WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:36.960 This morning at 523, I was sitting at my kitchen table, coffee, reviewing the sermon, and I hear what started out as a rumbling that soon was this massive crash. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.479 And it's then I hear my daughter scream and yell. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:49.200 And I go, I jump from the table, adrenaline, you know, rushing through my veins, fight or flight. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:50.399 I'm in fight, baby. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.079 I don't know what happened. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.479 Maybe somebody broke into our house. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.799 Maybe a very localized earthquake happened in my daughter's room. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:12.640 I don't know what happened, but I have my fists clenched and I run into my daughter's room, open, you know, turn on the light, she's sitting up, and I turned to see that her closet shelves had collapsed. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:25.359 I mean, it is they're like glass broken, um, clothes strewn everywhere, everything scattered. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:30.719 It looks like a volcanic eruption out of the closet onto the floor. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:34.879 As if the shelves said, we quit. 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:35.439 We're done. 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:37.120 We're we're done with this. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:47.760 Now, the interesting part, I hung those shelves two years ago. 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.519 We all build things, don't we? 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:57.760 Some of us are building our careers. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:02.000 Some of us are building relationships. 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.680 Maybe it's a dating relationship, maybe it's a marriage. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.639 Some of us are building our families, our future. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.400 Maybe it's your reputation, you're building your name, building your brand, building your image. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:21.439 And sometimes, sometimes even without warning, it can all come crashing down. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.840 Let me ask you, what are you building? 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:42.960 What if what feels like a collapse, here's where we want to go today, what if what feels like a collapse is actually a divine interruption? 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:53.120 What if one of God's greatest gift to you is something he didn't let happen? 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.520 We're in a series called The Dysfunctional Family of God. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.479 We're journeying through the book of Genesis together. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:05.039 Last week we left off with Noah and his family. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:06.719 They exited the ark. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:16.960 Uh, God gave a covenant, not just to Noah, but all of humanity, symboled by the rainbow in the sky, that he has relented of his destruction. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:19.199 He's hung the bow, literally. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:26.800 And then Genesis 10 is this weird chapter that we tend to kind of, you know, um skip over because it's a list of names. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:28.159 It's called the Table of Nations. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:36.400 It tells us how from one family we get every nation, every ethnicity on the planet, which is beautiful, by the way. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:47.120 It's theologically rich that from one family is every nation, meaning that every nation, every ethnos, every ethnicity is all has their origin back. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:48.400 We're all family. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:49.919 We're all one family. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:04:02.719 This was revolutionary in the ancient day, by the way, when your nation, your ethnicity was superior or better than others, and you would have a claim to the gods as a result. 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.560 We still make some of those claims, sadly, today. 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:25.360 That's Genesis 10, and then Genesis 11 begins to zoom in and tell us how this how this you know one family began to see this dispersion or scattering, but it came from something that was more difficult. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.600 It's Genesis 11, it's about the Tower of Babel. 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:31.519 Maybe you're familiar with it. 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:40.959 Instead of humanity, God gave Noah and this uh family this call to fill the earth. 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:45.519 Instead, they began to come together out of fear. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:50.079 Instead of living under God's name, they tried to make a name for themselves. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:05:00.879 And it may be an ancient story, but what I've found is it's been such an incredibly uh powerful thing that God's been speaking to me personally. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:07.519 Because we live in a world that is about obsession with achievement, our need to control outcomes. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:14.480 And then we are confronted with a God of grace to interrupt us when we're headed the wrong way. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.839 If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Genesis chapter 11? 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:20.319 If you got your notes, you can follow along there. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.000 The sermon title today is, well, let's just say babble. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:24.959 That's a fun word to say. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:26.480 Go ahead and say that to your neighbor. 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:27.040 Babel. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.360 Build your life. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:31.680 Genesis 11:1 begins this way. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:35.839 Now the whole world had one language and one common speech. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:38.800 As people moved eastward, say eastward. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:40.399 We're gonna get to that. 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:41.120 That's important. 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.920 They found a plane in Shannar and settled that. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:46.639 Shannar is uh ancient Mesopotamia. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:48.399 Today it's modern-day Iraq. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.959 It is uh the crescent of human civilization. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:57.680 They said to each other, come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.720 This is actually a technological revolution, by the way. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:02.000 Um like, really? 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:02.480 Bricks? 