SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, babel, story, tower, jesus, life, pride, identity, moment, global flood, build, grew, view, christ, church, captivated, week, fear, faith, technology.

SPEAKER

Phil EuBank

Well, hey, good morning Menlo Church. So glad to be with you today. A special shout out to our Bay Area campuses; down in Saratoga it was great to be with you in person last week, in Mountain View, San Mateo, here in Menlo Park, those joining us online. Thanks so much for continuing this journey through The Rest Of The Story with us this summer. If you haven't been with us, you can catch up online, including Adam's great message last week around Noah And The Flood. And also, if you haven't been with us, this flannel graph is probably kind of confusing. We'll get to that in just a second. But we've been talking about, kind of this idea, right? The difference in the way that many of us grew up in church, if you're a follower of Jesus, and how if we weren't careful, we would grow up, but our faith and our understanding of God didn't grow with us. And the byproduct of sort of a flannel graph faith, the way that we learned as kids, maybe, that never grows with us is that we will often grow out of our faith rather than growing up with it. And so this series is hopefully a way to do some of that. This week, we're going to focus on the Tower Of Babel, and how this story has, I think, more relevance in our moment today than it has had in a really long time. And so I hope that maybe God is going to do something new and different with you. Whether you call yourself a follower of Jesus or not that I think there's something really important in the heart of this story for all of us. But before we get started, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here before, never heard me speak, I pray kneeling. And the reason that I do that is because the work that God wants to do in you I can't do. There's no amount of words, there's no special spell I can cast like, ultimately, this is just the work of God and all of our hearts. So would you spend a moment Humble yourself in the quiet of your heart? Let's pray to God that he would do that for each one of us now. God, thank you. Thank you so much that even if our week has been tumultuous, even if our life right now feels unsteady, God, you are with us. And God, there's work that you want to do in us. Whether we would call ourselves followers of you or not, your love extends, and the opportunity for relationship exists today. Would you help us to step into that even as we look at this story in ways that maybe we never have before? It's in Jesus name, Amen.

So I wonder, what is the first piece of technology that really grabbed your attention? We're all going to sort of answer this question a little bit differently based on when we grew up. But for some of us, it's the first TV that we ever had in our house, right? For some of you, it's the first computer that you can remember, being in your house. Eventually, there were cell phones, right, and the first versions of those look a little different than the ones we use now. And that kind of innovation, it just has accelerated faster and faster and faster. One of the things that really blew my mind as a kid was the DVD. Now, if you're not familiar, if you're younger, in here, a DVD replaced a VHS tape. And it's how we watched movies. And you're like that neither one of those things sound like Netflix, Netflix, like how old are you, Phil? And I just say that's hurtful, just as a statement for you to make about me. But it's how we watch movies. And if you wanted to watch a new release of a movie, you would go to a place called blockbuster, or like a mom and pop equivalent, and you would get a VHS tape and you would go watch it at home. And the thing that was really annoying was that we all had these like devices in our house that you had to put the tape in afterwards. That was a rewinder, right? You know how this goes. If you grew up in this era, because you we would be kind and rewind, you know, that's that's just the way we did it. Because we're just kind people look at what's happened in society ever since we stopped rewinding. And I know that for some of you, right? It's much newer for you. It's social media platforms, virtual reality, augmented reality. Now it's artificial intelligence. Technology is captivating, and that's nothing new. And I'm guessing that when you learned this story in the Bible of the Tower of Babel, you didn't really think about it on the flannel graph as a story about technology. Right? It seemed pretty simple. We were told about how people had grown so prideful, and so arrogant, that they believed they could build a city and a tower that would allow them to live autonomously without God. And so God scattered them. That's the story of the Tower of Babel as we heard it right? But actually, the error was more connected to technology than we often realize. So let's just read the story together. It says "now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward they found a plane in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They use brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said Come let us build ours. selves, 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 that 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 confused 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."

Did you catch that? The Tower of Babel was built around this cutting edge technology that no one had ever seen before. You know what that cutting edge technology was? Bricks.

