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Sept. 4, 2024 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
01:12:24
Sermon #038 - Colossians - Jesus frees humanity from servitude, ancient rituals...
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Welcome to today's sermon.
I'm Mike Adams of Abundance.Church.
That's our new website.
It might even be up by the time you hear this.
And there, at that church website, you're going to be able to find the sermons, the songs, and over time, additional resources.
Teaching about nutrition will have some reference charts and tables about herbs and foods, superfoods, nutrients in the Bible, and how they were used in the Bible, and much more.
Now, today we're going to be covering a very important, although short, book in the New Testament.
Now, I know that most people pronounce it Colossians, like S-H-U-N-S, like shuns at the end.
I believe that pronunciation is incorrect.
That if we are to be true to the, well, mostly Roman-influenced pronunciation of these words, it would be Colossians, not Colossians.
Now, however you prefer to pronounce it, it's the same thing.
I'll pronounce it Colossians, and it refers to, of course, a letter written mostly by Paul, but also believed to include input from Timothy.
And Paul wrote it from prison, reportedly.
And it was written to a church in a town in modern-day Turkey called Colossae.
I've heard that pronounced different ways, Colossaea, but I'll go ahead and pronounce that, Colossaea.
For convenience sake.
Now, what's important to understand about this letter and what was going on at the time, and this is believed to have taken place around the year maybe 55 to 60 A.D. Let's just call it 60 A.D. This letter serves as a microcosm for a much larger religious philosophical battle taking place between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
So the Old Testament, of course, all pre-Christ, dominated by the Jewish faith, and remember it was the Jewish religious leaders that demanded Christ be put to death, and they demanded that Rome kill Christ, because Christ was competing with their monopoly power over religion and over the people.
And the Jewish leaders wanted to make sure they had total control.
They did not like this new guy, Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, walking up and teaching people things like, hey, you don't need to engage in silly rituals like circumcision.
Why are you cutting off the skin of the penises of your children?
What? What are you doing?
So Christ was also teaching people that the old rituals were not important.
And in fact, those old rituals did not even work for their intended purpose.
It was supposed to be, remember, God's covenant with the descendants of Abraham.
And by the way, the descendants of Abraham includes a much larger group than just modern-day Jews.
The descendants of Abraham include modern-day Palestinians and people all over the Middle East and Jordanians and so on.
But that's too complex for this particular discussion.
But it's not just talking about Jews.
Lots of people.
In fact, the whole religion of Islam is considered an Abrahamic religion, by the way.
And in Islam, Abraham is considered a prophet, as is Christ.
It's interesting that, I mean, it's kind of a side note here.
But in Islam, Islam recognizes Christ as a prophet.
Judaism doesn't recognize Christ at all.
And it was the Jewish leaders that demanded Christ be killed.
So remember that when you're reading these books in the New Testament, remember that Christ and his disciples, in this case, Paul, mostly, was trying to say, you don't have to remain stuck in the old world, the pre-Christ world, because...
where you were required to go through these silly, silly rituals, like circumcision and only eating kosher foods.
Christ says...
You don't need that anymore Just give blessings for all the foods provided by God And I should say, through his disciples slash apostle, Paul the apostle, these are the teachings that are now post-Christ teachings or New Testament teachings.
Because Christ said that he died in order to fulfill the Old Covenant with God, the Old Testament covenant.
Therefore, you have been freed from those bonds.
You no longer have to perform the old Jewish rituals in order to be close to God.
Now, also, as you're going to hear in this book, Colossians, as I call it, you're going to hear Paul talking about slavery and the man of the household and how the wife no longer had to be absolutely obedient to the man because the real obedience is to God.
And so this is one of the first times in which an apostle of Jesus speaks about what's wrong with slavery, what's wrong with the man of the household saying he owns his wife or that he owns his children.
So this is really revolutionary, considering that this was just, you know, almost 2,000 years ago.
These ideas were not widespread ideas at the time.
And this is how revolutionary Jesus was.
is.
Jesus is a revolutionary, and he freed humanity, not just in terms of the spirit, but also freeing humanity from the treacherous, imprisoned philosophies of the Old Testament, the Old World, and the corrupt imprisoned philosophies of the Old Testament, the Old World, and the corrupt Jewish priests that demanded everybody follow all their little silly rituals and do what we say, but not what we do, and all
Jesus said, you don't have to go along with the nonsense.
And of course, Jesus also repeatedly spoke out against the corruption of the church and the corruption of government as well.
So this is part of what made him a revolutionary and also part of what ultimately got him, you know, murdered as the Jewish leaders looked on and applauded.
And then they took his clothes on top of that.
So we're going to go through Colossians here.
Chapter 1. Now, it's not a very long book.
But it's deep. So, chapter 1, verse 1, the usual greetings, says, I always summarize this by saying, Hey, y'all. Okay, and then we go into verse 3.
It says, We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always with you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and so on and so forth.
This is also another verse that just says, We come to you in the name of Christ.
Now then, Paul reminds the people of Colossae of the preeminence of Christ.
And he's saying, starting in verse 9, he's saying, you know, don't forget to walk with the Lord.
And then in verse 13, he reminds them of what Christ did.