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.079 Yeah, really, it's amazing. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.199 Uh they used bricks instead of stone and tar from mortar. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:15.759 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. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.800 Otherwise, we'll be scattered over the face of the whole earth. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:24.240 So there is this conciliation, this trying to be one. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:34.720 Um, and what we see is hints actually of power and corruption going back to Genesis 10, of this is not just kind of one big unified heart. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:38.319 This is like we're uh pride and ambition. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:44.079 So verse 5, but the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:52.160 The Lord said, If as one people speak in the same language, they begun to do this, then nothing they'll plan to do will be impossible for them. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:56.399 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:01.839 So the Lord scattered them from there over all this earth, and they stopped building the city. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:06.319 That is why it's called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of the whole world. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.879 From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the earth. 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:13.279 What are you building? 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:19.360 And what if one of God's greatest gifts to you is something he didn't let happen? 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:23.680 Uh today I want to draw from the text just three ideas for us. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:31.920 Uh, first is the myth of progress, then the illusion of control, and then we're gonna close with the mercy of divine disruption. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:37.439 The myth of progress, the illusion of control, and then the mercy of divine disruption. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:39.120 Let's begin with the myth of progress. 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:45.600 The myth of progress goes something like this every advancement always leads to a better future. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.639 Every advancement always leads to a better future. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:55.439 And with more education and technology, we can create our own utopian existence. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:58.000 We can create our own Eden. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:02.959 Now, we don't think of this as a technological revolution. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:10.560 But when you lived in a day and age where what you built with was stones, now look at the difference between these. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.079 This is, I mean, this is lovely shape, but it's odd shaped. 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:16.800 How do you begin to build a structure that's sturdy? 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:46.720 Well, it takes a lot of work, and there's only so high that you can build with it, and all of a sudden now you can create a brick that's symmetrical, that can bear lots of weight, and that you can build, and you can build not only strong things, you can build great things and big things, and you begin to see what's happening as a sense of safety and security comes along with our technology. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:53.200 The myth of progress says every advancement leads to a better future, more education, more technology. 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:54.879 This is the way they said it. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:05.519 Come, let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:11.440 Like this progressive vision, by the way, isn't a new thing. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:15.039 We think it's like, wow, we have the internet. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:17.840 Wow, we have AI. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.799 Wow, we're able to solve all these problems. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.600 We can create our own utopic world. 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:24.879 It's all about us. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.399 We don't need anybody else, and certainly we don't need God. 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:30.000 It's as old as Babel. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:32.399 It's as old as Babel. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:44.480 And here's the way maybe we might see it or say it personally, because we go, like, okay, that's I understand where tech is going, but I don't know, Ryan. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:46.879 That's not necessarily how I feel. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:50.080 We it this is how it feels in our world. 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:53.120 If I achieve enough, then I'll be enough. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.039 That's the myth of progress. 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:57.840 If I achieve enough, then I'll be enough. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:16.080 If I just achieve enough at work, if I just make a name for myself, if I build my brand or my platform, if I get the right education, if I achieve enough, then I'll be enough. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:22.799 Remember, I told you about this whole eastward perspective. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:34.960 Um, this whole idea of eastward is a textual motif that the Bible, biblical authors use to speak of humanity moving away from Eden, away from God, away from flourishing. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:41.039 You find it, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and they were sent eastward. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:46.320 Cain, after killing his brother Abel, went east. 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.039 After the flood, the travelers moved east. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:11:03.840 It is this picture, this indicator that the biblical authors use for us that tells us that when you see this eastward throughout the entire Hebrew or Old Testament scriptures, it's this descent away from God. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:06.559 In fact, come let us build a city for ourselves. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:08.720 Here we see the birth of secularism. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:14.720 The idea that human beings can build meaning and identity apart from their creator. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:20.639 Babel itself is an attempt to build a life apart from God. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:23.120 Now, here's what it's important. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.320 God is not anti-progress. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:29.919 He is anti-pride. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:32.799 He's not anti-progress. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:34.240 Brick? 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:36.000 Awesome. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:39.279 I don't know if he said awesome. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.679 I really don't know if that's how he said it. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:43.759 AI? 