Hello Thank You Tommy I heard that amen appreciate that he said he was gonna say amen before he asked me are you ready? And I said I will be if I can get some amens while I'm preaching and then he said I'll give you an amen before you start preaching so I appreciate that I feel like I'm already preaching and I'm comfortable and I got it down, but Not quite well We'll just try to crawl through it and hopefully I can be a blessing to you guys I'm truly the church has been a blessing to me In the biggest sense you guys gave me my wife, so I appreciate y'all doing that Some of you played a big part in her role and helping her grow up through LBA and then obviously college. And all the friends and people I've just loved on her has made her the woman to be. She's my wife now, and I appreciate that. So I came here with nothing and leaving with the best thing you guys had. So thank you guys. I appreciate that. We're excited. Obviously, it's a bittersweet thing, thinking about leaving California and leaving Colorado, all my family. and family and church and all that, but we're excited. And if you guys can bear with me through this message at the end, we'll make an application that's gonna, Lord willing, give you guys my heartbeat and what the Lord has been doing in me and how he's drawing me to Argentina. And really, it ought to be all our heartbeat to be a missionary wherever we are. And that's gonna be the idea of my message. So if you have your Bible, please go ahead and open up to the book of Philemon. The book of Philemon. Chapter number 2. If you don't have Philemon chapter 2, just go to Philemon 1, please. Awesome. Philemon chapter number 1. I was about to say chapter 2. Philemon chapter 1, or just Philemon, because there is no chapter 2 as you guys can see, and as I just learned. We'll start in verse number 1, and we're going to read down to verse number 10. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, and to Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Apathia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and the church in thy house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards, what does it say? 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. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ, who enjoined thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the age, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for my son, O Nesimis. whom I have begotten in my bonds. The title of my message, or the principle, and really just what I want you guys to take home is, see what can be, not what is. See what can be, not what is. We'll pray and then we'll just dive right into the text. Father, thank you for your goodness. And Lord, just thank you for your faithfulness to us, Lord. And I pray that every single one of us would have that desire to hide behind the cross. And Lord, give you all the honor and all the glory that is due. Lord, you died for us. And as we heard this morning, you died for the church. And God, help us to love the church and be a part of the church and be involved in the church, Lord. It is your heartbeat, and that's what you left us. Father, help us to be that, Lord, to be good members for Pastor Dunlop, and thank you for his leadership. I just beg you that you would help us this evening, Lord, just to glean something from your scriptures. And Father, help me to make application. Beg you that you would use me and that you would stir up the hearts, Lord. And I beg you that you would just give me the words to say in the name of Christ you pray, amen. So see what can be, not what is. The title of this message really came after I got saved. So okay, I was raised in a Catholic home and I got involved in a bunch of nonsense before I got saved. I was doing drugs and all that wackadoo stuff. And so when I came to church and got invited, I was messed up, you can say. We're all still kind of messed up though, right? All of us, right? Amen? Don't be too self-righteous to admit that you're still kind of messed up, because we're still sinners. I came to church in some cargo shorts, hat backwards, I had some gauges in my ears, and I remember I had this yellow Nike t-shirt. And that's what I came to church, and that's just what it was. So after I got saved, the Lord started doing a work in my life. The Lord called me to preach, and he called me to Bible college, and he called me to be a missionary, and all that good stuff. But before I could go to Bible college, There was something I had to fix, per se, and it was really my attire. I didn't have the suits. I didn't have the dress shirts. I didn't have the dress pants. I don't think I had a pair of dress shoes. I didn't have any of that. So my pastor, Pastor Park, some people would say he's stingy. Some people would say he's thrifty. You could pick whatever one you want. I say he's smart. And so what he did is he took me to the thrift store. And thank you. Thank you. I hear that. Amen. Amen. And what this was, was he was trying to teach me that you can find some good stuff at thrift stores. Amen? Yeah. That's all through Bible cards. That's all I wore was thrift store attire and everything people would compliment. I was like, yep, that came from the thrift store. And I took great joy in that because he showed me really quickly that you can save a buck by going there, obviously, but there's some gems hidden throughout all of that, right? If we were to just judge a thrift store as soon