Where The Streets Have No Name Series

“Where the Streets Have No Name”

Galatians 3: 26-4: 7

October 16, 2011

Intro: Let me start of by reading you a couple of quotes. Oprah Winfrey said, “I discovered I didn’t feel worthy of love unless I was accomplishing something. I suddenly realized I have never felt I could be loved for just being.” Madonna said, “My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. That’s always been pushing me, pushing me. B/c even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove I am somebody.”

-Chris Evert, the great women’s tennis champion said, “I had no idea who I was, or what I could be away form tennis,” as she recalled the final years of her career. She said, “I was depressed and afraid b/c so much of my life had been defined by my being a tennis champion. I was completely lost. Winning made me feel like I was somebody. It made me feel pretty. It was like being hooked on a drug. I need the wins, the applause, in order to have an identity.” But when she no longer won, life changed; she didn’t feel accepted.

-You know, all of us want to be accepted. We want to win the approval of people around us and have a sense of belonging. Yet so much of the acceptance we receive is dependent upon how we look or how we perform; or where we grew up or to whom we’re related.

-One of the greatest concerts I’ve ever been to was the 1987 Joshua Tree Tour by U2 in Atlanta, Georgia. And one of my favorite songs from that album was “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The inspiration for the song came from Bono’s Northern Ireland upbringing. He said you could tell a person’s religion and income based on what street they lived on.

-Therefore he was looking forward to a place where the streets would have no names. In other words, where people would be seen as equals. Where people would be on an equal footing in life.

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we see the way the world looks thru the eyes of God. It’s a very different view than the world has. The world ranks you based on your performance, based on your looks, based on relationships and power. And that’s not too bad if you HAVE all those things. But very few people have those things which means that kind of rating system STINKS!

-If you do have those things you need to be reminded that those things are only temporary. They don’t last forever. But I want you to see what happens when your hope and trust is placed in Jesus.

TEXT: GALATIANS 3: 26-4: 7

Bckgrd: Paul wrote this letter to the churches that were meeting in what is now modern day Turkey. And he was concerned for them b/c there were people teaching them things that were contrary to the Bible. Some of these religious teachers were saying that a relationship w/God was performance based. In other words the people who did more good things were liked and loved by God more than people who didn’t.

-Apparently Paul became angry w/this type of teaching b/c it wasn’t a person’s performance that put them in good standing w/God. What people needed to be in good standing w/God was His grace. And he began to teach them that w/o the grace of God there’d be no salvation, no heaven regardless of all the good deeds we did.

-The unfortunate thing is very few people then and very few people now buy into what Paul taught. We still struggle w/the idea that God loves us based on our performance. What did Paul have to say @ this type of teaching?

-He wrote in Gal. 1: 6-7, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the GRACE of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

-Paul wanted them to see, and he wanted us to see what the message of Jesus brings to our lives; how the gospel of Jesus brings us freedom. Let’s look at a few things the message of Jesus brings into our lives. 1st, the message of Jesus brings:

DIV. 1: FREEDOM FROM RACIAL, ECONOMIC AND GENDER BARRIERS (vv. 26-29)

Exp: The Galatian church was a great work for the apostle Paul. He was their spiritual father, but whenever he left the church some people came in and began to teach that if they were REALLY going to belong to God there were some extra things they had to do. For one they were told they had to follow the OT law perfectly. Now the OT law is a necessary part of our lives today. The 10 Commandments are the basis for the laws we have in our country today. But the law of the OT doesn’t give us freedom; it doesn’t help us belong to Christ. It merely points us to Him.