The United Nations Untied

As World War II drew to an end, the representatives of several nations gathered in San Francisco to plan an organization that would help keep peace in the world and stop wars, hopefully, before they began. So in June of 1945, 50 nations signed a charter and the United Nations was born. Today there are 193 nations that comprise the United Nations with several headquarters throughout the world, the most well-known to us, would be in New York City, the building you see on the screen. The United Nations has a noble purpose to pursue world peace to help solve problems between nations to avoid war, but quite often the United Nations has been used more as a platform to stress global unity and to stress kind of a one-world philosophy that we are all part of the global community. Well my question is does that fit with God's plan for the nations? Does that go along with or does is it contrary to God's plan? There's a heavy push today, even in our country, for global unity to drop our own national identity to become a part of the global community where really all one people were told, so let's work toward one economy, one world language or at least one language that everybody in the world can understand. Military forces shared even common religions or at least drop all the distinctives of religions so that everybody can coexist. So we're told today that's what we should be doing. That's the optimum for mankind. Well does that really fit with God's plan? There is an ancient text in Scripture that Shed's light on this very contemporary and relevant issue. It is in Genesis, chapter 10 and 11, chapter 10 and 11 of Genesis. Today marks the end of this series we've been doing on beginnings, the first 11 chapters of Genesis and the reason why I believe God led me to do this series was the fact that I think we need from time to time just to be pulled back to the basics, back to the the basic foundational truths in Scripture and pretty much all of them are laid out for us in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It is impossible to understand the world, understand man, understand our purpose in life, understand why we are here, where we're going, about heaven, any of that. It's hard to understand any of that unless you understand the first 11 chapters of Genesis. And so we've been looking at the beginnings of all of the major things God put into play in this world. Chapter 1 we saw the beginning of the universe, the beginning of planet earth in God's creation. In chapter 2 we saw the beginning of mankind and the beginning of marriage. In chapter 3 we saw the beginning of sin and the beginning of God's punishment for that sin but also the beginning glimmer of hope of a redeemer who would come into this world to take care of our sin problem. In chapter 4 we saw the beginning of human civilization. Chapter 5 the beginning of worldwide death in chapter 6 and 7 the beginning of a worldwide flood and God's punishment on the earth for its violence and wickedness. In chapters 8 and 9 we saw a new beginning in a new world which really is so similar to our new beginning in Christ. Well we come to chapters 10 and 11 today and we find the beginning of nations. How did the nations come about? How did we get the various nations, races, people groups, languages on planet earth? It's all found right here in Genesis chapter 10 and 11. So today we're going to look at the story of the Tower of Babel and we're going to learn some lessons hopefully from it. Lessons that I think will challenge our world but also challenge us individually. But we've got to begin with the story of Babel. You can't really understand what this is all about unless you kind of dissect the whole story and see exactly what's here because really for most of us the story of the Tower of Babel is just something we remember seeing in children's Bible story books you know with that huge tower that kind of gets lost in the clouds and if that's the image you have of the Tower of Babel you've got a completely wrong image and so we need to go back to what Genesis actually says and find out what it was all about and then what it means for us today. What impact does the Tower of Babel incident have on our world and on us personally today? Well we need to begin with the setting for Babel. The setting for the Tower of Babel is actually in chapter 10. In chapter 10 what we have is how the various people groups and nations developed from Noah. After Noah comes off the ark what happens then? What we have here is basically a summary of a thousand years of history between the flood and the Tower of Babel and what we find basically is the the spread of nations throughout the world. Chapter 11 or chapter 10 verse 1 this is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth Noah's sons who themselves had sons after the flood. We're reminded that Noah had three sons that's where all of mankind is going to come from now Noah and his three sons so in verses two through five we are told the descendants of Japheth and how they developed certain nations and then in verses six through 20 the nations that came from Ham and in verses 21 to 31 the nations that came from Shem. Aren't you glad we're not going to read all those verses this morning? Summarized in verse 32 by this statement these are the clans of Noah's sons according to their lines of descent within their nations from these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. So chapter 10 is telling us how Noah and his three sons spread out through the earth and develop the various nations and how they came from his three sons. Chapter 11 then goes back it's like Moses who's writing this hits the rewind button and goes back to explain to us now how did that happen? Just how did it happen that the