as we walk in, it smells weird. Let's just be honest, okay? It's just the reality. They don't smell the best, but there's some good stuff that's in there. And I learned that pretty quickly, and it was a blessing to me because Heartbrokenly, there's not gonna be thrift stores in Argentina, but up to this point, that's where I shop, and proudly, Goodwill is my store. What's yours? I save a buck. So in order to go into a thrift store and find something good, you gotta have that mentality that, you know, you can't just judge it right off the bat, and have that mentality of, ah, I'm good, and I'm gonna pass on this. And I think that principle will be applicable as we crawl through the text. We're gonna hopefully look at every verse. So I want you guys to start off from verse number one. And again, I'm gonna have one main principle for you guys to take home at the end of this, okay? One main principle at the end, so I need you guys to stay with me. So at the end, we have how many principles? One, but there's gonna be a sub-point to that one, so just so you're heads up with that, okay? One main principle, and then we'll be finished. Verse one. Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, I hear that phone, you guys can silence it, it's okay. Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto who? Our dearly beloved and fellow laborer. So who is this book written to? Who is this book written to? Yes, to Philemon, we see that, that's the title of the book, of this epistle of this letter, and we see who wrote it, Paul. He's writing this letter to? Philemon, exactly, and in verse number one, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. One of the prison epistles, while he's locked up, he's writing these letters to churches, and now he's writing one to a specific man. But look what this says, So we have Philemon, Paul writing a letter to Philemon, who has a church in his house. That's all that the scripture really just gives us, along the lines it names two other people. Apathia and Archippus. There's speculations of who these two people are. One could have been his wife, Apathia, and Archippus could have been his son. In a different book, in the book of Colossians, it tells us the implication that Archippus could have been the pastor. Do we know that 100%? Not really. It makes a good story though. So that's kind of the outline that we have there. There's a church in Philemon's house. Verse number one through three really just gives us that hello, that salutation. Verse three, grace to you in peace from God our Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying his hellos to Philemon. Verse four through seven, he starts to praise Philemon for all the good things that he's doing at this church that's at his house. So I want you guys to look at this. Verse four. I thank my God making mention of thee always in my prayers. Hearing of thy love, and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards 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. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee. So who's the book written to? Philemon. Paul writing this book to Philemon. There's a church in Philemon's... There's a house in Philemon's... There's a church in Philemon's house. There it is. There's a church in Philemon's house and he's writing now to Philemon and in these couple verses he's praising him for all the good things that he's doing as he's praying to God. So Paul is praying, who's he praying to? He's praying to God, and as he's praying to God, he's thanking God for all the good things that Philemon is doing. All the good. Let me have it, all the good, not the bad. All the good. It would be a great, it would make pastor's life a lot easier if he could pray for, when he prays for us, that he's praying for the good that we're doing. that when he's reminded of, my father-in-law, Brother Archie, that Brother Archie is, or Brother Hamilton, sorry about that. Just because I'm on the platform, I have authority now, right now. That when Pastor Dunlop is praying for Brother Hamilton, that he would be reminded of all the good that he's doing, not the bad. That would be a weight off his shoulders, wouldn't it? It would do us good to be doing what's right. Cause it makes a pastor's job a lot easier. And I'm not a pastor yet, but I can, as I'm starting to be involved in the ministry, I'm starting to feel the weight of that. And to think that he has 200, 300 people under him, I can only imagine what that does. Paul, writing to Philemon, is thankful for the good that he's doing. Purpose in your heart to do good and to do right, so that when pastor's praying for you, that could be one less person he has to worry about. I wonder if they'll be in church. No, they're gonna be in church and they're gonna be serving. Praise God. That oughta be our heartbeat. And as he's talking about him, look what he says. Verse number five. Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards all saints. So not only is he thanking him for all the good that he's doing, now he's thanking him for his faith. How many of you guys ever read the book of James? Amen. Let's see if you guys can complete this, all right? Faith without... Faith without works is... Okay. So if we have genuine faith, you know what's gonna come with it? Works. Oh man, you guys are doing great. Good job. Philemon not only had faith, he had the works that came along with it. Look at it. Verse number five. Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards all saints. And then it gives us a more, a bigger application in verse number six or explanation, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So this man Philemon had faith. He had love towards Jesus Christ and towards all the saints. May you say all the brothers and sisters in Christ. He had faith and love towards Christ and because he was walking with Christ and loved God and was focused on him, he was able to then share that with the rest of the people in the church. He was able to share that love that Christ has offered every single one of us to everybody else because his eyes were on the right person. Why is it that the church we just heard about this morning, the body of Christ has division? Because we don't love God. Because that relationship between us and God is lacking. Let's fix that. You're lacking in your love towards your brothers? Hey, fix your relationship with Christ. Whenever I'm lacking in my relationship with my wife, you know what I need to do? Fix my relationship with God. Philemon, he's focused, doing all the right things. Paul praises him for the good that he's doing and describes it as that he's communicate, look at this. Hearing of thy faith and love which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards 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. That the communication of what? All right, let's just try that one. Verse number six. That the communication of thy faith. I know you guys are tired and just, hey, but we gotta crawl through this. We came to church to hear from the Lord, amen? That the communication of thy that the communication of thy faith may become effectual, it says. Remember, he had faith, but it wasn't just faith and no works, it was faith with works. And we see that later in verse number seven, he refreshed the brethren. It's like walking in the desert, just being here in California, and then someone just comes to you and gives you that cold glass of water. What a refreshing thing. That's who Philemon was, and that's who we are called to be. to be those refreshers to other people. When people have a burden, we were called to bless them. So this man was communicating his faith. For those of you that were there in door knocking when I gave the devotional, I shared this thought, right? When I look at that verse, I see it in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very well could implicate faith promise giving. Yeah, that's a good one, that's deep, right? It's in there somewhere, I promise you. Because when we have faith, we communicate it. When we have love, we communicate it. May I say, giving is a lot easier when your eyes are on Christ. That's why he tells him and encourages him that the communication of thy faith may become effectual, more powerful. So Philemon is giving, he's a giver, he's not a taker. He's given to other people, man, say even to missionaries as they come through. And he's giving to every single one of them. And Paul says, hey, so that that giving can become more powerful, you need to keep your eyes on Christ. For us, it's that exact same thing. Lord willing, you're tithing faithfully. Lord willing, I would be tithing faithfully. Lord willing, we're giving to missions faithfully. Amen? Come on, because missions is important. It's not just because I'm a missionary. I promise you I was given a mission before I became a missionary. And every single one of us should be doing that. Because that's God's heartbeat. You know what happens is we start good. We start giving. And we start doing it more or less faithfully. But then we take our eyes off of Christ. And then what happens is we become critical. And then we stop giving because now it's not about Christ anymore. It's about your budget and what you want to do and all these other things. So he says, in order for that communication of that faith to become effectual, more powerful, keep your eyes on Christ. We're going to keep going because the principle is still not there. Verse number seven, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. There it is, he's a blessing to the brothers and sisters of Christ. When's the last time you were a blessing to somebody else? When's the last time you went out of your way? This morning, somebody went out of their way to bless me. This morning, Brother Jeff went out of his way to give me Miriam's, what was it, apple bread? Apple bread with orange juice. That was a blessing to me. He was a refreshment to me. When's the last time you went out of your way to be a blessing to somebody else? Okay. Christ saved us, didn't he? Okay. All right, we can agree on that. You're not on your way to hell. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that, Tommy. You're not on your way to hell. All right. Is it our responsibility to share that with other people? Okay. I'm glad we can all agree on that. It's on the, on the wall right there. So it better be, we all, if it's in our church, we should agree on that. Can we all agree that I would hope that every single one of us at one point have been blessed by somebody else. It happened to me a lot in Bible college. That was the best part of being in Bible college. People just want to bless you because you're a broke college student. That refreshment. Think about the last time that happened to you. When somebody just came at the right time and gave you a hug. Or somebody just came at the right time and maybe gave you a little something for your gas. Or somebody just came and said, hey, I'm praying for you. And it was genuine. We love it when it happens to us. Why aren't we doing that to other people? Why aren't we going out of our way to do that to them? Philemon is being praised for this. We're still in the praise session for Philemon of all the good things he was doing. And he refreshed the brethren. I would hope that as I, Lord willing, continue to mature in Christ, I would be that to other people. that I would be able to come back to Lighthouse and be a blessing to some of you and just be able to do something for you and just encourage you in some sense. And that ought to be our heartbeat. So let's just continue because we're struggling with that one. So verse number eight. Verse number eight and nine, he starts to change gears. Remember, he says hi to Philemon, in other words, from verse one through three, the salutation, and then he starts to praise Philemon. And then now he's gonna change gears and start addressing something a little different. Verse number eight. Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a one as Paul the age, and I'm also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Paul's saying, hey, I have something I can give you as a commandment. Because he was an apostle, he had the authority to do so. I have something I want to command you to do, but instead of commanding you, I beg you to do this. I'm begging you to do this, what I'm about to say. Verse number 10. I beseech thee for my son, who? Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. Paul in prison. He has fruit because of his faithfulness. While in prison, he got to lead somebody to the Lord. And that man's name was Onesimus. Onesimus' life completely changed at that point. He gets saved while he was in prison in bonds. Me and Abby don't have the privilege of having kids yet. How many of you have kids or have had kids? Same thing, right? When, as they're going through school and learning and doing homework and all that stuff, they come home, and let's say they have a sibling, and they need to do their homework before they go outside. One of them finishes and the other one doesn't. And if the other one tries to go outside with the other one, and hasn't finished their homework, what's a good parent gonna say? Yeah, get back inside before I beat you, right? No. Do your homework, right? That's what a good parent would do. And then the kid's going to start making all these excuses, right? Well, mom, I could do my homework when I wake up in the morning. Or mom, I could do this. Or I could do this. Or I could do that. What would a good parent do? Not give in, maybe, and just say no and make them do their homework? It's amazing, as a kid I remember making all these excuses for why I didn't have to do my homework. Oh, my teacher said I could do it next week. Dude, it's due tomorrow. Kids are great at manufacturing excuses. You know who else is? Christians. We're great at manufacturing excuses of why we're not going to pass out a track. Why we're not going to witness to somebody else. We're great at manufacturing excuses of why we're not going to fulfill the Great Commission. We're not kids, but we act like kids a lot of times. Look at Paul. Paul in prison. If anybody had an excuse to have an excuse, it was Paul in prison. But he was busy about his father's business. And because he was doing what he was supposed to do, he got to lead Onesimus to the Lord. That's a blessing. That ought to encourage us, because if we're doing what we're supposed to do, and not making these excuses, I believe God will entrust us to get to lead somebody to Christ. So Paul does this, and faithfully witnessing the people, he gets to lead Onesimus to Christ, what a blessing. Verse number 11, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. Talking about Onesimus, his life before salvation. And then look at what he says here in verse 14. Yeah, verse 14. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved specially to me, but how much more unto thee. both in flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. Then verse 18. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will pray it, albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. So we have Paul writing this letter to? Yes, to Philemon. And in this letter, he greets him. And then after he greets him, he praises him. And after he's done praising, he changes gears here and starts talking about Onesimus. And come to find out, Onesimus and Philemon knew each other from back in the day, right? They knew each other, and something had gone wrong, or something happened really weird. There's a lot of speculation that takes place. Some people, commentators say that Philemon stole from, or sorry, that Onesimus stole from Philemon, or we're not sure. But verse number eight, 18, kinda gives us that idea. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee awe, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with my own hands. So now Paul is begging Philemon to forgive Onesimus. You can say that's the main idea of this book of forgiveness and how Christians ought to forgive, and that's a very significant principle if the church is going to dwell in unity. We ought to forgive, just like Philemon. And I believe Paul says that, everything that I'm telling you to do, I believe verse 21, having confidence of thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou will also do more than I say. Paul had this confidence that Philemon was gonna forgive Onesimus. And not just forgive him, but receive him. And then he describes it as, not just as your servant, but as your brother, because he got saved. So you guys get the big picture of everything that's going on here, right? Remember, we have one main takeaway with one sub-point. You guys ready for that? My main takeaway for you guys this evening. Anyone can be an Onesimus. Okay, verse number 10 again. I beseech thee for my son, what? Whom I have begotten in my bonds. Verse number 11. Which in time past, was to thee, what does it say? But now profitable to thee and to me. We have Onesimus, he knows Philemon but something happened. Whatever happened is more or less insignificant. All we know is that based off of verse 10, Paul got to lead Onesimus to Christ. And his life forever changed. And me and you can relate to that if we got saved. If you're saved. That at one point, we were on our way to hell. But by the grace of God, we heard about the gospel. And now we're on our way to heaven. And what we got here going on with Onesimus, it describes it as that at one point he was unprofitable, but now profitable unto thee and unto me. And my main application to you this evening or this afternoon is anyone can be an Onesimus. When you guys see these bus routes that are going out, I hope you guys are praying for them. I really do. Don't raise your hand. Do you pray for the bus routes? Do you believe God can change them and take them from being unprofitable to profitable? Do you believe that? Do your actions, does your faith communicate that? If it does, you're gonna be praying for that. You're gonna be praying for that bus kid that spills his juice on the carpet. You're gonna be praying for that bus kid that walks around on the pews or on the chairs. Because right now, yeah, he's unprofitable. He's probably not even saved. If you were to see his home, the alcohol, the drugs, the abuse, if you were to see how the parents yell at each other, you would have more compassion for that. There's bus kids that come to this church. Do you know them? Do you know that possibility, that onesimus? Remember, unprofitable but became profitable. Any one of them can be that. That's who I was. On drugs, on alcohol, messed up, came into church a mess. Guess what? By the grace of God, he changed me. And by the grace of God, he can change any one of those kids. Do you believe that? Are your actions showing that? Don't raise your hand. Are you praying for them? Guess what? The bus workers need your prayers. Because it's kind of hard to deal with them sometimes. The bus drivers need your prayers so that they're safe. Anyone can be an omnesimus, anyone. Guess what, yourself, you, even though you were raised in a Christian home, at one point you were unprofitable. And by the grace of God, you became profitable. Do you pray for the teens? Oh, they're good, they're already profitable. Yeah, ask Tommy. They need your prayers so that they can become profitable. Our heartbeat as we go to Argentina, our last Sunday with you guys is that one day we'll find an Onesimus. That we'll get down to Argentina and find some kid that no one's loved on that me and Abby will be able to take under our wing. That we'll be able to love on them and show them what a Christian is. Hopefully by then I'll figure that out. That we'll be able to show them the love of Christ the way Philemon is being praised in this area. They had love towards God, but love towards all the saints. Our heartbeats that we'll find somebody that's unprofitable and by the grace of God and that life-changing gospel, they'll become profitable. And I hope, I hope you guys believe that. Because it's easy to say we do, but then our actions never resemble that. Paul was busy about his father's business and got to lead Philemon to the Lord. That's why we can look at this and get excited and rejoice that some bus kid can become an Onesimus. And we can go around the room and talk about testimonies of somebody that got saved out of drugs, alcohol, and all these things, how they were unprofitable and became profitable. The only way that happens is if we're sharing the gospel. That is the only way it's ever gonna happen. Remember, My one takeaway is anyone can be an Onesimus. But there's a sub-point. You guys ready for it? We're almost done. So you guys can wake up now and just take this last sub-point and you guys will do just fine. Anyone can be an Onesimus. Look at what this says in verse 21 is where we ended up. Having confidence of thine obedience, I wrote unto you, knowing that thou will also do more than I say. But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that I, through your prayer, shall be given unto you. So he's like, pray for me, I think at one point I'll end up with you. Verse 23. There salute thee, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. Marcus Aristarchus, what does it say? Lucas, my fellow labors. So he gives us this list of people And he describes them as fellow laborers. That means they're laboring with Paul in the gospel. They're doing that which is right. They're in church. They're doing that which is right. They're fellow laborers. They're Christians. He uses the other word, fellow soldiers. These people, look at them one more time. We got Marcus or Mark or Starcus, Demas, and Luke. Epaphras is there as well. These people were found faithful at this point of the writing of this book. They were found faithful. And you guys know what happens to Demas. But let's read it. Jump over to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Just a couple pages back. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse number eight. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me that day, at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearance. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Remember, we're talking about Demas. For Demas hath what? Forsaken me. Having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, and then it goes on. So we have Demas, at the time of the writing of the Book of Philemon, was found faithful, described as a fellow laborer. But yet, could be his last writing, the last epistle that he wrote, or the last letter he wrote in Timothy, Demas hath forsaken me. He quit, turned away from Paul. 1 Corinthians 7, 12, wherefore let him that standeth take heed. Praise the Lord, anyone can be an Onesimus. And I would hope as you guys see people come through the church that aren't dressed the best, maybe even smell a little weird, with shorts, earrings, whatever it may be, I hope that we see them for what can be and not what is. That we see them for, hey, that could be an Onesimus, that could be, I'm nothing special. That could be an exegesis. We should be sending out more missionaries. We should. That could be any one of these bus kids. Love on them. Because they can be an Onesimus. But remember, any one of us can be a Demas who was found faithful at one point in church, doing all the right things, but yet turned away, fell away, Wherefore, let him that standeth take heed, lest he fall. Simple, first takeaway. Anyone can be an Onesimus, but anyone can be a Demas. I'm gonna leave you with this quick testimony, and then we'll wrap up, pray, and then pastor will do the invitation. When I first started going to church, maybe, A year later when I went back to visit, our church loves bus routes back in Colorado. They love it. My pastor has a huge burden for all those broken homes and bringing about 30 kids, teenagers, just teenagers, about 30 teenagers every Sunday. Wednesday night, and just do whatever they can and just try to love on them. There was one specific kid that year I got to go to summer camp with. His name is Miguel. He was about a sixth grader at that point, so he's small and scrawny, and five years later he's still small and scrawny. But we went up to camp, and where we do our camp is kind of like Ottawa. It's up in the woods in the middle of nowhere. No cell phone service, nothing, and just woods after woods after woods. And they say there's a bear there, but we've never been able to see it or find it. This kid started getting bullied. His name is Miguel. He started getting bullied. And he just freaked out and started cussing at everybody, pushing people. And he might have even punched somebody. I don't remember. And then he just takes off running into the woods. That's not good, because he's fast, and I'm fat and slow now, and the youth pastor's fat and slow, too. And so he's gone into the woods just running, and we're just like, oh, my soul, what are we going to do? So we both just took off running and chasing him. He went around the mountain, and then I came up around the other side of the mountain. And then eventually, we kind of got up. We're probably maybe 100 yards apart from each other. And we're both just gassed, just looking at each other like, what are we going to do? We're going to have to call the helicopter. Somebody's going to have to go look for him, get some dogs to smell him down and trace him and bite his legs so he doesn't run. And so we're worried and out of our mind at this point, not sure what we're doing. And we're just looking at each other. And then out of nowhere, pops up Miguel. And then we're like, what are you doing? He's like, well, I thought I'd be nice to you guys and stop running. Well, you shouldn't have ran in the first place, right? So whatever. We calm him down. He comes back down with us. We take him down the mountain. He finally relaxes and admits he was wrong. I feel like strangling him at that point because we just ran for 20 minutes. And it was bad. It was bad. I was in the flesh. We get down, he has to stick with the council of the rest of camp, and whatever, camp is over. And then I go back to Bible college, and then I graduate Bible college, and then I was just back in Colorado, what, a month ago. We were there for five months. Guess who's still in church? Miguel. Guess who's called to preach? Miguel. Guess who's on his way to Bible college now? Yeah. Guess who comes to church and hey, Brother Jesse, how's it going? Still strong and still tiny. But now he's wearing some, his Mexican boots. I love it. With his jeans and his shirt tucked in. That's Miguel. But if we would have quit on him way back then, we never would have got to see what God is doing now. And what God is gonna do. Remember, anyone can be an Onesimus. I hope you believe that. Me and Abby wouldn't be going to Argentina if we didn't believe that. Our desire is to find somebody like that, that one day God will change them, and who knows what God can do with them. As you see the bus kids running around, as you see the teenagers running around, love on them. They can go from unprofitable to profitable. Let's pray and then pass it on. Father, thank you for your goodness.