Sermon

Genesis 11 | Self-Glory vs. the Savior’s Humility (A.G.)

Preaching Ministry of Beacon Baptist Church, Phoenix, AZ

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  1. Hello, I am Anthony Garcia.

  2. I am so grateful that you tuned in to our social media or to our video ministry here.

  3. Thank you for taking the time to listen to these messages.

  4. I hope that they're a blessing to you.

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  6. You can do so through the information below.

  7. Thank you again, and I hope this message is a blessing to you.

  8. We're gonna be in Genesis chapter number 11 this morning.

  9. And I'm gonna pronounce this name wrong as I tried to practice it.

  10. There was a Greek arc arsonist, Hirostratus, okay, and I think that's how you pronounce his name in 356 BC.

  11. And here's what he's famous for.

  12. He was a Greek arc arsonist who intentionally burned down one of the seven wonders of the world at that time.

  13. It was the Temple of Artemis in the city of Ephesus.

  14. And here was his motive to burn this place down so that he could achieve lasting fame, so that his name could be great, so that his name could be known.

  15. Now he's just one illustration of the all too common heart of man.

  16. Because if we're honest, we can go through great lengths for self-glory.

  17. We like, if we're honest, to be recognized.

  18. We like at times the uh applause.

  19. We at times we lie to make ourselves look better than we actually are.

  20. At times we gossip because if we put that other person down, then we feel a little bit better about ourselves and we look a little bit better than that person that, oh, you know what they did now.

  21. I would never do something like this, but then we get some of the glory.

  22. We uh at times we, there's a phrase for it, a humble brag, right?

  23. We humble brag and we enjoy the spotlight at times, or the glory, or the pride.

  24. But what we find in the scriptures is that self-glory, pride, it only promotes confusion and destruction.

  25. And I want us to see in this perhaps familiar story for us the the peril of self-glory.

  26. Would you look with me in Genesis 11?

  27. Can I invite you to stand one more time together for the reading of God's Word?

  28. We're gonna read verse number one and down through verse number nine this morning.

  29. Here's what the Bible says, and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

  30. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

  31. And they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.

  32. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

  33. When I pause, I want you to read that next word with me, okay?

  34. Verse number four.

  35. And they said, Go to let build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

  36. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded, and the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and they began to do, and now nothing will be sh restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

  37. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

  38. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.

  39. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

  40. Let's pray together.

  41. As I pray out loud, would you pray in your heart and ask the Lord to speak to you today?

  42. Let's pray, Lord.

  43. I am confronted with the truth of this passage, that God, I too struggle, Lord, with pride.

  44. With a desire for self-glory, with a desire for my name to be great instead of your name to be great.

  45. Lord, we struggle with thinking that we're better than others.

  46. We struggle, Lord, with looking at ourselves more than looking at you.

  47. God, we struggle with humility, and I pray that you'd help us to see from your word today the danger in self-glory, the peril.

  48. I pray that you'd help us to understand your word and that you'd give us help to have victory over the sin of pride.

  49. God, I pray that you'd give us grace this morning.

  50. I pray that you'd speak to our hearts.

  51. I pray that you would be honored and glorified.

  52. I pray that your name would be lifted up, that we would see you for how wonderful and marvelous you are, and we would see ourselves in the proper light.

  53. We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

  54. Amen.

  55. Thank you.

  56. You can be seated this morning.

  57. Throughout Genesis, we've witnessed this flow of history.

  58. Genesis at the beginning, mankind's innocent there uh received the blessing of everything they could ever want, everything they could ever need.

  59. God provided it for them in the Garden of Eden.

  60. But then that sly, subtle serpent comes along.

  61. Satan comes along and he deceives Eve, and Eve takes of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and she gives to her husband, and Adam takes of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

  62. And Adam and Eve fell into the same trap.

  63. That we want autonomy, we want self-glory, we want to be on the same level, the same plane as God.

  64. Cain's lineage, as we've looked at in Genesis, followed that same path.

  65. That I don't want what God has for me.

  66. Instead, I want what I want for me.

  67. In the days of Noah, every imagination was wicked continually.

  68. And now in Genesis chapter number 11, sadly, we see the same pride in the heart of man.

  69. In Genesis 9, chapter number 1, mankind was commanded to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth.

  70. And we understand from Genesis chapter number 11 that the people understood that they weren't to remain in one place, but instead they were to disperse all across the earth.

