Our Problem Lived Out: Babel

How you guys doing?

Well, that's terrible.

It's like three people.

How you guys doing?

Yeah, it was a great day to be here with you guys.

So my name is Tobin.

I'm one of the teachers here, pastors.

And I have a problem.

It's this massive problem.

Struggle with this darkness inside of me.

Sometimes I don't see the darkness.

Sometimes I just go on and think I'm doing okay.

The darkness is hidden.

But I know it's there because it's looking for little opportunities to jump out and to grab me and to change me.

I've said over and over again that one of my biggest struggles is being a dad.

I mean, I feel like I'm very teachable as a parent.

I mean, I feel like I'm trying to figure out what does it mean to be a dad and a husband and all these things.

And reading books and asking questions.

And I realize as often as a dad that the darkness comes out.

I really blew it last night.

So we had got this little thing that we wanted to do as a couple.

And we started doing it maybe last Christmas as a family.

And we'd watch movies on Saturday nights.

And we'd watch them and then we would discuss them.

And almost all the movies are hallmark movies.

And they're talking about, you know, usually someone gets a divorce or their spouse dies.

And then someone comes in to the back door.

And there's these four kids that are out of control.

And then they find this perfect relationship.

And within an hour and a half everything's fixed and it's perfect.

And we watch it.

And then we discuss it with our kids afterwards.

But one of the things I realized really quickly is that, and I think it's the curse of technology,

all of our components don't fit, right?

You buy something new and then you have to upgrade the other thing.

And it's, you women know what I'm talking about.

Like when you do accessories or you buy a new dress, you can't just use the old shoes.

You've got to buy new shoes and new hats and all these things.

Clarissa's back there shaking her head.

Everybody, I'm catching here.

And so I realized that we can't get sound.

So I'm trying to communicate between my Mac and this Samsung TV.

And it's just worthless.

I might as well just buy a computer that Samsung has copied from Mac and allow them to use and connect.

Because then you'll at least have two quasi-Samsung, you know, things working together.

And so I've tried everything.

I've tried cords and cables.

And we just sit really close to the computer and we're listening to the speakers of the computer

trying to figure out what's going on.

And so finally I said, okay, I got it down.

And so I did all this research and found out a way to do a Bluetooth speaker to our computer.

And we'll have it behind us and we can listen to it.

And I'm like, this is going to be great.

The kids are going to be excellent.

And their kids are going to be like, praise dad.

I'm going to build this monument to me as a dad, right?

I'm making a name for myself as a dad.

And it's going to be amazing because once we can finally hear music without sitting two inches from the computer,

everybody's like, hallelujah.

You are so great.

You are great.

And so we get to this place where last night was that night.

So I get everything set up and get this, you know, I did all this research and got this,

and it wasn't a cheap Bluetooth thing, but it was, you know, it's okay.

And this would get the job done.

It will work.

And charge it up.

And we got down there and we sat down.

And, okay, so here's the moment of truth.

Praise the Lord.

Praise dad.

And I turned on the computer and we turned on the speaker.

And Christina's looking at me and we're syncing them.

And they sync.

And as the sound starts in the computer and on the screen, the speaker right beside us goes,

and Kiki looks at me and goes, who farted?

For the Chinese.

And he said, someone run from Pima, you know, and so, and I'm like, what?

This is the great moment.

This is the moment where everything's going to be good and I'm going to get praise.

I'll make my name great.

I'm going to build this monument.

And so I said, there must be something wrong.

And I reset it and I set it up again and we're going to play it again and turn on the computer

and put the speaker right beside it and turn it on and, I mean, it makes this incredibly,

I don't know if I could say pass gas or fart in the church, but I did.

And so it is, and all my kids are laughing, right?

They just think it's the greatest thing.

Hey, can we go buy some more of these things?

Because I want to give them to my friends.

Because what a great machine.

It makes farting noises when you turn it on.

And I'm just sitting there like, okay, my idol is falling down and my name is becoming,

instead of the dad who fixes the sound, I'm the dad who farts or makes a fart machine, right?

And so my kids are laughing and they love it and they just think it's the greatest thing.

And inside, I'm just, I'm dying.

I mean, I'm furious.

Like, okay, I did all this research.

I got all this stuff.

I spent all this money.

I mean, I want to go back today and I take that speaker to those guys and just say,

I cannot tell you how disappointed I am right now.

But I'm just, and I'm dying and I'm walking away and I'm so angry.

