[00:00:00] Foreign S. Welcome back to another edition of the Weekday Podcast. This is Bobby McGraw, one of the hosts of this podcast, and we're so glad you're here today. We really are. Our hope is that these couple minutes would offer encouragement. And hey, if you know anybody that's exploring faith or maybe asking faith type questions and they don't know where to get started, a simple way is to send them to our
[email protected] and I'm telling you, it's an easy entry point to encourage somebody's faith. Well, today on the podcast, we want to think about this idea of going from useless to being unstoppable. And the background of this comes from Philemon, chapter 1, verse 11, where Paul's talking about this runaway named Onesimus, who Paul says in verse 11 was previously useless to you, but now is useful both to me and to you.
[00:00:57] Now, when you think about this, what I want to think about is labels. Now, not the kind of labels that you find on your shirt, but the ones that people slap on our souls. And these are labels like failure, addict, divorced, unreliable, too late, or not enough. And these labels don't just describe what happened, but what happens over time is they begin to define who we think we are. And that's where we meet Onesimus. In his story, his label was useless. He was a runaway slave. He was a guy who failed the person he was supposed to serve. But then something happened. He met Jesus. And Jesus didn't just forgive him. Jesus redefined him. He reclaimed him. He renamed him. And Paul writes to Philemon and basically says, I know how you used to see him, but that's not who he is anymore. He was once useless, but now that's the hinge of grace. But now he is useful. And here's what's even more incredible. The name Onesimus literally means useful. So God was restoring not just his reputation, God was restoring his original design. And so maybe that's you today. Maybe you've believed the lie that you're stuck in the past, that your story has been written in permanent ink. But grace picks up the pen and it starts a new chapter. You are not defined by your worst day. You are defined by the cross of Jesus. And if God can take a labeled, broken man like Onesimus and call him useful again, guess what? He can do the same for you. Here's what I know. Grace does not just erase our past. It reclaims us with our purpose. Well, have a great day. I hope this is encouraging to you today and we'll see you back here soon for another edition of the weekday podcast.
[00:02:43] Sam.