Citing this directly, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
So he's reminding the people of Colossae here, well, the churchgoers of Colossae, he's reminding them, hey, don't forget that Christ died for your sins, but more than that, Christ died to fulfill this covenant with God.
So going on to verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.
Just, again, reminding the people that God is the creator, the architect, the engineer of all that is.
Verse 17, And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.
In essence, Paul is reminding them of the authority of God.
And then he reminds them of Christ fulfilling this covenant with God.
Verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
In other words, he has already, they even use the word reconcile, he has reconciled The debt that man owed to God or the obligation that man owed God because of his blood on the cross, he has fulfilled the contract or the covenant with God.
And thus, your obedience is essentially what Paul is writing to the citizens of Colossae.
Your obedience and your recognition of authority should be to God.
And he even reminds them that even though they were wicked in the past, they are now saved.
Because he is risen.
So verse 21, he says, In other words, Wow, he washed away your sins.
Even if you were murderous, even if you were wicked, even if you were dishonest or immoral, he has washed away your sins so that you may appear before God.
Or as it would have been said in the Old Testament, so that you may enter his tabernacle.
Because now you are clean.
But of course, Christ didn't exist in the Old Testament.
And this is what's revolutionary about Christ.
It's like now you are clean.
You are spiritually clean if you accept Christ into your life because he has purified your soul through his sacrifice.
You have received his salvation before God, you see.
Okay, verse 23.
If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister...
Just saying, as long as you walk with Christ, then you have the salvation of Christ.
You are blameless.
You are now sinless, even if you previously sinned.
Verse 24, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you.
Because Paul is writing this from prison, so he is suffering in prison, and he reframes his suffering as kind of a celebration of sharing in the persecution of Christ.
So he doesn't see his suffering as some horrible, horrible thing.
He actually sees it as a sharing in the experience of Christ.
This is kind of a toll that he must pay to be closer to Christ.
So that's where this is coming from.
Verse 24, again, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Okay, now, this gets interesting.
The church is the body of Christ.
So, in other words, when we worship Christ, we become the church.
Okay? When Paul is talking about the church here, obviously he's not speaking of a physical building.
He's not speaking of an organization that has filed taxes with the IRS or with Rome in that day.
He is not speaking of a physical thing or a contract thing or something written on paper or I have business cards, you know, or a website.
He's talking about the body of people who are believers, people who walk in faith with Christ.
That's the church. That's the church.
So the church is ephemeral.
In other words, it is not physical.
It's beyond physical. It has transcended the physical just as Christ himself has done with his resurrection.
Okay? So, continuing again, let me back up.
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given...
Now, remember that Christ transferred God's Spirit, or some amount of it.
He sort of delegated the Spirit of God to His disciples, and He gave to them The power of accelerating healing.
And that is power of great love.
It's healing. It's love.
It's not like the Old Testament, which is rooted in death and destruction and killing and, you know, God unleashing a giant fireball and killing 250 Israelites or opening up the earth and they all got swallowed up into the giant earthquake or sinking pit.
That's the Old Testament God.
That's the God that Jews still study because, again, they don't believe in Christ.
They don't teach Christ.
But Christ has taught something new.
It's rooted in healing.
It's rooted in love.
It's even spontaneous healing or miraculous healing.
So, Paul continues,"...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but has now been revealed to his saints." That's the word of God, he says, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden.
So in other words, God's promise goes beyond what has been previously recognized.
There's something new that is going to be revealed through his saints or the apostles of Christ.
Verse 27, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, So in other words, this gift of Christ in your life and the salvation of Christ who died for the sins of all humankind This also applies to the non-Jews.
This applies to the Gentiles.
And this is what Paul and Timothy and others did.
They went out and they taught and they expanded.
They ran missions to recruit Gentiles and people of other religions to the Christian church.
And they set up churches in many different cities and towns and then had to come back and remind them from time to time, like in Corinth, Hey, you know, stop visiting the Roman god prostitutes.
Get back to the business of being a church.
Things like that, right? So that's what this is about.
In other words, the teachings of Christ in the New Testament are much more inclusive of all humanity.
They're not just limited to one ethnic group.
They're not just limited to Jews in particular.
They're And in fact, Christ and his disciples specifically said, you don't have to follow the ancient Jewish rituals, nor are you any longer bound by these ancient requirements, this ancient covenant with God, the Abrahamic original covenant.
You are free from that.
Jesus set humanity free and said essentially that all people can join in his body, which is the church.
The body of Christ is the church, the people who worship Christ, and the people who congregate for that purpose.
That is the church.
So if somebody asks you, do you have a church?
Well, if you have three people gathering together, To preach the Word of God and Christ, you have a church.
You have a church.
And, of course, that is cited elsewhere in the New Testament as well.
Verse 28, In other words,
Working to help mankind and women as well walk in the footsteps of Christ so that they may obtain greater and greater closeness or greater degrees of perfection or as close as humanity can get to perfection with Christ.
And then in chapter 2, verse 8, he warns about people being deceived by teachers of philosophy who do not teach Christ and the salvation and Christ dying on the cross and giving his blood for the sins of man to wash away the sins and complete the covenant with God.
