Summary of Bewitched and bewildered
Preamble
David discusses the concept of legalism and how it can turn into extremism. Legalism can hurt us in so many different ways. We begin discussing this topic by reading the Bible.
Bewitched – the TV show
David reminisces with the audience about television programs from the 60s and 70s. He also jokes about how if you enjoyed the show Bewitched you didn’t tell your friends at church.
Galatians 3:1
This passage Paul starts very bold, asking the Galatian church who and how they have been so tricked and bewitched into false teaching?! He even compares them to being hypnotized by false teachers.
Who is Paul talking about?
Paul isn’t talk about sinisterly bad people. No! Paul was talking about those in the church who loves “religious actions” instead of those who were truly seeking truth from God. Paul was talking about those people whose main spiritual language is complaining. Paul is saying we should never buy into the concept of religious performance.
We met Jesus without following Jesus
Galatians 3:1-14 – When we came to Jesus it wasn’t through following rules. The spirit of God comes as a gift through faith! We didn’t acquire this through our actions, like following rules.
We think we are past legalism, but we aren’t!
David reminds us of this ongoing struggle in our current day struggles. He tells stories of current day churches that struggle with legalism. David even tells us how last time he was at SouthRidge he was told that what he was wearing wasn’t appropriate.
Galatains 1:6 – Choosing the Law over God’s grace is foolish
We are invited to be apart of something that much bigger than ourselves. The example is of Abraham. Abraham never received the gift (the Gospel message) through his keeping of the Law. God approached him prior to the Law. God approached him before he understood what the Law would dictate. God came to to Abraham because of his belief!
Never never never forget that we were redeemed at a very high price
Galatians 3:14 “Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too.(MSG)”
Jesus did it — we can’t add to it
David wonderfully and passionately explains the amazing sacrifice done by Jesus and how he redeemed us!
Our struggle — we can’t earn it
We struggle with the fact that Jesus did it all because we want to earn it. We think it’s better if we do something to pay the price. But also because we must experience humility (and embarrassment). We don’t like feeling humble and embarrassed. The only answer is to experience the humility and embarrassment and accept Jesus’ gift.
Legalism diminishes Jesus’ death. Anytime we start doing things that we think might help pay Jesus back we diminish his sacrifice.
About the speaker
David has served as the Regional Director for Fellowship Pacific since 2007. He is passionate about developing an interdependent culture within the churches of Fellowship Pacific, with an end goal of seeing every church succeed in both reaching people with the good news of Christ and in building quality disciples of Jesus. Learn more.