WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:02.720 Good morning, uh Redemption Church. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:04.080 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.240 Uh thanks for having us in your homes. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:10.080 Let's uh go ahead and read the scripture for today. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.359 This is Genesis eleven, verses one through nine. 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:17.519 It says, Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:23.120 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.359 And they said to one another, Come, let us make bitumen for mortar. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:35.520 Come it then they said to one another, Let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly, and they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:45.600 Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:51.600 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, with the children of ma which the children of man had built. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:01:03.280 And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:10.319 Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:16.239 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:26.319 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:28.319 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:30.959 That's what we're going to be getting into this morning. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:38.000 Um before I pray and we begin moving through the text, uh I wanted to go over a couple of announcements that we have. 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:43.519 Uh so first, immediately following this service, we're going to have a Zoom call. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:49.040 So the Zoom link should be in the YouTube notes of this video. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:54.079 So you can just click on that link and it'll take you into our Zoom call. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.840 And we're just going to be taking this time to pray together as a church. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:05.359 It's a great, great way to see each other's faces and to come together and pray during this really strange time in each of our lives. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.159 Um, next, uh, Redemption Kids. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:24.800 If you've been following our YouTube and Instagram and Facebook pages, which I recommend that you do, uh Julie McKendry, our uh kids director, has been posting videos each week uh that uh follow along with to with the message that we're going through each Sunday. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:31.680 And it's a great way to establish a rhythm of family worship during this time, and that there's a craft that you can also do. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:40.719 And uh if you guys are anything like my wife and I, we are always looking for things to keep our kid entertained during this crazy season. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:48.240 Also, uh we're doing a program right now, which we're calling COVID-19 uh just be the church. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:54.719 Now, if you download our app and you tap connect, then you'll see two uh opportunities to sign up. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:01.039 One is if you need help, and one is uh if you feel like you could help in some way. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:10.719 Uh feel free to sign up for both, but I really want to encourage you to sign up uh if you feel like you need help of any kind. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:15.120 So that could be financial, and we'll see if we could become involved. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:21.039 That could be uh that you just lost your job and you're just feeling kind of lost at sea. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:29.120 You could uh just need some prayer because this has been a difficult season to navigate, perhaps in your marriage with all this time together. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:33.759 Uh it's hard to raise your hand and ask for help. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:41.759 But this is such an important time where we're not getting the normal overlap in our lives that we tend to just by gathering together. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:47.280 And uh this will provide the opportunity for us to rally around each other as a church in this season. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:59.840 It's been a real joy to be able to answer those uh folks that have raised their hands up for help and uh to be able to rally around them in prayer and just give a call to connect and pray together. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.719 So please, please uh move in on that uh and sign up at will. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:10.400 Um finally, uh this next week is Holy Week. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:16.879 And uh each year at our church, we do a Good Friday and an Easter service during this week. 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:21.600 Now, our Good Friday service, we aren't going to do a live stream like this. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:34.319 Instead, on Friday, we're going to release at a specified time uh on Friday evening a pre-recorded guided Good Friday reflection that we're putting together. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:38.000 And it's designed to be moved through as a family. 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:57.120 And so uh we're going to be just working through some of the texts that describe the crucifixion and really take this time in your own homes to understand what it really means that the crucifixion has taken place and uh to meditate on those together with your family. 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:02.240 And we're basically going to be providing resources that will allow you to do that. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:13.839 Also, on uh Easter Sunday, which is this coming Sunday, of course, we're not gathering together, but we will be doing a live stream at 9:30 in the morning, just like this. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.560 And I want to encourage you to sign up. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:19.920 Well, you don't have to sign up, but to attend that live stream. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:26.720 And uh normally this is a this is a great season that you can invite friends to church over Easter. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:39.600 Uh it's kind of one of those uh handholds that we still have in the culture where there's sort of this Christian memory where people can attend church over Easter, and we still want to take advantage of that. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.560 So, what we're going to do is provide the link. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:59.439 It's this live YouTube link, and we want you to spread it uh to as many people as you can uh over the course of this next week and consider that a way to invite friends to church that you might have otherwise gotten a chance to, but uh this year, of course, we won't be able to gather together to do that. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:06.160 All right, so that's a lot of announcements uh to say to a camera. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.439 Um thank you for joining us this morning. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:20.399 Um I think it this is, I was looking, and this is our fourth week doing a live stream, and it's a really strange thing uh to be in this new rhythm. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:33.920 Um I think uh you can tell by my mustache that this whole quarantine is going on far longer than any of us expected when we committed to do a no-shave quarantine. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:35.920 And yet here we are. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:41.040 Uh and that's that's probably the least of the changes that we've experienced in our lives. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:47.920 Um but uh with that in mind, let's let's come together in prayer right now. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:07:07.199 Consider the home that you're in, a place that the Lord is attending, and the family that you're with, uh, or the roommates that you're with, or or even if you're alone, that you're with us in spirit, that we can gather together now, and uh it's the same God who's meeting us over through the same word. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.120 So let's pray together. 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:25.360 Holy Father, we pray that you would attend this time, that in your faithfulness and your care towards us, that by your spirit we might hear from your word in a way that really comforts our hearts. 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.519 Lord, that's a small thing for you. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.560 You're not limited by us being apart. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.240 Although, Lord, we long to be together again. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:41.120 We pray that you would attend this time in a unique way. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:42.560 In Jesus' name. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:43.519 Amen. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:48.800 One last bit uh before we get into the sermon. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:57.040 Uh so we think we've worked out uh the kinks that were causing the live stream to um stop streaming. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:07.279 Now, if that uh happens again this Sunday, we're going to uh if it crashes once, we're gonna try and get it up and running one more time. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:12.879 But if it crashes a second time, then just go ahead and move straight to the Zoom conference. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:20.480 And we'll be on the Zoom and we'll move to prayer and then we'll uh record later this sermon and release it later in the week. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:37.679 Um so one crash, stay with us, commit to it, look to the people to your left and to your right and say, okay, we'll try and reload, we'll click refresh again and again after that first crash, and then after the second one, if there is a second one, Lord, if we pray that there is not uh even a first. 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:40.879 But if there is, then just go ahead and jump in on the Zoom call. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:43.840 All right, let's start preaching. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:49.840 This is our last sermon in Genesis and uh for the year. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:00.799 Now in 2021, which there will be one of those, in 2021, we're going to uh move through the next 10 chapters of Genesis, the ones following this one. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:17.840 And at that time, we're gonna look at the lineage of Abraham, who we haven't met yet, and his son Isaac, and uh then his son Jacob, and and that's going to cover the 2021, and then in 2022, we're going to move through Genesis again, and we're gonna move through the story of Joseph. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:28.639 Next week is Easter, and then we're gonna do a series that's really attuned to what we are likely experiencing as a church in a moment like COVID-19. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:40.080 And then over the summer, we're going to be going through the book of James, and then into the fall, we're going to begin a similar march to the way that we're going through Genesis, but through the book of Mark. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:50.960 So uh yeah, that's kind of uh where we are, but for now, it's been such a joy to preach through Genesis, and we're going to wrap up our time in it for the year today. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:56.000 This story that we're moving through is the Tower of Babel story. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:00.639 It's one that you've probably heard and are familiar with, and it's only nine verses long. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.799 Um, but it's an incredibly important story. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.039 So don't let its brevity uh account for how important it is. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:20.559 It this is a story that sets the pattern for how humanity will act apart from God through the rest of Scripture and then into our current day. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:25.600 And so what we see in these nine verses, it's so incredibly dense, but it's so important. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:29.919 Today we're looking really in two categories that we're gonna be thinking of. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:35.919 In the Babel story, we see what the kingdom of earth looks like. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:42.480 What does it mean to be a part of and try and contribute to the kingdom of earth? 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:49.519 Now that's a kingdom that starts in the earth and where we try and build our way up into heaven. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:54.080 We're going to contrast that with the kingdom of heaven. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:11:01.840 And that's the story of the God who comes down from heaven to unite heaven and earth by coming down to us. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.120 One is by our works, one is by grace alone. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:08.559 So let's begin by looking at the kingdom of earth and the story of Babel. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.039 This is Genesis 11, verses 1 through 3. 