SPEAKER_00: Powerful voice for this generation, and you're gonna be treated to a powerful word today.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, will you welcome Pastor Jade DeSilva?
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Are you happy to be in the house today?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I need one more time.
SPEAKER_00: This is your last 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: service.
SPEAKER_00: Are you happy to be here?
SPEAKER_00: I am so happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna scoot this back just a little bit because I like to move around a bit.
SPEAKER_00: But I am so honored and excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00: We came all the way from Texas, as Pastor Chuck said.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're just we're hype.
SPEAKER_00: Chicago's been amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Last time I was here at Free Church was in uh it was a February, about eight or nine years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, I couldn't wait to leave because it was freezing cold.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's been so nice to be here with the beautiful weather.
SPEAKER_00: And um, Raf and I are both here together.
SPEAKER_00: We did not get to bring our little guy with us, our our son Romeo, but we do have a picture of him.
SPEAKER_00: This he is so funny.
SPEAKER_00: He, I mean, he's a character, he would be trying to be up here with me with the mic in his hand if he were here.
SPEAKER_00: And um, the other night I was putting him down to go to sleep, and he decided that he wanted to you know pray for everyone in the family, and so he goes through all the family, and then he says, Let's, you know, let's do our friends.
SPEAKER_00: So he starts listing out all the family friends, and I kid you not, at the top of the list was Aunt Ursh and Uncle Chuck.
SPEAKER_00: And so he loves his Aunt Ursh and Uncle Chuck, and so do I.
SPEAKER_00: They they really are like family to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say, you know, you guys know that you've got amazing pastors, but I just want to remind you of that and give you guys honor today.
SPEAKER_00: I've had the privilege of just getting to watch you pioneer and lead and be faithful and remain and stay and stay again and stay some more, and just believe that God is gonna continue to pour out favor and honor and blessing on you and continue to grow this house.
SPEAKER_00: But this is healthy soil, it's a healthy house, and so it's just incredible to be here today.
SPEAKER_00: So um, I am gonna just jump right in.
SPEAKER_00: Are we ready for the word of God today?
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So today we are going to take a look at Genesis 11, which is the story um of the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may have heard this before, uh, maybe if you grew up in church, but I want to give you a little bit of context before we jump in.
SPEAKER_00: So, Tower of Babel takes place in Genesis chapter 11, but two chapters before that, in Genesis chapter 9, is the end of the story of Noah's Ark.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you haven't heard about Babel, I'm sure you've read the story of Noah's Ark.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, God floods the whole earth and he decides to preserve this one family, Noah and his family.
SPEAKER_00: And once the flood is over, he looks at Noah and he says, I want you to spread out, I want you to fill the earth, be fruitful, and multiply, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that happens in Genesis chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Genesis chapter 11, it's it's a couple generations later, the same family, it's Noah's descendants, and here they are, and that's where we're gonna meet them today in Genesis chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pick up right there in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: You can follow along with me.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now the whole world had only one language and a common speech.
SPEAKER_00: As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and they settled there.
SPEAKER_00: They said to each other, Come, let's let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.
SPEAKER_00: They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar.
SPEAKER_00: Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we'll be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they've begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
SPEAKER_00: Come, let's go down and confuse their language, so they will not understand each other.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
SPEAKER_00: That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes when we read scripture, a lot of the Bible is filled with directions on what to do, how to live, you know, how to follow God really well.
SPEAKER_00: And then we read passages like this one, and we we get to take a few cues of what not to do from scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna unpack this a little bit more today.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are taking notes today and you want a title at the top, I know it's already on the screen up there, but the title is Beyond Babel, a better way to build.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, Better way to build.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for us real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just thank you for this moment, God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that it is an honor that we get to gather together as a unified believers, Lord, that it's an honor to get to sit under your word.
SPEAKER_00: And right now I just pray that our hearts would be softened, that our ears would be opened, Lord, that you would have a word that's in season and right on time for each and every person in this room, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be your words that are spoken, not my words that are spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be a vessel for you today, God.
SPEAKER_00: We give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So, like Pastor Truck said, we live in Texas now.
SPEAKER_00: However, before we moved to tech to Texas, I grew up there, uh, but we actually lived in New York City for a really long time.
