Well, we are in our Genesis series, and we come to this passage, Genesis chapter 11, and it's a real short... This passage called the Tower of Babel, but it has profound revelations about human nature and God's interactions. Just to give you some context, God has started over with Noah's family. We got through the flood, and from Noah's sons, the human race is now going to multiply. Chapter 10, which we're not gonna get into, shows the table of nations.
It lists all these groups of people and where they settle as nations across the earth and how each has its own language. But chapter 11, it's not in chronological order. Chapter 11 is going to tell us how we got those nations. we got those different languages and how those people got spread across the earth. In chapter 11, what you have is a people who share a common language and they share a common vocabulary and they begin to move eastward.
And typically when you see people moving eastward, it's moving further away from God. And here they move eastward. They settle in Shinar, which is Babylon, at the time of this writing. And there they devise a plan. Let's build a city. Let's settle right here. Let's build a city, and let's build this tower. Now, this tower is what was known as a ziggurat. A ziggurat was a pyramid-shaped tower with stairs that led up to the top there, and there's a structure typically.
at the top. That's not a picture, that's a rendering. So we don't have, no archaeologists discovered this. We're like, hey, the Tower of Babel. But this is a depiction of what that may have looked like. And we're tempted to think, well, what's the big deal? What's the big deal about building a city? Isn't that part of?
growing human civilizations and what's the problem with having a little capital campaign and building a building there in your city isn't building just part of developing human culture but there's a major problem going on here in the text and one that God confronts, and I want you to see what's going on at the Tower of Babel. What's going on there is human pride.
Human pride is the heart of the Tower of Babel. And pride is something God is gonna address all throughout the scripture. Over and over and over again, God is gonna confront the human race. on our pride. The scriptures warn us about pride over and over and over again, that pride is this destructive force. It has the capacity to ruin our lives and ruin our relationships. In fact, it contaminates nearly everything it touches.
And we're gonna see pride working itself out here in these people in chapter 11. One of the things that pride does at the heart of pride is erasing this distinction between creator and creature. These people want to build a tower that reaches up into the heavens. Now, these Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top. So they're these stairs that led to the dwelling place of the gods. In other words, you could ascend.
to the place of the gods. So here they are ascending to where deity dwells, exalting themselves to a divine space. And this is... what the human heart, left unchecked, will always do. It will try to ascend to the place of God, that we kinda wanna be our own gods. In fact, this is the story we've seen throughout.
Genesis so far. His story's not told, but what we know about Satan is that he was an angelic being created by god and instead of worshiping god and submitting to god he wanted to be god and exalted himself above god and was basically kicked out of heaven and now roams about the earth seeking to destroy the thing that God loves most, those made in his image. And so Satan's problem was he wanted to ascend to the place of being God. And when he...
tempts Adam and Eve, what does he tempt them with? Hey, if you eat this fruit, you can become like God. You could actually be your own gods, and if you can be your own god, you won't have need for God. You can be your own god, choose your own destiny, and chart your own course, and make up your own rules, and be your own authority. This is the temptation.
that we are faced with constantly, this desire to want to be our own gods. And notice what else pride will do. It raises its wants and its wisdom over God's will. So you can ask the question, well, what's the problem with them settling? Well, what they're trying to do is they're trying to prevent, verse four, from being scattered over the face of the earth. But that's exactly what God commanded them to do.
In Genesis chapter nine, it says, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. They were supposed to spread out and fill the earth with image bearers. But they don't wanna do that. Instead, what they do is they raise their wants and their wisdom, it seemed like a good idea to them, above God's will. Their desires got raised up above God's will.
And this is really the essence of sin, isn't it? My word, my desires get raised up above God's. My will instead of God's will. My words instead of God's words. My wants instead of God's wants. My desires instead of God's decrees. crees. It's the essence of sin. I know what God says, but, well, maybe God said that, but, isn't it what Satan said to Adam? He did God really say?
And so there's always this temptation to either distort God's word so that it matches our desires or just to ignore God's word altogether. And listen mainly to our desires. And pride says, my desires are the ruling authority of my life. I have to follow my heart. I have to be true to myself. Even when God's word and God's will contradict my heart or contradict myself.