Because I had all these great expectations, all these things and all these praises.

And dad, you really came through for us.

And basically what I felt like was this loser written on me.

And I had to get up the next day, today, and preach a sermon.

And I have all this anger and frustration because I wanted to be made great and make my name great

and my kids love me and I felt like a failure, a struggle, the darkness, the shadow,

the shadow that's in there and it comes out when I least expect it.

When I want to be made great, it comes out and makes me about that tall.

You ever felt the shadow?

You ever felt the struggle?

You ever done something so perfect and so righteous and you're expecting this amazing response

and all of a sudden it's just...

Why did I share that story?

Yeah, I don't know.

We'll get back to it later on.

So, we are, if you are here, we are looking at this thing called God's story and our story.

And we're looking at the Bible as one story because sometimes we realize that we come to the Bible

and we look at it as a whole bunch of different small stories.

And when we get these small stories and don't see this big story, we get lost.

But the Bible is actually this huge story and at the center of this story, there's just one hero.

And I think we get confused sometimes because we think that the Bible is about us,

but the Bible is really about God and he's the one who is the hero.

And as we look at him in this story, we realize a lot about us.

Now, if you're new to Watermark, I'm going to say it out here right now,

that we believe that the Bible is God's inspired word to us.

We believe that it's the instruction manual for life.

It's better than Oprah.

It's better than Dr. Phil.

If you come to us and you're having struggles, one of the first things we'll probably say as a staff

is not how you're feeling or how you're doing, but we might say,

have you looked into God's word?

And what does God's word say to you?

It's timeless.

It's wisdom.

Again, it's wiser than Bloomberg and Kramer and Morningstar if you want to order your life and be successful.

So we've been looking through this story of God's story and our story,

and we're still in the book of Genesis because those first 11 chapters of Genesis are just massive.

They are the foundation for everything we're going to do from here on out as God's people

as we read these next series here.

And remember that Genesis is written by Moses.

So Moses had just taken the people out of Egypt.

They had been in bondage in Egypt for 400 years.

They had been building towers and monuments with brick and stone, I mean with stone and just great stuff.

And they're heading out of Egypt, and they're heading to this promised land.

It's not Texas.

That is one of the promised lands.

But it's, you're supposed to laugh, guys, come on.

But it's Canaan, and Moses is writing them.

He's writing these stories of God, and God is the hero,

to remind them as they go into this new land,

and they go on this new journey of God's faithfulness and of our struggles.

The first five books of the Bible, if you're Jewish, we call them the Torah.

It's the law and the prophets and the histories.

If you're here at Watermark, we just call them the Pentateuch.

We call them the Pentateuch, meaning five, right?

And Tuch, meaning toque.

It doesn't really mean toque.

It means scrolls.

And so we're looking at these five scrolls,

and we're basically saying that all of these things are just one book.

And two weeks ago, we looked at Genesis 1 and 2.

And in Genesis 1 and 2, we looked at the creation story,

and we saw that God has existed from eternity,

that he's within a trinity.

He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And they have been communing and fellowshipping together from eternity past,

and they get together, and they create.

They create everything that's here, everything that you see now,

the potential for it, it's been created by God.

And after each creative act, God said it was good.

And he looked at it, and he said, it's good.

And we learned that God established his rule, his authority.

He gave us his word.

He created a place.

He created a garden.

We call it Eden.

And finally, he makes people.

He made us in his image.

You and I are unique.

We would say that each one of us has God's DNA and fingerprint on us.

We would say that each one of us has God's watermark on us.

And we see in the passage that God created us for community.

We also see that you and I are meant to live within relationships,

that single and by ourselves, without relationships,

is not God's plan for us.

God means for us to be in community and in relations with others.

Last week, we looked at Genesis 3,

and we saw this breaking of this relationship with God.

We call it the fall in the Bible.

It's in Eden, and God brings the couple, Adam and Eve, into the garden,

and he gives them everything, but he commands them not to eat out of one tree.

He says, just don't eat out of this certain tree.

He gives them a choice.

He gives them a choice.

Are we going to trust him?

Are we going to trust that he's good?

Are we going to trust that he has our best at heart?

Are we going to trust that he's going to take care of us?

I mean, he gave them everything, and he also gives them freedom of choice.

And he's asking them, he's asking us, do we want to be in community with him?

Do we want to be his people, or do we not want to be?

And we saw that the couple disobeyed God.

They doubted God's goodness.

