Take care that no one captivates you with a vain and deceitful philosophy

This morning I invite you to go with me to the Scriptures, to the Letter that Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 2 verses from 8 to 17. Paul is writing from prison, I want you to keep that image during the course of preaching , Pablo is writing from jail.

And he tells the Church in Colossae: «Be careful that no one deceives you through philosophies and hollow subtleties, according to the tradition of men, according to the rudiments of the world and not according to Christ, because in Him dwells all the fullness of life bodily. deity, and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the sinful body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God that gave Him raised from the dead.

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of the flesh, He gave life together with Him, forgiving you all your sins, annulling the act of decrees that was against us that was contrary to us, removing it from the middle and nailing it to the cross , and stripping principalities and powers, he publicly displayed them, triumphing over them on the cross. Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or in regard to festival days, new moons, or Sabbaths, all of which are shadows of what is to come, but the body is Christ's." God bless His holy Word this morning.

While Paul is in this prison, announcements reach him, messages that the Church that is in Colossae is being attacked, is being deceived, has spread, a proportion of philosophical ideas, empty, without original context, have a natural essence to confuse the bases. of the Gospel that they have received. And it is interesting to note that humanity, through its philosophical thoughts, tries to dismantle, to question, to create a doubt about what we believe and what we are.

These subtle, skilful attacks are directed at only one person and they want to deflate, to take away our interest. The enemy knows that if we, the people of God, through our experience, through our daily living, through what we are in our lives, allow a simple doubt about the Person of Jesus Christ, the rest would be history and confuse us with abstract things, things that are not concrete, things that sound good when heard. They want the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be governed, identified, defined and explained by human reasoning and this does not work that way. Our thoughts, our context of thinking, acting, is designed and defined by the Person of Jesus Christ.

All that we are, what gives us value, what gives us being, what helps us move forward in our lives are not empty philosophies, they are not a series of thoughts in a book, it is not that we sit down and think , and to investigate what the Gospel really is. One of the factors that philosophers do not understand is that the Gospel message is focused on the Person of Jesus and that abstract factor becomes concrete in our lives.

They cannot understand how a number of people in different countries throughout the years, throughout history remain faithful to religious ideas, ideas that apparently do not make sense to the contemporary world. Paul from his vision realizes that there is something that is entering the Church of Colossae and says in verse 8: "See that no one deceives you through philosophy."

The new version translates this text saying: "Be careful that nobody captivates you with the vain and deceptive philosophy that human traditions follow, the one that is in accordance with the principles of people and not in accordance with the principles of Christ." It is something that is incomprehensible to our human mind and we are going to do the same in the morning or on Wednesday.

We have been impacted at some point in our lives by a Word that does not come from philosophers, a Word that does not come from a group sitting down to define what Christianity is, that has already been defined, decided and demonstrated. We are moved not only by a temporary emotion because we are not like the waves of the sea that move us from one place to the other. That is what Paul wants to avoid, that after they received the real message, the true message, now they are moved by the philosophies of men that try to filter, to remove the essence of what the Gospel is. If we remove the Person of Jesus from the Gospel, what we have is a group of philosophies and theologies. By keeping the Person of Jesus within that Gospel we have something that no other religion has.

The great theological expressions through the ages always reflect their great thinker, their great philosopher, their great theologian, their great philosopher, their great man, and there are people who even make trips to find out where he walked, where was that great philosopher of the Muslim religion or within Buddhism, or within Confucianism, or within Hinduism, following a series of hollow and subtle rules.

On the other hand, we, those who have had the opportunity to go to Jerusalem or Israel, the system of ideas to go there is not based on going to see where our Lord is buried, it is not based on a pilgrimage that reminds us of the painful idea that the one who founded us is dead there and there is his corpse or his skeleton, or his mummy. On the other hand, the Gospel of Jesus teaches us that upon arrival there are some tombs, there is a place where he was buried, there are some places that He visited but the last rest is not on earth, the last rest of Jesus is not in a tomb, the The last rest of our Lord is not on earth, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Verse 9 of Colossians 2 says: "For in Him dwells bodily all the fullness of the Godhead." This word "all" in the Greek appears only once in the New Testament, once, all. It is not that Jesus is an image of God, it is not that Jesus represents the ideas of that superior God. It is not that Jesus speaks about God, it is that the Jesus of this Gospel is God, hallelujah, and with Him all His deity, and with Him all His authority, and if that Jesus dwells in me this morning I tell you: in All the deity that is in heaven dwells in me, and that gives me authority, the authority that no hollow and subtle philosophy gives me, the authority that does not give me life or powers, the authority that gives me me Jesus for being my Lord, for being within my heart, for being His temple, dwells in me the glory of the deity.

