Genesis: Human Arrogance & Heaven’s Answer

In late 2005, Steve Croft, who longtime journalist and columnist with CBS News on 60 Minutes, he was interviewing Tom Brady. Now, if you don't know who Tom Brady is, um I don't normally like to open up with sports illustrations, but since it is Super Bowl Sunday, I thought that I would. And thank you all for your prayers for the Seahawks this morning. I've The amount of comments I have received this morning is unbelievable. I appreciate y'all. Uh unless you're wearing 49ers gear or Patriots gear right now, I don't appreciate you at this moment. Um, however, for the rest of you, uh, Ste Steve Croft is interviewing Tom Brady. And at that time, Tom Brady had won three Super Bowl championships. He had a contract of $60 million. His estimated net worth at the time was hundred million dollars. Um, he had immense fame. He couldn't go anywhere without people recognizing him. and he was married to a supermodel uh Jacel Max uh not Maxwell Jazelle Bunchkin and he had from outward appearances it looked like everything in his life was going for him. Um and it was one of those puff peuff piece interviews where they kind of just want to chronicle his rise to fame uh highlight his accomplishments. But at one point in the interview, Brady starts talking about how none of the things that he had actually fulfilled him. Didn't actually satisfy his heart longings. He mentions the success, the financial security, the fame, making a name for himself. All of these things didn't actually satisfy him at his core. And he says in the interview, he says, "Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and I still think that there's something greater out there for me?" I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, "I reached my goal, my dream, my life." Me, I think, God, this can't be all there is. There's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's cracked up to be. And then Croft, like a good interviewer, he he asks an open-ended question. Well, what do you think the answer is? And Brady responds by saying, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew. Now, I want you to think about that for a second because Brady had built a name. He had built a legacy for himself. He had achieved financial security. And yet, there was something he knew he was longing for more. That he was created for much more. and he doesn't identify it in the moment. What he's actually saying is he's created for something that's transcendent and lasting. All the success he had, all the fame he had, all the money he had, the marriage he had, and I put that in the past tense because they're no longer married. Um, it's fleeting. All of it can be taken away. But he was chasing after all of these things. He was trying to make a name. He was trying to build financial security. He was trying to have a a a community with his family. And it's interesting because in every age, humanity has been trying to build a name for themselves. They've been trying to find meaning in and of themselves, meaning apart from the Lord. And what they end up finding sometimes far too late is that a life that's built apart from the Lord, it may bring you fleeting happiness.

