Don't Be Led Astray

“DON’T BE LED ASTRAY” Galatians 3:1-14

INTRO – Our purpose as a church is to “Develop Devoted Disciples.” This must be the driving motivation for everything we do in every area of our church:

- In every age-group: preschool ministry, children’s ministry, youth & college ministry, ministry to adults of all ages.

- DDD must be the thing that drives every Life Group leader to reach, teach, & minster.

- It must be the thing that drives our music ministry as they help in our corporate worship gatherings.

- It must be thing that drives our deacons as they serve & minister to our church FAMILY.

- DDD must be the thing that drives what we do in our missions ministry – locally through Mission Byram & Lunch 4 Christ; regionally through our Delta missions & in our support of Matthew Delaughter at Immanuel Church in New Orleans; internationally in our support of Stephanie Crawford in Peru, Abbey Irwin as she leaves soon for her 2-year Journeyman appointment, & others we support around the world.

- DDD must be the thing that drives our ongoing, faithfulness in our financial support of the church through our tithes & offerings.

It’s who we are. It’s what we do. It’s why we exist. It’s our lifeblood, our DNA, our marching orders. And the way we accomplish it as a church FAMILY is for each of us as individual Christ-followers to strive to develop devoted disciples in our own lives.

- Each of us individually must BE a devoted disciple of Jesus ourselves, living a life that brings honor & glory to Him alone.

- And each of us must reach out to those around us who are lost, share the Gospel w/ them, & help them develop into a devoted disciple of Jesus, too.

o It starts in our home w/ our spouses, our kids, our grandkids. DISCIPLESHIP BEGINS AT HOME!

o It expands to those in our circles of influence & relationships. “Who’s Your 1?”

In order for us to accomplish this purpose in our lives & in our church, we must strive hard to not be led astray in our faith. And today, we are going to talk about that.

EXPLANATION – Open your Bibles to Galatians 3:1-14 (page 566 in pew Bible).

Paul is continuing his discourse on the foundational truths of the Gospel. His deep concern for the spiritual health & welfare of the Galatian believers is on full display here. Like any good pastor, his desire for his brothers & sisters in Christ is that they know Christ, & that their feet are firmly planted on the unchanging, life-changing truths of the Gospel. That’s certainly what I desire for you as the under-shepherd of this church FAMILY. As Albert Mohler said: “When pastors measure whether or not they are successful, it must be by this criterion, namely, are we seeing the saints growing to completeness in Jesus Christ?”

Paul was concerned for the Galatian believers b/c he saw that they were being led astray by the false teachings of the Judaizers. Just to put it bluntly, Paul said they were idiots for letting that happen! “O foolish Galatians!” – Phillips translation: “O you dear idiots!” Other translations use words like “irrational,” “witless,” “stupid,” & “crazy.” One writer suggested that the word could be translated, “numbskulls.” I probably wouldn’t go that far in describing those who are members of the church I pastor & are not walking w/ the Lord. But the truth is that, if you’re letting Satan & the world deceive, distract, & lead you astray, that’s a pretty foolish, irrational, witless, stupid, crazy thing to do!

APPLICATION – But all of us are vulnerable to being led astray. We need to recognize that & arm ourselves against it. So how do we battle against being led astray in our faith? Here are 3 factors we see in these verses:

We see these questions for consideration – v. 1-5

There are 6 questions in these verses. Look @ them. Some of them have the same answer, & all of them will help us guard against being led astray in our faith.

Question #1: “Who has bewitched you?” v. 1 – When I hear the word, “bewitched,” I think of that TV sitcom by the same name from my childhood that featured the sorceress named Samantha who was married to her mortal husband, Darrin. She was always twitching her nose to cast a spell over him or cause something to happen.

That’s exactly what the word “bewitched” means. It means to deceive or cast a spell. It comes from a word that is associated w/ black magic or an “evil eye.” And in Paul’s mind, it is so inconceivable that these Christians would revert back to the slavery of the law after being set free by Christ, he says that they must have drunk a magic potion or had a spell cast over them. There’s no other good reason why they would have turned back to the captivity & weight of the Law.