Population Dispersion
(Genesis 11:1-9)- Man Proposes (Gen 11:1-4)
- God Disposes (Gen 11:5-8)
- Note from Moses (Gen 11:9)
- What's Wrong with building a tower?
- What did God Do about it?
- What Resulted from God's intervention?
- What did we Learn at Babel?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:13
Alright, turn in your Bibles to Genesis 11 as we continue our series called Bible 101.
01:16-01:22
The title of today's message is Tower of Babel - Population Dispersion.
01:22-01:24
Can we have our bookshelf up here while you're turning there?
01:25-01:28
This is what we're doing through this 10-week series.
01:29-01:37
This is "Back to the Basics." And the Bible that's in your hands is actually a library.
01:37-01:43
This picture represents all the books of the Bible and how it all breaks down.
01:43-01:49
And the first five books of the Bible is called the law, or it's called the Pentateuch.
01:49-01:52
And these books were all written by Moses.
01:54-02:01
And somebody at this point in our series is thinking, you know, Pastor Jeff, We've spent all of our time in the book of Genesis.
02:02-02:03
Look at all these other books.
02:03-02:06
Are we going to be spending that much time in all these other books?
02:06-02:07
No, not in this series.
02:08-02:11
But you see, the purpose of this series is to be better students of the Bible.
02:12-02:18
And we really can't understand everything else that's on the bookshelf until we understand Genesis.
02:18-02:38
Because Genesis has the foundation for the rest of the Bible, and Genesis has the foundation of human history. Our first message we talked about God's Word and why we believe that the Bible is a book written by God and the effect that it has on us.
02:39-02:58
Then we talked about creation, the fact that God created in six 24-hour days and rested on the seventh. And then we saw from Genesis chapter 3, okay creation is Genesis 1 and 2, we saw in Genesis chapter 3, sin had entered the world.
03:00-03:15
And sin got so bad, we saw last week when you get to Genesis chapter 6, the people got so wicked that God decided He was going to blot people off of the earth.
03:15-03:22
except for one man, Noah, and his wife and his family, his sons and their wives.
03:23-03:25
Everyone else perished in the flood.
03:26-03:30
So we're going to go a little further down in the book of Genesis.
03:32-03:41
In Genesis 11, we're going to see why even today we have multiple languages.
03:42-03:44
Why today we have all of these nations?
03:44-03:46
Why today we have all of these races?
03:48-03:50
It all comes from this one event.
03:51-03:58
It took place about 1,756 years, give or take, after creation.
03:59-04:12
Actually, to put it in perspective, the Tower of Babel that we'll be seeing in this passage, this probably would have happened somewhere between 100 and 150 years after the flood.
04:14-04:16
I'm going to read through this. I have a little outline for you.
04:17-04:20
You want to jot some notes down as we read through the text.
04:20-04:23
But it really just breaks down into three parts.
04:25-04:32
The first one is this - "Man proposes." Look at Genesis 11 verses 1-4.
04:33-04:37
Well, the whole earth had one language and the same words.
04:39-04:41
Let me pause there for a second. That's not redundancy.
04:42-04:44
One language and the same words, that's two different things.
04:45-04:47
Emphasizing the same point, but it's two different things.
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What do you mean by that?
04:49-05:00
One language means everybody spoke the same language, but God makes it very clear that not only did everybody speak the same language, but they had the same vocabulary.
05:01-05:03
Well, what's the difference?
05:03-05:05
Well, understand it this way.
05:06-05:11
If I brought in a 1611 King James Bible, it's written in English.
05:13-05:15
And everybody in this room can speak English.
05:16-05:21
But we wouldn't be able to read that Bible, even though it's written in English.
05:21-05:27
It would have words in there that we don't use anymore, like concupiscence and lasciviousness.
05:28-05:29
And we wouldn't be able to read it.
05:29-05:33
Why? Because vocabulary changes over time, even within the same language.
05:34-05:35
So you see, the Lord's being very clear here.
05:35-05:38
They had one language, but they also had the same vocabulary.
05:39-05:44
And as people migrated from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
05:46-05:58
And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
06:00-06:11
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.