And so these are the two expressions of pride we see in this passage, and they're inseparable. I can be my own God, and my wants and wisdom become the authority of my life. This is the human. condition and the human tendency still today to want to be our own God and to want our own wants and wills and wishes to be the authority of our life so that we make our decisions based upon what we want.
instead of what God wills. And here's what it leads to. This is kind of the big thing we see in chapter 11 is that pride seeks to construct a life apart from God. You get to be your own God. Your will, your wants, your wishes is your own authority. You could have a life without God in it. And that's what these guys are trying to do in the Tower of Babel. They wanna construct a life without God in it.
Construct a life apart from God. And notice how it plays out. They're gonna seek security and significance in the self apart from God. They're gonna seek. to construct a life apart from God. And what that's gonna mean for them is seeking security and significance apart from God. Did you notice what they said? In verse four, come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourself lest we be dispersed over the face.
of the whole earth they want significance let's make a name for ourselves and they want security we don't want to be scattered across the face of the earth they're trying to be their saviors Let's give ourselves a sense of significance and let's secure ourselves safety. And they want this apart from God. And listen, every single one of us face this temptation to seek significance and to seek security apart from God and to seek it in the work of our own hands. We're all tempted.
to try to build a name for ourselves, to prove ourselves, to establish our own worth through our achievements, through our career successes, through our families, through our... beauty or worth or wealth or family. There's all sorts of ways that we try to establish our own significance. And there's ways that we put our confidence in ourselves for our own security. We trust in our resources.
our retirement fund, our stock market portfolios. We trust in all these things to give us the kind of security that we sense that we need in life. And it's tempting to build our life on something other than God. To build our life for something or someone other than God and to build our life really without God in it. Or at best, just simply on the margins. And so here's the question. How do we know if we're doing this?
How do we know if we're constructing a life without God in it? How do we know if we're constructing a life without God in it or just if he's even shoved off to the margins? How do we know if we're doing this? How do we know we're not just following in the footsteps of these tower builders? Well, to prevent us from becoming practical atheists, which is kind of what these tower builders become, right? So when you start trying to construct your life apart from God, you might...
profess we believe in God, but to build our life without him in it or with him simply on the margins is to practically live as if God doesn't exist. And so I just want to give us some diagnostic questions to ask myself as I was studying this. How do I know I'm not building my life without God in it? Or without God on the margins? Here's the first question. Do I consistently spend time seeking God in his word and in prayer?
In other words, the relationship is very real to me. So I seek God regularly. I carve out time to spend time with God in his word and in prayer. Am I really seeking to know him? Personally. That's question number one. Question number two. Do I often spontaneously voice to God my admiration of him, my gratitude to him, and my need for him? Am I just spontaneously?
This isn't during a song, in a church service, but throughout my day, I just spontaneously voice to God my admiration of him or my thanks to him, my gratitude for him. Or I just confess I need him. I need his wisdom. I need his strength. I need his help. I need his guidance. I need his companionship. I just need him. These are things that are just part of your regular vocabulary. You're just in this interactive relationship with God.
We are spontaneously voicing these things to him. Three, do I often lose arguments with God? Do I often lose arguments with God? In other words, his word trumps my wants. where I feel his conviction over an attitude or an action or an affection in my heart, and they don't line up with him, and I agree with him that those things are wrong, and I repent.
It's not simply I did something bad and I think, man, I'm better than that. But I did something and I thought that's not what God wanted and I want to repent from that. I need to change. You lose arguments with God. You don't justify behaviors, you don't make excuses, but you acknowledge, okay, God, this is what I want, I know you don't want this for me, and so you win. And God is regularly winning arguments.
Four, do I pray and seek wisdom in God's word and from God's people before I make a major decision? Or do I just go with my gut? These people don't really seek the Lord. Lord, should we build a tower? Should we settle in Shinar? Is this a good place to raise my family? They don't ask these questions. The question is, am I seeking wisdom in God's word and from God's people before I make a major decision? Do I just go with my gut?