That was the like, amazing - there was like a one more thing keynote reveal - check out this thing that we discovered; the brick. And you know what we're gonna do with it? We're gonna build this expansive, world class city, and in the middle of the city, we're going to build this amazing tower. So what's the big deal? Right? God had just promised, we've talked about it last week, with the flood that he would never overflow the world again with a global flood. But was he just like keeping his world ending options open? Like, what was he actually saying he would do or wouldn't do. The problem that we're going to see what the Tower of Babel is the problem in each one of us see, we are made to be captivated by the latest tech keynote, by the latest global advancement, by the latest promise of innovation. They simply draw us in. But without a continued connection to our Creator. It's too much, we're not meant to hold it alone. As a matter of fact, great technology without sound theology always reminds us of the lesson we're going to learn today; that what captivates us can hold us captive. And oftentimes, that's the challenge we find ourselves in, especially if you're in a moment or the you're in a company or you're in a role where you have been told that you don't need God, you can do all of this on your own without any consequences. We'll explore that, too. So this first question that we've been bringing to every story that we maybe grew up with, or heard about in sort of faith formation, is the question of, is it true? Is it true? And if you learn this story through flannel graph faith, if you learn this story, as a kid, it probably didn't warrant much further discussion, right? If you think about it, all these stories, and the way we think about them are connected in what's referred to as our hermeneutical approach, how we understand and think about the Bible. You'd already heard maybe as a kid, that God created everything from nothing, in seven days just a few 1000 years ago. There's this global flood/zoo cruise that Adam talked to us about last week. And here we are, like this just felt kind of on-brand. But as you got older, this may have been one of those stories that was one of the most difficult to believe. Mainly because it feels unusually short with very few details. It's also a part of Genesis that represents a pretty big pivot. And these few verses, they feel very easy to glance over rather than glean from. And I hope that can change for you today. Once again, I'm going to introduce you to a few major views on the text that faithful followers of Jesus hold to each of. And if you're interested in learning more about them, I'd encourage you to go look at the same book Adam recommended last week, which is called Genesis: History, Fiction, or Neither? If you're wondering about how to sort of make sense to this, and how do I bring my own mindset and understanding here. The first view is literal with implications from a global flood. So if there was a global flood, right, you can see how these views connect; you hold to this young earth, seven day creation perspective with the global flood then, literal interpretation that results in language, and population disbursement, it makes tons of sense. God wanted people to disperse and fill the earth. That was the plan, he clearly communicated that. But instead, what they wanted to do is they wanted to amass power for themselves, and that's precisely what this represented. That's why God intervened. In this view, language, national identity and eventual global population disbursement all came from this singular moment. That's one view of this story. The second is a literal regional event. The idea here, particularly if you hold to a regional flood view, or theistic evolution is that this is an event that impacted a specific group of people, but that there were other groups of people that existed in other parts of the world at the same time. That God is doing this in a specific place with a split cific group of people in mind, that would eventually be a part of his chosen people, Israel. The third view is that this is a myth, that it was adapted to the Hebrew Scriptures on purpose. Think of it kind of like the chicken and the egg. Some people see the fact that these stories exist in antiquity as evidence for their validity and divine origin. In other words, they are common because they are true and came from God. However, there are those who believe that this was already being circulated as a myth at the time. And that basically, this was adapted by God's people in the Hebrew Scriptures, and used poetically to forward specific ideas for God's people in a specific time. This seems like a really good time to remind you that unity, does not mean uniformity. That being a Christian is built on the foundation of the person and work of Jesus.