Fleeting happiness. It won't actually in the end satisfy your heart longings. And with that in mind, turn with me to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is the very first book in the Bible. Because what you find in Genesis 11 is not just one individual who's trying to build a life and find meaning and security apart from the Lord. You see a whole group of people who are trying to build a name and find security and meaning apart from the Lord. And that story in Genesis 11, it's incredibly famous, but it actually starts in Genesis 10. Now, if you've been with us, you know we've been in the book of Genesis for I don't know, a good amount of time, a couple of months, and uh we'll be in it for a couple of more years. Um I'm kidding, hopefully, hopefully less than a year. Um but what you find that story actually the story of the tower of babel actually finds its origins in chap chapter chapter 10. It's the tracing of Noah's family. How after the flood you think about it how after the flood humanity becomes divided into different tribes and into different nations. So in chapter 10, which is what we're going to look at the beginning uh the beginning portion of our the message will be in chapter 10, you have the table of nations and it tells you where they went, where they were dispersed to. And then in chapter 11:es 1-9, you have why they went um it's the reason for the dispersal. So in chapter 10, table of nations, it's a macro look at the tribes and the nations that come from Noah's line. And then in chapter 11 you have the tab the tower of babel which is the theological rationale which means this section 10 and 11 it's not chronologically in order. It's arranged not chronologically but thematically. And as you look at chapter 10 you see it's a genealogy of sorts. More accurately it's a genealogical geographical list describing how the descendants of Noah's three sons populated the different regions of the earth. And it's not a complete genealogy by the way. It's not an exhaustive list of names. It's 70 names of all. So, it's not a complete genealogy. They skip some. So, its purpose is not to explain the history of the world. Well, if it's not that, then what is it? The purpose is to define Israel's relationship to the other nations. That's what it's to be about. It's going to define Israel's relationship to the other nations and also then to explain the diversity of the languages and then also to highlight once again humanity's rebellion against God. Does that make sense? You guys tracking with me? Okay. So, what we're going to do is I'm not going to you you're going to look at the names and I'm not going to read every one of these names this morning. Otherwise, we would be here until the Super Bowl. Um, so we're not going to do that. Uh, what I'm going to do, I'm going to pick out some of them. I'm going to highlight them and then we're going to move on to chapter 11 in the story of the Tower of Babel. So with that, look at chapter 10 beginning in verse 1. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japth. Now again, every time you see that phrase, these are the generations of, what it means is we're entering into another section. So we're into a a new section. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. sons were born to them after the flood. Um, so what we're told right off the get-go is that we're united by ancestry. All of us are united by ancestry. And we need to be reminded of that because our world is so gosh darn divided right now. Um, we need to be reminded of what we share in common. And we're united in our ancestry. And meaning we're all created in the image of God. And we've talked about this at lengths throughout this series. But what it means is every single person you rub shoulder with is made in God's image. No matter what they've done in their past, no matter what they're doing in their present, they're created in God's image. and therefore they deserve dignity, honor, respect. Um, so we we have this common ancestry first of course through Adam and Eve, but then the Lord reboots the c the creation through Noah. And now what you see is verses 2 through31, you see that humanity, while we have we're united by ancestry, we're divided through geography and language. Look at verse two. the sons of Japth. Uh these are the sons of Japth. And he lists all these names. And the sons of Japth are those who went furthest geographically from Israel, mostly to the north and then mo mostly to the far west. And these people, by the way, when they were picking the land, these were the intelligent ones because they went to Bal and Mach. That's Turkey, Terrace. Um, that's in Italy where the Olympics are right now. So, these guys, they looked at at the land and they thought, "This is pretty good. I'm going over here." Uh, they chose really nice destinations. Skip down to verse five. From these, the coastlands people spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations. So these are the coasties of the ancient world and they spread out along the coastal regions and the islands and the and the Mediterranean Sea. So that's the sons of [ __ ] Now verses 6 through 20, it focuses on the descendants of Ham. And we talked about Ham quite a bit last time. And the descendants of Ham are some of Israel's closest and fiercest enemies. And so when Israel reads this list, they're thinking, "These are the people that give us so much trouble." Look at verse six. The sons of Ham,

Kush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. Uh Kush is in North Sudan. It's North Sudan region. And then Egypt, Put uh which uh modern day Libya. And then just to the west of Egypt is uh Canaan, southern southern Syria and Palestine. And then what Moses does, skip down to verse eight, he focuses in on one of uh Kush's son. Kush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it is said like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. And Nimrod, his name actually means um we shall rebel. And Moses highlights him because the next scene that takes place in Babel, which he founds, uh Nimrod builds his empire on naked aggression. and his empire will include all of me Mesopotamia with the godless cities of Babylon and Nineveh which eventually becomes it brings the northern and the southern kingdom of Israel to its knees. So you have all these specific people mentioned and then in verse 15 skip down to verse 15 whole people groups whole people groups come from uh Canaan and you can see it from their endings of the itites. So Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and his Sidon his firstborn and Heth and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Gegosites, uh the Hivites, the Arites, the Sinites, the Arvites, the Zemerites, the Hammer, the Hammerzites. So you get all these names. You got the parasites and the termites and the brush your teeth at nights. All these names right here, all inhabitants of Canaan whom Israel was expected to displace once they got into the promised land. Skip down to verse 21. We have the descendants of Shem. And we talked about Shem last week. Uh the line of the Shemmites or as you know them, the line of the Semites to Shem also the father of the children of Eber. And just as uh Nimrod is singled out in the line of Ham, skip down to verse 25

because one of theirs is one of uh Shems is also highlighted. Look at verse 25. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Paleleg, for in his days the earth was divided. and his brother's name was Jockan. Now go ahead and underline those two names, Pegle Pegle and and Jockan because this is super interesting. Uh it is super interesting. Paleleg, as you can see in the note next to his name, it means division. And what happens here in the line of Shem, it's traced to two sons of Eber, Paleleg and Jian. But then it follows the line. It doesn't follow the line of the firstborn son because look at verse 26.

