83 | The Difference the Gospel Makes with Hiram Kemp

What practical difference is the gospel making in your life?

Not just in what you believe.

But in how you love.

How you forgive.

How you approach difficult people.

How you handle broken relationships.

The book of Philemon reminds us that the gospel was never meant to stay in our heads. It was designed to transform the way we live every day.

In this special guest episode, my friend Hiram Kemp opens one of the New Testament's shortest books to reveal one of its biggest truths: the gospel changes everything.

If it has truly changed your relationship with God, it should also change your relationships with people. 

In This Episode, We'll Discuss:

•  ✅ Why the gospel transforms more than your eternity 
•  ✅ How grace changes the way you approach people 
•  ✅ What forgiveness and reconciliation look like in real life 
•  ✅ Why your past no longer has to define your future 
•  ✅ How the gospel empowers you to do hard things 
•  ✅ What the book of Philemon teaches about everyday discipleship 

The gospel isn't just something you believe.

It's something you live.

🎧 Listen now to Episode 83: The Difference the Gospel Makes with guest speaker Hiram Kemp.

RESOURCES
📖 FREE 5-Day Audio Devotional: Renaming Your Story
Struggling with identity or feeling stuck? Move from pain to purpose to legacy—15 minutes a day. https://sundayrenewal.podia.com/renaming-your-story-devo⁠

✨ For Families: The Devo Kids
Short devotionals, songs, and prayers that help children fall in love with God's Word. Watch on YouTube | Free printable journal pages at thedevokids.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