various national groups started and spread throughout the earth the story of the tower of Babel is set in the context of chapter 10. Chapter 10 is basically the end result. Chapter 11 verses 1 through 9 tells us how we got there the story of the tower of Babel basically introduces how everything happened that we read in chapter 10. So now we can get to the story of the tower of Babel and what we're first introduced to in chapter 11 the first four verses is the unity at Babel the unity that takes place there. Look at verse 1 now the whole world had one language in a common speech that may seem like a repetition but it's really not it means there was one language spoken and it was all spoken the same way you know we have English that is spoken all over America but not the same way in different parts of the country right? I mean we have our own little dialect here in this part of the country but what he's saying here is that there was one language and it was all spoken the same way everybody had a common speech and a common language come in way of speaking that language. Verse 2 as people moved eastward they found a plane in Shainar and settled there they said to each other come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly they used brick instead of stone and power for mortar. Then they said come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. Now what's happening and what's emphasized in these first four verses is the unity that was taking place at this occasion the city and this building of this tower the tower of Babel. Now there are two kinds of unity mentioned the first is a geographical unity. The Bible says that these folks all whom spoke the same language began to move eastward toward the plane of Shainar. Now we're going to show you that on a map. I forgot my pointer. Take a look at the map here of what is basically present-day Iraq. This area is present-day Iraq here's Iran here's the Persian Gulf Mediterranean Sea here's where Israel is right here right here is Babel. I may not be able to see it very well but Babel right beside Err which is the town that great metropolitan area that Abraham would come from but the tower of Babel is in this and the city of Babel which would become the city of Babylon by the way is in this fertile crescent this plane that is found and people decide we're going to settle there and so there is this unity geographically but notice there's a sinister twist to this geographical unity that's described in verse four come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves now notice this next statement otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. Wasn't that what God wanted? Sure it is that's what God told Noah in chapter nine verse one when he came off the ark he said be fruitful and increase the number and fill the earth and he repeated again in verse seven of chapter nine so what we've got here is God saying one thing and the people saying something else we don't want to fill the earth we want to make a name for ourselves with a huge building project here we don't want to be scattered over the face of the earth and so this geographical unity flies in the face of the command of God and goes directly against what God had told them but there's something even more sinister here than geographical unity there is a spiritual unity that is very very dangerous it has to do with this tower come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves this tower unto heaven literally a tower unto heaven you see the word reaches and and tower that reaches unto heaven is the idea that we have in our minds and so we typically have this picture of the tower of Bable in our minds the picture that comes up next on the screen this huge tower that gets lost in the clouds and the idea that we often hear is that these people were trying to build a high tower a tower that would reach all the way up to heaven and we'll get to heaven by climbing that tower and then we problem with that is that's not exactly what the text says the text says come let us build ourselves a city with a tower unto heaven the word reaches is not in the original language it was placed in to help it read more smoothly but it's given us the wrong idea it was a tower that was dedicated to the heavens and they are commonly found in archaeological digs in the Middle East today they're called Ziggurat not cigarette I hear me clearly Ziggurat now Ziggurat were teared towers look at this next picture just like this in fact this is this is a rendering based on the archaeological finds of the Ziggurat at Earth right beside Bable and this is probably what it looked like kind of a teared tower usually would have three or four tiers but here is the important part right here this is a temple on the top of a Ziggurat would be built a temple and that temple would have on the ceiling the heavens the stars the planets what they knew which was quite advanced at that time about the the starry universe and the idea was to worship the heavens to worship the sun the moon the stars and then there would typically be an idol a stone a gold image of God right in the middle so what's happening here is they're not doing some great building project to try to reach heaven I think they were smarter than that what they're doing is they're building a tower that's dedicated to the heavens that is used for the worship of the heavens and includes an idol God a God that is brought down to our level a God that is is like us that can be worship the God who looks like us in other words they are making God in their image rather than what God intended for us to be made in his image they're making got remaking God to look like us and that religious system which would infiltrate Babylon and would be passed down to the Romans and the