Tower of Babel
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bible. Go to Genesis chapter 11. Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
If you are new to your Bible or new to here, grab one of the blue Bibles. It'll be on page 5 in that Bible. We're going to look at the story of the Tower of Babel today. Now, we've been walking through the book of Genesis, and we're going to spend a good bit of time walking through the book of Genesis because the book of Genesis is a big book. We think that it is good for us to just study through whole books of Scripture. We believe that all of the Bible is breathed out by God, that it's beneficial to us.
One of the things that may be a danger for us as we walk through the book of Genesis is that it's easier for us to start thinking, kind of, what? That's neat, but what does that have to do with me? It's easier for us to kind of sit in here and go, yeah, that's a cool, cool story, bro. Nice, nice Job, preacher man. But I got, like, kids that won't listen to me, and I got job issues, and I got relationship issues, and to kind of act as if the book of Genesis is a little bit separate from us because there are other sections in the Bible that are just like, do this, don't do this.
If you do this, things will work out. Like, there's more coaching involved in the book of Genesis. It's like, here's a thing that happened. You want to hear another thing that happened? And it just kind of keeps walking through. It doesn't coach us up.
It doesn't tell us how to think about a lot of the stuff that it says happened. And so I just wanted to say that I think for us to approach the book of Genesis, we have to understand a few things about how God works, how the Bible works, and kind of how humanity works for us to get as much out of it as we need to. First of all, the story of the world does not have you as its main character. Now, in your life, you feel like the main character. I understand that. We're designed that way.
But the story of the world does not have you as its main character, that God formed this world, and God is actively at work interacting with humanity. And the story of the Bible is the story of the world, which is that God is the main character, and that we get to play a part in that story, but that we do ourselves a great service by understanding who God is, and what he does, and how he Acts, so that we might interact with him, and enjoy him, and appreciate him, and know him, and love him. And so when we come to Genesis, it's very helpful for us to understand that we're looking at the story of God as he interacts with human history. And that to just look at things through our own life-centered, our own kind of narrow perspective, that we actually miss out on the point of the world, and therefore we miss out on a lot that does directly affect us.
And so it's helpful for us to study all of God's Word, to look at Genesis, because Genesis is not just the beginning of the Bible. It sets the stage for all that we're going to see in the rest of the Gospels, and in the rest of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, and everything. It lays all that out for us. It's hard to read the New Testament and not know who Abraham is. It's hard to read the New Testament and not see what happened when we made it through to the Exodus and all of that. But it's the Genesis of the world.
It's how human history started. The other thing that I think we run into when we read things, especially like Genesis, is that we're really far removed from them time-wise. So these are people roaming around, watching sheep, living in tents, and there's a tendency for us to think that we're not like them, or that they're not as smart as we are. Like, I feel really smart because I have Google. I'm actually not that smart, but I feel really smart because I can figure things out really quickly, because someone else figured out something that makes me seem smart, and I get to carry that around in my pocket.
And so we just kind of look at these people, and we think that we're different from them, but we aren't. And what we're going to see is that their sin, their struggles, their pain is a lot like ours, and it's very helpful for us to understand how God interacts with them so that we can understand how He interacts with us. And today, we're looking at the Tower of Babel. Now, if you grew up in Sunday school, you've probably heard about this. Even if you didn't grow up in church, you've probably heard references to this. And it is an interesting story, and I'm excited that we're going to get to walk through it.
So let's pray, and then we're going to study this together. God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You actively, directly interact with humanity, that You pay attention to us, that You care for us in how our lives play out. And we pray that as we study Your Word today, we would grow in an appreciation for who You are and what You've done, and Your plan for the world. And we love You and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.
Genesis chapter 11, verse 1. Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. So, the whole earth had one language and the same words. Now, if you had been reading and paying attention, Genesis chapter 1 through 10. Spencer, do you mind turning that light on in the back? Well, Genesis chapter 1 through 10.
Spencer, carry everyone. Thank you. All right. Genesis chapter 1 through 10. You would realize that chapter 11, verse 1, causes some problems for us. Because Genesis chapter 10 says things like, From these, the coastland people spread their lands, each with his own language, by their clans in their nations.
Two verses before this one, it says, their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. So, Genesis chapter 10 is telling us what happens when people get off of, when Noah gets off the ark. If you remember, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. Spencer walked through it. Noah gets on the ark. God's wrath is poured out.
