OPENING REMARKS
It's good to be with you. if we haven't met, my name's Josh and just glad to be with you this morning and I usually hang out after service now by the waterfalls over here too, right? if you want to come up and just introduce yourself, I'd love to be able to meet you. And if you have a prayer need or of any kind or want to talk, I'd be glad to spend time with you. and so be glad to do that. we're gonna be in Genesis chapter 11 this morning. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up there. As you're turning there, what an exciting week of ministry we have coming up. And as Nathan said, I pray that you'll I would encourage you to remember to pray this week and be a part of that. We have about a hundred and thirty kids who are signed up to come and we have probably about fifty or sixty volunteers that will be a part of things this week. Yeah, I guess the heat is appropriate for a week themed in the jungle. and I also think it's appropriate that we're in Genesis. We thought we'd help you be immersed in God's creation. I was thinking during singing that if you are ADD there was so many things for you to look at during that time and even during this time as well. But again glad to be with you and I do hope that you have a Bible open in front of you or maybe you can find one on an app that you can use. we're gonna be in Genesis chapter eleven. Our goal is to cover all of chapter eleven this morning.

INTRODUCTION

Chapter eleven covers a probably familiar story, biblical account of the Tower of Babel. And it also contains another genealogy. And then we're really setting ourselves up for Genesis chapter 12, which we'll get into starting next Sunday. So what we're going to do in honor of the reading of God's word, if you guys would, let's stand together. And I will encourage you to get settled in. I am going to attempt to read all of chapter eleven. it doesn't take that long, but I think there's great benefit And just pray for me as we get into some of those names that we'll have in the middle part of Genesis eleven. I did hear that your entrance into heaven will be judged partially based on whether you skim read the genealogies or whether you read all the names. And so I'm just kidding, but we've all done that before, but the genealogies are important. We'll get into that in my sermon. Let me let me save that for later.

Let's go ahead and I hear the word of God. Genesis 11, starting in verse 1. God's word says,

SCRIPTURE READING - GENESIS 11, 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.

These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

PRAYER OVER THE MESSAGE

And let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this day that you've made. We thank you for the heat and the sun and for this time to be together, I thank you for each person, each heart, each life that's gathered, or those who are maybe even watching online now or later. God, thank you for your goodness to us, and I pray that as we consider Genesis eleven from your word, I pray that you'll use it. God, in ways that only you can know and that you can intend. God again, you know exactly where each person's at. You know exactly what's needed. And you have the ability by the precision work of your Holy Spirit To apply like a surgeon to each person's heart and life exactly what's needed this morning. I trust and believe and know that this will be taking place. Your word will not return void. We give you this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

MESSAGE

You may be seated. Today's message is really going to focus on the theme of sinful self-reliance. Sinful self-reliance. I'm gonna I'm gonna be high maintenance for a second, tech team. Can I get some more house lights? Make it like the sun. I think we're good. Yeah, that's all that's awesome. I love that. Love that. Alright. Now I can see you guys better and you guys, can see your Bibles better. We're gonna focus on the theme of the sin of self-reliance.

So it's amazing and interesting what you remember about when you were a kid. it doesn't always make sense, but one of the things I remember was a trip that our family made from Port Huron to one of the Metro Detroit area science museums. I don't even remember which which museum it was. what I remember about the science museum was not all the fun, interesting things that you learn in the science museum. What I remember was that they were having a contest in one of the areas of the science museum to see who could build the tallest tower out of wooden blocks. And so you would go there and you'd take the blocks that they would have, you'd have about three minutes to build the tallest tower that you could. And they would measure that and take your name down and by the end of the day, whoever had the tallest tower won some kind of prize. That's what I remember about the science museum. That I can't even tell you which one it was.

So I remember being all excited about that and just you know trying to think through okay I need to have some blocks that are good and sturdy for the foundation and kind of build on top of that and I remember just loving that that competitive aspect of that you know can I build the tallest tower and just having that that aspiration long story short, I did not win the competition. but it's interesting that that's what I remember.