Eve struggled with this question that you and I, if we're honest,

we struggle with probably more than one time a day.

And the question is, can I really trust God to look out for me?

Is God really good?

Will he really do good for me?

Or do I need to do good for myself?

And when Eve struggled with this question internally and by herself,

not talking to anybody, not even talking to God about this,

she said no.

And she sought to find her identity apart from God.

She ate the fruit.

And we see that man quickly followed them.

And the passage says that our sin, our parents, our first parents,

they sinned, and when they sinned in creation, in this perfection,

that everything was twisted.

Everything became broken.

Everything became shadowy.

Our view of God was broken.

Our relationship with God was broken.

And if our relationship with our Creator is broken,

then if we see God and we don't see Him right,

then we're not going to see ourselves right.

How we see ourselves is broken.

Because we measure everything by God.

That's the way we are made to be.

And if we can't see ourselves properly,

we don't understand ourselves,

then we don't see other people around us,

and we don't deal with other people like God meant for us to be

because we're twisted and we're broken and we have these shadows.

And if we don't see God and we don't see ourselves and we don't see others,

then we surely don't see creation the way God meant for it to be.

And all of these things, as we look around in God's Word,

they're tainted and they're changed and it's broken.

And instead of getting this massive blessing that our first parents thought they were going to get,

they actually got this curse.

And we saw last week that God, He pursued them,

and they tried to hide, but He kept coming after them.

He kept trying to bring grace,

and there was punishment for disobedience.

And He pronounces punishment,

but right afterwards,

He covers them.

He covers them with these animal skins.

It's the first blood sacrifice

in the history of the history.

He kills these animals,

and blood is shed,

and the skin is put on them

so that their guilt

and their nakedness

could be covered

so that God,

in fellowship with God,

can be restored.

And we see for the first time last week

that this announcement of the first gospel,

it begins in Genesis.

It's the first good news.

And what we hear

in this idea of ultimate grace

is that God is going to,

through this woman,

bring up a Savior,

a man who will be born

to save us from the curse

that we receive from our first parents.

And then what we see

in the passage from last week

is they were sent out of Eden.

They were sent out of God's place.

They were sent out of God's blessing.

They were removed from the land

that God specifically made for them,

for us.

And from that point on,

we see there's a symbolism in God's word

that whenever we go east,

whenever we go east,

it's a symbol of that we're leaving God.

We're leaving blessings.

We're leaving His grace.

We're trying to pursue blessings on our own.

We're saying that He's not good.

We need to do it.

We want to make a name for ourselves.

We want to build a tower to our fatherhood.

And what we see for the next eight chapters

is that mankind just kind of spirals.

And if we could draw it on this board,

we'd be going down and down and down.

And we're going farther east from God

and farther east.

And God is pursuing us.

And we're trying to fix ourselves.

We're trying to get rid of the curse.

We're trying to find blessing.

We're trying to get our own identity.

We're trying to say this is who I am.

And we try to do it in things.

And what the passage says,

that the world gets worse and worse and worse

and sin and shame and guilt and depravity

and envy and self-centeredness and wickedness abound.

And the world is not good.

Adam and Eve go off.

And in chapter four,

we see they have these two sons.

The first one's name is Cain.

And his name actually means successful and productive.

The second son's name is Abel.

And his name means weak, vapor, nobody.

I mean, you can already guess who's the favorite son, right?

And we're told that both of these boys

have fellowship with God.

And one day, they bring this offering to God.

And God, we're told, notices Abel's offering

because it's in faith.

Abel's a shepherd.

And he brings the first fruit of his flock.

We're going to come back to this later on,

but the first fruit is this idea that it's the best.

It's the very first.

It'd be like when you get a paycheck,

whatever you're giving,

whoever you give to your parents or your church

or whatever that looks like,

you give the first fruit,

it means you're giving the biggest chunk,

the very first thing to whoever you're giving it to.

With this idea that no matter what happens,

even if things get hard,

Abel knew that God was going to take care of him

because he was worshiping the Lord.

We're seeing that Abel gave these fat portions.

It's this idea of the best.

Now, today, we don't like to talk about fat,

but in that day, fat was really important

because people were starving to death.

And the fatty parts were the best parts.

And so we see that Abel gave the first fruits

and he gave the best,

and this pleased the Lord

because he was trusting God to take care of him,

even if a need should happen.

And the passage says that Cain came

and he just kind of gave some leftovers.

Cain's a farmer and he brings this fruit.

