Good morning. Everyone is great to see
everyone who's here. It is a good day.
Good day of worship. It's good to study God's word
and so I'm excited to lead our study this morning.
And if you would like to study with me, we're going to open up
to Genesis chapter 3. And we're going to kind of mole
through some of the beginning of Genesis and consider some
themes. And the reason I'm doing this is
because in our afternoon, Sunday worship for a while.
Now, we've been reading through the Old Testament and I've
countless times just been wanting to say way.
Wait, hold up, hold up. Let's let's talk about that for
a minute because we've just ran and read over so much because
we've covered so much ground. And I want to go back now and
pick up some of pick up some details where we studied in
Genesis and my title. I've given today is something
lost and where to find it and choose to introduce a study.
I'm going to focus on the Tower of Babel, but for the Tower of
Babel to make sense, we have to go back to the Garden.
We have to go. Back to when Adam and Eve were
in the garden and what happened there.
So we're going to cover some ground this morning.
I'm going to do my best to keep things moving because when
you're doing a theme to study and you're tracking a lot of
ground, it can go a little fast. So I apologize if that is the
case. Let's get moving in.
Genesis 3:1. So here's the scene is set.
God has created the world as we read in chapters 1 and 2.
And he created man and woman from man, it says, now in
chapter 3 verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning
than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made, and
he said to the woman has God, indeed said You shall not eat of
the of every tree of the garden. So we have the first Temptation
man has ever seen and the world going on here.
The serpent is is And to manipulate this woman and the
woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the
Trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat
of it, nor shall you? Touch it, lest you die.
Okay, so quickly getting into some themes.
Satan has his way and he starts off by number one.
Trying to get Eve to reconsider and have confusion about
something. That was a very simple command.
Has he really told you that you Eat of every tree of the garden
and and Eve's response. The woman's responses good.
She says we may eat of the fruit of the Trees of the garden.
So there's plenty of trees for us to eat from God hasn't said
from every tree, but the fruit of the tree, which is what it
says in the midst of the garden. God is says, you shall not eat
of it. So, Eve, clarifies know, we can
eat of all these trees, but there's one, we can't.
It's that tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and so Satan's
goal. We're already starting to see
here is To have her, take her eyes off of all the blessings
and all of God's Providence that God has designed to give her and
to get her to focus on that. One thing that God said, don't
do that. Okay, so it's move on.
Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die
for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be
opened and you will be like God knowing Good and Evil.
So Satan tries to undermine the consequences of sin.
This is a second tactic. He says, you're not really gonna
die and maybe he meant that literally physically, she didn't
die, but spiritually. And for that Eternal being
perspective, the curse of sin is going to enter because of this
and man will die, but not in the moment.
He says you're not really gonna die.
He's trying to undermine the consequences of sin and for our
own lives. Satan wants us to do that.
He wants us to See things were perspective.
Like it's not really that bad for God knows that in the day
you eat of it, your eyes will be open and my classroom, that is
one of the things that it's not fear, but if a student starts to
try to undermine your systems and your Authority by saying,
the teacher don't worry about the teacher knows that when this
happens. This is really what's going to
happen and it's not what he wants from you.
So the saying this twisting and turning things in.
He's undermining God's Authority by saying things like old gods
knows this is going to happen. And next he overemphasizes the
gratification of sin he says your eyes are going to be open,
you're going to be like God, that's true.
They're going to have an awareness of what's right and
wrong. He's not lying to them but it's
not the whole truth. They're going to be like God in
the sense that they're going to know good and evil and God wants
them to be at peace right now. He created a garden where there
was no evil And they're going to be introduced to it because of
their own Rebellion. So Satan has several tactics.
He's already using on them here and I think he does the same
thing to us. So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a
tree desirable to make one wise. She took of the fruit and ate.
So we already see the, the there were the result of Satan's
Temptation. She takes it and eat and eats
it. And my mind when I was studying
this, Is it just it's caught my attention?
What about the other trees? Eve was made by Satan to look at
the world. She was in like, this is all.
She could see. There's one tree.
There was only one tree you need.
And there's only one tree you want.