SPEAKER_00: I was there for about 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: My husband was born and raised in New York.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we loved to do when we were living in the city was actually get out of the city and go upstate New York to the Catskill Mountains.
SPEAKER_00: So beautiful, rolling green hills, great in every single season.
SPEAKER_00: And so we got married up there.
SPEAKER_00: Some of our friends actually bought a house up there during COVID.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just spent so much time up there.
SPEAKER_00: And right before we moved to Texas, the house next door to our very best friends that live up there actually became available.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were like, should we jump on this?
SPEAKER_00: Like, we love this place so much.
SPEAKER_00: It could be a really great investment for our family.
SPEAKER_00: And so we decided to go in with Raf's sister, my sister-in-law, and we purchased this little bitty mountain house together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the house is a bit of a fixer-upper, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, you know, I left home when I was 18 and as handy as my dad was, I wasn't learning how to like, you know, do a lot of stuff when it came to like maintaining a home.
SPEAKER_00: And my husband and my sister-in-law are brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: They've got street smarts, you know, they're New York City people.
SPEAKER_00: But they grew up in apartments where they had a super who was coming to fix every little thing that would happen.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying we're not handy, I'm just saying we haven't had a lot of experience in owning a home or maintaining a home.
SPEAKER_00: So here the three of us are with a home we've just purchased, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking we're just gonna go in, make some cosmetic changes and you know, maybe paint a little bit here and then decide what we want to do down the road.
SPEAKER_00: But my sister-in-law is a dreamer and she had all of these grand plans, okay?
SPEAKER_00: She comes to us and she's like, I wanna add on to the second floor.
SPEAKER_00: We wanna pull the plumbing up there, I wanna pull the front porch out, and I wanna add windows here and a mud room in the back.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, at first I'm like, Gabby, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: This seems like a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But she pushed and she pushed and she sold me.
SPEAKER_00: And so once my heart was in it, I'm like, I got my Pinterest board going.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just doing interior design stuff, and I'm like, I'm hype.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So last year, Raf and I go to upstate New York to look at the house to see what our plans are gonna look like.
SPEAKER_00: And we're telling our friends next door to us about our grand plans.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, listen, we think you should grab our contractor that we use and do a walkthrough with him and let him tell you what he thinks about your plans.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, Bet, that's it sounds like a great idea.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna love everything.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna think we're the most gifted people ever with brilliant design plans.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm walking in with confidence.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what happened.
SPEAKER_00: The I'm telling you, the moment we walked in, this man started to derail all of our plans.
SPEAKER_00: He starts to tell us the foundation's gonna need reinforcement here.
SPEAKER_00: He's like the roof pitch is gonna need to change here, the porch is gonna need to be gutted.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and then he starts attaching numbers to all the plans that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that when the numbers get going, that's when dreams are really crushed, right?
SPEAKER_00: So by the end of the walkthrough, we realized these grand plans we had were not really grand plans at all.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because we brought in somebody with a little bit more expertise that knew a little bit more than we did, and he let us know that there was probably a better way to build.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as I started studying this story of the Tower of Babel in Scripture, I realized how similar our predicament with this house was to the situation that the people at Babel found themselves in and got themselves into.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they attempted to design a plan for their lives that was not the best plan for them.
SPEAKER_00: And it was definitely not the plan that God had for them.
SPEAKER_00: Because three times in Genesis, before this story even takes place, God lays out his design for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to spread out, I want you to go to the ends of the earth, I want you to fill the earth, bring my name to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they do the complete opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do they stay in the same place, they decide they're gonna build a tower that reaches all the way to the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't say we're gonna make this tower in the name of our God.
SPEAKER_00: They said we're gonna build this tower to make our name great.
SPEAKER_00: They took matters into their own hands, they took the plan into their own hands, and that was the moment that they put themselves in the place that God should have been in in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: My question when I read this story is how exactly did they get here?
SPEAKER_00: You know, like what had to happen in their mind to go from this moment where God tells this family, I'm saving you.
SPEAKER_00: You are the one family I'm saving.
SPEAKER_00: And then they somehow get to the point where they act in such great rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like do you ever read scripture and just think, like, what a dumb idea?
SPEAKER_00: Like what a dumb decision that was, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Like, Eve, why are you talking to a snake?