It follows the line of the second son Jockton. If so he immediately he he bypasses talking to us more about Paleo. It goes straight to Jockton and then it follows the line of the second it follows uh Jockton and then later we'll see after the tower of Babel where the people are divided the line of Shem is picked back up at Palele and it traces his line to Abraham. Here's why this is so cool. This is why I'm geeking out about it and I want you to geek out with about it with me here for a second. the author what he's doing he's very intentionally arranging the genealogy of of Shem and he's drawing a div a dividing line through the descendants of Shem on either side of the story of Babel he said pale means division and then what he's going to do is he's going to divide the history of that family after the tower of Babel he drives a a dividing line through the descendants of Shem on either side of the story of Babel the dividing line it falls between these two sons of E of Eber Pleg and Jocked. One line, Jockton's line is involved in the building of Babylon. The other line brings us to the family of Abraham and it's all it's this division that takes place within the family. Now look at the literary genius of Moses. He divides the line of Shem with the story of the Tower of Babel which results in the division of the languages and the peoples. And then he picks up the story again talking about um talking uh uh about um Paleleg picks up the story again and he says through Paleleg the man of faith the father of the Hebrews the father of the Jewish nation Abraham comes. It's masterful storytelling on the part of Moses and you guys don't look that excited about it. He's saying you got to trace the family tree all the way through. So, humanity has been divided by geography and language and that leads to different ethnicities. And because they're spread out, they develop different cultures. Now, again, we all have the same ancestry. We all have the same image of God. We're all born into the world with the same sin nature. We're all in need of the same spiritual savior. That's all true, but there are differences based upon what takes place at the Tower of Babel. Now, as we move into chapter 11, the story of the table of Tower of Babel, it's in essence, here's what it is in essence, and you need to know it. It's the story of unified humanity using its resources to build and establish its own identity and its own destiny. Their hope is their own destiny apart from God. It is the height of human hubris. The story of the Tower of Babel. It's the height of human hubris. And it's a story when you read it and you slow down and you consider it, it resonates with so much of what we're seeing today. As people continue to try to build a life and reject God, they try to build a life of identity, security, significance, and community apart from God. And again, it's the height of human hubris. Um, so the first thing we see in verses 1-4, it's human arrogance. It's the height of human arrogance. Let's have a look. Verse one. Now the whole earth had one language. Now you can see this takes place before what the division. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they they found a plane in the land of Shinar and settled there. Now think about this what this this words here and as people migrated from the east if you've been with us in the entire study of the book of Genesis that phrase the people migrated from the east that should cause bells to go off in your mind. that that should alarm should be going off in your mind right now because after Adam and Eve's sin the Lord banished them banished them from the garden and places them outside of a flaming sworn and a sheriff placed them on the east side of the garden and then in chapter 4 when Cain kills Abel the Lord curses Cain and we and we read then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and he settled east of Eden later in Genesis 13 we'll be there in a couple of weeks we'll have Abraham and Lot and their possessions are too great. And Abraham says, "You pick first, Lot. You You pick for yourself." And where does he go? He chooses poorly. And he goes to the east to Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis, we've talked about this before. In Genesis, when people settle in the east or when they're moving eastward, it's it means typically they're leaving the presence of God. They're moving out from under the blessing of God. So when you come to the story of the Tower of Babel and you see the phrase migrating eastward, you should be automatically thinking to yourself, this is not going to end well. Whatever this story is about, it's probably not going to end well. And by the way, this is one of the reasons while working why working uh all the way through a book rather than just doing topical sermons is of great importance because you start picking up on literary clues that the author leaves behind. And this is one of them. When people are moving eastward, they're moving out from under the blessing of God. So unified humanity is a in a heart attitude. They're moving away from the presence of God. And they come to the plains of Shinar, one of Nimrod's city. We shall rebel. They're moving eastward as a unified people with a heart attitude that's saying we want to move out from under the blessing of God. And they settled in one of Nimrod city. And we read verse three. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone and bitamin for mortar. Now, uh, notice a couple of things here. Well, go down to verse four. Then they said, "Come, let us build build ourselves a city and a tower with its top to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." Now again, note a couple of things. First, their attempt to stay together and to stay put. That's an act of rebellion. It's a huge act of rebellion. What was the creation mandate that the Lord gave them? Genesis chapter 1, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That sounds like a pretty good deal. Um, make lots of babies. Usually that's enjoyable for the man. Make lots of babies and go fill the earth. And they decide not to do that. They want to stay in one place. They say, "Forget what the Lord's telling us to do. We're going to do something completely do different act of rebellion is what this is. By the way, notice as a sidebar, the Lord always pushes his people to look outward, to multiply, to send, to give. Just like we've been praying for the Ecuador team to look outside of our own church, outside of our own walls, to keep moving out further. Um but sinful man always looks inward toward building his security towards building his identity through building his own legacy. Now look at their motives. Look at what their their motives are. Look at verse three and four because they say a couple of things here. They say three things in verse four. Come, let us build ourselves a city, a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. So what are their motives? They're well, we see it right here. They desire security, a sense of belonging. That's a city. They desire securing their own identity apart from God. That's in the phrase, let us make a name for ourselves. This is what they actually desire. They desire these things. um to belong to a community security and to make an identity apart from the Lord. Let us make a name for ourselves. Now, let's ask this question. Are those desires in and of themselves wrong?