And God doesn't want you to have it.
He's owned her perspective on something.
That she was supposed to have. And so she saw the world, like
this is this one tree. When, in reality, this was a
lush Garden. God had given them everything
they needed. He'd give them all Providence.
Providing for all the fruits that they would need to survive
by and live by, and be cared with and for But Satan made her
see this seen through this lens. There is one tree in the midst
of a garden that he made her see.
And for you, and I today, the first lesson I take from this is
we must choose joy and contentment in the field of
trees. God has blessed us with There
are things that Satan will try to get into your mind and make
you see things through a terrible perspective.
In reality, we are all cared for in many ways.
If not maybe in your own, maybe physical life, maybe you don't
see all the blessings there. Look here.
Look at everything here, dwell on this because God has given us
a field of trees, a fueled of everything we need.
We have to learn to find joy and contentment in the field of
trees around us and not get locked in on that one.
The Satan is trying to get us focused on.
So here's the five things, Satan undermines a simple
understanding of what's right. He undermines the consequences
of sin. He distracts her and he
undermines the authority of God by speaking on God's behalf.
He utilizes half-truths and you overemphasize the gratification
that sin will bring okay quickly moving on In this verse where
the woman made this mistake, we have the three things, John will
say the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of
the eyes. She saw the tree was good for
food. Her flesh, wanted it.
She saw there was pleasant to the eyes, the lust of the eyes,
and it was desirable to make one wise the pride of life.
This is from the beginning, John first, John, the letter, the
letter first, John writes from a place of experience, but from a
place of seeing and living only in a world full of the fall and
for of, it's full of its consequences, says this.
And in his letter, John, the Elder says Do not love the world
or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world,
all that the flesh wants and all those desires of the flesh.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life
is not of the father. But is of the world.
For all that the world has brought offer.
He says in verse 16, and verse 17, he says, and the world is
passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God
abides forever as we consider Eaves and ultimately Adams fall
into sin, And as we consider our own battle with sin, remember
that there is nothing. There is nothing Sinha stock for
us. It's passing away all of it in
its entirety, but Satan got her, got her, and gets us to look at
it in a different way. Like it's everything we could
think about, right in front of us.
She goes on, it goes on to say she also gave to her husband
with her and he ate sent has a powerful corrupting influence on
the people around us. You have influenced careful
where you use it verse 7, then the eyes of both of them were
open. So this is really what I want to
start to emphasize. This is going to make the Tower
of Babel kind of make more sense verse 7.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened like today.
Like the devil said what happened?
And they knew that they They were naked.
And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
covering the First theme. We see, this is the first sin,
this is Man's first attempt, a man's first Petty, attempt to
cover his sin, and his shame that the fall brought him verse
8 and they heard the sound of the Lord.
God Walking In The Garden in the cool of the day.
This is almost a mockery to us in Bakersfield.
And a lot of the valley, the cool of the day that the garden
was anticipated yet. Yet, they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking through and Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord among the Trees of the garden.
This didn't happen before. Man In The Garden, dwelled in a
place of security and openness and freeness and
invulnerability. But now they want to hide And
this might not seem like a big deal, but this was not supposed
to happen. This is going to be a sign of an
inward longing, and an inward pain that we are going to fill
throughout human history. He desired to hide from God,
Among the Trees of the garden. So he said, I heard your voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. I think this is the saddest line
in the whole Bible. Everything from this point
forward is going to be from a place of hope, it will.
And the New Testament says, we consider the Old Testament that
throw the that through patience and comfort of the scriptures.
We might have hope we're going to get there this morning but
this is sad because it's the reversal.
It's when everything was good. It's one man ultimately had
peace with God and he felt good. He was at peace and joyful and
secure and welcome and he had value and Its presence.
And then in this line everything, crumbles everything
falls apart and you feel that today I feel this weight today
to hide and have shame. And God said, who told you that
you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?
Which I commanded you that you should not eat.
You can see the transition. It's almost like when you talk
to a child who taught you that word who taught you to say that
when they pick something up, they shouldn't have but these
aren't children. These are adults capable of
reasoning. And capable ultimately sin verse
12 in the man, said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she
gave me got cut off down there. She gave me of the tree to eat.