And it's kind of like he would look at the end of the month

and whatever was left,

he just gave it to God or his parents

or whoever he's giving these things to.

It's almost like this attitude of,

I don't really need it anyway,

so I might as well give it to God

because I can do without it

because I have enough saved up.

And Cain gets angry

because his brother finds favor in God's eyes

and Cain is jealous of his brother's

spiritual relationship with God.

And the passage tells us that God steps in

and he warns Cain.

He begs with him.

He pleads him.

He says, hey, this thing called sin,

it's at your door.

It's wanting to consume you.

It's sitting there.

And in this passage,

it's the first time this idea of sin,

the word is actually used in all the Bible.

That this sin is crouching.

It's like this lion.

It's trying to hide.

It doesn't want to look important.

It wants you to come over and play with it

and touch it and hang out with it

because you don't think it's going to hurt you

like we do all the time.

And God is warning him in his grace,

don't get near it.

Don't be quiet

because if you go by it,

it's going to jump on you

and it's going to consume you.

But Cain doesn't listen to God.

And Cain allows the anger

and frustration to come up

and we're told that he takes his brother

into this field and he kills him.

And we see this passage

in the story of mankind

is out of control

and it's kind of rolling around

and in the midst of this world

we see these two principles

continually colliding with each other.

And the first principle is that God,

that sin is always present in our lives.

That there's always this darkness

that we're going to struggle with this.

I know we don't like to talk about sin in here.

I've had people come to me

and say,

I don't want to talk about sin.

I just want to,

okay, I'm a sinner, that's great,

but let's move on

and I don't want to deal with sin.

But the Bible deals with sin a lot.

And so we see in this story of mankind

that sin is always present in our life

and we're always going to struggle

with pride and jealousy and fear

and anger and lust and envy.

And God says,

be careful because it wants to consume you.

It wants to destroy you.

And like in the garden

with our parents,

as parents,

we're always going to have this struggle

with doubting God's goodness.

We're going to wonder,

is God really for me?

And because of that,

you and I,

we're going to want to build our identity

apart from God.

Because who knows what God's going to do,

but I know what I'm going to do.

And so we go on this journey

of building our identity apart from God.

We try to prove ourselves.

We try to make a name for ourselves.

We try to make our names great.

So here's a question.

I'm going to stop the story here.

Where are you in this story?

What are you trying to grab onto today

to prove yourself?

What is there in your life

that you're depending upon

for your identity?

What is there that if it was taken away from you

that your world would fall apart?

What do you try to do

to make yourself great apart from God?

For some of us,

it's being the best.

For some of us,

it's being the first.

For some of us,

it's being the wisest.

For some of us,

it's being the richest.

For some of us,

it's just having whatever we need

because we want that.

For some of us,

it's relationships.

But the question for us today

is what are we basing our identity on?

Because it's this struggle

that's going on around us

and it's been going on

throughout Scripture

and we're going to see it played out

over and over again

in God's word

and in our lives

as we continue to go to that.

The second thing we see

is that God,

even though sin

and we're struggling with it,

God is always there.

But God is pursuing His people

that He's showing Himself to us.

He's helping us see

the shadows in our life.

He's pointing to our heart

like He did with Cain

and with Adam and Eve

and with everybody since then.

He's showing us our need for Him.

God comes to Cain

and again,

He passes judgment on him.

But He also brings grace.

And if you go back

and read it this week,

I encourage you to

because I'm just flying

through these things

just to give us

a little taste of it.

But it says that God

gives him a sign.

You know,

I used to think

and I grew up thinking

it meant a mark

that there was some kind

of scar on him

that separated him

and made him not

because Cain,

Cain wasn't even worried

about his brother he killed.

Cain was more worried

about people killing him

when they found out.

And God just took him

where he was at

and we're told here

that God gives him

this sign,

this sign

that will protect him

from people around him.

It's a sign of mercy

and sign of grace.

The word is the exact same word

that God uses

for the rainbow

and the flood.

It's the exact same word

that God uses

for this idea

of circumcision.

He gives him

some kind of sign

of his grace

and mercy

that separates him

from all people

and they realize

that God's fingers

are upon him

and God is protecting him.

So we have this struggle

with sin and fighting

and we have this idea

of God coming in

and he's pursuing us

and he's bringing grace

and he's talking to us.

He's talking to us

through his word,

through nature,

through our friends,

through his spirit

and in our heart

and the question is

what are we going to do

with that?

Are we going to take that?