Do I do really just kind of what I want to do or do I do what I think God wants me to do? Has God's word or the counsel of God's people ever changed your mind on a decision? Does that happen regularly? Five, do I arrange my life around God's priorities? I'm not squeezing God into my life, but I'm intentionally ordering my life in such a way that I'm able to engage in activities that advance his priorities in the world. I serve his purposes. I actually exert.
energy in things that matter to the heart of God. And question six, am I generous toward God? Do I give my resources generously to support and promote God's church and his mission in the world? In other words, my generosity doesn't terminate on me and my family. So I've told my kids, I don't want you. my kids growing up thinking my dad was generous to everyone but me.
I wanna be generous to my kids and generous to my family, but I don't want my generosity to terminate on me and my family. In fact, there should be some things that we would like to do with our family that our generosity prohibits.
There's some things we would love to do, but because we give to our church, or we give to Compassion, and we give to support missionaries, or we give to help the poor, there's things we'd like to do as a family we just don't have the resources to do because those resources. resources are being invested in things that are close to God's heart and that matter to him.
So I'm gonna be generous to my family, but don't want that generosity to terminate on my family. Am I generous towards God? Now those are just a few questions. We could ask ourselves a lot of questions. But the passage in Genesis 11 is calling us away from living a life and building a life, constructing a life without God in it. Now let's be honest about this.
God acknowledges in verse 6. Did you see what he said in verse 6? The Lord said, Behold, they're 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. In other words, it's possible. to construct a successful and happy and somewhat secure life without God in it. That is possible. It is possible like these people with some focus.
and determination and some technology because building this is a technological feat. They've learned to make bricks, how to burn those bricks to make them sturdy and strong. There's technological advances happening here. And like them, with some focus and some technologically driven effort, it's possible to build a successful, somewhat secure and stable and satisfying life. without God in it. With technology and our wealth and our education and our effort.
We can build a successful, comfortable, pleasurable, secure life without giving a whole lot of thought to God. And there are tons of people that do it. You just look around. You'll see it everywhere. People building a secure and somewhat satisfying life without God in it. And they achieve a measure of significance. and security in their life without much regard for God at all. And according to the biblical text, that is possible, but it is a major problem. And so the question is, why?
Why is that a problem? Why is it a problem for these people? to settle in this city, build this tower, have a happy, successful, secure life without God in the picture. Why is that a problem? Well, the historical setting, it's a hindrance to God's plan. He wants the whole earth to be filled.
with image bearers. And he doesn't want a concentration of human rebellion in one place because that could bring about some massive destruction. So there's some textual reasons here, but I want to go a little deeper and broader. and give us some more answers the Bible would point to as well. The reason it's a problem to live life like God is not in the picture is because He is actually in the picture. So I know that sounds real simple.
But the reason it's such a problem for you to build your life and for me to build my life like God is not really in the picture without God in the picture, the reason that's a problem is because he is in the picture. And if you eliminate him from the picture, you're not living in reality. A life that doesn't align with reality, how things really are, ultimately in the end is a house of cards. And here's the reality of the stress texts for us. That there is a God.
And he is glorious. He's glorious. Notice in verse 5, God says, and whether this is... Old Testament Trinitarian hint for us, or whether this is God speaking to some angelic counsel that he has in heaven. It says that the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. You see that? This God who fills the heavens is like...
Well, they got a little project going on down there. I'm going to go take a look. And he comes down to see what the children of men, these mere mortals, They're leveraging all their resources, all their strength, all their technology, trying to reach the heavens, and God has to come down just to get a glimpse of their tiny project.
He's the God who fills the heavens. They're the children of men. They're mere mortals. They're building their little city and their little tower with their little bricks. And they are oblivious to this transcendent, glorious, infinite God of heaven and earth. They're down here playing with Legos. And God comes down. This God.
who is immense, and they're blind to him. They're playing with their little Legos, and they're blind to the immensity and glory and power of this God who spoke galaxies into being. and made the universe ex nihilo with nothing. And to build their cities and towns and to gain all that and miss out on the greatest and highest, most glorious reality in the universe is to cut themselves off.
from reality and to cut themselves off from the deepest joy and to cut themselves off from the fullness of life. That's the lesson here. In 2014, on New Year's Eve, Dubai, I don't know if you remember this. They set the record for the largest, most explosive firework show in history. It was a spectacle. Lit up the city skyline. 500,000 fireworks. was launched across 62 miles of coastline, required over 100 computers, 200 technicians, and cost over $6 million. And the world was talking about it.
