FOR HIS NAME
Notes
Transcript
Dear youth, the time has come that we make summer break, and even though we’re not truly a “college group” because not many of you are in college, I think it’s fitting for both us to give you a word of exhortation as we look towards summer and Lord willing upcoming year.
I want to read to you from 11th chapter of the book of Genesis. Wild guess what it is?
Just for the context, God just destroyed the whole world with the flood for the wickedness of their hearts, and choosing one man of faith Noah to repopulate the earth God gives Noah and his descendants a command “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” It’s only a few generations later that we come to the text. Literally, after God gives an exhaustive genealogy of Noah and his children we find this people gathering with a plan, as you will see - a plan to defy God’s order.
Let’s read it together.
Genesis 11:1–10 (ESV)
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and 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.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all 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 and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord 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 all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Dear young people, there is a striking warning in this story to all of us today. Man!…for young and old, for educated and uneducated, for a man and women, for skilled and unskilled, married and unmarried. No matter how we slice this society, we find one common denominator - they all gathered driven by one single purpose - to build a tower - a monument for their own glory - to make their name great.
Any attempts to build our own name will bring our life to ruin
Any attempts to build our own name will bring our life to ruin
We see that as construction goes up, God himself decided to come down and visit them. Did He come to check out on their greatness? Or encourage them in their progress, and tap them on the shoulder to confirm their importance in this world? Hell no - God came down to destroy their wicked plans by confusing their language. Honestly, we don't have to spend a lot of time to understand the meaning of this. In Proverbs God says “Pride comes before the fall” and this is a perfect example of this truth in real life.
Where is the tower of Babel? As of today, it lays in ruins - an archeological site for scientists to dig up dead fossils and try to make sense of far fetched past. It has always been desolate place filled with wild animals, laying in ruins and will always be because any attempts to build your own name will bring your life to ruin.
Its about this time of year that many schools and universities give their commencement speeches to their young graduates, when the prince of this world whispering into their ears this ancient lie that “making your name great is doorway to success.” Masterfully masking this lie, the enemy wants you to believe your success, your beauty, your achievements, your status, your reputation, maybe even your righteousness, your spiritual ranking among your peers is worth living for. But friends, not I, but God Himself warn us in the story that any attempts to build our own name will bring our life to ruins.
Just asking rich or successful people, if their riches or success, or popularity, made their life more meaningful. And even then ungodly will tell you how dissatisfying this delusion is.
the second lesson…
God restores the purpose to our name through His Son Jesus
God restores the purpose to our name through His Son Jesus
Literally, as this story ends, God gives another genealogy of the descendants of Noah’s son, up to Abraham, and in chapter 12, God makes a covenant with Abraham, and while promising him the land and the nation God himself says to Abraham…
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
What a contrast friends. God is not simply there to disgrace his creation, domin them to a life with no meaning or purpose. But God is the God of Truth - He knows that the man lost his greatness in the garden of Eden. The first Adam disobeyed God forever staining his name. God knows that we can not restore our greatness by simply working hard with bricks and mortar, pulling all our best efforts to make our name great. Delusion. So He acts.
God says “This will fail once again, and we will have to wipe the mankind out from the face of the earth again. So let’s confuse them for a time being, disperse them through the face of the earth… until the day when the stage is set - when my son Jesus comes to this earth and I will gather them once again under the headship of my son Jesus.
speaking of Jesus…
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
That’s true that God is jealous for His glory, because He knows that only Jesus’ name deserves the glory. But God is incredible gracious, and He invites us to join the glory of His Son Name by bowing down our knee before him as a King of Kings, as Savior of the world.
Read with me the scene from the revelation:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Friends, looking at the world we live in today we could probably say that “Pride is a vehicle of all progress.” Even us Christians, we are subtly poisoned by this delusion of making our name great.
We are so upset when our reputation is stained. We are depressed when we are not noticed. We are frustrated when our position is rejected. When our gifts not appreciated, when our effort are not recognized, when our … we loose our joy when someone offends us, because somewhere deep inside we still believe we are worthy. We are not. He is.
To put it simple - to live for the name of Jesus is to invest everything you have to be Christlike no matter what it will cost you, so at the end, His name would be glorified, and your name would be written in the book of life.
Friends, there’s only two ways of life - one, is to live to make your name great, or another is to live so that you live with point to the one whose name is truly great, so they would bow down before Him, and praise Him as king of kings.
May God bless you to choose every day, with everything you are and everything you have to make His name great!