And what we see

in the last couple chapters

before chapter 11

is things just get worse.

I mean things start

to spiral down

and down

and down

and in Genesis 6-11

God basically says

that the whole earth

is corrupt.

He says there's not

a person in the earth

at that time

that has a thought

towards him.

There's no one

who wants to know God.

They're all wanting

to know themselves

and to build up

their selves

and build up their reputation

and build up their idols

and the corruption

is so bad

that God says

okay it has to come

to an end

and so he sends

this massive flood

to destroy the corruption

but before he does it

he saves one man,

Noah.

And so he brings Noah

into this ark

and into this covenant

relationship

and it doesn't say

that Noah was holy,

that he was perfect,

that he was good,

he was even seeking God.

All it says is

for some reason

God had mercy on him.

Pure grace was poured out

and he starts over

and so Noah goes in

and everything's wiped out

and Noah comes out

and as you see

in the very first part

of your passage

again God gives Noah

the same command

that he gave Adam and Eve

and that command is

for them to be fruitful

and multiply

and fill the earth.

But when you read

the story of Noah

and we're going to come back

to it later on

you see this idea

that the brokenness

and the shadows

are still there

and things aren't better,

they get worse

and within a very short time

mankind starts

to fall apart again.

We start walking

east from God,

we start walking away

from God's blessing,

we start walking away

from God's favor,

we're trying to build

our own name,

our own reputation,

we're trying to build

a tower

and a city

for ourselves

and corruption

is everywhere

and in the midst

of God's story

God continues

to pursue,

God continues

to pursue,

God continues

to pursue

and he comes in

and he pursues us

even when we mock him,

even when we laugh at him,

even when we don't want him,

God's mercy

and his grace

and his love

pursues his people.

Does that make sense?

Does that make sense?

You're all very quiet.

So we come to the passage today

and I'm just going to look through it

and I want us again

to see two things

or these two threads

and the first thread

is found in verses

one through four

and what we're going to see

is that mankind

continually spirals

and gets corrupt

and falls farther away from God

and we're moving east

away from God,

we're moving into sin,

we're moving into self-righteousness,

we're moving into ourself

and the second thing

we're going to see

is that God continues

to pursue us,

verse five through nine.

We fall away,

we run away,

God pursues,

God extends grace

and that's one of the threads

throughout all the Bible

and if we miss this,

we miss God's incredible act

and remember that the idea

that he wanted us to do

was to go out

and to multiply

and fill the earth

and make a kingdom

for his name

and make a city

for his name

and make a tower

for his name

but what you see

is the people

start to trust themselves again.

Verse one says,

now the whole earth

has the same language,

the same words.

In Hebrew,

the words actually mean

they have the same lip,

they have the same speech,

they have one vocabulary.

I've done a lot of research

on this

and what all the scholars say

is that everybody

spoke perfect Texan,

everybody.

So the whole earth

was amazing,

we spoke perfect Texas dialect

and we understood each other

and when we said

eraser was an eraser

and a garbage can

was a garbage can

and not a trash can

and Nutella was Nutella

and everybody,

everything,

it was just a perfect world.

It was harmony everywhere.

Diet Coke meant diet Coke

to everybody.

It didn't mean Coke light

or Coke zero.

But what we see

in this passage

verses one through four

is that in our pride,

in our arrogance,

we just continue

to travel east from God

and we travel east from God

and the people of God,

the people of God,

all that are left

after the flood,

so remember there's eight

and now we don't know

how long it's been,

maybe several hundred years,

but they come

and they settle

in this valley of Shinar,

it's basically called

the valley of the world

and they come there

and their desire

is not to obey God's command.

Their desire

is not to follow God,

their desire

is not to go west,

their desire

is to go east

and they want to settle

and they want to try

to build a name,

they want to try

to build a city,

they want to try

to build a tower

for themselves,

they want to set

themselves apart,

they want to set

themselves apart,

the text says,

so that the whole world

looks at them

and goes,

wow.

The name of the place

is called Babel,

it actually means

the gate of the gods

and so they're there

and they want to build

this big town,

city,

tower,

so that the whole world

looks at them

and says,

God.

So a question for you,

if everybody

is actually there

with them

at this time,

who are they

actually building

the tower

in the town

to say,

look at what we've done?

Who are they

actually building it for?

I mean,

all of creation

and all the people

are there

and they're saying

we want to make

a name great

for ourselves

but they're all there

so who are they

trying to impress?