Noah gets off the ark. God looks at him and says, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. That's in chapter 9. Pull it up. That's in chapter 9. And, Nope.
Nope. God blessed Noah's son and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That's the command as soon as Noah gets off the ark. That's what God tells him. And so we hit chapter 10 in Genesis, and it seems like we're doing it. They spread out.
They're covering the earth. It says they moved out by their clans. It gives us this long genealogy in chapter 10. And then as soon as we hit the first verse in chapter 11, it's like, wait a second. Something has happened here. Now, we are right to assume that Moses, who wrote this, did not forget what he had written two verses before when he said there was a bunch of languages.
That he intentionally told this story out of chronological order to make a point. So we have, Noah gets off the ark. God says, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Genesis chapter 10 says, Here's how that started to play out. And we're like, finally. Finally, humanity is getting it together.
Finally, we're doing what God told us to. Because God made humanity, and this is the first command he gives them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over it. He wants that humanity would spread out to display his glory over the whole earth. That they would be humans everywhere who related to God and displayed his glory over the whole earth. And then they don't do it. They rebel against God.
And so the flood comes because they're sinful. They're running away from God. They're hateful. They're harming each other. And then as soon as Noah gets off the ark, God looks at him and says, The exact same thing he said to Adam and Eve. Be fruitful.
Multiply. Fill the earth. We read Genesis 10, and we're like, yes. We're really getting it together. And then Moses starts Genesis chapter 11 with, Not so fast. I'm going back to before there were languages to tell you a story about how this happened.
And he did it to M. Night, Shamel Amos, and have a twist on the end there. And he stuck it in here to mess with us. So here it is. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
And as the people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. That's Mesopotamia. Is that area it's modern day? Iraq. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.
Now, what that's telling us, they say, come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. It sounds like some of y'all, when you go to cook a meal, you're like, come, let me make spaghetti and burn it thoroughly. What it's telling us is that they learned how to make bricks, that they figured this out. It's showing ingenuity. It's showing creativity that they had designed. They moved to a plane where they would have usually made stone.
That's what they say. Let's make bricks for stone. They would usually use stone to build things, and they figured out a way to make bricks. And bitumen or bitumen is asphalt. So they would have been big.
If you've ever heard of tar pits, it's actually an asphalt pit. And so that's what they would have had. So they figured out a way creatively to design things really well. So so far, the story is going well. They're doing what they're supposed to. They're spreading out.
And they're using what God has poured in them as image bearers to display his glory. And so that's what they say. Come, let us do this. And then it says this. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. We're in verse four.
Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, so this next slide is laying that out. It says, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, so let's kind of lay out their thinking here.
They said, let us build ourselves a city with a tower as tops in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. So build a tower. So they're going to build a city and a tower. With its tops in the heavens. So that's their plan.
They figure out how to make the get creative. They figure out how to make stuff. And they say, we're going to build a city and a tower so far. No problems. We're doing good. Then what's it say?
And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. OK, now we have a problem. Because if you've been reading Genesis, what did God command humanity to do? Genesis 1. Be fruitful. Multiply.
Fill the earth. What did he command Noah twice when he gets off the ark? Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. We get to chapter 11.
And what did they say? Nope. Not doing that. Their whole plan is to glorify themselves and not be dispersed. So God says, I've poured myself into you.
I've made humanity in my own image. I want you to spread out for my glory over the face of the earth. And they say, how about we come together for our glory? How's that sound? That's their plan. It is an exact opposite of what God has called.
It is a complete rejection of his call on humanity. That's the issue with the Tower of Babel. Not that they built a tower. Not that they built a city. Those things are celebrated. Like God, it designed humans to create things.
He meant for us to do that. Whenever we make stuff. Like I have a three-year-old and he'll say, did Jesus make this basketball goal? And I'm like, he made people. And he made them smart. And he made all the things that we've created and we're able to make it.
So yes, but he likes to do it through us figuring things out. That's how God designed it. Nobody reads this and goes, oh, they built a tower. God's going to get them. He hates towers, you guys. Everybody knows God hates towers.
That's not what's happening here. The truth is what they're doing doesn't matter. They could have come together and said, we're going to dig a big hole and become mole people. It's the reasoning behind it. It's the goal behind it. It's them saying, we don't want to be dispersed.
