Episode 311 - National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day

After some funny conversation about the obscure holiday today, the brothers focus in on Colossians 2:6-11.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast from New Song Baptist Church in Columbia, Tennessee. How'd you like that? That's really good. Yeah, that was that was really good. Well, you know, here we are again recording episodes for this podcast. Right. And your thoughts on this podcast, 10,000 downloads later, are what? I'm just uh astonished.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

You know, I just can't help but to, you know, think two years ago, almost three years ago now.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Uh we had no idea. We didn't, did we? We were just two guys that said, hey, let's try this. Let's give it a shot.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

And here we are. And here we are. That's exactly right. Well, uh again, uh, let me uh let me let me throw this out at you. All right. Are you ready? I am. It's now time for the obscure holiday of the month. All right. We I like to do this on the very first of the month that that we do. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

So what is it today?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

So today is National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day. What? Creative National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day. So, okay, so how do I celebrate this? Well, what you do is you you come up with your own recipe of ice cream, and you are creative with it and you serve it to people that you don't like. Okay, I made that up. I don't know what this this holiday is inviting unique scoops uh of different kinds of ice cream. What is the weirdest flavor ice cream you've ever had?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Uh I don't really like that Superman ice cream. I don't even know what that is. It's got all those bright colors in it. Oh, okay, yeah. I think all you taste is the bright colors. I I don't know. It's not my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

It's not your favorite. Do you have a favorite ice cream? Um, probably uh butter pecan. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, butter pecan's good. Yeah, how about you? Uh I like spaghetti. Spaghetti ice cream. That's that's being creative. Did you see what I did there? I I know. Yeah, I have never had spaghetti ice cream, nor do I ever want to try that.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Someone's gonna make it right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I hope they do. And if you do, please text the show and let us know how it worked out. How it worked out for you. No, my favorite, I think, ice cream. I love uh I love pralines and cream. Okay. I love that. Okay. Uh but uh anyway, so happy National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day. Did you notice both of our ice creams had nuts?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

I think that says a lot about us, Robert.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Boy, doesn't it? We like nuts. Boy. Oh my gosh. All right, we're uh we're in uh Colossians chapter two today. We're gonna be uh shooting for verses six through eleven. So let's uh let's go for that.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

All right. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruined ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

All right, so that is the word of the Lord. So this uh this whole little section right here is uh going to talk about identity, it's gonna talk about freedom, it's gonna talk about uh victory in Christ. There's a lot going on here. There is a lot in these verses. There's a lot happening. So there in verse six it says, so then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him. Now again, when we're thinking about the this past I I kind of think of uh him being a pastoral, uh being the pastor, right, and and encouraging these readers to stay in Jesus no matter what fancy scam may come along. Right. But he is really expressing to him that to these people that he wants them to live their Christian life the way it began. They began their Christian life. Sure. And and you remember when you got baptized? You remember when you became how on fire were you all? Uh I remember when I I was I was um became a a Christian and uh boy, you talk about the fire just burning inside of you because you wanted this to, you know, you were you were saved, yep, you realize that that you are in him, you realize that you're living for him. It just changed your whole outlook. Sure. And that fire is what I think Paul is trying to to rebuild right here in this in this verse right here.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yeah, you're right. I mean that that newness, that freshness of that accepting Christ or the the marriage altar when you give your vows. Right. You are so idealistic and everything is so pristine, you can't even possibly think of of you know straying from that path at all. This is this is so and that's what he's saying. You just need to continue it, walk it as as that live that in your life consistently.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yeah, it's uh this guy wrote this you receive Christ by faith, you continue in Christ by faith. Absolutely. So that I thought that was really good. It's kind of like uh here's an illustration I read. Yeah, it's kind of like boarding a plane, he says. Okay. You don't flap your arms to stay in the in the air. The same thing that got you off the ground keeps you flying. There you go. Uh Paul says, Stay in the one who carried you. There you go. I like that. Okay. Yeah. That would be a silly seeing people flapping their wings trying to everybody get on a plane, they just start flying. All together now. Hey, you in the back. You're not flapping quite fast enough. You're you're out of rhythm. First seven talks about being rooted and built up in him, strengthened in faith. And and this is kind of a kind of a mix of of the metaphors here, if you want to get down to it. He's talking about agricultural being rooted, and then he's talking about architectural being built up. You know, again, he's using two.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

He could have used one. Yeah. He uses two. He does. And so, yeah, he's talking about, you know, and different trees have different root systems. We've talked before about sequoias and redwoods having rather shallow roots, considering the the immense size of the tree. Exactly. Some have taproots that almost uh equal what the the you know the the tight the the tree, yeah, the tallness of the tree. That's what I'm trying to say. Sure. But so he talks about this agricultural roots, and then he talks about this foundation. But we know, you know, we can see after a storm damage, well, they that tree didn't have very good roots.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

