The Tower of Babel

In 1563, a Dutch artist named Pieter Bruegel, he painted a piece called the Tower of Babel. So here's a picture of the painting. And this painting has endured the last 450 years, largely because it is known for being the best and most famous piece of artwork that that illustrates the Tower of Babel. And people have loved this painting because there are thousands of details in it. There are thousands of details in it telling the story of the Tower of Babel. And many of those details correspond with the biblical data. For example, if you want to go to the next slide here. Here's Nimrod. Down in the bottom left. And he is the one who founded the city of Babylon. He's referred to as a mighty man. And so he's portrayed this way in the story. Or if you want to go back to the other painting here or the other picture right here, the tower goes up into the clouds, into the sky, into the heavens, and then you see that the tower is left unfinished. And there are many other details in the painting that tell the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. And the reason I show you this painting is because many Christians today believe that the Tower of Babel is an obscure peripheral story in the biblical narrative. But for thousands of years, Christians have been deeply shaped in their understanding of God and deeply shaped in their understanding of human nature.

Because of this story, the story of the Tower of Babel, this means there's much here for us to consider and to help us think through the story, we're going to look at four questions. Number one is what is the sin in the story? What is the sin and the story of the Tower of Babel? This is significant because the sin is not named. It is described. So this passage doesn't just come out and say, here is the sin. Often the Bible does this, but in this situation the sin is described. And so we're supposed to observe the sin and then understand what the problem is. So what is the sin at the Tower of Babel? Well, the sin is pride. The story of the Tower of Babel is the story of human pride. It is our story. It is a picture of the problem of the human heart, that the human heart is proud. So this doesn't just apply to people who live thousands of years ago. It applies to us today. The problem is pride. And there are at least three obvious manifestations of pride in the text. First, the desire to be God, the desire to be God. Genesis 11 four says. And they said, Come, let's build ourselves a city in a tower with its top in the sky. So this is not a misguided attempt to know God.

This is not a misguided attempt to glorify God. They're not thinking, Let's build this tower into the sky because we want to be closer to God. That's not what's happening here. Verse four is the attempt to be God verses one through three. We see that all the people are in one place with one language, intent on one goal to build a tower unto themselves. They want to be God and deep down in the soul of every human being, the default setting on our life, deep down in the soul of every human being is the desire to be God. We want to be Lord of our lives. Now, you're not going to go around telling people. You're not going to go around saying, I want to be God. Have you ever said that to someone in your life? Probably not. You're not like, I want to be. God, that's not what we say. So it doesn't manifest itself by us saying we want to be God the way our desire to be God comes out is that we think to ourselves, I want life. I want my life my way. I want life on my own terms. I want to call the shots. I want to be the captain of my ship. I want to determine what is right and wrong. I want to determine what I do with my day. I want to determine what I do with tomorrow. I want to determine what I do with my money.

I want to determine what I want to do with my sexuality. I want to determine what I want to do, what I want to do with all of life. It is the desire to be God. The second manifestation of pride is the desire for the praise of men, the desire for the praise of men. Verse four Let's make a name for ourselves. Let's make a name for ourselves. The goal is to build a city with the wall. That's Babylon. And then it's then it's to build a tower. It is to build a tower in the sky, a monument unto themselves. And the motive is to gain the praise and glory and approval of people. It is explicit. Let's make a name for ourselves. Let's do this for ourselves. They are not interested in the glory of God. They are not interested in the approval of God. They want the whole world to look at them. They want everyone to look at them and marvel at them. They want everyone to say, Look at those Babylonians. They are awesome. They are so wise, They have so much understanding, they are so smart, they are so capable, they're so creative, they're so clever. Look at what they're able to accomplish. It is a monument unto themselves. They want to become famous through the tower and through the city. They want everyone to know that it was them that built it.

I have been struck this week by the truth that it wasn't enough for them to build the city. It wasn't enough for them to build the city in the tower. They had to make sure everyone knew that they built the city and they built the tower. And don't you find that same craving in your heart? I mean, don't you want to be recognized? Don't you want to be appreciated? Don't you want people to know what you have done? I've learned over the years that we don't need to be recognized in every area of life. Like I don't need to be recognized in every area of my life. I don't need to be appreciated in every area of life, just in the areas I care about. The areas that I care about. I want to be recognized for areas where I've worked hard, where I've invested my life. I want to be recognized. I want to be cared about. This is the way I am naturally wired. For example, if someone wins a NASCAR race and they say, hypothetically, Denny Hamlin wins a NASCAR race, is he a race car driver? I think I've seen that name before, Denny Hamlin or whatever. And he wins a race. And let's say it's a big race. And after the race they interview him. And the person interviewing Denny Hamlin says, says, Man, Denny, you must be the greatest racer race car driver of all time.