So, verse 8, he says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
See, invoking Christ is critical for, obviously, for being washed of sin and completing the covenant with God.
Verse 9, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and Now, this is a little bit wordy, but to simplify it, it's very simple.
If you're not worshiping Christ, then you don't qualify for the salvation of Christ and kind of the spiritual deal that has been made where Christ died for your sins, gave his blood for your sins, washed away your sins,
and completed the covenant with God. So for people who are out there worshiping something else or just worshiping The academic study of philosophy, or if they're just teaching morality without Christ in the teaching, what Paul is saying is that that's deception.
That's empty. It's not enough.
You have to walk in the footsteps of Christ as well.
Now, in verse 11 here of chapter 2, this is a really great section.
I love this because this specifically explains that the old world...
Jewish contract is now null and void.
Here's how Paul and Timothy describe this.
This is really powerful. Now,
he's saying you can be essentially spiritually circumcised, that you don't have to be physically circumcised to be considered circumcision with Christ, okay?
Verse 13,"...and you being dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
This is powerful because he's saying that what Christ did was he took all the old contracts of the Old Testament, of the Jewish tradition.
He took all those old contracts, all these silly things, you know, kosher foods and circumcision and all the husbands owning wives and all the...
The man of the house owning slaves and all this stuff.
He took all that stuff and just nailed it to the cross and then wiped it clean and nullified it.
And it even says here that these things, they were, quote, contrary to us.
And then in verse 15, he says, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
So he's referring to the way that Christ treated Pilate, the court judge of Rome, as well as the Jewish leaders, the elders, the scribes, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, all of them.
He's saying that Christ made a spectacle of them.
He made them out to be fools because he showed them where they thought they had power to kill him, to silence him, to destroy him.
But what did he do instead?
He transcended the flesh.
And not only did he then transcend the human flesh, he was resurrected in the spirit and.
He escaped, in essence, the physical body, which made him even more powerful to speak to more people and to delegate power to his disciples and to spread the word of Christ and his teachings even more.
So that is his triumph.
Now, this term, in the New Testament, when they talk about principalities and powers, it always reminds me of Ephesians, I believe, chapter 6.
Let me find the verse. Okay, yeah, here it is.
Ephesians 6, verse 12.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
So what is that referring to?
The corrupt church leaders and the corrupt government leaders who answer to Satan and You see how simple that is?
So Christ, by allowing himself to be crucified and then rising from that through resurrection, he disarmed the principalities and powers that are, quote, the spiritual hosts of wickedness, the darkness of the age.
Or the rulers of the darkness of the age.
And it says, again, in Ephesians 6, verse 12, But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
Jesus did not fight them in flesh and blood.
He did not pick up a sword and battle them.
He fought them in the spiritual realm, and he disarmed them.
He didn't even really fight them.
He transcended them.
He triumphed over them in the spiritual world through transcendence.
And in doing so, he nullified the spiritual binds that the Jewish religious leaders held over their own people saying, you must do this.
You must do that.
You have to do these silly ritualistic things.
Otherwise, you're not a good Jew.
And Christ said to them, that's nonsense.
That's null and void.
You are now free from that.
You don't have to behave like some mindless servant of some Rome-approved church official.
You now only need to answer to God.
God is the ultimate authority.
So Christ fought a spiritual battle and freed humanity and saved all of humanity.
And that's what Paul is reminding these people.
Verse 16, So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths.
See? He's saying it right there.
Don't worry about kosher foods.
You don't have to be part of these ritualistic holidays.
Verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments,
Basically saying, don't let the rulers of the powers of darkness cheat you from this great prize, which is your salvation, that Christ gave to you for free.
Verse 20, he continues, See, again, this is what he's saying. this is what he's saying.
These rules are nonsense.
You have been freed from these rules.
He's talking about the Old Testament, Old World Jewish rules.
He says, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion.
False humility, see they have an appearance of wisdom, but they're not really wise.
False humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
What he is saying here is that even the people who went through all these rituals and obeyed the rituals, they still ended up...
Banging the hookers at the Roman temples, okay?
I mean, sorry to put it so bluntly, but following the ritual did not impart morality to these people.
That's what he is saying.
True morality must involve spiritual morality, and the path to that is through Christ and Christ alone.
This is what he is teaching.
He even explains this in chapter 3, verse 1.
And if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
It's very clear.
Have spiritual goals, not goals of just collecting wealth and fame and popularity and power.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
And what this is saying is...
Metaphorically, but also spiritually very genuine is that when you accept Christ into your life, your old self dies and your new self is born, born again in the spirit of Christ.
And when you are born again in the spirit of Christ, your focus should not be on these earthly things.
Your focus must be on the spiritual reality, which is the transcendent dimension above this simulation.
This is what he's saying.
You're born again with Christ.
You're freed from the ancient rituals and all the silly little things.
You don't have to do all those silly things.
Instead, you can focus on something far more important, which is your eternal soul.
Will you sit with God?
Will you appear with him in glory?
This is the question that is being posed here, or at least it's an implied question.
Verse 5, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
So he's saying, put to rest, put to rest, you know, these crazy desires or these habits or these addictions and all these horrible evil things.
Verse 6, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived with them.