06:12-06:38
And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." They're like, "What's up with the bricks? Why did they mention the bricks?" I think what he's saying here, reminding us, is that you have people that were very proud of their technology, to the point of, "Who needs God?
06:39-06:42
We can make bricks. We can even make bricks. What's this, um...
06:44-06:45
What was this stuff called, Batumen?
06:46-06:49
Like, what is that? I didn't study this part. Does anyone know what that is?
06:50-06:57
Russ, what is that? Tar. Okay, so they're very proud of their tar bricks, okay?
06:58-07:02
And what they're able to do is technology. Look, I love technology, don't get me wrong.
07:03-07:14
But when the mindset is, "I don't need God because I have a computer." You know, the idea of God is so antiquated and so medieval and so...
07:15-07:17
Who needs God? I'm much more intellectual than that.
07:19-07:20
They're all proud of their technology.
07:21-07:21
Man proposes.
07:23-07:27
Then the next few verses, verses 5-3, we see God disposes.
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Look at verse 5.
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The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built.
07:36-07:39
The Lord said, "Behold, they are one people and they all have one language.
07:41-07:48
This is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
07:49-07:51
Come, let us go down.
07:53-07:55
And there, confuse their language.
07:58-07:59
Pause here for a second.
08:00-08:02
Notice man in verse 3 and verse 4.
08:02-08:03
Come, let us.
08:03-08:04
Come, let us.
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And God's sort of responding.
08:07-08:09
You see in verse 7, God says, come, let us.
08:10-08:11
Play on words.
08:12-08:14
Come, let us go down there and confuse their language.
08:16-08:20
so that they may not understand one another's speech.
08:22-08:29
So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
08:31-08:35
Therefore, and the verse nine is a note for Moses, okay?
08:35-08:38
Man proposes, God disposes, and a note for Moses.
08:39-08:43
Verse nine is, since Moses wrote the Pentateuch, this is sort of his commentary on the account.
08:43-08:49
He says, "Therefore, his name is called Babel." because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.
08:49-08:55
And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
08:57-08:59
Okay, so four questions on your outline. You ready?
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Here's the obvious one. You read this passage.
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You're going through Genesis. You read this passage.
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You're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a second.
09:07-09:09
Maybe you had the same question that I had when I first read this.
09:10-09:12
What's wrong with building a tower?
09:13-09:19
What's wrong with building a tower? I'm going to tell you what's wrong, and I'm going to flesh it out a little bit for you.
09:21-09:31
It was direct disobedience motivated by pride that was ultimately going to cause major problems.
09:31-09:43
I'll say that again, and we're going to break it down. It was direct disobedience motivated by pride that was ultimately going to cause major problems. First of all was direct disobedience. What do you mean?
09:43-09:47
You remember God told Adam and Eve, "Multiply, fill the earth." Noah gets off the ark.
09:48-09:51
Remember chapter 9, verse 1, chapter 9, verse 7, what did God tell Noah?
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"Multiply and fill the earth." We got this whole earth.
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I want you to fill it up with people all over.
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And here you get to Genesis 11, and man's like, "No, uh-uh.
10:06-10:12
We're staying here." I know God said to disperse, and they even make comment on that.
10:12-10:29
Like we don't want to be dispersed over all the earth. We're just gonna stay here. It was direct disobedience. They knew that They knew that the other question is Why would they have needed a tower I Mean think back in ancient times. Why did people build a tower?
10:31-10:56
Why do people build a tower in ancient times they build a tower so that they could watch out for enemies, right It's a place where you watch out for enemies. You can be elevated and see over the landscape to watch out for enemies But at this point since everybody was one did they have any enemies yes or no No So who are they watching out for?
10:57-11:15
That's obviously not the reason that they built the tower Actually, I don't I don't have time this morning to get into all the history How many people remember back in your ancient history classes hearing about the Mesopotamians Building the ziggurats how many people show of hands remember the ziggurats?
