What Happened

“What Happened”

By

Pastor M.L. Maughmer, Jr.

TEXT: Galatians 5:7 “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?”

I truly feel that the most beautiful and precious sight in the church is when a soul is delivered from the grips of sin and that person begins to walk in the newness of life. I believe that this is the greatest experience anyone could ever experience. When they have received the Holy Ghost and you can literally see that their very countenance is changed. There is a glow that radiates from them, a smile that is truly glorious is on their face and they speak with such excitement and exuberance that they have been born again. The Bible lets us know that the angels in heaven rejoice over one soul Luke 15:10 says “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”, and we here are filled with great joy and will shout because another lost soul has been found and is now headed in the right direction.

For just a moment think back to when you first received the precious gift of the Holy Ghost. No doubt you might have said like one song writer put it “Said I wasn’t going to tell nobody, but I couldn’t keep it to myself”. You wanted everyone to feel what you where feeling. Love overflowing was coming out of you and you would tell everyone you came in contact with about the wonderful change that had taken place in you. You would call people on the phone and tell them about Jesus. A bill collector could call you and you were so excited about the Holy Ghost you would tell the bill collector about Jesus. You would go and witness and bring people to church with you. You began this race well and for some you are still running this race with patience and doing well.

However, some that have started this race have and they are no longer in full stride, but have dropped back and are now just leisurely walking along, while yet others have fallen out of the race altogether. It is extremely sad when a person no longer walks with God. They turn away, backslide, become lukewarm, and leave their first love. This is a tragedy and should cause us to become sadden because a soul that was lost had been found only to become lost again. When we look at the ones that have turned and gone back we see they all have one thing in common and that is they all start out well, but along the way for some reason they make the decision to turn away and no longer live this blessed life of holiness.

We can look around here and see those that started this race, but are now no longer in the race anymore. The church was growing, people were being delivered, and the anointing was flowing, it seemed like things where moving in the right direction, but then comes the time when you look around and the fire that was once there seems to be dying out, the joy and exuberance that once filled the pews is gone, we don’t praise like we used to praise, we don’t sing like we use to sing, we don’t dance like we use to dance and we must stop and ask the question WHAT HAPPENED?

In our text the same thing was going on and Paul addressed the very same situation. The church at Galatia had some of their membership actually stop doing what they had started out doing. In spite of their excellent beginning, something had gone wrong. Someone had hindered them.

I like how some of the other Bible translations bring this scripture out:-

The NIV has it: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?” The New Living Translation says it like this: “You were getting along so well. Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth?” Elder Maughmer says you were running well – What Happened.

Paul compared this Christian life to a race that demanded discipline if the race is to be successfully completed. Some of the Galatians had begun the race well. They had both a head understanding and a heart acceptance of Christianity, but something happened that caused them to stop obeying the truth.

WATCH THIS:- The same thing that happened then is the same thing that happens to people today. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “[there is] no new [thing] under the sun”. It’s the same thing just a different setting, it’s the same thing only wrapped in a different wrapping. It’s the same hindrances but it’s dressed differently.