WEBVTT 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:06.240 We just sang those great words together, completely known, completely loved. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:07.839 I love that song so much. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:09.359 Been singing it a long time. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:13.519 The songwriters of that song, Matt Boswell and Matt Papa, we call them the Matt's. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:15.599 Some of you know about Shane and Shane. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:19.760 Those are two guys named Shane that write a lot of music and sing a lot of music, and you like their music. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:22.480 And so now we got the Shane's and the Matt's. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:27.760 But I love their songs, and I love this song, Completely Known, Completely Loved. 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.960 Those are both absolutely true. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:37.520 And taken separately, they are meaningful things, but taken together, they are absolutely profound. 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.399 That we can be known by God completely. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:47.439 That he knows our thoughts, that he knows our sins, that he knows our actions, he knows what you're thinking right now. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:48.880 Right? 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.240 And yet he loves us completely. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.880 Not because of who we are and the things that we do, but simply because he chooses to. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:00.960 Simply because we are his. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.319 That is an astonishing truth. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:23.120 To think that the Almighty God knows every corner of our hearts, every hidden flaw, every private failure, every deep insecurity, and yet through the cross of Jesus Christ, he embraces us with an everlasting, unconditional love is just staggering. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:28.239 Some of you have had a taste of that because you've been married for a long time. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:32.319 I think we've got people in our congregation who've been married for 65 years. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.879 Anybody been married longer than 65 years? 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:40.079 I know some of you have told me you've been married 60, 65 years, long time. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:44.560 Through marriage, we should get a taste of that, hopefully, right? 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:47.280 That kind of unconditional love. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:59.120 And yet for a lot of us, we haven't experienced that other places, and when we come to a relationship with God in Christ, it's hard for us to imagine that that could be true. 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:04.400 It's hard for us to imagine being completely known and yet completely loved. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:06.159 We know who we are. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:11.599 No other human being on the planet knows everything about us. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:13.120 Right? 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:19.599 I mean, even our wives, men, even your husbands' wives, don't know everything about you. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.639 Parents, you don't know absolutely everything about your kids. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:27.199 I don't mean to shock you, but there are thoughts that they maybe haven't shared with you yet. 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:29.840 Maybe we'll never share with you. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:37.360 There are dark recesses in the corners of your children's rooms that you probably don't even want to go in, parents, right? 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:41.120 In the back of their closet or under their bed. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.199 You don't even want to know what's under there, right? 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:46.960 So no human being knows us completely. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:56.800 And if they do know us completely, we we would wonder if they knew us completely, would they love us the way that they do? 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:15.039 And so when it comes to our relationship with God, our hearts quickly drift away from the resting place of the truth that we read in Scripture, that God so loved the world, so very much loved us, that he gave his only son to die for us. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:22.080 Not that we would be condemned, but that we'd be preserved, and that we might have eternal life with him. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:25.759 We wonder why he would want to have eternal life with us. 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:42.560 It's pretty obvious why we would want to have eternal life with God, although there are times when we get so upset with God because of something we see around us in the world, or maybe it's another relationship that's gone sour, we get so upset with God we don't feel much like we want to have eternal life with him either. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:57.120 But most of the time, I think I can say this because you're here this morning, most of the time, for those of us that are in this room, we probably think eternal life with God would be a nice thing, but why in the world would he want to spend eternal life with us? 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:02.800 Oh, sure, eternal life with the babies would be great, right? 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.240 I mean, they're all perfect, right? 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:05.520 In every way. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:08.719 And cute as the Dickens, right? 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:11.680 But we're not always that way. 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:16.879 And so we drift away from the resting place of that gospel. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:29.040 We sing things like completely known and completely loved, and then we step out into daily life, and we immediately default back to a religion or a lifestyle of rules and traditions and checklists. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:30.959 We get anxious over things. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:34.879 Let me tell you some of the things we're anxious about as a congregation right now. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:39.199 We're anxious about our church name, because we brought it up. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.720 We're, you know, praying through some changes on that. 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:44.959 For some of you, that creates anxiety. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.480 It's worth discussing, it's important, but it shouldn't make you anxious. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.079 It shouldn't make you worried. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.240 Shouldn't make you worried. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:05:02.000 That a group of people who love each other, led by elders who love you so very much, led by a God who loves you so very much, that we would let those things stress us out? 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:02.959 It shouldn't. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:04.800 Absolutely shouldn't. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:17.199 We get anxious over things like when we do something big, when we do an event, you know, when we do a yard sale or uh we did a ladies' dinner yesterday, it was really great. 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:19.519 There's a terrible picture of me in a cowboy hat. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:20.879 Don't look at that, okay? 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:22.480 I'm a little anxious about it. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:23.040 See? 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:26.639 Just there's an example for you. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:27.360 All right? 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:29.759 A little anxious over you seeing it. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:35.839 Um we get anxious over things like VBS when we put together a thing like VBS was massive. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.399 It was like a military campaign, you know? 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:41.680 Operation jungle. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:45.600 It was amazing, it was an incredible time. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:49.439 But there's no sense in us getting anxious over those things. 00:05:50.639 --> 00:06:07.199 It's fine for us to want to do a good job in the things that we do for Christ, whether they're here, whether they're in our families or in the community, with other worthy ministries around town or around the world, or his parents, or his grandparents, or as husbands, or his wives, all of that counts. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.680 All of that is ministry, all of that is working unto the Lord. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:19.759 It's good for us to want to do a good job of those things and to try to communicate as hard as we can, to communicate the gospel to kids and families and people in our family. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:27.600 But it's wrong if doing that becomes a source of anxiety and sleeplessness or conflict among friends. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:29.040 Wouldn't you agree? 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:39.519 That we simply shouldn't get as worked up over our stuff and all the stuff that we do for God as maybe we do. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:49.439 We often look at legalism or moralism or human traditions, and we treat them as if they are the primary cause of our spiritual problems. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.000 Paul's letter to the Colossians here shows us something far more profound. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:01.920 Our obsession with traditions or doing things the right way and our own structures and programs is not the root cause of those problems. 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:04.560 Legalism is merely a symptom. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:17.839 Legalism is a symptom of what happens when we suffer from or we forget that we are in a real, substantive, trusting relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:27.120 When we don't have one of those, or we forget that we have one of those, we tend toward a legalistic expression of faith. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:45.040 When we do not trust Him, when we lose sight of His complete sufficiency for us, or when we're terrified of being fully known by God, we construct this artificial scaffold of rules to protect ourselves and give us an illusion of security. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:47.519 And some of those things make perfect sense. 00:07:47.680 --> 00:08:00.879 You know, we our rhythms, our traditions, our habits, those are good things to have a spot in the morning where you read your Bible, you know, to come to that same spot on the couch with that same cup of coffee and to open that up, and you've got that well-worn bookmark that you always use. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:03.519 It's a sweet and wonderful thing. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:11.920 But it doesn't take the place of a relationship with Jesus Christ, to come to church on Sunday and to be here and to greet people and to say, hello, how are you? 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:16.160 Good to see you, and to you know, make the little jokes that we make and have the conversations that we have. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:17.439 Those are sweet things. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:18.720 They're good things. 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:24.720 But they don't take the place of a substantive relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:38.879 The Apostle Paul wrote this section of Colossians to address a young church where people were falling back into shadows precisely because they were drifting from the substance, from Jesus. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:55.600 False teachers were offering them a religious system of dietary codes and calendar observances and mystical practices and doing things to their body in order to be more religious, more okay with God. 00:08:56.960 --> 00:09:18.960 And Paul looks at that entire impulse to do all of that, and he just unmasks it, he just rips it away and pointing them and us back to the only thing that actually heals us in all our frailties and insecurities, and that is a genuine, trusting relationship with our Savior and a faithful, loving community with one another in Christ. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.279 So let's look at this text. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:24.960 It's just a few verses here, but let's look at it four simple headings. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:26.799 The first is the symptom. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:31.759 Now, I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, and do not ever take medical advice from me. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:35.679 But this morning we're going to diagnose, okay? 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:38.639 So the symptom, first of all, legalism. 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:40.799 Second, the diagnosis, that's verse 16. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:46.480 Second, in verse 17, the diagnosis is a heart distanced from Christ. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:52.320 Either because we don't have that relationship or because we forget that we have that relationship. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:58.320 Third is the treatment, and the treatment is this: getting to know and be loved by Christ and one another. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:09:59.919 That's in verses 18 and 19. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.200 The treatment is getting to know and be loved by Christ and one another. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:10.559 And fourth, the long-term care, resting in the one that you can trust. 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:11.759 Long-term care. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:19.759 So the symptom, the diagnosis, the treatment, the long-term care, verses 16 through 23. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.440 So our guide for this is Romans 14. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:36.799 There's not a lot of detail in these few verses about what they were facing and what they were going through and the wrestle that they were having there, but there is in Romans 14, Paul addresses that with the church in Rome at great length in a whole chapter. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:44.960 And so if you want to turn there in your Bible, kind of mark that with your thumb or one of those wonderful bookmarks, and you can keep referring back to that. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:49.519 Because it gives us some great detail into Paul's thought on these matters. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.759 So first, legalism as a symptom of a distance heart. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:57.360 Notice how Paul begins in verse 16 here in Colossians 2. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:06.639 He says, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:08.399 And you're like, what in the world is that about? 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:11.279 Well, go to Romans 14, and we will see. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:14.000 It says this in Romans 14 and verse 1. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:20.159 It says, As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:25.279 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:37.360 You may remember this story of Peter and the vision that he had, and all of the things that had been unclean in the Jewish faith and now were declared clean in Christ. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:42.639 But there were a lot of people who had come out of the Jewish tradition and they weren't okay with that. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:45.200 They went, What do you mean we can eat shellfish? 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:46.799 We're not touching that. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:48.320 We can't touch that stuff. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:52.559 There were other people who have been like, I've been waiting my entire life to eat lobster, I'm going to eat some. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:53.440 Right? 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:55.360 Yeah, right. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:01.200 I can't wait to eat, you know, some crabs, some stone crabs or whatever, right? 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.000 And then there were others who were like, I can't believe they're doing that. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:05.279 I can't believe they're eating that stuff. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:06.240 We didn't eat that stuff. 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:09.039 Our parents didn't eat that stuff, our grandparents didn't eat that stuff. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.919 We were all good Jews, and we were told not to eat any of those things. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:17.919 Those were against our dietary laws that God gave us under Moses so many, many years ago. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:27.120 That law is precious, and I don't care what's happened, I don't care what the Messiah has done in coming, we still can't eat that stuff, and they would look down on those who did. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:29.440 Paul says it doesn't matter. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:31.120 Eat whatever you want. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:38.159 He says in verse 4 in Romans 14, he says, Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:42.960 Sorry, I missed verse 3. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:49.679 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.320 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:59.440 It is before his own master that he stands and falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.399 And then here's regarding the festival and the new moon of the Sabbath. 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:05.919 Romans 14 goes on. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:10.480 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.360 Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:16.720 The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:24.639 The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:26.559 What would be the equivalent of this today? 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.519 We don't have Jewish feast days. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:34.879 We don't have the Jewish holidays that they had, but we might look at Christmas differently, right? 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.480 And some people do Santa Claus and some people don't do Santa Claus, right? 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:47.759 And some people go, oh, we shouldn't make much of Christmas because Jesus told us to remember his death and not his birth, and so people make more of Christmas than they do of Easter, and we shouldn't do that, right? 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.399 Some people celebrate Maundy Thursday. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.799 How many of you love a May Thursday service? 00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:55.120 Anyone grew up on Maundy Thursday? 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:56.639 What about Good Friday services? 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:58.080 What do we have here? 00:13:58.320 --> 00:13:59.039 I just missed it. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:03.039 I came in right after that as your pastor, so I will learn, right? 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:08.080 But we all have different opinions about these things, and it's okay. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:11.120 It's okay for us to have different opinions on these things. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:16.159 Paul says, don't let anyone pass judgment on you regarding these things. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:21.440 These things are given for your use, not you for theirs, right? 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.559 We do not serve the religious calendar. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.519 We do not serve dietary restrictions. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.200 These things are given to us as gifts, all good gifts from the Father, and we get to decide what we do. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:39.039 Now he gives us some guidance in terms of our morality in these. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:42.399 If you spend money on Christmas that you don't have, you probably shouldn't do that. 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:56.480 If you rack up$25,000 on the credit card just to make your husband or your wife like you more, or your kids like you more, or to impress people, or whatever, the Bible addresses all those kinds of behaviors, but not specifically where Christmas is concerned. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:03.600 Certainly we want to be people who walk in a manner worthy of Christ, no matter what day it is, no matter what we eat. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:08.879 But he's saying the eating or the drinking or the not eating isn't the issue. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:14.960 Whether or not you celebrate this holiday or that one, or you do it this way or that way, isn't the issue. 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:23.840 And he begins that verse in verse 16 back in Colossians 2 with the word therefore, which means we need to look at what came before it. 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.480 Whenever we see a therefore in Scripture, we have to ask the question, what is it therefore? 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:31.440 And it refers back to the scripture in front of us. 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:37.679 It points us back to what we saw in verses 13 through 15, which is what Christ accomplished on the cross. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:48.399 God, Paul declared that God made us alive together with Christ, having forgiven all our trespasses, canceling the record of debt that stood against us. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:54.960 And because our debt is fully paid in Christ, Paul says, Don't let anyone pass judgment on you. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:00.480 Jesus has already declared you innocent, so don't let anyone pass judgment on you. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.200 But it begs some questions, doesn't it? 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:09.200 It begs the question of why would we want to pass judgment on our Christian brothers and sisters in the first place? 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:10.879 Why do we do that? 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:16.480 To put it in the way our kids would understand it, why are we mean to each other sometimes? 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:18.799 Anybody know? 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:21.759 Anybody never mean to anybody? 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:23.840 I want to hang out with you. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:26.720 Why are we mean to each other sometimes? 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:30.720 And why do we get so wounded when other people disagree with us? 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:31.759 Right? 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:45.279 And why do we cling to traditions or rules that may not be biblical and may not be effective, they may be outdated, they may be not important to the people around us, and yet we cling to them. 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:45.679 Why? 00:16:45.840 --> 00:17:03.440 The latter is, I think the answer to that one is because when our personal relationship with Christ feels different, distant or abstract, or we're not particularly happy with him in the moment, our default setting is to replace intimacy with mechanical compliance. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.920 We replace our delight in Jesus with duty. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:10.240 Does that make sense? 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.519 And the answer to those first two questions, why are we mean to each other? 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:17.680 Why do we get so wounded when others disagree with us or are mean to us? 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:20.160 The answer is that we are fragile creatures. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:21.759 We're broken by the fall. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:24.480 We're sinful and sorrowful. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:30.400 And at times, with all the voices coming at us from, you know, from these things, right? 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:34.240 These horrible things that we carry around, right? 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:50.799 All the voices coming at us, all the voices that come through us to us through television, or the mean people at work who don't know Jesus, or things that happened to us growing up, or just things that we've imagined about ourselves over the years, or things we don't like about ourselves. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.799 We lose sight of our reason for our joy, and that reason for our joy is Jesus. 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:02.160 Tim Keller wrote about this quite a bit. 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:05.440 He said that the human heart's default mode is religion. 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:09.519 The belief that if I behave properly, God and others will accept me. 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:12.160 The gospel is fundamentally different. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:17.359 Because God has accepted me through Christ, I now want to behave properly. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:20.559 Religion is I obey and therefore I am accepted. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:26.240 The gospel is I am accepted by Christ and therefore I obey. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:28.960 You see the difference? 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:31.920 Huge, huge difference. 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:42.079 When we lack a heart-level connection to Jesus, we turn Christianity into a duty-bound performance. 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:55.599 And rules without relationship, whether we're talking a relationship with Jesus or in our marriages or with our kids or with family members, rules without relationship, they give us something we can manage and control because people are hard to control. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.079 How many of you have tried to control people? 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.480 Ladies, how many of you have tried to control your husband? 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:12.480 No, they say that women, men get married thinking their wife will never change, and men get married thinking, wait a minute, men get married thinking their wife will never change, and women get married hoping their husband will change, right? 