This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. God bless you. What a privilege it is to be here in the presence of the Lord and God's people. Let me just pray for us before we get started. Father, thank you again for this opportunity to stand before you and before your people. My simple prayer, Lord, is the prayer of the psalmist that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable, O Lord God, in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Father, those that will have an ear, let them hear what your spirit is going to say into the church today. My prayer, God, is that we won't be here as only but doers of your word because your word indeed is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Cleanse us today with the washing of water by your word, for your word is truth, and the words you speak to us are spirit and life. As in Jesus name I pray, amen and amen. Yeah, what a privilege it is to be here in the midst of God's people here at Christ Kingdom. I'm so honored to have been asked by my brother and my friends, Scott Puckett. Love him dearly, he indeed is truly a gem in the city. And if you haven't recognized it already for this church, and I'm privileged to call him friend. So we're going to get started in the word of God. Today I'm going to talk about colored people. Get a load of that. Yes, it's going to be interesting and talk about colored people. You have your verses of scripture that we'll be referencing in your bulletin, and now so you can follow along if you so desire. Let me just read Philippians 3, 3 through 8. Then I want to reference or read Genesis 1, 26 to 27. And then act 17, 26 to 27. I'm going to apologize in advance for this aggravating cough that seems not get kicked up until I start talking. So forgive me in advance, but let's read the word of God. Philippians 3, 3, 3, 3. And the reason for we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law of blameless, but whatever, whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake. I'm sorry for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Genesis 1, 26 to 27, and it reads, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. Last three verses is in Acts 17, 26 to 27, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each of us. Thank you, the system. All right, so colored people, let's talk about that, make you real uncomfortable today. There's a historical context to this term. It is a term coined in the 1600s, first associated with any non-white person or person of mixed racial descent. In the 19th century, after January 1st, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation became law, when the slaves would be free, slaves adopted the term to designate themselves from free white people. So at some point in time, colored people was a good thing. Black started using it to designate themselves from free white people, however. There was a change that took place. The term later became offensive in the 20th century when whites replaced the term nigger on nigger with the word colored. Blacks were then embracing the term nigger in the 60s, and then with the Jackson 5 and the Commodore, with all those big old afros, y'all remember those days, they began to call themselves afro-american. And then in the 70s, I'm sorry, that was the 70s, and then back in the 80s and the 90s, it was black after that, then the term African-American.
We've gone through so many different terms till my white brothers don't even know how to address it sometimes. You know, I got a question, just lighting up everybody, we're going to have some fun here today. It's going to be alright. If a white person from South Africa migrated to the United States and became an American citizen, what that white person would be an African-American. And when I asked that question, people don't know how to answer that, but that person would be more of an African-American than I was because they are from Africa. But you see how all these terms can sometimes bring division and cause a lot of discomfort.
And back in the 60s, that era, because of civil rights was an issue, we had organizations that formed like the NAACP, which still exists today. And that means national, I don't even know what it means, and I'm black. Something national association for the advancement of colored people. I think they ought to change the name to intriple AP, the national association for the advancement of all people. I think at one time perhaps organizations were needed. In fact, back in the 60s, how many of you remember James Brown? Don't act like you've been saved, all your life, come on now, you know James Brown. There's a song that he created along with one of his musicians called Sail Out. I'm black and I'm proud. And it was in response to a lot of the racism that was going on in that day. But to his credit, later on in his life in a more recent interview before his death, James Brown went on record as saying that song was needed then, but it is not needed anymore because of the advances that we have made throughout the years. However, racism still exists. It's more covert than it is overt, many, many, many years ago people didn't care how they treated others. Now, it's kind of more covert. People are smile in your face, sit next to you, work next to you and still have racist attitudes. We see some of those things happening in Sanford with the George Zimmerman and the Trayvon Martin case. And then in Ferguson with Michael Brown in the office of Darren Wilson, all of those issues. And then more recently, Baltimore with the Freddie Gay and the six police officers. Interesting enough, six or three of those officers were black, colored, African-American, whatever you want to call them. Y'all choose the day. Crimes and stats not reported though. How about this? It was reported November last year where a white man was brutally beaten