if you would please, to the book of Philemon, the little book of Philemon. The best way to find it is to find the bigger book of Hebrews and then turn back one block or one book to the left and you'll find the little book of Philemon. I hope you'll spend some time reading this book because we're going to journey through it over the next several weeks. I'm going to give you an overview of the book. As a matter of fact, I began my study of this book in detail while I was in Guyana and I spent several hours a day just soaking in this book and I look forward to sharing with you the contents of this little book of Philemon. If we're not careful, here's what'll happen. You'll read through your daily Bible reading. You know, many times people check off their reading the Bible through in a year, maybe the New Testament through in a year. And what they'll do is we'll read through the little book of Philemon, only 25 verses. We'll zip through that book and then go to the big book of Hebrews. We're feeling really good. Boy, we're getting ahead of ahead. And we'll get to the bigger, more interesting book of Hebrews. And if we're not careful, we'll read quickly through it and fail to mind the gems that I believe are in this little treasure trove of truth. Somebody said that the book of Philemon was a diamond in a box of pearls. Now pearls are wonderful, but diamonds are better. And that's the picture. There's just a wonderful, wonderful story in this book. And we're going to begin reading this morning in verse number one. Would you look there with me? If you don't have a Bible, as I said, the text verses will be on the screen. Paul. That tells us who wrote it. Paul, the great apostle. a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He's not in a place of ease. He's incarcerated. He's in prison for the crime of preaching the gospel. He said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not Rome, not Nero, the Roman Caesar in that day. He said, Philemon, I'm here by divine appointment. This is God's will for my life at this stage of the journey. He's going to say in another prison epistle, the book of Philippians, that the things that happened unto me, all that's led up to this incarceration has fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. What many people would see as a hindrance in Paul's life said, really, it's been a catalyst. Matter of fact, we wouldn't have the book of Ephesians, the book of Philippians, the book of Colossians, and the book of Philemon if God hadn't put Paul in prison. It was there that he penned those books under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He said, I've learned, watch this, in whatsoever state I'm in therewith to be content. Isn't that amazing? Philemon, I just want you to know God's at work in my life. It's okay. Christian, can I help you understand when you and I get into the seasons of life that may be undesirable, that God leads us in those undesirable times because God is at work in our lives and what may seem to be against us can actually work for us. I believe there's a verse in the Bible called Romans 8.28 that tells us that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved at Thea and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house." Evidently, Philemon was a wealthy man. He had a large estate, and he had opened up the doors of his home, and the church met in his home. You see, you have to understand, for the first hundred years of Christianity, they didn't have buildings like this. They met in homes throughout the world of that day. Can I tell you, there's places even this morning that you cannot meet in a church like this in the world, under the bamboo curtain, under the Islamic curtain. There's places in the world that you cannot openly worship the God of heaven like we are. We are a people who are most blessed. Amen? And notice he says in verse 3, Grace to you. Aren't you thankful for God's grace? And peace. We're going to look at those in another message. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful three verses. As I began to study this book, here's something that struck me. Every person has a life story. Did you know that? And that story matters, by the way. Your story matters. You see, usually you can sum up a life story in a single word. For some, their life story is achievement. For others, it's success. For others, maybe that word's summed up in family. Maybe for another, it's tragedy. That their life just ends in tragedy. For another, maybe if they told their life story, it would be failure. They just feel like that their life is one series of failure after failure after failure after failure. Another may use the word to sum up their life story, guilt. They just are constantly under a burden of guilt for decisions that they've made, wrongs that they've done, and it's overwhelming in their life. For another, it may be regret that they live their life for maybe something other than that that truly matters in eternity, and they come to the end of their life, and they sum up their life with a word of regret. That I wished I had done it differently. If you're saved this morning by the grace of God, that means you know your sins are forgiven, that you have personally placed your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, you can sum up the story of your life in one word. It's called grace. you're going to find that grace is mentioned two times in our little book. Notice in verse number three, he says, grace to you. Isn't that a blessing? Listen, I'm getting ahead of myself, so don't get ahead of me, guys. They've done such a wonderful job this morning following me, and I don't want to get ahead of me. No, you're fine where you are at. And so, let me just say this, alright? That when it comes to this matter of grace, that you and I don't deserve it, but God gives it. It's grace to you. And what you're going to find is, this isn't just Paul's letter to Philemon, this is God's letter to you. And he's saying, grace to you. It is a form of God's love. God's saying, I love you. That's what he's saying. Now look at the last verse of this little book. Come to verse number 25. Notice what he says. The grace, did you see this? