We all love to receive an encouraging note from a friend.

And on one page of the New Testament, we find a very personal letter from Paul to Philemon.

This brief note to a friend is full of doctrinal truth and practical help for us all.

Open your Bible and your heart today as we come to the book of Philemon.

Let's join Scott Pauli now as we study God's Word together. Have you ever pondered why a book like Philemon is in the Bible?

Why did God take the time to tell us the story of a runaway slave,

how he came to faith in Christ, how he was returned

and restored, did it ever dawn on you that in this human story, there is a powerful

divine truth? You see, the Lord not only instructs us, he illustrates. That's the great thing

about our Lord as the master teacher. He wants

us to see what he's saying. He uses stories and real people to demonstrate a powerful truth.

Well, that's what the book of Philemon really is all about. We've laid the groundwork in the opening

verses, and now we come to the heart and soul of this brief note to a friend.

Paul writes to his friend Philemon, and he says in verse 7,

For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints

are refreshed by thee, brother.

Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjo enjoin thee, that which is convenient, yet, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee being such in one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to

thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. So now we get to the heart and soul of the

note. And now we get to the great purpose behind why Paul is writing from a Roman prison cell to this man in Colossi.

What is the story?

What is the spiritual story for us?

...