There is a question every Christian has to answer eventually. What practical difference is the gospel actually making in my life? Not what we say it should be making. Not what we sing about on Sunday morning. But what is the gospel actually doing in the way I love the people closest to me? The way I handle the person who hurt me, the way I show up in my real life on a Tuesday afternoon. Today we are going to sit at the feet of one of the most gifted preachers I know. And he is going to walk us through that question with the kind of honesty every one of us needs. My friend Hiram Kemp preaches for the Cumberland Road Church of Christ in Bowling Green, Kentucky. And the title of this lesson is The Difference the Gospel Makes. The text is the Book of Violet. And the burden is this. So settle in, let me get out of the way. And let my brother Hiram Kemp preach to you. Let's get into it. Welcome to Sunday Renewal, the podcast designed to help you revive your faith, restore your hope, and discover the deep, unshakable peace that comes from walking daily with God. I'm Ernest Benjamin, a husband, father, entrepreneur, and someone who spent nearly two decades teaching and preaching God's word to people just like you. People who want more than just feel-good messages. They want truth, biblical truth that meets them in their real lives and empowers them to live boldly for Christ. I believe God's word isn't just inspiring, it's life-changing. And each week we'll explore scripture in a way that's practical, relevant, and deeply personal so you can apply it to your life right now and take your faith to the next level. So let's dive into today's episode and take the next step toward renewal together.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Think about all the time you might have spent as a student memorizing the abbreviations and the various designations for the periodic table. And then you start thinking about your life in the current and thinking, how often do I use that? How practical, helpful, or useful is that to me? Or maybe when you learn the different types of clouds. I guess there's a sense in which it's something beneficial to know the difference between the various clouds, but today you just open up your weather app and it's there that you learn whether you need an umbrella or not. Then there's math equations. The Pythagorean theorem, A square plus B square equals C square. And maybe you spend a lot of time learning long division, and you can even be thinking to yourself, when's the last time I actually use that in a practical sense? All the teachers right now are like, get him out of the pulpit. He's ruining our lives. Stay in school, kids. It is important. But there's a lot of things we learn all the time, and if we're honest, we say to ourselves, all of the states and all of the various capitals, of what practical use is it really in my day-to-day life? And what concerns me is that this same thing can happen to us as it relates to Christianity. You think about the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and maybe you believe that that actually happened, that it's a factual event that took place. And you might even go so far as to obey the gospel and become a Christian. But maybe you say to yourself, you know what, I'll put that on the shelf in the same way that I would the periodic table, and that knowledge will be useful and practical to me, maybe on the day of judgment. But as for the day-to-day way that I live my life, the realities that I cling to, the things we sing about as it relates to the gospel, they don't really have an impression on me. And maybe you don't put it in those words. But maybe deep down inside, we do think of Christianity and all of its tenets as something that's completely divorced from what we sometimes refer to as our real lives. The gospel is obviously designed to change our relationship between the God in heaven and our relationship on earth. The gospel is designed to forgive us of our sins and reconcile us to God. But embedded in the New Testament is also this idea that the gospel changes our relationships with one another and the way that we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. The gospel is designed to make a difference, not just in what we believe in our head and the facts we memorize, but also the way we go about living our very lives. The book of Philemon teaches this perhaps in a way that no other New Testament book does. You know, sometimes people struggle with the Book of Philemon, and why is it even included in the New Testament canon? It's one chapter with 25 verses. And sometimes people think to themselves, as you read this book, there's no deep theology about salvation or the plan of salvation or about the church contained in this book. But the book of Philemon needs to be studied. It's real, it's practical, it's earthy, it's even disturbing at times. The book of Philemon is designed to teach us not just an ancient account of something that happened in the first century, but of how the gospel makes a practical difference in our day-to-day lives. There are three main characters or personalities in the book of Philemon. From Philemon, verse 1, we learn there's a man by the name of Philemon, who's a member of the church in Colossae, and he's a slave owner. The second major character is a man by the name of Onesimus, who was owned by Philemon as a slave. And then the third major character in the book is the Apostle Paul, who is a friend and a mentor to both parties. Paul starts this book in the first seven verses by praising Philemon for his work, for his faithfulness, for his involvement in the work of the Lord in the church, thanking him for the great influence and impact that he's had on Paul's life and on all others that Paul has heard about. But then in verses 8 and 9, Paul gets