As we think about the story of the Tower of Babel, people haven't stopped with this desire to achieve great things. It's kind of built into us as human beings to build the tallest tower, to build the fastest car, whatever it is to achieve and to push limits. you guys probably know this, but today's the tallest tower that exists today is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It stands at 2,700 feet tall, which is over half a mile in height. It's wild. We have a couple of pictures of the Burj Khalifa. You guys can see that there in the center. I think we have next one is picture from the observation deck. Has have any of you ever been to the Burrs Khalifa? Okay. neither have I.

So a couple years ago my wife and I for one of our wedding anniversaries, took a trip just the two of us to Niagara Falls and we're so excited to get a room in one of the really high hotels that has a great view of the falls. They've got some really high hotels there and you can just see the falls from your hotel room and so we're all excited we get checked in we go up to our hotel room and this was our view from our hotel room of the falls it was interesting. they let us get a lower room. We didn't have money back. They let us get a lower room. Anyway. There's another tall tower that's being built in Saudi Arabia called the Jeddah Tower. It's gonna be three thousand two hundred and eighty one feet tall, again well over half a mile into the sky.

We have a couple of pictures of some artist renditions of what the Tower of Babel might have looked like, and Evan will put those on the screen for you. So a couple questions come up as we consider this story in scripture. One of the questions is this a real historical place? And also what's so wrong about building a really tall tower. That's a real question, isn't it? So yes, this is a real historical place. The Bible treats it as such, and we believe that. most likely still not standing as a tower, but at least not as it was then. We'll get into more details about its location as scripture tells us. And no, there's nothing inherently wrong about building a really tall tower. So if you happen to be an engineer and that's your work, go for it. Build a tall tower for the glory of God.

The fault lies not in their seeking to build a tall tower, but in their seeking to build a name for themselves. You see that in verse 4. The city and the tower of Babel are simply a sign of this people's rejection of God. It's an example, it's a monument to their desire to live life without God. And things haven't changed today, have they? Mankind builds all kinds of achievements in their honor to make their own names great when in reality we exist to make God great to glorify him.

So what about you in your life? Do you find that there are seasons of your own life when you are living on your own self-reliance? Is your life centered on you and focused on you and making a name? So what I think is really important in sermons like this is to give you the bottom line, because I don't want you get lost in all the details of the history of this account.

So here's the bottom line. We're going to jump to the end for a second of the sermon so you know what you can walk away with. Here's the bottom line. Scripture teaches that life apart from Christ brings chaos and confusion. If you decide to live your life apart from God and His purposes, apart from Christ and a relationship with God through him, it will lead to chaos and confusion. And some of you and many of us, we experience those things at different points in our lives. However, if you choose to live life with Christ, so that's the end story of this account in Genesis chapter eleven.

But what I want to do is I want to walk through this account together and just make several observations and see how that applies to our lives. I think my wife predicted this. she was praying for me all week and pumping me with supplements to try to avoid this, but I've got a little bit of water. We'll survive. See how much more comfortable I am with this now drinking in front of you? The most awkward thing a a public speaker can do. Maybe too comfortable, but let's look at the first four verses and I'll explain some of it as we go along. So Genesis 11:1-4.

“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.”

So a couple of observations. The first observation is they had a unified language in verse 1. Just think for a moment. How awesome that would be to have one language. we know the challenges of communication when it comes to speaking the same language. I often think of that in marriage. I'm sure not probably not everyone's marriage, but some marriages experience the fact that communication can be challenging. But I'm grateful, and we can see that how exciting that would be to have one language in verse one.

Number two of the second observation in the second next two verses two and three is they were unified in their purpose. They said, Come and let us build bricks and burn them thoroughly. So they're advancing in their purpose and their desire to build this city and to build this tower. And here's where we begin to see some glimpses of the problem in verse four. They were unified against God. Look at verse four.

