Faith, we’ve all heard these phrases:
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“We can do it!”
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“If we just put our minds together, just think what we could do!”
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“You’re speaking my language! Let’s make a difference and make a name for ourselves!”
Oooh, these attitudes seem so good! What could be wrong with positivity, unity, cooperation, and collective thinking? After all, we’re better together, right?! Not always.
When does unity (a very positive and biblical value) get off course? Whenever it also includes the phrase: “Let’s make a name for ourselves!” Friends, whenever the crowd becomes all about “a name for ourselves,” run for the hills! Danger! Danger! Danger!
This Sunday, our Bibles will take us to Genesis 11– the story of what initially appears as a positive, communal endeavor—a tower to the heavens built through cooperation and ingenuity. However, this seemingly noble project is a cautionary tale. Any “Tower of Me (or Us)!” is a testament to the perils of unchecked ambition and an edifice of pride.
Genesis 11 does compel an important question: Whose name will your life proclaim? When all is said and done, and the hearse is driving to the cemetery, whose name will figure most prominent in the life you built? I pray for all of us that it will be “the name that is above every name”–Jesus.
Beholden to His Name!
Pastor Brad
***Message notes can be downloaded here.
And here are some deeper dive videos relevant to Sunday’s message:
The Significance of the City in the Bible–Bible Project (7:02)
The Meaning of the Tower of Babel–John Walton (8:12)
What Happened at Pentecost and Why is it Important–Bible Project (6:21)