(You can hear the sermon on my podcast at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/697261/2102748 )
Stay Connected
Intro:
• Teenage lawyers.
o You never said I couldn’t…
o Why does he get to do…
• Every parent has dealt with one. Every child becomes one when they need to negotiate themselves out of punishment or into a privilege. Some kids are good at it, some are bad, and some are so good and being bad at it you just want to give them what they want to end the madness.
• They will question all logic, counter any offer, debate all points, and fight tooth and nail to get what they want for their client. Them.
• Peer pressure. Giving and getting.
• Learning to navigate the world.
• Adults do it too. Just smoother about it.
Don’t Let Anyone Condemn You
• “Days & Diets” folks.
Colossians 2:16–17 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
• “condemn you” = Pressure, make rules, criticize you, dictate your behaviors.
• Paul consistently argues that Christians are free to do what their conscience dictates and to avoid being overly scrupulous.
Romans 14:17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:20 0 Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.
• Shadows - Not the real deal. (Dr. Pepper vs. Dr. Thunder)
• Basically, “avoid living in a shadow world”
› Follows with the same warning about the opposite extreme:
Colossians 2:18–19 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
• Hyperdenial
• Condemn = a referee disqualifying you from the prize without cause.
• Some thought the way to true spirituality was through denying the body and striving for visions of angelic beings.
• They were falling into the trap of false humility (humble brag).
• Because not connected to Christ. (Key thought; and the antidote to teenage lawyerism).
Get Connected to the Source
Colossians 2:20–21 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?
• It’s a rhetorical question based on “if…then.”
• If (or since) you died (lit. drowned) with Christ, why follow old, worn out rules?
• We let the practical issues of the world become the reference points for spiritual development rather than the other way around.
Colossians 2:22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.
• Relying on a rules-based morality for our behavior doesn’t work very well.
• the “rules” are always changing in the world.
o 90 year old lady who was certain she was a good Christian because she had never played cards or gone to the movies.
o If that’s our rules-based moral standard, we’re all in trouble in the 21st century as we are surrounded by streaming media and games constantly.
Colossians 2:23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
Conclusion:
• Losing the “teenage lawyer” syndrome. Growing out of it.
• Not based on following some set of rules or denying ourselves.
• Based on staying connected to Christ.
• Next lesson we’ll see how that pulls together practically.
