1 + 1 + 1 = 1

No media available

Reference

Colossians 2: 1 - 9 ASV

Sermon Notes

07.07.24_1+1+1 = 1.pdf

Scripture Text: Colossians 2: 1 - 9 (ASV)

Colossians 2: 1 - 9 (ASV)

2 For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at LAY OH DEE SEE AH, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the [a]full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, [b]even Christ, 3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. 4 This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

6 As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and builded up in him, and established [c]in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding [d]in thanksgiving.

8 [e]Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the [f]rudiments of the world, and not after Christ: 9 for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,

The Title of Today’s Message is: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1

Introduction

When I entered this world, it was a cold Tuesday afternoon in January 1984. My mother often tells me the story of how she was at my grandmother’s house the night before, lying in bed and drinking orange soda as the American Music Awards were being played on the television. She said she remembered that Michael Jackson stole the show that night, winning eight awards, and was performing as the show’s top star of the night. She shared that it was during that performance that something shifted within her womb in a way different from the movement she had experienced before. She had all the signs that she was in labor but didn’t realize it. She called my grandmother into the room, asking for help because she thought she had an accident. But instead, my grandmother reassured her and said, “Edna Jean… it’s time to go to the hospital… you are in labor.”

My mother went all the rest of that night at DePaul Hospital and all the following morning before the labor pains produced a baby that was his father’s namesake. I was born on January 17, 1984, at 1:40 pm, and it was clear that DNA is a powerful biochemical pathway because there was no denying that I was the son of Edna Jean and Paul Wilson, Sr. The characteristic big ears of E. Mable passed down to Paul, Sr., and passed down to me. And if you look beyond the beautiful afro that my son proudly displays, you will see that the DNA did not skip a generation, and Paul III inherited that same characteristic Wilson trait. I have a birth certificate that proves that I am the son of Edna Jean (my mother) and Paul Sr (my father) and that my date of birth was January 17, 1984. Those facts are proven by the written record, to which I have evidence in the form of a birth certificate. What is not on that document, however, is that before I was in the womb of my mother, I was in the womb of God. God showed this to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 when He said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” The 16th verse in that same division of Psalm goes on to say, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Paul explains God’s fathership over our lives in Romans 8:29 - 30 when he explains, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

I offer this contextual evidence to you this morning to make the claim that you are not just programmed with natural DNA from your parents but that you are also programmed with spiritual DNA from your heavenly father. And while you may not see God’s name on your birth certificate, I need you to understand that you are inhaling His breath in your lungs every time you breathe. Someone may have told you that your first words were “da-da” or “ma-ma.” Some of you may have been a little more sophisticated, like our first lady, and were told that your first word was “zoom,” or maybe you were like my friend Brother Tyreck and wanted some cereal so badly that you agreed to say “Kix” instead of pointing to the box. But I’ve come to tell you that the breath that God gave you programmed you with a spiritual DNA that has had your spirit speaking its first words from the moment you took your first breath. You may think what I am about to say is crazy, but I want to let you know that during a missionary auxiliary training yesterday, the spirit of the living God entered our fellowship hall and began to speak to us about the freedom with which the Word of God would be delivered today. So what I am about to say to you is what God said to me during that time of corporate prayer and impartation. God told me to tell you that you were told at some point in your life what your first words were, but if you listen closely to the cadence of the spirit and obey the Apostolic DNA that is within you, you may begin to notice that every time you breathe in, your breath makes the sound “YAH” and every time you breathe out, your breath makes the sound “WEH.” So your first words in the natural may be recorded with your earthly parents and any witnesses that were around, but your first words in the spirit occurred well before that and were a sign that God’s Word is true.

Connection to the Introduction

What do you mean, Pastor, that God’s Word is true?

Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Isaiah 40:7 says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people are grass.”

In Job 27:3, Job says these final words to his friends: “As along as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.”

And one of my favorites is a familiar scripture that is given so much context through our Apostolic DNA, and it is found in Psalm 150:6; you know the verse! It says, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord!” So I make the claim to you this morning that it is not only a part of your Apostolic DNA to Praise God in His sanctuary, to praise Him in the firmament of his power, to praise Him for his mighty acts, to praise him according to his excellent greatness, to praise him with the sound of the trumpet and the psaltery and the harp, to praise him with the timbrel and dance, to praise him with stringed instruments and organs, to praise him upon the loud cymbals and to praise him upon the high sounding cymbals… it is actually unnatural for you not to give him praise because every time you breathe in “YAHHHH” and every breathe out “WEHHHHHH” your breath is reminding you where your very life comes from.