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. We learned that word amen means true. Aren't you glad that God's grace is truly with us? And I just want to say that, Christian, your story from start to finish, from beginning to end, is a story of grace. Isn't that a blessing? I entitled the series in this morning's message, Philemon, A Story of Grace. Let's pray together. Lord, we love you today. We thank you for your word, that we have a word from God to us. And Lord, I pray that you might speak to us this morning. As I read through those words, Lord, and I mentioned them about summing up a life story, maybe someone related to that. And Lord, the good news is that doesn't have to be final in our lives. That Lord, grace can make a difference in our life as it does the people that we're going to learn about in this little book of Philemon. Lord, that our lives can be a story of God's amazing, glorious grace. Lord, there may be someone today that they need your grace for the very first time in salvation to know their sins are forgiven and heaven's their home. There's others that need your grace for strength in an area of their life to be, to do, to go through whatever it is that they're facing at this moment. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. And Lord, we're going to thank you for what you do in our hearts this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. When you come to the little book of Philemon, you're going to find the first feature of the book as you journey through it is that it is a very intimate letter. It is the most personal of Paul's letters that he wrote. And actually, it's a note. It's not really long enough to be a letter, it's just a very short Note, it's a note from a friend to a friend. You're going to find that Paul had a deep abiding love and friendship with a man by the name of Philemon. Look what he says, Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brother unto Philemon. And so we find that there's a deep love between these two men, and I'm gonna deal with that more in the next message. And you're going to find that Philemon is closely related to the book of Colossians. They were written at the same time, they were delivered by the same person, a man by the name of Tychicus. We won't go there this morning, but if you turned over to the last chapter in the book of Colossians, and you compared it to the book of Philemon, you're going to find many of the names mentioned in Philemon are mentioned there in in the book of Colossians such as the name Onesimus that we'll meet later in our book. The name Archippus that we see in verse number 2. And so we see these names Aristarchus and others that are in the end of this little book. Their names appear in the book of Colossians. And it's going to tell me that Philemon lived in the city of Colossae. Now, the story of Philemon is going to revolve around three individuals. There's eleven people named in the book, but three principal names. Let me give them to you. First of all, Paul. Paul, the fateful prisoner. the prisoner of Jesus Christ. And then we've already mentioned him, a man by the name of Philemon, who is a merciful master. Philemon is a wealthy businessman who's been saved by the grace of God. The church meets in his house. He's a leader in the church of Colossae. And then you're going to meet another man. I believe he's actually probably a teenager. You'll find that out in later messages. You're going to understand why I arrive at that particular conclusion. We're really not told how old Onesimus is, but he's going to outlive most everybody in this letter, and you're going to understand something about his life that's amazing as we get into it. So that means you've got to keep coming back until you learn what it is. Amen? Onesimus is the prodigal slave. You see, Paul's in Rome, Philemon's in Colossae, a thousand miles away, and the human link between them is a man by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus is a runaway slave. He's robbed his master Philemon. You see, he's going to flee to Rome. He's going to make a journey of a thousand miles and in order to pay for that journey, he doesn't have any money on his own. So he steals it from his master and he runs to Rome, makes that thousand mile journey with the idea of melting away in the masses of that great metropolis where nobody can find him. Here's one thing you're going to learn. that Onesimus, he may could have run away from his master Philemon, but he couldn't run away from God. And friend, can I tell you, you may try to run away from your past, you may try to run away from your guilt, you may try to run away from your regret, but I'm going to tell you something, you can't run away from God. Wherever you go, He's already there. And He has grace for you. In the providence of God, Onesimus' path, we're not told how, I'm going to surmise a little bit later on in the message, is going to cross with that of the great apostle who's imprisoned in Rome. And Paul is going to lead Onesimus to