11:16-11:51
Okay, like I said, this is a whole nother story. You can research this. Let me give you the short version The Tower of Babel was probably the first ziggurat. Okay. It was more than just a building It was a temple and it was more than just a temple for aesthetic Appeal like oh look how tall it is It was believed, do you notice in the passage, it says, "with its top in the heavens." They believed that this building was going to access the gods, the spiritual realm.
11:52-12:01
And it was a place where not only man would be able to reach heaven, but these ziggurats were also believed to be ladders where the gods can ascend up and down.
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Like God can, the gods can come and get involved in the affairs of the earth.
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It was their ladder.
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It was idolatry.
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Okay?
12:12-12:16
So, what's wrong with building a tower of direct disobedience motivated by pride?
12:17-12:18
We saw that, right?
12:18-12:30
Verse 4 says, "Let us make a name for ourselves instead of exalting the great name of God." They wanted to make themselves great.
12:30-12:31
We're going to talk about that again in a minute.
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Direct disobedience motivated by pride, letter C, under point one, that was ultimately going to cause major problems.
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Like what kind of problems?
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I want you to notice this phrase.
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This is a very curious phrase.
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I want to explain it.
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In verse 6, God says, "Behold, they are one people, they are one language.
12:55-13:01
This is only the beginning of what they will do." Look at this next phrase, this is very curious.
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"And nothing that they proposed to do will now be impossible for them." What in the world is he talking about?
13:11-13:34
Very important. What he's saying, "Unity allows for a concentration of evil." sinners that you have together, the more problems that you're going to have.
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That was the problem.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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Let me illustrate it by sharing with you just quickly two places that I've lived in my life.
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One is Shakora.
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How many people have heard of Shakora?
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Okay.
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Some of you did not raise your hand.
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Shame on you!
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Kidding, it's a little town about an hour north of here.
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What last census, what was it Darren, like 1100, 1200 people, maybe?
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Maybe that was the last numbers.
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It's, they don't even have a stoplight.
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I mean if you blink driving on 68 you'll go through Shakur and not even know it.
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It's so small the city limit signs are on the same pole.
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That's how small it is.
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Okay that's where I grew up, spent a lot of time there.
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There's another place I live, not just Shakora, I also live in a place called Chicago.
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How many people have heard of Chicago?
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Okay this is where I'm just testing to see who's still listening.
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All right.
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Shakora and Chicago, let's compare them.
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Which place has more sin, more evil, more corruption?
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Which one?
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Go ahead, shout it out.
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Chicago, right.
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Chicago, why?
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because it's a dense area full of sinful people.
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"Wait a second, Pastor Jeff, we're talking apples and oranges here because Chicago's a much bigger city, so obviously..." And I'll give you that.
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But do you even see the same types of crimes committed in Shakora on a smaller scale than the crimes that are committed in Chicago?
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Do you? No! No!
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The reason that Chicago is so corrupt, Take any major metropolitan area. Mexico City.
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Okay? New York City.
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Take any major metropolitan area. You get a bunch of sinful people together.
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You're going to have more sin and you're going to have more problems.
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And if you only have one world government, there's no checks and balances against evil.
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That's why God says this is only the beginning.
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And nothing will be impossible. God didn't look at that as competition.
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like, you know, they're going to be a little too tough for me.
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He was saying that their propensity to do evil, one to another, is going to be unstoppable.
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Like Hitler, right?
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I mean, somebody stepped in and stopped Hitler and the Third Reich.
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But imagine if the world was all united under one government, and Hitler was in power.
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Nobody could stop them because nobody would stop them.
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That's why Babel was going to ultimately cause major problems.
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By the way, write this down.
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Babel is going to happen again.
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This account that happened thousands of years ago, spoiler alert, it's going to happen again.
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What do you mean it's going to happen again?
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Do you know the book of Revelation says that the Antichrist, who is coming is going to establish his rule over all the earth.
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Anybody want to take a guess at the name of his capital city from which his base of operations will stand?
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Babylon, right?
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Not a coincidence.
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The first place of idolatry, the first place of disobedience, the first place of "let's all unite against God" is going to, that's how the story is going to end.
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Let's all unite against God, one world government.
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In Babylon, it's the same word, babble.