Greeks will all with all their pantheon of gods that are just like us they fight swabble just like us what that's doing is that's bringing God down to our level it is a devaluation of the God of creation we will worship his creation and we will make an idol of him that looks like us that is what the tower of Babel was all about it was a satanically induced pagan religious unity and any kind of religious unity today that formulates God in its own image that basically has a view of some nebulous God that is not the God of the Bible and is not approached through Jesus Christ any religious system that does that is all a part of that pagan religious system it goes all the way back to Babel all the way back to Babylon so that was the problem the unity at Babel was not just a geographical unity that was against what God wanted the most serious thing was it was a spiritual unity which flew in the face of everything God intended for mankind that was to worship him not his creation and for us to be made in his image not for us to make him in our image that was the problem that Babel so that brings judgment and what we find described next is the judgment on Babel the judgment on that tower and on those people verse five but the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building this is almost humorous this is the greatest building project yet known to man and God has to stoop down to see it but really this is an expression God came down to see the city and tower it's an expression that means God is fully aware of what man is doing and God is coming down to do something about it God did not need to travel from heaven down to earth to figure out what was going on as if he didn't know he didn't need to accumulate facts this was not a fact-finding mission God knew what they were doing this is an expression which helps us to understand that God always judges justly he always has all the facts he always knows exactly what's taking place and he's going to do something about it so he comes down to do something about that which he knows is happening and here's what it is verse six the Lord said if as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them now because our view of this passage has been kind of twisted by a wrong view of the tower we have a wrong view of what's being said here those of us who have the idea of the high tower reaching into the clouds have an idea that what God is saying man if they accomplish this building project who knows what they'll be able to build next that's not the issue at all the issue is if they establish this pagan religious center with one language it will spread quickly to everybody and they will have a one world religious system that is pagan at its core that replaces the true God with a God of their own making so if they get by with this who tells where it will go from here who tells what will happen from here that is the issue and so God does do something about it look at verse seven come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other amazing to think of that isn't it they get up one morning go out start working on the tower and one guy says hand me a brick guy looks at him what did you say and the guy who asked for a brick doesn't understand what he just said and all of a sudden they realize they're not saying the same words it's an amazing miracle of God verse eight so bottom line so the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city that is why it is called Bable because they're the Lord confused the original word for confused sounds just like the word for Bable so that's a word play here reason it was called Bable is because they're the Lord Bable the language of the whole world from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth so what's happening here is the judgment of God God forcing them to do what they were unwilling to do on their own scatter across the face of the earth but also put to an end the satanically motivated worship system that they were about to institute worldwide that is the judgment of God now the result at Bable goes back to chapter 10 the result is the scattering of all the nations chapter 10 basically describes what happened as a result of the tower of Bable incident in chapter 11 by the way there's an interesting comment in chapter 10 verse 25 two sons were born to Eber one was named Pellege because in his time the earth was divided his brother was named Jacques 10 now there have been those who said well earth was divided in this guy's lifetime was that mean a huge earthquake there even some who said this is when the continents divided and so forth in in the flow of thought here in the context that's the furthest thing from the writer's mind what's he talking about in chapter 10 how the nations got divided what he talking about in chapter 11 how it happened why it happened so the earth was divided during this guy's lifetime in the sense that that's when the tower Bable incident happened and that's when God divided the nations so that was the result of the tower of Bable by the way just one little sideline here it's not really dealt with in this passage but from a biological scientific perspective we know this is also how we got the different races this is how the different ethnic groups came into being it's all genetic you see Adam and Eve were created with all the genetic material for all the possible variations among mankind there was huge potential in their genes well what happened is as people began to group into language groups they began to enter Mary within that group which restricted the gene pool and certain characteristics became dominant and that's how you got the different skin tones you got the different facial features the other ethnic lightnesses and similarities of different kinds of people that's how