A Helicopter Trip Over the Old Testament - Part 3
- Word Of Life
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A Helicopter Trip Over the Old Testament
Part 3
The Tower of Babel
My Goal = That your faith grows more than your knowledge.
The Tower of Babel
(Genesis 11)
“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar [Babylon] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” [Hebrew = “Burn them for a burning.” Resistant to water, time, decay and any “Flood” they think may come in the future???] They used brick [We are going to do this ourself. Bricks are man-made. Stone is God-made] instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let US build OURSELVES a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, [Spiritually, not physically] so that we may MAKE A NAME FOR OURSELVES; [The irony of false security] otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” [Fear-based motivation. They don’t want to be scattered, even though scattered was God’s plan. “Fill the earth”.] 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [Double negative. Nothing, Impossible = All things will be possible as it relates to evil.] 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” [God can use Confusion as a Blessing] 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” [“Babel” sounds like the Hebrew word for “confused.” Babble]
Pentecost
Acts 2
God uses different languages But with a unified, godly purpose to make a name for Jesus.
(Missions)
Lessons From the Tower of Babel
1.Everyone rebels against God.
Actively
[Acting on something that’s wrong]
Passively
[Not acting on something that’s right]
Not praying, Worshipping, or going to the God and his word for guidance, etc.
2. Most people think that they know better than God as to what is best for them.
* Sin flips the “Do” list and the “Not Do” lists in the Bible.
15 “I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, [God’s lists of Do’s & Don’ts] but what I HATE I do… 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing… 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law [Our sinfulness] at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. [Civil War] 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
-Romans 7:15-25
[Always remember that God knows best!]
3. We must all personally decide when unity is a good thing.
Is “Unity” a good thing?
a. Always
b. Sometimes
c. Never
b. Sometimes
Unity is good when the thing is
good that you are uniting around.
Unity is bad when the thing is
bad that you are uniting around.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133:1
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
-Ephesians 4:3
“I appeal to you… in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:10
[A shared conviction of purpose, namely to “Be Jesus” to others rather than one following Paul, Peter, Apollos]
4. Everyone wants security and wants to have a say in what “Security” looks like for them.
Examples:
The temptation to “Take our own spiritual path/Build our own Towers”.
God’s SECURITY TEAM is the BEST
“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
-Psalm 4:8
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
- John 10:28-29
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons… will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 8:38-39
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 4:6-7
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