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And even now, if you've been paying attention, even now, we're moving towards a one world currency, a one world government.
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Revelation shows us how this is going to go down.
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The world is going to be united under the Antichrist, also called the beast.
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It's a man that is going to be Satan-filled.
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I believe this man is going to be Satan-filled in the same way that you would have said Jesus Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit.
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This man is going to be filled with Satan.
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And in those days that are coming, literally all hell is going to break loose.
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And it's going to be a day of violence and bloodshed like you've never seen the battle's going to happen again c dot you can have everyone together or destroy themselves what's wrong with the new tower but this is a piece of it but i just want to know because major problems question too what they got to about it we saw her seven buses let us go down they tried to ascend to the heavens and they didn't even get close.
18:45-18:52
You see, when it says, verse five, "The Lord came down," understand what the Bible's doing here, what Moses is doing.
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He's making fun of the people that built the Tower of Babel.
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Do you see the humor here?
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They're like, "We're going to build a tower, "and we're gonna reach the heavens." And the Lord in heaven's like, "Oh, they're building something?
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"Hang on, I can't see what it is.
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"Let me get down here." Oh yeah, you're building this.
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It was so minuscule in God's sight, Moses is saying it was like he had to stoop down to take a look at it.
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He's making fun of him.
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So what did God do?
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Well, first he stooped down.
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It would be like ants trying to take over your house by building an ant hill in your backyard.
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That's what the story's like.
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You know, this group of like 30,000 ants says, "I'm gonna take over your house." I got this little ant hill.
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And you're like, what's happening?
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I'm going to have to go out and look for this thing.
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It's a picture of the patheticness.
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God confused their language in a different way than mine is currently.
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God confused their language.
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Like, well, what was the purpose of that?
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God confused their language because it's very difficult to conduct a building project speaking a different language, right? Right? I am not just speaking out of something I read here. This is something I'm speaking out of experience. Back in the year 2000, I went with North Street Christian Church. We went to Romania to build a medical center.
20:33-20:54
The one man over there, he was actually the missionary over there, so he could actually speak English and Romanian, but he and I were doing drywall, which was incredibly difficult because the studs were in metric measurements, but the sheets of drywall were in like American measurements, so every single sheet had to be cut.
20:55-21:33
So anyways, that wasn't going to slow us down, like bosses we were just going after and hanging this drywall, boom, boom, boom, you know, drywalling in this medical center when um... like the second day one of the electricians a romanian came up and got in our face he just starts i have no idea to this day what he was saying i picked up that he was mad and he's just like "no no no no no" and he's pointing and he's just grr grr i had no idea what he was saying but he's making all these really nice sounding romanian words but they sounded very mean and he was just like in ross's face and um...
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walked away.
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And I said, what was that all about?
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And you don't know my missionary friend Russ, but he's Mr. Chill all the time.
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But he just smiled.
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And he said, oh, he was telling us not to drywall any further down here, because we're getting in his way.
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I'm like, I don't think that's how he said it, Russ.
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But here's the point.
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I had Russ to interpret for me.
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Right?
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Imagine if I didn't.
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Imagine if I didn't.
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Imagine if I'm drywalling and all of a sudden this guy comes up and he's screaming at me.
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I have no idea what he's saying.
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What am I gonna do eventually?
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Like forget this project.
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I'm gonna have other people that speak my language and we're gonna go do our own thing because we can't work together if we're not understanding each other.
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Does that make sense?
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That's what God did.
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That's where we get the word babble.
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We all know that word.
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Babies babble.
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It's just incoherent blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It's a term of confusion.
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So they spread out.
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They were forced to now because they didn't do it when God told them to.
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Number three, what resulted from God's intervention?
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What resulted from God's intervention?
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Well, this is where we get many languages, nations, races.
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When you go through Genesis again, we saw the flood.
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in Genesis 6-9.
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And in Genesis 9, Noah and the family would have gotten off of the ark and started multiplying, and everyone was together.
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But in Genesis 10, it tells us that the post-flood people splintered off.
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And chapter 11 tells us how that happened.
