Latest / Enjoying the Journey / The Weekend Pulpit: Who Do You Owe?
Transcript
- 0:10There is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word.
- 0:14Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey, Scott Pauley leads us in
- 0:18a brief study of Scripture. Today on The Weekend
- 0:21Pulpit, we are happy to share a full-length Bible message
- 0:25given through Scott's pulpit ministry. These messages were recorded
- 0:30live in a local church or gospel event in recent days.
- 0:34It is our prayer that the message will be a help to you today.
- 0:54So I want you to open the Word of God with me again
- 0:58to the little book of Philemon in the New Testament. Only 25 verses
- 1:01long. I think this is right. You can check me. Not while I'm preaching,
- 1:05preferably. But I think there's 333 words. That's all.
- 1:08Can you imagine? That's just a note, isn't it? A note to
- 1:12a friend. And let's review for just a moment because we began our study
- 1:16of this little book of Philemon with the first 7 verses. And we talked
- 1:20about the church which is in thy house. And the whole principle
- 1:24there, of course, is that God intended for the church to be in our heart.
- 1:27It's more than your body being in the church house. It's the church
- 1:31being in your heart. How many of you know Christ lives in you?
- 1:36Well, look, that's the head. The head lives inside of you.
- 1:39He puts you in the body and he expects you to be connected to every
- 1:43other member of the body. And the grandest thing on earth is that you get
- 1:47to be a part of the family of God. And the family, of course,
- 1:50is not just to enjoy. It's not just to pull up to the table and—
- 1:54by the way, nobody cooks like mama cooks. Amen for that. But when you come
- 1:57to the household, not only do you get the privileges of the family, you get
- 2:01the responsibilities of the family. And so you got the church in your heart,
- 2:04the church in your house. And then in our next study,
- 2:08we took verse 8 down through verse number 19 and
- 2:13we looked at this beautiful little phrase in verse 9. I wonder if
- 2:16you remember it. 3 words. What are they, church? For love's
- 2:21sake. Very good. And I've already heard some husbands and wives today using that phrase
- 2:25against each other, and that's bad. That's very bad.
- 2:28For love's sake, would you please do this for me?
- 2:32But the truth of the matter is, the great love is Calvary love,
- 2:36right? Which is not a taking love, it's a giving love.
- 2:41And it's not a human love, it's a divine love. It's not a short-term
- 2:45sentimental kind of love, It is an eternal love!
- 2:49This is the love of Christ. We talked about what the Lord Jesus
- 2:53Christ has done for us and what it should compel us to do. Let's pick
- 2:56up where we left off. Maybe would you come with me to verse number 18.
- 2:59Philemon, verse number 18. Paul is writing, of course, to Philemon
- 3:04about Onesimus and he says in verse 18, if he
- 3:09hath wronged thee... Isn't that an interesting turn of phrase?
- 3:13If he's wronged you. Let me ask you a question.
- 3:16Had Onesimus wronged Philemon? Yes or no?
- 3:20You better believe it. Let me ask you a more personal question. Have you wronged
- 3:24God? It's interesting. He could have gotten very specific.
- 3:28He could have said, if Onesimus stole from you,
- 3:32if Onesimus took anything from you, if Onesimus cost
- 3:37you anything while he was gone. But he doesn't. He uses this word,
- 3:40if he hath— what? Wronged thee. I'm going to tell you what I believe.
- 3:44I believe the Holy Ghost is sending all of us a message because sin is
- 3:48anything against right. It's anything against
- 3:52the righteousness of Christ. And every time you sin, whether it's that you did something
- 3:56you shouldn't do or failed to do something that you should do, him that knoweth
- 3:59to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Sin is one
- 4:03thing. It is wronging God. And he says
- 4:06to him, if he's wronged thee or owest thee aught,
- 4:11put that on mine account. Isn't that a beautiful phrase?
- 4:16And aren't you glad you're living on credit tonight? Not on your credit.