Man's response, he hides and he seeks to cover and he starts to
blame. Shame leads to blame.
We can already see the the terrible influence of sins on
our hearts and on our disposition.
This is a terrible thing that already starts to happen.
The blame game, And so our Story begins in Genesis chapter 3, we
lost something. We lost security.
We lost peaceful vulnerability, we traded the True Value.
That God had, we traded that? Adam and Eve traded that.
So now the question is for the rest of the Bible, how will man
fill it? And that's where we're going to
move on to the flood and them in between chapters before between
the Tower of Babel. The flood happens, that man's
sin on the earth gets so bad that God has to clean it up and
start fresh. So man causes a flood on the
Earth and All the world except for except for this small,
family dies, and they're given a fresh start, there's a rainbow
given for God's assurance that he will, never flood the Earth
again and from this small, I believe it's eight people.
The small family, God restarts the world and he gives them an
important command. God tells them in verse 8:15,
the God, spoke to Noah saying, go out of the Ark.
That's important line, go out, don't stay there and let that be
your Hut forever live in the boat.
Go out from the ark you and your wife and your sons and your sons
wives with you, bring out with you.
Every living thing of All Flesh, that is with you birds and
cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the ground that
they may have bound on the earth and be Fruitful.
And multiply on the earth. Verse 9 of chapter 9 goes on to
say an extension of this. So God blessed, Noah and his
sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill
the earth and the fear of you. And the dread of you shall be
upon every beast of the Earth, on every bird of the year, on
all that, move on the earth. And on all the fish of the sea,
they are given into your hand. There's an important connection
between going being fruitful and multiplying and filling the
Earth. And I'm in that process, God
will give God will provide in the process of going and
multiplying and fulfillment. But man's that depends on man's
reception to the call to go. This is a theme throughout the
Bible. So they're told to go to go to
multiply and fill the Earth, and as we're going to say, seeing
the Tower of Babel, this is what they do.
The opposite of And ultimately God wants to do this.
God wants them to do this, in his name, in God's name, for
God's glory and by God's will. So let's see what happens.
Genesis 11:1. Now the whole earth had one
language and one speech it is hard to imagine this but this is
an etymology lesson for the Christian God started everything
with one language. I can't, I can't found the world
where everyone spoke the same language and it came to pass as
they journeyed, from the East that they found a plain in the
land of shinar. And they dwelt there, then they
then they said to one another come let us make bricks and bake
them thoroughly. They had bricks for stone and
they had asphalt for Mortar and they said, come let us build
ourselves a city and a tower. Whose top is in the heavens.
Let us make a name for ourselves.
Lest we be scattered? A turd abroad over the face of
the Earth. So first off, bring none.
What's the big deal? They want to build a city.
They can meet our, we're surrounded by these, right?
What's the big deal? And so they want to stay put
they don't want to be scattered, you know.
They probably want to be together as a family.
They probably want to be together.
So their power grows, what's the big deal?
Number one, they wanted to build themselves.
A city number two, they wanted a tower whose top is in the
heavens number three. They want to make a name for
ourselves and number four, they wanted to go against the command
of God to go and fill and be fruitful and multiply The
building ourselves a city is a sign of permanent and security.
They wanted to find a sense of permanence and security and
themselves for themselves. They wanted to build a tower to
the heavens. They wanted to build something
that was permanent and was meaningful.
And they wanted to find a meaning in their own power, and
they wanted to make a name for themselves for their glory, for
their praise, and they want to directly against God's command
to fill the Earth. God always pushes his followers.
To multiply grow and look outward from self.
But man, sinful man always looks inward to bill for his security
and Glory as we consider what makes us sin and what is kind of
at the root of our sins. I think we get a lot of Clues,
both from the garden. And now from the Tower of Babel
of what, where sin comes from and what leads to our own Center
our own hearts and this is part of it.
God tells us that we need to have, God tells us things.
Like having a person over to show hospitality and First Peter
chapter 5, but we tend to do the opposite.
We tend to maybe sit home and watch Netflix.
