What Happened to You?

Plot.. Cataleya - a daddy’s girl who witnessed her father’s assassination… actually her whole family was killed by the cartel and she vowed revenge on everyone who was involved…

She was 6-7 when the assasination took place… but throughout her live, her father’s words alwasy echoed in her ear “Never forget where you came from!”

And when she became an adult she carried out exactly what she promised she would do!

And she never forgot where she came from

The text before us today -

Gal 3:1

Galatians 3:1 ESV

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Paul writes to a people who seem to have forgotten who they are and from whence they came.

“Oh Foolish Galatians…”

ἀνόητος - one who isn’t thinking… someone who has lost their mind… literally - one without a brain or mind…

acting crazy… out of their head… mindlessly… foolish!

They are living contrary to what they learned from him… They aren’t acting like the believers he left after establishing the churches in Galatia.

Galatia is in the region we understand as Asia Minor… modern day turkey…

The region was inhabited by Europeans who traveled there and from the north… and settled… These weren’t Jewish people - they were gentiles… sometimes referred to as greeks or barbarians… to whom Paul and his team had preached in the S part of the province, at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in the course of Paul’s first missionary journey.

Paul had spent time with them… ministering to them… pouring into them… teaching them the Gospel… Grace… God’s love…

So Paul opens this chapter with a question - who has bewitched you…

I’ve always remembered this passage to say who has beguiled you…

(Mandela effect…)

Beguiled carries the idea of deception or trickery…

But Bewitched has the idea of someone having cast a spell or of putting a hex on somebody…

So Paul’s question - is really who got in your head… who has messed up your thinking… you has clouded your vision… pulled the wool of your eyes…

Who has tricked you?

What happened to you?

The question is rhetorical - because Paul already has the answer… he already knows what happened…

Rhetorical questions aren’t asked so much for an answer as for awareness… to make us think and ponder… Paul wants them to think critically about what they have allowed to happen because they opened themselves up to erroneous teaching.

Others had come along after him… polluting and convoluting what they had learned from Paul…

That’s why you have to be mindful of who you give ear to, because the wrong folks can leave you mixed up and messed up… not knowing if you’re coming or going… wrong information can cause you to do the wrong thing… wrong directions can leave you at the wrong destination…

You better make sure what you’re receiving is from a reliable source!

Others had come along and instructed them that grace wasn’t enough… that they must also live by the law… tried to reinsert the law of Moses into the life of Grace…

Paul then spends time reminding them that we weren’t saved by the law… the law of Moses was insufficient to save… the law was in place to hold the world accountable until Christ came… but after Christ came… he died… giving all who believed the righteousness of God by faith!

Not enough…

Modern day - this world has worked hard to make us forget who we are… where we came from… what we have…

They have preached to us a gospel of inadequacy…

To the black man - black woman …

You’re not smart enough… talented enough… not enough education… not enough experience…

Don’t look pretty enough… not strong enough… not wealthy enough…

And many of us… perhaps most of us.. have spent our entire lives trying to be like them… because we believed they set the bar… and because their bar.. their standard was the ideal… we did everything we could to try to reach it…

Bleached our skin… changed our facial features… so we could be prettier - like them…

Left our schools - went to their schools… many going into insurmountable and unrepayable debt… so we could be smarter… like them…

But what we found out is anytime we got close to what they said was the standard… the ideal.. they moved the bar…

Even in 2021 - still trying to influence our people with bad information… that we aren’t enough… that we don’t have enough…

This is done to cause us to question ourselves… to cause us to feel a sense of inferiority and belittlement…

Their perception ought not be your perception…

In fact - they are projecting their own inferiority and inadequacy on us…

That’s why they are so hell bent on killing us…

Changing voting laws so it’s more difficult for us to vote…

Keeping knees on our necks… shooting us in cold blood for absolutely any reason… creating laws to criminalize old activities to have justification to lock us up, remove us from our homes and our families, and restrict our rights as US citizens..

Because they realize that we are not inferior… not inadequate… but we have power… that has yet to be released… potential that has yet to be tapped into…

That’s why we have to reeducate ourselves… reimagine who we are… reenvision who God has called us to be…

The Galatians forgot who they were in Christ… we have forgotten who we are!

Frustration -

Trying to live as something other than God called you to be

Trying to live apart from God ain’t easy… it’s hard!

A tension… a struggle… between flesh and spirit..

God’s resistance…

James 4:6

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Lost focus - trying hard to live out the law… failing at every turn…

Failing to live out potential

Just like Paul had to remind the Galatians who they are - I stopped by to remind us who we are… It’s important for you to remember who you are…

Because then when someone comes along trying to convince you that you’re something else… you can let them know - I know who I am!

I am the the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus…

I am saved by grace through faith… a gift of God…

I am the redeemed of the Lord… blood bought… fire branded…

More than that - you are his creation - created in his image and after his likeness…

Intelligent… creative… beautiful…

Strong… overcomer… more than a conqueror…

Loved… favored…

A maybe most of all - you’ve got God’s grace…

Grace…

Only when we remember who we are

Can we be restored to our proper place

God didn’t create you and deposit so much in you for you to live beneath your privilege.

It’s a privilege to belong to the Lord… to be favored by God… to be used in his service…

Regain our focus - no longer trying to be like them… but on being and becoming exactly who God created us to be… so we can live our out calling in this world… and reach our destiny for him!

Then we’ll live out our full potential - bringing glory and honor to him with our lives… we won’t be wearing a mask - trying to be something that we’re not…

Remember who you are and from when you’ve come…

Never forget where you came from!

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