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:14.400 How many of us have tried to control other people? 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.160 It's not easy to do, is it? 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:19.839 I mean, some of you are really good at it, I'm sure, but it's still not easy to do. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.279 People are messy. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:22.799 Rules, though. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:26.319 We can do rules, we can do schedules, we can do check boxes. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.319 When I was a kid, we had an envelope system. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:33.680 Did you know you grew up in a church and you had an envelope system and you put your offering in there for church, which is great. 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:36.480 You should give out of what God's given you. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:38.000 You should give cheerfully, sacrificially. 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:39.200 That's what the Bible tells us. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:43.359 We put our offering in there, we turn it in in the offering plate, but we also had checkboxes. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:44.720 Bible read daily. 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:45.920 Anybody else have this? 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:47.039 I'd love to get you to raise your hand. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:48.079 This is how I learned about you. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:50.480 Anybody else have the envelope system when you're growing up? 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:50.799 Yeah. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:52.400 What am I, the oldest person in the room? 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:53.680 We were the only ones who had envelopes? 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:54.559 You're like, no, no, no. 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:56.799 I don't I don't do paper, you know, whatever. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:57.279 Okay. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:03.920 So when I was a kid, we had the envelope system, and you would check the boxes on your envelope every Sunday as you turn in your offering. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.160 And it would say like Bible read daily. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:10.720 I think there was a box on there for had we witnessed anyone, and we shared the gospel with somebody. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.039 Um and then it was prayed daily. 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:13.839 All these different things. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.240 So it was a very legalistic system. 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.599 And I mean, it's not really great, is it? 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:29.119 That we grew up that way because we were equating our faithfulness and our relationship with Christ with whether or not we had done certain things that week. 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:38.720 And now that I look back on it as an adult, I go, I'm really glad that most churches don't do those anymore because that's teaching you to be a legalist, isn't it? 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:40.880 That's what I grew up with. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:42.720 So I get this. 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.079 I was in that for a long time. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:51.200 When you don't trust a person, you rely on the contract. 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:55.039 If you're buying a house or you're buying a car from somebody or whatever, you have a contract. 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:56.720 Everybody signs the contract. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.200 You rely on the contract because you don't know the person, right? 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:06.319 If you know the person, if you're buying from a family member, you don't worry about it as much. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:07.519 Just pay me whenever. 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:09.119 Maybe we should sometimes, right? 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:10.160 But don't worry about it. 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:13.119 You just pay me when you pay me, or I'll get it from you, you know, whatever. 00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:17.759 But when we don't know the person, we don't trust the person, you rely on the contract. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:26.960 Empty legalism, style without substance, is the emotional defense mechanism of a heart that doesn't fully believe that it is safe with God. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:38.720 It's an attempt to manage our insecurities and our guilt through self-chosen burdens rather than trusting the finished work of Christ. 00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:43.839 Well, in verse 17, Paul exposes the problem and the diagnosis of this symptom. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:50.720 He says, These are shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:58.559 Now, I don't want you to think of shadow here as being a deep, dark, evil thing. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:05.920 This isn't like Some demonic presence in a Harry Potter novel. 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:06.319 Okay? 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:08.640 That's not what the word shadow means here. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:14.559 What it means is a representation, a picture where you're only seeing an outline. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:15.200 Okay? 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:22.880 So we could say a shadow, or we could say a view far off, or we could say a sketch of the reality. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:33.279 But he's saying these are a very broad and very faint picture of the things to come, but they are not the substance. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:36.960 The substance belongs to Christ. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:51.839 Diet Carson writes about this, and he writes about how the Old Testament is all about the old covenant, Moses and Abraham and the covenant, the promise between God and man, and many, many ceremonial requirements. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:52.640 And he says this. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.279 He says the ceremonial requirements of the Old Covenant were never intended to be ultimate. 00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:58.559 They weren't the end. 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:02.880 They were prophetic, pointing forward to the person and the work of Christ. 