No. The desire for belonging, the desire for security, the desire for an identity and a meaningful life, those things aren't wrong. Several thousand years later, people haven't changed. We still desire those things. We want to belong to a community. Each and every one of us, we want to belong to a community. Um, this is why gangs are so prevalent in so many inner cities because they don't have their own nuclear family intact a lot of times and a gang will give them a community. So, we want to belong to a community. That's why to us a family is so important and it's why the word home just the word home probably resonates with us so deeply and the word probably just in itself conjures up the mind of community. It conjures up in your mind the idea of community. The community in which you were raised in which you love. When I when I think of home, I think of a little town in southern Oregon where I met Tria, town of 439 people. And it it's picturesque in my mind, even though I know it's not. So, we desire community. We want security. All of us have we want lasting security. We want to be the we want to be utterly secure. It's the reason why insurance is a trillion dollar business. It's why every single one of us, if you're over the age of 40, is overinsured in our country. Um, we have home insurance, car insurance, life insurance, umbrella insurance. We want security. It's the reason why we breathe a little bit easier when the stock market is up rather than down because we want financial security. It's the reason why a great many of us drive bigger SUVs than we actually need because we want to be secure. We also want every single one of us, we want an identity. We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to live our lives. We want our lives to count and to make a difference. We want lives of meaning and significance. Even if the significance is just within our own families, we want to leave a legacy of some sort. So, we want our lives to count. Now look at these look at these three things here. Community, security, identity. The human heart craves those things. And that's not wrong. Those are God-given desires. It's where we look for them that so often is wrong. And what happened on the plains of Shinar is they thought they could fulfill these desires apart from God. And they actively sought to they thought they had all the means that were necessary to achieve their desires of their heart apart from God. Well, what were the necessary means? Well, we saw them in the text. They had social unity, one language, and all settled in the same land. So, social unity, human ingenuity. Come, let us do this thing. We can create this ourselves. And they had advanced technology. That's in the making of bricks and mortar. No longer relying on stone and wood. This was advanced technology for that's a huge uh technological advance for them. Now look at what they're saying. Look at what they're saying in Babel. They're saying the motivations of our heart and the means to accomplish them are all within our reach. And therefore therefore we don't need God at all. We can live unto ourselves completely. We could be autonomous beings and build our own lives and create our own meaning apart from God. Wow. You know what that is? It's two things at once. Again, it's the high point of man's rebellion. And it's shaped by Adam and Eve's original rebellion. Adam, Adam and Eve's original rebellion of being a law unto themselves. So, it's the high point of man's rebellion. But the second thing it is is it's the spirit of our age. Derek Kidner in his commentary, he says this. He says, "The primevial history reaches its fruitless climax as man conscious of new abilities prepares to glorify and fortify himself by collective effort or yeah, by collective effort. The elements of the story are timelessly characteristic of the spirit of the world. The project is grandiose. Men describe it excitedly to one another as if it were the ultimate achievement.