We were told by God to go out of your way to take an interest in
the well-being of others. Despite a difficult dangerous
road in Luke chapter 10, but we tend to turn a blind eye to the
need for the easier. More comfortable Road.
God tells us to grow in knowledge and understanding of
his will, but we tend to maybe scroll through social media or
other tools of dissipation, it can be Hobbies, it can be
entertainment. It can be anything that just
tries to fill a void in our minds that should be filled by
something good. God tells us to cross barriers
of torn or difficult relationships with love.
We tend to maintain comfortable separation where we don't suffer
embarrassment or hurt. Go and multiply is a call to go
out from self, but we tend to do the opposite to do everything.
We're told to do everything without complaining in
Philippians to search for and promote positive messages, even
through challenging circumstances.
But we tend to live with cynicism to be cynical to dwell
in on and repeat the obvious negatives.
God tells us to reach for wholesome things to talk about.
Even if it's not that exciting or entertaining to reach for
those things to go out and find those things.
But we tend to gossip and circulate stories that get the
biggest reaction, we tend to not want to go out from ourselves
and find something greater God has to offer to multiply and
fill the Earth. God tells us to draw near to him
and maybe that means carving out quiet, time of prayer and
meditation with our Lord. But we tend to fill our time
with what we think needs to be done.
To maintain the standards that we have arbitrarily set for our
menial things in our lives. Do we carve out time?
I know we have busy schedules, but do we carve out time to draw
near to him? We're told to evaluate our
whole, our hearts and even Consulting with outside sources
of counsel, and godly wisdom to look out for ourselves.
But we resort to the way we've always thought This is a theme
started long ago and God says go.
God says go beyond wherever you are now to.
He who thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall.
Go God says Wherever you think you are now you need to go from
where you're standing. That was the call to the Old
Testament Patriarchs. Now.
I want to clarify, there is nothing wrong.
And this is the interesting part.
There is nothing wrong with their route desires.
They wanted a city. And when we think City think a
place to belong think security, they wanted at our, they wanted
to do something that mattered that would hold, permanence and
significance. And they wanted to build.
They wanted a name, they want to Greatness.
That's what a name is. They wanted to build greatness
for themselves. There is nothing wrong with
their core desires here. The problem we're going to see
with them is that sin is often the result of seeking to find
something or someone that you lost in God.
Sin is the result of seeing a need in your life that like we
saw in the Garden of Eden, we lost some pretty core needs.
We lost and have a pretty big gap in our life, for some pretty
important things when we seek to find the filler for that void
and places. Other than God, that's where I
think they're issue started. And on top of that, we try to
build a tower, our self to God. We try to replace that Gap with
something and that's more specific in the fact that the
the phrase Babel or when it's pronounced Bob Bell, as I
understand, means a tower to heaven or a gate to God.
They tried and we often try to build a tower to God and replace
a path to God to fulfill things that God is supposed to fulfill.
All the way back to the Eden loss were man.
Tried to cover and fill his Brokenness.
And in the eating Garden, God was our home.
God was the place of home for us.
In fellowship. With him, is where we got our
sense of belonging. For the tower.
We got our significance from doing his will tending.
The garden follow serving him and being Sons and Daughters of
our King. That was our significance.
That was our permanence in the garden.
And for greatness, we had all the greatness we needed it was
supposed to be in God. It was in connection with the
most high creator of the world. Despite our Humanity.
And so first off, it makes sense that we want to belong to a
city, we all need a place of belonging that's why.
Now as we talk through some of this, some of this isn't
necessarily wrong but it shows a core need and of course
searching we have we want acceptance from the right
people, whether it's a school, maybe it's co-workers.
Maybe people aren't even in the church.
We want praise from the right people.
We want praise and acceptance from the right people because we
want to belong, we want security.
And that is kind of evidence in the insurance insurance and
insurance industry. A trillion dollar industry and
that was looking at the end of the insurance industry, you can
literally buy insurance for almost anything.
If you go on a trip, now, this is pretty evident during covid.
