Altars or Towers? | Pastor Eddie Blalock | Week 2

So Tom Brady was building a career playing football.

Maybe you've heard of him, maybe you haven't, but after winning his third Super Bowl, Brady was only 27 years old.

He had everything people spend their lives chasing.

He had championships, he had wealth, fame, and name recognition.

Yet in a television interview, he confessed, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me?

I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is.

I reached my goal, my dream, my life.

Me?

He said, I think it's got to be more than this.

You see, Tom had climbed to the top of a tower that he'd worked passionately to build.

However, in the end, sadly, Brady found that his tower was less satisfying than he had thought.

Well, welcome to part two of this message we've titled Altars or Towers.

All of us spend much of our lives building towers.

Now, that may sound odd to you, so let me take just a moment to explain.

I'm not talking about building towers out of bricks and mortar.

I'm talking about building what I'm calling a tower.

I'm talking about building resumes or maybe building a promising career.

Those can be towers in our lives.

I'm thinking about building towers that impress others and bring us popularity, or maybe big numbers or uh of social media followers.

Maybe we're building classroom acceptance and that becomes a tower for us, or maybe it's pleasing people all around us.

I don't know.

Maybe for you it's building financial independence.

Those can become towers, or an education that places several letters behind your name.

For some, building towers that look like a successful ministry.

I know you might not think that, but in fact, churches spend a lot of time building towers in place of altars.

So, Brady's experience teaches us a lot about towers.

You see, he had climbed to the top of the tower that the world had told him to build, but he discovered that the view wasn't enough.

It wasn't what he anticipated, nor was what he was what he expected.

We know the problem wasn't football.

The problem was expecting a tower to do what only an altar can do.

In the book of Genesis, we find two important conclusions.

We find two important construction projects in the early chapters.

One was an altar, one was a tower.

One of the projects was all about worship, look at what God has done, and the other was all about pride, look at what we've built.

Last week we saw that when Noah walked off the ark, the first thing he did was to build an altar.

And now, only a few chapters later, humanity builds something else.

Not an altar, but a tower.

Now you may be thinking, but what does all this have to do with me?

A lot, really.

Every life is still choosing between those two blueprints for building a life.

Thousands of years later, and we still are in that conflict.

Our lives are shaped by what we decide to build into our lives.

Will we build altars or will we build towers?

Last week we took a look at altars.

This week, I want us to settle in and think a little bit about towers, what that looks like, and what that means.

We'll try to get the gobbledygook talk out of the way and just get it very plain.

What do we mean when we talk about building altars or towers?

And why is it that our towers, like Tom Brady's, are sometimes less than satisfying?

Well, let's talk about it.

Our text today is Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

We're going to read verses 2 through 4.

Here's what the scripture says.

It says, as the people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, Come, let's make oven-fired bricks.

Now remember, that's a little different than the altars we saw last week, which were just stones piled together.

Let's continue.

They used brick for stone and asphalt for murder for mortar, sorry.

And they said, Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top to the sky.

Let's make a name for ourselves.

Otherwise, we'll be scattered throughout all the earth.

Now, let's think about that just for a moment.

Now, what's happening is this several years have passed since Noah walked out of the ark.

The population has grown substantially, and they have migrated from the east to the land of Shinar.

Now, Shinar is in biblical Mesopotamia, or maybe you would know it better as today it would be in southern Iraq.

God had given them very clear instructions.

He had told them to spread out, to be fruitful, and multiply.

But you know what?

As is common the case, the people had a better idea.

They decided that they wanted to stay put in their land and to try to unify themselves by building a tower, a tower that would reach to the heavens, as they would explain it.

This incredible tower we know today as the Tower of Babel, that is the tower of confusion.

Now, there's a stark contrast here in Noah's altar and Babel's Tower.

They're only a couple of chapters apart, a couple of generations apart, and we can't miss it.

There's a clear contrast, and as the contrast in these towers, even so, there's a clear contrast in the lives of those of us who choose to build altars and those who are busy building towers.

So let's think about it a little bit.

This matter of altars or towers.

Well, we know this.

People build altars because they aspire to point people to Jesus.