to the heart of why he actually wrote. He wrote this letter to Philemon, who was formerly the master of this slave Onesimus, and he really has two requests for Philemon, towards Onesimus. He wants him to treat him as a brother, and he argues for Onesimus' release. It's assuming too much to assume from this book that Onesimus was a runaway slave. The Bible never says he ran away. Perhaps he departed on business from his master to run an errand, but whatever the case is, Onesimus the slave found Paul in prison in far off Rome, and it was there that Paul converted him, according to verse 10 and verse 11. Paul sends him back to his master with this letter to argue for his release and his proper treatment. Paul even signs it in verse 19. He says, If Onesimus owes you anything in relation to why he was put into slavery, I, Paul, write it with my own hand. I will repay it. And then he says in verses 21 and 22, he believes he'll be released from prison soon, and he'll be able to check on these matters in person and see whether or not Philemon and Onesimus have responded in the way that Paul wants them to. The book of Philemon is designed to teach you and me in the 21st century, if we're Christians, this is the kind of difference the gospel should be making in our lives. And if we're not Christians, if we'll submit to his lordship and to the tenets of New Testament Christianity, here's the kind of difference that the gospel can make. So if you have your Bible, open it up to the book of Philemon. And this morning, let's notice six ways in which the gospel makes a practical difference and it's designed to be a difference maker and make a change in our lives. Here's number one the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it introduces us to true love or real love. Paul starts in Philemon verse one by mentioning several different individuals. He mentions Archipis and Apathia, and then he starts saying some things about Philemon and the church that he says in verse two meets in his house. In verse one, their fellow laborers. In verse two, the church meets in his house. In verse two, their fellow soldiers together. Notice verse 4, Paul says he prays always and at all times for Philemon, giving thanks to God on his behalf. In verse 5, he praises Philemon for his faith and works toward God and toward all Christians everywhere. And in verse 7, Philemon's faith has become so prominent that it spread throughout the city of Colossae, so much so that Paul says in verse 7, he describes it as the hearts of the saints are refreshed by you. The first way the gospel makes a difference in our lives is it produces real love. And Paul illustrates this in these seven verses to show the great difference that it's already been making in Philemon's life. And this is the motivation for what he's going to call Philemon to do later on in this book. Maybe you've noticed this in our world and in our society. We've got various ways of describing love. When love first begins in the initial phases, we talk about puppy love. If we really have to do something hard towards somebody, but we want them to know there's been no love lost, we talk about tough love. With all of the counterfeits of love in our society, sometimes when we want to show someone our love is genuine and sincere, we'll talk about true love. And if we mean to communicate to somebody that this love is unending and it will continue throughout our lives, we talk about unconditional love. But the New Testament knows no such distinction. In the New Testament, love is simply love. And it's what Christians are designed to do by God as we live our lives for Him. And so Jesus could say in John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. By this will all people know you're my disciples. If you have love one toward another. It seems as Jesus got closer to the cross, he doubled down on this idea. And so in John 15 and verse 12, he says, Love one another as I've loved you, or love one another as I've commanded you. In John 15 and verse 17, the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it produces real love in those of us who submitted to his teaching. It challenges us because it says in a world where love is just thrown around, look at the first seven verses of Philemon, and Paul says, this is what love is all about. It's tempting to view your life and think to yourself, I really love the people that I have a lot in common with, or the people that I have good vibes with. Paul says, no, here's the criteria for what real love looks like. And maybe you start out in the book of Philemon and you think, Paul, why all of these pleasantries? Just get to what you want to talk about. You want Philemon to release Onesimus, but there's a reason why Paul delays. Because what Paul wants to say to Philemon before he makes his request is the gospel's already been changing your life. Think about the kind of person Christianity has turned you into. And this is the kind of real love it produces. If you want to know who you love and who loves you, Paul says these seven verses will tell you who. Number one, it's the people you work alongside in spiritual endeavors. In verse one, he talks about fellow laborers. Paul says this about Timothy in Philippians 2 and verse 22. He says, You know the proven worth of Timothy, that as a son with the Father, he's labored with me in the gospel. Who do you work alongside? Number two, who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with? Look at Philemon verse 2. There's a church in his house. Who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with? That's an indication of the people you love. Who do you go to war with? And who would you go to war for? In Philemon verse 2, he says, We're fellow soldiers together. Whoever you would go into combat with, whoever you would go to bat for, Philippians 