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:14.960 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:20.960 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:25.679 And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.840 And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:40.960 All right, so after Noah, his sons and their wives, uh, they get off the boat and they start repopulating the earth, just as they were commanded to do. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:42.720 Be fruitful and multiply. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:56.720 And so throughout chapter 10, which we're skipping, it's this list of genealogies and the generations from this family that begin to create a new civilization on the earth, and they're spreading out over the whole earth, just as God had called them to. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.519 But here in this story, we see that they stop. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.240 And they stop spreading at a plain. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:06.399 They found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settle there. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:16.159 Now, this story of being headed towards where God is calling you, and then stopping at a middle ground is a consistent theme that we'll see throughout Scripture. 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:24.159 In fact, it'll take place just in the next chapter, where Abraham and his family set out towards the land of Canaan, but then they stop in Haran. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:36.799 And so when we're stopped at these middle points, we're our ears should perk up and we should think, you know, something probably not very good is going to happen here because there wasn't the follow-through that God had required. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:41.120 So they settle in this plain and they develop a new technology. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:44.240 And the new technology is brick and mortar. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:52.559 They learned that they can uh take some of the land from the plane and they can bake it into these bricks, and then they can stack it and seal it with mortar. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:57.600 And in doing so, they become fascinated by the work of their own hands. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:00.799 And we can see that they're talking about it back and forth to one another. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:03.360 They said to one another, it's the talk of the town. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:06.960 Come, let us make bricks and mortar and think what we can build now. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:13.120 With the discovery of this new technology, our possibilities must be limitless. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:17.440 We become so easily infatuated with technology. 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:30.240 Since the uh COVID-19 pandemic has happened, uh, there was supposed to be one Apple event, and they released a new iPad, iPad Pro during this whole thing. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:43.840 And it there's like videos and commentaries about what this iPad can do, and it's it's amazing how fascinated we can become by these things because what it can do is you can write on it with a pen, and it's just like paper. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:48.799 And it's funny because you know what else is just like writing on paper? 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:55.600 Writing on paper is uh just like writing on paper. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:01.279 But with this new technology, perhaps there's nothing that we cannot do. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:08.799 So they are united in language, in drive, in what they're excited about. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:16.639 This community has become culturally united here, stopped on the plains of Shinar, and out of this unity they develop a plan. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:29.919 In Genesis 11 4, it says, Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:35.919 So the plan, build a city and a tower, and the tower will have its top in the heavens. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.480 And there are two motivations for this plan. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:41.279 Motivation number one is positive. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:43.919 We're gonna make a name for ourselves. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:15:00.480 Once we've established this great city with its top in the heavens, we will always be known as these great people, who everyone who walks on the plane will have to look up at us and we'll look down on them like gods from Mount Olympus look down on humanity. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:13.600 And it's also motivated negatively, uh, which is you know, if we don't do this, then the likely outcome is that we'll be scattered across the earth. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:21.759 And that means that they'll instead of developing a name for themselves, they'll be pushed into obscurity, unknown. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:44.879 Now, it's strange that they're running away from the obscurity of being scattered, because that's precisely the type of movement that God has called them towards, and in fact, had called humanity towards from the very beginning, from Adam and Eve in the garden, where he calls them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:50.000 So that in order to do that, you have to keep spreading out with generation after generation. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:16:00.960 You've got to keep moving out into the whole of the world, because God's intention from the beginning was for that the whole world would be filled with his glory under humanity's dominion. 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:07.600 This is also reiterated again when Noah and his family step off the ark. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:19.039 In Genesis 9, verse 1, which we looked at just last week, it says, And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:26.399 The movement of Babel stands in precise contradiction to what God had called humanity to do. 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:32.320 Now, this shows a competition that is always waging in our hearts. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:55.519 And that's between our own glory and the pursuit of our own our own glory in the famous, the fame of our own names, as compared to what may be obscurity and uh a, to borrow a phrase, a hidden life, as opposed uh, but that seeks the glory of God. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.440 And this competition is always waging in our hearts. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:16.559 What's going to pursue my glory, wherever you happen to find that in, whether it's in the accumulation of your wealth or your identity and your career or those sorts of things, or the glory of God, which may very well result in your obscurity. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:23.759 What's the point of being famous in heaven if you couldn't be famous on earth? 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.480 There's this great moment in uh C.S. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:28.799 Lewis's book, The Great Divorce. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:33.519 Uh, all the moments in that book are great, hence the name. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:58.640 And in The Great Divorce, uh, the main character who's being led through this sort of uh liminal state between heaven and hell, it's a fiction, it's a work of fiction, um sees a woman walking towards him, and she's just she's stunning and surrounded by this incredible entourage of angelic beings and beautiful animals of all kinds, and it's this stunning image. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:10.000 Um and so he says, wow, she must have been really a celebrity or something when she was alive before she came to this uh, you know, post-life place. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:13.680 Uh she must have been some person of great renown. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:18.640 And the guide says to the man, you know, you actually never would have known her. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:28.400 Um she led this humble life in complete obscurity, but she loved everyone that she came in contact with. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:33.599 And she uh she served everyone that she that she had known. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:38.160 And so in heaven, she's this person of incredible fame. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:46.400 Now I love that picture because it shows us so clearly that look, there are two different metrics operating. 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:58.559 There's the kingdom of earth, which calls us to pursue our own glory here and now, and there's the kingdom of heaven, which calls us to seek a better glory, uh, which Lewis provides a great image for. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:06.640 So they commit themselves to build this tower and they begin work on it. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.200 This is the Lord's response, Genesis 11, 5 through 6. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:16.559 And the Lord came down to see the city in the tower which the children of man had built. 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:30.960 And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:38.319 So there's this grand tower that's rising up from the plains of Shinar. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:50.319 But God, notice the language, comes down to see this great tower that rises into the heavens. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:56.720 When he comes down, he sees that the children of men are on this pursuit of their own glory. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:12.720 Now, this language, it's easy for us to slip into this thinking of, oh, they could have done whatever they wanted had God not intervened, and think, oh, God was threatened as some sort of rival by the ingenuity of humanity. 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.799 But that's not what's happening here at all. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:21.039 God comes down to the grandest structure that they could build because he is so far above it. 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:34.559 And when he comes down and intervenes, it is not as though he is intervening to thwart a rival, but rather he sees a child who just inherited a trust fund and they're about to blow it all. 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:43.359 And he says, if I don't come now and intervene, this world of potential that they've just been handed will be squandered. 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:52.079 And so God comes down to restrain their impulses so that their true potential might be shown. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.160 And here's how God restrains it. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:57.440 He does so by frustrating their unity. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:09.440 Genesis 11, 7 through 8, it says, God says, Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:16.160 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:39.680 So the way that God intervenes and restrains them, he takes this grand unity that they had had, unity of language, unity of vision, uh, unity of excitement around their technology, and he disrupts it just by interrupting their language, their ability to communicate with one another. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:55.440 And by that means, he causes them to abandon their goal and to become dispersed over the whole world, creating this grand diversity out of this unity that is against God. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:10.559 Genesis 11 9 says there Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:13.440 So that city did get a name. 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:15.920 They did make a name for themselves. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:25.759 But the name that they received was one of confusion, not of glory, but uh of futility, and of their own sort of slander. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:35.359 Now, out of this story, there are four themes that I want us to look over for the rest of our time together. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:45.920 And these four themes take place in two binaries or two couplets that'll help us examine the difference between the kingdom of earth and the kingdom of heaven. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:53.440 These two couplets are unity and diversity and how those interplay. 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:57.839 And the other is glory and futility. 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:03.759 So unity and diversity coupled together, and then glory and futility. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:07.519 Those are gonna provide the lens through which we're gonna examine this story. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:14.160 So, first, babble through the lens of unity and diversity. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:19.359 What can we learn about these key themes for unity and diversity in the kingdoms of earth? 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:26.079 First of all, for the kingdoms of earth, unity is the highest good. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:30.960 And diversity is the greatest threat. 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:42.319 For the kingdoms of the earth, we are always being called, we can see that for Babel, it's when diversity was introduced, diversity of language, that the whole plan fell apart. 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:47.519 And so they were forced away from this grand vision that they were pursuing. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:50.880 Now, in the kingdoms of Earth, this is always true. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:15.279 That if only we could all get on the same page, if only we could all think about this the same and talk the same, and if only we could all grasp the same vision and then rally around it, then certainly we would be able to overcome this thing and we would be able to rise above our station and build a kingdom that starts on the earth but ends in heaven. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:20.880 You know, if only we could organize, organize, organize, that's how we would get started. 00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:31.839 Now you can see this sort of trend towards the elimination of diversity in the institutions of the world uh as uh as its main threat. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:33.839 So, first an extreme example. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:44.160 Um if you were to kid if you were to meet somebody uh who uh I don't know how you phrase this, worked for ISIS. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:45.680 I don't know. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:47.519 Do they get W-2s? 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:50.319 So probably not. 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:54.400 But if they were enlisted for ISIS, let's go with. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.039 Anyway, they were a part of that whole thing. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.160 Uh and we were to ask them, why are you involved with this movement? 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:04.720 It seems absolutely terrible, you know, causing so much destruction and evil in the world. 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:08.640 They'd say, well, it's towards the end of world peace. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:30.000 Because uh look, once we all get united around this movement, and once we're able to get everyone's minds uh uh into this language and this culture and this aesthetic and this pursuit of the truth of what world peace will be, then we'll finally be able to live in a world that's like heaven on earth now. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:34.240 We'll be able to wrestle down heaven into the world now. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:38.160 So long as we could all be united around that. 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:40.720 See, that's what the language would be. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:46.720 And of course, you know, it it's a simple example because with Islam it's particularly true. 00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:50.000 You know, the language is one language. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:56.400 It doesn't matter where you visit Islam in the world, it's one language, it's one dress, it's one aesthetic. 00:25:56.559 --> 00:26:00.799 You know, the country with the with the most Muslims in the world is Indonesia. 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:06.799 Um and that that's in uh like uh just off the South China Sea. 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:18.319 But there uh in in Indonesia, the dress looks Middle Eastern, it looks Arabic, and that's because the culture gets exported with the religion. 00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:30.720 That's that same drive towards we've got to get rid of the diversity, which is the threat to our movement, and we've got to focus uh solely on unity. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.960 And it's after that we achieve this unity we'll be able to have our peace. 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:39.119 Now it's not a unique that's not unique to Islam in any way. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:27:09.359 It's the it's the Christian missionary movements of the uh of the 19th and 20th centuries that mistook are that mistook the Enlightenment's project of world peace under the banner of reason for the Christian project of world peace under the banner of Christ and Christ as King. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:29.680 And so when we think we're exporting just the story of the gospel, in retrospect, we're also exporting this sort of bra this sort of dry rationality and a materialistic worldview that denies the existence of any real meaningful spiritual realm. 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:38.559 And in the same time, we began sowing the seeds of the dry rationalism that leads to our modern-day atheism. 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:49.119 And that's because we were driving towards a cultural unity, fearing any sort of real cultural diversity. 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:54.880 Because to the kingdoms of the earth, cultural diversity is the enemy. 00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:01.119 Now, in Babel, unity felt intrinsically good. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:07.119 And I think to us, it just the word unity feels intrinsically good. 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:14.880 But unity, this story shows us, should be thought of as a subordinate good. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:17.279 Unity can be good. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:22.640 But what matters is what you're united around. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:27.759 Unity is like the word faith, it requires an object. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:40.400 So if you're united around something that's truly positive, truly the ultimate good, then your unity will be shown to be a good thing. 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:52.960 But if you're united around the wrong thing, the pursuit of your own glory, then you will see that unity is a subordinate good. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:58.079 The question is, what is the object of your unity? 00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:05.440 If you're united around the wrong thing, then it's a time to that a disunity would prove itself good. 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:15.839 Okay, so we see that the kingdoms of the earth, like Babel, unity is the highest good, and diversity is to be done away with. 00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:19.200 Now, glory and futility. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:27.839 In Babel, the story is glory is something that we can make for ourselves. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:45.519 Glory is something that if we start here on the ground, right where we are, we'll be able to build a tower that reaches us all the way up to the heavens, and then we will receive our glory, our glory from that, and we'll avoid the futility of our own obscurity by doing that. 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:52.960 But this is a misunderstanding of what glory is, what a true eternal glory is. 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:58.799 Glory is not something that humans can make. 