  71. But instead they said, they looked at one another, they agreed together, in the land of Shinar, in the plain there, they said, you know what?

  72. Let's go make brick.

  73. Let's get some mortar.

  74. Let's build ourselves a city and a tower.

  75. Let us make a name, not for God, not for his glory, not in obedience to his command, but instead let us make a name for us.

  76. The I problem.

  77. The pride problem.

  78. The problem of self-glory.

  79. Point number one, the problem of self-glory.

  80. In many ways, our world doesn't see a problem with self-glory.

  81. In many ways, at times we applaud those who live for their own greatness.

  82. We use terms like this.

  83. Oh, they're a self-made man.

  84. Oh wow, what a story, what a testament of what they've accomplished and what they've done.

  85. In sports, we allow people to say, oh, that's the greatest of all time.

  86. They're the goat.

  87. They're the man.

  88. They're him.

  89. And we use these terms and we allow people to elevate themselves and we don't think much about it.

  90. He made a name for himself.

  91. Frank Sinatra's famous song, I Did It My Way.

  92. I did it my way.

  93. It's a monument to this problem of self-glory.

  94. And pride causes us to give our efforts at times to the wrong goal.

  95. The people of the earth, the commandment that God had given to them, they were to fill the earth.

  96. They were to repopulate the earth.

  97. They were to spread out across the globe.

  98. But pride stepped in and they decided, you know what?

  99. We have a better goal for ourselves than the one that God has given to us.

  100. This tower would have been perhaps a massive stepped temple platform.

  101. Built like other civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia ancient Mesopotamia.

  102. Perhaps a giant stairway or a pyramid with multiple levels, usually at the top, there would be a temple or there would be a shrine of some sort.

  103. And so the people here that that God had spared, that God had given them life, they decided, you know what?

  104. We have a better idea.

  105. Pride causes us to think that if we give ourselves to this new goal, this city, this tower, we can reach the heights of God.

  106. We can reach the heights of God, we can reach his level.

  107. And in some ways, this is what man-made religion still carries.

  108. It carries this idea that if you do enough, if you work enough, if you pray enough, if you give enough, if you're religious enough, if you do all the right things at all the right times and you do enough, then you can earn your way to heaven.

  109. You understand that at the root of that, at the root of religion is the source of pride that says, I can save myself.

  110. I can make it a heaven under my efforts.

  111. Man-made religion is unfortunately flawed and rooted in pride and self-glory.

  112. Look what I did to earn heaven.

  113. It goes as far to make people do some absurd actions in the name of religion.

  114. What God actually says is you can't earn your spot in heaven.

  115. You can't earn it.

  116. And that's humbling.

  117. Because we don't like to be in the position where we have to receive.

  118. We like to be a part of the problem solving.

  119. We don't want to be the one that, man, I have nothing to offer and I have nothing to give.

  120. I just have to receive it.

  121. But that's what the gospel says.

  122. That you can add no works to the work of Christ, that what he did was enough, but you have to be willing to humble yourself and say, okay, I'm a sinner, I agree with you, God.

  123. I deserve hell, I agree with you, God, but I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, and I agree, I confess that you are Lord.

  124. That's humbling when you have to ask for help.

  125. And yet, this is the position that we have to find ourselves in if we're going to be a child of God.

  126. We can't attempt to work our own way to heaven.

  127. We can't attempt to put ourselves on the same plane as God.

  128. Pride, though, it causes us to give our efforts to the wrong goal.

  129. We can expend great energy for something that God never intended for us.

  130. We can spend great money on something that God never intended for us, great time, great energy, that if I just had this, if I just reached this goal, and sometimes it's fueled not by a godly obedience, but it's fueled by a prideful ambition.

  131. It's sad that all these resources were expended, all this time was given to this city and to this tower when God would put a stop to it altogether.

  132. To be mindful of what we give our lives to.

  133. Lest we expend all our efforts on something that was worthless because it never was what God intended.

  134. This wasn't what God intended.

  135. Yeah, pride infects us and it gives us the wrong goal that man, I'm gonna reach this, I'm gonna accomplish this, I'm gonna be great.

  136. And we search for this self-greatness when really the goal is entirely different.

  137. And if we would give ourselves to God's greatness and his glory, then we will have so much more joy in this life.

  138. But sometimes we have the wrong goal.

  139. Sometimes pride infects our hearts on how we go about reaching the goal.

  140. Sometimes it's a good goal, but pride can cause that good goal to be, or we try can try to attempt to reach it in perhaps a bad way.