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you talking and why are you listening to what a talking snake is telling you to do?
SPEAKER_00: And Adam, why are you following her lead?
SPEAKER_00: And for the love of God, people of Israel, shut up for five seconds.
SPEAKER_00: Eat the manna God's giving you from heaven, trust him for just a minute, know that he's got a plan and a future for your life, and just go with the plan, go with the flow.
SPEAKER_00: Some interesting decisions have been made in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But I would submit to you that we're not so different from the people that we read about in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We've all made interesting choices in our life that we probably wish we could go back and change.
SPEAKER_00: And as much as the Tower of Babel was a thing and an object, I believe it was also a mindset.
SPEAKER_00: This wouldn't have been an off-the-cuff decision.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody just woke up one day and said, Let's build this tower.
SPEAKER_00: They would have been thinking a certain way for a while to get to this point where they would do something so intense.
SPEAKER_00: The action of building Babel started with a mindset.
SPEAKER_00: And the same mindset that tripped the people of Babel up is the same mindset that attempts to trip us up today.
SPEAKER_00: At its core, let's call it the Babel mindset.
SPEAKER_00: It's really just thinking through a filter of fear and of pride.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Babel had a filter and a framework of fear that they were running their decisions through.
SPEAKER_00: They needed security and control because they feared what was ahead.
SPEAKER_00: God's telling them to spread out.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what's gonna meet them there when they arrive.
SPEAKER_00: So they had a lack of trust in God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: But in Genesis 9 and 11, God says to them, I establish my covenant with you.
SPEAKER_00: Never again, never will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.
SPEAKER_00: Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So God literally lays it out plainly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing this again.
SPEAKER_00: The earth is not gonna be flooded.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: He promises them that.
SPEAKER_00: Yet here we are a hundred years later, and the same family is building a tower so high into the heavens that many scholars believe that the reason for the height was so that if the earth flooded again, they would have a place to escape to.
SPEAKER_00: So here they are fortifying themselves out of a place of fear instead of trusting that God had a plan and a purpose for them, trusting that God was gonna be there in their future.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how many times we have made decisions out of a place of fear.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have we decided not to take the leap of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Because what if X happens?
SPEAKER_00: We've not applied to a job we feel God might be calling us to, because what if we're rejected?
SPEAKER_00: Not letting people too close in our lives because what if they see the real us and they think we're too much or not enough?
SPEAKER_00: Not doing what we know exactly God's called us to do, because what if we actually can't rise to the challenge?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we haven't taken a step to tithe and to sow into the house of God because the math ain't mathing, and when I get home and my bank account's empty, what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: God, are you really gonna meet me there?
SPEAKER_00: How many times have we said no to God's plan because we fear that he won't give us the grace we need to do what he's calling us to do?
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you today that God is never gonna say go without first giving you the grace to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody in here needs to kick that fear to the curb.
SPEAKER_00: You need to trust and know that God goes before you, that he goes behind you, that he's surrounding you, that he's with you, that he's never gonna let you go, he's never gonna abandon you.
SPEAKER_00: He is for you.
SPEAKER_00: The second part of the Babel mindset is pride.
SPEAKER_00: It's a spirit of pride.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just talking about pride that looks like I'm the best person in the room, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Not your classic pride.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about pride that strives.
SPEAKER_00: The kind that says, I've got to do this by myself, and I I can do this by myself.
SPEAKER_00: I can be successful on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Pride that says, I'm trying to build a successful career, I'm trying to get into the right college, I'm trying to get that promotion and get the money I need, I'm trying to hold it down for my family and make sure we're all good.
SPEAKER_00: And quite frankly, I don't have time to stop and pray about decision making here because my work ethic is gonna get me there.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us have been in that place before where we've tried to figure it out by ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: These people at the Tower of Babel, they said, Let's build this tower so that we can make our name great.
SPEAKER_00: But the irony of that is that anyone who ever did anything impactful in scripture, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, even Moses, God didn't call them and say, I've called you, now go out and make your name great.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I've called you, I will empower you, I will equip you, and I will make your name great.
SPEAKER_00: We were never meant to do it by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The people's pride and their sense of self-sufficiency, that sense of self-sufficiency creeps in so easily if we don't constantly check it.