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:03.440 Glory is something that we receive. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:07.440 Glory is something that's given to us. 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:13.039 Heaven is not the type of place that you can build your way into, starting from here. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:17.839 It's not the type of place that your efforts finally accumulate and you get there. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:25.599 Remember, when Adam and Eve leave the garden, the cherubim is set in place to guard their re-entry into it. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:30.960 And in the same way, heaven and earth are guarded apart. 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:37.680 In our sin, we cannot build our glory into that heavenly place. 00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:42.000 You simply can't get there from here. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:58.000 Now, over this past month, we've really been introduced to a sort of uh immediacy uh that we can experience in uh the futility of our efforts. 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:04.640 It can seem, I think for many that are in such difficult positions of hearing of job loss. 00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:15.440 Um, I heard a phrase this past week and it's kind of a reference to what we were studying in Noah when he sends out the birds. 00:31:16.400 --> 00:31:30.799 And I was listening to one of the countless um musicians that I like doing some Instagram live concert, and he was describing this moment, and he said, Where's a bird to land? 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:40.160 And I was thinking of friends that have just lost jobs and have got to be thinking, like, where's a bird to land right now? 00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:43.839 I'm flying around, but where do I apply? 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:50.160 Um and uh what's is there going to be a final resting place? 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:56.319 Or if you're nearing retirement and all of a sudden that's dried up and you're thinking, where's a bird to land? 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:09.440 And I I think that we are in a time where the waters will recede, uh, dry land will show itself again, but right now I think it feels like the flood is just surrounding us. 00:32:09.599 --> 00:32:11.920 And the question is, where is a bird to land? 00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:31.519 But look, even if you lose nothing in uh because of this virus or because of the circumstances that we find ourselves in now, at some point futility finds its way into our lives. 00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:39.279 There is a true equalizer, which is that all of our lives culminate in death. 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:41.359 And they really do. 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:51.039 They will come to an end, and and everyone that you know will be gone one day, and you will be as well. 00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:58.079 So those things that we build seem to just go away. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:05.599 You know, there's that great poem from Percy Shelley, and you realize that's only one of two Percy's that I know. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:08.960 The other is from uh Thomas the Train. 00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:11.519 There's a Percy in that as well. 00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:18.240 Uh so the Thomas the Train one in Percy Shelley, this poem was not written by the train. 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:21.279 Just so we're clear. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:34.480 When the room is silent, it feels exactly the same uh as when I tell these jokes and we're all here, just so we're on the same page, which is important to be unified. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:35.519 Okay. 00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:40.160 Now this is the the last half of the short poem. 00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:53.599 And it begins in a traveler is moving through an antique land and happens upon the remnants of this statue, which are now just the the bottom part of the legs that are jutting out of the desert sands. 00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:57.119 And they're standing on a pedestal. 00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:00.319 Now, here's the last bit of the poem now that you've got the scene. 00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:03.680 And on the pedestal, these words appear. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.039 That's what was inscribed. 00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:17.119 Now look at the setting. 00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:20.320 Nothing beside remains. 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:29.679 Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away. 00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:37.039 I just think, like, what a great picture of Babel. 00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:55.360 The lone and level sands that stretch far away could just as well be the plains of Shinar, with the remnants of this building, of humanity's futile attempt to try and climb from where we are now up to heaven by the work of our own hands. 00:34:56.239 --> 00:35:17.199 And when we see that something as small as a virus that none of us can even look at can bring the world to a grinding halt, then it can seem like the rational thing to conclude is that all is futile. 00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:30.400 And all those efforts that we had put into building the world and bringing this creation into greater fruitfulness, that all those efforts really, when it comes down to it, they're just futile. 00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:43.119 But look, it would be wrong for us to gather that the futility of the kingdoms of the earth means that all is futile. 00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:51.199 Yes, it is futile to try and build from where we are, to try and make it in heaven as it is on earth. 00:35:51.760 --> 00:36:14.320 But it is not futile to receive the kingdom from God, which comes from heaven into the earth, and is moving from heaven into the earth even now when we are surrounded by the futility that we see around us in a circumstance just like this. 00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:18.880 Let's switch to the kingdom of heaven. 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:31.760 You know, a long time after the story of Babel, there was another group gathered together in unity. 00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:40.480 And upon that group, God descended in just the same way. 00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:48.000 And when he descended, he caused them all to speak different languages. 