Can you imagine all that glory, all that authority is within you? lives within me, I am subject to that authority, but the spiritual world is subject to the authority that Christ has given me, the spiritual world has no authority over my person because the Christ of glory has given me, He has given you that authority to hold, to control, to put it under the soles of your feet and say: you are defeated because I have the authority of the one who defeated you, the one who has given it to me even though it continues to be my God, even if I am imperfect, even if I have failed, even if I am not the best in the world, God has been pleased to dwell within my heart and make me His sanctuary to tell this sinful world: I together with my Church share the fullness of that life.

It says "And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands" this is a problem in the Church today. Those who came from Judaism brought with them a certain type of arrogance, "we are first generation Jews, we were circumcised" while these Jews were in churches that were also mostly Gentiles, what tension, what friction would there be between those brothers?

Now you're now new, you haven't been circumcised, like you're a second class believer. That doesn't happen to us because they don't circumcise us under that friction, that tension reminds me. I arrived first and I have been in the Church for years so I have some privileges, I have more experience. Do you know the problem that Colosse has? I come from Israel, I heard these words from the mouth of the Master, you heard them from an apostle and that is creating a type of division within the Church in Colosse.

I am not going to listen to you because you are new, you have not gone through that physical process of being circumcised and Paul says: In that Christ we have a better circumcision than the physical one because Christ has done it. Raise your hand this morning and worship God.

He has not forgotten you wherever you are, you arrived yesterday, you arrived twenty years ago, He dwells in you as if you had arrived from the beginning, you have the same authority, hallelujah. Those who are on the balcony: we have the same authority even if we have arrived late, he does not forget us, that is the beauty of the Lord. And the thing is that Pablo is in prison, Pablo is sending letters complaining about what is happening to him. Paul is not thinking about the circumstances of that moment, Paul is, like every good believer, thinking about the ministry that God has given him, the people that God has given him. Although he is in prison: I have people that I have to encourage, people that I have to preach to him, the story has not yet ended even though I am in prison.

Even if you do not have a microphone, even if you are sitting down, even if your alliance group is small, publish, communicate, tell people what the Christ of glory has done in your life. All the fullness of Him in me, they are not characteristics, they are not traits, it is not that I look like myself, it is the nature of God, oh that most high incomparable.

While I was preparing this sermon I am used to, after I have the passage and I have read the other originals in the living room of my house and I put on music, and so I read it all, I put on music and I am preparing, don't ask me what kind of music but I have music (laughs) I read the sermon, Vivian is in front of me on the sofa studying for the prospects so I see her very serious in her study and I am laughing, preparing the sermon I am enjoying myself because God is also with me talking to me He said: Lord, how great You are that sometimes we do not understand with how fast we live life we do not understand, the greatest thing is You who noticed us.

Paul continues speaking in verse 11 and tells us that circumcision cast off that sinful and carnal body, Christ's circumcision is an abstract aspect but a real aspect in our lives. And he goes on to say: "You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead, and to you, being dead in sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he gave life together with Him, forgiving you all your sins.

Something that caught my attention in this passage when it says that it is annulling the handwriting of the decrees that were against us, I went to the historical context, what does Paul mean with the handwriting of the decrees that was contrary to us, removing it from the middle and nailing it to the cross?

In the dungeons of the houses from before, outside the gate was the record for which the person was imprisoned, so the jailer when he passed by to bring food to those prisoners could read on the door of the dungeon what the person had done and what time He was going to be imprisoned, but every day that prisoner was psychologically reminded of what he had done and how long he was going to be imprisoned, only what Paul is saying is that Jesus, that same Jesus entered those prisons where you and I were prisoners and went to jail, cell by cell, and took the decree of what you had done.