The Tower of Babel is the spirit of our age, is it not? It's exactly what humanity in this moment and has been doing ever since. We try to fulfill our desires of belonging, of security and of identity through social unity, human ingenuity and advanced technology. And we try to build a life apart from God. Is that not exactly what humanity is doing right now with AI and super intelligence? Is that not exactly what we're doing through genetic engineering? And we're trying to clone and shape humanity according to our own imagination. You see what this tells us? This passage tells us when you slow down, you consider it. It's telling us humanity has not changed that much.

We will try to build a life. We will try to build an identity. We will try to secure our We'll try to build our own security. We will try to have our own community apart from God. Yes, our technology has advanced, but at a heart level, humanity is still trying to build a life and live a life apart from God and be a law unto themselves. And so there on the plains of Shinar in Nimrod City, they start building this idolatrous structure. And so they start baking bricks and they start hauling them to the construction site. And this must go on for a couple of years. They're building this ziggurat which you can see them. They're scattered throughout the Middle East in Iraq and Iran. And so they're working and they're building and they can these zigurats they can be quite large. This is a artist rendering of one. They can same time period uh one from the same time period has a foundation that's 200 feet by 150 ft um long, 80 feet up in the air. And so they're building this and they're trying to reach it up into the heavens. We don't need God. will ascend all the way up. And they're slapping each other on the back saying, we're doing it. We're really doing something great here. We're reaching the heavens, the hubris of humanity. And this is where God inserts through Moses quite a bit of humor in his text. Because the next thing we see is heaven's awareness. Look at verse five. They're building this thing up into the heavens. And look at what we read. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. They're thinking, these guys are building and they they're thinking they're reaching into the heavens. And the Lord the Lord has to come down just to see it. When your kids were little, did you have um an ant farm?

We didn't. I prohibited that.

But Tria got around me and we had a ladybug farm.