God.

Because all the people

are there,

they don't have anybody

to impress

because all the people

are there

and so what they're

actually trying to do

is what we've been

trying to do

all of our lives,

we've been trying

to show off,

we're trying to impress God,

we're trying to do things

that God looks at us

and goes,

wow, Tobin,

he's really good,

he fixed the Wi-Fi

and got all those things

set up and everything's

perfect,

let's build a statue

for him

and all along

in this passage

we see that sin,

our shadow side

is going to drive us

to build our own identity,

sin,

the thing that our parents

unleashed in the garden

is going to help us

and encourage us

to make a name

for ourselves,

to make a great name

for ourselves

always apart from God.

We had four more sermons

I would come back

and talk about this tower

in this city

because the implications

for it are massive

socially,

economically,

and religiously.

There's this guy,

his name is Nimrod,

he's one of the sons

of the sons of Noah

and his name

actually means Nimrod,

it actually means

we shall rebel.

Now I've never dedicated

a little kid

named Nimrod

which probably

is a good idea,

right?

But this guy's name,

it says it all,

his name is

we're going to rebel,

we're going to build

these things

and what we see

is that they want

to build this tower

and it's going to be

incredibly significant,

it's going to be

a place of worship,

it's going to be

a place where people

go to make a name

for themselves,

it's going to be

a place where people

go to make

their own kingdom,

kind of like IFC,

you know,

one, two, and three

in Hong Kong.

It's kind of like that,

right?

That's where people go

to make a name

for themselves

and make their names

great and so this

is this tower

and the goal behind it

and all along

the feeling is

is that they want

to do it without God.

They want to do it

separated from God

and so they start

to build

and they're building

everything because

they want to build

their significance

because they lost it.

They want to feel secure

because they've lost

their security in the garden.

They want to do

all these things

to say,

look at what we've done,

we're okay,

Tobin,

you are really good,

you have your act

together,

man,

you're just great.

Man,

struggling with the

darkness,

sin,

pursuing us,

coming into our lives,

saying,

hey,

I'm not that bad,

come here,

play with me,

but when we grab it,

it just rips our arm off.

Then in verse five,

it's kind of like the

hinge of this whole passage.

It's this passage

where God comes in

in his grace.

It's where God

comes into the story.

The language is very

colorful.

It's very,

if you were Hebrew,

you would laugh

as you heard about

what they're trying to

build and how they're

trying to build it.

This idea is that

the people are down

there saying,

look at my great

achievement.

Look at everything

I've done.

Come here,

God,

check this out.

It says God

comes down

and God comes down

and he's looking

and he can't find it.

All of a sudden,

he gets down on his

hands and knees

and he looks down

and he can barely

see it.

It says,

that's what our

greatest achievements

look like

to the creator

of the universe.

I mean,

when you compare

the greatest achievements

we've ever done

to a star

or to a galaxy

or to a human,

they look like nothing.

And in verse 6,

the language is not

a language of fear

but it's a language

of deep concern

and deep mercy

and grace

and God looks at them

as he looks at the Father

and he says,

if I allow them

to keep going,

if I allow them

to keep the same language,

they're just going

to get in trouble.

The sin is going

to multiply

and it's going

to become great

and it's going

to become close

to an extinction event

like it did

in the flood

and I love them

too much.

I don't want to see

these things happen

and so it says

in God

and his mercy

and his grace,

he comes down

and he confuses

everything.

He confuses the language.

He confuses

the meaning of language.

People are no longer

speaking perfect Texan

but now they're

speaking Aussie.

Canadian,

South African

and British English

and even Canadian.

They're speaking

all these things

and all these

different meanings,

right?

It's just crazy

and you can't

get anything done

because everybody's

arguing about

what you call something.

It's called Nutella.

It's called nougat.

But my Aussie friends

argue with me

all the time

and so these people,

this place of unity

becomes this place

of disunity

and in this craziness,

sometimes God uses

crazy things in our life

to prevent us from sin.

Did you ever know that?

Sometimes God allows us

to lose our jobs.

Sometimes God allows us

to get a broken relationship.

Sometimes God allows

hard things to happen

in our life

because he loves us so much

and he knows

where we're heading

and he doesn't want us

to see ourselves

destroy ourselves.

And so sometimes God

uses craziness

to bring us back

to him

to take us away

from our self-sufficiency

and this place of unity

becomes a place of disunity

and the people just give up

and they scatter

over all the earth

just like God wanted to

in the very first time.