  141. In our parenting, we desire that our kids would be aimed towards God, that they would be godly.

  142. That's a good goal.

  143. But sometimes when my pride gets in the way, I can try and go about achieving that goal in a bad way.

  144. Because it's not just that I want the kids to be godly, right?

  145. But I don't want other people to think I'm a bad parent.

  146. You see where the pride can come up in that to where it's not for their sake, but it's actually for my sake.

  147. So it could be a good thing, but done in a bad way.

  148. Work, career.

  149. We want to provide for a family.

  150. That is good.

  151. We want to make sure that we're uh taking care of our home, we're taking care of our responsibilities.

  152. But if we're not careful, sometimes a good thing can turn into a self-glory thing.

  153. To where now my work isn't to glorify God, but instead it's because I have this ambition.

  154. I'm gonna be somebody, I'm gonna make something of myself.

  155. Instead of how can I faithfully serve, how can I be faithful in what God has blessed me with.

  156. We're dissatisfied and we're just looking for the next thing.

  157. Perhaps in education.

  158. Education's good.

  159. We want our children to be educated, to have knowledge, to be successful, but sometimes the pride of our hearts, it's desirous of our kids doing well for our own pride that look what my child accomplished, look what they've done.

  160. In education, in work, in marriage, in parenting, and even in serving God.

  161. It can be a good thing that, man, I'm gonna serve God and I want to do what's right, but sometimes we can get it all mixed up to where we're not serving God for God's glory, but we're serving God for our own glory.

  162. James 4, 6 warns us, but he giveth more grace.

  163. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud.

  164. Think about that.

  165. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

  166. King Saul, the first king of Israel, when they first were going to anoint King Saul as the king, he was like, Whoa, who am I?

  167. I'm of the lowly tribe of Benjamin, I'm nobody, I'm not uh fit and cut out to be a king, and he was little in his own eyes, and he didn't see himself fit to be in that position, but God blessed him with that opportunity to be king.

  168. But then later on, he loses the opportunity to be king.

  169. It's gonna be handed over to David, and Samuel remarks and he says these words when thou wast little in thine own sight.

  170. When you were humble, when you didn't think much of yourself, but now you have this position, now you have this power, and now you have this role, and you are thinking of yourself too much.

  171. We have to be careful of pride, of self-glory.

  172. Number two, this morning, the delusion of self-glory, the delusion of self-glory.

  173. Certainly in Genesis chapter number 11, these people knew all about the flood, right?

  174. Certainly they understood that they were spared, that they existed out of God's goodness and God's grace to rescue Noah and Noah's family.

  175. Certainly they understood the flood, they understood just how small they really were.

  176. They understood that it's vital to obey the Lord's command.

  177. And yet there's this delusion that we at times give ourselves due to pride and self-glory.

  178. We think that we can accomplish things through our own might, through our own power, through our own determination and expertise.

  179. This was King Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.

  180. Daniel chapter number four, the king spake and he said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?

  181. And we know what happens to King Nebuchadnezzar.

  182. God humbles him in a real way to where he was outside his mind.

  183. And in reality, we can't take credit for anything, can we?

  184. Who gave you life?

  185. God! You didn't give yourself life.

  186. Who gives you the breath that you breathe today?

  187. The fact that your heart's still beating and your lungs are still inhaling and taking air.

  188. Who gives you life?

  189. It is God who blessed you with the opportunity to live where you live, to grow up where you grew up, to get the education that you received, to provide the job that you have, to take care of your family.

  190. It was not under our own power, but it was the grace of God in our lives that He blessed you in all those different things who gave you that right relationship in order to land that job or have that opportunity.

  191. It was God who placed King Nebuchadnezzar on the throne of Babylon.

  192. God is the one who elevates kings and queens into position and presidents and all these different leaderships.

  193. God was the one who gave those opportunities.

  194. But we at times in our pride, we lose touch with reality.

  195. We're under a delusion that I made this life.

  196. I got myself here.

  197. My me, I, us, as they said there in chapter number eleven.

  198. Pride oftentimes takes credit for what only God can do.

  199. Pride takes focus off of what life is all about.

  200. Pride goes two different ways at times.

  201. You see, at the heart of pride is us, that we're thinking about us, me, I.

  202. And so pride can go two different ways.

  203. Sometimes we think of it only as the way of man thinking more highly of myself than I ought to think.

  204. But pride goes the other way as well.

  205. Where we're beating ourselves up and we're thinking of ourselves in a very lowly way.

  206. Because you see, the nature of the equation is that I is still the focus.

  207. Me.

  208. Both ways.

  209. Might think more highly than you ought to think of yourself, or you might think more lowly than you ought to think of yourself.