A lot of people had travel insurance because covid,
cancelled those you can buy travel insurance, there's a
hurricane on your cruise. You can be insured for that to
insulate yourself from. Any risk you might have you can
buy wedding insurance if all things collapse.
And maybe there is a groomzilla, or bridezilla, you can have
wedding insurance from those, the payments for all those
things you have, you can have insurance for your fantasy
football link. You can have insurance for a
body part if you lose a hand and maybe your hand is valuable to
you at work, you can ensure that you can have a lien insurance
for $118 year. You can have insurance so that
if you are a family member gets abducted by an alien, And you
get five hundred thousand dollars so it's not all that bad
if you get abducted by an alien, if you can prove that you got
eaten by an alien, that's three million dollars.
There's Halloween, haunted house, insurance.
If there's an accident for the haunted house, you're going to
or are setting up, there's Halloween, haunted house,
insurance, you can buy plant Insurance, you could buy home,
theater, Insurance identity, and theft, Insurance, spoiled, Food
Insurance, from a refrigerator going out.
You can buy insurance for your patio furniture.
There's one for you, even if, you know, even if we laugh at
one of those, like that's ridiculous.
There's one on that list for us or somewhere else.
For us, the reason is people want security, we want security,
we don't want to feel that sense of loss that might come to us.
We lost that sense of security and we've been climbing and
clambering to get it back since then we want our lives to matter
that's why they built that Tower and maybe for us that's why we
have career stress for young people.
It is a huge thing to try to pick your career because we want
to do something that matters for older people.
Maybe have a crisis, feel like you haven't done something that
matters. Maybe that's why I've never had
one and I so I can't speak on behalf of this.
Maybe that's where midlife crisis, come in where people
realize they are missing significance and they're about
halfway through. And what do I do with the rest
of this life? We want to have meaningful
accomplishments or work the whole thing with our generation.
I think it's a good thing employers are saying they all
want to make a difference. They all want to do have an
impact and they're kind of annoyed with that because it's
like just do your job. But that's comes from a good
core. Desire to have a valuable life.
We want our lives to matter. We want to be connected to
Greatness, that's why whatever. So whatever.
If someone starts to saying, you know, I met this weekend, that's
why there's 10 people around them telling them, you know, who
I met 10 years ago, five years ago.
That's a good feeling to be connected to Greatness.
I met so-and-so. They signed my ball on my shirt
or my arm. That's why we take pictures with
someone who's famous because we want to be associated with
greatness. There's nothing wrong with the
feeling of belonging security and greatness.
It is all about where we ultimately look for it.
And ultimately we're not going to be fulfilled unless we find
it in the right place. I think we had this longing
inside of us, I felt it a young age in the security of my
parents in the security of my home.
There's a reason that you have a powerful feeling about where you
were. I guess I shouldn't speak for
everyone. At least I have a powerful
feeling of love and longing for my home, it's a place of
security, it's a place of original belonging and ultimate
from your little, it's a sense of ultimate success.
Security and that's why we fear it so greatly when you're a
child of losing it. That thought of, you know, that
every little kid has run through their head of what if my parents
were to die? There's a reason that's a
terrible Gap or that's a terrible feeling to think about
the loss of security. We have a long and maybe later
on to meet a future spouse in a relationship that will share.
And that is a real deep longing. And sometimes, maybe in worship,
if you're sitting in your singing praises, there's just
something that you're longing for Beyond this even when you're
fulfilling the desires in a good way.
It's just not quite enough. We're not quite there yet.
And I feel this especially when I stand on the edge of the ocean
and you're looking out at that vast openness, there's almost a
yearning and a longing for something.
Greater Now, God provides for our needs, and that's good and
to have them in their proper place. but remember that, Even
it went in their proper place. We're still going to have that
longing inside of us. One man said if I have a
yearning that cannot be satisfied by any Earthly thing,
there's only one logical conclusion.
I was made for a world that is not this one.
That's the only logical conclusion.
Another man said, the books are the music in which we thought
the beauty was located. So in life, we're going to see
things that are beautiful and we're going to see little
glimpses of beauty or Pure goodness and enjoyment.
He said wherever that was located will betray us.
If we trust in them, it was not in them.
