Days of Thunder
Galatians 5:7-15
INTRODUCTION:
Play crash scene from “Days of Thunder” with Tom Cruise before entering the stage.
Ask: “Does your walk with JC ever feel like this?”
There you are in your pursuit of JC and suddenly BOOM, you have had a major crash and you don’t know what happened. All you know is that you are suddenly riding along in a spiritual ambulance. You feel battered and broken. You wonder if God still cares about you, God and/or His people………..and now you are miles from the God and His racetrack.
This is the issue that Paul is dealing with today in our scripture reference. The Galatians are struggling with false teachings and trying to figure out what to do.
(Read the scripture reference.)
I. You are not the first person to deal with this struggle.
A. Many OT and NT heroes struggled with getting out of step with God before going on to great success for God:
1. Abraham – denied his wife being his wife, more than once.
2. Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it.
3. David had his fling with Bathsheba.
4. Peter told JC that He would not die “for the cause”.
5. Peter fell into the whole “being a Jew first thing” so Paul had to confront him publicly, Barnabas followed after Peter instead of Paul during this incident.
6. Jon Mark struggled with his faith, which lead to a falling out between Paul and Barnabas.
B. These problems inflict people and churches.
C. The key is how you deal with it:
1. Allow it to destroy you or the church.
2. Realize the problem and deal with it.
II. How did the crash occur? Where did the leaven come from? Vss 7-12, 15
A. JC did not cause this.
B. For individuals:
1. Getting over confident.
2. Not listening to your “crew chief” and his warnings.
3. Starting to toy with sin – leaven or yeast represents sin.
4. It only takes a little sin to allow Satan to take over your entire life.
C. For churches:
1. Allowing extra-biblical teachings to enter the church, another example of leaven or yeast:
a. Enforcing a certain type of behavior during worship that hinders others ability to worship.
b. Dress code or certain style of worship
c. Pushing a certain Biblical interpretation: NIV, KJV, etc.
d. The music wars that so dominate our churches today.
e. How the Lord’s Supper is conducted and how often it is conducted.
f. You need to go and sew your wild oats.
g. You can live a sinful lifestyle and still be good with God.
h. “Judge not lest you be judged”
i. The list of false teachings is numerous.
2. Not dealing with individuals who are being disruptive or pushing false teachings.
3. Not loving each other enough to practice tough love.
4. It only takes one false teacher or bad actor to spread a false teaching or bad attitude throughout the whole congregation.
5. These people will pay a price for their false teachings.
D. All extra-biblical teachings cheapen the gospel message; they remove the offense of the cross.
III. We are called to freedom within God’s boundaries. Vss. 13-14
A. No situation is hopeless.
B. No matter how far you stray from God, JC’s blood can remove your sin and bring you back home to Him.
C. God has given us freedom. We should live in that freedom by loving each other, not ourselves.
CONCLUSION:
As the movie “Days of Thunder” goes on, the antagonist Rowdy is not able to return to the race after the crash. He can no longer pass the physical because of his injuries. Tom Cruise’ character does return and eventually wins the big race. (If I have the story line wrong, please forgive me it’s been a long time since I saw the movie last.)
Today, will you continue to be “Rowdy” and allow Satan to take you out of the race? You don’t have to. Instead you can humble yourself and allow God’s pit crew to remove your sin and get you back in the race.