We want to praise our own name. We want to make our own glory. So it's for their glory, their name, and their will. So if you think about how Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, he says, our father in heaven, honored to be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. The Babylonians, the tower of Babel, these people who came together, their plan is let my name be honored. Let my will be done.
It is the opposite of God's call on humanity, which means that their heart is far from God. This is very interesting for us because often we think that sin is just the action. We want to think that sin is doing a bad thing. But the truth is you can do really beautiful things. They had a super nice tower, you guys. But they did it for a bad reason.
When we sing, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why. So we're training our children, you need to behave for greed. You need to so love stuff that you can control yourself. Now I understand that when you're training children, you have to start with a lot of law. You have to start with a lot of regulations. You have to be pretty hemmed in.
I think my son behaves a lot of times because when he does, good things happen. And when he doesn't, bad things happen. That's how it's supposed to work. He's a child. I can't explain to him a lot of these things. But at some point we have to realize that there are ways to train ourselves to do the right actions for the wrong motive.
And it works for a con man who's tricking your grandmother into getting her savings by being really nice to her and driving her around and tending to her house. And then suddenly he's moved in. He's taken over right to a lawyer and all that kind of stuff. You know what I'm saying? Like how this works where he's done a lot of really good actions but all of a sudden for a really bad reason. And that some of us try to con God by having all the right actions.
But our goal, my name, my will. There are many people. We live in the south. There are many people right now on a Sunday morning. Some in here. Many in other places.
Who are very moral. Who show up to church. Who give. Who do a lot of things. And their only goal is to behave well enough that Jesus leaves them alone. Because if they sin, they're in his debt.
But if they can behave well enough, they can hold him far away and he owes them. It's a con game. Because their heart isn't in it. It's not for his glory. It's not for his will. It's if I do these things, this will work out.
And that's what they did. They said we're going to do really good things that God poured in us. We're going to be inventive. We're going to be creative. All things that God would celebrate. That the Bible does celebrate.
That even the book of Genesis celebrates. But they do it for sinful reasons. So let's see how God responds. So they say, verse 4. Let's read that again.
Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves. Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. I love this verse. The Bible mocks them.
I love two things that happened in this verse. First is, where was their tower going to go? Do you all remember when they built it? It's going to go into heaven. And then the next verse says, God came down to see it. It didn't shoot through the floor of where he lived, you guys.
They didn't quite accomplish what they wanted. Now the point isn't that God couldn't see it. That God can't tell what's going on over the face of the earth. It does indicate that God chooses to be intimate with humanity when he doesn't have to be. He chooses to be close when he doesn't have to be. We see that throughout Scripture.
But it's also meant to be some nice scorn. God was like, hey, I heard they built a tower that's stabbing up into where we live. Y'all want to go down and see it? He went down and he was like, this is cute, you guys. It's meant to mock it, that God comes down to see this tower. And then it says this, that the children of man had built.
That phrase, children of man, it's a Hebrew phrase that the word children can also be sons. The word man is also Adam. So it could just be the sons of Adam, the children of man. All it means was not that these people that lived in Babel were particularly amazing sinners. They were just people. You see, a lot of times we read the Bible and we like to think, those people were bad.
I'm one of the good ones. Those are the people who messed things up. I'm glad God went down there and fixed them. I'm so happy that he went and did that. That's neat. And we miss the fact that what it's saying is this is what humans do.
This is the natural bent of our heart is to, for our name and our will and our glory, to live our lives in a way that God really doesn't mess with us and we get to do what we want. They're just humans. So he goes down to see it. And then he pays them a great honor and he pays humanity a great honor. Let's see what he says.
And the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.
Okay, so here's what he says. He comes down, he looks at the tower and he says, they're not going to spread out. They're just going to keep doing stuff. And he pays humanity a great compliment. I mean, he poured himself into humanity. He made us in his image and he says, they're just going to keep creating.
They're going to keep making things. They're not really going to be able to, there's nothing standing in the way of them just sitting here for their own glory forever. And so then he just says, I'm going to make it to where they don't understand what each other are saying. And that'll fix the problem. Which it did. I don't know if y'all know this, but we have historically humans have not gotten along with people that look and speak differently than themselves.