SPEAKER_00: But their need for self-sufficiency removed their need for God.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to tell somebody in this room today that maybe your sense of pride and self-sufficiency hasn't come from ego.
SPEAKER_00: It's come because you've lived a long life of having to do things by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you today that there is a God in heaven that is here to meet you.
SPEAKER_00: He is in this room and he's saying, Let me take that burden off your shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do it by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I have come to lift that weight off you and to carry it alongside you.
SPEAKER_00: I am for you and you are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: God desires partnership with us.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to build.
SPEAKER_00: Building, in and of itself, is not bad.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be ambitious and go after things.
SPEAKER_00: But ambition can turn into pride so quickly when we don't first surrender that ambition to God and sit it underneath who He is.
SPEAKER_00: Oswald Sanders says the Bible never criticizes ambition, only selfish ambition.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we're for we forget that we're called to make his name great.
SPEAKER_00: And that in the process, if he sees fit, then he makes our name great.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to building our lives, if we will focus on that foundation, God will handle the elevation in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: If we make him the cornerstone, if we don't strive and we let him lead us.
SPEAKER_00: And so with the people of Babel, their situation may have been different.
SPEAKER_00: We're not out here trying to build a tower, you know, like it's a very different time in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Situation is different, but the same humanity that existed in them exists in us today.
SPEAKER_00: We're living in a broken world.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, how do we change this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we stop thinking through the filter of fear and of pride?
SPEAKER_00: And how do we trust God?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do to overcome this babble mindset?
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to just quickly give us with the time I have left three things I believe we need that will help us move beyond Babel and better build the life's call that the life that God has called us to build.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that we need, you can write this down, is we need a master builder.
SPEAKER_00: With a quick Google search, chat a little chat GPT action, I learned that a map master builder is actually a pre-modern term.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why you don't hear it a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And today that term would be replaced by architect, which everybody would be familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: But back in the pre-modern day, um the master builder was the central figure in a construction project.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's just a little bit of a list of the knowledge and skills they had to have.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to possess a comprehensive understanding of construction materials, design principles, practical aspects of building, excavation, foundation work, material selection.
SPEAKER_00: They had to know a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But I love what their role in construction was.
SPEAKER_00: Their role in construction was that they were responsible not just for designing the buildings like an architect would be and directing the work, but they often participated in the manual labor themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a master builder would do.
SPEAKER_00: They would get in next to the people that were building and they would say, You're not about to do this by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming alongside you to help you build.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did I design it, I'm gonna support you in the building process.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to tell you today that that's the God that we serve.
SPEAKER_00: He's a God that says, I've designed your life, I've got plans for you, I'm coming alongside you, and we're gonna build this thing out together.
SPEAKER_00: And the nitty-gritty of your every single day, he is right there with you, wanting to build your life with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I've got the best news today, which is that if you've been building life by yourself and you're done doing that, all it takes to hire Jesus as your master builder is one thing, and that is surrender.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, Jesus, I entrust my plans to you, my worries to you, my hopes to you, my regrets to you.
SPEAKER_00: I lay it all at your feet.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Will you come in and will you help me build my life?
SPEAKER_00: It's giving it all to him and then trusting in Isaiah 55 that says, His plans are better than yours, his ways are higher than yours, his thoughts are higher than yours, he knows more than you do.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you today, but I am thankful that when the foundation of my life begins to shake and the walls start to shake and the and the roof starts to cave in and fly off, and I've exhausted every resource in my toolbox and I've tried to do it by myself that I have a master builder that comes in with his resources from heaven and he says, I'm gonna fix this thing.
SPEAKER_00: If your sufficiency is in me, if your confidence is in me, then I've got you, and you are gonna make it to the finish line because I am with you.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does he design your life, he wants to build it with you.
SPEAKER_00: We need a master builder.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew Henry, one of my favorite theologians, says, what a difference there is between men's building and God's.
SPEAKER_00: When men build their Babel, brick and slime are their best materials.
SPEAKER_00: But when God builds his Jerusalem, he lays even the foundations with sapphires, which comes from the chapter of the Bible that says, I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise, lay your foundations with sapphires, construct your towers with rubies, your gates with jewels, your walls with precious stones, his resources are better than ours, his heavenly tools are better than ours, he knows more than we do, and he's got a plan and a purpose for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: When we build with God and when we build on God, we build better.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to chug this whole water up here.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that we need is community that challenges.