1.27, Paul says, stand fast with one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel. That's an indication of who you love. Who do you pray for? In verse 4, Paul says, I pray for you all the time. And then, whose heart or whose life do you refresh? Or another way to ask it would be, who refreshes your life? For whatever else we think, this is the definition of true and real love. And Paul says, it's what the gospel produces in people. It changes you so that you don't just say, I love you with your lips, but you learn to say it with your life. 1 John 3 in verse 18, John says, My little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but instead in deed and in truth. It's easy to say it, but Paul says, if the gospel makes a difference in you, you'll show it by the way you live and by the way you treat other people. Look at Philemon, verse 12. Because in verse 12, Paul makes one of the strongest statements about love in the entire Bible. He's talking about the slave, Onesimus, who's made his way to him in prison, and he says, Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back to you, sending my very heart. This is some of the strongest language in all the Bible. Paul doesn't just say, now that Onesimus has been baptized, he's a Christian, though that's true. He doesn't just say this man is a fellow brother in Christ, though that's true. He says, I'm sending you my very heart, because when people become Christians, if the Bible defines for us what love actually is, the people in this room aren't just people you go to church with or you sit on a pew with or you share a building with for an hour. They're people you share your ultimate life with. What does the Bible say about the relationship between David and Jonathan? David loved Jonathan as his own soul, 1 Samuel 18 and verse 1. And if you want to know whether or not the gospel is actually making a difference in you, or whether or not you've equated it to a spiritual periodic table or a long division, if it's actually changing you, you've got to start asking yourself, is it producing real love in me? Who do I pray for? Are these my people? Who do I go to war with? Who do I voluntarily share my home and my life with? What am I doing as far as refreshing the lives of other people and who refreshes my life as a result? Paul says, Philemon, the gospel's designed to make a difference. And when it does, it'll produce real love. Here's number two it changes how you approach people. Look at verse 8 and verse 9. Paul is now about to get to what he wants to talk to Philemon about. He says in verse 8, though I'm much bold in Christ to command of you what's required, he said, Yes, for love's sake, I rather appeal to you. I, Paul, who am an old man, Paul knows he's an apostle. Paul's writings were guided by the Holy Spirit. And whenever Paul was writing under inspiration, his writings were as good as God himself speaking. In 1 Corinthians 14, 37, Paul would say, If any man thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things I'm writing to you, these are the commands of the Lord. Paul has apostolic authority, and Paul could command. But Paul's life has been changed by the gospel. And so even though he has authority, Paul does not view his authority as that which should be wielded and abused toward other people and making people do things, but instead it should be stewarded in humility. In 2 Corinthians 10, 18, and in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 7, Paul says, I've been given this authority not to destroy your faith, but to build it up. And he's about to ask Philemon to do a difficult thing. And instead of commanding, Paul says, I appeal to you in love. Throughout the New Testament, one of Paul's greatest ways, or I'm going to argue, his favorite way to try to get people to do stuff, just read his letters and see if this is true. Paul doesn't often say, Thou shall and thou must do this or that. Paul's favorite way to try to get people to do the things God would have them to do is he says, I ask, I urge, I appeal, I even beg in faith. He'd say in Romans 12 and verse 1, I beg you, therefore, brethren, present yourselves by the mercies of God as a living sacrifice unto God. Or I therefore are the prisoner of the Lord. I urge you, walk worthy of the calling that's called you with all lowliness and meekness and long suffering, Ephesians 4, 1 and 2. I urge you, fulfill my joy. Philippians 2, 1 and 2. Paul realized something. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. And so Paul says, I want to approach people kindly. A soft answer turns away wrath, Proverbs 15 and verse 1. Solomon's wisdom is right in Proverbs 25 and verse 15 when he says, Patience can turn the heart of a ruler, and a soft tongue breaks a bone. How does the gospel change us? What difference does it make? It literally changes how you approach people. Some people have a problem with the New Testament, and especially with the Book of Philemon. They say to themselves, why doesn't Paul or any of the other writers of the New Testament, I mean, why don't they just come out and denounce it? If God's good and holy and perfect and right, why doesn't Paul just come out and say, Thou shalt not own slaves? Just condemn slavery outright. Paul never does that, and it's because Paul knew better. Paul knew if he would have done that, it would have never worked. Paul doesn't write the book of Philemon as a piece of legislation against slavery. It doesn't read like that. The book of Philemon reads like a love letter between siblings. Paul's not saying to Philemon so much, you should let Onesimus go because it's the law. Instead, he's going to argue, you should let Onesimus go because of your love. The love of Christ compels us, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 14. And what Paul mentions in verse 