It was God's plan

from the very beginning

but we just didn't listen.

And so he has to take us

to all these things

in the midst

of all these things

we continue to realize

that we're spiraling

and we're spiraling

and we're spiraling

and the gates of God

are no longer

the gates of God.

They're a place of confusion.

From now on

throughout all scripture

whenever you read

the words Babel

or Babylon

it's always seen

as this place

of opposition to God.

It's always seen

as a place

where people try

to become their own gods.

It's always seen

as a place of pride.

It's always seen

as a place

of godlessness.

It's always seen

as a place

of God's judgment.

judgment.

The gates of God

become the gates

of confusion

and God wins.

So we see

this struggle

that we have

with the darkness.

We see God's grace

coming in

and changing us

and making us

his children.

It's a great story

isn't it?

I think it's

an amazing story.

We're going to

take it up

more next week

but I want to

give you

some thoughts

that I've been

thinking through

even last night

when I was hoping

that I would get

this large

identity ego boost

from my family

and my kids.

Here's some questions

I want us to think

about this week.

which direction

are you traveling

in today?

Are you traveling

east?

Are you traveling

away from God?

Are you traveling

in such a way

to build up

your own name

and your reputation?

Are you ignoring

God's plans

for your life?

is there this sin

that you've been

playing with

for such a long time

and you've reached

down to grab onto

and it's just

got a death grip

on you?

It's pulling you

farther and farther

away from God.

Are we traveling

west?

Are we traveling

towards God's mercy

and His grace

and realizing

that He's always there?

He's always cheering

for us.

He's always pursuing us.

God never rests

because we messed up.

And He loves us so much

He just continues

to pursue

and continue to pursue

and continue to pursue.

Second question

I've been dealing with.

Do you see the sin

in your life?

I mean the passage

says that sin

is always present

in our lives.

That we're always

going to have this desire

to provide for ourselves

to make our name great

to build ourselves up

without God's help.

It's one of those

two constants

in that battle.

Do you see the sin

and brokenness

in your life?

Maybe a better question

I ask myself sometimes

is how am I trying

to make a name

for myself today?

Am I trying

to make my name

because I want

to make God great?

Or am I going

to try to make my name

because I want

to make Tobin great?

How are we building towers?

The passage says

that we all have

these insecurities.

We all have this fallenness.

We all have this brokenness.

We're all struggling

with this broken relationship

with God

and we're trying

to compensate

with those things.

What kind of towers

are you building today

to deal with your insecurity

and your sin

and your separation

from God?

do you have somebody

in your life

who loves you enough

to point those things

out to you?

Do you have somebody

when you're building

these towers

and this name

and you're doing

all these great things

and you're doing it

for yourself

do you have somebody

within your community

of friends

or your family

who loves you so much

and they don't want

to see you go down

that path

and they share

those things with you?

Do you have somebody

like that?

Maybe another question

will be asked

how do you respond

when they tell you?

I mean even if there's

only 10% truth

in what they say

what are you going

to do with that 10%?

Are you going

to ignore it?

Finally

and this is the thing

that I am challenged

by constantly

do you see God's mercy

and grace

in your life

these days?

Maybe I should ask

first do you see

God's mercy

and grace

in the stories

and the passages

I shared?

The next question

will be do you see

God's mercy

and grace

in your life?

Do you see

his hand

and his faithfulness

that he's always

pursuing you

even when you are

traveling far east

of him?

Do you see these things?

I mean the Bible

is full of stories

of men

who try to attempt

to escape

the sin

and the consequences

and the curse

they're all trying

to do it on their own

and the Bible

says that the only way

that you and I

can escape this curse

the only way

that we can escape

the curse

and the brokenness

is if God

in his righteousness

and through his grace

takes that curse

on himself

do you realize that?