A warning for those who have not turned to Christ and who are still steeped in evil desire, covetousness, uncleanness, fornication.
What is it in the modern world?
Swipe left, swipe right on the mobile phones, hookups, meetups, I don't know, fornicating in public, swiping everywhere, swiping and wiping, whatever they do.
Yeah, that's not going to work out too well in the spiritual world.
Because the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
The wrath of God is coming.
And it even reminds the people of Colossae here, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
You used to be those people too.
As did Paul, by the way.
You know, the author of this letter knows what evil is because he used to live it.
He used to be there.
He used to be one of those people.
Some of the best teachers of the word of Christ and God are those who were once steeped in evil.
And as it is true that all men and women, all people have sinned.
But the real question is, When you are born again and walk with Christ, do you take that seriously?
Or do you go back and sin Monday through Friday, but then repent on, like, Saturday and Sunday?
You know, this is the question of our time.
Once you accept Christ into your life, it's spiritually crucial, if not mandatory, to walk with Christ every day of your life, to walk with In honor of the sacrifice that he made for you.
And this is what's stated in verse 8, essentially.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Of that one, I'm a little bit guilty from time to time.
But not in these sermons, by the way.
So I have to clean up my language a little bit here and there as well.
But verse 9, and that's part of my transition from this world, this world of filth and disgust and so many vile entities and vile people and so on.
As I move into the world of the church and the world of Christ, I also have to clean up my own language.
Maybe you do too, but I know that's one thing that I have to do.
Verse 9,"...do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds." And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.
See, this is a description of the metaphor of your old person, your old self, is no longer who you are.
You are now reborn. You are resurrected in your new self.
And then verse 11, What is he saying here?
Very powerful. Saying that Christ embraces and welcomes all of humanity because all human beings are children of God.
Even the slaves, he says.
Even the slaves, even the barbarians.
Even people who are not of faith.
And especially the Gentiles.
People who are not circumcised.
This is the word of Christ through Paul.
Very powerful.
Now, Paul continues in verse 12 here, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved.
Now, by the elect, of course, what he means is the church, the church that is the body of Christ.
So when you join with Christ, you are part of the church, you are part of his body, and you are the elect of God, just by definition.
So that's what that means. It doesn't mean that God chose specific people or elected specific people or is limited to some small group of people.
So sometimes people misread the elect as meaning the chosen ones.
That's not what it means.
It means that you elect to join with Christ and God.
So any human being can make this election.
Anyway, verse 12. So he's saying that Now we're in the New Testament.
We're in the world of Christ.
Compared to the old world of the Old Testament that's been followed by the Jewish traditions, which is rooted in dominance and, frankly, exploitation of wives and children and slaves and all kinds of other horrible things, and war and death and killing and genocide and all of that, Today, because of Christ, it's different.
Now, our religion, our spirituality is rooted in kindness.
It's rooted in forgiveness.
It's rooted in these new things of humility and mercy.
Verse 14,"...but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection." And what I believe he means by this is that love is the vibration of cosmic consciousness, or love is the vibration of creation.
So this gets really metaphysical, in my view, right here.
But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Now, see, when he says bond, now, understand I have a training in science.
I'm a food scientist.
And I studied the table of elements and the ionic bonds between atomic elements that then form molecules.
And in the world of physics, there's subatomic physics, which is studying all the things that are smaller than atoms, and then there's chemistry, which is studying molecules made up of atoms, right?
And ionic bonds, or covalent bonds, as they're called in chemistry, that's one form of bond which creates the physical matter at the molecular level, but inside the atomic structure, the atomic nuclei, In particular, there are things that used to be called the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.
And there are two other key forces, which is gravity and electromagnetism, and these four fundamental forces of the cosmos.
These four forces were chosen by God to have exactly the right constants.
Without these very specifically tuned constants, the universe would not function.
For example, the whole universe would have collapsed by now if the weak nuclear force were much stronger or if gravity were much stronger or if gravity were much weaker, then the whole universe would have exploded and there would be no planets near suns and there would be no warm, lush worlds.
Or if chemistry didn't work the same way, you know, water wouldn't expand when it freezes and water wouldn't float, and so all the oceans would be filled with ice from the bottom up instead of floating ice on top.
And, yeah, seriously, life would not exist as we know it.
So in this verse 14, and I understand that perhaps I'm the only one that interprets it in this way, but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection...
I see that as being a truly multilayered metaphysical statement that the vibration of love is the bond of creation.
It is the bond. You know, look, if you go into the atomic structure, what do you find?
You find nothing.
And you notice that the countries around the world, in the name of science, have built massive super colliders, one in particular known as CERN. And when they run that super collider, and I forgot how long it is, it's like hundreds of kilometers long in a giant circle, and it's underneath a couple of different countries.
You know what they're looking for when they smash protons into each other?
You know what they're looking for? The God particle.
That's what they call it.
They call it the God particle.
They're trying to find a particle that That binds matter together, or in particular, when they say the God particle, they're trying to find a particle that gives mass to matter.
Yeah, right.
That gives mass to matter.
In other words, the materialism component of the entire cosmic reality of this simulation is It's only possible because of the God particle, which they haven't yet found, and the God particle causes things to bond together in perfection, which is what's quoted in this line.