And people build towers often because they are more interested in pointing people to their own accomplishments.

I know that's a pretty big ouch, and actually, as we think about that and unpack that a little bit, uh, I'm sure our hearts will be convicted to an extent.

But let's look at our text and let's see what we can learn about building these towers.

Three things that I want to say about towers.

Last week we looked at three things that altars say, and now today we want to look at three things that towers say.

So, first of all, I think we learn from the text that towers say, look at me.

Look again at verse 3.

It says, They said to each other, that is the people in Babel, they said to each other, Come, let's make oven-fired bricks.

They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar, and they said, Come, let's build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.

Now, last week we saw that altars say, Thank you, and look at God, point us to God.

In contrast, this week we see the towers say, Look at me, and the emphasis is on ourselves or pointing at us.

This is really just a problem of pride.

It's really the heart of verse 4.

Notice the repetition.

How many times it says, Come, twice, you come, it says, and then let us, let us, let us.

And that final let us is really tough.

You say, let us make a name for ourselves.

Now that's a bit convicting because I'm convinced that's where many of us lie today.

We want to make a name for ourselves.

We we want people to look at us and see what we have done.

When we build towers, everything centers on and around us.

Again, this is a contrast to what we saw last week in Noah.

Noah never said, Look at me, never said, let us.

He said, Look at God.

He has blessed us.

And so altars say, Thank you.

Towers say, look at me.

The second thing I notice is this towers say, I don't need God.

Look at the next verse.

It says, Let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.

So now we see the issue simply isn't pride, it's also distrust.

Remember, I said, God had already spoken to them.

He had already given them strict commands, he had already told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, but instead they settle, they centralize in a city, and they create a security apart from God.

Towers building often, or towers often begin with partial obedience, with not trusting God enough to be all in.

I think we see a great example in the life of Abraham.

You remember Abraham?

God had promised him a son who would be the first among a nation of peoples.

Because he was old and his wife was barren, Abraham decided he needed to help God out, right?

Have you ever decided to do that?

I think I'll help God out.

Well, Abraham did.

Frankly, I understand it completely.

Makes sense to me.

After all, Abraham was taking things into his own hand.

He was old, his wife was old, and she was barren.

He takes himself into his own hands and says, basically, I'll take care of this.

I've got a better idea.

Abraham says, I'll secure God's promise, and Babel says, we'll secure for ourselves a name.

So I believe Abraham and Babel have the same root problem, and that is self-reliance that is built upon and nourishes our pride.

Every tower begins where trust ends.

And so we see these towers say, look at me.

Towers say, I don't need God.

You remember last week we looked at the altar, and we said the altar says, first of all, thank you, because it looked at God.

Secondly, we said, altars say, I need you.

And now, towers say, I don't need you, God.

I'll call on you when I need you.

I'm afraid that's where too many people are today.

Third, towers say, Look what I've done.

Here's what it says in that last verse.

Let's make a name.

Here's what the people said.

They said, Let's build this tower and let's make a name for ourselves.

Otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.

Notice the people never mention God or point to God's glory, only theirs.

Let's make a name for ourselves.

Ironically, they achieved just the opposite.

They wanted unity, but God scattered them.

They wanted fame, but they became a warning to all of us.

They wanted permanence, but their tower disappeared.

Pride always overpromises and under-delivers.

Pride promises us significance, but it delivers emptiness.

That's why Tom Brady could not find satisfaction in the tower that he built.

It had promised glory, it had promised significance, but it delivered emptiness.

His own words, why was it that I felt like there must be more?

Well, here's some good questions I think to consider asking yourself when you think about these matter of building towers.

Am I building towers or am I building altars?

I think they're easily recognized if we just ask ourselves some questions, like, for example, what do you celebrate most?

What are the things that you celebrate most?

Are the things that you celebrate most the things that emphasize you, that look at you, that shine the light on you?

Are you most excited and celebrate most the things that bring glory and honor to God?

It's a good question to ask yourself.

What are you sacrificing your time, your energy, your effort, your resources for?

Why are you so passionate about this?

Whatever it is, whatever you're giving the sacrifice, whatever you're giving your time, resources, finances, whatever to, what is it about this that's so special?