SPEAKER_00: Community that challenges.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the builders of Babel were a large group of people that they all thought exactly the same way.
SPEAKER_00: They were people of uniformity, thinking the same way, saying the same things.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, Well, what's so wrong with that?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't we supposed to be unified as the body of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great thing to do?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes, unity is good.
SPEAKER_00: Being aligned with one another is good.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: But unity can quickly become dangerous if we're not unified under God.
SPEAKER_00: Unity becomes dangerous when it develops into uniformity, and all of a sudden no one can ask questions, no one can call things out, nobody can walk in their convictions, nobody can correct.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened here.
SPEAKER_00: They were in such an echo chamber of their own thinking that when someone one day said, This is the plan we're gonna do, we're gonna build a tower to the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Not one person spoke up and said, Uh, hey guys, I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but uh isn't this literally the opposite of what God told us to do?
SPEAKER_00: Not one person spoke up and said, I don't know that this is the right way that we're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: Weren't we supposed to do this differently?
SPEAKER_00: And so while they were successful at being in community with one another, they left no room for correction or challenge or conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Last year I took a trip up to the little house that we purchased, and you know, there's a lot of work to do in the house.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm kidding, overnight I be feel like I became Joanna Gaines.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Jesus is a carpenter, I'm gonna be a carpenter, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I got all the tools out, I'm cutting wood, I'm I'm measuring board and batten, I'm hanging wallpaper, I'm doing it all.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple of my best friends came up with me, and at one point they were in one room and I was in the other room, and I was attempting to hang an eight-foot uh piece of board by myself on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm up there and I've got the nail gun and I'm trying to hold it with my elbow, and I get it up there and I step back, and right about that time, one of my best friends walks in and she's like, Oh no, friend, that is not straight.
SPEAKER_00: That does not look good.
SPEAKER_00: Next thing I know, she grabs the level and she gets up in there with me, and we pull it out, we put it back in, we nail it to the wall, we step back, and there it is, straight.
SPEAKER_00: That's what real community is supposed to look like.
SPEAKER_00: Community that comes alongside you and says, Hey, I'm not so sure this is what you're supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get in here with you.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna figure this out together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call it out, but I'm gonna stick by your side while we figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Community that challenges, that doesn't just corroborate what you feel, but they come alongside you and they say, Let's pursue God together.
SPEAKER_00: Help you get your life back on track when it gets out of line.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 27, 17 tells us, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest friendships in my life are the ones that can look at me and say, Hey, it seems like you've been comparing yourself a lot lately.
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of feel like maybe you're on in Instagram and TikTok too much.
SPEAKER_00: And probably it's time to take a break, but not only should you take a break, let's do a fast together.
SPEAKER_00: Real community that calls things out in you and then says, Let's pursue the things of God together.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need Babel type community that just corroborates what we feel and leads us away from God.
SPEAKER_00: We need Isaiah 2, 3 type friends that say, Come on, let's go to the mountain of the Lord together.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 55 type friends that say, Come on, let's bind ourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, 3 type friends that say, Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let's exalt his name together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pursue the things of God together, let's follow him, let's go deeper with him.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships that stir up our faith and point us back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not just people that corroborate what we feel and keep us in the same place.
SPEAKER_00: And if I asked you today what your existing relationships are marked by, I wonder what you'd say.
SPEAKER_00: Are they marked by gossip?
SPEAKER_00: Constantly talking about your family, constantly talking about other people, draining the life out of you.
SPEAKER_00: Are they marked by sitting in a pit together when you're upset or you're mad at somebody, they get right in there with you and you throw a pity party together?
SPEAKER_00: If that's what they look like right now, I can I encourage you to find some godly community.
SPEAKER_00: I know that the small group seasons just ended here, but when it starts back up, I encourage you to get into a small group.
SPEAKER_00: Lean into community here, find some community that challenges you because God has a plan for your life, and oftentimes He's gonna show you what that looks like through community.
SPEAKER_00: So we need community that challenges, and then the last and final thing we need is to build out and not up.
SPEAKER_00: We need to build out and not up.