  210. But the problem is that we make ourselves the center of so many things in life.

  211. We lose touch with reality.

  212. Looking at self, it oftentimes keeps us from obeying God and serving others.

  213. Because if we look at ourselves too much and we start thinking about our past, then we might unfortunately think, well, God can never use me to do such and such, or there's no way that I can serve in this way because look at me, look at I.

  214. And who's the focus?

  215. It's still me.

  216. Instead of looking back and recognizing that yes, I made some mistakes, yes, I sinned, yes, my life was broken, but here it is.

  217. God's grace was evident.

  218. Jesus Christ forgave.

  219. Jesus Christ empowered.

  220. Do you see the difference?

  221. Instead of looking at I, instead of looking at me, instead of looking at my history, we add Jesus to the equation and we look to him.

  222. Neither should it be over here.

  223. Well, I can do that and I'm good enough and I'm able and I have all these gifts and all this charisma.

  224. No, my friend, it can't be that either.

  225. It has to be looking to Jesus, who can change us, who can use us.

  226. Oh, if I just let my personality dictate how I serve God, then I wouldn't be in the pulpit right now.

  227. My personality, I'm more of an introvert.

  228. So if I let my personality dictate how I'm gonna serve God, then you know what that does?

  229. That puts the spotlight back on me.

  230. I used when it's dead, it needs to be, okay, Lord.

  231. I don't know how, I don't know why, but Lord, if you want to use me in that way, I'm gonna focus on you and trust you to enable me to do that.

  232. Oh, I'm not really a witnessing type of person, I'm not really an edifying type of person, or my personality isn't really like that, and uh we give these different things of why we can't obey God when the focus is I.

  233. We can do the opposite as well.

  234. We gotta be mindful of this as well.

  235. I want to serve in that way, and I want to do that, and I want to do this because there's a little bit more of the spotlight, if you would.

  236. Some unfortunate, sometimes, if we're honest, we try to get in the way of God's glory.

  237. And so we've got to constantly look to God.

  238. The delusion is to think that our success is all because of us, that our ability is all because of us, or the opposite, that I can never do that because of me, when instead God wants our eyes to be on Him.

  239. Number three, the pointlessness of self-glory.

  240. The pointlessness of self-glory.

  241. I wonder how many hours went into this project.

  242. I wonder how impressed the people were with their accomplishments.

  243. Look what we did.

  244. Look at the city, look at the tower that we've built, look at all the man hours and the labor and the planning and all the logistics that came into putting this together.

  245. And yet there's a pointlessness to self-glory because here's what the verse says in verse number five.

  246. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower.

  247. The Bible gives this language to God so that we can understand, so we can picture it a little bit.

  248. It's not that God needed to come down to see, but the writer is giving it to us so we can get this visual picture of just how small this tower in this city was.

  249. We went on the airplane this last week and came back on the airplane, and thankfully the kids did pretty good.

  250. They took naps, they played games, they watched movies, all the rest, and uh Palmer was by a window seat, and so he was able, I think Anderson sat by window one time too, and they're able to open up that window and look down from that airplane.

  251. And the higher up you go, the smaller the city looks, right?

  252. Smaller and smaller, and so it looks like little toy cars down there.

  253. Imagine with me as we were in the air, as we were just getting ready to go up, maybe not all the way up in the air, but just enough where you could still see an ant heel on the ground.

  254. Barely a little ant heel on the ground.

  255. And the idea would be that we are, oh, I'm gonna look at that ant heel.

  256. If we were to come back and land and go down to that ant heel, if we were really going to observe it, we would have to stoop down and look at it.

  257. That's the language here that it gives to God looking at this city and this tower.

  258. That God is so big, he's so grand, he's so uh amazing that he has to kind of stoop down to see what man created in all their might.

  259. What man was able to accomplish only by the grace of God because all those materials were not materials that they created out of thin air.