That He existed, literally fully God and fully man. That He lived a perfect life. That He died in our place, that He came back from the grave, and that because of that He offers an invitation to you and me, for a relationship now that lasts forever. That's the foundation of our faith. The Bible is the authority of our faith. But we can have different understandings of the Hebrew scriptures and a common foundation and ethic of following Jesus, that's possible. Here's the thing, pretty much every service over the last few weeks, I have a conversation, at least one, between services, after services, before service, where somebody will say to me, I cannot believe that someone thinks that it's like that. Like my understanding of this passage, this story is this, I can't believe that someone thinks like that. And then you know what happens to me after that service? I talk to this person and they go, I can't believe that someone thinks that the story means that. And you know what the truth is that we can find common unity and identity in the essentials of our faith, in the person and work of Jesus and bring different understandings and convictions to these stories. That's okay. And the great news in these stories is that you can learn from them no matter what, regardless of the view that you hold. There is a core idea, that is something we are supposed to see and something that we are supposed to apply together. That's, that's so core right? Because what captivates us can hold us captive. And that's this lesson that God wants to show you and me, regardless of how we think about this specific story. So as we consider the story where people are unified to do something together, we have to ask what went wrong? So much of this story seems like a good idea, right? I consider myself somewhat of a car person. And because of that, I really don't understand what I get in cars that people own, who have unexplained warning lights, noises, other problems that they just are fine with. They are just like no big deal. I want to fix it while I'm in the car with them. Like what do we do? As a matter of fact, I had one friend who literally put electrical tape over the gauges and warning signs on his dashboard. It wasn't because he hadn't checked and found out there was nothing wrong, it was because like, I just don't want to deal with that. And here's the expression of grace that I showed to him, I was still willing to be his friend. I didn't ride in his car, but I was willing to be his friend. See, I think a lot of us we have a couple of warning lights going on inside of us.

But we've learned to ignore them. Especially because we're surrounded oftentimes by a culture that is constantly offering ways to mask or hide those internal problems by performing, medicating, or accumulating our way out of them. We just find a way to pretend that they're not really there. And we're gonna see two of those things; two of those warning lights, two of those problems in the text today, because they were the same ones in Genesis 11 here, that they are today, which is pride, and fear. Pride and fear is what led them these to these decisions, and it's what leads us to bad decisions every day. Pride is the idea that we think more highly of ourselves than we should. It's the idea that we know better than God, and in this situation the people believed that they could actually outsmart God, good luck with that. In our day, pride can push us to live life without limits, even God given ones; we think we are the masters of the universe. Pride is what led Adam and Eve to disobey God in the Garden. It's what led people to the brink of their own catastrophe in the flood. And it's why they disobeyed God to disperse, and instead tried to build this massive city and tower. Fear in this context is the underlying dread of the unknown, and wrapped in that dread is this desire out of our pride to control the unknown, to control the outcome, so that we could avoid pain, so that we don't have to depend on anyone.

See, we all have fears, and they can get mixed in with our pride, and they can lead to our own tower of Babel moments, to our own decisions. So why did they build this tower so high? Well, Josephus, who is an ancient church historian, one of the theories that he came up with was that they were building this tower this way and this high, so that if another global flood came, they could survive it. Because if that story exists in your culture that God did that, even though God said he wouldn't do it again, you're like, but is there any sort of insurance plan that we have?

You know, how do we make sure, and make sure, and make sure that he doesn't? We're not going to choose to trust him, we're going to choose from fear and pride, and what we would choose to avoid.

So can we build something better? Like that's the question that they were wondering, it's the question that we still wonder; if the Tower of Babel was built from Pride and fear. What can we build from trust, and humility? What does a better tomorrow look like, that is unified around our trust and humility in the godly good for our world, rather than the personal pride that our fear inevitably creates? See, the first thing that we need to acknowledge is our instinct to often blame God for what feels like His desire to keep us from pleasure and comfort in our lives.

That's not what He's actually doing. But it can feel like that. Here's the thing, our feelings are not always our friend. Your feelings are not the same thing as facts. And the Tower of Babel did not represent pleasure. It did not represent flourishing for those people, God dispersed them for their good even if they couldn't see it at the time. God has wrecked your plans many times in your life for your good even if you couldn't see it at the time. As a matter of fact, the pride and the fear that drove the tower drives us too. It can drive us to live life as though God does not exist. 20th century French philosopher Etienne Borne unborn warned us as our continued propensity for this very problem. He said it this way. He said, "practical atheism is not the denial of the existence of God, but complete godlessness of action. It is a moral evil, implying not the denial of the absolute validity of the moral law, but simply rebellion against that law." It's not that you don't believe God exists, it's that your life doesn't exemplify that you believe he exists. See, we've once again found a way in humanity to live in unity around something other than Jesus.

