so important, but how much more important is the communication of faith." So Paul there says the first thing that we need for effective communication is prayer. But you know what also is between verse 4 and verse 6, which I skipped over? It's verse 5, obviously. "...hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints." There's prayer that goes into communication, but you know what also needs to be there for us to have effective communication of our faith? There needs to be priority. There needs to be a prioritization. And what is the priority here in verse five? The love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus. Are we going to have effective communication? Are we going forth with the prayers of our brothers leading us forward? Are we going forth with the prioritization of Jesus Christ as we attempt to communicate our faith with another? That's the priority. That's the most important thing. Sometimes we get the priority all messed up. Sometimes other things are the priority. Sometimes the person we're dealing with is the priority. Sometimes Sometimes we might be the priority. There are so many other priorities that we can have, but listen, the priority must be the love and faith that we have toward the Lord Jesus. And that's why Paul is praying for this man to have effective communications. Do you think if Philemon had some other priorities in his life, do you think if Philemon was totally committed and totally focused on his job, whatever it might be, and he's communicating to other people, do you think Paul would be as totally focused on the effectiveness of his communication? Do you think he would be so concerned if Philemon teaches the His students, or his apprentice, his job, or his education, or anything else? No! It is because of the prioritization of the Lord Jesus Christ. That needs to be part. If we're to have effective communication, we need to prioritize Jesus in our communication. That the communication of thy faith They become effectual in the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So we've got the prayer, right? And we've got the priority. Well, we should have. We need to have these things down. We might not have them. We need to get them. The prayer and the prioritization. But we also need the preparation. We need to be prepared. There's something that we must do that our faith and our communication of our faith will be effectual. You may say, well, I got Paul praying for me, and I got all the church praying for me, and I got Jesus as my priority, and if Philemon has Paul praying for him, and if he's got the priority of the Lord Jesus, won't his communication become effectual? Well, this verse tells me there's more that needs to be done for effectual communication, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual." The word effectual here is basically where we get the English word energy, that it may become energetic. When I see this here, it says, it may become that way. So that your communication may become, may grow, may become more energetic. And what does energy do? Energy produces things. So it's not just he's going to be energetic in himself, in communicating, but the fact that the communication is going to be energetic. That the communication is going to do something. And then you also have to have faith that the communication is going to do something. If you're doing these things, if you've got the prayer behind you, and you've got your priorities right, and you've got your preparation down, the communication is going to be energetic. It's going to be effectual. By what? by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. And so as I'm reading this and I'm memorizing this, the word that jumped out at me is every. When you say the word every, at least I think of it this way, there's a list of things. if there's every. I mean, I'm not sure how big the list is, but it's a list and it could be a long list. And I believe this here is a long list. When I saw that word every, and I'm thinking as Paul desires for Philemon to consider every good thing that is in him, might not be a bad idea for me to be considering every good thing. which is in me. So you need to have preparation. I was watching the Phillies a couple weeks ago, and I know all the details of the game, but I know Austin Hayes was up. And he just crushes the ball. He crushed the ball, I think, to dead center field. And that ball's flying over the fence. And all of a sudden this guy named Michael Harris, who I never heard of before, goes flying over the fence, reaches the glove over like incredibly so. I've been watching baseball for like too many years. I've rarely seen a guy catch like this. And he catches the ball. He did not catch the ball simply because it happened to be there near his glove. Preparation went into that play. He was where he needed to be. There was preparation there for that game. I think when the batter walks into the box, the fielder goes in a certain place based upon the batter's tendencies. I'm pretty sure there's somewhere there Michael Harris or his coach said, hey buddy, you need to be here, there, or someplace else. But then you know what else? Those guys are training incredibly hard. I had more than we could imagine from February on and That goes inward as well there needs to be preparation So it's not just just it's not just what we see is sometimes. That's what we're thinking. I mean when you see See a silly baseball play like that you think Listen if you're a communication is going to be a factual there needs to be preparation I don't think sometimes we put the preparation into the task at hand. What is that preparation? How do we prepare? By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. By the acknowledging to have knowledge of something, acknowledging, and to accept it as truth. So we need to have knowledge of every good thing which is in us, and we need to accept it as truth, every good thing that is in us. But you know me, physically, When I look at this incredible body that God gave me, I mean, I didn't mean it that way. We all have incredible bodies. Boy, that was taken totally wrong out there. What you people are thinking? But what I know of this internal mechanism of this body I don't know anybody looking at it. I mean, about a year ago, I tore my meniscus. I didn't even know I had a meniscus. What is a meniscus? I didn't know it was there. I didn't know I had it. I should have learned a little bit about it. But everything else that goes on in the body. that we really could have no idea unless men looked into it. I mean, the Word of God reveals some of it, but there's so much more in there that the Word of God doesn't deal with, with everything that goes on inside of your body. And you would have no knowledge of it, would you? Unless you learned, unless you studied, unless someone taught you about it. All those things that are in you. But you know what's more important that's in you besides your tendons and bones and your meniscuses? It's the meniscuses, meniscus, whatever it is. All those things you don't know about. You know what's more important than that? It's every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Every good thing which is in you. And when I consider this thought, I think oftentimes of Paul's letters to the different churches. And basically, they're letters to believers. They're letters to saints. They're letters to people like you and I, the things that are going on that we can't even see, the things that are in them and their place in heaven and what's restored for them and everything else, every good thing that is in them. But if we can just take a look back at 2 Timothy, just to illustrate every good thing that is in us, or some of the good things that are in us, the same good things that were in Timothy, which are in us as well. First, 2 Timothy chapter 1, 2 Timothy chapter 1, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, that's faith that is in you, 6. When I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hand. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love. and of a sound mind." Now, I'm just going to read consecutively. Not all these verses will deal with what's in us, but I think it's better just to read the whole thing as opposed to chopping it up and skipping and everything else. So we're going to pick it right up in verse 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost. which dwelleth in us." Skip down to chapter 2, "...thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, to say, Commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." Those verses there reveal to us some things that are in us that we would not know are in us if the Word of God did not tell us. that they were in us. And those are just some of the verses. And then if you read through generally the first chapter of Paul's letter to the different churches, he shares with them the things that are in them. It's almost like reading a biology book, as the biology book teaches us the things that are inside of this body. The Word of God teaches us the things that are inside of us. And then as Paul says to Philemon, by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. I think a lot of times we don't realize all the good things that are happening inside of us that God has done inside of us. Why not? And it's not because we maybe don't experience or see it. Listen, I really, I guess I did experience a meniscus, but I didn't realize I experienced a meniscus, did I? But I was experiencing the meniscus, until it tore. But anyway, what God has put in you when you got saved, and the things that He has done in you, and the power that is in you, and you might say, well, I don't see the power. There's no indication of it to me. Again, I go back to the knee, but listen, I had no idea what was inside of my knee. But it was there. Listen, the power is there. And the faith and the grace and everything else, it's in there. Acknowledge it. That's all it's saying. Acknowledge the things that are in there. Acknowledge the things that God has done. Acknowledge what Christ has done for you. And too often times we don't do that. Sometimes we don't do it because we don't know. Well, why don't we know? We don't know because we haven't studied. We haven't looked. We haven't remembered. We've ran ashore. I dare to say, I'm almost sure at least half the people in this room have read this Bible cover to cover at least once, and probably more than that. We've read it. We don't know what's in it, and we need to know what's in it, because if we don't know what's in it, then we can't acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. The word acknowledge doesn't simply speak of having knowledge in of itself. Most times in scripture it refers to having knowledge of one of two things. Knowledge of self. For example, David said, I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me. The knowledge, the acceptance as truth about himself. And also of the word of God. And my illustrated verse disappeared. So I will move on. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you. In Christ Jesus. It's not you who put those things there. It's not you who invited those things. It's not you who earned those things. Those things aren't there because of your doing. Maybe I'm the only dummy in here who sometimes think it happens that way. Ultimately, but somehow you somehow think that you're more of a contributing part to these things than you really are. Listen, you're really not. I mean, we are more a hindrance to God and what He desires to do in our lives than we are a help. I mean, maybe you're different than me, but Christ put these things there. The point of salvation, when you trusted in Him, And what Paul is simply challenging Philemon is to acknowledge these things. And then by acknowledging these things, and I don't know how it all works, but I got to believe it works, because the Bible says it works. The Bible says that the communication of thy faith may become effectual. How? By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So now, what are we going to do with this? What do we do with this message this evening? Or more importantly, what are we doing with these three verses of Scriptures? What is our response? I think our response is threefold. Two of them has to do with us, and one of them has to do with others. But if your communication... Let's pick on someone here. I have my invisible friend Jim here. Sorry. Bill? Bob? Does anyone want to say something? I thought somebody's name wasn't here. All right. Zebulon, my invisible friend there. For your communication to become effective, three things need to be done. You need... to acknowledge every good gift that is in you. Verse 6, verse 5, you need to prioritize the Lord Jesus in your life. Third thing, everybody else here not named Zebulun has to pray for this guy that his communication would be effective. No, I'm not saying that if one or two of you don't, his communication will not be effective, but I'm saying Scripture's teaching us, Paul's teaching us that he's praying for Philemon for his communication to be effective. If Paul's praying for Philemon that his communication will be effective, I think that means that we need to pray for this guy here, who's not here, that his communication would be effective. We prioritize communication and effective communication. But will we do, and listen, it's not really doing per se, anything, is it? It's more a thinking or a mindset. I think sometimes being an effective communicator, I need to go to some kind of communication school or for someone to teach me how to communicate. Well, in this case, the communication, maybe physical things, I need to do that. But as far as spiritual, the communication of our faith is simply the things that deal with our relationship with our God and with the Word of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you this evening for your Word. I just pray that it went forth this evening in power and in truth, not because of me, the communicator, but rather the truth of the communication. I pray that we would take the