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For Love's Sake · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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we've read a short time ago and we can take us just the leading theme of the epistle
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where you find Paul here addressing Philemon in this way where he's saying
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about the love that that he has for Philemon and Philemon has for him as well so if you look at
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verse 8 accordingly though I am bold enough in Christ to commend you to do what is required yet
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for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you especially these words will take the whole
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letter as it is but look at it under the direction of these words because really I think that captures
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the spirit of the letter for love's sake how well that describes the apostle's own relationship
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with Christ and also his work as an apostle I'm sure you've done this a number of times I certainly
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have when you've opened a letter that's come into your possession into your house recently there was
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one came in and I didn't have my glasses on and it I noticed the word James and 46 Francis Street so
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off I went and opened it and then when I opened it it was actually a document addressed to James Murray
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fortunately it was nothing really private or anything like that but it's always a privilege
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to be able to read the likes of a letter like Philemon because this is a very personal letter
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and it's a letter in many ways different to any of the other letters of the apostle although the
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letters to Timothy and to Titus are personal they're addressed to them as individuals but they're really
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much more in the context of the wider church and the way in which they they're being given directions
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for their place in the church but this is a letter to this individual loved by the apostle and
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dealing with this escaped slave Onesimus Onesimus who had escaped from Philemon's household
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and had come to be and somewhere other made and made a contact with with the apostle Paul and under the
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apostle's teaching came to be converted and that changed man and now Paul is sending him back to Philemon
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with these directions instructions really as well so that Philemon will receive him back even as he would have
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received Paul himself so first thing to take from the letter really I think is that grace the grace that brings us
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to know the Lord and the salvation grace produces a Christian character grace produces Christian character in
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every single one of us who knows the grace of God as it operates in our lives that means that it doesn't matter
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what kind of background we have what kind of upbringing we've had what kind of situation in life we've got
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the grace of God that brings us to know the Lord actually produces a Christian character it actually
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brings us to be a Christian people in the image of Christ himself to serve the Lord in different ways
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and you can see that this man who was converted through the apostle Paul if you look at verses 4 to 5 you can
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see what Paul is saying that I thank you uh my God this is in writing to talking about Philemon I thank my God
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always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have
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towards the Lord Jesus and all the saints and I pray that the sharing of your faith goes on to say might be
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effective so the apostle is giving thanks for the faith and the love that Philemon has already
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and that is actually reaching out towards what he calls the saints especially and the Lord Jesus
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and the saints Paul has come to know of this man Philemon as now he serves the Lord as grace has changed
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his life and reached into his life this is the product of that grace this Christian character this concern
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for the love that he has for the Lord Jesus the love that is in Paul himself of course as well so
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that's the first thing he's saying faith and love towards Jesus and the saints is one of the chief
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evidences that you have of someone whose life has been changed and the second thing in verses 6 to 7
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that then has a positive impact on the whole of the Christian community and I pray that the sharing of
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your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for
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the sake of Christ for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts
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of the saints have been refreshed through you what a magnificent statement how much would you want that
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and I would want that to be said of myself by somebody who could genuinely say that's what I see in you
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that's what I find in you not only do you love the Lord and do you love the saints but the sharing of
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your faith the sharing out of your faith the way in which you relate to other people and show your faith
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to them and express your faith to them that it may become effective for the full knowledge of every good
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thing that is in us for the sake of Christ the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you
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there's a wonderful image there a picture there of how the grace that changes our lives or the lives
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that have been changed by grace are themselves lives which affect those within the Christian community
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the Christian church the Christian congregation but also out with that that it may become effective
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I think he's including they're not just among the saints but effective out with that as well
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so that knowledge the full knowledge of everything that is in us for the sake of Christ and that's
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really resulted in Paul's joy and comfort I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother
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doesn't just mean the love that Philemon has shown to him personally but the love that Philemon has shown
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to his fellow Christians to the world around him for the apostle that is a source of much joy and much
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comfort and isn't that how it is for ourselves what gives you greater comfort than to know that God is
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using you however small a way you might see it to be or I might see it to be if it brings refreshment if
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it brings comfort if it brings some help to those who are in need and struggling then that's surely a source
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of much comfort of much comfort and joy for ourselves that's really what our Christian life is directed
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towards directed by grace towards the refreshing the help the teaching the support of others