Our unity is in our hubris in our pride to do what we want, when we want how we want without any concern of the implications of those choices. So how different than those building this tower really are we? If that's the core framework that we think about and live with? Maybe the question for you is this around this idea of practical atheism; how often does our desire for comfort and pleasure, lead us to try and make decisions to insulate ourselves, and not only to be our own god in practice, but also provide our own version of salvation? Maybe the question for you is what areas have clear guidance from God, you know, that following God looks like this. He's revealed it clearly in his word, but you're ignoring it out of fear and pride rather than surrendering in trust and humility, to a path of life that Jesus said leads to real life. God wants us to have a life connected to Him. And when we choose to disobey Him what the Bible calls sin, we choose to suffer. And we often do it over and over and over again, and it hurts more and more than ever is supposed to. The problem is that this is impossible on our own. See the infection of sin and human rebellion, it's already spread. It's already set in and the condition is terminal. Just last week, we were looking at this divine reset of humanity because of how far humanity had drifted. And now just a few chapters later, it's as though things have all gotten to the same place again. But I have good news. Jesus did not come 2000 years ago and build a tower so that you and I could climb to get to God. Instead, He came to us fully God and fully man. He accomplished in His perfect life, sinless death and supernatural resurrection, what the Tower of Babel never could; the offer of eternal relationship with God fully paid for beginning the moment you decide and lasting forever. So where will we unify into that identity? See if identity is the new idolatry or the gods that we settle for those things in our life that are maybe even good but we make ultimate. We can live a countercultural life though, by unifying around our identity in Christ as our deepest reality. It will allow all the things that divide us, to unite us. In addressing the divide of the early church around the categories and identity politics of their day, the apostle Paul put it this way, he says, "For as many of you, as were baptized into Christ to put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Paul wasn't saying that social and societal categories didn't matter. He was saying that they didn't matter as much as our identity in Christ, and then our identity in Christ can provide unity that they can't, it can form us into the likeness of our Savior in a way that even if other things promised they can, they can't. And I understand that this is very countercultural to our moment. But the good news is that the testimony of Jesus followers, that we have for 1000s of years, is that men and women have faithfully walked this out, even when it was culturally unpopular, even when they suffered for doing it. And I think for many of us, that's the calling of God on our lives today. So what's your professional identity?

Successful? Sought after? Innovative? How do you see that part of yourself through the lens of your identity in Christ? Not the other way around? What is your family identity? Put together?

Keeping up appearances? Providing everything anyone could ever want? How do you see that part of yourself through the lens of your identity in Christ? Not the other way around? What about your ethnic or cultural identity, your sexual or gender identity, we are constantly being told that these are the most foundational answers to who you are. And the Bible says they aren't.

When we depend on God, it is our identity in Christ that shapes everything. It is Jesus who is the ruler of eternity that we give access to rule our lives. Even on a day like today, Menlo church, when we are taking a moment to remember and thank God for our nation, which is good, we should do that. Because our nation, even though it is not perfect, you have won the historic lottery, that we get to live in a place where we experience things on an unparalleled level, even imperfect, we should thank God for that. But even as we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, we can unintentionally place our identity in Christ in submission to our national identity as Americans, if we aren't careful. We should be careful. See, one of the interpretations that we can take from the Tower of Babel story is that since they built something, and it was so bad, and it was dangerous, we just shouldn't build anything at all. But that's not the lesson for us to take from this. See, many of you are in this region, because you believe a better tomorrow is possible. It's why you live here. It's why you put up with the cost of living. It's why you navigate all the things that being in California makes you have to put up with. I believe that a better tomorrow is possible too. In the last couple of weeks, I've spent hours with some of the industry leaders in the space of artificial intelligence, who are also a part of our church.