9, I, Paul, an aged man, it appears that age has sort of softened Paul. You know, there was a time in Paul's life where Paul could make people do things. Before he was a Christian in Acts 26, 11, Paul says, I compelled or I forced Christians to blaspheme. Paul used to operate through might, but now he says, the gospel's changed me. I operate through love. And if the gospel makes a difference in your life, listen, it won't be theoretical. It will be real and it'll be in how you approach people. Everybody in this room approaches people typically in one of two ways. You're using one of two approaches in your day-to-day life and how you engage with people. One of those approaches is what we'll just call one method, is the courtroom method. The courtroom method is where you approach people and you gather your evidence, you present your case, you structure your arguments, you cross-examine, and above all, you want everybody to know I'm right. It's what the brother does that approaches Jesus in Luke 12, 13, and 14. He says, Teacher, tell my brother to invite to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus says, Man, who made me a ruler or an arbiter between you and your brother? The courtroom method says, I'm right, I want you to know it. And when you approach people, you've got arguments and cases, and you call witnesses and you want to prove yourself right. The second approach is what we'll call the living room approach. This is where you sit instead of stand. You lower your voice, you open your heart, you listen before you speak, you ask rather than you assume. You try to get to know what the other person's thinking. And everybody in this room, you are typically using one of these two approaches with the people in your life. Let me tell you, if you go around in life using the courtroom approach with people, people will be about as happy to see you coming as they are when they learn they have jury duty. But if you use the living room approach, people will embrace you, fall on your neck, and kiss you, even when you have to tell them hard things, like a homeless man that you've just invited over for Thanksgiving dinner. See, what this tells me is that some of us are great lawyers, but we're terrible neighbors. Oh, we've got our arguments, we've got the truth, we're even right, but our delivery of such, it turns people away. Leviticus 19, 18, Moses writes, love your neighbor like you love yourself. And you're typically using one of these two approaches, and so am I. And what does this mean? It means in your marriage, you can be right with your spouse, but if you never use the living room approach that says, you know what, I'm right about this, but I would rather, don't you see Paul? Paul says, I could command, I have authority, but I'd rather appeal to you in love. If every time your kids mess up, every time it's the courtroom method, the gospel hasn't really changed you. If people in your family always feel like they're on trial rather than in a home, that's how you know. What about the people on your job? It won't matter what you're saying here, just ask them, they'll tell you. They'll tell you which one is your favorite. You might be thinking about Facebook. And how do you engage with people, courtroom or a living room? What about your friends? And especially when you're right, the gospel makes a difference because it radically changes how you approach people. And there's two important things to take away from this. Number one, Paul could have used the one rather than the other. He was right. He had the arguments, he had the authority, but he didn't. And the second thing is to think about Jesus. And Jesus comes to earth and he could take us to court and prosecute us, but instead he sits to reason with us. The living room approach was Jesus' favorite way to deal with us. What does he say as he's heading to the cross? I could call 12 legions of angels. That's the living room approach, Matthew 26, 53 to 54. Pilate, you'd have no power over him at all unless it was given to you from heaven. John 19 and verse 11. There it is again. That's the living room approach that says, I could, but I'd rather not. If you be the Christ, come down from the cross, then we'll see, and then we'll believe. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke 23 and verse 34. Over and over again in Jesus' life with us, rather than take us to court, he sits us down in the living room and says, I could exercise all of this power and authority, but I won't do it. And people who've been saved by a man like that, in a way like that, if the gospel actually changes us, it changes the way we engage with everybody. 2 Corinthians 5 17, Paul says, If any man's in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, everything's become new. And if you know you've really been saved by the living room approach, it'd make no sense to live the entirety of your life through the courtroom approach. See, the gospel is not just facts, it actually makes a difference. Why can Paul appeal to Philemon instead of command them? Because it changes how you approach people. You realize how God's approached you, and it radically reforms how you approach everybody else. Here's number three it changes your past. Philemon, verse 10, Paul says, I'm appealing to you for Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. He formerly was useless to you, but now he's useful both to you and me. Here's Paul, he's ready, he really wants to be. Here's his argument. He says in verse 10, I'm writing to you, Philemon, about this slave of yours, Onesimus. And he says, Whose father I became in my imprisonment. Evidently, when Onesimus came to Paul, Paul converted him. He became a Christian. And Paul writes this letter back and he says, Hey, everything with Onesimus is different now. And Philemon, you've got to receive