- 4:19Stay away from that. Live on Christ's credit. There's no
- 4:23credit like that credit. And he says in verse number 20— excuse
- 4:27me, verse 19, I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will
- 4:31repay it. And I don't know about you, but growing up where I did,
- 4:35they called that an IOU. How many of you are familiar with an IOU?
- 4:39You don't hear much about that today, do you? And you know,
- 4:42years ago a handshake actually meant something. It doesn't mean much today. But let
- 4:47me just give you a good word tonight before we move on with this message.
- 4:49I'm not living with an IOU. I'm living with a receipt.
- 4:55The Apostle Paul said, when I get there, I'll pay you whatever
- 4:59he owes you. I got something better than that. I have
- 5:03Christ's word from Calvary. It is finished.
- 5:06It is paid in full. And I'm marching into heaven
- 5:10not with an IOU, but with a receipt that has
- 5:13been paid in full. What a picture, of course, of salvation
- 5:17and its completeness. And then he says this. Look at the end of verse 19.
- 5:21This is where we left off. I do not say to thee,
- 5:26How thou owest unto me even
- 5:29thine own self besides.
- 5:34There's a lot behind that verse. As a matter of fact, most Bible
- 5:38teachers believe that Philemon was actually led to Christ through
- 5:42the ministry of the Apostle Paul. How many of you remember the person
- 5:46that led you to Jesus? You remember that person? Do they mean something special to
- 5:50you? I'm thinking right now of the woman that took a Bible and shared the
- 5:54love of God with me and told me about the Lord Jesus Christ and led
- 5:56me to the Lord Jesus. Now Jesus does the saving, but God uses human beings.
- 6:01And I'm remembering that woman now, and I'm thinking how precious she is to me
- 6:05and what that woman means to me. So can you imagine Philemon opening his note
- 6:09and looking down at the bottom, and with his own hand, with his own hand,
- 6:13he sees the signature of the Apostle Paul? Only one thing greater than that,
- 6:17and that's the signature of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now watch it,
- 6:20please. Paul said, you owe me.
- 6:24And you don't just owe me something,
- 6:27you owe me yourself. He says,
- 6:31would you do this? Would you do this, please, for Onesimus on my
- 6:34good name? Not for his merit. He has no merit of his own. The only
- 6:38thing he's worthy of is death. Sound familiar? But Paul says, would you
- 6:42do it on my good name? Would you do it on my merit? Would you
- 6:46do it on my rightness instead of his wrongness?
- 6:51And He says, because you don't just owe me this,
- 6:55you owe me yourself. We're going to do something a
- 6:59little unusual tonight. I want everyone to participate. I'd like for you to take out
- 7:02a piece of paper, everyone please. I want you to find something to write on
- 7:05and something to write with. And if you've got to borrow something, borrow it quickly.
- 7:08But I want you to find some piece of paper. It's going to be yours
- 7:11and nobody's going to look at it but you, unless your spouse looks
- 7:16over and cheats off your paper in just a moment. Don't let them do that.
- 7:18If you let them look at it, that's alright, but it's just yours.
- 7:21It's not for anybody's eyes but yours. And on it tonight,
- 7:25I'm going to give you some things to write on it, but listen to me
- 7:27please. The Holy Ghost is going to give you some things to write on it.
- 7:32Now would you listen tonight not to me? Would you listen to the real preacher?
- 7:35I'm not the real preacher. I work for Him, but the real preacher is here
- 7:38and that's the Holy Spirit of God. And when we're done tonight,
- 7:42on this piece of paper you're going to have written question
- 7:46across the top and you're going to have to write some answers. And then you're
- 7:50going to have to determine whether you're the kind of person that pays their debts
- 7:54or not. I'm not going to ask how many of you have debt.
- 7:57Most of us do. As a matter of fact, I looked up today just for
- 8:01interest's sake and found out that the average American household now has over $130,000
- 8:07worth of debt. That's a lot of debt. As a
- 8:10matter of fact, they say the average American household has more than $15,000
- 8:15in credit card debt alone. Imagine that.
- 8:19And I'm sorry to bring such a depressing subject to the pulpit tonight.
- 8:22Some of you are just not feeling spiritual all of a sudden, are you?