Did y'all know that? We draw little lines. We say, your eyes and skin color are different. The way you talk is funny. We're going to kill you. That's what humans have done.
It wasn't always said in English, but it has pretty much always been said. That's what God did was he just said, I'm going to make it to where they don't get along the same way. And we still, as far as humanity has gone, we've accomplished a lot of things. We have a space station that we have to work out with other people because we speak different languages. We have to translate from standard measurements to metric measurements. We have to do all these kind of things.
I mean, there's two different types of countries in the world. Those who use the metric system and those who've been to the moon. And we have to work that out. We have to overcome these differences. This was God's plan here. And I want you to see how gracious this is.
We just read about the flood. Humanity gets off and immediately rebels against God. I mean, thumbing their nose at him. We're going to build a tower into heaven. We're going to be awesome and we're not going to do what you say. That was their plan.
I told my son something one time and he said, nah. I said, buddy, you don't say nah to me. He said, daddy, daddy, daddy. I said, what? He said, the reason I said nah was that that was not a good idea. I said, brother, that's not how this works.
That's what they did. God said, here's my plan for humanity. You're going to spread out. You're going to display my glory. You're going to have dominion. And humanity went, nah.
We're going to cluster together. We're going to have glory. We're going to do what we want. God could have crushed them. He could have destroyed this city. We just saw his act of wrath in a flood.
By the time you read this, you would think, oh no, here it comes again. He said he wasn't going to flood it, but he's got other stuff, you guys. Ain't just water that kills people. But he doesn't. He also, this is gracious what he does. You see, God has active wrath and passive wrath.
Active wrath is where we pay the direct penalty for our sin. You see that throughout scripture. Passive wrath is when he gives us exactly what we want. And we discover that it is extremely lacking because what we needed was him. I had a buddy of mine ask one time, he's like, why does bad stuff happen to people? Why do they?
If you're, he's like, you're a Christian. You believe in God. Why do people get cancer? Why do people get sick? I said, honestly, man, the biggest issue that humanity has is sin. And a lot of times we don't realize that we need God as long as our bank account's full, our belly is full, and our health's rocking and rolling.
The truth is, a lot of times circumstantial pain leads us to a beautiful savior. Because it's God's wrath on you if everything works out swimmingly until you stand before him and you realize you lived your whole life for your name and your will. And that's a problem because that's not how the world was designed to work. So what God does is gracious and, I think, kind of funny. Because this had to be pretty hilarious. If you were God.
It's pretty stressful for everybody involved, I think. Here's why. You ever been somewhere and you hear people speaking and it takes you a second to realize, oh, wait, that's a different language? Like you didn't realize you were trying to eavesdrop, but then you got annoyed because you're like, I don't know what they're saying. And then you're like, wait a second, that's because I'll never know what they're saying because I'm pretty sure that's Portuguese. And nobody's trying to learn Portuguese.
No offense if you speak Portuguese. A little bit, but that wasn't intended. Or you're watching a movie or you're hearing a song, like you're riding on the road and you're like, I don't understand those lyrics. And you turn it up and you're like, oh, that's a different language. But see, you understand different languages exist.
There was a day when they didn't. And then the next day they did. So if you walked outside and you saw someone and you said hello and they said bonjour, you'd be like, well, that's French. And unless you know English, we're not going to talk much. But if you didn't know other languages exist, you wouldn't recognize it as a French word.
It would be noises. Strange noises. Now, it's possible you woke up and noticed that you were thinking in a different language and you spoke strange noises. But we've seen people who have gone into like car accidents and stuff. They get hit in the head. They wake up from a coma and they speak a different language.
And they don't realize they're speaking a different language. That's just language to them now. We've seen this happen, which is a crazy thing, which makes me think that when you woke up and started speaking a different language, you didn't notice it was a different language. So you walked outside. You said hello to your neighbor. And they went, glee-blank.
Because you wouldn't have recognized it as anything other than sounds. And you were like, what? They said, skeetle-deedle. And everybody did this all day long. Nobody spoke. If you woke up, I'm assuming there maybe were a few people who were still speaking the same language, but can you imagine you walk outside, you look at the street you live on, and it's just symbols that you don't understand?