This is why I say, look, the Bible speaks to different people at different times, different centuries even.
As technology advances or humanity changes and moves forward, backward, whatever, the Bible is a perfect book because it was handed down by God himself speaking through people or granting words or visions or different forms of communication the Bible is a perfect book because it was handed down by God himself speaking through people or granting words or visions That as human knowledge expanded, then more and more verses of the Bible would make sense in the present time.
In other words, the Bible is not just a document of history.
It's a fractal, temporal document that spans all time and speaks to people across different epochs.
And so now we know about subatomic physics, and we can understand that the bond of perfection is the God particle, which is rooted in love.
I know. I know.
It's... It's a tough concept, but frankly, if you look inside atoms, atomic structure, there's nothing there.
There are no electrons.
No such thing. You can't, like, grab an electron out of its orbital shell.
Hence the Heisenberg principle.
An electron is just a probabilistic orbital...
It's a multidimensional...
Probability of the existence of something, it's not even real.
There are no electrons.
There are no particles.
There are only vibrations, string theory, multidimensional theory.
Look, God created this dimension, this simulation as I call it, And he infused it with love, which is the living waters of our consciousness at a cosmic level.
And he created the laws of physics.
He created the laws of chemistry and the table of elements.
And what he's teaching with Christ and throughout much of the New Testament is that if you, humanity, if you hold the vibration of love, then your universe will work.
You'll have a future.
Right? But if you contradict the vibration of love and if you live in hatred and vengeance and wickedness and destruction, you will destroy your world.
You will destroy your cosmos.
You will destroy your entire reality.
Game over. And we talked about that in a previous sermon.
So the second coming of Christ, the return of Christ, I believe it doesn't mean that Christ is coming back to this world anymore.
I think it means that the simulation ends, and then we rejoin with Christ, with God.
And then at that time, then there is judgment.
What did we do in this simulation?
Did we live in alignment with Christ, or were we wicked and jealous and conniving and all that other stuff?
I think the simulation ends.
I don't know when it ends, and maybe we can prolong that by rooting our actions in love rather than hatred.
But if humanity continues on its current course, you won't have to worry about economics or food crop shortages.
You won't have to worry about supply chains and spare parts and microplastics because the whole cosmic simulation will be terminated.
Think about that.
Anyway, he continues, verse 15,"...and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body." See, also double meanings here, right?
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were also called in one body, meaning in one way you were called as the body of Christ or as the elect of God.
You were called as the church.
But also, what else does it mean?
To which you were called in one body, right?
Your spirit, your soul was put by God into one body.
You were called by God to inhabit this one body that you have, and you should be thankful for it, he says.
Be thankful because you have the gift of life.
You have the gift of this one body.
What are you going to do with it? Now, this body is the animated material elements.
Your body is made of mostly carbon.
We talked about that. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
These are the animating elements of your physical body, but they are not you.
You are not your body.
You transcend your body already with your consciousness and your soul.
But the body plays a trick on us because the senses dominate our perception, our understanding of who we are.
And that's why when you ask people, where is your mind?
Most people will point to their head.
They think their mind is in their skull.
The mind is not material.
Your brain is in your skull.
Your mind is not even here.
Your mind already transcends your body just as Christ transcended his body in the resurrection.
And then, yes, he came back and he took human form of his choosing, not the human form that he used to have.
That's why he was mistaken for being the gardener.
Who are you? The gardener.
No, that's Christ.
Actually, that's Christ returning. But as someone who transcended the physical realm, he can take on any form he wishes.
The truth is, you already have a transcendent part of you, which is connected to God and cosmic consciousness.
And that part is forever tied to God.
And your body is just a temporary projection that your soul inhabits in this world.
But when your soul and your consciousness leaves your body, it collapses into a pile of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
It just returns, you know, dust to dust.
It goes back to the matter, which is no longer living.
Now, in verse 16,"...let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord, which I did with the recent rap song, I'm happy to say. You think God likes my rap song?
I think God loves the rap song because it's fun.
It's fun. It's animating the Word of God, at least the Old Testament song of Solomon.
I I think God loves joy, and when people have fun with Scripture, not in a mockery kind of way, but in a fun way.
Like, it doesn't have to be insufferable and boring and monotonous.
I mean, think about it.
That's kind of the lesson of Christ himself.
He's like, you don't have to go through all these ancient rituals.
That's nonsense. Welcome to the new world.
You are free. Be joyful.
You know? Enjoy your life.
And I like to live that way.
But notice, in this verse 16, he says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another.
Now, he's saying it's okay to correct each other, too, by the way.
It's very important that this teaching, you know, forgiveness and understanding and compassion, this doesn't mean that you're supposed to put up with nonsense.
Like if somebody's breaking into your house every day and looting your pantry and stealing your food, you don't have to be, you know, Christ-like.
We love you, brother.
Take more loot every day.
No, no, no. It's okay to stop them.
They're thieves. A lot of people misunderstand this.
A lot of boundaries. And then when those immigrants come in and want to contribute to the nation,
yes, we can embrace them, we can love them, we can support them, we can welcome them into our church, and so on.
But the teachings of Christ are never about putting up with endless treachery and transgressions against you.