The only way

that we can escape

this fallenness

and this craziness

this curse

the only way

that we can escape

it God's word says

is not to become smarter

not to become better

not to become

more gifted

or caring

or serving

but the only way

that we can escape

the curse

is if God

comes and he takes

the curse himself

and you know

this for some reason

this is a mystery

to me

because I just

cannot comprehend it

but the Bible

says that God

does that

that God

loves us so much

that he sends

his son

Jesus

who comes

as we've already

talked

100% man

and 100% God

he comes to

humble himself

he comes to serve

he comes to die

on a cross

and Galatians 3

says that he

actually

becomes a curse

for us

did you know that?

the only way

you're going to

deal with your sin

and your brokenness

and your shadow

that's going on

inside you

the only way

you're going to

get rid of that curse

is if God

takes that curse

and the only way

that can happen

is if he sends

his son

to die for you

and when he dies

on that cross

he's actually

cursed

by God

he takes

our curse

so that one day

you and I

will be free

of God's judgment

and we can be

called his people

and we can walk

in relationship

in fellowship

with him

the scripture

says

there's these two

threads

that flow through it

you and I

are always going

to struggle

with sin

we're always going

to struggle

with our brokenness

we're always going

to struggle

with the darkness

now we don't want

to hang out there

too long

but that's a truth

and we have to

ask ourselves

what's going on

and how are we

dealing with those

things

but the passage

says also

that God

is always

pursuing us

that he's the

God of second

chances

that he brings

mercy

he brings grace

he brings forgiveness

and the question

is will we

accept that

or will we

walk away

because we

want to do it

ourselves

there's more

to come next

week

the story

gets even

bigger

and grander

as God

does amazing

things for us

let's pray

father we thank

you for this

day

we thank you

for your word

how it never

changes

it is living

and active

and it moves

into our lives

and it penetrates

our hearts

and it shows

us the

darkness

and I pray

for us

as a church

Lord

that we

would deal

with those

things

father I pray

with people

in here

right now

who

they're far

east from

God

they've never

entered into

the family

they're trying

to build

monuments

to themselves

they're trying

to make

their name

great

they're trying

to do

everything

so that

they can

overcome

this fear

and this

doubt

in this

loneliness

in this

brokenness

in this

insecurity

father I pray

for them

here right

now that

you would

open their

eyes

that they

would see

your son

they would

see that

he came

to remove

all those

things from

them

and they

would put

their trust

in him

would I

pray for my

brothers and

sisters there

that they

would ask

questions of

those people

who brought

them

they would

ask questions

of the

staff and

anybody

they've

seen up

here

they would

ask about

grace

they would

ask about

the struggle

of sin

and I pray

that we would

be honest

enough to

share

because I know

that sometimes

we go among

other Christians

and it looks

like everybody's

just perfect

and there's no

problems

for some reason

when I do

that I feel

like I'm

retarded

because I look

at my life

and I realize

man I have

a lot of

problems

so I pray

for them

that they would

see that your

son came

to heal

them

to change

them

to take

the curse

and to

forgive them

Father I pray

for the rest

of us your

children as

we're on

this journey

living in

the city

and around

the towers

it's really

easy to

get

confused

and to

forget about

mercy and to

forget about

grace and to

forget about

whose name

we're really

living for

and before

you know it

we're building

our own

towers

we're building

monuments to

ourselves

we're building

a great

name

we're hoarding

the best

portions of

our time

and our

money and

our resources

and our

intellect

for our

kingdom

and we're

giving you

just the

leftovers

and all the

while your

son comes

and he

pursues us

and he

brings mercy

and grace

Father I pray

for us as we

look at this

word your

word and we

ask these

questions that

we would allow

you to change

us I pray

there's any of

us right now

who's struggling

with pornography

or anger

or abuse

or even the

craziness that's

happened to us

that we thought

that we deserve

something else

but it didn't

happen and we

just have

bitterness

and envy

and we're your

people and we

know that that's

not right and I

pray Lord that you

would touch our

eyes and our

hearts that we'd

focus on your

son Christ that

we'd come back to

him and all that

he's done and as

we look at how

beautiful he is

we wouldn't think

twice about

surrendering these

things to you

because they're

nothing compared

to what you've

done

and what we'll

receive in the

true city

your kingdom in

heaven

and what I pray

for us as a

church that we

wouldn't forget

why we're here

we wouldn't just

come to feel good

about ourselves

and then we would

leave but we'd

realize that we're

here to reach

people who aren't

yet in church and

don't yet know you

and you surround us

with all those

people every day

in our homes and

at work and as

we go out to eat

father help us

not to forget

that

help us to focus

on the grace

that you brought

to us

and to realize

that 96% of

Hong Kong

needs that

may we be a

church that puts

other churches

out there and

plants them so

that they can reach

other people who

are not yet in

church today

may we be a

church that's

generous

may we be a

church that's in

love with you and

as we see your

gospel and your

grace change us

we change

we become more

like your son

father we love

you

we need you

desperately

we thank you that

you never give up

on us your

children

we pray all these

things in your

holy name

amen