Pastor Sam Barber

Genesis 11:1-9 (NLT)

- What is the Tower of Babel about?

- This is an essential story for your survival in 2024. We live in a divided world.

- There are two popular ideologies to address this division:

- Unity

- Diversity

The lack of moral absolutes dooms these propositions.

- Unity seems promising, except we don’t know what to unify over.

- Diversity seems like a solution, except without a moral absolute, diversity becomes conflict, competition, one against the other.

The thing that wrecks both the pursuit of unity and diversity is the same - selfish desire. The Bible reminds us that sin is essentially an unchecked selfish desire.

Genesis 11:1-4 (NLT)

- When we come together for our purposes, and God is marginalized or forgotten, what happens is destruction. Unity was championed, God was removed, and destruction reigned.

- The Tower of Babel is the biblical account of unity devoid of God.

Genesis 11: 5-7 (NLT)

- God knows what breaks us, and God wants us to avoid that.

- What breaks us, God calls sin and begs us to avoid it.

- So, God scatters them to preserve them for their good.

- So, we remain scattered, diverse, selfish, and hopeless.

Acts 2:1-12 (NLT)

- At the Tower of Babel, the people tried to unify without God.

- In Jerusalem, the people gather to honor God and He blesses them in a never-before-seen way!

- Perfect unity in perfect diversity is only possible through the work of God, the Holy Spirit.

We see it playing out all around us right now.

- All our efforts to “fix the world” are failing.

There is only one “fix”: the power of God, poured out in His spirit, on people like us who make up the church. Our broken and scattered world needs to experience the love of a unified church. It begins with you:

- A Unified and Spirit-filled church has Spirit-filled people.

- The prayer of consecration will get you ready for God’s work.

It continues with this church:

- As you surrender and live with God in control of your life, you change the trajectory of this church.

- This church is this community’s best hope for healing.

Any one of us here, every one of us here, can surrender our lives to Jesus and be filled with His Spirit. When we do, we bring hope to a divided world.