We had all sorts of things. We had, you know, we did Tria's a teacher, so we had the crysis and the thing and this and that. Then we I said, "No, no ants. Do not want ants." So she said, "Fine." She got a ladybug farm and they're building. They're going all over the place. And you know what you actually have to do? You have to get down onto its level to see what they're actually doing. You have to get way down. They're so tiny. You say, "Whoa, they're really working down there." That's the image I have when when these guys think they're achieving these great things. We're going to reach this up into the heavens. God's looking at them thinking, "These stupid humans, what are they doing again? He has to come all the way down. You have to get down." He's, in my mind, he squints with his eyes. That's the image. Like, oh, what do they think they're doing? How cute. They're building a little tower. Good for them. So, Moses says, the Lord looks at this and he scoffs. Just like Psalm chapter 2. He looks at these people building in vain and he just scoffs at. He says, "What are these people doing?" So, we see heaven's awareness, but then we see heaven's answer. Look at verse six. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the Lord dispersed them, scatters them. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth. He says, "You don't want to you want to try to unite when I've told you to go out." Okay, I'll scatter you. He disperses them. Dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth. And they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of the earth. So the Lord confuses the languages. Here's his answer. You're going to act in rebellion against me. Okay? I will disperse you. I will scatter you. I will confuse the language and disperse the people. And what that does is that has the effect of limiting the spread of evil by restraining a unified humanity. But I want you to notice in the text that the Lord doesn't destroy the tower. He just leaves it there. He leaves it there rotting. It's a failed and fading tower. It's a monument to humanity's attempt to build a life and to build a name apart from God. And the story ends right there. Hm. Well, what do we see? Well, let me close with a couple of things. First, what we see is the Lord in his mercy, and it's an entire act of mercy on the Lord's behalf. The Lord in his mercy will sometimes frustrate our plants because the best of human ingenuity and the best of human technology won't actually satisfy our heart longings. Now, that poses another it poses a question. Does that mean we should just stop creating and stop making technological advancements? Heavens, no. Because you're created in God's image and God's a creative God. We're made in his image. So, we should continue to create. We should continue to make culture. But what it does mean is we need to ask ourselves, am I trying to build my own tower? Am I trying is what I'm spending my time on, my energy on, my resources on, what I'm investing in, is that making a name for myself? Is that glorifying myself or is that actually honoring the Lord? Because the best of the best of human engine uh in ingenuity and advanced technology apart from a real desire to glorify the Lord, it won't actually satisfy your heart longings and it'll lead you it'll leave you with failed towers and deep frustration. Failed towers and deep frustrations. I was reading a while back in uh Wired magazine. Does anybody read Wired magazine? Wired magazine. It's a um it's a kind of a startup technology magazine and I was reading in it some time back and they were doing a retrospective on the late Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs as you all probably know um he was the co-founder of Apple and Jobs had a vision of literally changing the world through insanely great computers. And in order to do this, he sought out John Skolley, who at the time was the president of Pepsi. But Scolley, he was unwilling to leave his great financial security and his great position. He didn't want to leave it for a startup. That is until Jobs looked at him one day and said, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" And with that, Skoly left Pepsi for Apple. But in the World Magazine articles, Jobs made this startling confession. He says, "The problem is I'm older now. I'm 40." I love that line. I'm 40. He That's the problem. The older The problem is I'm older now. I'm 40. And this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. Technology is not changing it much, if at all. Failed towers, frustrated desires, and the Lord will leave us in his mercy. He will sometimes frustrate our plants. And what they are, they're essentially monuments with a message. And the message is this. A life built apart from the Lord will never it will never ultimately satisfy you. That's the first thing we see. We see the Lord in his mercy will sometimes frustrate our plans because the best of human ingenuity and the best of advanced technology won't satisfy our hearts desires. But here's the second thing we see. The Lord in his goodness will make a way for the deep longing of of our hearts to be satisfied. the deepest longings of the human heart. The Lord has made a way for those things to be satisfied. Our heart longings. We talked about them already. What are they? Community, security, and identity. And those things, the deepest longings of the human heart can only be fulfilled by God. And it actually starts to come to fruition in the very next chapter with Abraham. And we'll talk more about that in the weeks weeks ahead. But Abraham, when the Lord calls Abraham, he gives him a people. He gives him a place and he gives him a name. So the longings of his heart. It starts with Abraham, the man of faith, but then it finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. You see, our frustrated and our frustrated desires, our failed towers point beyond themselves. And they tell us that the things that our heart really longs for can't be found in and of ourselves. And I my hunch is here's my hunch. If you're over the age of 40, you can look back at your life with things that you've tried to build a life, a community, security. You've tried to build those things apart from the Lord. And you can look back on those as failed efforts. Those things were fleeting, but they point beyond you. You see, our frustrated desires, our failed towers, they point beyond themselves. And the and they tell us the things that our heart longs for can't be found in ourselves. They can only be fulfilled by another. The things that your heart craves, but you can't achieve. deep and lasting community, never ending security, and an identity that can never be lost or stolen that can only be given to you in and through Christ. You want you want lasting security. Every single one of us wants it. We want lasting security. And sometimes when you feel unsecure in life, um, if you're not actually resting in your security of Christ, it will drive you mad. We crave lasting security. And there's nothing more secure than the lasting love of Christ given to those who come to him in in repentant faith. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 8. He says, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all thanks. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure, Paul says that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You want never ending security. It's found in Christ. The most secure thing in the world is the love of Christ given to you when you come to Jesus Christ. You want security? Come to the Lord Jesus Christ who secured it himself by dying in your place by paying for your sins and raised again to new life to ensure that nothing can ever separate you from his love. The second thing your heart craves is lasting community. Um well tell you what let me do the last one first. You want lasting identity. Every single one of us we want we want to make a name for ourselves. We want a life. We want significance. We want our life to have significance and meaning. You want an identity, a lasting identity. And here's the thing about Christianity that makes it different than every other major religion is that you have an identity. You have a name. When you come to Christ, you're given a name, beloved son or daughter of the king. Which what that means is you have an identity that you haven't achieved. You're given an identity, but it's not based on your achievement. Every other every other religion says you can have an identity, but it's going to be through your moral effort. It's going to be through your religious discipline. Christianity says no, no, no, no, no. You come to Christ. He's already achieved it for you. He will give you a a name, beloved son or daughter, and you can rest in that completely. It's not based on your achievement, but upon Jesus through the cross, again, where he paid for your sin and mine, and he made a way for you to be reconciled. So, you'll receive a name and much more than that, you'll your life will be given meaning in the here and now. How? When you're given a name, at the same time you're given a mission to reach the nations with the message of Jesus. Whether that means going across the street or around the world, he gives your life meaning now by calling you to tell others that to try to build a life apart from Christ will just leave you with failed towers. But by coming to Christ in genuine faith, it'll satisfy the deep longings of your heart. Here's the thing, the third thing you want, and that's lasting community. You see it on the screen. Well, where is that found? Well, in Acts chapter 2, I won't make you turn there because I'm running out of time. But in Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, do you remember what happens on the day of Pentecost? After Jesus's resurrection, the Holy Spirit falls on all 120 of Jesus's disciples. And what starts happening is Babel is reversed. The curse of Babel is reversed. And it doesn't mean there's no diverse languages. But what it does mean is a new community is birthed who begins to hear clearly the voice of Christ in and through one another. What's birthed at Pentecost is the new covenant community of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the church. And one of the underappreciated facts, one of the underappreciated aspects of belonging to Christ is you belong to a community where there is deep and rich friendship, deep and rich lasting community in the church. Each week, I've been doing this for 24 years. Each week, I see people who are rich and poor sitting next to each other, educated and uneducated, Republican and Democrat sitting next to each other, and they don't even know it. It's the funniest thing. They all tell me, they think I'm some people think I'm a Republican, some think I'm a Democrat. I don't tell anybody what I am, but so I see them sitting next to each other, worshiping the Lord together, sacrificing and serving each other, meeting real life needs for one another. The community your heart actually craves is at the church. It's in the church. It's in the community of Christ. Filled with the spirit of Jesus, we can hear and understand, sacrifice, and love one another in the name of Christ. The deep and lasting community your heart longs for is actually the new covenant community of Christ. So my encouragement to you is get plugged into it. Whether it's this one, it can be a city church. It can be a country church. It can be a large church. It can be a small church. It can be a great church. It can be a mediocre church. Whatever. Get plugged into the church because we're called to represent Christ there and to be a part of a deep and lasting community that worships Jesus together. And one of the ways that we worship Jesus as a community is by coming to the Lord's table and remembering what Jesus has done. And we do so by holding the bread, taking the elements, the bread and the cup, the bread representing Jesus's broken body, the sacrifice that he paid. His body was broken open. He laid down his life to give you life. The cup representing the shed blood of Jesus Christ was shed for you for the remission of sins. So when I'm done praying, what we're going to do is we're going to come forward to the Lord's table and we will remember and celebrate all that Christ has done to bring us into deep community with him. And when I'm done praying, what you'll do is you'll exit on the left, grab the elements, and then come back to your section on the right so we can try to have a little uh smooth process here. So why don't you stand while I pray and then we'll come to the Lord's table together.

Father, we thank you that the desires that actually are deep within us that we have tried for so long to fulfill in and of ourselves and have never been able to that they actually point beyond ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ who can actually fulfill those desires.

who has secured us in your love, who has given us an identity not based on our achievements, which is how the world operates, and then brings us into the new covenant community, the the church, where we can hear your voice and celebrate all that you have done. And so as we come to your table, Father, which is another element of your community, we pray that we would do so with sincere hearts, with grateful hearts, that we would rejoice, we would recognize your sacrifice,

and that as your people, our lives would honor you in word and deed. We trust you for these things in Jesus name. Amen.