“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.”

So we can see begin to see the problem right here. Their desire as a people was to make a name for themselves. The thing that came to my mind as an illustration, helpful or not, I don't know. The motto of Burger King is have it your way. Is that is that Burger King? Is that right? You we all remember it. So this is essentially what they were desiring to do was desiring to find a way to live apart from God. They wanted to build a great city, build a great tower, make a name for themselves. They wanted it their way. And we see them banding together.

So I know that this seems strange to us. We would ask the question: what's so wrong about them desiring to band together? I’m reminded of the old song “We Are the World”, if you guys remember that song. Anyway, random, random, weird connection in my own mind. But they're desiring to come together to build this thing and to make this project happen. And we get asked the question: what's the problem with that? The problem with that is that it's the exact opposite of what God had commanded them to do.

If you've been with us in Genesis at all, you might remember from Genesis chapter 1, verse 28 when God blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply and to what? Can they fill them in that blank? And to fill the earth. And to fill the earth. Again, you'd see that in Genesis chapter 9. Genesis chapter 9, verse 1, that God blesses them and tells them to be fruitful and multiply and to scatter, to fill the earth. And again, this is not a preaching against urban cities. That's not what this is about. But this is about them using their advancement to live life self-sufficient apart from their need for God. They wanted to find their safety and their security in themselves rather than in God.

I like what Alan Ross said on the screen for us. He said:

“On the one side, we can see the human longings for community achievement, civilization, culture, technology, safety, security, permanence, and fame. But countering these aspirations, we sense the moral judgment against idolatry, pride, self-reliance, the urge of material power, and the human illusion of infinite achievement.”

Look, if nothing else screams the spirit of the age today, I don't know what else does. Like the idea is that by our own human achievement, we can do whatever we want to do. And that by our own human efforts that we can solve all of humanity's problems. And that's just not true. We need God. We need God.

There's nothing wrong with human advancement. Human advancement is not the problem, but it is a problem when it's done with a sense of arrogance that says I, don't need God. And oh, how often we do this. How often we rush ahead of God. And how often we get down the road for a season and realize we haven't considered God. We haven't checked in with God, so to speak. I don't know if that's ever happened to you. There have been times in my life when I've gotten busy and I've just headed down a path, only later to realize this whole time I haven't been checking with God. I've been self-reliant.

This happened to the people of God in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua. They're heading into the land of Canaan, and they're coming up against opposition. And one of their opposition, one of the groups of people is known as the Gibeonites. And we read this in Joshua 9, verse 14: the men of Israel sampled their provisions, but this simple little phrase, but did not inquire of the Lord.

How many times has that happened in our lives, right? We find ourselves in messes, we find ourselves in situations because we didn't inquire of the Lord. I'm curious, how many sinful decisions? How many sinful or unwise relationships or business deals or seasons or dead ends of life have you found yourself in because you did not inquire of the Lord. Do we really think that we can exist apart from the help of God.

And another was really important question that was helpful to me. Do we really want to? Do we really want to live and exist out of our own self-reliance? And I think most of us say, no, we don't. Like we want to live in close relationship with God and acknowledge that we need Him. But what we see going on here in Genesis chapter 11 is this is a group of people who are plowing full on ahead without God, without any apparent need for God, as they're trying to live their life.

So let's look at the next couple of verses in verse 5.

“And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.”

So I don't know if you know this or not, but we're intended to see the irony of this verse. Do you see the irony in this verse? It's the irony of God coming down. Well we know of God, but our understanding of God is God doesn't reside in a specific geographic location, right? So this is intended for us to see the irony. This is man's greatest achievement and what does God have to do to come and observe it? He has to descend, he has to come down. It's almost like God's like, Oh, where where's that tall tower that you guys made? Can you show me? It's intended for us to see the contrast between God's power and man's greatest achievements. That God had to condescend, that God humbled himself, that God came down to be with us. That he came down.