- 8:25You're thinking about what you owe. And I'm not preaching on that tonight.
- 8:29The Bible says we're to owe no man anything but to love one another.
- 8:32And I think that we ought to be very careful about our debts. And of
- 8:36course, if you're going to owe, I think you ought to pay. And I believe
- 8:39Christians ought to be people of integrity. How many of you believe that?
- 8:43And I wonder tonight, do you pay your debts? I'm not
- 8:47just talking tonight about financial ones. You see, financial debts are the least
- 8:51kind of debt. The greatest debt is a spiritual debt. And so across
- 8:55the top of your paper, I want you to write this question. It's a very
- 8:58personal question and nobody can answer it for you but you. I can't
- 9:02answer it for you. Your spouse can't even answer it for you. Here's the question.
- 9:05Would you write it across the top of your paper in big bold letters?
- 9:09Underline it 2 or 3 times once you've written it down. Are you ready for
- 9:11the question? Here it is. Who do I owe?
- 9:18Who? Now look, we'll get to the what, but if you get the who,
- 9:22you'll figure out the what.
- 9:26If you get the who right, the what will take care of itself.
- 9:29And so I want to ask you tonight, who do you owe? You see,
- 9:32it's very interesting to me how the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
- 9:36uses this word owe. Look please at verse number 18. When I stop, say the
- 9:39next word. Verse 18, if he hath
- 9:42wronged thee or what? Owe thee
- 9:45ought. Come to verse 19, same thing. I, Paul, have written it
- 9:50with mine own hand. I will repay it, albeit I do not say to thee
- 9:53how thou what? Now watch please. In verse number 18,
- 9:57it's about what Onesimus owes. But in verse number 19,
- 10:01it's about what Philemon owes. Watch this carefully.
- 10:05In verse number 18, he says, I know that Onesimus owes
- 10:09you. But he turns it around and says, Philemon, I want you to think for
- 10:13just a minute about what you owe. Watch this carefully.
- 10:17Verse number 18 is the debt of sin.
- 10:21But verse number 19 is the debt of love.
- 10:24Verse number 18 is the debt that every last one of us owed.
- 10:29A debt that was crushing us under its weight.
- 10:32A debt that not a single one of us could ever pay
- 10:36in a million years in hell. And in a
- 10:40moment, praise His holy name, Jesus Christ
- 10:43paid that sin debt in full!
- 10:47Jesus paid it what? All! All to
- 10:51Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain;
- 10:55He washed it white as snow.
- 10:59Watch please carefully. Verse number 18 is the debt that
- 11:03you could never pay. So somebody paid it for you. But verse number
- 11:0719 is the debt that you must pay. It's not
- 11:12that you're paying to get something. It's you're paying because you've
- 11:16received everything. It's not that you're— it's
- 11:20not that you're paying— excuse me, please. It's not that you're paying so
- 11:25that you can be right with God. You get to pay out of a
- 11:29heart of gratitude and thankfulness
- 11:33Because God has made you right with Himself. And I ask you again,
- 11:37who do you owe? By the way, if you think I'm preaching
- 11:40on money tonight, you've missed the point already. You see, the truth of the
- 11:44matter is, this is not all about money. None of this is about money.
- 11:47Even your commitment to tithe or to give offerings or to invest
- 11:52in worldwide missions, do you understand that's not a financial issue? That's a spiritual
- 11:55issue. And when people get their heart right with the Lord and fall in
- 11:59love with Christ and in love with what Christ loves, then suddenly they
- 12:02view even their money differently. And you don't have to coerce and
- 12:06beg and plead and beat people over the head. As a matter of fact,
- 12:09did you notice that this little letter of Philemon is not written as
- 12:13a command? It's written as a request.
- 12:17The very tone of the letter is not Paul saying to Philemon, you're going
- 12:21to do this. You're gonna do this. It's what I'm telling you to do and
- 12:24you're gonna do this. No, no. He says, I'd like to entreat you to do
- 12:27this. I'd like to ask you for love's sake if you'll do this. I'd like
- 12:30to ask you if you'll reflect a little bit about how good I've been to
- 12:33you and how good the Lord's been to you and how good you have it.
