Christ Hits the Center of the Target

In one paragraph

This message worked through the closing section of Colossians 2 and the opening verses of Colossians 3, with Pastor Ryan pressing one central question: are we building our faith around Christ himself, or around a set of rules and practices that only look like wisdom from the outside? Pastor Ryan opened by returning to the target illustration he introduced the previous week. There are at least four...

Read together

1. Ecclesiastes God has set eternity on our hearts, used to explain humanity's grasping for the supernatural
2. Colossians 2:6 just as you received Christ by faith, walk in him
3. Colossians 2:16-17 let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food, drink, festivals, new moon, or Sabbath; these are a shadow of things to come but the substance belongs to Christ
4. Colossians 2:18-19 let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, puffed up without reason, not holding fast to the head
5. Colossians 2:8 see to it no one takes you captive by philosophy or empty deceit according to human tradition and not according to Christ
6. Colossians 2:9-10 in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is head of all rule and authority
7. Colossians 2:19 the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through joints and ligaments grows with a growth from God
8. Colossians 2:20 if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to its regulations
9. Romans 12:1-2 do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
10. Colossians 2:21-23 do not handle, do not taste, do not touch; these have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism but are of no value in stopping indulgence of the flesh
11. Colossians 3:1-4 if raised with Christ, seek things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; your life is hidden with Christ in God
12. Revelation 22 John fell to worship the angel but was told you must not do that, worship God
13. Philippians Christ's humility and humble service led him to death and death on a cross

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ryan used a target with crosshairs to describe four ways Christians can miss the mark: naturalistic, supernaturalistic, dogmatic, and experiential. Which of those tendencies do you think you are most drawn toward, and why?
2. Paul tells the Colossians not to let anyone act as an umpire over them in matters of food, drink, festivals, and Sabbaths, saying these things are a shadow but the substance belongs to Christ. What are some modern equivalents where Christians judge one another over religious rules or practices that may be shadows rather than substance?
3. Pastor Ryan talked about the worship of angels and used the story from Revelation 22 where even John fell down to worship an angel and had to be corrected. What are some things today, not necessarily angels, that can quietly pull our attention and energy away from Christ without us realizing it?
4. Martin Luther beat himself up, slept without a blanket, and did everything a monk could do, yet still felt damned until he encountered justification by faith in Romans. Have you ever gone through a season where you were trying to earn something from God through discipline or self-denial? What did that look like, and what changed?
5. Pastor Ryan said that do not, do not, do not rules have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh, and that Christ is the answer rather than prohibition. He also said Colossians 3 calls us to set our minds on things above rather than buckling down against temptation. What does it actually look like, practically, to set your mind on things above when you are struggling with something specific?