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. Way back in the Old Testament, Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that whatever the Lord does, he does forever.

You know, men's work oftentimes is temporary. It's short term. Something's accomplished and then

it decays, it breaks, it ends. But when God does a work, it is a forever work. It is an eternal work

because God is the eternal God. So I would ask you if that's true, when God does his work of grace in

someone's life, what are the effects of that? And the answer to that is, the effects are

eternal. We return to this beautiful note written from Paul to his friend Philemon. And of course,

at the heart and soul of it is the work God is doing in the life of their

mutual friend now, Onesimus, this man who ran away from Philemon, who did Philemon wrong,

but now has met Paul and through Paul has met the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what a change.

What a change has come.

We learned in verse 10 that this slave

became a son. In verse 11, that the unprofitable man became profitable. In verses 12 through 14,

that the runaway became a received one. And now we come to verse 15. And it's an interesting

verse. It's easy to just read it and slide by and miss it, but listen to verse 15,

for perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.

Remember that this story of redemption and reconciliation,

this story of forgiveness and restoration in Onesimus's life

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