Yahweh is the Hebrew name for God, and translated properly, it is “Yahweh-Asher-Yahweh,” or He brings into existence whatever exists. My God… let me park here for a second and let you know that those who do not believe in God don’t even realize that they cannot deny Him, no matter how hard they try. Even though they choose not to believe in their heart that God is real, they confess it with their mouths without even realizing it every time that they breathe that they only exist because of Yahweh! And this is the very reason why believers can declare, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth!” It is because as long as I am breathing, I am programmed to worship Him! This is why believers also must be so careful what they choose to give life to, because breathing in and breathing out the Ru’ah Hakkedesh breath of God should not allow you to speak poorly of your brother and sister. Breathing the breath of God should keep us from gossip, and envy, and strife, deceit, and malice. You cannot take the breath of God to commit murder in the spirit. The breath of God should be valued as one more opportunity to be pleasing unto the breath-giver.

That means I don’t have to think too long about what He has done and what He hasn’t yet done. If I am breathing, I have to honor my daddy and give Him praise.

Contextual Evidence

I wanted to cover this portion of our Apostolic DNA before getting to the evidence provided by our text because it is difficult for us to understand the mystery of Godliness and appreciate the fullness of the Godhead bodily if we can’t first acknowledge that God is our father and is deserving of every praise. When you understand who your father is, you are able to understand the mystery of Godliness. Before diving into our text in Colossians, I need you to realize that the mystery is called a mystery because, absent the Spirit, you would not be able to comprehend the oneness of God. Lacking the spirit, you will not be able to grasp the concept of “One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism.” Without the spirit, you will not be able to believe that there is “one, one, one, one way to God.” And void the spirit, you will not be able to conceive the Word of God in 1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.” And this is why understanding your Apostolic DNA is critical, because without understanding the love of your father, you might think that you are doing God a favor just by showing up on a Sunday morning. But by understanding, you begin to believe that something happens when we get on one accord and worship Him. You begin to believe that God is still healing His people, that God is still delivering from spiritual darkness and wickedness in high places, and that there is still power in the name of Jesus!

This belief is so important because the Apostle Paul’s purpose for penning this text in the second chapter of Colossians is to warn against the false teachers that existed on both sides of the religious aisle. There were those in the camp of the Jews that didn’t understand the mystery of the Godhead bodily and those on the Gentiles side of the camp that didn’t understand it either. But here is what Paul says to both sides of the house– let no one convince you with persuasive speech that Jesus isn’t who He says He is.

We must understand that God thought so much of us that He decided to do something when He saw we were in trouble. What was this trouble we were in? We were born in sin and shapen in iniquity. And because we were first in the womb of God, God sent us here to this Earth with a spark of divinity and programmed us with Apostolic DNA to make a difference in this world and find our way back to Him. But God understood that the blood of goats and lambs and sending the priests into the temple would only fulfill ceremonial law and not have us in a place where we could recognize that relationship with Him is what would complete us.

So I AM THAT I AM decided that it was time for Him to step on the scene. He saw what was plaguing us before we were even born and did not consult any other power or principality. Instead, He took counsel with Himself and said, “I need a body.”

He stepped out of eternity, where He dwelt between the cherubim and seraphim in a cloud that covered the mercy seat, and into the womb of a virgin Mary.
He quickened the womb of Elizabeth before He was even born by announcing from Mary’s womb that John the Baptist would be His forerunner
He was born into this world and confounded the wise with His understanding of the scripture
He was not bound by religious custom or tradition, though He didn’t come to disrespect the law. He explained to all who would listen that He came to fulfill the law, not destroy it
Taught that baptism should be in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost– don’t get upset Apostolics when you hear that… the scripture says it… but the part we must realize is that there is ONE NAME given under heaven by which men must be saved… it is at this name that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess…..
He lived for 33 years on this Earth doing the will of the Father and was One with Him
He fulfilled His purpose by dying on an old rugged cross
But He didn’t leave us without His presence, for He left a comforter through the Holy Ghost

Conclusion