If you just walked outside and every sign now is in Arabic, and you were just like, that's a heck of a prank for someone to pull off overnight. Do you see why they all left the city? It didn't work anymore, you guys. I guess at some point, I'm assuming he made little patches of people that did speak the same language, so eventually you were just walking around going, does anybody know what I am saying? And you heard someone yell, I do! And you were like, we're best friends now!
Because it's just us! That's what happened! God said, y'all don't want to spread out and invent culture. That's actually what God's desire was. That there would be culture. That they would spread out.
Because most of culture, a lot of culture, comes from not your language, but your location. You know why we have high fructose corn syrup? Because we had corn. We didn't have sugar. We figured out how to make corn taste like sugar, and we've never looked back. We were like, this is what corn is for from now on.
Alright, we'll allow grits and cornbread. But that's it. Don't eat corn. Drink it. It tastes like magic. If you think about it, we speak the same language, mostly, as people from Australia and people from England.
But the culture is different. We're not on the same page. He designed it. He wanted them to spread out and create culture. Because God wants people who look and act and think differently to worship Him and love Him and display His glory. Because there's something about every culture that points back to God.
And they weren't going to do it, so He created language and therefore created culture. And here's what happens. You read it. He says, Come let us go down. This is verse 7. Come let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth. And they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel. I'm going to get back to that. That's important. Because there the Lord confused.
That in Hebrew sounds similar to Babel. So it's not as clever in English. Babel and confused. The language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. They said, Let's come together.
We're going to build a tower. We're going to build a city. And we will not be dispersed. And then it says God dispersed them. Their plan did not work out. I want to ask you a question.
Did God destroy the tower? No. What was the purpose of the tower? It was to make a name for themselves. It was for them to get glory. Glory.
Whenever anyone sees the tower of Babel. Or speaks about the tower of Babel. Who gets the glory? God does. Because that's the point of the world. Is that God would get glory from his creation.
I want to make something really clear to you. That's how glory works. You can spend your whole life trying to figure out how to develop your name. And make much of your name. And glorify your name. But your life at the end of the day will glorify God.
You will either glorify God intentionally or unintentionally. We will either glorify God by being so enraptured by his glory and his goodness and his love. That we pour our lives out for him and his mission and his will. Or we will reject God. We will run from God. And we will suffer the glorious wrath of God.
But he will get glory from our lives. Either by us paying the penalty for our sin. Either by us standing on our own merit and seeing how woefully short it falls. Or by displaying his glory intentionally. But that's how it works.
The tower does not make much of them. It makes much of God. But he's gracious to them. He does not. He creates culture. Now.
They spread out. And here's what's beautiful about this. As we get to read the rest of the story. As we get to see where God goes from here. Oh. I said that I would come back to this.
Babel is translated everywhere else as Babylon. So it's setting up this kind of dichotomy that's going to play out through the rest of scripture. Where Babylon is kind of the seat of rebellion against God. Even by the time we get to the book of Revelation. It's going to be talking about God making a city. And crushing the city of Babylon.
So that's just the theme that runs throughout. We're not going to keep talking about it this morning. But I just wanted to point that out for you. That's where that begins. Okay. Here's what God does from this.
He calls Abraham in the next chapter. We're going to look at that next week. He just calls a guy and says. I'm going to make a nation out of you. And then he's promised to him immediately. It's through you.
All the families of the earth will be blessed. So he promises. Bless Abraham. To bless everybody else. Then. He makes nation.
Out of Abraham. He brings them out of slavery in Egypt. After they go to Egypt and become slaves. He brings them out. He eventually continues to promise. That I'm going to bless everybody through you.
And he brings Christ through Abraham. And the goal. Is not just to make one nation. But that all peoples. And all languages. And all nations.
Would worship and love God. And so he does this through Jesus. Jesus comes. Lives a perfect sinless life. Dies on behalf of sinners. Which is the children of man.
He even tells people. As he's doing this. He says. I'm going to rescue the house of Israel. But I've got sheep.
That don't belong to this house. That are going to be mine. He keeps saying. Like this is for everybody. This is going to be for everybody. As soon as he rises from the grave.
Having conquered sin on our behalf. He grabs his disciples. And he says. Go and make disciples. Of all ethnicities. You see that God is reversing.
What happened in Babel. Through the gospel. Because he is going to have a world. Covered. By people. Of different cultures.