him this way. By the way, Onesimus' name means useful. There was a time when he was not living up to his namesake, but Paul says, now he is, and now his whole life is different. And Philemon, you've got to appreciate the gospel has changed his past. This terminology in verse 10, whose father I became in my imprisonment, it means that Paul was responsible for converting Onesimus to Christianity. It's what he says about the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 15. He says, You might have many teachers in Christ, but I'm your father and I brought you forth to life through the gospel. It's what he says about Titus and Titus 1 and verse 4, his true son in the faith, and it's what he says here about Onesimus. But there's a bigger point underneath all of this. It's not just that Onesimus has become Paul's son in the faith, or that he's Philemon's servant. It's more than that. When he became a Christian when he was baptized, Paul's saying he's now the son of God, and everything's different about him. Galatians 3 and verse 26, Paul says, For we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, the gospel makes a difference because it really does change your past. The Bible doesn't say if you become a Christian, you become like a new creature or you receive like a new life. It says you literally receive a new life. You're literally a new person. You rise to walk in newness of life. It's not a mirage, it's not a metaphorical statement. You really are a new person. What does that mean? It means if before you became a Christian, you lived a terrible life and you did terrible things. The gospel makes a difference when you learn you don't have to keep going back to the past to try to fix your mistakes because God's already forgiven it. Jeremiah 33 and verse 8, he says, I'll forgive their iniquities, their sins, their rebellion against me is forgiven. It means you see your past differently. If you lived a relatively moral life before you became a Christian, you no longer look back there to appeal to your own good behavior. I really wasn't so bad a person. No man's righteous. No, not one. The gospel's made the biggest difference, and it's made a change in me. What you see on the screen is an example of what AI technology is called the magic eraser. It was created by Google in 2021, and other platforms have since come up with their own. You take a picture with your phone or your tablet, and through this technology, if you want the perfect picture, you can just kind of go in and remove people, photo bombers from the background, other images, and AI-generated technology will fill in the gaps with what it would have looked like if those people had never been there. What this picture is not saying, the final frame, is that those people weren't really at the beach with this girl on that day, but the final frame in the final picture makes it as if they were never really there to begin with. And the gospel is God's ultimate eraser. It's not to say the mistakes in your life weren't actually made, but it's to say in the final frame of your life, the one that will actually be hung in the hallways of heaven, it won't be there. And people try as they might. They can look it up and dig it up and bring it up, but God's balled it up and it won't be held against you. Hebrews 8 and verse 12, God says, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I'll remember no more. Paul writes this to say to Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back. But when he walks through the doors of your house, I want you to know he's a different person. Because the gospel can change somebody's past. Just think about the man writing those words. Paul knows what he knows because he could say, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor, I was a violent aggressor, but the gospel changed him. And Philemon, you're a Christian, you know what the gospel's done for you. And it's done the same thing for Onesimus. If you're a Christian, the gospel makes a practical difference in your life because it changes your past. Here's number four it fixes broken relationships. You could say this is the heart of the book of Philemon. When you get to verses 12 through 17, Paul says, I'm sending Onesimus back to you, sending my very heart. Paul says, I could have just done what I wanted, but I didn't want to do anything without your consent. And verse 15, which Nat read for us, he says, Perhaps this is why he departed from you for a season, that you might receive him back forever, no longer as a servant, but as a brother, both in the Lord and in the flesh, to you and to me. Paul says, the gospel it fixes these broken relationships. The gospel makes a practical difference because it puts these relationships right. The preaching of the gospel is sometimes referred to in the New Testament as the ministry of reconciliation. That means you and God were enemies, the gospel puts you back together. 2 Corinthians 5, 19 through 20. The preaching of that message is the preaching the message of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18. To make people friends again. And what Paul's saying to Philemon is, Onesimus is coming back. And if the gospel's made a difference in you, you're not allowed to see him as a slave anymore. You've got to see him as a brother in Christ, and you've got to treat him. Look at verse 17. He's going to literally command him, receive him just like you would me. And what we've got to ask ourselves is this do I believe the gospel? You say, Yes, I'm a Christian. And Paul would say, okay, how's the gospel making a difference in your life? And is it fixing broken relationships in my life? Not just with God, but with other people around me. How do I go about letting it change my life and my relationships with other people? Because in the first century, churches were