There'd been nothing like this ever before. Now I want you to imagine for a moment, you're there and you're taking it all in and you look across the street and across the street's this guy with his back to the whole thing. And he's setting off a Roman candle that he bought at one of those highway stands. And he's loving it. He's loving it because it's one of those 20-shot, multi-effect, $10 Roman candles.
It's not a cheap one. This is one of the big ones. And you would think, this poor guy is blind to where the wonder is. He's got his back. to it and he's missing out on what's really going on in this moment. He just turned his back to a $6 million show that's lighting up 62 miles of coastline to play with his $10 20-shot multi-effect Roman candle. And you would just feel for the guy. He's missing where the wonder is. And so God comes down to see their work.
Work is like a little Roman candle. It's just a flash. And God is this infinite, eternal, immeasurable God who the scripture says he dwells in inapproachable light. And to turn their back to him and do their own thing is to miss where the wonder is? And it's to miss what's really going on. They're missing out on reality. And constructing a life without God in it is to miss out on the greatest reality in the universe. And men and women, we want to take him every day.
time. We don't want to miss him. And that's what's happening with these folks. And this is what the Psalms get at a lot. Listen to Psalm chapter four, Psalm four. The psalmist writes, many are asking, who can show us anything good? Let the light of your face shine on us, Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and new wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep and sleep in peace for you alone, Lord. Make me live in safety. Do you see what the psalm is talking about? Good. Is there anything good? Joy. peace, safety. And what he's saying is the ultimate good is the smiling countenance of God. Let the light of your face, you want good? Here it is. Let the light of your face shine on me. That's where the fireworks are.
Ultimate joy. They've got their joy, but I have more joy in you than they have when their wine and new grain abound. When they're at their apex of joy, I have more joy than they do. Because of you, God. He says it's your presence. It's your friendship. That's where the joy is. And then ultimate security, being able to sleep in peace.
And live in safety is because of the protective presence and promises of God. Listen, it's true. You can find joy and you can find security in a lot lesser things than God. You can't. The world... does it, but it is an infinitely lesser good, lesser joy, and lesser security than what you find in the God of this universe and in the life that he invites you into. So we don't wanna miss him.
The reason it's a tragedy to build our life without God in it, without God in the picture, is because he is indeed in the picture. And we don't want to turn our back on ultimate reality. But there's another reason this is a problem. When you build your identity on something you can lose, you will live your life with a measure of insecurity and oftentimes a great measure of it. I want you to think about this for a second. If you look for your identity and your security.
your significance, your joy, your worth in the work of your hands, in anything other than God that's offered to you in Jesus. If you build your life on anything other than that, if you build it on beauty, or you build it on wealth, or you build it on status or relationships, then you will exhaust yourself trying to secure those things. And if you ever get them, you'll live your life in fear of losing them because that's where life is for you.
But the hope of the gospel is that God provides us something different. C.S. Lewis said it like this. Don't let your happiness depend upon something you can lose. And in the gospel, what God gives us in Jesus, we receive what we could never earn and what we could never lose, forgiveness of sin, eternal life, the gift of the Spirit.
Entrance into the kingdom of God. Citizenship in the kingdom of God. A place in the family of God. All these things are yours. To be called a child of God. To be the beloved of God. All that's available to you in Jesus. You can't earn that. You'll never lose that.
And so don't let your happiness depend upon something you can't lose. Here's another reason why it's a problem to build your life without God in it, is you are going to live forever. Every single person in this room, you're gonna die, but the scripture says that you have a soul. And one day there's gonna be a resurrection of the body, of the just and the unjust, and you'll be united to your soul, and you're gonna live forever. And the truth is that if you build your life without God,
You'll get an eternity without God. That eternity is the culmination of your life's trajectory. Your destiny is determined by your direction. You can't drive east all night and wake up in California. Because your destiny... is determined by your direction. If you spent your life pursuing God, that's gonna culminate in having God forever. You spend your life trusting in God, delighting in God, walking with God, it culminates in an eternity with God.
But if we spend our life neglecting God, evading God, ignoring God, rebelling against God or building a life without God, then it will culminate in an eternity without God. And we don't want to do that. So the reason building a successful life without God and it doesn't ultimately work is because you're settling for a lesser glory, a lesser joy, a lesser security. You're embracing a life of exhaustion and fear, trying to build your life on something and afraid you might lose it.