by a mom before the black people in Cleveland. What was the national outrage? A black officer kills an unarmed white man in Utah and incident that happened simultaneously during the Ferguson incident. But why didn't that get national coverage? True statistic. White cops kill more white people twice as many times as black people. Most use of force for officers are justified. And I speak also as a member of the law enforcement community because I am a chaplain with the Orange County Sheriff Department. I've been through the training. I've been through the use of force matrix and the use of force training that our officers go through, at least from the civilian side. And even from that point of view, listen, my heart goes out to everyone who is a part of the law enforcement community. And I pray for them all the time. And I tell people, don't jump to any conclusions until all the facts are out. It's amazing that all this took place in Ferguson and yet even when the federal government did their own independent investigation, come to find out that the officer acted justly. But that did not get reported because it seems that we have a hunger in this nation. Of keeping race as very important to the cause for whatever reason, various causes. But I want to get rid of all that stuff because there is no racism in Jesus. Amen. Truth be told, though. We all have our racial and cultural apprehensions. I know that I found out some of the nicest people. Some of the nicest people that you ever want to meet are dark complexion. Folks that wear their hair and dreads and they're all tied it up. But I'm going to be honest with you. If I see one of them walking towards me, I'm walking the other way. Because we have some apprehensions in our mind, even amongst the races, even amongst the races. Blacks in America tend to look down on blacks that come from the islands or come from Haiti. You got people in the Hispanic culture. It's like if you're Cuban or Puerto Rican or from Spain, you're like at the top of Hispanic. But lo and behold, don't be from Mexico, right? It's like even within the races, there are subcultures and people look down on each other. And even amongst Anglo or white people don't live in a poor community in a mobile home. They're tend to be called trailer trash. We have all these racist ideas within our culture and in our community. But it has no room in the body of Christ. Amen. So let me just deal with the text that we just read. Colored people. Paul in Philippians, he has some wonderful things. He says, I put no confidence in the flesh. And if you want a boast, if you really want a boast, I can boast better than anybody. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews concerning the law of Pharisee. According to the law, blameless. Let me just kind of break that down for you on what's going on here. Our heritage, our race, our color, culture, where you're from, our denomination, anything that you label yourself means absolutely nothing at best is at poop level. Paul says it is rubbish. Being an Israelite or an American means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. Being from a particular state or a city means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. Being Hebrew, Greek, white, Hispanic, Asian, black, African-American means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. Being a Pharisee as Paul was, break that down today. Being a Pharisee, you can call yourself a Presbyterian, a Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, non-denomination, Pentecostal, Baptistcostal, Presbycostal, whatever you want to call yourself. It means absolutely nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. In other words, one's resume and expertise or work history means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. Being a law-abiding citizen and doing good, absolute of an authentic relationship with Jesus means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. For the sake of Jesus Christ, anything I was, anything I am or will be means absolutely nothing. If you are I or not saved, whatever is important to you and about you means nothing and carries no weight in the kingdom. This is what Paul was saying. Yours and my resume at best is poo, poo, dumb, rubbish, excrement in light of the person of Jesus Christ or y'all with me. So what does that have to do with color people? Hmm, glad you asked. God said let us make man in our image. Let me just try to teach a little bit on that. When God said let us make man in our image, the word man is the Hebrew word, from what we spell at him. The name Adam means humanity or man kind. It also means male or female. When God uses that word, our dumb, he's including both male and female. So every time we see the word man is not just talking about a male person because user when God wants to distinguish it, he'll use a different word or he'll say in the English it'll say male or female. But the etymology, where this word comes from, this is interesting. The same way we spell Adam, A-D-A-M, it is another Hebrew word and it's pronounced odd damn. You got odd arm and odd damn which means reteness. And it's distinguished that when God uses that word, he's distinguishing the male from the female. It is talking about Adam's individuality, amen. So in other words, the meaning of Adam's name makes reference to a color. The word Adam, if you do the Hebrew study on it, it means reteness or red man. And it's interesting enough to say that probably because of the name, because of what the name Adam means, reteness is that his skin tone, his skin color probably was that of a reddish tint. And interesting enough, there are many who say that in the region nobody knows really where the garden of Eden is, but the Bible does speak of four different rivers. Two of them are sort of kind of not know where they are, but the Tigris