just like ours. They weren't perfect. Sometimes there'd be two women in the church that didn't get along, and Paul would write like he did to the Philippians, Yodi and Sintache, I want you to fix it. Philippians 4, 1 through 3. But Jesus expected that people that believed in him would have the spiritual maturity to fix their difficulties. He says, if your brother has a if your brother sins against you, I want you to go to him and solve it. Matthew 18, 15 through 17. And if you realize somebody has a problem with you, I want you to go to them. Matthew 5, 23 through 24. He says, Leave your gift at the altar. That is, don't even come to worship until you get this fixed. That means that there are two spiritual people with the problem. They should actually meet on the way because they want to fix it and they want to solve it. And if you believe the gospel, the difference it makes is it fixes broken relationships. Because the gospel's the ultimate confrontation. I've already confronted my sin in the gospel and my God. And because I know I'm not perfect, I can engage with other people freely and regularly under that reality, and I can allow it to do its work on me and change me. But you know, people typically have two responses to this. They say, Well, Hiram, wait a minute, I'm not the confrontational type. I don't like problems. Or on the other side, they say, I really don't want to have a confrontation with anybody because I'm liable to go off. I've got a bad temper and I don't want to explode on anybody. And both of those are incorrect and cowardly responses. The gospel won't let you stuff it down, it won't let you hide under it, it won't let you push it aside. If the gospel makes a difference when there are broken things in relationships with people, you've got the wherewithal to fix it in Jesus' name. Romans 12, 18, Paul says, as much as it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. There are two ways people typically clean. There's the rush clean, and then what we'll call the real clean. The rush clean is when unannounced company comes to your house and you start cleaning like a teenager. Just throwing stuff in drawers, everything goes in the garage, coffee mug. You just want it to appear nice. Whether it's actually clean or not, this is what I want people to see. The real cleaning is when you actually throw things in the trash that need to go in the trash, put things in a place that actually belong in a place, and you do the hard work. And I'm telling you, it's possible to be a Christian and to hear this and say to yourself, yep, somebody else needs to hear that. And all you've ever done with hard relationships in your life is what we'll call rush cleaning. You stuff it down, you can't have hard conversations without losing your cool, or you avoid people. And if you do that, just like a drawer with stuff just thrown in it, your heart will be filled with junk. You won't have real reconciliation, you won't have real peace, you'll avoid these relationships. And if the gospel's made a difference, Paul says, Philemon Onesimus is coming back, and you won't be able to duck them. You gotta face them. And how many churches and how many families and how many jobs where people that claim to be Christians, I mean, we can't even do this. We can't have the hard conversations. Paul says, if you're a Christian and if the gospel's changed you, you'll allow it to. It'll fix and mend those relationships. We won't simply say, Well, how are y'all doing? We're all right when you know it's all wrong. When you know there hasn't been real peace that's been made. See, the gospel's not just theoretical. It's not just words on a page. It actually invades our business and gets in our lives and it says, you know what, I've been made right with God, but when I find out I'm not right with others, I really want to do a real clean. I want to have hard conversations and I want to keep my cool, keep my Christ. We can talk to one another in love and we can fix it. Paul says, Philemon, you've got to do this because the gospel has really changed you. Here's number five. It empowers us to do hard things. He says, receive him just like you would receive me. I want you to receive this, brother, just like you would receive me. And he says, by the way, if he owes you anything, I'll repay it. I, Paul, verse 19, write it with my own hand, I will repay it. He says, to say nothing that you owe me, even your own life. How does the gospel make a difference? It empowers us to do hard things. Paul's probably asking Philemon to do the hardest thing he'd ever do in his life. Everybody around Philemon has slaves. And Philemon, I want you to let Onesimus go. He's a brother. I want you to receive him like that. He now has a different master, and I want you to accept it. You know, there are some things in the New Testament in Christianity that are very easy for you to do. And when you come across those things in the Bible, God wants you to do those things. And then there are some things you read in the Bible and they're terribly difficult for you to do. And when you come across those things, God wants you to do those too. Sometimes I talk to people about the Bible and they act as if I've been a preacher my whole life. Like I came out of the womb with a KJV right under my arm. You know, people think I'm not a real human being. They'll say, Hiram, oh yeah. The Bible says that, but, and then they'll start in. Here's the thing: everybody struggles with this, including the person preaching this lesson. But the gospel makes a difference when we stop saying, the Bible says that, but, and we start saying, the Bible says that and. The Bible says that, and I'm just gonna do it. I can, I will, I must do hard things. Luke 9, 23. Philemon, I want you to receive him just like you would me. How can he do that? That's oh