Is it because your tower, this tower you're building, magnifies God?

Or is it because it magnifies you?

Is it because it glorifies him, or because it glorifies you?

What glory?

Whose glory matters most in the life you're building right now?

By the way, there's an incredible, incredible moment of the, what I like to call the gospel in Genesis here, because there's a moment that we begin to see a pattern that's following.

Watch this.

For example, this question of altars or towers really helps us understand the glory of the gospel.

Noah, Genesis chapter 8, Noah builds an altar.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 11, the people build a tower.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 12, Abraham builds an altar.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

But in Genesis 13, Abraham begins to tie, builds a tower as he begins to replicate, or better to better yet said, as he begins to take things into his own hands.

In Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, you say, let's get the New Testament, Pastor.

Philippians 2:3

Okay, let's do that.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, Paul wrote a letter to the church at Philippi.

Philippians 2:3

And part of the letter, in the second part, the second chapter of the letter, Paul begins to write to them about their attitudes, their convictions, about their lives and the way they're building their lives.

And he says these words in chapter 2, verses 3.

He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition and conceit.

Wow.

But in all things, think of others more highly than of yourselves.

You see, the church was ambitiously building towers.

But Paul said, Don't do things from selfish ambition.

Don't do things just because it points to you.

It's because don't do something just because it's building a tower that one day you're going to really think is going to provide something that it's not.

Philippians 2, the church, is building a tower.

In Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, Jesus refuses to build his own tower and opts for an altar, opts for a method that pleases God.

Philippians 2:5

You may remember the verse.

He said in chapter 2, verse 5, have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant.

He stepped out of heaven, and Paul describes the process of being made lower than all, so that God would raise him up and be glorified.

He humbles himself, he descends to the earth.

See, religion builds towers that try to reach God.

Religion builds towers that magnify men, but gospel faith, genuine faith, is building altars, places that glorify God, that honor God, and that worship Him, who is the King and the Master of all.

You see, the gospel announces that God came down to rescue us.

Isn't that interesting?

Here the people were trying to build an altar, a tower to reach the heavens, and now we learn that Jesus came down from his throne to the earth.

So here's the takeaway for today.

Very simple, but very important.

We are not saved because we climbed high enough up some tower.

We are saved because Christ came low enough to die for us.

So very important.

You know, I've seen it in life.

I've never met Tom Brady, nor have I talked with him, but I know this.

I've conducted funerals for people who have accumulated incredible success.

I've also conducted funerals for people who never owned very much and maybe weren't known by many people.

Standing beside those graves, I've noticed something.

The size of the house, the bank account, or the resume, the towers they built, rarely mattered in the end.

What matters is the altars they built.

What matters is whether they built a life that pointed to God and glorified his name.

Those are the things mentioned, and those are the things that we talk about at that moment.

Not the self-promotion of gaining a platform, not the self-promotion of appearing an appearance of success, but a heart that honors God and glorifies him.

When the last chapter of your life is written, will people remember you for how you climbed?

How high you climbed?

How well you climbed?

Or will they remember your life and who your life pointed to?

Will they think of your towers?

Will they think of your altars?

Will they remember you because you built towers?

Or because you built altars?

Every life is building something.

All altars point to God.

Towers point people to ourselves.

Altars point people to the Lord.

I would just encourage you, my friend, choose carefully what you're building today.

Choose carefully as you walk through life and ask yourself frequently, Am I building altars or towers?

I've asked myself a lot in the past days that question.

So, Pastor Eddie?

Eddie, are you building towers?

Are you building altars?

Those towers might look good and impressive, but what matters is the altars that I'm building that will point people to the God and say, Look what He has done.

He is worth giving my life to, putting my trust in, and following every day.

Well, I trust this has been a blessing to you, and I trust this has been a challenge to you.

So let me pray for you, please.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment, and thank you for allowing us to open your word and to think about altars and towers.

God, I pray that you would convict us where we spending too much time and energy building a tower that doesn't satisfy, and remind us, O Lord, to build altars that bring satisfaction, purpose to our life, and glory to your name.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.