It only came through them and what came through them was
longing, these things, the beauty, the menier, the memory
of our own past, they've childhood are good images of
what we really desire. But if they are mistaken for the
thing itself, they turn into dumb or voiceless idols.
Breaking the hearts of their worshipers for they are not the
thing itself. They are only the scent of a
flower. We have not found the echo of a
tune. We have not heard news from a
country, we have never yet. Visited another person said
fathers and mothers, husbands wives children, our friends, all
these good things they are but Shadows but the enjoyment of God
is the substance. These are both scattered beans
but God is the sun, these are but streams, but God is the
fountain, these are but drops, but God is the ocean.
The level one of this concept is, we need to be careful not to
fill the needs. We have outside of God's
prescribed order. And level two is God's
Provisions, have some way of satisfying.
Our needs as humans and have a wonderful wonderful place in our
life, but we must remember who the ultimate source of our lungs
is Genesis 11 verse 5, Moving on, but the Lord came down.
So he sees the city, he sees the tower, which the sons of men
have built and it says that he came down.
That's derogatory, that's derogatory language.
Basically, like, got to go down and see what all these little
gerbils are about down. Here.
He comes down to this Tower, those supposed to reach all the
way up to the heavens. And the Lord said, indeed, the
people are one and they have one language, and this is what they
begin to do now. Nothing they propose to do will
be withheld from them. I believe this.
Is maybe from a practical standpoint.
They can do a lot of stuff with this one might and power and
think about it for a minute. If people back then lived
hundreds of years. We think sometimes science talks
about them, like the cavemen or undeveloped.
If you lived for a couple hundred years, maybe they were
smarter than us, their technology might not be all
there but if you live for hundreds of years, you can
develop systems and teach it to the next generation for a lot
longer. Whatever the case is, I believe
also nothing. They propose to do any sinful
way will be with hope with will be withheld from them.
And this is the second important point.
I want to make that sends route is by my will in my strength and
for my glory, when Jesus tries to revolutionize, and fix the
minds of his people in New Testament, he teaches in Matthew
Chapter 5, The Sermon on the Mount.
That christlikeness begins in the heart.
It all starts there and James chapter 4 verse 2.
It says you lust and do not. Have you murdering covet and
cannot obtain you fight. And you wore, why?
you do not have because you do not ask, you do not ask and you
do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on
your pleasures, send seeks for my will for my name and by my
strength Satan's Anthem in Isaiah chapter 13, when his
condemnation is sent down. It's written.
You have said in your heart, speaking of Satan, I will Ascend
to my into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of
the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.
I will Ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like, the most high sins will is by my will in my
strength for my glory. And so this is a good time for a
pride check. How is your heart?
How is my heart? When Jesus was talking, he said,
he saw two men in the temple. Once said, God.
I think you that I'm not like these others and he went his
way, right? He, you know, he was supposed to
be a righteous man, and another man came through and he beat his
breast and said, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Jesus said, that's the man that went away, Justified.
That's the man. He wants to see.
How is your heart? Where do you operate your life?
One of the quickest ways to tell if you're a prideful is if
another person's Pride bothers you one man said, because pride
is by nature, always in competition, with others.
Jealousy is an obvious characteristic of Pride.
How is my heart? What Am I Living For?
Is it God's will God's strength and God's glory?
Verse 7 come, they said let our God said come, let us go down
and there for confuse their language that they may not be
under that. They may not understand one
another's speech. So this is where all of the
world's languages get started. So the Lord scattered them
abroad from there, over the face of all the Earth and they ceased
building the city. Therefore it is called Babel.
So, this is a play on words. Bob, L is gate to God, but the
word Babel, if you move the accents means confusion.
This, therefore, its name is called Babel because they're the
Lord confused. The language of all the Earth,
and from there, the Lord scattered them abroad over all
the face of the Earth. The third and kind of final
lesson here is sin, leaves. Rotting towers of
disappointment. It's interesting.
I would think God would have just absolutely flattened that
Tower but didn't he let it stand?
Now, is that judgment? Or is it Mercy?
I think it's both God's judgment would come down to intervene
when it says they're gonna do whatever they set their mind to.