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now that's really the description of Philemon what grace has done to Philemon is expressed there and
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what he is to Paul and what he is to his fellow Christians and even what he is out with that as
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he shares his faith that God has given him then he speaks about Onesimus as well I appeal to you he
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says verse 10 for my child Onesimus whose father I became in my imprisonment and by that he means I became
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a spiritual father in my imprisonment Paul had come into contact on Onesimus somehow came into
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contact with Paul during this imprisonment and here is the result of it he had become a Christian
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he was converted and now he is saying I appeal to you for this my child my spiritual child whose father
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I became in my imprisonment and then you notice what he says it's in brackets but it's actually a really
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powerful statement formerly he was useless to you but now he is indeed useful to you and to me
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you see how how much a change has happened in this man who who ran away as a slave from Philemon's home
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from the works that he was doing there ran away as somebody who was just then openly and seeking to
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escape from that way of life but now he's been converted normally he says he was useless to you
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that word's important it means um more than just well we use the word useless usually don't we of
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somebody that you're giving some work to or somebody that's trying to do something for you and ends up
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making a mess of it some so you just say that's you're useless just I'll get somebody else or I'll do it
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myself that's not the the the meaning of the word useless it's stronger than that useless here has the
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idea of being harmful being actually bad not just being useless and not able to do the work properly
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or something like that the word really means he was bad he was not dependable he he was somebody who
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who was harmful and did harm to you but that's changed into the opposite now he is indeed
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useful to me and that word means very beneficial you see he's gone from somebody who was really out
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to do harm somebody whose life was really about damaging other people including his former employer
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but now he's become a christian now he's been changed by grace he's become the opposite of what
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he was he's become useful he's become very beneficial and if there's one thing that should characterize your
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own life and mine it's this whatever background we've come from whatever we were when god came and
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converted us and changed our lives around the one thing that should be obvious about us to some degree
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or other in some way or other is that we are useful people useful for the lord because we are servants of
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christ we are servants in the sense that we want to be useful in his employment for him to use to bring
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benefit to those around us to those near to us to those in our christian community in our congregation to those
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out with that in our neighborhood in our workplace wherever if it said of us that we are useful for the lord
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that's a great thing because that's really what the christian life is all about isn't it to be useful now i'm not
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saying by that that you would say of yourself that you're a very useful person and i wouldn't say it of myself
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but god changes us so that he makes us of use in some way or other to other people and to be useful
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in a world that has so so many needs is itself a wonderful emphasis
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and we may never be the best at any kind of job that we're involved with there may be others
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who are far better at it than we as christians may be that doesn't mean because we're christians or
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because a christian a doctor or nurse or whatever work we're doing um that they're christians that
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they know the lord that they're going to be the very best at doing that job that they're going to be
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the most skilled at doing it it doesn't follow that way but there should be nobody more dedicated
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nobody's nobody more dependable nobody more honest nobody with a greater desire to be useful in every
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way than a christian than a person whose life god has touched this is what he's saying the grace that
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has turned philemon that's affected philemon and brought him to be a means of refreshing to the saints
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well that grace has touched the life of onesimus and now onesimus has turned from being useless
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harmful to being very beneficial in fact his name itself onesimus actually has to do with the idea
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of being useful and the way that he puts it here he's useful to me or to you and to me
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i think paul is striking a note there that's important and it's something like this he is
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useful to the kingdom of god to the work of the kingdom whether he's working for me or alongside
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me or working for you back with yourself i'm sending him back to you doesn't matter where he is but
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this is for you and for me for the kingdom he is now useful he's a useful instrument under god
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and of course grace as you see it here it comes through and what the apostle is saying of himself
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as well not just about philemon and about onesimus but also about himself his attitude for example
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to his imprisonment he launches out into this little wonderful letter full of love
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all a prisoner for christ jesus and timothy our brother he goes on speaking of himself
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through the epistle a number of times he refers to himself in different ways and you can see
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there in verses 18 and 19 if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything charge that to my account
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i paul write this was my own hand i will repay it to say nothing of you're owing me even your own
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self the words paul is saying you actually under god owe what you are to me through my ministry for god
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but he said i'm not really concerned about that i do want you to realize that if this man has wronged you
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if he's robbed you if he's done something bad to you as previously uh he's saying he was that kind of
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person put that on my account i'll pay it for him i'll make up for it even if he's not able to make
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up for it i'll do it for him what a wonderful heart the apostle had and what a wonderful insight that