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I believe this Tower of Babel account us why we in general, in general, have people with common looks in certain parts of the world. Does that make sense? Common looks, meaning this, when you go to Africa, in general, people have a common look. And when you go to Europe, in in Asia, in general, people have a common look.
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Do you understand what I'm saying?
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What happened was the people splintered off and that isolated gene pools.
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So the people that were reproducing, obviously, making more people that look like them.
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Separating the gene pool.
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That result is from God's intervention.
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Now we have many languages, we have many nations, we have many races.
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this account is so important to us. Makes a lot of sense and everything that follows in the Bible comes from this. Finally as we wrap up today what did we learn? What did we learn at Babel? Not only does it make sense of the world, why we have races and languages and nations, but the story of Babel is a warning because the narrative still plays out on smaller scales even today. I want you to write this down. What's to write this down? I am NOT going to be great apart from God. Write that down. I am NOT going to be great apart from God. Don't write down Jeff is not going to be great apart from God. You write down I am NOT going to be great. And I have that written on mine too. Here's something that Babel teaches us church. You are not going to be great - apart from God.
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Why do we try to make ourselves great?
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We all do it.
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We think that we're strong and we're self-reliant and we're above the consequences of ignoring God.
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Genesis chapter 11, this story of Babel, it's just like the story of the fall of man just retold, right?
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God says, "Don't do this." The man's like, "Meh, you know what? I'm going to do it anyways." And they didn't learn from the fact that God took the earth and ran it under His faucet to wash the sinners away.
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They didn't learn from that.
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So within 100 or 150 years, judgment for flagrant sin, God says, "Okay, now I want you to fill the earth, multiply, spread out." "No, I'm not going to do that." What are we thinking?
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What makes us think that we're something without God?
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It's pride. It's pride.
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See, when Satan told Adam and Eve, "If you eat off that tree, you'll be like God," there was some truth to that.
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The only difference is He is and I'm not.
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Why do we try to make ourselves great?
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Why do we think that we deserve recognition?
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Why do we constantly have this urge in our hearts that say things like, notice me, notice me, hey, did you notice me?
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Did you notice how I'm doing?
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well-dressed I am today. You notice what a good job I did today. You notice what a good boy I am today. Notice me. Compliment me. Tell me what a great job I did.
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Thank much of me. I want you to leave our time together today just thinking that I'm so great. Please affirm me. Affirm me. Even if you don't say it. You think it.
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You feel it. And when you do that, you know what you're doing? You're building your own tower. I want to make my name great. I want other people to think that I'm great. You're I want blank to think I am great.
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For some of you it could be your boss.
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I want my boss to think I'm great.
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I want my boss to think that he couldn't do his job.
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Or she wouldn't be able to function unless I showed up here.
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You're trying to make your name great.
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When your concern is what people think about you.
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Maybe it's your co-workers.
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I want to be the top of the heap.
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You see, we have something in us.
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You know, there's good, better, and best.
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None of us want to be just better.
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We want to be the best.
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We want to be at the top.
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Young people, for you it might be your class at school.
28:59-29:00
I want them to think that I'm great.
29:00-29:02
I want them to think that I'm cool.
29:02-29:05
I want to be the Arthur Fonzarelli of my class.
29:06-29:07
There's a dated reference.
29:08-29:13
I said that so the young people wouldn't know what I was talking about, which is sort of counterproductive there.
29:13-29:15
I want to be the cool kid in my class.
29:18-29:21
And I'll take whatever steps are necessary to make people think that I'm great.
29:23-29:25
When you do that, do you know what you're doing?
29:26-29:27
You're building a tower.
29:29-29:31
Let's be honest, church, I could very easily slip into that.
29:32-29:34
I want people to think I'm a great preacher.
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I mean, there's a lot of great preachers, there's a lot of great churches in this area, and I want people to think I'm great.
29:44-29:52
For Harvest Bible Fellowship, the hub of this church planning network, I could want them to think that I'm a great pastor.
29:52-30:02
I want them sitting in their offices being, "Oh, Jeff Miller's just so good. If only we had more people like him." And, um, you know what I'm doing?
30:04-30:10
With such a foolish thought as a temptation to be entertained in my mind, I'm building my own tower.