all that came about simply through the tower of Bable incident and the scattering of people through different languages now that that's what happened in Genesis 11 that's what happened at the tower of Bable now what does it teach us what can we learn from it what are the lessons we can learn from the tower of Bable well I think there are some that are are almost go without saying they're very common commonly spoken and we understand them but there are one or two that I'm not sure we usually get and so I want to focus on those so let me get the first two out of the way kind of quickly because we understand those I think one lesson from the tower of Bable is the danger of a one-world government there is a great push for that today there's a great push for international unity and not just working together for the good of mankind but to do away with national distinctions to become one global community with united efforts that was what was being attempted at the tower of Bable it will be attempted again successfully in the tribulation time that will be the program of the Antichrist which ought to tell you something about where this kind of thinking comes from the Antichrist will be able to pull it off temporarily briefly with the one-world government in the tribulation time it is so dangerous to think this way and to plan this way it was never God's intention for mankind the man who started the seminary that I attended way back in the days when the earth was still drying from the flood back in the 80s actually was a man by the name of Alva J. McLean he was a brilliant theologian started grace seminary 1937 just a brilliant brilliant mind who loved the Lord very humble man he wrote what I still consider and most people would consider the greatest book ever on the subject of the kingdom of God called the greatness of the kingdom and in that book he deals with this topic of nations and listen to what he says although not the ideal form of human organization nationalism has proven the safest for the preservation of personal liberty in a sinful world if you would have read the whole book you would know that he's saying the ultimate kind of government is a perfectly righteous ruler ruling in a perfect world that's Christ ruling in the millennium that's the kingdom but in a sinful world the nationalism has proven the safest for the preservation of personal liberty here's why in the world market of political ideas and forms there will be competition and experiment as long as there are many nations and in the end such competition and experiment always workout for individual liberty and the development of distinctive cultural values which then may be mutually shared between nations in a sinful race left to its own devices one monolithic world state might conceivably put an end to all further political experiment and result in an irreversible totalitarianism in other words a a world dictator that forces his way on to everyone in the world that was Hitler's plan for Germany and ultimately his mind for the whole world that's the Antichrist's plan that he briefly pulls off in the tribulation time and so we're talking about something that God never intended which has only been seen attempted in human history by evil men and will be accomplished briefly by the most evil political dictator the world's ever known the Antichrist I tell you something that was never God's intent and the power of Bable shows it clearly God intends to have separate nations the danger of a one-world governments one of the lessons we see here but there's also quite clearly the danger of a one-world religion and what I'm going to talk about next is different from just dropping major disagreements between denominations or minor disagreements I should say between denominations all of whom may love Christ and love his word it's different than that I believe that denominations that may only differ on minor things like church government or things like that but but who have a strong commitment to the word of God and to Christ as the only way of salvation we can we can minimize some of those minor differences in order to serve the Lord together however that's not what I'm talking about what I'm talking about now is a one-world religion which is much different a one-world religion basically says drop all of your distinctly believes so that we can coexist and get along together and so in place of the Bible what you have is not an authoritative word from God which rules out all other revelations what you have in its place is religious sincerity just as long as you are sincere about your religion that's what binds everybody together in a one-world religion and instead of the distinctive savior Christ the Lord who died for sins and that being the only way of salvation what you have in the place of that is some kind of nebulous God some vague idea of God you can define him however you want you can call him whoever you want just as long as you have a some vague idea of God who wants you to be sincere about your beliefs and that's all the expects of you that is the essence of a one-world religion it is the essence of paganism it is the essence of a religion that shuts God out that dares to create God in our image the God that we want rather than the God who is the God that's very convenient for us and makes no demands on us rather than the God who really is the God who can be approached however you want rather than the one way through Christ our savior the danger of one-world religion is that the God you worship and the religious plan you have is nothing that resembles at all the true God of the Bible or the way of salvation taught in the Bible so there's the danger of one-world religion thirdly there is the danger of a humanistic society and that's really what Babel was