and the Euphrates, when you look at where those rivers are situated, there's geologically things changed, perhaps after the flood. Some geologists and even some theologians would say that the garden of Eden was somewhere in the area of where modern day Iraq is. That is not to be placed under a label of truth, it's just kind of speculative, but it's amazing to me. There's a person I talked to who was in the on-first of the forces who served over there. I asked the question, I said, tell me, you was over there. What was the color of the sand or the dirt in that are the clay within that area? And you know, tell me and say it was kind of a reddish tint, kind of reddish. Much like probably when you go to Georgia, you know, the clays of Georgia kind of have that reddish tint to it. Now that's interesting. So what is the significance? Why redness? Acts 1726 says this, that God made every man from one person. King James, who King James version used the term one blood? Other translations used one man from one man, God created all of us. Yes he did. That's interesting to me. Let me just tell you a little bit about my history. In this case you didn't know it. On my father's side, his mom, and I had the privilege of taking care of my grandmother in her last, probably about six, seven years of her life, we moved her in with us and we cared for her. And God gave me the gift of standing by her bedside when she gave her her last breath. She was a woman that loved Jesus, knew the Lord. I was actually watching football and at that day and something. I know it was God who moved me to go into the room and check on a hospice, was there. There was a nurse sitting there just kind of, you know, taking care of her at the time. But I noticed her breathing had changed. And I just felt function just stand by her bedside. Next thing I know she gave her for last breath and she was going on to be with the Lord. That's my dad's mom. Now she is the granddaughter of a white man who married a Cherokee Indian from that union came my great grandmother who was as light as the palm of my hand. She married a man from Nigeria who was as black as the clothes that I have on. And from the union of this bright person and this person came my grandmother who took on the complexion of her mother. Not her father who had my dad who had me and my four siblings. And I say, wow, I'm the product of white, black, Indian, everybody is my cousin. We could be cousins, you don't even know it, right? In other words, that's on a natural side. But the reality of it is we cannot afford to hate anybody because you don't even know who you come from. And I'm glad I was able to trace that history that bit of history because the reality of it is we are all God created us all according to Luke in the book of Acts. He made us all from one blood from one person. If there was any way that we can trace all of our heritage, we will all end up back at the ship back at the ship that Noah built. Amen. We are all products of one of those three sons. Shem, ham, jayfet. If you're middle eastern, if you're Jewish, if you're Palestinian, chances are black, you come from the line of ham. If you're Anglo, if you come from the line of jayfet, or if you're Jewish, you come from shem. And if you are black, or are African-American color, whatever you want to call us, ham. So you've got ham, shem, jayfet. Then you've got Noah. And then you've got, who is he the son of? Lemek. Then Methuselah. If you keep on going, you're going to eventually get to Adam and after Adam, there is God. So we are all related. One way or the other. There is no room for racism in the kingdom of God. And if, indeed, if indeed Christ, who is the second Adam, I believe that something significant took place when God created Adam. If his name Adam means redness or red man, but now we have all these different races, I believe the second Adam came with a responsibility. Amen to unite the people. In fact, scripture says that he united us at the cross. He broke down the middle walls of partition that divided us. Amen. Where two separate people, meaning Gentiles and Jews, are now one person. Jesus did that. I believe if, if, if Adam was red, it was Jesus responsibility to make us red again. And the way we become red is to get covered in the blood of Jesus. And if you get covered in the blood of Jesus, we all become red men. That's what we are all colored people. We're colored people after cross. We're colored people because of the blood of Jesus. And back in the Old Testament, when the law was red or when instruments were consecrated for the use of the tabernacle, the Bible says that Moses will take blood and sprinkle it on the instruments. Not only that, but Moses, and usually they will take some his software, some kind of a plant, dip it in blood, and he will literally spray the people with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. As he's shaking the blood over people, people are getting blood drinks, people are getting a blood on themselves. And symbolically, when Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood, if we all get covered in the blood of Jesus, we all become colored people. So color people is not a message about black people. It's a message about all Christians. There is no room for racism in Christianity. You know what's sad in 2007, when President, or within Senator Barack Obama, was voted as the next president of the United States. I can go and record my mind that I didn't vote for him. But when I heard the announcement, California was going to put him over. And when California put him over, and they announced the new President of the United States would be President-Lake Barack Obama, I had tears coming out of my eyes. Because aside from the politics, I put that aside, I rejoiced to the fact that this nation had come to a point where they can vote for someone in office