That's not what any of that means.
And that's why the word wisdom in that passage is so important.
You have to have wisdom.
You know, have discernment here.
You have to protect your community, your children, your congregation, against foreign invaders, obviously.
Verse 17, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
In other words, don't sit back and think that it's all me.
You know, all this stuff is me and mine.
Which is like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings.
It's mine! You know, it's like, oh no!
If you go down that path of just possession and greed and giving yourself credit for everything, obviously you're going to lose sight of the fact that you're only here because of God.
Your whole life is a gift from God.
Your consciousness, your spirit, your soul inhabiting your body is a gift from God.
Everything that you have obtained, so to speak, everything that you've eaten, all the food, all the orchards, the nuts and fruits, all the herbs, all the natural medicine, everything that's on God's green earth here, yeah, it's a gift from God.
All the natural resources, the time that you have to carry out your life, all gifts from God.
So always remember that.
So now, in the next section, verse 18, Paul's talking about a new era of freedom for wives and children and slaves.
So this is subtle, because remember, in that time, the household was dominated by the man, the husband, and he was the ruler.
And the wives had to be obedient to him, and according to the old teachings, he owned the And he owned his children and could do anything to them, including beat them.
And he owned the slaves and he could do whatever he wanted with those slaves.
And those slaves were obedient only to him.
Well, Paul came along and said in this letter with also with Timothy, of course, said, wait a second, let's rethink this.
So here's how it reads in English.
I'm really curious to know how this might have been written in its original form.
But verse 18 says, Now you see, that's not saying wives obey your husbands at all costs, no matter what.
It's saying that obedience to your husband is qualified, right?
It is dependent on the will of the Lord.
So now then, who is in charge?
It's not your husband, it's the Lord.
See? So, in other words, saying, wives, submit to your own husbands only as is fitting in the Lord.
In other words...
Sure, obey your husband, but only if the Lord would approve of you doing that.
You see what I'm saying? The husband is no longer your ruler or owner.
And then, in verse 19, it says, husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.
And you can imagine what this probably means in those days.
A lot of spousal abuse.
Probably some beatings were taking place here and there.
Very angry, vengeance-filled Old Testament husbands that were not happy with what their wives were saying or doing.
Look, we have to use our imaginations a little bit here, but...
It wasn't an equal rights era, right?
So there's probably a lot of abuse going on.
And so Paul says, hey, husbands, stop beating your wives, basically, is what he's saying.
And then verse 20, once again, there's a qualifier.
He's saying that children, yes, obey your parents.
As the Lord would approve.
In other words, clever way to say that.
And then, fathers, he says, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.
See what he's saying to the dads?
Old Testament dads?
Stop beating your wives and stop beating your children, basically, is what he's saying.
And then, verse 22, let me interrupt myself here.
You realize how wicked humanity has always been?
I mean, if you think about Old Testament and New Testament, the Old Testament was God trying to force this group of human beings to behave as humans and not animals, basically.
Laying down all these rules and making them do these rituals and hoping that maybe somebody would be more God-like.
You know, more polite, more humble, more human.
And it failed. It failed.
Look, the Old Testament is largely a story of failure of God trying to teach humans how to act like human beings.
That's pretty much the summary of the Old Testament.
And so then what does God do?
He says, well, I'm going to try something different.
I'm going to send my son, Jesus.
I'm going to put a portion of my spirit into human form.
I'm going to send Jesus to earth and have Jesus clear out all the sins of humanity and try to teach them love instead of burning up all the people with fireballs and destroying them because you're an angry God.
So in other words, the Old Testament was God trying anger and wrath, and the New Testament is God teaching love and acceptance through Christ.
I mean, that's a summary of it.
And so this is why the New Testament teachings...
Are trying to help people recognize that this is the new revolution.
This is the Christ era.
We are now rooted in love and forgiveness and acceptance and all our sins have been cleared and it's time to stop being wicked.
It's time to stop beating your wives and children, as is in the verse here, verses 18 through 21.
And let's talk about the slaves, which are called bondservants.
In verse 22, here's what Paul writes.
Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.
And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.
Oh, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord of the Lord Christ.
But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.
Look, what is he saying?
If you're a slave, you're not serving your master, ultimately.
You are serving the Lord. Now, yes, he says, obey your master, as this was what existed in the day.
This was the society.
There were, quote, owners of slaves.
But Paul says that as a, quote, slave, your real master is the Lord, and you shall receive your reward in heaven, your inheritance for all the service that you have paid in this world by obeying your, quote, your human master in the flesh.
You see that? You see how subtle that is?
Paul was an amazing writer, an amazing mind, and he knew how to tweak society just enough.
I mean, no wonder they threw him in jail, right?
Because he was out there preaching the truth and preaching freedom and love.
In a time when most people were still stuck in hatred and dominance over others and owning people, And vengeance and destruction and death.
But that's the Old Testament.
You see? New Testament, which sadly many Christian churches in America still don't even teach.
I don't know why. They're still stuck in the Old Testament.
It's like they don't even recognize that Christ has risen.
It's crazy.
They're not even teaching the Word of Christ.
I don't know what they're teaching.
But Christ tells us that our real obedience is that God...