  260. Oh, the pointlessness of self-glory.

  261. We think we're something special sometimes.

  262. And we think God's, man, he's just lucky to have me on his team, right?

  263. And we can get so impressed with things of this life and impressed with ourselves, or impressed with things in this life that are gonna fade away.

  264. And yet there's a pointlessness to this self-glory, isn't there?

  265. Sad thing is, God stoops down and he puts the work to a complete stop.

  266. Because I don't know if it was the next day that they woke up or in an instant as they were working on the tower, as they were working on the city, all of a sudden, one person is talking English, another person is talking Spanish, another person's talking uh uh this language, that language, the other, and they don't understand one another.

  267. Perhaps the worker showed up, perhaps it was in the middle, but all of a sudden they're like, what in the world?

  268. The pointlessness of self-glory is that it doesn't impress God, and we have this wrong goal.

  269. God can put a stop to it in an instant.

  270. We think we're going, so we think we're gonna do, we have this goal in mind, and it's not according to the Lord's goal, and we think I'm gonna be the maker of my own destiny, and God can put a stop to it like that.

  271. It's pointless.

  272. There's the confusion of the language here, but also understand self-glory, it's never satisfying.

  273. It doesn't satisfy.

  274. South-glory never satisfies.

  275. You you can you can get the applause, but you what do you want more?

  276. Man, I want more applause.

  277. You can win the trophy, but then you're only left thinking, this is it.

  278. You can gain the popularity, the fandom, you can live your life to have all of the applause, all of the award, all of the glory heaped and poured on you, and yet still feel empty.

  279. Because we were never made for self-glory.

  280. You and I were made to know God, enjoy him forever, and give him glory.

  281. You were made to point back to him.

  282. Self-glory, pride, it only promotes destruction.

  283. But I want us to see the opposite.

  284. Because there is an opposite, and it's the savior's humility.

  285. You see, the savior's humility provides salvation.

  286. If you would, I think you have it in your notes, or if you'd like to, you could turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter number two.

  287. Because here's the direct opposite of self-glory.

  288. Say with me here this morning because mankind, we naturally we like to live for self.

  289. We like the glory, we like the pride, but Jesus is the entire opposite.

  290. Because in Philippians chapter number two, the apostle Paul writes and he exhorts let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.

  291. Don't let it be done through pride.

  292. That's where strife comes from, that's where contention comes from.

  293. Don't let it be done with this empty glory, this self-glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

  294. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

  295. Verse number five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

  296. Here's the opposite of self-glory, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

  297. So Jesus being God, verse number seven, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, so Jesus in all his glory and all his splendor, being God eternal, took on the form of a man, took on the form of an infant, took on the form of you and I.

  298. He lived and he took on humanity.

  299. He made himself of no reputation, but he made himself a servant.

  300. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

  301. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

  302. Jesus Christ, he gives us the way of humility.

  303. He gives us this opposite instead of man.

  304. I'm gonna live for self, I'm gonna live for us, I'm gonna build this tower, I'm gonna build the city.

  305. Life is gonna be about me.

  306. Jesus gives this opposite that he says, I'm gonna give my life for you.

  307. I'm gonna come and be made a man and go through the horrific death of the crucifixion, not because he needed salvation, but because we needed salvation.

  308. And so Jesus humbles himself for the glory of the Father.

  309. He humbles himself so that you and I could be rescued.

  310. See, the opposite of this self-glory is humility.

  311. Humility.

  312. This is what Jesus does.

  313. He gives us the proper definition for humility.

  314. In Genesis chapter number 11, what's wonderful about what Jesus Christ does for us and what you'll see here in Genesis 11 and what you see alluded to or mirrored a little bit in the New Testament is you see in Genesis 11, there's the confusion of the languages.

  315. Now, can't understand one another.

  316. So now they're dispersed like they were supposed to be dispersed, and so now they're dispersed all across the earth, they're spread out all across different regions, and so now you have different nations, different tongues, different tribes, right?

  317. But then in the New Testament, you find this plan that God had again for Christians to be scattered and dispersed across the earth.

  318. So in Acts chapter number two, you have Peter on the day of Pentecost, and if you won't take the time to read it this morning, but Peter on the day of Pentecost, he preaches in his own native tongue, but then all the different languages that are there, they say, oh whoa, we understand the gospel, the good news in our own tongue, in our own language.

