Stop Chasing Shadows
Preached by Apostle Aje Pelser, Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town, May 2025

Anchor Scripture:
Col 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
Col 2:17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Col 2:18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Reasons to stop chasing shadows of religious traditions
1. Jesus wiped out the requirements against you.
2. Jesus disarmed the enemy of your soul.
3. No one can sit in judgement upon you anymore regarding obsolete rituals, laws and condemnation from the Old Covenant:
Heb 8:13 In that He says, “A NEW COVENANT,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
4. No one can cheat you of your reward of liberty in Christ.
Isa 49:4 Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God.’ ”

5. You are connected directly to Jesus, the Head of His Body, the Church, and He has made a public display of the victory He has won in your life, for all to see – the word of your testimony, Christ within you the hope of Glory. Everything else and all other processes that try to fight for your attention are shadows of the real thing.
Heb_10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Jas_1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Identifications of shadows in our spiritual walk:
• Outdated requirements
• Illegitimate authority and power
• Unfair judgements based on traditions of men
• Unsubstantiated Fears as result of lack of substance of faith. Fears that have no evidence or proof of being accurate or true.
• False humility and worship of angels.
• Glorification of knowledge over the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. Direct all glory to Jesus.
• Unreasonable self-discipline and neglect that can’t cleanse the soul or combat the indulgence of the flesh:
Col 2:23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Dan 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.”