- 12:36And then on the basis of all of that, I'd like to ask you,
- 12:38would you be willing to do this? Now, why is he entreating? Hear me,
- 12:41please. Because the greatest things in life are not done
- 12:45for the preacher's sake. They're done for Christ's sake. They're not
- 12:48done to please a man. They're done to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 12:52They're not done so somebody will pat you on the back and talk about what
- 12:55a good Christian you are. They'll be done so that someday you can kneel at
- 12:58the nail-pierced feet of Jesus Christ and have crowns to lay at the worthy feet
- 13:02of Jesus and say, Lord, this was all for you. And I ask
- 13:06you again, who do you owe?
- 13:09Let's begin our list with the most obvious thing. I'm, I'm going to give you
- 13:13my list tonight. Is that alright? Number 1, would you write this down? I've written
- 13:17down on my list, I owe Jesus. I owe Jesus.
- 13:22Somebody says, well, what do you owe Him? Yes.
- 13:26Yes, I just owe Jesus. I owe Him everything.
- 13:31If it wasn't for Jesus, I wouldn't be alive right now. In Him we live
- 13:34and move and have our being. Would you take a breath right now? Would you
- 13:38take a breath? You know who gave you that breath? The one who created all
- 13:41things and by him all things consist. If— look, if it wasn't for Jesus,
- 13:44you wouldn't be alive at this moment. And every good thing in your life,
- 13:47every blessing in your life is not for your sake. It's for Jesus' sake.
- 13:51That's why when we pray and we end our prayers, we pray, in Jesus' name.
- 13:54That's not just a clever way to sign off or a nice tidy way to
- 13:57wrap it up now. No, we're praying in the mighty name of Jesus.
- 14:00Look, he's the only authority, the only access, the only assurance
- 14:05that any of us have. All that I have is Jesus. All that I
- 14:08claim is Jesus. All that I want, all that I need,
- 14:11all that I plead is Jesus. And so,
- 14:15no, Jesus is everything. In Jesus I have life. In Jesus
- 14:20I have eternal life. You see, if it wasn't for Jesus, I'd be burning
- 14:23in hell tonight and I'd be there for all eternity.
- 14:27But Jesus, He took my hell.
- 14:31He took my death. He took my sin. I owe
- 14:35Jesus. Now wait a minute! I not only have life and
- 14:39I not only have eternal life. God in Christ made a way that
- 14:43I could have abundant life. That's why Jesus said, the thief cometh not but for
- 14:47to kill and to steal and to destroy. I have come that they might have
- 14:49life and that they might have it... what? More abundantly.
- 14:53And so all the joys of this world and all the joys of the world
- 14:57to come are wrapped up in the name that is above every name, the name
- 15:01of Jesus Christ. And on the basis of that tonight, I want to tell you,
- 15:04I owe Jesus. How many of you have Jesus on your list?
- 15:08You owe Him too. Number 2, would you write this
- 15:11down? Not only do I owe Jesus, I owe those
- 15:16who came before me. You see,
- 15:19before you and I were ever here, there was somebody serving Jesus.
- 15:23There was— there was somebody getting the Gospel to people. There was somebody building
- 15:26churches. There was somebody doing their part. There was somebody serving their
- 15:30generation and then passing it on to the next generation. If I might go back
- 15:34to our story, if you're Philemon, that's Paul.
- 15:37And Paul says, you owe me. And why do you
- 15:42owe me? You owe me not because of who I am. You owe me because
- 15:45I introduced you to Jesus.
- 15:49May I ask you, who goes on your list here?
- 15:53On my list is Miss McKinney who told me about Christ.
- 15:56On my list is my dad and my mom who taught me
- 16:00the Scriptures and lived it at home.