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gives us into the way that a christian prioritizes not just the needs of others but the needs of others
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even to the extent that they would put themselves out in order to actually support them and make up
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for whatever deficiencies this man had to his employer philemon
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it shows itself doesn't it in i mean paul is really saying here well there's no need for it in a sense
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that you would receive him in this way other than your christian duty
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but when we had ourselves converted one of the great tests of that is that when things don't go
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your way what is your reaction when things are different to the way you'd have ordered it yourself
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or myself how do we respond to that here is paul in prison he wouldn't have chosen that for himself
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it's not something he would have said this is what i'd really love to be therefore i'm going to make
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my way into prison and just stay there it just so happened he's there for christ and whatever led to
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it we're not sure but he's there for the lord jesus christ's sake because he was prominently a christian
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an apostle in some way that led to this
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but still see he's saying here if he has wronged you charge that to my account
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in other words paul is really saying however things fall out however things come to be
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and you find them as they are you bring it to god and you say well how can i be useful
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how can i be useful even in regard to this thing how can my savior come through in my attitude and action
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in regard to this thing that i hadn't chosen for myself but this is how it is for him philemon
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onesimus and paul three lives intertwined each of them changed by the grace of god
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but intertwined into being useful instruments for the kingdom of christ
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so grace produces a christian character but grace grace also positively affects relationships
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you see here why paul is writing to him and describing to philemon our beloved fellow worker
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and then aphia our sister archipas our fellow soldier and the church in your house and then
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in these ways you can see how he's describing there um the way in which uh these people are so precious
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to the apostle uh there's no rivalry mentioned there there's nothing of jealousy mentioned there
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there's a paul the prisoner but timothy is his brother his his spiritual brother philemon is his brother
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his beloved fellow worker there's no jealousy on the part of the apostle as to
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how much he's achieved compared to philemon or vice versa they're in it together they're in it
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sharing in the work of the gospel and it's all about helping each other however god allocates success or
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otherwise and he calls here aphia our sister archipas our fellow soldier
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he paul is very much aware that he's not alone in the battle and he's thankful
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for those other christians that support him and he's calling them his fellow soldiers
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that's what you are here i am tonight standing in this pulpit as i often do and thankful for it
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and thankful for your own presence to receive the the gospel through the ministry of the gospel
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to the preaching of the gospel but where would i be without you being fellow soldiers if i was just
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the only person on the front line in the gospel here in this congregation where would that be i would
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certainly not be at all confident of much but i am because you are my fellow soldiers
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you are conjoined together and joined with me in the preaching of the gospel in the ministry of the
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gospel you're taking your own share of what it is to be in the battle for christ
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and to actually be at the forefront sometimes of that battle what a great privilege it is to
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to be able to call each other fellow soldiers poor soldiers poor workers in the kingdom of christ
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and that really as you see in verses eight to nine leads on to though i am bold enough in christ to
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commend you to command you to do what is required yet for love's sake i prefer to appeal to you and
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these again are wonderful words paul is saying i'm an apostle actually i'm not going to stress that he's
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saying i'm not going to really um build what i'm saying on the fact that i'm an apostle although it's true
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i could command you i could actually set it out by saying look i am the apostle paul you owe under me
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you owe yourself to me in the sense that i was used for your conversion but he's saying that's not the
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road i want to go down instead i appeal to you for love's sake or love's sake
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whatever we can or cannot achieve through loving each other
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it'll certainly always be a lot more that we can what we can do by way of command or forcing the
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issues i was talking in the school yesterday and today to a class about what is the work of a
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minister what does a minister do and one of the questions that was asked they sent in the questions
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ahead of them they were very very good questions and it was a privilege to to be there but one of the
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questions was would you force an atheist to believe what you believe good question would you force an
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atheist would you try to force an atheist to believe what you believe and of course my answer to that was
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no because the work of the gospel whether it's in the minister or any christian it's not about forcing
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people's minds it's not about trying to force the issue so that you're pressing people against their
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will into believing what you believe into being the kind of person that you would like them to be
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for love's sake you set out the love of jesus the love of god you show your christian love as a product of
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god's grace
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and our appeals always have to be for love's sake of course that doesn't mean that in the church there
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should never be such a thing as as instruction given or rebukes given whenever that's necessary
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or commands in the sense that we come from god's word to say to somebody maybe whose life has gone
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somewhat astray and say well this is what god is commanding you've got to you've got to really take
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note of that that's there's a place for that but even that has to be done in the spirit of love