Christ. He's going to become a saved man. And now Paul is sending him back to his friend Philemon to make some wrongs right. in his life, and there's this letter that's traveling along with him, and it's asking Philemon to forgive and restore Onesimus, not as a slave, but as a brother. You're going to see the heart of Paul for Philemon and Onesimus. And it's a story of grace and mercy, of friendship and forgiveness, of reconciliation and renewal. It is an intimate letter. But as I said a moment ago, it is an inspired letter. Listen, it's not just a letter from Paul to Philemon. It's a letter from God to us. It doesn't just reveal the heart of Paul. It reveals the heart of God. And what God does for Onesimus, He's done for every one of us who are saved. I love what Martin Luther said hundreds of years ago about this letter. He made this statement. He said, we are all Onesimuses. Now I want to caution you. I rearranged my entire message yesterday because I couldn't get away of dealing with this point. I want to caution you. You cannot interpret the past through the lens of the present. There are those today that because Philemon had slaves, we don't know how many he had, that they would just write him off. That there's nothing that this man can teach me, there's nothing good about him, I'm just going to write him off because he had a slave. What you're trying to do is interpret in the 21st century what life was like in the 1st century through that lens, and you can't do it. Every epoch of history must be understood within that moment of history. You cannot impose today on yesterday. But you're going to learn something. The 21st century is not so different from the 1st century. Philemon was a flawed man, but he was a forgiven man. And the reality of it is today, it's amazing how we want to pick out one issue in our history as Americans. And we want to write off everybody that maybe had been like Philemon, whatever that situation was, and say that they have no value, no merit, we're going to remove their statues, we're going to rewrite the history, we're going to remove them because they owned a slave. Now let me just stop and say this. Slavery under any condition and in any culture is wrong. It's not right. But it's amazing how that we want to say of maybe George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, founding fathers, that everything about them was bad. No, everything about them was not bad. There may have been flawed bad things in their life, but the reality of it is there's bad things in our lives. Isn't that true? And do you realize in the 21st century there is a slave trade? North Carolina is at the crossroads of it. It's called human trafficking. And there are children and teenagers and people being trafficked today right now in America. And they're placed in the most horrific of situations. Maybe even worse than the life of Onesimus. The pornography industry in America enslaves multiplied thousands of children. And it's amazing the same people that want to get on TV and beat the drum of burning down America say absolutely nothing of those children whose lives are being destroyed day in and day out through pornography. God help our land. Don't start cancelling everybody else till you deal with this. There were upwards of 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, nearly half the population of the known world. Let me tell you three ways you became a slave. Are you ready? The first one was you were a conquered people. The Roman legions marched across the known civilized world, conquering nation after nation after nation. And it was the habit in those days, in that ancient world, that when you conquered a people, you enslaved the people. Or either you were born a slave, which I believe was the case of Onesimus. Now we're not told, but I believe that he was probably born a slave. That means that probably you were out of a conquered people, your parents were slaves, and therefore you were born a slave. And then you could choose to be a slave. Wait a minute, preacher. Sure. You owed a debt and that day you couldn't pay. And so you would make a choice to enslave yourself to that individual. They would become your master and you would work off that debt for a number of years. That's what the year of Jubilee was all about in Israel. When a person couldn't pay their debt, they could become a domesticated servant. They could choose to be a bond slave. And they could pay off that debt, but if it was the 48th year and it hit the 50th year, the year of Jubilee, they were automatically set free no matter whether that debt was paid or not. So you could choose to be a slave. Let me go on, and I'm not trying to beat a political drum or a social drum. I'm trying to bring clarity. Because I don't want you to write off Philemon. And then we're going to give you some points, okay? Just stay with me. Slavery in the Roman Empire was not a matter of race or ethnicity. Slaves came from every culture, every color, and every language. They occupied every rung of the social ladder. They were from field workers to philosophers, from artists to educators, and even doctors. Let me just say that slavery was never God's doing. He created all men in the very image of God. It was man's doing. Slavery, like every other social evil in our fallen world, has its roots in the sinfulness of man. Now watch this. Slavery, when it comes to that, sin is the cause and the gospel is the cure. I don't care the problem. I don't care the social ill. I don't care the evil. The gospel is always the answer. Listen, there's nothing wrong in America the gospel can't fix. Now the