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. We return today to Colossi, but not the book of Colossians.

No, we're going to a particular house in Colossi.

This is the house of Philemon.

This is where he lived.

And the Apostle Paul writes a one-page note, this note to a friend that we now know as the New Testament book of Philemon.

It's an amazing book.

And we're still in the opening verses, and we've identified that Paul, of course, is writing to Philemon.

But in verse 2, we read this, and to our beloved Athea and Archipus, our fellow soldier,

and to the church in thy house. We said that if the church was meeting in his house, that

meant that this church was in his heart, because to be that closely associated with a church

in that day, with followers of Jesus, it would cost you something.

It meant something. I fear that today, church membership means less and less to people.

In fact, people want to attend without even belonging, and even the ones who belong,

don't think of the significance of what it means to belong to a local New Testament church.

May I ask you, is your church in your heart? That's more than you being in church. That's having

the church and the good welfare of the church and the forward movement of the church in your heart,

your love, your affection, your desires, your

motivation. Now, first, Christ has to be in your heart. You have to begin by being a Christian.

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