- 16:04They're on my list. On my list is a— is
- 16:09a 6th grade elementary school teacher named Mr. Hess who
- 16:14took an interest in me and who said to me, Scott, I want to teach
- 16:17you how to read in public. I hadn't surrendered to be a preacher
- 16:21yet. Nobody knew I was going to be a preacher. And yet, how many of
- 16:24you know I'm using that every week of my life? Ned Hess
- 16:28stood me in front of that class of 6th graders and he said, I'm going
- 16:31to teach you how to read in public and I'm going to teach you how
- 16:32to enunciate. I'm going to teach you how to emphasize words and read with feeling.
- 16:36And he taught me certain things. And Ned Hess is on my list.
- 16:40And Terry Ballstick— Mr. Ballstick's on my list. You don't know Mr.
- 16:44Ballstick, but He taught at the high school where I went growing up.
- 16:48When God called me to preach, lots of people thought that was kind of funny,
- 16:50you know, a teenage preacher. And some of the kids in school didn't think that
- 16:53was too neat a thing, but he did. He liked it.
- 16:56And he not only liked it, every day he would say to me, written any
- 17:00sermons lately? Preached anywhere lately? And he
- 17:04talked to me about the wonderful work of Jesus. And in one of the most
- 17:07challenging periods in my life growing up, Terry Ballstick encouraged me.
- 17:12Now I'm thinking about people who taught me in college. I'm thinking
- 17:16about a pastor that I served under for nearly 20 years. All the things that
- 17:19God used him to invest in my life. I'm thinking about the guy that was
- 17:22preaching the night that God called me to be a preacher. I'm thinking about friends
- 17:27who text me along the journey or send a note in the mail and say,
- 17:29just want you to know I'm praying for you. I'm telling you, those people have
- 17:33made a difference in my life. And let me tell you why I want to
- 17:35press on and be faithful to the end. I owe those people.
- 17:40Let me ask you a question. How many of you got a face or name
- 17:43that's come to your mind right now? Would you raise your hand? I want you
- 17:46to write their name down right now on your paper. Put their name down right
- 17:48now on your paper. You owe them. You say, well, what do
- 17:52I owe them? At least 2 things. May I show you something interesting? Look at
- 17:56verse number 4. What had Paul done for Philemon? Verse 4 says, I thank my
- 18:00God, making mention of the always in my— what?
- 18:05Prayers. Watch this. Paul was praying for Philemon. Now come to verse 22.
- 18:10But withal prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that
- 18:14through your prayers I
- 18:17shall be given unto you. And I love this. Do you see the law
- 18:21of sowing and reaping? Paul said, look, I've been praying for you.
- 18:24Would you pray for me? Can I tell you what some of you need to
- 18:28do tonight? Some of you need to call somebody. You need to sit down and
- 18:31write a letter. You need to go by somebody's house. Some of the
- 18:35people's names that you wrote down, they're in heaven already. How many of you are
- 18:38thinking of somebody in heaven already? You're gonna have to wait till you get to
- 18:41heaven to thank them. Some of you have people
- 18:45on your paper that are still alive and you ought to thank them right now
- 18:48while you still have an opportunity for the investment they made in your life.
- 18:52And then you ought to go a step further. You ought to start praying for
- 18:55them every day. Do you understand you're here tonight because somebody prayed for you?
- 19:00Tonight my wife is praying for me. She told me so a while ago.
- 19:03My children are praying for me. When I get done, I'll call home tonight and
- 19:07inevitably one of my kids will say to me, Anybody get saved tonight, Dad?
- 19:11How'd the service go, Daddy? They're praying for me.
- 19:16I have a praying father and a praying mother and lots of praying friends.
- 19:19But let me tell you one of the grandest truths I ever learned. If nobody
- 19:22on earth prayed for me today, somebody in heaven did. Do you
- 19:27know where Jesus is at this moment? He's seated at the right hand of the
- 19:29Heavenly Father and he ever liveth to make intercession for you and I. Robert Murray
- 19:33M'Cheyne said, if I could hear Jesus praying for me in the next room,
- 19:35I would not fear 1,000 enemies. Then he stopped and said, but the distance makes
- 19:38no difference. He is praying for me. See, Jesus is praying for
- 19:42you and the Holy Spirit is praying for you and some preacher's prayed for you
- 19:45and some family member's prayed for you. Somebody's prayed for you. Let me ask you,
- 19:48who are you praying for? You know, it's funny, but we
- 19:52tell people, I'm praying for you, and we don't. We don't.