And it's gonna culminate in an eternity without God in it. So one of the worst things that could happen to us, I know this sounds crazy, one of the worst things that could happen to you is for you to build a happy, successful life. secure life without God in it. And one of the worst things that God could do to us is to give us over to that kind of successful life.
Now it's one thing for God to give you over to your sins. We see that in the scripture where God just says that that's how you want to live. He gives them over to their sins and sins just. eat people alive. But God will also give us over to our successes. And if God gives us over to our successes,
then those successes could actually ruin us in the end. It is the kindness of God to frustrate our tower building when we're doing it without him. And that's what happens here. I want you to see how pride is always... resisted by God for good reasons and for our good. God confuses their language. He frustrates their plans. The place, verse nine, is called Babel, which in Hebrew sounds like the Hebrew word for confused. So you gotta play on words happening here in the Hebrew text.
So God scatters them. The very thing they feared would happen to them now happens to them. And God accomplishes his purpose of filling the earth. So God opposes their pride but accomplishes his plans. He brings their tower building project to a complete stop. And this is a universal law that God has woven into his world. It's like gravity.
You don't break gravity, gravity breaks you, right? And here's a universal law that God has woven into his ordered creation and Jesus says it like this in Luke 14. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. And we see this repeated all the time in scripture. James 4, 6, he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God opposes the proud.
He frustrates the proud. He brings the proud low, but he gives grace and help and favor and strength and support to the humble, to those who will mind the gap between themselves and God. to say god is god and i am not i'm not going to try to ascend to the place of god he's god I'm not. The humble, those who will say his word is more important than my wants. His will is more authoritative in my life than my will. His desires and decree count more than my.
I'll humble myself. Those who will actually submit their will to his and those who will humble themselves and say, I'm gonna build my life on him and his promises. I'm gonna build my life not just on him, but for him and to him. So the Tower of Babel is warning us against pride and against raising up our wants.
and wisdom above God's, trying to construct a life without a minute, trying to build a life of security and significance without God or without God at the center. And again, at some degree, we've all done this. You may be a faithfully devoted follower of Jesus right now, and there's still some areas in your life and moments in your life where you just do things without God. All of us do this. This is the human condition.
And at some degree, we've all done this and we need to be forgiven for it, don't we? We need to be forgiven for our tower building without God. And we need to be led out of that way of living. We need to be forgiven for living that way. And we need to be led out of that way of living and set free from it. And this is why God has given us his son, Jesus. See, Jesus is actually the anti-Babel. You might call him the anti-Babel. This is what Jesus is.
He actually is gonna show us a life that's the total opposite of this. I want you to see this in Philippians chapter two. And as we read this, I want you to think about the tower builders and look at the contrast here. Have this mind or this attitude in yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, or some ways that's translated, which was also in Christ Jesus.
And here's what describes Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see that? Here are these people who are just mere mortals wanting to ascend to the place of God. And yet here's God the Son. The eternal Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, possessing the fullness of deity, willing to become a mere mortal, emptying himself.
becoming incarnate, taking on the fullness of human nature. Here are these people who want to build a name for themselves. And here is Jesus, in some ways this is translated, taking on... the form of a servant taking on of no reputation, being found of having no reputation, just coming as a servant. And here are these people trying to establish this security for themselves. And here's Jesus. Coming to a place of vulnerability where he gives his life up on the cross in weakness and shame for us.
Here they are elevating their wants and their wishes above God's. And here's Jesus becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So what does God do to these people? He brings them down. But what does he do to his son? He exalts him to the highest place, to his right hand. And why does Jesus do all this? He does it for our salvation. So we could be...
Through his humble, self-giving sacrifice for our sins, Jesus provides an opportunity for us to be forgiven when we will acknowledge him as Lord. Confess it with our mouth. Bow on our knee and say, you are Lord. And I need you. I need you to forgive me for all my pride. I need what you did on the cross to count for me. I need my sins paid for.
And I need to trust not just you as my Savior, but my example. Just as you lived a humble life, I want to live a humble life. Just as you submitted yourself to the Father's will, I want to submit myself to the Father's will. Just like you emptied yourself in service, I wanna empty myself in service. Just as you were exalted by the Father, I wanna trust that the Father's gonna take care of me. This is why Jesus came.