doing it was a humanistic society a society that basically was built around the efforts ingenuity networking of people to show what they could do on their own without God you find it in verse four come let us build ourselves a city with a tower under the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves it's all about us in this system the tower of Babel it's all about human ingenuity human strength human ability we can make it on our own we don't need God and we certainly don't want his way he's told us what to do we've decided we're gonna do it our way that is the essence of a humanistic society that our security is found in ourselves in our own ingenuity in our inner strength all we have to do is find deep within us the strength we need to live life and to live better and to somehow transform ourselves into a better person that's pure humanism because that you don't need God for that you don't need a savior for that all you need is enough self will and enough self strength to do it on your own the Bible teaches that we must humble ourselves before God because we absolutely need him the Bible teaches that we are all sinners who need a savior that we come into this world damaged beyond the ability to help ourselves beyond the ability to lift ourselves up by our own ingenuity wisdom or strength we come into this world so damaged that we are already condemned and under the wrath of God his judgment looms over us and the only way we can be delivered from that is not through self-help it is through Christ our savior that is what the Bible teaches and so the Bible teaches the exact opposite of what they were doing at the Tower of Babel humanistic society built around us will make a name for ourselves will show God we can do it on our own and God says you cannot do it on your own you need me and you need a savior to forgive your sin by the way the only national unity worldwide night union of all nations that God will ever smile upon is the one described in Revelation chapter 5 look at this verse Revelation 5-9 talking about a worship scene in heaven they sang a new song saying you the lamb on the throne Christ you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God now catch it persons from every tribe and language and people and nation here's true biblical world community national unity and it is the body of believers gathered in heaven from every nation falling at the feet of the throne worshipping the Lamb of God who shed his blood for us recognizing the only reason we're there is because of the blood of Christ the death of Christ for us that's the only unity worldwide global unity God will ever smile on and it's the redeemed in heaven from every people in nation worshipping the savior Jesus Christ anything that mankind tries to do apart from that is a satanically induced counterfeit any one world government or one world religion or humanistic society that shoves God out is doomed not only to failure but doomed to God's judgment exactly what happened at the tower of Bable but I think there's something else here that we often miss I missed it until I was digging in this text this week and it suddenly became clear that what really was happening at the tower of Bable and what the real danger is for us right here sitting in our pews at John St. Chapel is the danger of a love you of God that was the essence of what was happening at the tower of Bable let's reduce God to be like us and only that let's bring God down to our level let's build a tower that makes him in our image so that what this is all about is us bringing God to be our servant he's made in our image when the Bible teaches exactly the opposite and that is the danger that we face I believe it's a danger even for those of us that claim the name of Christ the danger of manipulating God the danger bringing him down to my level what we really want is God like a watered down version of God which reduces him to someone made in our image he serves us he does what we want and we are not at all submitting to him and what he wants it's the other way around there's a real danger in that and that my friend is the essence of paganism that exists even in my heart in your heart the danger of a love you of God and there's several ways that we may do that we may have a love you of God by reducing his power by not living in light of what God can do his power in and through us what is it that you really depend on for your security in life is it the government is it someone else is it yourself is it ourselves our own work our own ingenuity our own resources our own networks of people that we can help get to help us if we really believe that God is who he says he is and if we really let God be God we might see more of the power of God in our lives and through us if we were willing to faith to go by faith live by faith in a powerful God if we were willing to do that then I think we would be more willing to step out on faith and give our lives to serve him but we think we have to take care of ourselves we think we have to prepare for our own futures we think we have to have things in place that God really can't take care of us that if we go somewhere across the seas it'll be too dangerous if we really let God be God then we would go wherever he wants us to go we would make ourselves available to do whatever he wants done we limit him by reducing his power in our minds and hearts if we really let God be God we'd be willing to step out of our comfort zones and take the gospel to people who need it others across the street and across your place of business or where you work we need a passion and a zeal to share the gospel with people and when we become fearful of what they will think of us or if we don't have all the answers or we can't say it in just the right way