- 19:56Our brother asked yesterday, how many of you will pray for me? And I wonder—
- 20:00don't raise your hand— but I wonder how many already have. I was driving in
- 20:04here tonight and talking with someone on the phone. The man said to me,
- 20:06would you, would you pray for this man? I'm talking to him about Jesus.
- 20:09He needs to be saved. And he said, maybe you can talk to him.
- 20:12And before we got off the phone, I said to him, why don't we stop
- 20:14right now and pray for him? Now, that wasn't a good time to close my
- 20:18eyes and pray, but I'm driving down the road. I prayed. I learned if I
- 20:22don't stop right then and there and pray, I probably am not going to do
- 20:24it. And then you know what I do? I've started carrying a little book with
- 20:28me, a little prayer journal. It fits in my pocket. And every day through the
- 20:32day, I write down the names of people who call me and whose path I
- 20:36cross and people that I meet. I wrote several names down in my little journal
- 20:39today because I know if I don't write it down, I'm going to forget.
- 20:42Somebody said, a short pencil is better than a long memory. I like that.
- 20:45Don't you? How many of you ever told somebody you were going to pray for
- 20:48them and forgot? Did you know there's a Bible word for that? It's called lying.
- 20:52That's what it's called. And so I
- 20:56want to challenge you tonight to begin your prayer list. Pray for the lost and
- 21:00pray for laborers and pray for those who are already there and pray for those
- 21:02who need to go there and pray for those you love. And by the way,
- 21:06when you're praying, don't just pray for the physical material needs. Look at Paul's
- 21:09prayer. He prayed for his faith and he prayed for his love. He prayed for
- 21:13spiritual realities. Look. When that gets right, everything else grows out of that.
- 21:19Pray. I'll show you something else that you owe them.
- 21:22The Bible says in verse 7, for we have great joy and consolation in thy
- 21:25love, because the bowels of the saints are
- 21:29refreshed by thee, brother. Now would you come to verse 20?
- 21:33Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in
- 21:37the Lord. Here it is, refresh my bowels in the Lord.
- 21:41He said, you've done this in the past, but I need you to do it
- 21:45in the present. You know what lots of people in church do? They rest on
- 21:47what they did for Jesus 20 years ago. They even
- 21:52say things like, I've had 40 years of experience with the Lord, but they don't.
- 21:55They've had 20 years of experience with the Lord because 20 years ago they stopped
- 21:58moving forward. And I want to say to you tonight that
- 22:02your ministry must never be past tense. It must always be present tense.
- 22:07And if you say, tell me about Philemon. The only thing I know to tell
- 22:10you is he was a refresher. That's the Holy Ghost word.
- 22:14Did you know in a church family there are drainers and there are refreshers?
- 22:19Sure there are. There are people that are always receiving and
- 22:22needy and taking. I'm not just talking about material things. They just always seem to
- 22:27need. But then there are those people. They're needy too and they receive and they
- 22:31draw from others, but they've learned the wonderful liberty and joy of
- 22:34giving back. Can I tell you who the happiest church members are?
- 22:39The givers. The ones who are heart-deep and invested
- 22:43in it. The ones who are trying to refresh others. Look, you start ministering to
- 22:46the needs of others and I promise you on the authority of the Word of
- 22:48God, God will minister to every need that you have.
- 22:52You owe somebody encouragement and blessing and
- 22:56refreshment. Would you write a third thing down on your paper? Who do I owe?
- 23:00Number one, I owe Jesus. Number 2, I owe those coming— who
- 23:04came before me. And number 3, I owe those coming behind me. Hey,
- 23:07Philemon, there's a new Christian by the name of Onesimus about to
- 23:10show up on your door. And when he gets there, he's going to need what
- 23:14I did for you. He's going to need some encouragement and some love and
- 23:18some grace and some mercy— excuse me— and some forgiveness.
