Tower Builders

Another min series / this time on hidden heart agendas / Bible says heart is desperately wicked … who can know it? / there are things at work in our own hearts / things that stop us from loving God / others as we should

Every few weeks / at our office we have meetings / every time we get there / we have an agenda sitting by every seat / everyone knows what we will cover / everyone on the same page

Our hearts are not the same way / our heart agendas are not public / sometimes hidden even from ourselves / we serve hidden agendas at times / without even knowing it

Paul says “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do no want to do… this I keep doing”

Our hearts agenda & God’s agenda are always at war / Until we recognize them / we can not serve God as we should / As I go through this series I am praying HS awakens us to new awareness of our hearts agendas / as our hearts can take us away from God without even knowing it

Begin this evening with hidden heart agenda of “Tower Builders”

Genesis 11:1–9 (NIV)

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar 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.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

I. The Story

A. Their Existence

1. People only existed because God saved Noah / his family / from flood

a. Flood was a distant memory / clans were growing / numbers multiplying / people started looking for more

1. As people moved eastward,

a. Urban planning / was now topic of conversation / wanting to build not just a city / grand city / largest tower around!

2. Why the desire for more? Bigger? What made them want a tower reaching heavens?

a. Did they want a tower tall enough to survive another flood? Doubt it / God gave a promise to never flood entire earth again

Or were they drifting away from God / pursuing other things? More likely

b. Part of pagan worship always includes a high tower (ziggurat) to reach heavens / home of the gods

Ziggurat / square base / stairs around side / temple on top / for sacrifices / place for gods to come down meet with people

Like heaven on earth / gateway to the gods / it was Babel

3. No ordinary tower / they wanted a name for themselves

a. At risk of losing their identity / becoming nomads / hearts began to long for sense of identity

How did they intend to fix that problem?

B. Creating a reputation

1. In ancient times / greatness was measured in numbers / numbers in your tribe / size of flocks / thickness of city walls /

a. You would need everything possible to LOOK like a successful people / then you could attract powerful god

Above all they wanted to be known / make name for themselves / a big name!

II. The Heart Agenda

A. The tower was key to their success

1. No different today / pyramids / Eiffel Tower / Empire State Building / Taipei Tower / Shanghai tower / Burj Khalifa (UAE)

a. Presidents see large buildings as a way to make their nation seem great / seem significant

Each one comes / goes / wants to be remembered / not forgotten / insignificant

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

2. What about you? What’s your tower?

a. Not just presidents / nations / have this desire / so do we!

Desire to be significant / make a name for ourselves / become tower builders

Only difference / we build through symbols / achievements / associations / our words

If left unchecked / our heart is constantly pulsating to make our name bigger / better / more significant

3. We love symbols / think about “NIKE”

a. Not just a pair of shoes / it’s status / labels on cars / clothes / handbags / smart phones

1. All go beyond their function / serve to build our identity / our significance / more symbols we accumulate the better !

4. We build our name through achievement

a. From a young age / we learn we are affirmed when we do well / ignored or criticized when we fail

1. Becomes so engrained / if we fail / we won’t try that again / when we hear applause / we feel we have achieved something

a. Could be sports / beauty / academics / career / humor (class clown - best clown around)

5. Associations (who we are connected to / what we are a part of)

a. MY family / MY school / MY team / MY country

Always humorous / even though we don’t play for the yankees / we don’t own the team / it’s MY team / when they win you win / you make sure everyone knows / say it loud / often / If they are not doing well / you keep quiet / as if their poor performance effects your net worth

b. It’s why we name drop / “You’ll never guess who I hung out with today”

Way of feeling important / associating with winners / maybe it will rub off onto us

Our conversations can be used to impress others / always one up-ing (fish story)

Why? Because if we remain silent / we feel unimportant / invisible

Conversations turn to criticism / gossip / we feel better about ourselves as we put others down

c. Social media another tool for Tower Builders

The right look / right photo / right comment / witty meme / all driven by desire for more

We want to look like we are not a failure / overspend /

B. Heart Fear

1. Our greatest fear is being invisible / a nobody / we see this in the text

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;

a. We see a striving to build something significant

Problem = there is a sin that works in the significance factory - COMPARISON

When we look at our life / look at others / measure /

“Comparison is a measuring stick for self-centeredness rather than other-centeredness”

2. Disciples struggled with this / during Jesus last hours / as Jesus is telling them about His upcoming suffering / death / resurrection

a. Disciples were pre-occupied with Jesus setting up shop / no need for resurrection / no death coming

They are busy comparing each others merits / worried about who was to be.... what? THE GREATEST

No doubt it’s why we see Peter draw his sword at time of betrayal / he saw His important seat being taken away

3. As Peter’s dreams of being significant start to fade / we see the girl ask Peter “Aren’t you one of His disciples?”

a. I wonder what he was thinking here

On one hand if I say yes / it looks like a downhill path

If I deny him / maybe I have a chance at getting my old life back

We know… he ends up saying “I am not” / then denies twice more / then falls apart begins to cry bitterly

All his significance is gone / he was afraid of failure / He saw a kingdom / what he built up in his mind was crashing down

Next time we see him / he’s fishing / went back to what he was good at / something people of Capernaum would appreciate / some significance / at least not a failure

Does Peter love Jesus above himself and his friends? Has he put himself first, following second?

b. Next time we see him / he’s fished all night / caught nothing

Jesus asks him / Peter, do you love Me?