30:12-30:13
Let me make my name great.
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Here's the thing.
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God designed us to be great.
30:22-30:29
The problem is trying to be great without God.
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The question you have to ask yourself today, whose kingdom are you going to focus upon?
30:41-30:44
Yours or God's?
30:45-30:50
The question is today, whose name are you going to make great?
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Are you going to try to make your name great?
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Or are you going to let people say that the name of the Lord is great?
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Who are you going to shine the spotlight on today?
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Are you going to shine the spotlight on yourself?
31:09-31:15
Or are you going to shine it on Jesus Christ, where it rightly belongs?
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Because if there's one thing I've learned from Genesis 11, God doesn't care for our towers. God's not impressed with our efforts to make our name great. Greatness. Greatness comes from being in a right relationship with God. Do you realize what the Bible says? The Bible says when you receive Jesus Christ by faith as your Lord and Savior, when you receive Christ by faith and and allow Christ to be your very life, the very center of everything, the cornerstone as we had sung earlier.
31:52-31:53
You know what the Bible says happens?
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The Bible says you're forgiven of all your sin.
31:56-32:00
You are perfectly cleansed in the sight of God from your sin.
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The Bible says you have peace, peace with God and peace within.
32:08-32:13
You know, the Bible says when you receive Jesus Christ, you're an adopted child of God.
32:15-32:19
The Bible goes on further to say that not only we adopt a child with God, but also with that.
32:20-32:22
We are co-heirs with Christ.
32:22-32:23
You know what that means?
32:25-32:27
Okay, so Jesus Christ being the Son of God has an inheritance.
32:28-32:29
What is the inheritance?
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Anybody know?
32:31-32:32
Everything right?
32:33-32:33
Everything!
32:35-32:38
Do you know, God says you're going to be a co-heir with Christ.
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We are going to inherit everything with Jesus Christ.
32:42-33:12
with Christ. So let me ask you, to be called a child of God, to be a co-heir with Jesus Christ, is there any level of greatness that you can achieve that would be higher than that? Whose name are you going to make great? Let's pray. Father in heaven, this account that we've read today happened so long ago.
33:15-33:16
So much relevance today, Father.
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We live in a day when we want to boast in our city.
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We want to boast in our city.
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Pittsburgh's the greatest, and our sports teams are the greatest, and our dialect is the greatest.
33:31-33:35
And all of a sudden, we're back at Babel.
33:37-33:40
We're a people who-- let me make my name great.
33:40-33:41
I want people to notice me.
33:41-33:43
I want people to exalt me.
33:43-33:47
I want people to be leaving thinking that I'm something awesome.
33:49-33:51
And suddenly I'm back at Babel.
33:53-34:04
Father, let this story serve as not just a teaching lesson to help us understand the world, but let this, Father, be a story that serves as a warning.
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You don't go for towers.
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Your Word is very clear.
34:13-34:19
You've said it in the Old Testament, in Proverbs 3, you've said it in the New Testament, James 4.
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God opposes the proud.
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But gives grace to the humble.
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So today, Father, I pray that we would embrace the attitude of John the Baptist.
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Let us decrease so that Christ may increase.
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Father, check our mouths and our minds.
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Put a guard against our minds and our mouths, Father, for those times that we want to interject ourselves, draw attention to ourselves, make a name for ourselves.
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Remind us whose we are.
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The truth is, Father, I know in a week, in ten years, in a hundred years, my name is going to be forgotten.
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The name of Jesus Christ will stand forever.
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Let us find our greatness, Father, in Him, because it's in Him that we are adopted children.
35:25-35:27
It's in Him that we are co-heirs.
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in Christ that we are possessors of everything. Father, let us embrace your glorious Son.
35:41-35:43
It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 11:1-9
What was man’s plan in Gen 11:3-4? Why was this plan wrong/sinful?
Why did God command man to fill the earth (Gen 9:1, 7)? Why is having all mankind together "under one roof" a bad idea?
In verse 6, God said, "...nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them". What does that mean? How did God separate them? How was the dispersion beneficial for man?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another's needs.