SPEAKER_00: See, the Tower of Babel was built in the middle of a city that later became one of the biggest and baddest cities in the Bible, known as Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: There's a picture if we can pop that one up there.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, cities were hugely defined by a wall.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at a wall that surrounds a city, you can kind of get the idea if you're on the outside of what that means.
SPEAKER_00: It means you're not allowed in here.
SPEAKER_00: We don't really want you to come inside.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they represented, these cities in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This was the mindset that the people of Babel had.
SPEAKER_00: It's just about us, it's our little group, it's what we're pursuing together, it's what we're trying to figure out.
SPEAKER_00: And they disregarded the call that God had on their life to go out and to reach the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so while we need to have good, godly relationships that challenge us, we're not meant to just stay there with those.
SPEAKER_00: Those are meant to stir up our faith, make us strong.
SPEAKER_00: They're meant to be our people, but then we're supposed to take that foundation and go out and reach the world with it, not just stay clicked up with the same people every day.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout scripture, we see that building up is the antithesis of our calling.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says multiple times, go make disciples of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to the whole of creation.
SPEAKER_00: The people didn't want to be spread out though, because their human nature fought the calling of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes our nature fights this call too.
SPEAKER_00: At times we can get so fixated on our own lives because we're busy, maybe we're in school, we're working a job as well, we're raising families, maybe we're struggling in some capacity, and it's caused us to turn inward.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the reason is, our calendars are full and we're our head is down and we're trying to just survive through life.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the way God has called us to live.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you that the moment you start looking at other people and you start seeing other people and reaching out to other people, your situation starts to change.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not meant to live for ourselves and be focused on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We're meant to live for God and then for other people.
SPEAKER_00: We're not called to fortify our lives, we're called to keep open house, to be generous with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Like it says in Matthew 16, 5.
SPEAKER_00: By opening up to others, you'll then prompt people to open up with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd ask you the question today would you would you say, My life is just about me and mine?
SPEAKER_00: Or I I live a life that has open doors.
SPEAKER_00: I live a life that is aware of other people.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying you need to go out and start evangelizing on the street corners unless you feel called to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying when you go to the grocery store, instead of keeping your head down and just getting what you need, what if you just looked up?
SPEAKER_00: What if you just made eye contact with somebody?
SPEAKER_00: The other day we were working on Mother's Day stuff for church and we were doing a lemonade stand, and so we had all this lemon stuff happening and sent someone from our team to go get lemons, he came back, it wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: Someone else went and same store, got lemons, came back, it wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: Third girl went, got lemons, and finally the cashier goes, What in the heck are all these lemons for?
SPEAKER_00: And even though we were in a rush, she stopped and all she said was, They're for church.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing a lemonade stand at Mother's Day tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: You should come.
SPEAKER_00: Next day I get a text from her, the cashier's here in church.
SPEAKER_00: She's here hearing the hope of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All because she stopped and she made just a little bit of space for other people.
SPEAKER_00: She built out and not up.
SPEAKER_00: It could have just been about what we were doing for our church that day, but instead it was about how can we get this to our community.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to build out, and so a call to action is eye contact, smile.
SPEAKER_00: If you're at work, hey, I see you're discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know I'm here if you need me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even always about shoving Jesus in people's faces, it's about being Jesus to people.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to build out and not up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm closing with this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was studying this passage, and I couldn't really understand the ending, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we read this story, and at the end, God comes down, he confuses the language of people, and so they're all speaking different languages, and then he scatters them over the whole earth, and then the chapter ends.
SPEAKER_00: The story ends.
SPEAKER_00: There's no reference of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I found myself saying, God, uh, aren't you a God of grace?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: What's really happening here?
SPEAKER_00: What happened to these nations and to these people?
SPEAKER_00: Which, by the way, this explains why there are so many languages in the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the origin of that.
SPEAKER_00: So he disperses them, the chapter ends, and then what?
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you know that God is a God of grace and redemption, and that the end is never really the end if he's in it?
SPEAKER_00: So I want to take you on a little journey here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So the rebellion in the Tower of Babel happens right here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is a timeline I'm showing you.
SPEAKER_00: The rebellion happens, God comes down, he destroys the tower, he disperses everyone.
SPEAKER_00: And then 700 years later, he could have picked any other region to choose someone out of.