Maybe you have never thought of your own self - idolatry this way before

You allow your desire to be something to drive you to any length to feel better / to be more

Your heart agenda is to idolize self / so you demand significance / run from failure

When we allow our heart to make demands / it then does something else / it demands others to make us look good / others to affirm our worth / it demands others to accept us

C. Heart Demand

1. Be honest for a second / how many times are you with a group of people / wondering what they think of you / how they perceive you?

a. Do I look okay? Are we dressed okay? Don’t trip / Don’t say something embarrassing

We want them to laugh at our jokes / tell us we are okay / we want others to come through for us / make us look good

How selfish / how idolatrous!

I read about how in Bible school / they teach up and coming preachers / to not think about what others might be thinking of you / only focus on communicating the message clearly / don’t worry if you look good / or whether they will accept you / don’t look for affirmation from them You are there to serve / not your image or ego / but to serve them

b. If you are always concerned with what others think of you / you become self serving / inward looking / rather than serving others

You will see this at work / when “things” in life / become more important than God’s calling for your life

No one is immune / during covid / livestream / impossible not to WANT to ask / “how many were tuned in , watching?”

2. We can treat relationships same way / as we get “likes”

a. If we get enough / we give ourselves a pat on the back / significance tick!

So easy to fall in love with self /

Whenever I get the chance to talk to people about marriage / I like to ask / Are you both ready to give your life to each other? Without hesitation / always a quick yes / Then I like to say / are you ready to die for each other / usually gets real quiet

3. When our heart demands significance from others / we use people to build our tower of significance ...

a. Rather than opportunities to express the self GIVING love of God

When they don’t build us up / we move on / try to find someone else who will

Most vows are words said out loud / ones we are told to repeat / we have not choice / BUT / in our heads what we are really saying is “I need to feel important and I expect you to meet that need by submitting to my every decision / whether good or bad / by respecting me no matter how badly I behave / and supporting me in whatever I choose to do / I want you to treat me as the most important person in the world / My goal is to find MY significance through you!

D. Heart Problem

1. When our life comes down to building significance / at same time / we are doubting our own value

a. When we doubt whether God values us / it reduces God’s glory in two ways

We turn God into a blessing machine

Our faith in God becomes conditional upon God continually blessing us / giving us increased signs of significance

if this fails / we turn our back on God / start building our own towers / believing God is not enough for us

When we use others / and God / to feed our own value / we can’t at the same time value God / others as we should

2. Remember Nebuchadnezzar / he tried to combine the two

a. Built a statue (of himself) wanted people to bow / worship the image

Daniel 4:30 (NIV)

he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

God judged him / he was humbled by God / put out in the pasture to eat grass like an ox Daniel 4:32

3. In WOG Babylon / always a place set up against God / or anti-God

a. Final reference to Babylon / Rev 18 / we see this city going up in smoke / destroyed by God / for chasing a name / heart agenda of significance / in the place of acknowledging God

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

God stripped their self significance / wanting them to find their significance in Him / Him alone

Question becomes / should be / what kind of tower / life are you building?

III. God’s Heart Agenda

A. Begins with our real image

1. Real Image / Not on anything I have touched on up to this point / but on fact we are made in image of God

a. If we are made in image of God / then our source of significance can ONLY come from creator

If you remember Toy Story / cowboy Woody / worried that other toys will replace him as Andy’s favorite today / found significance in the eyes of his owner / opinions of the other toys was far less important

Should be same for you and I

We are intimately created / infinitely valued children of God

We should seek to find our significance (WHICH WE REALLY DO NEED) from one place / eyes of God

Not from what your mom thinks / not how you compare to your brother / sister

B. Being made in image of God / also means we are all created equal / equal in VALUE

1. Equal in value / no matter what our eyes see!

a. Regardless of what value system is created in our country / why? Because we are citizens of a better country / not from here

Only thing that matters is what God see / what God says

2. Corinthians had similar problem / puffed up their importance / even used their God given gifts to look down on others

a. Using their talents / turning them into something about themselves / as if they were of their own doing

We have to guard our heart from doing the same

We take our life / giftings / abilities / go off to build ourselves a tower / from very things God gifted to us

As if out of nothing we created something / Only God can create from nothing / so Paul tell Corinth church

1 Corinthians 12:24–25 (NIV)

while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

3. Every part has the same honor / because hand of God makes every part

a. We are all unique / but all have same value

Because of the giver not the gifts

C. Jesus addresses His disciples

1. In the midst of their argument of importance

Mark 9:35

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

a. He says significance / status / power / have no place in His Kingdom

His Kingdom is built on humility / service / faithful reliance / being totally dependent on God

It’s about belonging to the family of the King

2. JTB says it perfectly

John 3:30 He must become greater; I must become less.”

a. He was not concerned with his own importance / but in pointing to the significance of Jesus alone

When we do this / we can lay down our heart agenda of building towers of self-idolatry

Lets stop the tiring / frantic / uncontrolled building / find everything we need in eyes of our Father

It’s then we will value others above ourselves as Jesus did / serve others / serve God completely

Is being a tower builder a problem in your life?

In what areas do you look for significance ?

Where do you run / fearing failure?

When do you require others to affirm you?

Do you struggle to really value others.... and God?