Not, you know, your slave master or your husband master or any other human.
And then he follows that up, by the way, in chapter 4, which is a continuation.
He says, masters, give your bondservants or your slaves what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
See, hardcore.
He's saying to the slave owners, you better treat your slaves with some sense of dignity or you will answer to God.
Yeah.
Yeah. Powerful. And then he goes on, and he's kind of wrapping this up at this point.
Continue earnestly in prayer, he says, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains.
You know, he's referring to his imprisonment.
That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.
He's like, pray for us so that we may go share the word of God through Christ.
Verse 5, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
He's saying outside the elect.
In other words, walk in wisdom and speak with wisdom toward those who have not yet accepted Christ into their lives.
Verse 6, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.
Now, what does he mean by seasoned with salt?
What is grace seasoned with salt?
Well, this is a self-reinforcing mode of speech because what's interesting is that Paul is demonstrating what it means to speak with grace seasoned with salt when he writes, speak with grace seasoned with salt.
In other words, he's demonstrating it.
What it means is that Yes, be polite.
Be graceful. And then sometimes you've got to tweak people.
You've got to nudge them.
You've got to point something out.
You've got a red pill here and there.
That's what he's saying. Seasoned with salt.
Salt burns the eyes.
Burns a wound.
It kind of stings a little bit.
Seasoned with salt means sometimes it stings.
So, yeah, overall, proceed in the world with grace and politeness.
Like, when you meet people for the first time, you know, don't be a horrible person to them.
I'm trying to watch my profanity here, so I'm not going to say what came to mind.
But don't be a bad person.
Now, if they treat you horribly, well then, that's different.
You know, then you can respond in whatever way is appropriate to set your boundaries or call them out or admonish them.
Yes. But by default, treat people with a sense of kindness.
Yes, there may be times where you have to call out their lies or their mistakes.
You have to call out their lack of wisdom or their lack of discernment, which, of course, I do on a somewhat frequent basis, I point out.
Things that are wrong in the world in my regular podcasts and horrible mistakes that are being made and oversights.
And there's a lot of wickedness out there because this earthly realm right now, sadly, is dominated by Lucifer.
So a lot of horrible things to point out, right?
But Paul says that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
So this comes down to wisdom and experience.
Let experience wisdom and faith be your guide.
And that's Colossians, as I pronounce it, or Colossians, as other people say.
Think about the overall message here.
Paul writing from prison, speaking about the freedom that Christ gave humanity, and hoping that he himself can be freed from prison in order to further...
Teach the word of Christ so that more people may come to him and therefore find their freedom.
Freedom from the old ways of the Old Testament.
Freedom from the Jewish traditions that are ritualistic and petty, frankly.
And even the fact that he's mentioning the slaves in this book, he's also implying that humanity, the human race, has been a slave race before the time of Christ.
Christ freed the slaves.
Not Abraham Lincoln, at least not in biblical times.
Christ freed the slaves because all of humanity was enslaved under an ancient covenant with God that was in essence impossible for humanity to fulfill.
No one could achieve the fulfillment of the covenant.
And that's why God got mad at them and often killed them by the hundreds, if not more.
So Christ freed the slaves, and he did so by dying on the cross, giving his blood and his earthly life for all of humanity to wash away your sins.
In order to honor that, we must walk with Christ, and we must know that our old body is cast aside, and now we are the new body with Christ, and that in this new body of Christ,
we walk with him with humility and kindness, we walk with him with humility and kindness, with forgiveness, but also occasionally seasoned with salt, as Paul said, where necessary to admonish people or to hold boundaries or to speak the truth that is necessary.
It doesn't mean that we have to be weak or cowardly or allow ourselves to be stomped on all the time.
We must hold the line where necessary but have a default stance of love because that is the bond between people and communities.
Love is the bond at the atomic level, at the molecular level.
It's the bond of the cosmic reality created from the mind of God as intention becoming energy And then energy with the vibration of love becoming material matter and the animation of matter becoming molecules,
becoming your body filled with your God-given spirit of consciousness so that you would have the gift of life to be here and learn who you are and fulfill God's plan for you, whatever that may be. Isn't it amazing?
You were literally chosen by God to be here.
We all were. Even those who are not Jews, those who are not Christians, those who are not even people of faith.
Nevertheless, they were chosen by God to be here in this moment.
They were given the gift of life by God, and many of them don't even know it.
Walking around with miracles in their bones, not even knowing.
How miraculous it is that they are animated and alive.
Some people will go through their whole lives not realizing this, and they will die in spiritual poverty, no matter what their material riches, because they never knew who they were or where they came from.
But those who right now in this moment are rich in God's grace, rich in the understanding of where they came from, Well, they are wealthy through all time, even if they live in poverty in this material world.
Know thyself.
Know thyself.
You are not a physical being.
You are God's spiritual gift of life and consciousness, temporarily animating life.
A physical body, which itself is always exchanging atomic structure with the world around you.
I mean, did you know that there are hydrogen atoms in your body right now that were once in the body of Christ?
Did you know that?
It is a statistical certainty.
Once you do the math, then you understand how many hydrogen atoms can fit In a human body, remember, physically we're made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
It is a certainty that right now in your body is at least one atom of hydrogen that was in the body of Christ.