who was a minority. And especially a black person, and I thought about my grandfather, I thought about my grandmother, I thought about the stories that they told. I thought about the experiences that I've even had as a black person in the United States of America. That I was called the N word, where me and my wife would go to a restaurant and the waiter or the waiter would serve others before they served us, give us less service than someone else. I've experienced that in this nation. I worked in a concession stand and at one of the schools, and you know, one of the things I like to say is when somebody comes to the counter is, how can I help you? This old redneck cowboy, snuff dipping, whatever you want to call him, fell astute in front of me. When I said, sir, can I help you? He looked at me and said, yeah, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to be serving him. But I was a Christian at the time. Well, I'm still, I'm a Christian. That's a lot. And as I walked away to get the popcorn and the drink, there was some fleshly thoughts rising up in me. Should I serve him? Should I spit in his coke? Should I do something really nasty? And the Jesus and me wouldn't allow me to do that. Got what he needed, served him, thanked him, and appreciated his business. When my wife and I went to a restaurant and it was very obvious that we, the service that we had received was because we were black. When we left, that probably was the first, maybe the only time I may have come close to having to go through divorce court with my wife. Because I lay down a nice tip and she looked at me. Like if you don't get that money off that table, you know what I told my wife, I said, I thought about the scripture in Romans 12. She says, be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. If I don't tip, or if we walk out of here, it will simply fuel what that person thought about us in the first place. But I wanted to give that person the pride of the best tip that they ever had so that that person will make it up in their mind. That you know what? You don't mistreat people because of the color of their skin. Now, whether that person got the message or not, this is who we are as Christians. Because when Jesus got up on the cross, Jesus shed his blood for all humanity. And when Jesus said, but basically what Jesus did, he laid a fat tip out before the father said, hey, I'm taking care of this. I'm taking care of you. I love you and I forgive you. Regardless if you spit on me, but regardless if you crucify me, I love you still. And I read somewhere in scripture, but Jesus said, bless the people that curse you. Do good to them that despitefully use you. Love them that hate you. When you do these things, you will be called the children of my father. Wow, you can't be, you can't be now coming from the hood. Now, if I said like the way we, like like we grew up saying, you can't be a punk and be a Christian. Because Christianity is for people who understands what, who Jesus is and what he's done. It takes more than a notion to love the person that's hating on you, to bless the person that is despitefully using you. We are all cursing you. We are called Christ the end. And at the cross, we are all friends. We are all family. There is neither Jew. There is neither Greek. There's no bond. There's no free. There's no male. There's no female. There's no black. There's no white. There's no African-American. There's no German-American. There's nothing with just all sons and daughters of the most high God. Amen. And if you don't have that mentality, you'll get sucked into the culture that says we still need to be divided. So I'm just one of those fellows that believe, why do we have black entertainment television? What if white people wanted to have WET? Oh, that would be racist. But it's okay to have black entertainment television. Why is there mis-American, mis-black America? What if the white people want to have mis-white America, that would be racist? The things that we still do the day still divides us. That's why I tell people, hey, I might look black. I've been black most of my life. I might look black, but I'm not black. I'm not American. I'm not, I'm not Floridian. I'm not none of those things first. I'm a Christian. I love Jesus. And because of Jesus, all that I am Paul says, if you want to boast, let me just tell you something. Don't you get excited that you are white or that you're black? Don't you get excited that you're a Presbyterian or Pentecostal or Lutheran or non-denominate? Don't get excited about those things. Don't get excited about what tribe are you from? Well, my people are from Germany or we're from Iceland or we're from Greenland. We're from Africa. We're from China. We're from from Japan. We're from India. But whatever, we don't get excited about that stuff at the cross. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, the burdens of my heart rolled away. You know the song. At the cross, it is all done and over. Paul said, if you really want to put those things on the line, yeah. Hey, Hebrew, yeah, Pharisee, yeah, Lord Brahmins, yeah, tribe of Benjamin, yeah, all those things. Hey, I serve that to feed a guy with Camelia. I know the stuff. But it's all poop, poop. The next time you see some poop, whether it's yours or on the ground by dog. I want you to look at it and say, that's me because outside of Jesus, we have been reduced to poop level. But in Jesus, as I heard Hank Hanagreff say, and I know who he was quoting, snow covered done. It's white. It's beautiful. You can't see what's underneath because our cells have been washed away. I'm colored, but I'm colored, not because I'm black. I'm colored because the blood of Jesus covers me. I'm colored because I've been sprinkled with the blood. I'm colored because without the shedding of his blood, there was no remission for my sin. Until