And taking that decree into His hands, He did not stay to make a record or to remind us, the great thing about that moment is that He takes our sins, that act that accuses me before God the Father, He takes it and takes it with Him to the cross. Every time they nailed it, they were nailing our decree, they were nailing what we had done wrong and at that moment, on those nails, that decree was destroyed, our cell was clean, we considered ourselves free, free, we were no longer prisoners, we have than being outside, there is no one to accuse us because He took our guilt.

As every good Puerto Rican would say: he took the document and put it in the devil's face so he could see that now we are free, there is no one to accuse us, it is the best we can have, so why feel guilty? Why have problems with self-esteem? Why do you stay imprisoned if He already removed the blame, removed the accusation and erased it once and for all. León de Judá Church, Church through the internet tell the world that you are free, you are free, you are free because the Christ who has all the deity has made you free.

It says in verse 15: "He disarmed, disarmed principalities and powers, and exhibited them publicly." In the Greek the word exhibit in this context is the same word that is used when there was a parade, a parade like the 4th of July, memorial day parade, a parade, so imagine that all those demonic principles, all those principalities, those domains that keep us imprisoned, that keep us in emotional and spiritual misery now Jesus makes a parade to show what He has taken out, what He has overcome and where He has put it.

In other words, he is making a public mockery so that you know when you look in the mirror in the morning, you are going to find out, you are not going to look younger or thinner, but you are going to see yourself free, you are going to see yourself free. What a beautiful opportunity to start our day by saying to the mirror: I got up and I'm still free because my Christ took my burden and nailed it to the cross, took my curses and removed them. What a joy, I can go to work in the morning, I can go to school in the morning, I can walk with my head up because I have no one to accuse me, because my best lawyer, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he took that guilt, look, he took it and nailed it on the cross. So this morning begin to live a life of freedom.

When we stay in prisons and we don't want to get out of jail, our way of seeing things, our perspective is that of a person who is imprisoned, a person who is tied up, a person who does not have freedom, a person who is restricted, a person who doesn't know what to do, who doesn't think about the future because she's in jail. How many of us in our communities, in our daily lives, find people who look very happy but are in prison? They don't feel free and you and I are the best messengers to teach these communities, be it the community where we work or the community in which we live, or our family that although we don't have much, we are free, with that you don't have to do much noise because it is a reality, it is not something abstract, it is something concrete that nobody can take away from us. That is why Paul says: do not let them deceive you with hollow subtleties and philosophies if you are already free, you are free, declare it to the four winds: I am free because the Christ that I serve took what I was, took the record, tore it up, annulled it and opened the cell.

If we are imprisoned and we do not want to go out when we advise, we advise as a prisoner and sometimes we have certain problems and we go to see brothers and sisters who we believe are free but are imprisoned and the advice they give us is completely negative. Well what are you going to do? see what happens? maybe God will remember you. When you are in prison, brother, sister, there is no hope because they take away hope, you can't wait to get out, you lose track of time, you don't know well, you already lost it, you lose everything and you don't realize that long ago God has set you free, God has set you free.

This morning I want you to reflect, not only on the message of this preaching nor on the style in which it is preached, but I want you to go into your personal life, where is your life in this journey of the Gospel?

If you have a negative mentality, you will see that the act of sin is still there, but you have to rebuke the mentality and see that there is nothing, that it is only mental. But if the enemy wants to make you see: but it is that I am alone, but it is that I cannot see anything else, it is that I do not feel, it is that I do not do, you have to believe, you have to believe that the Lord Jesus before I was born , before I was formed and that is what Paul wants to emphasize to the Colossians, while human systems when they have never done anything for us, human systems that can dress you, human systems can change your hairstyle, human systems can make you a plastic surgery but they cannot change what is inside the heart and mind, that is why the Lord Jesus Christ came and that is what Paul tells them: how is it that you are going to leave reality now, that experience genuine by vain and hollow nonsense philosophies? just because Plato or Aristotle said it.

I have a better philosophy because I have met the creator of the philosophy that takes the abstract and makes it concrete, that takes the impossible and makes it possible, that takes the insignificant and makes it great, his name is Jesus Christ.

