You Foolish Baptists

There are some people in our society who believe in something called ‘channeling’ the spirits of departed people. I would be afraid to do that with the spirit of the Apostle Paul, especially on a passage like this one.

One of the lost skills in modern America(cooking of food, talking on a phone rather than texting, reading newspapers and books, playing outdoors) is driving a manual transmission car.

Summer of 1976 I learned to drive a stick shift. I had an idea of how because I had driven a motorcycle for two years.(license at 14 to drive most dangerous vehicle on highway).

After senior year and before going to college worked at place to made fire sprinkler systems. First week I swept, then I stocked pipes and connectors, then I cut and threaded pipe. Summer in Oklahoma with no AC and finally someone offered the chance to deliver to a job site. I quickly said yes, helped load the truck and jumped in only to look down at a stick shift. Two choices: get out and go back in that building or learn how to drive a stick shift on the streets of Tulsa Oklahoma in a truck filled with pipe.

I LEARNED BECAUSE I SAW HOW ESSENTIAL IT WAS FOR MY FUTURE. Paul told the Galatians they needed to shift from LAW TO GRACE and maybe some of you need to also. To shift from PERFORMANCE TO DEPENDENCE

You foolish Galatians,.. - not on the top of the list of SERMON STARTERS. Right up there with John the Baptist’s first words to the Pharisees, ‘you brood of snakes’ or Jesus’ to His disciples when He came back down the mountain of Transfiguration to find them struggling with a demon possessed boy, ‘You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?’

Whatever happened to ‘Hi’ or ‘How ya doing’ or ‘How is the weather in Galatia?’

POLICALLY CORRECTS WAYS TO SAY SOMEONE IS STUPID

A few clowns short of a circus. A few fries short of a happy meal.

The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead. His cheese has slid off his cracker.

Couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.

In the pinball game of life, his flippers are too far apart.

The Amplified Version, "O you poor and silly, thoughtless, unreflecting and senseless Galatians." The Philips translation. The chapter begins, "You dear idiots".

An idiot doesn’t know what he should do but a fool doesn’t do what he knows

Sometimes we need to be shaken up, woken up from our mistaken take on what the Christian life is really all about. Some might question whether the Christian life is all that they thought it would be but the truth is that it is much more than any of us can imagine but we are stuck in the WRONG GEAR.

a) You ever try to drive 60 MPH in 2cnd gear? It will burn up the motor and some of you are close to burning out while others are still on automatic and going nowhere.

b) Living by the Law is much the same like a car in the wrong gear: It makes a lot of noise, keeps the car from moving faster and makes the engine work too hard. We need to get out of the LAW GEAR and into GRACE.

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

2This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

4 Did you suffer so many things in vain -if indeed it was in vain?

5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

This morning we are going to look at 4 QUESTIONS Paul asks these churches to help them to understand where they are and how to get into the right gear in their journey with Christ.

HOW DID YOU GET ON THE WRONG TRACK? WHO BEWITCHED YOU?

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

Bewitched – idea of being ‘charmed’ into something that is evil for you.

Con-artist named "George C. Parker". Not long after the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, on a whim, Parker decided to try and sell it to an unsuspecting tourist. It was so easy, he tried it again. Before long he had abandoned all his other cons and was selling the Brooklyn Bridge exclusively. Over the years Parker sold the bridge for as little as $50, and as much as $50,000.