- 23:23And may I just pause right here and make an application? Because this book
- 23:27is about forgiveness. Not just the forgiveness you get, but the forgiveness you give.
- 23:32And so I want to ask you a question tonight. Is there anybody you need
- 23:43And I'm being real quiet for a moment. Just let the Holy Spirit speak.
- 23:46See, because I don't know.
- 23:51Is there anything you need to get over? Anything you need to move
- 23:54beyond?
- 23:57Whatever's coming to your mind at this moment, God's bringing to your mind.
- 24:01Oh, the devil's brought it to your mind a thousand times, hasn't he? Like a
- 24:04club to beat you over the head, to hold you back, to keep you from
- 24:07moving forward. That's not why Jesus brings it to your mind. Jesus brings
- 24:11it to your mind so that you can forgive and move beyond it.
- 24:15Somebody said, I can't do it. I can't do it, preacher. I just can't do
- 24:17it. You know, I travel all the time and
- 24:21I watch people in airports who don't travel frequently. I can always
- 24:25tell you who they are.
- 24:29People say to me, no matter how many days I'm there, they say, boy,
- 24:31you don't carry much, do you? You don't bring much, do you? You don't have
- 24:34much luggage, do you? And I just always laugh and I say, I just learned
- 24:37you travel light. You can get by on a lot less than you think you
- 24:41need. Sure you can. And I can always
- 24:44tell you who the infrequent travelers are because they're the people lugging 7 or 8
- 24:49suitcases for a 3-day journey.
- 24:53They brought it all just in case.
- 24:56And they're sweating and they're laboring under the burden of it.
- 25:01And I can tell you who the miserable people are on the journey of life
- 25:04too. They're the people that all along the journey kept picking up luggage and picking
- 25:08up luggage and picking up another bag and picking up another burden. And now
- 25:11they're weighted down with the cares of this world and they're
- 25:15struggling. It's not everybody else that's struggling.
- 25:19They're struggling now with a root of bitterness that's
- 25:24grown into a jungle of anger and
- 25:28unforgiveness. And I want to say to you, if we're going to get
- 25:32the message of forgiveness to a world that needs it, maybe we should live
- 25:36it, not just preach it.
- 25:40And where should that begin? In our own homes. Where should
- 25:44that begin? In the church house. Do you know there's people
- 25:48in churches that won't even speak to each other?
- 25:51Surely not! Oh yes.
- 25:54Somebody said most churches are more like a goat pen than a sheepfold because the
- 25:58people are always butting heads all the time. It's not good.
- 26:02May I tell you, you owe the people coming along behind you something different
- 26:06than that. Do you know what they need to see in you, ma'am? In you,
- 26:09sir? They need to see a demonstration of the love of Jesus
- 26:12Christ. And maybe you're not
- 26:16Paul, but you can be Philemon. And maybe you're not the preacher,
- 26:20but you can be a real Christian. And I love this. Would you look what
- 26:23the Bible says in verse 21? Having confidence in thy—
- 26:27what's the next word? Obedience. Would you mark that word? Are you an
- 26:31obedient person? Somebody says, sure, I'm obedient. Are you?
- 26:35Let me tell you where everybody's stuck. Everybody's stuck at the last place they refused
- 26:39to obey God. So may I ask you, is there anything God
- 26:43has told you to do you haven't done? Anyone the Lord
- 26:47told you to forgive you didn't forgive? Anything the Lord told you to put
- 26:51under the blood of Jesus and leave it there that you keep pulling up and
- 26:53bringing back? Because God says until you obey,
- 26:57you can't move forward. Oh, but that's not all. Read the rest of it.
- 27:00Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee,
- 27:03knowing that thou wilt also do— mark these words— more
- 27:07than I say. You know what we need?
- 27:11We need some more than I say Christianity.
- 27:15Some Christianity that doesn't simply get along with,
- 27:18I've done enough, the mediocre, the minimum Christianity.