You are literally the body of Christ, even if you didn't realize it.
I know this gets deep. I know this goes on so many levels, and this is why I love Scripture, especially the writings of Paul.
As you know, I've become quite a fan of Paul's words and his brilliance, his wisdom, his poetry.
And every time I read Paul, it just takes me into these deeper, deeper realms of That I've shared with you here today.
But that's...
See, this is why I have such trouble reading Scripture.
Because I can't just, like, read a page and then turn the page and go to the next page.
Like, those words just ran through my head and now they're gone.
I read a page and I'm like, whoa!
And I have to just...
I have to sit with that for a while.
Sometimes I have to take a walk.
Actually, I took a walk in the middle of this sermon here, by the way.
I hit pause and I walked with my goats and my dogs for about 45 minutes and then I came back.
Sometimes I have to do that.
Sometimes something hits me so hard in Scripture that I have to just stop for the day.
I have to sleep on it, literally.
My mind has to come to grips with it.
I don't feel like I'm reading Scripture.
I feel like I'm integrating it.
It's becoming more and more of who I am.
And I'm starting to find myself just inadvertently citing Scripture from time to time and didn't even think about it.
It's like, whoa, suddenly, you know, that makes sense.
I'm seeing that. That's written here.
You know, this was what Paul said.
This was what Timothy said.
This was what Moses said.
You know, it's like, wow. Wow.
Well, anyway, that's my experience of it.
And I'm happy to share it with you, and I appreciate your support.
Now, on a practical note, of course, we have 100 sermons coming out.
We're on number 35 or 36 or something like that.
So quite a few more.
And we're posting them all at the new website, abundance.church.
And there, at least once it's up and running...
If you go there now, you can subscribe to the email list, and you'll be alerted via email when we have significant new things to post.
But our long-term vision of what to post on that site is, of course, all these 100 sermons, plus the songs I'm doing.
I've got the next song, which is all recorded and done.
It's called God is with Us, although I did change one verse.
I improved a verse yesterday, so I re-recorded one verse much better.
Now we're working on the music video for that one.
That'll get posted on the site.
And then also, we're going to have reference charts.
Because I have quite a library of books about foods and herbs and superfoods in the Bible and essential oils and all kinds of things.
And we're going to end up posting a lot of reference material to help you We'll dive into nutrition in the Bible, foods in the Bible.
And even beyond that, you know, we'll be covering, look, God's molecules include all the molecules on earth, not just the ones mentioned in the Bible.
That's really critical to understand.
There are plants that were growing in other regions that were not known to the Middle East.
In fact, it's pretty amazing that spikenard is mentioned, given that that originally is from the Himalayan mountain region.
Modern-day China. And it eventually wound its way to India, where it was cultivated and then transported via the spice trade routes to the Middle East.
But we might not have ever known about Spike Nard if somebody hadn't brought it to India.
We don't even know who that was.
Maybe his name was Spike.
No, I'm kidding.
It was Nard. But the Chronicles of Nardia.
Yeah, I think that was his journey, the Chronicles of Nardia.
But how many other plants are there in the world that are God's creations?
They are molecules of Mother Nature and God, and yet they were never mentioned in the Bible because the people in that region did not know about them.
Think about it, you know?
Modern-day China, Central and South America, the Mesoamerican cultures, the ancient cultures in India and Southeast Asia.
I mean, indigenous cultures, aborigines in different places all around the world, the aboriginal natives, right?
So, God's molecules is a superset of the herbs mentioned in the Bible.
The Bible is just a starting point for it.
But the fundamental philosophy that God created these molecules for the benefit of humankind, these are the blessings to mankind, these are the treasures in this earthly realm.
And that's why they're mentioned so often in the Bible, the pomegranates and the grapevines and the figs and the living waters and everything else, because these are treasures from God given to you.
So what does our modern medical system do today and our food system?
They reject all the foods of God.
They reject the medicines of God.
And the FDA even outlaws them.
And mankind's law system outlaws people telling the truth about God's molecules and what they can do.
The church of natural medicine has been criminalized by the government in almost every country in the world.
You can't tell the truth about what God's molecules do.
That's the attack on the church.
That's the attack on God that is consistent with what you see, governments attacking spirituality and attacking Christianity, just like they did 2,000 years ago.
So it's the same story again and again and again, but at some point, the ultimate defeat of Lucifer does occur.
We don't know when that is, but there is a moment where that takes place, and we'll cover more of that in an upcoming sermon.
Thank you for listening. I know today's sermon was a bit on the long side, but I wanted to get through the entire book of Colossians.
Again, that's the way I prefer to pronounce it.
And thank you for your blessings and thank you for your support.
I've had a lot of positive feedback about these sermons.
Many people enjoy me sort of bringing Scripture to life in a new way, and I greatly appreciate that feedback.
I'm really enjoying this.
I'm having a great time learning and teaching and sharing and connecting the dots, and there's much more yet to come.
In fact, what about 65 more sermons?
And one per day, you know?
And then maybe at that time, when I finish 100, I might take a day off.
I don't know. Maybe. We'll see.
Until then, it's one per day until we get to 100.
So thank you for listening. God bless you all.
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