you come to that place with Jesus, you will have racist mentality, racist ideas. I can't afford to have racist idea. One of the most blessed events in my life recently took place this past week. And it was led and facilitated by your own pastor, my brother Scott Puckett. That's my brother. Don't be looking like. We got the same day. I don't know if y'all knew that. When these pastors came together and we're able to talk and we're able to listen and we're able to pray for one another. And what a privilege. Now I was the only color guy up in there, you know. I was supposed to be laughing sometimes. All of us in color because the last time I checked, I remember in grade school when it was time the color, when it was time the color, there was a crayon box. And guess what color was in the crayon box with all the other colors white. Y'all didn't know why it is a color. So we all colored people physically, but better than that, we're all colored people spiritually. And what what what unites us is the blood of Jesus. Do you know what causes people to come to a family union? There are two things that brings people together out of family union. The bloodline and a name. The bloodline and a name. My last name is outing, but because of marriage and some of our sisters and daughters, they get married. They come with a different name. And so there may be some cousins and some relatives with different names, but there is one name that drew everybody to the family reunion. And this family reunion that's going to take place when Jesus returned. It is the name of Jesus and the blood, the blood that he shared. It is the thing that unites us. We all may look different. We all may come from different places. Your country nationality may be different, but let me tell you, it's all poop level stuff. The only thing that really matters is whether or not you know Jesus, but there is only one thing more important than you know in Jesus, and that is if Jesus know you. Because in the book of Acts, I think it was the seven sons of skill. The demon said, Jesus, I know Paul, I know who are you. Are you known? This God knows who you are. Yes, I know him, but I'm glad he knows me because there are people that will stand before him in that day and say, have not I prophesied in your name. Have not I done all these things in your name? And Jesus would say, depart from me. You work of a niquity. I never knew you. He didn't say I stopped knowing you about 10 years ago and you back. Now, he said that he said I never knew you. So the only thing that's better than me knowing the Lord is that he knows me and the fact that he knows me is because I have given my heart to him. He chose me and he placed his blood upon me. Can't be racist. Some years ago, my wife was very sick and she needed a blood transfusion. And while I was in the room with her and they brought the blood in, I stopped them. I said, before you before you hook my wife up, I just want to look at this blood that's about to be pumped in her. I took the pouch of blood and I turned it around and I looked and guess what wasn't on it. I didn't see black person blood listed on there. It's amazing to me. I just saw the blood type. And at that point, I didn't care. I didn't care who gave the blood as long as the blood type matched hers. Listen, pump her up with the stuff that she needs. It tells me, really, we may all look different on the outside, but we all bleed red. And if you need blood and my blood type matches yours, I would give some of my blood to you. Now, once that happens, you might talk a little different. You know what I'm saying? You might do a little old. You know what I'm saying every night and then, but you know, but you will be living. You'll be alive. You'll be well. One blood. That's the message of the day. Color people. Be color today. So when somebody say, well, you had a good time in the church today. Yeah, we had a wonderful time. What was the message about color people? What did you learn? I learned. I'm colored. We're all colored in red. Adam was a red man. That's what his name means. Redness or rudeness. Humanity. If he was red, the second Adam needed to get us all red again. And to shed his blood. To make us all Adamic again. Ready redness, ruddy redness as the earth covered in the blood. Let me pray. Thank you, Lord, for this message. Thank you, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Thank you, O God, that we are image bearers of a holy God. Thank you, Lord, that we have friends and brothers and sisters that we fellowship with that may be of a different color or origin, but none of that means anything in light of the fact that we are nothing and you are everything. Help us to remember that we're all colored people. That through your blood, the blood of Jesus, it cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We thank you for it. In Jesus name. Listen, during the time of communion, I'm going to be up here and just pray with anybody, talk with anybody. Listen, if you if you have a past where there was you racist ideas or you embraced racism to the point that you don't want nothing to do with anybody of a different color, maybe there's some thoughts going on in your mind. Or maybe there's a history in your family that you just want God to redeem. You're not that way, but it was in your family. You want to talk to a real colored person. I'm here for you, but I'm colored in the blood of Jesus more than anything. You just want to talk to somebody to pray with. I'll be here and available for you. Thank you all for listening. And if you save. Praise the hand if you save and love Jesus. Everybody in the room. Thank God. Walk out of here today. Walk out of here that your homework today is just to go love everybody as yourself, whoever that is no matter what they look like. Blessings to you. May the joy of the Lord be your strength.