When we are in prison, what we do is follow shadows, that is following Pauline thought, people follow shadows, follow what is not real, follow what is temporary, follow what is ephemeral, follow what is not eternal, follow what has no substance follows what has no essence. Why follow all these things if you open your eyes and look ahead and you will see the risen Christ who is in front of your life telling you: Get out of that damn prison, get out of that cave, get out of that low self-esteem, get out of that low delusion, come out even if you are an immigrant, come out even if you don't have papers but come out because I have given you freedom and authority over all powers and diabolical dominion but come out? run, jump! rejoice brother because we are no longer slaves of a curse.

Tell your family when you get home: family we are free. When you get home today in the afternoon, take your family, make a prayer circle in your living room and tell them: Lord, me and my family are free! And if you declare with your mouth that you are free, if you declare that you are free, the principalities will understand that the Son of our God is speaking, people are speaking who, even though they are imperfect, have opened their hearts and now that family is a throne on which Jesus sits with His Father and Holy Spirit to tell the spiritual world: in this house, in this apartment, in this family the deity and the fullness of the Lord is reigning, this house is special, here there is no place for to be in prison, open that gate, open all those papers and throw them away in the Name of Jesus.

Lord: my house is not a jail, my house is Your temple, my house is not a jail, my house is Your temple and your children inhabit Your temple. Sanctify your house, sanctify your apartment by telling the spiritual world: here we are with my family worshiping what is not abstract but is concrete, what is not unreal but is real, what we cannot touch but is the engine of our lives that although we have not seen it, we believe it. What do we say this morning? We get to his house and when we get to our houses we are going to declare what? that we are free

Marta, when you get home, what are you going to do? declare: we are free. Winston, what are you going to do? Camilo, what are you going to do when you get home? we're free, Danny when you get to your apartment: we're free, we're free. And a Church that is free, a Church and a people that is free have no limits.

I want to end this. In 1974, in a country in South America, this Pastor had been in the ministry for 30 years and there came a time when he felt tired, he felt lonely and he told his wife "tomorrow after we finish the service this Sunday we are going to the train, I am going to leave everything and we are going to another city». The wife said nothing but thought, what is going through the mind of my husband who wants to leave everything? and it happened that while sitting waiting for the train that arrived at a certain time, the train was delayed and instead of having a number of people who normally wait for that train, the crowd, that group of people began to grow and grow. So he decides to stand up and form a line, and he says that there were many people forming lines, the train had not yet arrived but people were waiting for that train.

And he says that while he was waiting he questioned, and this passage came to mind, "but if God made me free, if God has given me power and authority, if he has made me a soldier for his cause, what has happened to me?" these thirty years that I have lost that vision? and he says that while he is there waiting the train arrives but he makes a number like a number 100 that he has to wait for each person to enter, and he thus in the distance spots an individual who is walking, taking steps from one side to the other, when As he gets closer to him, he sees that he has old, dirty clothes, he is not combed, he looks a bit like someone who has nowhere to live, when he approaches him, this half-crazy individual puts his hands on him and begins to sing : «I am a soldier of the cross and servant of the Lord, I will not fear to carry his cross, suffering for his love, after the battle he will crown us, God will crown us, God will crown us, after the battle he will crown us in that holy Zion, beyond, beyond, in that holy Zion».

The man tells him: I was ready to commit suicide this morning and when I was ready to throw myself into that abyss a voice told me: go right now to the city train so that you can tell one of My children that I have given the authority and the power, and he tells the Pastor: the Lord tells me that if you take this train to leave and abandon, and surrender, then I, who am stone, will have to preach to the people.

After the battle he will crown us, God will crown us, God will crown us, after the battle he will crown us in that holy Zion, beyond, beyond, in that holy Zion. Oh beyond, beyond in that holy Zion, after the battle he will crown us, he will crown us in that holy Zion.

Brothers, God bless you, God keep you, do not follow the abstract, follow the concrete which is equivalent to following the Lord Jesus, that is the first point, the second point: get out of the cell, get out of the cell and tell this world that your debt is already paid, third point: our circumcision was not made by the hands of man, it was made by holy hands of God, a better and superior one. Let us praise His glory this morning, let us go home thinking: I am free, I am free!