You are awesome. You're the greatest race car driver of all time. If I heard someone say that, that wouldn't do anything in my heart. Like you wouldn't stir up any jealousy in me. I wouldn't be suspicious of Denny Hamlin. I would say, Oh, cool. Whatever. Great. I'm just thankful I didn't have to watch that race or whatever it is. I would think that's fine. Wonderful. But let's say that there is a pastor in Des Moines who's interviewed let's call him Pastor Tommy Johnson. And during the interview, someone says, Well, obviously Tommy Johnson, you're widely thought of as the best and wisest pastor in Des Moines and you have the best church in Des Moines, Tommy Johnson Community Church. It's the best church in the metro area. Now, if I heard someone say that that interview would pique my interest, I would say, What did you say about Tommy Johnson? Who is this Tommy Johnson? Is he really that good? Probably not. He's probably not that good. And this is this is what would begin to happen in my soul. And I'm not saying that's right. That's not what I'm saying. I understand. It's not about competition. It's not about ranking churches. It's not about ranking pastors. My point is that all of us have areas in our lives where we want to be recognized. We love the praise of people, where we are appreciated, where people see what we have done.

And what we see in verse four is the naked pursuit of the praise of men. Typically we disguise it. A lot of times we disguise our desire to be recognized. We downplay it. We act like it's not significant. But here in verse four, this is not disguised at all. It is the naked pursuit of the praise of men. Come, let us make a name for ourselves. Which leads to number three. The third manifestation of pride, the desire to be God, the desire to be God in chapter I'm sorry, the desire not to obey God, the desire not to obey God. In chapter nine, God gives the command be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. In verse four, they say, Let's make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered throughout the earth. Verse four implies that they knew the command of God. They knew the command in chapter nine, when God said, Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and they say, We will not do that. We will not scatter, we will not multiply, we will not fill the earth. We will stay in one place. And in order for us to stay in one place and not scatter, we need a city, We need a tower, we need a wall, we need protection, we need glory, a monument unto our greatness.

And so they are dead set on not obeying God. And all throughout the Scriptures, the clearest manifestation of pride is disobedience to the Word of God. The clearest manifestation of pride is disobedience to the Word of God. Consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God said to Adam and Eve, You can eat from all the trees in the garden except for this one, the one in the middle. You can't eat it. You cannot eat from it. For on the day you eat from it, you will die. The devil comes along and says, You can eat from the tree. And they eat from the tree. They say, We will decide what is right and wrong, not God. We will do what is right in our eyes. And they brought sin into the world. The clearest manifestation of pride is disobedience to the Word of God. And by the time we get to the end of verse four, human pride has hit its apex in the story, and we're left with the question What will God do? What? How will God respond to this manifestation of pride? Is it time for another flood that in my brain I'm like, okay. Is it time for another flood? And I thought, Oh, no, no. He promised never to flood the world again. He's not going to bring a flood. So what will God do? Verse five. Then the Lord came down to look over the city in the tower that humans were building.

So God comes down from heaven to take a look at the city and the tower that they were building. Now some people will imply that maybe God is ignorant here, that the reason God came down is because He's ignorant. He doesn't know what's going on. He needs to take a closer look to gain information. That's not the correct interpretation. Some people will imply that God was somehow intimidated by what was happening. He wanted to make sure that he was still able to overpower the Babylonians. But that's an incorrect interpretation. So what's going on in verse five? He comes down to take a look at what's happening. Well, verse five is a literary device that is used to make a point, and we're supposed to notice a contrast. The contrast is between versus one through four and then verse five that and verses one through four. All humanity is united in one place, everyone's in one place and they're united by one language and they're united by one purpose. And they're doing something great in their eyes. From their perspective, it is the most important thing happening in the world. And yet what they are doing is so small and insignificant that the God of heaven has to come down just to see it. That's the contrast they're trying to build up, up, up into heaven. Look how significant this is.