You know, it's it's laying on its side, or we can see a building that collapsed because someone didn't put in the right concrete or rebar or they didn't, you know. And so we know that you're only going to get as big as your foundation's gonna allow you to grow.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Exactly right. Uh I it's funny that you mentioned the the tree uh with the deep roots, you know, because that that's that I think that's kind of what he's saying here. Yeah. He's saying just, you know, be sure that you're strengthened in these deep roots, that you that you've got this agricultural thing, that you're reinforced, you're going upward. Yeah. I mean, just all those things uh that happen right there in that verse uh verse six.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Well and that that also tells us, too, you know, when we meet people, you know, one of the most impressive people I ever met was Henry Blackaby. He he wrote uh experiencing God, which you know have sold millions of copies. But you you met him, you were just inspired by who he was, his spirituality. Okay. But Henry would get up at four o'clock in the morning when when we I hosted them for a conference, and and you get requests for for people that are coming. Oh yeah. And the request was two rooms with an adjoining door. Yeah, he was traveling with his wife, and Henry would get up at four o'clock in the morning and be in prayer till about seven. And that's that's the roots. Right. And his wife didn't want to get up at four o'clock, that's why they had two rooms. But for him, that was the price he paid to have that kind of close walk with the Lord to make him effective when he was doing ministry. How about that?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

That that's impressive. Yeah, that that's impressive. And and when you think about that, he he does this last part of this verse overflows with thankfulness.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yeah, which I I kind of thought it's coming out of left field. You know, he's talking about being ruded, built up, strengthening the faith as you were taught, and then he says, Man, you gotta be overflowing with thankfulness. And I I thought, boy, he's right. Right. Because if we adopt this attitude of always being thankful, even for the stuff we're not thankful for, then we're in a positive mindset. Right. So, you know, and you don't want to be ridiculous, but it's like when bad things happen, if we just say, Thank you, Lord. You know, and and and having a position of faith is I don't know how, but I know you're capable and faithful to see me through this, and I just want to give you praise for that in advance.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, yeah. It's we we've seen it in our in our lives times where we've seen uh strong Christians have some kind of diagnosis of some kind, and they sit there and say, Well, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm just gonna praise God for it. Absolutely. Yeah, and that is when I hear that, it just really touches my heart.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Yeah, I talked to a church member, she she brought it up Sunday, her name's Peggy, and and she shared something about her husband who who passed away a number of years ago. He had Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

And she was talking about the stuff that he did, and and he he got or he was paranoid, and so he was turning everything into a weapon. He wanted to bring a gun to church, and he was sharpening pens to protect himself, and she's just talking about how horrific it was to this this this man that she loved and and see this change in his nature. But then she said this, Robert. She said, Going through that brought me closer to the Lord, and I am so grateful of my relationship with God now because of what I went through.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Wow, how about that? That's what Paul said. That's what he's talking about right there, overflowing with thankfulness. Then in verse 8, he says, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental special forces of this world rather than on Christ. Again, he is going back to what he's talking about, these these doctrines that are creeping in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

You know, uh the the word captive could also be uh used as rob or spoil uh or ruin. And so he's saying, be on guard. Right. Make sure you're not contaminated, make sure so not someone's one's taking you. And so he talks about these philosophies, which that Greek influence was so important. But I really like what he says about the human tradition, the elemental spiritual forces, because this goes back to what I said earlier in a previous podcast. This is where we pollute and compromise, and and so we we dilute what is really Christianity. Uh, we we talked about this Wednesday night in our in our service because uh it was part of our lesson. But how many things do we bring into what we think is spiritual? Stuff about drinking and dancing and proper attire in church, and you know, uh they're not biblical, no, you know, but but they're on par in our mind. Uh and I talked about, you know, one of the guys who's who's in church now that that felt he couldn't come to church because he he only had shorts to wear, he didn't have long pants. Right. And and so how many churches have said, I'm sorry you can't stay because you're not you're not dressed properly. Yeah, you don't have the right hairstyle or you don't have the right outfit or you know, and and so per we we've blocked them from getting to the kingdom of God because of there's not I mean, we should look our best. Right. We we want it, but if you don't have it, you don't have it. And should that prevent someone from having a relationship with Christ?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Absolutely not. They they should be able to come in go anywhere because of their relationship with Christ. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