gospel doesn't overthrow a society. It transforms it. It changes it. See, now watch this. You know I mentioned how you can interpret the past in the lens of the present? Now watch this. We're 2,000 years this side of Christian influence in the world. And how we view things today after 2,000 years of Christian influence is totally different than how they viewed it in pagan Rome. You say, well why didn't they just turn them all loose? Why didn't they just free them all? You would have had a massive social disaster. You say, what do you mean by that? You turn loose half the known population. Now catch this. Catch this. You got 60 million people, has no place to live, no job, and they can't eat. And they would have mass starvation. So, the gospel gradually changed society. And it started with the book of Philemon. This is God's answer to slavery. But I want to just say this. You say, Preacher, you're spending a long time on the introduction. Believe me, my message is short. You say, oh, we ain't got there yet. Just hang on. There's a slavery worse than physical bondage. It's spiritual bondage. It's the bondage of the soul. Listen to John 8, 34. Jesus was talking to some religious Jews that claimed to be free. And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, amen, amen, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant, the slave of sin. Sin enslaves us. Somebody would say, I'm not a slave to sin. I drink my alcohol and I'll quit any time I want. Then quit. I'll smoke my marijuana, I'll take my drugs, and I can quit any time I want, then quit. I'll look at my pornography and I'll quit any time I want to, then quit. Here's what you find. You may quit for a while, but the chains of slavery rattle in your soul and it brings you right back to it time after time after time after time. And listen, before we just beat up on alcohol or drugs or pornography or sensuality and illicit sexuality and promiscuity, how about the slavery of bitterness and anger and unforgiveness? The Bible says in Romans 7, 14 that we are sold under sin, that we are slaves to sin and Satan. And for 17 years of my life, I thought I was doing what I wanted to do, living life on my terms, and I had no idea that it was actually Satan that I was doing his bidding, not mine. That I was a slave to sin. But I got good news for you this morning. You say, preacher, what is it? The Bible tells me that Jesus came to set the captives free. How about that? Onesimus is running from physical bondage, but he's still under the burden of spiritual bondage. The guilt of his sin, his wrong, his crime, of robbery and stealing. And God, listen, I told you, he might could run away from Philemon, but he couldn't run away from God. And the providence of God, God, the unseen hand of God was at work in his life. And listen, as he made that journey to Rome, I have no idea. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe it was guilt and the only thing he knew was that Paul was in Rome. See, he was in Philemon's home. He knew Paul was in Rome. And maybe while he was in Rome trying to hide the guilt of his wrong had so overpowered him that he sought out the Apostle Paul. I don't know. Or maybe he had committed crimes in Rome and he was in jail and Paul saw him and he said, Onesimus, is that you? And in the providence of God, Paul shares with him the gospel of grace. And I don't know how it took place, but I just imagine in my mind, Onesimus with a broken, repentant heart, falling down on his knees, tears streaming down his face, and he's calling out to the Son of the living God and placing his faith in Jesus Christ. And in that instant, the chains of his heart fell off, he entered into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and he became the Lord's free man. See, you can be a slave and yet be free. And you can be free and still be a slave. I thank God for one Sunday night in 1984. when I was burdened under the guilt of my sin and I went to an altar and I placed my faith in Jesus Christ and in that moment I didn't even know they were there. The chains of my heart fell off and friend, I was changed and in that instant I became the Lord's free man. In that instant, friend, I was freed from my sin not to live as I want but to live as I ought and bring glory to the God of heaven. Friend, I am glad that Jesus' grace makes the difference in our lives. Romans 8.36 said, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I want to underline some key phrases and then I've got to give you some lessons, alright? I just want to look at them real quickly because they're going to guide our study of Philemon. Look in verse number 10. I want you to look at two words. I beseech thee for my Son. Would you underline those two words? You see, Onesimus went from a slave to a son. That's what happened to me. I was a slave of sin and Satan, and thank God now I'm a son. How about that? Look what he says in verse number 16. He's asking Philemon to receive him back, not now as a servant, but above a servant. Not as a slave, but above a slave. A brother beloved. He said, Philemon, I just want you to know, you and Onesimus are now in the same family. How about that? I'm glad, friend, that I'm a part of the family of God. What about you? Look at verse number 17. If thou count me therefore a partner, underline this phrase, receive him as myself. Listen, when Onesimus comes, I want you to receive him the same way you would receive me. I want you to treat Him like you'd treat me. I want you to love Him like you'd love me. I want you to care for Him like you'd care for me. Listen friend, I'm glad today that I'm accepted in the blood and when God sees me, He doesn't see me, He sees me in His Son and He receives me like He would His own Son, Jesus Christ. And friend, that's what He can do for you. Let me give you one more and then I'm going to give you some lessons, okay? Look at verse number 18. I'm going to preach a whole message on this, I believe. Look at verse 18. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee, remember he's a robber, he's a thief, he's stolen from his master. Look what Paul says, put that on mine account, I'll repay it. Friend, there's times the devil looks at Kevin Brueghel and says, to God, I want you to look at that sin. And look at that sin. And look at that sin. And look at, look what he did over there. Look what he thought over there. Look what he said over there. I'm glad that there's a son of God in heaven that says, Father, I paid for that. You just put that on my account. I'll pay it. Hallelujah. Thank God for the grace of God. I'm about to get baptocostal or something. Man, that's just overwhelming. I can see Onesimus. And he comes to Philemon. And I can see that maybe anger in Philemon at first, and then he reads the letter. And he says to Onesimus, What happened? And Onesimus could say, you know what, I just really don't know, but I can just tell you my story's changed. All I can say is because of the grace of God, it's different now. Hallelujah, it can be different. Now let me give you some lessons. I'm almost done. Number one, I want you to jot them down. As you study the book of Philemon, here's some lessons that you need to have written in your Bible in some notes, so as you work through it, you'll see it. Here's what you're going to learn from Philemon and Onesimus. Every person is valuable to God. You may not think you're valuable. You may not feel valuable. But I want to tell you something. You're valuable to the God of heaven. Onesimus was an outcast, he was a criminal. In the eyes of some men, he was of no more value than an animal. But I can tell you something, Onesimus may not have been valuable in the eyes of men, but he is valuable in the eyes of God. And I'm just going to tell you this, friend, it doesn't matter if you're a wealthy businessman like Philemon, or if you're a lowly slave like Onesimus, can I tell you, you're valuable to the God of heaven. You say, preacher, what makes me valuable? His son Jesus loved you and died for you just like He loved me and died for me. You have value because you're created in the image of God, and God gave His Son for you. That's what makes us valuable. Our value is in Jesus Christ. I love what J. Henry Jowett said. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I have proclaimed everyone is in the love grip of the Eternal. Friend, you can't escape the love of God. He loves you. Number two, jot this one down. See how we're zipping through the message? Every person comes to God the same way. I'm just going to say this, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. It doesn't matter whether you're a Philemon or an Onesimus. It doesn't matter if you're a servant or a king. Everybody comes to Jesus the same way. You say, preacher, how do they come? By the way of the cross. It's the way of the cross that leads home, dear friend. I'm telling you, it's through the death, the burial, and the resurrection of God's darling Son on the cross of Calvary who paid in full my debt, who took my sin upon Himself that He might give me His own righteousness, who said that we can be forgiven in Him. I'm here to tell you, I'm glad that my God is a whosoever will God. It doesn't matter The ethnicity, it doesn't matter. The language, it doesn't matter. The culture, it doesn't matter. Which side the track somebody lives on. Thank God everybody can come to Jesus. And everybody, listen, everybody can go home by the way of the cross. Amen. I'm glad my God's a whosoever will God and the gospel is a whosoever will gospel message. Good news. It's for everybody. The whosoever will is for me. It's for you. It's for everybody. I'm glad that God is not some kind of tyrant that said I'm going to choose this select group and I'm going to let the rest of you go to hell as the Calvinists would preach this morning in churches across America. I'm here to tell you I don't care who we are. Jesus said if you want to come to me, you come. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. If you'll come to me, I'll in no wise cast you out. Friend, listen, you come to Jesus today, He won't turn you away. And I promise you, you say, Preacher, I've been saved, but I messed up. He still won't cast you out. Well, I'm afraid if I come to Him, I can't live it. I can't live it. Watch this. You can't live it until you come to Jesus. He lives it through you. Number three. Every believer, every Christian stands in equal relation to God. I like that, don't you? See, people think that maybe because I'm a pastor I get more prayers answered than everybody else. That's not true. It's not true. God doesn't answer my prayer because I'm a pastor. God answers my prayer because I'm a Christian. God answers your prayer because you're a Christian. God answers the prayers of little boys and little girls in our church. I've shared this before, I'll share it again. I'll never forget a little girl in our church now, a grown teenager. My life, I didn't know if I was going to live or die. I was taking chemotherapy. I was going through treatment. I'll never forget that little girl comes up to me and she says, pastor, I just want you to know every night I pray for you. And I said, honey, you keep praying God's answer in your