Who love him. And worship him. He will accomplish that. Pentecost. Is the reverse of Babel. Where they.
The Holy Spirit falls. They begin to speak a language. That everybody understands. Because God is going to have a world. Covered with people who know. Love.
And worship him. And then he sends them out. First to the Jews. Then to the Gentiles. Then to everybody.
Which is the Gentiles. But just further away. And we see in the book of Revelation. That it says. John stands up. And he says.
I see them gathered around the throne. Worshipping him. Worshipping God the Father. And Christ. And it says. This is Revelation 5.9.
They sing a new song. Saying. Worthy are you to take the scroll. And to open its seals. For you were slain. And by your blood.
You ransomed people for God. From every tribe. And language. And people. And nation. And he says.
I look. This is 7.9. Two chapters away. After this I looked. And behold. A great multitude.
That no one could number. From every nation. From all tribes. And peoples. And languages. Standing before the throne.
And before the God. Clothed in white robes. When Christ redeems peoples. He does not make them one culture. He does not wipe away their skin color. Or their language.
He brings them together. And he makes them one family in him. But when John looks around the throne. He says. I see everybody speaking different languages. But they're all saying the same thing.
I see a multitude of peoples. And nations and languages. But they're all saying the same thing. Worthy is Jesus. That's God's plan. He enacts it in Babel.
And he overcomes it. In the gospel. That the world will be covered with people who worship him. And he mixes up the languages. And then he says. Everybody's still going to belong to me.
Not everybody in the world. Because that's not how this works out. But people from every tribe. And language and nation. Will follow Jesus. At least one.
Somebody's singing in French. Somebody's singing in Yoruba. There are people groups on the face of the planet right now. We have not translated the Bible in their language. We have not reached those people group. And I will guarantee you one thing.
Somebody from that people group is coming out. And they will be around that throne. And they will be making much of Jesus. Because that's God's plan. Now. How do we read this story.
And respond. Now. In 2018. Knowing all that we know. Well. I got a few quick things.
First of all. We know God's will for us. So God told. Adam and Eve. Then he told Noah.
Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. Okay. Done. That's not.
That's not the thing for us anymore. We are still supposed to have dominion over the earth. Which means you need to care for the peace of earth that you have. You need to care for those around you. We're supposed to work jobs. We're supposed to do that.
But then. In the cross. He sends out his disciples. Those who follow him. And he says. Make disciples.
Of all the people. Of the earth. That God has given his church a mission. That we know. His will for us. Now.
You may make disciples. In your neighborhood. You may make your disciples. As a mechanic. Working at a shop. Who gets to know the people he works with.
You might make your disciples. Working at Blockbuster. And then they closed it down. So you start working at Sears. And then they closed it down. And now you work for a call center.
But you're making disciples somewhere. Wherever you are. That all people would come to know him. That all people would worship him. That all people would follow him. And here's what happens though.
Much of our life is not the prayer. Our father in heaven. Honored be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Much of our life is spent with.
Our father in heaven. May my name be honored. May my kingdom come. May my will be done. We spend a lot of our time. Not caring about what God has put in front of us.
To love. To serve. To have a mission for. We spend a lot of time caring about our bank account. Our name. Our glory.
Our will. Guys. I'm a pastor. Father. And it's really easy for me. To not want to preach sermons for God's glory.
But for mine. It's really easy for me. To when we have baptisms. Want to see a lot of people get baptized. Not because that means somebody new. Is going to be around the throne.
Praising Jesus. But because it helps indicate. That we're doing a good job here. It's really easy for us. To do good actions. For wrong reasons.
Where we want our will. And our glory. And that is written. Into the heart of humanity. And we need God to save us from it. I had a friend of mine.
He's a pastor. And he said. That there are times. Where he thinks. He cares more about his dynasty on Madden. Some of y'all.
Understand what those words are. Some of you don't. Than he does about the mission of God. But you can replace dynasty on Madden. With your garden. Your promotion.
Your 401k. Your car collection. Your children. You can replace it with anything. Even really. Really good things.
That we care more about. What God's called us to do. And the mission he's given us. See the truth is. Many of us. Will never have a tower.
That reaches to heaven. But we will have something. That we spent. All of our energy. All of our time. All of our intelligence on.