00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:59.920 And when he caused them all to speak different languages, it was for the purpose that they would scatter over the whole face of the earth. 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:02.480 But there's one key difference. 00:37:03.519 --> 00:37:12.960 At this time, they were not proclaiming the glories of their own hands, but they were proclaiming the mighty works of God. 00:37:14.400 --> 00:37:17.199 The announcement of a kingdom that would never end. 00:37:17.679 --> 00:37:20.400 Now, the day that I'm talking about is Pentecost. 00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:38.559 And that's where we see just this perfect opposite to Babel, where the apostles are gathered together in a room, and God descends, and he sends the Holy Spirit upon the church, and so they receive tongues that are of fire, and people gathered from all over the world begin speaking in their own native tongues. 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:44.079 Now, I'll I'll read it to you here because I want the diversity to shock you. 00:37:44.800 --> 00:38:11.679 Acts 2, 9 through 11, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadacia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. 00:38:12.559 --> 00:38:24.719 An earlier verse, as they're all shouting in their own native languages, the types of languages that were birthed at Babel, the diversity that brought the kingdom of earth to a halt. 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:33.920 They now stand hearing these languages, proclaiming in unity the mighty works of God, and they're bewildered once again. 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.400 Remember, Babel is called confusion. 00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:44.639 And here they're confused once again, but they're not confused because they can't understand each other. 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:47.280 They're confused because they can. 00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:58.880 Aren't all these people from all these different cities that speak all these different languages, they're proclaiming in their own native tongues, and yet I understand them. 00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:00.079 I hear them. 00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:10.239 And so the diversity of the kingdom of heaven becomes the demonstration of the transcendent unity of God. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:20.000 That in in a group that's united around the mighty works of God, there is no diversity that can thwart it. 00:39:20.159 --> 00:39:28.239 In fact, that diversity that is to the shame of the kingdoms of the earth is to the glory of the kingdom of heaven. 00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:38.400 So let's look at it this way: Unity and diversity. 00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:43.920 For the kingdoms of the earth, unity is the unquestioned good, and diversity is fearful. 00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:54.719 In fact, even our conversations around the positive nature of diversity are crafted in such a way to prioritize an ideological unity. 00:39:55.039 --> 00:40:09.920 So long as you think of diversity in this way and you interpret everything through the lens of power and oppression, and that's the only available framework for us to understand or interpret the world, then you can be united with me around the cause of diversity. 00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:21.360 That's because to the kingdoms of the earth that don't have something as high as God to rally around, diversity is always the threat. 00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:37.760 But to the kingdom of heaven, diversity is the very means that God uses to show the higher unity of being united around God. 00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:52.639 Diversity of experience, diversity of race and gender, these things all unite to demonstrate the glory of the unity of the kingdom of heaven. 00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:57.599 And glory in futility. 00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:06.880 In the kingdoms of the earth, this is the final point that I really want you to hear. 00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:20.400 In the kingdoms of the earth, when what we make is brought to a grinding halt, then our glory is brought to a grinding halt. 00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:31.440 But in the kingdom of heaven, whatever you make for his glory will last forever. 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:44.719 This is not something that I can point to and show you how this works any more than I could point to the resurrection and say, look, this is how resurrection happens. 00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.039 It's not that type of thing. 00:41:47.280 --> 00:41:54.400 And that's because the kingdom of heaven is not the type of thing that we build up from our component parts into some whole. 00:41:55.440 --> 00:42:01.039 But it's the type of thing that comes down from heaven and is to be received. 00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:12.320 So how is it that the company that you were just starting on and trying to get moving and now all of a sudden is brought to a halt and may never come up again? 00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:19.599 How is it that that effort, if it was done for the Lord, could be considered to have to be not happening in vain? 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:22.800 When you can look and say, look, it didn't happen. 00:42:23.039 --> 00:42:24.639 It must be vanity. 00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:31.280 How can we by faith trust that it will last forever in the kingdom of heaven? 00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:34.480 In the same way that we trust in the resurrection? 00:42:35.119 --> 00:42:40.559 That from dead things, God brings forth life. 00:42:41.280 --> 00:42:49.679 If our only hope is in the kingdom of the earth, then when we are brought to a grinding halt, our hope and our glory is brought to a grinding halt. 00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:51.840 But we have a better kingdom. 00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:59.599 We have one that believes in resurrection, which means that in this kingdom, we have nothing to lose. 00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:06.559 There is nothing that you could give up for the sake of the kingdom of heaven that won't be stored for you eternally. 00:43:06.800 --> 00:43:12.800 And there is nothing that you could build for the kingdom of heaven that won't survive any loss here. 00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:18.320 And so how do we move in a world that is shouting at us constantly its futility? 00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:27.199 We move by setting our eyes on the gospel, which shows us that how does the world really function? 00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:28.719 How is it really redeemed? 00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:30.320 By resurrection. 