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for love's sake because nothing is as effective as love and the workings of love and the emphases of
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love and love always has to predominate in everything that we do and that's how god persuades us isn't it
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um it's not that necessarily that we we have no experience of his law touching our lives showing our
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sins bringing us guilt before the lord and if the law does that then that's god at work but what does
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god then do he brings you to the gospel he brings you to the love that's shown in christ and in his
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death and in his resurrection and there is where um the law having done its work if you like if that's
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been the case it always brings us to the gospel to the love of god and for love's sake really is
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something you could say is applicable to god's way of working as well the love that is shown to us
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in christ and that's how it it does change people this grace that changes people it brings about this
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great product of of love this fruit of that change is love i remember hearing once about two elders
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weren't in the same congregation weren't in the same congregation but uh they were now at a ripe old
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age and having reached an age where they were both in a care home and both failing in health
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um but they had been somewhat um uh well they weren't really on the best of terms let's say
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always uh in the earlier stages of their life were different congregations but they ended up in the
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same care home and one actually uh lost his sight completely physically still very strong he was a
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big man but he had lost his sight the other one was very slight and although he had his eyesight
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he was very weak physically and really needed support and uh somebody had said they had seen them one
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day walking out in the garden of the care home holding on to each other and you can see what's
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happening there the one who was slight and really weak and finding it difficult really to get the
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strength to walk was hanging on to the big man who had the strength but didn't have the eyesight
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and the fellow who was the weak he was the eyes of the fellow who was strong i think that's
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a wonderful illustration of how with our different needs we help each other through the course of life
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we are endowed by god to fit in alongside of others different in many respects but for love's sake
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and through love that support is so crucial to the progressing of our christian life and experience
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for love's sake and that's why paul mentions the word heart here you'll notice that as we read through
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it verse 7 so what he's saying that i've derived much comfort joy and comfort because the hearts
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of the saints have been refreshed verse 12 you go there you see mentioning again i'm sending him back to you
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sending my very heart and then you find verse 20 yes brother i want some benefit from you in the lord refresh my heart in christ
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in other words paul is really taking us into the inner substance and working of our souls
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and he's sending on esimus back he's sending his own heart his own love
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he's talking about the heart of the saints the hearts of the saints the very spiritual
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inners of the saints have been refreshed by philemon and for paul of course
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love is so important the matter of the heart what he's saying to the to the philippians chapter 1 verse
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this i pray that your love may abound more and more your love collectively started somebody the other
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day about sanctification and how sanctification by and large in the new testament especially in paul's
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writings it's not a matter for individual growth there is that but paul is right into the context of
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the church together and when the church together is required to grow it's together that they grow
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you and i contribute to each individual's growth to our own personal growth but to the growth of the body
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in love as he puts it in ephesians
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and so it's for love's sake you're never to be satisfied with something other than
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the very heart of things and the very heart of things is the heart of love so there's paul and
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philemon but you can see philemon and onesimus we've mentioned some of this already
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onesimus has caused much pain so you could say really that this this very personal little letter is
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about reconciliation it's about a reconciliation between philemon and his former slave onesimus
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and uh that's really a test here for philemon verse 16 very much a test where he's saying
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i'm sending him back to you no longer as a slave but more than a slave as a beloved brother especially
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to me but how much more to you both in the flesh and in the lord now paul has said i would have been
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glad to keep him here with me had i thought that was the right thing to do that's what i would have
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done in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment but i prefer to do
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nothing without your consent so that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will
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so he's saying that that's what he's then saying sending him back to him is how much he's now to receive
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him no longer as a slave well what a test that was for philemon here was a man who had wronged him
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who had been bad who had not been good in any sense in the way that the word means uh to be good to
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to actually be reliable he'd run away he'd done some damage and now paul is saying receive him back
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but don't receive him back just as a servant or as a slave receive him as a brother in christ
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receive him as somebody who will be alongside of yourself in the kingdom of god in the work of of of
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serving jesus and that's why he calls him um beloved it's a forgiveness that he's asking for
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for for philemon to forgive this man uh to forgive him by such in such a way as will demonstrate that
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forgiveness by receiving him back as a brother in christ that's a test that he has to meet it's a test
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that he has to overcome and you see what he's saying in verse 17 if you consider me your partner
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receive him as you would receive me
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receive him as you would receive me in other words paul is saying to him