They're asking great questions about how we bring our identity in Christ to this work, how they helped shape what the world will see, through their identity in Christ. What a tremendous gift. As a matter of fact, if you're interested in helping and you're in this space, and you want to get connected up with some other followers of Jesus who are passionate about it, just email me, I'd love to be able to respond to you. My email is just peubank@menlo.church. I respond to every email, even the ones that email me when you're mad that I didn't do something that you wanted me to do, or I did something you didn't, I even respond to those ones, you can email me. See if we can faithfully follow Jesus. And we can try to figure out how to trust, and humility will show up in what we are building. That's the right path. And I'm telling you, I think that our modern Tower of Babel moment is the idea that we're gonna leverage large language learning models and machine learning in a way where the Jesus centered ethic is nowhere to be found. And we will try and do this all on our own and it will be massively disruptive. Pride and fear will naturally draw us to decisions that pull us from God's best for us. There's a verse that's tucked into this passage that's easy to miss God shares his thoughts with us. 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." A unified world built on pride, and fear is unimaginably dangerous. No matter how we justify it, and we are amazing at justifying it. It takes intentional time with God and His Word, time with people in a community of faith like this one, and regular spiritual practices to choose trust and humility every day, moment by moment, so that we can be captivated most by Jesus in a world that is often trying to hold us captive to versions that will never measure up. So what is the story, Menlo, what is the story years from now is a story of artificial intelligence and machine learning that becomes one about a group of Jesus followers who were committed to bringing the truest parts of themselves, their connection to their Creator and their commitment to their Savior, to the work itself, and to the ethical constraints, the problems that it solves the way that it helps shape and reflect humanity that we didn't see at Babel. Wouldn't that be an amazing expression? Jesus points to the real hope of human innovation. When he says that this way, "With man this is impossible, but with God that we would do it with God, all things are possible." This dream isn't mine. It's God's, the apostle Paul put it this way, "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God did not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews Greeks, or the Church of God, even as I tried to please everyone in every way, for I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved." That's what's at stake here. See our unity in the trust and humility that flows from our identity in Christ, it can offer the clearest sign and the most meaningful invitation to a conversation about faith that we will ever have in our moment. It worked 2000 years ago, it worked 2000 years ago in a culture that was antagonistic to Jesus, and it can work again. But it means those areas of your life that you have quarantined off that you have barricaded that you said, God, you don't get to have access to this, you don't get to speak to this part of me, it means that you have to let them, because fear and pride will call you and me to pull something back. And Jesus says I have a better path. And a better plan for you. If you'll just let me in. Over the course of the series, we've been incorporating a spiritual practice called Lectio Divina. And if it's new to you, or you want to learn more, you can find guidance tools with some specific passages for each week of the entire series at Menlo.church/therestofthestory. We'd love for you to be able to take part in that. But we're also finishing our messages this summer with sort of this practice if you've never experienced it before. And I think we get to model a really good expression of it, which is you spend some time studying the text you fence, spend some time working on the passage itself? And then out of that you say God, I want to actually feel the text, would you transport me there? Would you teleport me to that spot, that moment that I might see you in a fresh way, that I might hear from you in a unique way that I might take this with me in a way that really makes a difference. So before we continue, before we sing to God together, Would you pray with me? God there are so many things that are competing for our time and competing for our attention. Most of us got we're we're keeping them in our pocket or a purse right now. Things that are identity deforming. God you want to you want to reshape our mind that our life might be transformed. And so God as we as we think back to this story, would you take us to that place of standing around the dirt? Seeing someone hold up a brick, seeing a group of people decide from that moment to begin to build something collectively rather than dispersed so that they can trust themselves rather than trust you? And as it gets built God that that final moment when what was easy to understand, what was easy to relate with one another became difficult, became confusing. God would you even show us now what are those Babel moments in our own life, or something that was easy became confusing so that you might move us from what was easy to what was necessary. From what we chose for ourselves to what you chose for us. God there are some people in the room right now some people watching online right now who are wondering why you let something happen in their life, why you took something or someone away, why they're facing the challenges that they face. And God would you just let us smell the air of thousands of years ago. Let us see the people, let us be reminded that his pursuit of trust and humility rather than fear and pride, that's a decision to be captivated by you every day. I pray that today God, we would be captivated by you, and a brand new day.

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