And so that's what Paul's talking about here in verse 8 is we we've got these human traditions. Uh you know, and and he's coming out of this Judaism, he's saying, I mean, all these Jewish things. Right, you know, and he he goes right into circumcision here by the time we get to verse 11. So all these things we think are important may be the thing that's keeping someone from having a relationship with Christ.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Exactly. Um, and you know, another this this word this verb, uh cilia go-y-go. Man, you are just on fire. It just rolls off the tongue. It really does. It's uncanny. It's it really is. I were you born Greek? I was not, but I am really I would not know the difference. Guess you would. But it means uh to kidnap and to carry off the plunder. So Paul is uh basically saying that bad theology is spiritual kidnapping. Yes. I haven't thought of it that way. Yes. So you when you think of it as spiritual kidnapping, I mean, you've got this philosophy that doesn't hold any water. Uh you know, you've got uh tr human traditions that you're elevating to places that they don't even be like the dress or whatever. Um you you're just not you're rooted in anything but but Christ.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, the conclusion that I we came to as a consensus Wednesday night when we talked about this verse was basically I think we need to say to the Holy Spirit, if if I have any wrong thinking in my mind, tell me. Right. Because it may have been something when we were eight years old, a Sunday school teacher said, and we just believe that to be true. You know, things like, you know, well, grandma died and now she's in heaven with a harp and and she's an angel. Yeah. That's not biblical theology. And so there's a lot of things that we bring. You know, one of the one of the people said, you know, that for them it was a a rule, you know, no singing at the table. You know, and and and you know, you couldn't laugh at the table, you know. No singing or laughing, huh? Yeah, you know, it's a very formal affair. You know, and so we've we were raised with these things and they become on par with scripture, and they're not scripture.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

And they're not scripture. And that's that's where the problem comes. That is the problem. Uh verse nine says, for I think this is one of the strongest statements of Jesus' divinity in the Bible. Yes. Because when you look at that, it says, For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Now, again, here's this word fullness, not partially. He wasn't just kind of uh God or sort of like God, he was God.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah. And again, this is important, and this is something they were struggling with in Paul's time, and they still struggle with today, but he was 100% God, and he was one hundred percent man, and you say that doesn't make sense because that's 200%. And Paul says, So we're not doing math here. No, so you know, and and he he does this theme in other places that Jesus was the the human fleshly representative of God in physical form. Yeah, so he wasn't all of God. You can't put all of God into one physical form, right? And so, but but as much of God you can compact into one physical form, that was Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

That was Jesus. And and that boy, that's a great way of putting it. You know, because if you think about it, if God had put everything of that God is into Jesus, we couldn't even look at him.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

No, you can't put the infinite into the finite.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

No, you can't do it. No, yeah, and then that's where I think verse 10 kind of leads it. And in Christ you've been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. So this fact that we've been we're in Christ and we've been brought to that same fullness, what what is wow, what is that talking about?

SPEAKER_01 16:57

That's great. Yeah. I I inserted a word in the Bible, and I know we're not supposed to do that, but in in in going to verse 10, I said, Therefore, in Christ you have been brought to fullness. Because because in Jesus all the fullness of God exists, that's why when we have Christ in us, then we've also been brought to the same fullness. We have full access to God. He's the head, and we have uh power and authority. And so when we become a Christian, right, when we say the sinner's prayer, when we say, I want you to be the Lord of my life, we have full access, 100% of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in us. It's just great. We're gonna grow in our understanding and knowledge of what that means, but but we have 100 we're we're club members. We have full access.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I like that right there from the get-go. Wow. Um, so verse 11, in whom you were also circumcised by the circumcision not performed by human homes, your your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Talk about verse 11 just for a second.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Well, again, Paul's taking his Old Testament roots, and so he's saying that was the old covenant to be circumcised. And even Jeremiah talks about instead of being circumcised, our heart needs to be circumcised. We need to get the calluses off our heart. Right. And so he's saying, look, this isn't the circumcision that was done when a male's eight days old. This was something that Jesus did on the cross for us. He circumcised us. That that flesh was put off. Right. And and and really, when he uses that word put off, I wrote the word baptism, which is what he's going to get to when we get to verse 12. Right. But he says, You were you were circumcised by Christ. He took off the flesh. Right. So that you could, that sin, that carnality has been removed by Jesus so that you can be a new creature in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Oh, that's so good. That is so good. It's a it's a spiritual circumcision, if you will. Yeah. And and that's what it's all about. Well, that that we did it. We got to, we got all the way to 11. That was our goal. And and finally, let me just encourage you to try something new. A national, uh, what was it called? Pagetti ice cream. National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Good luck.

unknown 19:35

Good luck.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

And God speak. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Robert Dwakefield. I'm Peterson, and you've been listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast, and we really do appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening. And God bless.