I have to stop this that's judgment because he pronounces
wrong on what they're doing and stops it but it's also Mercy.
It's Mercy because God came down and rerouted them.
So they can restart Andre set their minds away from this task,
and maybe this Tower could stand as a reminder, A constant
reminder. Of their failures and their
attempts to live further will for their name and for their
Glory. What's so awesome is after this
story. God, disbands them.
They are spread over all the Earth and now we have different
languages. We have people absolutely spread
across the Earth. God begins to make his own
Tower. He current he stops the building
of a tower of man and starts to begin his own Tower through a
man named Abram. And God tells Abraham, I'll give
you a home, it'll be better and more permanent than any home, a
man can build, I'll give you significance, Abram greater than
any Tower. You'll have a role in blessing.
The world for generations to come, I'll make your name great
Abram. I'll tie the greatness of your
name to my name. That is how God Should fill
these voids in our life is a pattern.
And as we read further on toward the end of the Bible, Revelation
in chapter 7 verse 9, we read this after 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 lamb, it was a
terrible sight when man was confused and separated and all
their languages were jumbled. But in Revelation, we see a
picture of all these. People from tribes and languages
crying out with a loud voice together in unity salvation
Belongs To Our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb.
It is a Heavenly reversal of the Babel story that confused and
separated so many people. And we even get a glimpse of
this. In the book of Acts on the day
of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
We should see a direct reversal here of the Tower of Babel, when
man was trying to build his Tower at got crushed by the
dispersion of languages. When God comes down to earth to
build his kingdom and his tower on the day of Pentecost when
it's set up. All people here and their own
language. It's a reversal of the Tower of
Babel when God builds his Tower in his kingdom.
And so, my question for you, this Tower is being built
regardless. What tower are you building?
Are you doing his will, or your own will?
Do you see what you have as belonging to God or to yourself?
Are you building your kingdom or living out his mission?
Are you involved in the church? There's no way we can be a part
of God's Mission especially when we see that church began and
started on the day of Pentecost, you can't serve God's plan
without being a part of building his Tower.
His mission on the on Earth, is to build a kingdom for eternity.
Not an Earthly Kingdom, but a spiritual Kingdom.
Are you directing all praise back to God?
Are you concerned with keeping it on you?
when I started to have a maybe I want to wake up the beginning of
my day, I go out to work, sometimes I feel that exhaustion
and I feel that you know that where the feeling is that just
kind of like drags you down and what I remember when I tell
myself I have to live today for God's glory.
Okay. The pressure is off of me.
Now, I'm living for God's glory. I have a purpose.
I relinquished pressure, and I direct my efforts toward God for
giving him the glory, and whenever I do that, if I'm a
worker, then I have worked so that God will be glorified so
that I will serve my master my employer or my my students like
I'm serving Christ. Maybe God crushed, one of your
Towers, or stop the building of your Tower.
And you have a tower of disappointment, don't look at
that, like a bad thing that is God's Mercy, Mercy comes through
judgment. Sometimes, this that we will be
rerouted from our own ways to serve him.
God wants to show us that sin, ultimately disappoints and all
the ways that tries to fill us and all the ways we try to be
filled by it. He wants us to know.
That all fulfillment, all satisfaction and all things good
or found in him today. If you haven't started that
walk, if you are searching for that.
You're in the right place. Not because we are special, but
because we have a special word and a special Direction in a
special purpose to serve. God, the ways prescribed we're
told that we hear God's word that produces belief and faith
in him, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
we can confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, repent of our
past life and change from building for my will, for my
name, for my glory. And we can be refocused and
redirected on a path that will follow God would be baptized for
the remission of our sins like they were when the early church
was set up and we can be added to the church, you started this
walk and you need help. You need guidance to get back on
the right track. This is a family.
This is a place where God has given us to find a sense of
belonging even though it's not complete and perfect.
Here yet, God wants us to find that here and so we can provide
strength for you as a congregation prayer, whenever
you need, always stand him. Always See.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
would like any additional information, or you would like
to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
Please email us at info at her Church of Christ
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
honored guest.