And often. Far too often. It was for our name. And our will. So that we could be comfortable.
So that we could be successful. So that we could be. Given glory. And it was in complete. And utter rejection. Of what God's called us to do.
So I think the way we respond. Is twofold. I think we need to ask the question. We need to look in our heart. We need to ask the Holy Spirit. To tell us.
Where am I living. For my will. And my glory. Secondly. The way that we respond. To this story.
Of the Tower of Babel. Is we get to know people. Who look differently. Speak differently. Act differently. Than us.
I remember the day. That I went. My cousin came here. He is. First generation. Nigerian American.
I've told this story before. We went. He wanted to know. Kind of some good food around here. So we went to a restaurant.
That's closed now. But it was very good. Mexican food. I got horchata. Which is. It tastes like.
The bottom of the bowl. Of cinnamon toast crunch. It's amazing. And then we went. To another place. That had churros.
And I remember sitting with him. And I was eating a churro. And I thought. I've never thought about this. But churros are going to be in heaven.
I know biscuits will be there. But I had never thought about churros. And I know. Like it was. It just dawned on me. That there's going to be.
Culture in heaven. And that we ought to display. That so beautifully here. That we don't just hang out. With the people who look like us. Think like us.
Act like us. We don't just hang out. With people who like spicy food. Or don't like spicy food. But that we.
We look like the kingdom of God. Which is a bunch of people. Who look and act. And think differently. And so what that means for us. How we respond to the story.
Is that we love God's mission. And we love it enough. To be made uncomfortable for it. For the sake of people. Who don't know him. And for some of us.
That means you are supposed to. Quit your job. Be an international missionary. Go someplace. Or maybe they don't speak. The way you speak.
And maybe nobody there. Loves Jesus. And it's possible. That there are churches. Around the globe. That will consistently.
Send Christians to. The reason that unreached places. Are unreached right now. Is because they are hard to reach. They don't want to be reached. And so there are going to be people.
Who have to die there. For the sake of the gospel. And we're going to send in somebody. And we're going to send in somebody. And we're going to send in somebody. And Christians are going to shed their blood there.
And we're going to do it. Because we know at some point. Somebody's coming out. Somebody's going to be around the throne. Some of you it means. Getting to know someone you've worked with.
For a long time. But you've never really talked to. Because y'all don't see eye to eye. Or you don't act the same way. Or you don't like the same music. Some of you it's going to mean.
Walking across the street. And getting to know your neighbors. Some of you it's going to mean. Stop inviting them to everything. But accept the invitation they've given you.
You go be the only person. With your skin color. You go be the only person. Who doesn't understand the references. You go be mad. Uncomfortable for the gospel.
The band's going to come back up. And I want us to ask the question. God do I care more about your glory or mine? Do I care more about my name? Do I care more about what I want in life? Do I care more about what I think is best.
Most comfortable. Most enjoyable. Or do I care about what you care about? And we're going to repent. We're going to ask Jesus to change our hearts. We're going to ask him to use us.
Through his Holy Spirit. We're going to take communion here in a second. Which is for Christians. Who have repented of sin. And placed their faith in Jesus. Who died for sinners.
The truth is. That we are all going to mess this up. We are all going to fall short. None of us are going to live perfectly. Or be on mission perfectly. Or love God's mission.
In his name. In his glory. More than ours. And that's why we trust Jesus. That he saves sinners. That he loves failures.
That he's strong enough where we are weak. And that we continually get to follow after him in repentance. But that ultimately we're going to stand before him. Not because we were the best at mission. And not because we were the best at diversity. And not because we were the best at loving people.
But because he was. And we're going to stand in him. And so if you are a Christian. I would invite you to take a moment to ask him. Where do I need to change? Where do I need to grow?
Where do you need to purge from me? The fact that I would have fit in so perfectly in Babel. And where do you need to change my circumstances? For your grace. And for your glory. And for your name.
And then I invite you to take communion. If you are not a Christian. Communion is not for you. Christ is. And you can repent of your sin. And have Christ.
But Christians partake in communion. To remind themselves. That they've placed their faith in Christ. And what he's done for them. So let's pray.
The band's going to sing here in a moment. And during that song. After you've prayed. And when you feel ready. You'll come take communion. If you have a celiac disease.
Or a gluten allergy.
