Building Towers

INTRODUCTION

·         Last week we talked about building ARKS, today, while we can, to prepare for the FLOOD that is coming (persecution).

·         We saw how God was merciful and loving towards people in giving them time to repent and how He was protecting the world from evil and how the flood was actually God saving the world

·         What does the name Methuselah mean?  (His Death Shall Bring)

·         We also saw how there were many people who perished in the flood because they did not heed the warnings of Noah, they just went on through life, going through the motions

·         We looked at how many Christian’s today are not seeing the times that we are living in and therefore are not preparing for the coming “flood”

·         God showed Noah ahead of time and gave plenty of warning so that when the rain came they would be safe

·         Noah did not start to build his ark once it rained, he prepared ahead of time.

·         We too are called to build our arks – we prayed about what this means for us individually

·         To summarize, building an ark means that you are obeying, following the Lord, actively seeking His will, you are preparing by growing in a real, authentic relationship with God.  

BUILDING ARKS OR BUILDING TOWERS?

·         We are supposed to be building ARKS but instead, many of us get distracted and spend more time building TOWERS

·         This doesn’t mean that we aren’t working on our arks from time to time

·         But we aren’t supposed to be building TOWERS at all, only ARKS

·         Abraham did both in Genesis 12

·         In verses 1-9 we find Abraham following God (building an ARK)

·         God invited Abraham to become a nation whom through the entire world would be blessed

·         God’s invitation challenged him to abandon the normal sources of personal identity and security, his family and his country and to obey

·         In verse 1 God says “GO” and in verse 4, “Abram WENT, as the Lord told him”

·         His obedience was immediate and unquestioning – Abram was building an ARK!

·         BUT, in verses 10-20 we find Abraham doing his own thing (building a TOWER)

·         A famine causes Abram to go to Egypt

·         Did you notice how he did not consult the Lord?

·         He just did what he thought was best

·         Do you see how Abraham could build an ARK in one instance AND build a TOWER in another?

What does it mean to build a tower?

·         We’ll find our answer in Genesis 11 (see commentary in devo homework)

·         According to verse 1, the whole world had one language so everyone could understand everyone else. 

·         Verse 2 tells us that men moved eastward and began to settle down. 

·         They decided to build a city with a tower to reach the heavens (v. 4). 

·         They wanted a place to be settled instead of scattering over the whole earth (v. 4) and they wanted to make a name for themselves (pride)

·         If we dig a little bit deeper in the account of the Tower of Babel we find the heart of what is going on here. 

·         The building of the city and TOWER were outward expressions of heart issues. 

·         The people wanted to do their own thing, they did not inquire of the Lord

·         Their actions show human independence and self-sufficiency which are both forms of pride. 

·         These attitudes are praised by our culture but loathed by our Lord. 

·         In this story we see that pride is equated with rebellion, independence and disobedience. 

·         Yet pride is prevalent in most believers’ lives. 

·         We need to repent of pride! 

·         Look at the following common areas of pride (see devo’s, ch. 11 question 3)

o   Struggling with admitting you are wrong

o   Feeling that your achievements are your own, ‘self-made’ success

o   Striving for self-advancement

o   Boasting about accomplishments either outwardly (spoken) or inwardly (unspoken)

o   Seeking acknowledgement or praise of others

o   Grandiose thoughts about yourself

o   Feeling like you know everything

o   Controlling others

o   Inflexible, not wanting change unless you initiate it

o   Wanting to have your own way.

o   Making assumptions, tending to want to speak first and be heard

o   Struggling to listen to others

o   Thinking you are better than other people, whether unspoken or spoken.

o   Harboring grudges, not forgiving easily

o   Feeling self-righteous about wrongs that have been done to you

o   Being critical of others, judgmental

·         But the Lord came down to see the city and TOWER and confused their language so they couldn’t complete their task (v. 7-8). 

·         God intervenes and the people are dispersed throughout the world (v. 8-9). 

·         Here we again see the grace and love of God as He restrained the people from continuing in sin. 

·         God’s response to their pride and sin was to make it harder for them to communicate with each other so they couldn’t unite in deeper rebellions against Him.

·         Once again, we see God’s love and mercy present here as He was protecting them from their very own sin nature! 

Your Towers Affect More People than YOURSELF

·         The TOWERS you are building may seem small or insignificant but if kept unchecked they can have significant influence on your future and the future of your marriage and your kids and other relationships

·         Next week we’ll see how a TOWER in Abraham’s life led to sin and trouble – trouble that is still in the world TODAY, through Ishmael…

·         We’ll also see how a TOWER in Lot’s life costs him his home and his wife and how it causes a deep perversion in his daughters

·         Little TOWERS can have dire consequences because they are sin! 

·         Sometimes it’s harder to root out the little sins than the big ones that are more obvious

·         Attitudes are much harder to remove than actions sins

·         Many of us stay blind to them for years

Tower or Ark?

·         This weekend Pastor Ray talked about how we are changing the services to holding both of them on Sunday

·         He explained how this change came about due to much prayer on behalf of himself and the staff as we desire to follow God’s direction for the church

·         He used the following example from scripture:

·         When Joshua led the Israelites to defeat Jericho, God gave them the direction to march around the city once a day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day

·         The strategy was brilliant, it worked and they were victorious

·         Then, the very next city they were to conquer was Ai.

·         Did they use the same strategy? NO!!!

·         God showed them a different strategy for that city which required setting an ambush and pretending to retreat

·         Each time the Israelites were successful it was because God was giving them strategy and they were obeying. 

·         The same is true of David and His battles. 

·         Scripture tells us many times that David inquired of the Lord

·         This is a HUGE KEY, a Biblical principle to apply to your life!

·         If you want to build and ARK instead of a TOWER then you MUST inquire of the Lord REGULARLY

·         The fact is that many of us are spending way too much time building TOWERS instead of building ARKS because we never ask the Lord about the stuff in our lives

·         This shows human independence and self-sufficiency which are both forms of pride. 

·         In fact, many of us think that we are building ARKS when we could very well be building a TOWER

·         How do you know?  INQUIRE OF THE LORD! 

·         If you are not reading the Word regularly and if you don’t listen in prayer regularly about all areas of your life (your walk with God, parenting, work, time management, marriage, etc.) then you really have no way of knowing if you are building a TOWER or an ARK in a particular circumstance

·         In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you are not reading the Word regularly and not listening in prayer regularly then there is a tower of independence and self-reliance in your life. 

·         How can a Christian go through life without inquiring of the Lord?

·         How can a Christian make decisions without seeking the Lord’s will through prayer and Bible reading?

·         We need BOTH!  Being in the Word give us the foundation so that we can hear God correctly when we listen in prayer, it grows us in godly character so we can hear God more accurately

·         Listening in prayer without a proper Biblical foundation can be dangerous.

·         You need both in your life – Time meditating in the Word and Listening Prayer…

·         We can’t do it as a church and you can’t do it in your personal life either?

·         Not if your desire is to build an ARK!