Look at the next verse. Verse 6.

“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.”

A couple of quick observations. Again, we already see in verse 5 that God had to come down. In verses 6 and 7, it's interesting it's important for us to understand. And what we're doing right now is pulling other parts of scripture in to understand this part. But this region of the world starts to become known as a hotbed of sin and idolatry. So it's from this region of the world that we now begin to see the nation and empire of what's known as Babylon.

Have you guys heard of Babylon before? I don't know many of you have. if you were to flip over to Genesis chapter 10, a chapter that Nathan covered last week, verses ten and eleven, you'll see the origins. It's kind of like Genesis chapter ten and Genesis chapter eleven are running concurrently with each other in time. So Genesis 10 is about all the nations, and Genesis 11 is about how those nations were dispersed and how the languages came about. So this city called Babel or Babylon. We can see in English, right, how those two words are linked with each other. But in the Hebrew, which is what the Bible was written in originally, it's the same word.

So Babel is Babylon. And from this point forward in scripture, Babylon becomes known as the thing or the people that are against God. So out of this region of the world we see empires like Assyria, and we see the town of Nineveh and the people of Nineveh all kind of spreading out from this area known as Babylon. And Babylon becomes known as a symbol of evil and defiance against God. It's in Babylon that the prophet Ezekiel and the prophet Daniel do most of their ministry. In fact, if you are familiar with the Old Testament, there's a couple periods in Israel's history where they're captives. They're taken away. They're captured by surrounding empires and carried off into exile. They get captured and taken over to Babylon. Daniel and the Fiery Furnace. That story in the Bible. That's connected to this. So this area becomes known as a hotbed of sin and idolatry.

And then lastly, the observation I want you to know from this section is that God's punishments are actually God's mercy. So look at verses 8 and 9.  

“So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 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.”

So what's going on here? Again, what's wrong with them building a city and building a tower? What God is observing, what God knows, is that if left to themselves, again like before the the flood, if left to themselves unchecked, they will head into all kinds of sin and wickedness and destruction. Does that make sense? I hope that one of the vantage points you have of life is that as bad as things are, God is still governing and keeping wickedness and evil at bay. Does that make sense? And if God were to withdraw his restraining influence, we can't even imagine what things would be like.

So, God knows what would take place if they stay together as one people in opposition to Him, and how devastating that would be for humanity. So, God and His grace and mercy, he confuses their language and disperses them on the earth. Does that make sense? I think sometimes we have this image that God's discipline or God's punishment is actually we think it's a bad thing. It's actually God's grace. I know we've covered this before here in our church, but and this is spoken like a true dad. Excuse me. But any time I bring discipline to my children, hopefully it's not for my benefit. Does that make sense? Hopefully it's not to get it off of my chest. That's a really poor way. Just you know, that's a really poor way to do discipline. If it makes me feel better, if I'm doing it just to make myself feel better, that's probably not good. So discipline is for the benefit of the person being disciplined. Make sense?

So our initial reaction to hardships in life is God, why are you doing this to me? But in reality, it's probably God's grace either to warn us from danger, right? Or to teach us some kind of thing that he needs to teach us. So even God's punishments are God's mercy.

We recently got a new vehicle new to us. And it's one of the first vehicles that we've had that has a lot of the fancy bells and whistles of like keeping you in the lane. I don't know if you like that. Some people it freaks them out. Some people love it. I think somebody even drives here in a Tesla that like on auto whatever. awesome. That's cool. so this is new for us where it kind of corrects you if you're kind of getting out of the lane, it kinda bumps you back. And I have tested it. If you take your hands off for too long, it does remind you to put your hands back on the wheel. It also has blind spot detection, so if you're going to turn into a lane, it'll warn you, it'll basically yell at you to say, don't go into this lane. i that may be a helpful way to view God's correction and god's discipline. Even hardships. You know hardships have a way of reminding us of our need for God. And because of that, they are such a blessing to us. We weren't meant to live self-reliant lives. We're meant to live dependent upon God. So God's not worried that they're going to achieve things and surpass him and his greatness. God is concerned that if they head this direction they will fall headlong into evil.