nesimus. I want you to treat him just like you would me. For some of us, that means you've got to forgive a deep hurt. People have hurt you, people have wronged you. How long are you gonna be a prisoner to it? The Bible says you can do hard things. You can forgive it. You've got to if you want to be forgiven, Matthew 6, 13 and 14. For some, that means you've got to repent and turn loose of a sin that appears to have you as gripped as tight as your skin on your bones, but you can do it. You can do hard things. Acts 3 and verse 19. For others of us, that means you've got to confess this surrender of self-reliance, and I can't do anything without him, John 15 and verse 5. But the gospel makes a practical difference when it says to us, you can do challenging things. Philemon had to do this, and he could. And here's the last thing, number six, it saturates our lives with grace. If you write in your Bible, look at verse 25. At the end of this letter, Paul gives some salutations. He sends greetings. He says, There's Aristarchus, there's Demas, there's Luke, there's Mark, there's Epaphras, all these people are with me. But the last verse, and it goes along with the song Mike sung right before the sermon, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Earlier he mentioned grace in verse 3, and now the last thing he says in this book is, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Paul sandwiches everything he says so far with the idea of grace, and that's on purpose. And Paul does this a lot in the New Testament, commands a host of things of us, and then says, by the way, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, because that's exactly what it's going to take for you to do what God's asking you to do, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, we're saved by it, yes, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, but we're also sustained by it. Grace isn't just what gets salvation going, it's what sustains us throughout. I mean, imagine being Philemon. Tychicus or Onesimus comes back with this letter, you're in your house, you start reading this letter, and you start saying internally, Paul, there's no way I can do this. You have no idea what Onesimus has done to me. I just couldn't possibly forgive him. And then you lay your eyes on the last verse in this book the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And then you start imagining God saying, There's no way I can forgive them. You've got no idea what they've done to me, but of course you know better. And you know that God's forgiven you, and because the grace of our Lord has led to our forgiveness, everything that Paul asked in the 24 verses before it is possible and it's required because grace does reach us and it changes everything about us. Our entire lives are saturated with it, and it's how we learn to move out in the world. Because he's been gracious toward us, we're gracious toward others. There's a lot of things you're gonna learn in life that in the end won't really make a difference. Christianity is not one of those things. I'm telling you, it's tempting to come to church your whole life. Read the Bible, study and pray, and think these are great little spiritual truths, great little spiritual nuggets, all the while forgetting. The gospel is designed to really change the kind of people we become. It redefines love. What's true love? What the Bible says. Not just the feeling, the people you love and serve and do life with. How do you approach people, living room or courtroom? Ask the people in your life, they'll tell you. What about your past? Does it cling to you or have you left it behind? And can you do the hard work of fixing broken relationships to the best of your ability because the grace of Jesus Christ has done it with you in the most important relationship with God? The gospel makes a difference, but first it has to be heard, obeyed, and believed. And if you want to do that this morning, we'd be happy to be witnesses to it and assist you in any way we can. If you believe Jesus is the Son of God, you're ready to turn away from sin. We'll take your confession that Jesus is the Messiah, baptize you in water for the forgiveness of your sins, you'll rise to walk in newness of life. And in conjunction with this lesson, it won't just be theoretical. Everything will be different. It'll change your relationship with God, but with people, and most of all, it'll change you.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Thank you for spending this time with me on Sunday Renewal. My prayer is that today's episode encouraged your heart, strengthened your faith, and reminded you that God is still at work, redeeming, restoring, and shaping your story for his purpose. If this message spoke to you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone in your life, a friend, a family member, or a coworker. Because God often uses one simple conversation to bring renewal to someone else's journey. And if you have a moment, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts truly helps others discover messages of hope and faith when they need them most. Before you go, I want to invite you into a deeper journey. I've created a free five-day devotional called Renaming Your Story from pain to purpose to legacy. In just 10 minutes a day, it's designed to help you walk through healing old wounds, breaking false labels, and stepping into the fruitfulness and legacy God intends. If there's someone you love who needs encouragement, healing, or direction, or if this journey is for you, this resource is available now. Just click the link in the show notes to get started. Remember this God is present, your past does not define you, and your story is still in motion. Until next time, walk by faith, stay open to God, and trust Him with the next step. God bless you.