prayer. Somebody said, well, was it your prayer that brought healing to your body? I have no idea. It could have been a prayer of a little child in our church that God said, you know what? I've heard that prayer. I'm just going to answer that. It may have been thousands of people praying for me, and God said, you know what? My people are crying out for Him. I'm just going to answer that. I have no idea. But here's what I do know. God answers prayer, and He'll answer your prayer. There are no big I's and little u's in the family of God. Listen to Galatians. You ought to jot this down in your notes. Galatians chapter 3 verse number 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. That means nationality don't matter. There's neither bond nor free. That means there's neither slave nor free person. They're both equal. You see how this is God's answer to slavery? Do you see how this transforms a culture? There is neither male nor female. For you're all one in Christ. You know what he's saying here? That just because you're a man or a woman doesn't mean that I'm going to answer your prayer because of who you are. It doesn't make any difference. Friend, if you're his child, God answers prayer. God gives you opportunity to come to him. Every Christian has equal and instant access for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Friend, that means Hebrews chapter 4 and I believe it is verse 16 that every Christian can boldly come to the throne of grace to attain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God doesn't pick and choose who He helps. He doesn't pick and choose who He blesses. He doesn't pick and choose who He answers prayer. Friend, every Christian can come to their heavenly Father and God loves to do good things for all of His children. And I'll tell you what else that teaches me, that every one of us can be as close to Jesus as we want to be. And the truth is, you are as close to God as you want to be. Here's the fourth and the last one. Every Christian's story is a story of grace. You may come here this morning and you look around and say, you know what? I don't know if I fit here. I don't look like all these people. I don't talk like all these people. I don't even know the songs. Can I help you understand something? I may be up here in a suit and tie. That doesn't make me acceptable to God. And you don't know my past story. Every Christian in this room has a before and an after. There's before grace and after grace. You say, preacher, but you don't know who I am and what I've done. If you knew, you wouldn't have anything to do with me. You don't know who I am and what I've done. You knew me. You might not have anything to do with me. You say, preacher, what made the difference? Grace. The grace of God. That's it. Here's what Paul said. who was a murderer, by the way, and a persecutor of Christians, and a hater of Jesus Christ before he met him on the road to Damascus, who became the greatest Christian that ever lived, who planted more churches than anybody that we know, wrote more books of the Bible than any of the original disciples of the Lord Jesus. And here's what he said, I am what I am. by the grace of God. Christian, you may get out there in the world, or you watch something on the news, and you look at a lifestyle, or you look at a direction, or maybe somebody lives a certain way, and maybe you say, well, that disgusts me. Can I help you understand something? But for the grace of God, that could be us. Yeah. I remember preaching in a maximum security prison in Alexander County. Rapists, murderers, criminals of... I mean the worst of the worst criminals. Big walled place. I won't go into all the detail, the security I had to go through to get in there. I mean, it was the most eerie feeling I've ever felt in my life when those gates and those bars began to close, and I'm inside, and I'm out in the yard. I'm amongst the prisoners, and the chaplain who invited me to preach, he said, you know, preacher, he said, you've heard people say, but the grace of God there go I, but when you're in a place like this, that's not true. And I thought to myself, wait a minute. Wait a minute. What he just said wasn't true. Because we're all Onesimuses. And if we gave vent to our sinful, wicked hearts, we're all capable of the vilest of things. Our hearts are desperately wicked. And but for the grace of God, there go we. And the next time we start feeling good about ourselves, maybe what we need to do is remember grace. and understand that anything good about you and anything good about me is simply God's amazing grace. I'm imagining it in my mind. Onesimus makes his way back to Philemon. He's different than when he left. Philemon looks at him and he says, Onesimus, what made the difference? No doubt, Onesimus, this prodigal slave, maybe like the prodigal son, had rehearsed a message that he was going to share with his master. And maybe he shared to him the story of... And I won't go into all of that. We've already shared it. And then he said, I understand, Onesimus, but what made the difference? And you know what? If the words had been written, maybe he would have ended his story like this. And it's all because of God's amazing grace. Because on Calvary's mountain He took my place. And some day, some glorious morning, I shall see Him face to face. And it's all because of God's amazing grace. And dear child of God, can I tell you, I've got one story as I stand up here before you this morning. And it's called grace. And that's your story if you're saved today. And if you're not saved, it can be your story. Let's bow our heads in prayer.