SPEAKER_00: A region that had less of a stain on it, less of a reputation.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He zooms in on the same region that rebelled against him, and he places his hand upon Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Abraham, I have called you by name, I'm blessing you, and I'm gonna make you the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: So the redemption already starts to begin right here.
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward into the New Testament, down Abraham's line, out of a region of rebellion, our Savior Jesus is born.
SPEAKER_00: Which is the greatest story ever told.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is born, he dies on the cross for our sins, where once God came to scatter, then he sends Jesus to save.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: We could just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not even the end of it.
SPEAKER_00: Before Jesus dies on the cross and ascends to heaven, he tells his disciples, he says, I have to leave, but I'm gonna send you a helper.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send you someone that's gonna be here to guide you and to lead you.
SPEAKER_00: So the rebellion happens over here.
SPEAKER_00: And then around 2,000 years later, in an upper room in Jerusalem, the disciples are there gathered with other believers, and they are praying fervently in an upper room.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy and the Bible says that the Holy Spirit descended upon them and they began to speak in other tongues.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read you what happens next.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 2 and 5, it says, Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The nations had gathered again.
SPEAKER_00: When they heard the sound, the sound of speaking in tongues, a crowd gathered together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Utterly amazed, they said, Aren't these who are speaking Galileans?
SPEAKER_00: Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
SPEAKER_00: Jump to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.
SPEAKER_00: So where once there was sin and confusion in God's kindness, he then brings grace and redemption.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews hear the good news of Jesus, they hear the wonders of who he is, and they take that hope and they take that redemption back to the very nations that were scattered.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because the end was not the end.
SPEAKER_00: God did not forget about them.
SPEAKER_00: He is a God of grace and redemption.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm restoring things, I am making things new, and I'm here to tell you today in this room if you feel like the foundation of your life has been shaken, if you feel like the walls are caving in, that it is not the end of your story, that there is grace and redemption and newness for you, that he wants to come in and redeem and restore and rebuild your life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that today?
SPEAKER_00: The end is not the end if he's in it.
SPEAKER_00: He always does.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that gives some of you hope today that if you make him the foundation of your life and you build upon him and you follow his plan, he always has a better plan in mind.
SPEAKER_00: There's always a better way to build with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just wonder if you just close your eyes across this room.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for anybody in this room who resonates with this.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel like the foundation of your life is shaken, is cracked, and you're ready to build with God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's one area of your life where you've been operating from a place of fear, from a place of pride, trying to figure it out on your own.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you'd be so bold to just raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like that's you, if you feel like you need to put God back in that place of master builder.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just thank you for every hand that's lifted in this room, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, that there's always new mercy, there's always new beginnings with you.
SPEAKER_00: There's always an opportunity to begin fresh, that you have resources that are unlimited from heaven, and they are available to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray for every single person here.
SPEAKER_00: God, that they would be able to put you back in that position, that they would be able to surrender and relinquish control to you for their lives, and you would begin to rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: Show them that the end's not the end with you.
SPEAKER_00: Show them that you're doing a new thing in their life, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow when they wake up, let them be filled with hope, filled with joy, knowing that you are going before them, like your word says.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we get to re-surrender our lives daily to you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for one more group of people before I go.
SPEAKER_00: And it's those of you who've maybe never actually even asked the Lord to be the master builder of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you haven't stepped into a relationship with him yet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you the opportunity to do that, so I'm gonna ask one more time for everybody to close their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Just to give people privacy.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here and you're saying, I have always done my life by myself, and today's the day I'm ready to turn things around.
SPEAKER_00: Or I once was walking with God, but it's time for me to come back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to ask Jesus into my heart and into my life.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just raise your hand?
SPEAKER_00: It's between you and God, I'm the only person that can see you.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you right where you're at, he's been waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: You are not here by accident today.
SPEAKER_00: This is a divine appointment.
SPEAKER_00: This is a day that your life changes forever.
SPEAKER_00: You can open your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Romans, it says, if we declare with our mouth, we believe in our hearts that He is Lord, that we will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm just gonna pray a quick prayer, and maybe everybody can repeat after me.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for life.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you sent your son Jesus to save us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we ask you into our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to be the Lord of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a new and fresh start, and help us to live with you every day of our life.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.