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:09.359 And to cling to a shadow when the substance has arrived is not a sign of covenant fidelity. 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:15.039 It is a sign, an act of spiritual regression that obscures the glory of the Savior. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.079 Let me put it in terms that most of us can understand. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:19.279 I'm not as smart as D.A. 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:19.759 Carson's. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:21.119 I think of it like this. 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:27.119 What if you got a gift from someone and you knew what it was because you shook the box? 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:28.559 Any box shakers out there? 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:37.599 You shook the box and you knew what the present was, and you were very excited about the present, but you you got this present and you were afraid to open it. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:38.319 Right? 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:39.039 I don't know. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:48.960 Maybe you were afraid it wouldn't meet all your expectations, or maybe you were afraid that it was going to be beyond your expectations, and all you'd do is play with this thing and you wouldn't get any work done. 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:49.680 Right? 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:51.599 Maybe you didn't feel like you deserved it. 00:23:51.839 --> 00:24:00.640 Maybe you felt like it was too expensive, and even though you asked for it, now you shouldn't ask for that because hey, so-and-so who gave it to you lost their job, and things are kind of tough right now. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:02.720 And now you feel guilty about it. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:04.160 So you don't open it. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:05.279 What do you do? 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:06.960 You just hang on to the box. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:09.119 And every once in a while you shake it occasionally. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:14.559 You know what's in there, and you think it's something to be pretty excited about, but you don't dare open it. 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:16.640 But you just keep that box. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:18.240 And you use it as a nightstand. 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:29.039 You put your drink on it, you know, when you go to bed and you put your book on it, you know, whatever, and it just kind of sits there, this unopened box representing this great treasure that you're afraid to open. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:34.880 Now, how many of you feel like maybe your relationship with Christ is that way? 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:51.359 You have this box that you're afraid to open for whatever reason, and you're hanging on to the shadow, the picture of it, the idea of it without the relationship. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:54.640 Well, D.A. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:25:03.200 Carson says that in God's redemptive plan, the shadows serve their purpose by directing our gaze forward. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:12.240 But once Christ has appeared, to regress to the shadow chasing reveals a very big misunderstanding of the gospel. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:26.960 He says it this way when believers lose their grasp on the reality of union with Christ, they substitute secondary or ceremonial or self-imposed mechanisms to manufacture a sense of spiritual security. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:33.519 But because we cannot measure up or because we cannot keep up, they only make us feel more insecure. 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:48.559 Vertical assurance, knowing that your standing before God is anchored in the heavenly realm where Christ is seated, is the only foundation that generates true horizontal freedom to love God and love others. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:54.400 To say this another way, we can look at Galatians chapter 4 and verse 9 and 10. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.119 Paul writes to believers falling into the same trap. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:07.759 He says, Now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more? 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:12.480 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:14.720 And this is coming up. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:19.200 The next one's coming up, and we've got to get ready for it, we've got to prepare for it, and then we've got to do it, and we've got to execute it well. 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:22.640 And if we don't execute it well, we're gonna feel terrible because it's really, really important. 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:24.559 And then it's over, and then the next one's coming up. 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:27.599 How many of you live like that in your Christian life? 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.279 It's amazing you haven't had a heart attack. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:32.240 Right? 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:35.359 It's exhausting to live that way. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:38.960 Well, here's the treatment. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:40.559 Let's look at verse 18 and 19. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:44.240 It's very hopeful, I think, for us if that's the case. 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:50.319 The treatment is this: giving to know and be loved by Christ and one another. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:27:17.759 Verse 18 and 19 read like this Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism, that is putting things aside, and the worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head, which is Christ, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:23.440 So, what's the fundamental failure of the legalist and the mystic? 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.079 They are not holding fast to the head. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:33.039 For those people who say, we need to pray this prayer from the Bible, and then everything will line up in our lives, right? 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:37.279 You need to read this religious book over here, and then everything will line up in your life. 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:38.640 And there's always a new one. 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.720 It's like the people who said Jesus was gonna come back on May 5th, and then Jesus didn't come back, and then they pick a new date. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:45.519 We don't know. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:47.519 Times or seasons, we just don't know. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:52.640 But it's like we've got to have, you know, some kind of short-term milestones to point to. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:58.319 It's like the people when I grew up, all the kids who would go to summer camp, church summer camp, and they'd get baptized every year. 00:27:58.480 --> 00:27:59.759 You don't need to get baptized every year. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:01.680 You need to get baptized once, right? 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:07.519 And it doesn't save you, by the way, but it's a symbol of what God has done in you, that He has accepted you. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:08.240 Right? 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:10.079 Because of Christ's death on the cross. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:15.279 You don't need to get baptized every year, but they wanted something to signify that things were moving along. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:27.519 And sometimes we want something to signify that things are moving along, but we lose sight of Christ and we put all of our hope and all of our thought and all of our energy into those shadows. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:33.599 Notice the divine design here in verse 19 and 20. 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:36.720 Spiritual growth is deeply relational. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:43.920 You cannot hold fast to the head in isolation, nor can you grow as a member of the body apart from the head, which is Christ. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:51.759 So let's take this, make this real practical here for the moment. 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:59.519 Building real, intimate, authentic relationships with other people is a gateway. 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:04.880 It's how we learn to have a real living relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:07.200 It's one of the reasons why God gave us each other. 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:25.759 One of the reasons why God gave us the church is that by building real relationships with one another, by being vulnerable and honest with one another, by loving one another well and being loved by one another well, this is how we learn to have a relationship with a God that we can't see, hear, or touch. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:26.559 Right? 00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:28.640 How hard is it to have a relationship with God? 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:31.680 We start by having relationships with other people. 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:38.160 Now, for some of you, this is easier than for others, but some of us really struggle. 00:29:39.359 --> 00:29:49.200 In a recent article titled The Lost Art of Male Friendship, published by the Gospel Forum, Pastor Nick Potts highlights how our culture is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:54.640 Surveys reveal that 12% of Americans have no close friends at all. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.200 You think that number is higher or lower than that? 00:29:57.440 --> 00:30:01.599 12% of Americans say they have no close friends at all. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:07.359 57% of men report deep chronic loneliness. 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:10.319 Now, ladies, I think you do better. 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:11.279 I'm harder on men. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:11.920 You know this. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:13.599 I'm always harder on the men. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:16.640 Um, ladies, I think you do better with friendship. 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:19.119 But doesn't mean you've all got it figured out. 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:22.400 57% of men report deep chronic loneliness. 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:25.519 Senator Ben Sass, some of you are following his story. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:35.759 Uh Ben Sass, uh one of our senators and the president of the University of Florida and struggling with terminal cancer, writing quite a bit on different issues. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:48.000 He wrote a book on these things, and he noted that living in such isolation, according to doctors, takes the same physical toll on the human body as smoking an entire pack of cigarettes every day. 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:49.359 Loneliness. 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:57.839 Two of our, I guess our Surgeon General, too back, said loneliness was an epidemic more dangerous than heart disease. 00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:01.839 But why are we so isolated in our communities and in our churches? 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:07.359 Because legalism and the fear of judgment make us afraid to let people see who we really are. 00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:12.000 Out in the world, people are afraid they're going to get canceled if they say or do the wrong thing, right? 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:16.559 But in the church, we struggle with some of that as well. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:21.519 And social media doesn't fix it. 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:24.160 It may be good to have online friends. 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:25.359 It's better to have real friends. 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:25.680 Okay? 00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:26.960 I'm not down on social media. 00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:28.000 I like seeing the babies. 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:30.880 I just scroll through Facebook just to see all the cute babies, right? 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:31.839 My friends. 00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:35.920 But it doesn't take the place of that. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:42.319 Tim Keller says legalism creates an atmosphere of surveillance and performative piety. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:55.279 It forces people to hide their true struggles behind a facade of compliance because acceptance in the community and even in the church community is contingent upon external performance rather than common union in grace. 00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:04.960 And we need to be a community where you can drop your performance, where you can share your real struggles and be loved anyway. 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:07.759 Because that's the way God loves us. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:17.200 And as we learn to trust one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ, our capacity to trust Christ Himself expands. 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:28.160