00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:33.920 Resurrection is a theme. 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:39.119 We'll get to more next Sunday, which is Easter. 00:43:42.079 --> 00:43:48.719 So then there's this last question that we should entertain. 00:43:50.639 --> 00:43:52.239 Well, then how do we get? 00:43:53.360 --> 00:43:58.880 How do we get to that kingdom of heaven when we're actually operating in it? 00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:11.519 How could it be that us who are who are trapped by the futility of the world could actually enter the kingdom of heaven? 00:44:13.599 --> 00:44:15.840 Well, that's precisely what Christ did. 00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:33.119 In Colossians 1, 13 through 14, it says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:38.880 Christian, you may not have known this. 00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:49.280 But all of those losses that you're experiencing right now, you've been transferred to the kingdom of heaven. 00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:51.760 You won't lose them. 00:44:53.119 --> 00:45:01.280 The hope that you are having to defer of what you thought the rest of this year would look like, maybe the rest of this decade would look like. 00:45:02.159 --> 00:45:06.800 Know that in the kingdom of heaven you'll never miss out on those things. 00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:12.320 So that means that in a time like this, we live generously. 00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:21.119 We live w on sort of the limits of this risk that we can take, knowing that we'll never miss out. 00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:24.079 Because the kingdom is still coming. 00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:31.360 I hope that the resurrection itself becomes a deep comfort for your heart in a time like this. 00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:45.199 And that when the reality of the futility of the kingdoms we're surrounded by exposes themselves, that your heart might be drawn towards the unshakable kingdom, which by faith in Christ you can rest in. 00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:47.760 All right. 00:45:55.360 --> 00:45:56.000 Yeah. 00:45:57.440 --> 00:46:01.679 Who all is God talking to when he says, Come, let us go down? 00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:02.880 Okay, great question. 00:46:03.119 --> 00:46:06.800 So uh I'm sure this is on a lot of people's minds. 00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:08.079 Probably not. 00:46:08.239 --> 00:46:11.360 Whoever asked this question, this was probably only on your mind. 00:46:11.840 --> 00:46:15.440 But uh a couple of different thoughts. 00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:18.320 And I think that at some level all of these are true. 00:46:18.559 --> 00:46:27.599 One, it in the Hebrew language, a way of demonstrating the glory of God was for him to speak in plural. 00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:34.400 Um uh so you know, it's kind of a royal we, if you will. 00:46:34.719 --> 00:46:40.079 Um secondly, uh he could have also been talking to the heavenly hosts. 00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:50.480 Uh so God is constantly surrounded by the angels of heaven, and he is articulating to them his plan so that they might glory in them and enjoy them and worship him because of them. 00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:53.440 Uh and so God could have been speaking to the heavenly host. 00:46:53.599 --> 00:46:56.239 He could have perhaps used the angels to confuse their languages. 00:46:56.400 --> 00:47:06.559 And finally, we know that uh God presents himself to us not as uh uh he presents himself to us as one God, but as three persons. 00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:21.199 And as three persons, for God to refer to himself in this inner dialogue that he has between the persons of the Trinity, between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it would not be strange for us to see that he's speaking in terms of a we. 00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:26.960 So I want to make that practical so that there's something practical to take away from this. 00:47:28.159 --> 00:47:38.239 Uh when you're reading scripture, uh those types of understandings develop as the story goes along. 00:47:39.519 --> 00:47:52.880 If you had only had Genesis up till now, then you would think, oh, the we is just a royal we, because we haven't really been introduced to the host of heaven, uh, and certainly not to the Trinity. 00:47:54.000 --> 00:48:03.039 But as you continue reading and the view of Scripture begins to open up and you begin to see the world of the Bible more clearly. 00:48:03.119 --> 00:48:14.480 Then you see, oh, this royal we likely also has this meaning of him speaking to the host of heaven, because he lives surrounded by angels in the heavens, uh, constantly proclaiming his own glory. 00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:31.039 And then as the scripture continues, you would see, oh, this we in the back was the seeds of this truth about God that has been true for all eternity, which is that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existing in community forever. 00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:36.159 Us created in his image, that must be why we are such communal types of beings. 00:48:36.400 --> 00:48:47.840 You see how as you develop in the story, your understanding of even something as simple as the plurality of God's self-reference uh begins to grow in its beauty and magnitude. 00:48:50.719 --> 00:48:52.960 That's a good type of kingdom to be a part of. 00:48:53.199 --> 00:48:56.320 One that the deeper you look at it, the more glory you see. 00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:03.360 Now let's go ahead and we're going to move into a time of family prayer. 00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:09.119 Uh so take this time, and we're going to remember this verse while we do it. 00:49:09.199 --> 00:49:11.360 This is 2 Chronicles 7, 14 to 15. 00:49:11.440 --> 00:49:21.760 It says, If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:27.360 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:35.280 Now that was a promise given by God at the uh inauguration of the of Solomon's temple. 00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:41.360 But in the New Testament, it is his church that is described as his temple. 00:49:41.519 --> 00:49:47.840 And Paul says, uh, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.480 Now that's true of that's true of you, Christian. 00:49:52.880 --> 00:50:01.519 And so that means that God's ear is ever attentive to our prayer, his eye is always set upon us, and when we turn to him, he always hears us. 00:50:01.679 --> 00:50:20.480 So no matter where we are, scattered as we are today, let's uh take him at his word and let's pray together as a family that we would seek his kingdom, and that in seeking his kingdom we might be more generous and more loving through this time where our city really needs that. 00:50:20.639 --> 00:50:22.639 Uh, let's pray these things together.