Kenneth Matthew said it this way. “It can hardly be that the heavens tremble because the advancement of mankind in a way that threatened celestial rule. But on the contrary, God was troubled over the injurious consequences that would fall upon the human family if left unchecked.” So I don’t know if you again, this is the dangerous game when you play what would I do if I were God? But I love thinking about this biblical account of how God handles those who are in opposition to him. Just think about that for a second. They're rebelling against God, and rather than God just destroying them, which again that's my MO if I'm God, that's usually what I resort to, which shows you that it's a good idea that a good thing that I'm not him. God confuses their language. How in my mind in some ways comical is that? I'm just gonna make it so they can't talk to each other. I'm just gonna make it confusing so they can't achieve these sinful, wicked things together. It shows it's something that only God can do. But also shows God's complete and utter control over the situation.

So we're gonna look at the next section together for just a few moments, and I won't get into all the details, and I promise we'll bring this to a close with a conclusion that helps us see how we're united together with Christ. But this last part of the chapter, from verse 10 on until the end of the chapter, again really sets us up for chapter 12. And it's a genealogy. And again, no, you won't be judged in heaven based on whether or not you skim read the genealogies or slow read them. But they are there on purpose. They're not there as throwaway sections of the Bible. So I would encourage you on your own, maybe, to go through and read some of the genealogies and just pause and just think about what's being given in these genealogies. But I want to share with you a quick chart that I think is helpful. go ahead and put that up there on the screen for us.

So I know it's tough to read, but the way that the Bible gives genealogies are what we'd call segmented genealogies. So they don't show us every name and every person that's a part of this family tree. Does that make sense? As you saw that repeated phrase, and they had other sons and daughters. We don't have their names. But the genealogies in Scripture are genealogies with a purpose. It's like anyway. I was gonna say painting with a purpose, but that's painting with a twist, that's something different. But these genealogies have specific purposes. They're here for a reason. They're wanting us to see that God is connecting the dots from point A to point B. And really what the old testament is helping us with, what these genealogies are helping us with is to see how we get from Adam to Jesus. And how God fulfills his promise of Genesis 3 that a seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, that death would be done away with, that slavery and bondage to sin would be done away with through Jesus Christ. And so we can see this genealogy is telling us about Adam and how God works through Seth. And from Seth to Noah and how God works through Shem. And from Shem to Terah, and how God works through Terah to give us Abram.

And you'll recognize Abram as we get closer and further into the Old Testament. Abram is Abraham, isn't he? So how God, now we're going to see in chapter 12 how God makes a covenant with Abram that God's going to bless Abram, and God's going to bless the entire world through Abram. But there's a twist, a plot twist. What's the plot twist at the end of Genesis 11? Sarah is mentioned Abraham's wife, but what's the problem with Sarah? She's barren. Maybe God chose the wrong man to bless the world through. No, God's going to do it. That it's God's power. It's God's power through Sarah and through Abram to bring salvation to all of mankind through Christ. Make sense? So the Bible is setting us up to see these things that this is God's work.

And so then how do we understand the story of the Tower of Babel? Well, as we read further and more later on in the book, right, in the in the Bible, we get to the New Testament, and we get to this event in Acts chapter 2. We don't have time to go there right now, but write it down, you can read it later. Acts chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. And it's a a time and event in the history of the early church known as Pentecost. And as believers are gathered together, the Holy Spirit comes into their lives. That's a sign of a person being a believer, being saved, is they have the presence of God, the presence of God's Spirit. And this event in Acts 2 is when they're able to speak in other languages. You may remember this story. And God gives them the supernatural ability to speak other known languages so that the gospel can be can be proclaimed from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Does that make sense? You guys following so far? So Acts chapter 2 is a window of an undoing of the Tower of Babel. So God disperses the wicked, brings confusion and chaos into their lives, and God unites under the banner of Christ one people who are desiring to make a name for Yahweh God and putting their faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ.