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:49.759 Honestly, it's a tool. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:52.000 It's a tool. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:55.360 It's how you use the tool, isn't it? 00:11:57.600 --> 00:11:58.960 It's neutral. 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:05.440 And whose hands they're welded determines whether it's used for good or for ill. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.279 God is not anti-progress, but he is anti-pride. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:14.480 One definition of pride is a drive to build our identity and legacy apart from God. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.480 The myth of progress, if I just achieve enough, then I'll be enough. 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:25.679 See, progress, by the way, without presence, ultimately leads to emptiness. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:54.320 We buy into the myth of progress that it's somehow going to achieve this utopic world, that the American dream will finally fully satisfy your every longing and need, that if you just are able to retire young, if you're able to build up your net worth, if you're able to have this career, if you're able to have this person in your life or build this type of marriage or family, if I just get enough, progress without the presence of God leads to emptiness. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:58.080 Thank you. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.480 We can talk here, by the way. 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:02.240 And we can talk back. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:05.039 Especially amens, those are good. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:07.360 See, let me ask you this. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:08.080 Come on. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.720 What are you building that looks successful but feels empty? 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:20.480 Is there anything that you've been building right now that looks successful? 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:25.120 But it just feels empty. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:31.120 And what the myth of progress does is like, well, you just didn't quite arrive. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:32.320 You just didn't quite arrive. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:36.399 If I just get over this, if I just move beyond this, if I just get more. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:40.399 The myth of progress. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:42.960 And then we come to the illusion of control. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:47.279 Notice what they said. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:49.039 The illusion of control. 00:13:49.840 --> 00:14:00.320 We're gonna build this tower, we're gonna build this city, otherwise, otherwise, we'll be scattered over the face of the whole earth. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:07.279 We're gonna do something to secure our destiny, our fate, our direction. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:13.840 You know, there was this call on God of humanity to be fruitful and to fill the entire earth. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.600 And yet, what that creates is that scattering, that sending. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:21.360 Man, what you have to trust God, don't you? 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:25.120 And so they're like, you know what? 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:30.879 We can keep our own little world intact, we can control it. 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:37.679 I don't really care what God says, I this is what I want. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:40.480 What was the tower? 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:42.399 This is ancient Mesopotamia. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:43.440 It was a ziggurat. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:50.480 A ziggurat is a large pyramid-like structure in ancient Mesopotamia designed to be a stairway to heaven. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:55.600 It was a symbol of humanity's attempt to control the divine. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:03.039 So they would build these, some 80 feet, others up to 200 feet in height. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:04.399 Yeah, bricks were great. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:06.000 You couldn't do that with stone. 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:13.120 And the structure would be built in such a way it would have that pyramid-like structure, but it didn't have anything inside. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.759 You know, pyramids, they were chambers and whatnot. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:24.399 This was, you know, this pyramid structure layered up, built up higher and higher and higher, and then there was this staircase. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:29.600 Babylon, the name the city, Babylon literally means gate of the gods. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:33.200 That were building a tower high enough. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:40.240 In the ancient world, when they thought of heaven, uh, the the literal word is firmament, that it was actually firm. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:44.720 They thought of this heavenly uh arena that was solid. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:51.519 And so when they're building this tower, they're literally with the mindset of we're gonna reach or ascend heaven. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:57.120 Scholars tell us there's maybe one of two reasonings for why this, uh why they're doing this. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:04.799 One was to bring God down into their level so they can control him. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:08.159 Don't we do that? 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.799 Isn't that some of the ways that we even pray go about our lives? 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.679 If I'm gonna do good at God, I'm gonna try to do these things so that you bless me or so that you do this. 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.159 I'm gonna, you know, maybe, well, we talked about giving. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.879 I'm gonna give a little here so that you give me here. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:25.679 We do that to bring heaven down to control him. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:32.080 The other, and I kind of lean towards this one. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:43.840 The other was that they were going to go up and try to take over heaven itself and dethrone God completely. 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:50.240 God, you have no right to say anything in my life. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:51.600 You don't exist. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:56.399 I want to do whatever I want to do. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:06.319 So I'm either gonna bring God down into my terms to control him, or I'm gonna just ignore him and pretend like he doesn't exist. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:15.119 Underneath this, by the way, is the belief, the illusion of control is if I could be God, then life would be good. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:18.319 Because isn't it true? 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.960 Come on, be honest, we're in church. 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:29.359 That a lot of us think, most of us think we've all had a moment when we've thought, I know better than God. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:32.960 I know better than God. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.319 My plans are better than his. 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:42.079 If I could be God, then life would be good. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:48.400 The illusion of control is if I could just control and then you fill in the blank, then I would be what? 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:49.440 Happy? 00:17:50.319 --> 00:18:17.440 If I could just control the economy, if I could just control my boss, if I could just control my coworkers, if I could just control my parents, if I could just control my spouse, if I could just control my kids, if I could just control, you fill in the blank, then I would be secure, then I would be happy, then life would be good. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:24.559 If I could just control everything, then everything would be okay. 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:29.839 And you know what's at the root of this? 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:33.119 Fear. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:36.319 Fear. 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:41.519 Fear is often the root of our desire for control. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.880 Notice they said this whole idea, right? 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:47.119 Otherwise we'll be scattered. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.839 We tend to try to control things because we're afraid. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:57.680 So we hold tightly. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:03.279 I like how Mark Sayers says it. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:08.960 He says, taking things into your own hands doesn't seize your destiny, it sabotages it. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:28.000 How often have you had that experience where, you know, you had this sense of like, I really need to trust God with that, you know, job, or you know, and then you try to take things in that project into your own hands, and the minute you begin to like be so controlling, it falls apart. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:33.279 How has it worked trying to control your spouse? 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:49.200 I remember um when I first experienced um not first, but one moment of like this idea of control and fear blended. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:50.160 It stands out. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:58.319 When my daughter was uh the oldest was firstborn, um, about six months in, she had some major health issues. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:00.160 We couldn't figure it out. 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.000 Um, we're taking her to specialists. 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:05.359 It's so scary. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:10.400 You have this precious little being that you had no idea that you had that kind of love. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:17.119 It's like a chamber of your heart opened up that you didn't even know existed, the capacity to love that you didn't know was there. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:28.240 And now this little being, six-month-old, is struggling, and then you're going to specialists, they're doing these tests, and then they're telling you that she needs a surgery, and you're like, what in the world? 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:31.119 And then you begin to have these conversations with God. 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:33.039 You maybe begin to bargain with him. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:35.680 God, if you'll do this, then I'll do that. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:37.519 Or you begin to rage at him. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:38.799 And I did all of these. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.440 I bargained and I raged and I yelled at him. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:44.880 And I'm just like trying to, God, I just want to control. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:52.240 I remember my friend friend Kirsten, she said it this way, I love this picture, it's always stuck with me. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:02.960 Like when our hands are clenched like this, tightly, around whatever it is, God cannot fill it. 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:13.519 But the minute we begin to open them up, it invites him in to do what he does best. 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:19.039 I just wonder, what are you building? 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.119 What is your tower? 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:39.759 What is the thing that as you stepped in that you're holding so tightly, you're trying to seize control, you're holding it, and the thing is you think you know better, and maybe you're just bargaining with God, or maybe you're raging against him, but you're holding so tightly, and it isn't helping you. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:42.079 It is hurting you, and it's hurting them. 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:44.000 It's sabotaging. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:54.400 The myth of progress, the illusion of control. 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:58.160 By the way, you have far less control than you think you do. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.920 COVID taught us that, didn't it? 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:09.599 Or less control of your time, circumstances, other people, God. 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:16.319 And then the mercy of divine disruption. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:18.799 The mercy. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:24.400 The mercy of divine disruption. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:27.920 What is a divine disruption? 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:31.839 It is a holy interruption to prevent human self-destruction. 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:36.400 The mercy of divine disruption is simply this. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:42.000 God loves you too much to let you succeed in something that will sabotage your soul. 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:45.920 Some of you just need to write that down. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:56.160 God loves me too much to let me succeed in something that will sabotage my soul. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:00.400 I like how it says, but the Lord came down to see. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:04.079 We're gonna build this tower to the heavens. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:06.160 We're gonna dethrone God. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.400 We're gonna bring him down, and then like you know, God doesn't need to come down. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:16.400 But the writer, the author tells us this just it's like tongue in cheek. 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:26.720 Like all the grandiosis, all the ability that you thought you had to ascend to the heavens, God had to come down just to see what was going on. 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:33.039 And so the Lord scattered them and stopped the building. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:46.000 Now, back to Genesis 10, you'll see the founding of Babel or Babylon, uh, and it was founded by a ruthless, mighty warrior, a man named Nimrod. 