And to say to him, I wanna put you at the center and build my life on you and for you and to you. Jesus is the anti-Babel who will lead us out of Babel and forgive us for our own Babel efforts. And here's the second thing I want you to see. Not only that Jesus is the anti-Babel, he actually reverses Babel. And I'm out of time, so I'm gonna move a little quicker on this. Next Sunday.
is Pentecost Sunday. This is when the church traditionally celebrates the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church in Acts chapter two. Now, in those church traditions that follow what's called a lectionary, which means there's like a three-year cycle, and each Sunday, a... A list of scriptures are prescribed to the church, and they read those scriptures and preach those scriptures. During Pentecost Sunday, two of the scriptures that are assigned that Sunday are Genesis chapter 11.
the Tower of Babel, and Acts chapter 2. And I want to read this passage with you. Acts chapter two, verses one through 11. Jesus has ascended into heaven and now he's pouring out his spirit on the church. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. So they're confused.
Because now they're understanding people in their language. They were astounded and amazed, saying, look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native tongue? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene. Visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.
hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues. In this passage, Jesus is actually reversing Babel. Here's what's happening. Luke... in this passage gives us a table of nations. What's interesting is each of these tables can be, each of these nations listed can be traced to the three sons of Noah. And here Luke gives us a table of nations, but instead of telling us how these nations became divided,
He shows us how Jesus, by his spirit, is bringing them together. At Babel, God confused their languages to divide them, but here he performs a miracle with languages so that people can now be brought back together. Isn't this amazing? The nations are now at Babel divided and now are hostile and at odds. And this is when we have wars. And yet here in Acts 2, these divided nations are coming together in Jesus by the power of the Spirit for the glory of God.
These nations that were divided and hostile to one another. It was a product of Babel. Jesus is reversing Babel. And he's bringing people together in him. People for every nation, tribe, language, tongue. Through a miracle of language, he's bringing them back together to be a people. And if you ever see it, I'm not talking about tongues. I'm saying, you ever see? radically diverse people brought together in Jesus. It's amazing.
I don't know how I get in on these things, but about 20 plus years ago, I was invited to this clandestine meeting with all these church leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa and Egypt and Europe. And these folks are leading. underground ministries and they're reaching the nations. And here I am, I met them at this gathering in the Mediterranean and I'm here with Arab leaders who are converts from...
and now are reaching the Muslim world and North Africans and Egyptians. It's just amazing to be with these leaders who... We're all speaking different languages, but come together to talk about how do we reach the world for Christ? I remember worshiping with them and having communion and eating from a common loaf and drinking from a common... cup and as a germaphobe that was a big act of faith for me but here we were it was jesus bringing the nations together
In his name. For his glory. To carry out his purposes. It's the reversal of Babel. And this is what he's still doing today. God. is bringing men and women from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue into his church, into his family, so that the final scene of heaven is people are gathered around the throne. For every nation, tribe, people in tongue crying out, salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb who sits upon throne. They cast their crowns at his feet. This.
is what God's about. This is why we're so devoted and passionate as a church to reaching the nations because Jesus has reversed Babel and he's bringing everyone together in him. So let me end this. Plain. Let's not take the route of these tower builders. Let's not construct a life apart from God. It's so easy to do it.
Let's not raise our wants and wisdom above God's will. Let's not seek security and significance apart from. Jesus has saved us from that kind of life and he's shown us a better way. So let's give ourselves to him, building our life on him and for him. and to him, and let's give ourselves to advancing God's priorities to see men and women for every nation, tribe, people, and tongue, from our neighbors and the nations, come to know, love, and trust our Savior Jesus. Let me pray for us.
Father, we thank you that you love us too much to let us build a life without you. Thank you for that. And I pray for anyone in this room who may be doing that today. You did not give us this word to scold us, but to save us. And so would you give them the grace to repent from a life without you and to turn to the Lord Jesus, receive his forgiveness.
and begin to build their life upon him. We ask you to do that for your glory. For those of us that do know the Lord Jesus, spare us from a life with you at the margins. We ask in his name, amen.