That's our last observation that God unites a people together under his saving purposes in Jesus Christ. I love that we even see this in the book of Revelation. Revelation 7, 9 through 10, as John gives us a glimpse of the throne room of heaven. John says, after this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples, and what does it say, and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. So God is uniting a people under the banner of Jesus Christ that are one and desire to make his name greater. So the Bible calls us not to live in sinful self-reliance, but to live wholly and completely dependent on God, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So one thing our family does periodically is we have a family movie night, and it's a stretch, it's a struggle to find good wholesome family movies to watch. they're either full of things that we don't want to watch, or they're the really cheesy bad Christian movies, if you guys know what I'm talking about. It's like it's hard to find the ones in the in the middle, a sweet spot. So this weekend we watched a horrible really good movie. it was horrible in the sense that it's a very powerful story. If you watch this movie you'll need to have a box of Kleenex next to you. I mean no, we didn't. Nobody in our family cried. But some people might cry watching this movie. it's a story based on a true story of a father in his forties who lost his wife to an illness and became a widower, raising two daughters. I didn't tell you the name of the movie, did I? It's called Ordinary Angels. You can look it up later. And compounded upon that, his youngest daughter need delivered And the medical bills and the tragedy is very overwhelming. And what I could relate to in the movie is that this man does what most men do and what most people do in times of difficulty is he tries to muscle his way through it. He tries to work more hours to pay the bills. He tries to do all the things and be everything to everybody. And part of the unfolding of the story is watching him realize he can't do it all. And he needs to let other people help him and most importantly he needs to let God help him.

That's such a powerful illustration and reminder to us that self-reliance can be sinful. And I just want to, I guess, maybe say to our church family, man, that's one of the things that God is teaching me these days. It's a good thing. I don't always love it. And there's nothing wrong. I don't want you guys to like think there's anything wrong, but just I didn't realize personally the challenges of this season of life. Again, our family is great, life is good. Don't worry about me. I'm not having like a meltdown. but I just I understand like life can be tough. And I don't know what you're going through. Maybe you're not facing these challenges. But these things teach us, and God is faithful to teach us that we need to rely on Him. That he is faithful.

Proverbs nineteen twenty-one says, Many are the plans in the man of a mind, sorry, the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord You know, it reminds me of the New Testament person of Paul in his conversion story. One of things that Christ says to him is Saul, Saul, why do you kick against the goads? Memorize that verse, alright? Put that on the refrigerator. The meaning is why do you keep resisting God? Why do you keep fighting against God? Maybe in your sinfulness? Why do you keep rejecting God or rebelling against God, it's not going to end well. Or maybe even just in your own self-reliance. Why do you keep just thinking that you have to muscle through it instead of trusting on or trusting in God and relying on him. When will you trust him? And again, the end story is that God is faithful and God is good. Always. Always. Let's pray.

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, thank you for this again just these precious moments we have together. Thank you, God, for building this into the rhythm of our lives, the rhythm of the life of the church. Thank you for the power that your word has by the aid of the Holy Spirit to penetrate into our hearts and lives, to bring conviction of sin, to bring comfort and encouragement, to help us build our lives upon the truth. And I just pray that ears are open and ready to hear this morning and and we're ready to receive I pray that the the word that's planted would grow and produce fruit for our good and for your glory. God the, quicker we can learn to trust you in all things, the better we'll be, the better off we'll be. God, thank you for the simple lesson and reminder and help us to see the reality. Yeah, life apart from you, God, brings chaos and brings confusion. Life with you, God, though they're not perfect, brings us everlasting peace and unity amongst each other as a people of God, as we trust in Christ. God, please minister to each heart. We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Would you please join me in standing as we sing?