- 27:22By the way, interestingly enough, when Jesus told that parable, He said that those who
- 27:26simply did what they thought they were supposed to do and no more were
- 27:30unprofitable servants. What was Onesimus' name?
- 27:34It was profitable. Can I tell you what God wants?
- 27:37He doesn't want unprofitable servants. He wants profitable servants. Let me tell you who the
- 27:41profitable servants are. They're the people that don't just do enough for people to say,
- 27:45well, you know, they're good churchgoing people. That's a good Christian man. That's a decent
- 27:48Christian woman. No, no. They're the people that aren't doing it for them. They're doing
- 27:51it for him. So they're measuring not
- 27:55by a standard of, well, I give more than they do. I pray more than
- 27:58they do. I come to more church services than they do. I witness more than
- 28:00they do. I give out more tracts. No, that's not the question. The question is,
- 28:03have you obeyed what God told you to do?
- 28:08The Apostle Paul wrote in another place in the book of Philippians and he said,
- 28:11I want you to learn to obey not as in my presence only, but now
- 28:14much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
- 28:19Because someday, my friend, you're going to give an account for
- 28:24what you owe. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 10:8,
- 28:28freely ye have received, freely give.
- 28:32Would you lift your head and look at me just a moment? How many of
- 28:35you got free forgiveness? Would you raise your hand? Won't you give some free forgiveness?
- 28:40How many of you got free grace and mercy? Won't you show some free
- 28:44grace and mercy? How many of you've received free blessings
- 28:48from the Lord you didn't deserve? Would you raise your hand? Won't you give some
- 28:51of those free blessings?
- 28:55Be kind one to another. Be good if we had
- 28:59a revival of kindness in our generation, don't you think? You know, kindness works everywhere.
- 29:04Be kind one to another, tenderhearted. Oh Lord, give us some tenderhearted
- 29:08people. Not sensitive, overly sensitive people. That's a different thing.
- 29:12You know, the problem is everybody wants to be hard on others and easy on
- 29:16themselves. It ought to be the exact opposite.
- 29:20We need tenderhearted people. What do they do?
- 29:23They forgive one another even as God
- 29:28for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
- 29:34Do you know what for Christ's sake is? It's just another way of saying for
- 29:38love's sake. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Who do I owe?
- 29:42I owe Jesus. Who do I owe?
- 29:46I owe those who've come before me. Who do I owe?
- 29:50Owe those who are coming along behind me.
- 29:54And I want you to do something. I want you to take that hymnbook out
- 29:56that's in front of you right now, would you please?
- 30:00And I want you to turn to hymn number 400. And no, I'm not going
- 30:03to sing. Praise the Lord for that! Your pastor's
- 30:07a singer, but I'm not. But I want you to find hymn number 400 because
- 30:11I've had this song on my mind tonight.
- 30:14Would you look at it?
- 30:19Grace Reece Atkins wrote these words: By
- 30:24and by when I look on His face,
- 30:27beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face,
- 30:31by and by when I look on His face,
- 30:36I wish I had given Him more.
- 30:40By and by when He holds out His hands, welcoming hands,
- 30:43nail-driven hands, By and by when He holds out
- 30:48His hands, I'll wish I'd given Him more.
- 30:52In the light of that heavenly place, light from His face— beautiful face!
- 30:56In the light of that heavenly place, I wish I'd given Him more. More!
- 31:00So much more! More of my life than I
- 31:04e'er gave before. By and by when I look on His face,
- 31:07I'll wish I'd given Him more.
- 31:12And I want to tell you tonight, I don't care how much you think you've
- 31:15given to the Lord or given to others, it's nothing to
- 31:18compare to what Christ gave you.
- 31:22Who do you owe?
- 31:37If this Bible message has been used of God in your life or
- 31:41we can pray for you in some definite way, please contact
- 31:44us at enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message
- 31:49with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible
- 31:53messages, please visit Dr. Scott Pauley's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is the
- 31:57Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful to
- 32:01attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday. Thank you
- 32:05for listening to The Weekend Pulpit, and don't miss
- 32:08Enjoying the Journey daily devotional podcast each Monday through Friday.