we're really limiting God yesterday was yesterday was Jeanne's birthday I'm not going to tell you which one you can ask her maybe she'll tell you she asked for one thing for her birthday and that was could we could we get together with her sister and brother-in-law they live in North Carolina and we decided a good meeting place would be the Billy Graham library in Charlotte so we went down yesterday to meet them at the Billy Graham library we hadn't seen them in four or five years and it was a wonderful time with them but we toured the library again if you've never done it you really ought to I come out of that place convicted every time not not glorifying Billy Graham but he would be the first to say if anything good has happened in his life it was due to the Lord and his his power his willingness his using him but they had a section in that in that museum of how he interacted with the media in his heyday he was on practically every talk show and news program there was they had TV screens showing the different clips of interviews all the the big news guys all the CBS ABC NBC the head news guys all the talk show guys in that they filled on a hue and Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett and all of those guys all of them interview him all the news programs interview him and every time he would go straight for the gospel unashamed they would try to pin him in a corner they would try to make him look bigoted I'll never forget the cliff I saw with him doing filled on a hue and filled his walking up and down aisles of his studio like you always did he's trying to pin Billy Graham down and Billy Graham answered him in a way that left him absolutely speechless he stood there with a microphone in his hand he was trying to to make him look silly for being so exclusive that Jesus is the only way and Billy Graham just launched into the gospel and said you like everybody else in this room including me as a sinner who needs Jesus Christ as saver and start quoting scripture and the word of God was so powerful I could almost feel it in the room where I was watching this on television I can only imagine what I've been like in that studio filled on a hue just stands there mouth open finally turns to a guy beside him in the seat he says do you believe that too and the guy said yes he's incredible he's on the Johnny Carson show tonight show and they're trying to pin him down as to don't you believe people from other faiths are going to be saved and he said listen here's the problem the problem is that we're all sinners and he just launched right into the scriptures and preached the gospel to Johnny Carson and Johnny Carson says you mean I'm a sinner Billy Graham said yes and I am too and he said even Edmund Man over here is too every time they tried to pin him down he came back to the gospel unashamed to declare the name of Jesus with people who were powerful and wanted to tear him to shreds and he just calmly compassionately graciously firmly boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ I walked out of there so convicted you know I know enough about Billy Graham's life and ministry I had a class in seminary by a guy who was a personal friend of his and described his prayer life when he would pray for crusades he would be on his face before God pleading with God and this this church history professor said I've never heard anybody pray like that never and and he was a man who understood the power of God who understood that if anything is going to be done it's got to be done through God's power you know if we would not limit God to our little our little ability to do this or that or the other if we would only let God be God then maybe we would be as bold to share the gospel as he was it was not Billy Graham it was this view of God that caused him to have that kind of boldness and passion if we really let God be God and didn't reduce him to our image maybe we would start giving to the work of God even if it meant giving up some of our indulgences maybe if we really let God be God we would take a stand for godliness in the workplace and when something is said or done we would say no no that's not right I'm sorry but you're offending my God and my Lord maybe we would rather than cow down rather than then back off we would be bold for Christ maybe if we let God be God we would lay aside our masks and our facades and be real with our struggles with other believers rather than trying to maintain an image rather than trying to make a name for ourselves that's at the essence of the power of Bable the unwillingness to let God be God and we are in danger of building our own towers of Bable by reducing God's power making him in our image and restricting him to only what I feel comfortable doing only what I think I can do only what my wisdom my power my strength will allow God is so much bigger than that we can't put him in our little tower of Bable put him in our little idol in the center of the room but we have a low view of God also by reducing his person please follow with me because I think there's a very insidious way that we do this at the tower of Bable they were reducing the person of God to someone that was no better than them no different from them made God in their own image and did things to please him so that God would be in their debt and God would be obligated to them it was the beginning of every pagan world religion that does things to serve a God who will then do things good for me again who will bless me here's how it works in our thinking sometimes God really is obligated to me all the talents I give him the money I give him the ministries I do the prayers I offer the pure I warm and so God has obligated to bless me because of all this I do I put God in my debt now we wouldn't say it that way but