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if i was to appear on your doorstep philemon tomorrow
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the spirit in which you receive me there is how i want you to receive onesimus
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coming back to you as a brother christian
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you see how grace has changed things now grace is now what philemon needs to to have and to know and
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to to show in receiving onesimus back receiving paul is saying in other words he's not just to receive
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him back into his employment he's not just to forgive him in a sort of outward sense or in a formal sense
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he's saying what i want you to do is to welcome him
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there's the test for you and for me when we have been wronged when we've fallen out with some folk
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then they come back and they ask i'm really really sorry forgive me it must never be
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in the spirit of reluctance or just a formality
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the challenge is to welcome the reconciliation
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to welcome the opportunity to forgive because that's how god dealt with ourselves
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so welcome him he's saying um and uh you can just imagine the picture just now
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of onesimus having gone back to philemon
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and the lord's supper is going to be next week
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wherever it's going to be this church in the house
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uh the church in your house of aras aras arquebus
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our fellows and the church in your house he's saying to philemon all of those those people i think it's philemon's house he means there
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and you imagine well let's let's imagine they're going to observe the lord's supper
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and along comes philemon and who's with him
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onesimus
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and where do they sit
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beside each other
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not one above the other
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not one more important than the other
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at the lord's table
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all
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is on the same level
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there are no ranks
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at the lord's supper
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we are all
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one
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in christ jesus
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for the sake
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of love
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we say
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so grace produces
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christian character
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grace
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positively affects
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our relationships
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in christ
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and it shows the power of the gospel friends
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power of the gospel to
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to change
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matters positively
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to restore
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not just individuals to each other
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so that they welcome the reconciliation
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this is the gospel
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that has the power
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to extend beyond that
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to change
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broken homes
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broken lives
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communities
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nations even
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through the power of christ
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for the sake
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of love
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let's pray
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almighty god
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we give thanks
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tonight
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that we are here
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in the love
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that you have shown
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to us
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and we ask
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oh lord
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that you would help us
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to respond in love
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not only to you
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and to our fellow
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believers
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but also to the world
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around us
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for you require us
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to go beyond loving
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one another
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even to the love
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of our enemies
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we give thanks lord
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for the opportunities
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you give us
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to do this
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but we pray
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your forgiveness
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for the times we fail you
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as we do lord
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so often
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and we pray
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that tonight
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we might indeed
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increase in our love
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for each other
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that our love
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may abound
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more and more
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that we may welcome
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whenever reconciliation
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and forgiveness
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is required
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lord help us lord
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not to
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enter into any of that
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reluctantly
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give us to be glad
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that
34:14
issues are
34:16
mended
34:16
when they need to be mended
34:17
give us lord
34:19
to to know
34:20
that even
34:21
in the
34:22
larger sense
34:23
whether it be
34:24
between
34:24
congregations
34:26
or denominations
34:27
or communities
34:28
as well as individuals
34:30
we thank you lord
34:32
for the pattern
34:33
set
34:33
by the love of god
34:35
in christ jesus
34:37
we pray these things
34:38
seeking
34:39
that you would receive us
34:40
and hear the prayers
34:41
of your people
34:42
silently
34:43
and also spoken
34:44
and all for jesus sake
34:46
amen
34:47
we're going to now conclude