  319. Do you see what God did here at the Tower of Babel?

  320. South-glory brought this confusion of the languages, but at the exaltation of Jesus, when Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead, he brought understanding for the other languages, the other nations, the other tribes to hear the gospel and then to take the plan of salvation and scatter across the world again.

  321. The plan in Genesis was for them to scatter across the earth.

  322. Then in the New Testament, Jesus gives the same plan to us as believers, to the disciples, to scatter, to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

  323. Matthew 28, go ye therefore and teach all nations.

  324. Acts 1:8.

    Acts 1:8

  325. But ye shall receive power after that Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

  326. The plan that God had here in Genesis was for the people to scatter, to disperse.

  327. The plan that he has in the New Testament is for us to scatter and disperse and get the new good news out and repopulate the earth with Christians, with children of God.

  328. And the plan that he has for you and I this morning is that yes, we would gather, but then all throughout this week, we don't live in the same neighborhood, right?

  329. We don't have the same address.

  330. Many of us, we're all in different areas across the city, that you would gather, but then you would scatter with the good news of the gospel, that you would gather together, but the plan is to scatter.

  331. And it goes further than that.

  332. It goes into world missions, it goes into church planting that we would desire not just to build our own kingdom, not just to build a name for us, for me, but that we would take the good news of the gospel and we would be willing to scatter.

  333. To see a new church started, to see someone sent to the mission field.

  334. You see, that that was the intention, the plan of God.

  335. But when we get fixed on our own self-glory, then we're not willing to follow the plan of God.

  336. We're not willing to follow what He has given us to do.

  337. The plan of scattering, but also the power of unity.

  338. It's amazing what these people got done in Genesis chapter number 11 because they were of one language.

  339. They were unified in what they were to do.

  340. And it doesn't mean that it was good what they did, but there was power in the unity that they had there to build the Tower of Babel, to build this city.

  341. There's power in unity in the church as well.

  342. Because Jesus gave them the command in Acts chapter 1, verse number 8, to go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost, and then a few verses later, they're of one accord, praying together.

    Acts 1 chapter mention

  343. In chapter number two, they're praying together, and the Holy Spirit falls on them.

  344. There is unity, and then they see the gospel taken outward.

  345. There's power in unity.

  346. Church, keep a unified spirit.

  347. That we're not here for this, we're not here for that.

  348. We're here for God's glory, for Jesus' glory, that his name would be exalted, that his kingdom would be furthered, that we would make much of him.

  349. There's power and unity in the mission that he's given us.

  350. But then, lastly, the promise of eternity.

  351. I love that Jesus takes, that the Lord takes this passage in Genesis, where the languages are confused, where it seems a little bit rather hopeless of what's going on.

  352. And he takes us over in Revelation, and in Revelation, the Bible says in verse chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, all nations, all people, all tongues.

  353. What seems to be in Genesis chapter number 11, a consequence of their people's rebellion turns into a testimony of the great, grace-giving, merciful God who is desirous of not just saving one particular nation or one particular people group, but that the gospel, the good news, would go out to the ends of the earth.

  354. What's the cure for our prideful tendencies and our self-glory?

  355. It's to look to Jesus.

  356. It's to look to Jesus, who he's the one that gave you life.

  357. You can't take credit for it.

  358. You're not keeping yourself alive right now, but Jesus is.

  359. It's to look to Jesus who saved your soul.

  360. It's to look to Jesus who blessed you with the gifts and the talents and the blessings that you have.

  361. It's to look to Jesus and His command for us today.

  362. It's to look to Jesus for the grace that he offers and the power that he gives for us to fulfill his will and serve him and make a difference in this world.

  363. It is to look to Jesus, the perfect example of humility, who is willing to stoop down and wash the disciples' feet, who is willing to give his life a ransom for many, who is willing to sacrifice himself on the cross of Calvary so that we might be saved.

  364. And when you look to Jesus, you can't help but be humbled that he would save a wretch like me.

  365. Look to Jesus.

  366. Let's pray together this morning.

  367. Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me today?

  368. I hope this message was a blessing to you.

  369. If you are in the Phoenix area, we would love to have you come in for a visit.

  370. We're located on Indian School and 23rd Avenue.

  371. And if we can be a help to you in any other way, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

  372. I would love to answer any questions that you had about the sermon, or maybe a question that you have about eternal life and a relationship with God.

  373. We're here to serve you and to point you in Jesus Christ.

  374. Thank you so much for watching this message.