00:23:46.640 --> 00:24:05.039 We see, like, in this text, not just uh a city built on pride and self uh um selfishness, it's actually built uh by like scholars will tell us there's these inferences of not just corruption but domination and oppression. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:18.480 The word Babel in Hebrew means to confuse, and it's an intentional wordplay on the Akkadian or Mesopotamian word for Babylon, which means gate of the gods. 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:40.480 And we see this picture of a society that is being dominated by a ruler that is corrupt and trying to assimilate and oppress others, this self-destruction, and God says, No, no, no, I'm not going to let that happen. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.839 Sometimes God disrupts our plans not to punish us, but to protect us. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:54.720 Certainly the discipline of God, and that's here in this text. 00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:59.279 But it's not to punish you, it is to protect you. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:05.039 It's not that he's withholding from good from you, but he's writing a better story. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:09.759 It's not a setback, but a setup. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.720 Not rejection, but a redirection. 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:18.160 You thought you had the dream job. 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:20.880 You thought you had the promotion. 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:25.839 You thought he was the one, she was the one, this was the time. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:29.759 I like how C.S. 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:34.240 Lewis said it in his writings uh on the problem of pain. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:43.759 He says, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:48.960 It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:56.000 Sometimes God disrupts our plans not to punish us, but to protect us. 00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:01.039 This is the mercy of divine disruption. 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:04.160 Let me give you just a few examples. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:14.079 Uh, when I was 17, I was a junior in high school, going into my senior year of high school the summer before my senior year, uh, I had a plan. 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:15.039 I was a drummer. 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.880 I was supposed to drum for this um this summer camp. 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:22.240 In my mind, it was gonna be magical, amazing, you know. 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:30.960 I I I don't know where I got this in my head, but I imagined that I'd be drumming a couple times a day, which I love, and then I'd be sitting by the pool sipping iced tea. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.319 I don't know where that picture came, but that was the picture in my head. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:46.559 Uh certainly not what camp life is like, but it was gonna be magical, it was gonna be amazing, and because of some uh choices I made, I wasn't allowed to go uh spend the summer working as a drummer. 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:50.079 Instead, I spent the summer working for Fred La Joulier. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:54.720 Fred owned a landscaping company, and I spent the summer doing landscaping. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.119 Very different. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:08.960 Often I would just get dropped off into the middle of a field with a few tools and uh, you know, have my lunch, and then uh whoever dropped me off would come back at the end of the day and pick me up. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.319 It was tired, hot, dirty. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:20.240 I remember one day, and I grew up as a pastor's kid, but at this time I really wasn't walking with Jesus. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:39.119 Um day I'm in this field, and they gave me a lawnmower with the front that was cut out of it so the blade was exposed, and then a uh a weed whacker, and uh this huge field, and the whole day I was just to I was to just cut it all down, and the weeds and different things were growing up to about this high. 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:40.160 It's hot. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:47.039 It was so hot, and I'm spending the day, and all I'm doing is I'm complaining to God. 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:49.119 Like, what in the world? 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.599 I'm here, I should be there, and I'm complaining to God. 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:58.640 And it was in that field in my summer before my senior year where God met me. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:03.200 I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:09.039 He spoke to me personally and profoundly, and it redirected my entire life. 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:16.559 Man, I wouldn't change that summer working landscaping for anything. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:24.160 Because it was that moment where my heart became alive to the gospel of what Jesus did for me. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:27.839 It was a redirection I did not plan for. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:40.240 I remember when I was in college and got married. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:47.440 This is Moody, I was in studying to be a pastor, and uh just recently got married. 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:52.319 I was working as in worship uh at a church, a big church in Chicago. 00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:55.680 And I had my dream job. 00:28:57.200 --> 00:28:59.440 This dream job was it was in San Diego. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:02.079 We were excited to get back to the West Coast. 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.160 Um, it was at this megachurch, God is doing incredible things. 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:16.640 There's thousands and thousands of college students showing up, and they were gonna hire me to be the college pastor and then to lead worship for their Sunday evening service. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:20.960 They had 4,000 college students showing up on their Sunday evening services. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:28.880 Like, this is my dream job in a dream location, and some of my best friends were there, and Jenny was pregnant with Ella at the time. 00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:39.519 We go out there, we do the whole interview, and she's so wise, and she said, You know, Ryan, I think you would be good for this church, but I don't think this church would be good for you. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:45.119 And turned down that job, and I was crushed. 00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:48.160 I was crushed. 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:50.720 I remember meeting with my mentor, Dr. 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:57.680 Joe Stowe, and just pouring out my heart to him and where we're at, and then he gave me this picture, it was so helpful. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:13.359 He said, you know, Ryan, like like imagine if you're in a hallway of a like a hotel, one of those long corridors, and you have this open door at the end, and you walk towards that open door, and then God closes that door, and that's what it felt like. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:14.880 Like, why? 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:17.680 God, why come on? 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:26.480 And then you notice that there's another corridor that he had you for you to go down. 00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.160 He's like, the interesting part is all the way back here, you can't see that corridor. 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:47.920 But as you walk this direction and you begin to move that direction, he closes that door because he has a new direction that from that vantage point you aren't able to see, but you get all the way down here, and now he's able to move you in the direction he intends for you to go. 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:49.119 I'm like, oh. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:51.920 And then we ended up in Atlanta. 00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:59.920 And oh, George is great, the people are amazing, but it's not our people place, like we're West Coast people. 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:08.160 It was a hard season, and it was a forming season. 00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:21.599 It was one of those where God formed in us some things, and out of that season there was a conviction, gosh, God, you've called us to the church. 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:32.079 And one little what little time we have left, our hope and goal is how do we just help to make the bride of Christ just a little bit more beautiful? 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:43.279 And it was through those redirections and those confusion times, and that now we stand here and get to be a part of this, and I'm so grateful. 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:50.079 So grateful for the prayers that he didn't answer. 00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:52.559 My mid-30s. 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:56.559 You ever just feel like a failure? 00:31:57.599 --> 00:31:58.799 Yeah, me too. 00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:04.559 None of you said yes, but I'm just gonna say I hope, I hope, I hope we're gonna be honest in church. 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:13.839 Um so John Mark Comer, Stephen Furtick, Judah Smith, you name it, uh, we're all about the same age. 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:16.799 I'm mid-30s, we launched this church. 00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:20.000 And I'm looking around at these guys. 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:23.279 And I'm going, what in the world? 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:31.599 Like, isn't it interesting how selfish ambition bleeds nastily into ministry as well? 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:34.000 What in the world? 00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:40.000 These guys don't even have like a uh like the spiritual pedigree. 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.720 I and then I was like, crap. 00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:49.119 I used to joke that I'm the unfamous, poorest Ingram. 00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:52.559 But it's not a joke, it's just true. 00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:11.759 I remember somebody saying to me once, said, Ryan, you be concerned with the depth of your ministry, let God be concerned with the breadth of your ministry. 00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:14.400 And I started to have a prayer. 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:19.119 God, don't let my calling outpace my character. 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:26.240 Don't let the gifting and the calling you've put on me outpace my character. 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:32.160 Because I don't want to be one of those stats that we see in the church. 00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:43.759 You know, the interesting thing about the mercy of a divine disruption is we often can only see them in hindsight, can't we? 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:54.720 When I move, look back now in my mid-40s, I'm just like, God, thank you so much for not answering those prayers. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:07.359 I am so grateful for the marriage that I have, the kids that I have as I watch them grow, and the joy of getting to be a pastor and in this community. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:10.000 I am beyond grateful for it. 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:15.280 You saved me from myself, and I didn't even know it. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:17.679 Here's why. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:24.880 God is more committed to who you're becoming than what you're building. 00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:33.920 God is far more committed to who you're becoming than what you're building. 00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:39.599 What if? 00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:48.960 What if the most loving thing God can do is to interrupt what you're building? 00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:59.039 What if just sometimes the most loving thing God can do is not let it work? 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:07.119 Sometimes God lets shelves fall. 00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:12.159 Not because he's cruel or unkind. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:21.679 But he loves you too much to keep you to let you keep building something that can't hold your life. 00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:34.159 As we close, I just want to leave that picture. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:35.840 We've done it before. 00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:37.360 What's your tower? 00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:39.280 What are you building? 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:41.840 What are you holding tight to? 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:57.119 What are the things that if God disrupted, oh we're gonna sing a song, and as we do that, I want you to just maybe have your hands in your lap and just what is that and that visceral clinging of a hand? 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:03.199 And would you by faith in this moment just go, God, I'm going to open it up to you. 00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:11.840 I'm gonna open it up to you, trusting that you are all good, all knowing, all-wise, all kind. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:18.880 No good thing do you withhold from those who love you. 00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:27.360 That you actually do work all things together for the good of those who love you, who are called according to your purpose. 00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:33.199 That is true, and that scripture is in the middle of a lot of hard pain. 00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:37.760 And so, God, would you give me eyes? 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:39.519 God, would you give me eyes? 00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:45.360 God, would you give me eyes to see the mercy of your divine disruption? 00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:47.679 Have your way in me. 00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:51.440 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:56.079 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:58.320 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:04.400 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.