every time we say why has something bad happened to me I've tried to serve God what we're treating God like as an ATM machine if I punch the right buttons do the right things then God is obligated to give me something in return he's obligated to bless me listen my friend God is not obligated to do anything for us he is not at all obligated to us we are sinners in need of him he does not need us thankfully he graciously chooses to use us and he does bless us but that's not in return for something I've done for him that's totally of his grace and of his mercy we have a low view of God when we think that he's just someone to respond to me and do for me because I've done for him that's bringing him down to our level just like the people we're doing at the power of Bable so we have a low view of God by reducing his power reducing his purpose but we also have a low view of God by reducing his purpose his purpose the purpose of God is not to satisfy all my wants and my needs that's my purpose that's your purpose that's our purpose and what we often want God to be and do is to accomplish our purpose rather than his and here's the way it sounds just listen to our prayer lives maybe not our public prayers but when we really pray privately here's the way it would often come out it's like oh be said like this you're you're not going to pray exactly these words but if you examine what you're praying and the way you pray we will often find I will find that what we're saying is Lord please improve my health but don't ask me to make any changes in my attitude don't make any demands on my attitude just improve my health or we pray Lord help me get that promotion in that race but don't ask me to change my lifestyle so we ask God for things but we're not willing to let him do his work in us or it may sound like this God make make it possible for me to get everything done I need to get done today but don't make any demands on my time I don't want any interruptions I don't want anything to happen today that I haven't already planned in other words Lord my plan is what goes for today not yours do we live that way and pray that way and convince that we do and what the way we really live is we're asking God to make and work out changes for us so that our way is accomplished what we want done what we want in life is fulfilled rather than God make changes in us make me in your image I'm going to stop making you in my image I'm going to stop I'm going to stop using you to get my plans done my purpose done I'm convinced that we are at times as guilty as the people at the tower of Bable with our love you of God we manipulate him making our servant we make him in our image rather than allowing him to accomplish his purpose in us making us in his image I think what we need is to trade in our watered-down view of God for the self-revelation of God in the Bible and maybe the place we need to start is the way we treat the Bible rather than just using the Bible real quick every day like a newspaper horoscope I want to get some clue as to what my future holds where I want to get some mystical thought for the day that will help me rather than such self-centered approaches to the Bible self-help tool this is not a self-help tool rather than that maybe we need to approach our time in the word of God by asking him to show us who he is how great he is we need a Bible sized view of God so maybe it begins with the way we use the Bible I believe it is critical to our spiritual development to understand who he is and bringing our life into orbit around him and his purposes not bringing him down to our level and making him our ATM machine to fulfill our purposes maybe it all begins with how we approach the word that we approach the word to gain a God-sized view of God a Bible-sized view of God like Isaiah did like John the revelator did John the the apostle did in Revelation only then will be delivered from being self-absorbed and making God in our own image only then will we understand how he wants to conform us to his likeness rather than us bringing him down to be like us and to be made in our likeness and fulfill our whims our desires our wants our purposes I think we all need to ask ourselves today am I guilty of building a tower of Bible am I guilty in my life of it all being about me in my plans and what God can do for me or is it is it really about him his plan and purpose his transforming me and making me to be like him in his image that's not always going to be comfortable it's not always going to be easy street it's not always going to be painless but our goal in life rather than reducing him to our level should be to look up to the God of the Bible and ask us ask him to fulfill his purpose in making us more like him if that is accomplished everything else will fall into place we will serve him well we will see his power in our lives we will see him glorified in the use of our time everything else will fall into place as he wants it to if the focus of our life is on him and not us are you building your own tower today your tower of be able do you need God to come down and confuse your plans and your purposes so that you recenter your life around him let's pray together Lord I need the reminder that I am not above building my own tower of Bible I'm certainly not above reducing you to doing what I want what I plan what I feel like I need oh Father in my heart and the hearts of all of us gathered here today help us to seek and gain a God-sized view of who you are that your plans and purposes are so much greater than ours what you want to do in us is so much greater than what we want you to do for us confuse our towers if you must Lord take away from us our plans and desires if you must help us to be cast solely upon you we ask in Jesus name amen