But the God of heaven has to come down just to see it. Imagine a bunch of ants building an ant hill. Now just a little ant hill and they're saying this ant hill is the greatest and most important thing in the whole world. But as a human being, what you would have to do is get down just to see what those ants are actually doing. You'd have to get down on your hands and knees just to observe what is going on. And this is the essence of what verse five is communicating. One commentator said, The descent of God from heaven in verse five shows that the men were building a tiny tower conceived by a puny plan and attempted by a pint sized people. This is this is this is mockery. This is God mocking these people. What are you little guys doing down there? What are you doing? That's kind of. That's cute. Nice job. Nice job, guys. I'm convinced that. David has Genesis 11 in his mind when he writes Psalm to verse four, he says, The one enthroned in heaven laughs when he sees the people conspiring together, saying, We will not obey God, we will build a tower, we will stay, look at our glory, look at our greatness, I'm convinced. Verse four David Part of what's in his mind is the Tower of Babel, the one enthroned in heaven. Laughs. He laughs. He's not threatened.

He's not concerned. This isn't destroying the plan of God, The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord ridicules them. It's as if God is saying, Nice try, losers. You guys are just losers. Building a monument to yourself that will only bring about your own destruction. There is such a thing as holy ridicule, holy scorn, where God mocks the proud. He resists the proud. He ridicules the proud. This does not mean that we are to ridicule people. This does not mean that we necessarily are supposed to mock people. But it is to say that that God's approach to the pride of men is not to be threatened. It is not to be discouraged. It is not to think they're going to overpower me. That's not what God is thinking at all. He laughs. And then he does something. So he comes down, He observes what's happening. Verse seven. Come, let's go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech. So in verse seven, this is the moment in history when one language becomes many. So at one point there was one language, one vocabulary, verse seven, one language becomes many that God confuses that language. So some people like people over here, you guys were speaking one language and now you're speaking a different language, you're speaking a different language, you're speaking a different language, you're speaking a different language. And you could divide it up even more to the point where people can't communicate with one another.

And when you when you try to move from one language to another and communicate lots of opportunities for confusion, lots of opportunities for chaos and misunderstanding, and when you don't even know the other language, it's it is impossible to communicate. So in verse eight, we see what happens. In verse eight, we see that they were so confused that first they stopped building the tower. They just gave up. This is the most important thing that that the world has ever known. And we're doing this great thing, this tower unto our greatness. But they stopped because they couldn't they couldn't even communicate with one another. The second thing that happens is that the city is given the name Babel. Babble. Babble means a confused noise made by a number of voices. It's just chaos. So they stop building. The city is named Babel. Then third, they eventually scatter. Eventually, the very thing that they did not want to have happen happened. They're trying to work against God and God says, You working against me ensures that the very thing you do not want to have happen will happen. And so they scatter. They multiply not voluntarily, but because of necessity, they can't avoid it. Which leads to question number three. Why does God confuse their languages? Why is it that God confuses their languages? I've often thought about this question because I've thought, wouldn't it be so much better for the Gospel if there was one language still? Our missionaries and missionaries from all around the world for centuries have had to work really hard, spend tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of hours learning new languages to communicate the Gospel.

Wouldn't it just be better if there was only one language around the world? I've often thought about this. So why did God confuse the languages? Well, there are many reasons. One reason is to scatter them. This is the way that God wanted to scatter them. He could have just knocked over the building. He could have just knocked over the tower and knocked down the walls. But what happens when you go outside and you see a little anthill? I'm sure you've never done this, but then you just kind of kick the anthill over what happens like the next day? They just build it back up. So if God comes in and he just knocks over the tower, they're just going to. They're just going to build it again. And so he wants them to scatter and he uses the confusion of language in order to get them to scatter. But there's something deeper going on that we need to notice. And that deeper thing is, in verse six, the Lord said, If they had have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

So what he's saying is that if they're united as one people in one language for one purpose, nothing will be impossible for them. Now, is this a good thing or a bad thing? It. Does he mean like they're going to do something great? I don't think so. God is not afraid of them doing something great. He's not down on human achievement. Human beings doing something significant. That's not what God is down on at all. What is what God is concerned about here is the flourishing of human evil, that no evil will be outside of their reach, that they will be able to accomplish incredible evil. I mean, imagine if there was one government. One government, one language, one nation of the world that ruled the world. And imagine if someone like a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao was in charge. Imagine the chaos and the pain and the suffering that would be brought on the whole world. There would be virtually no check in that system. The evil would just spread all over the place. It would be an unmitigated disaster. And so multiple languages and multiple nations serve as a check in the world system against unbridled evil. This is the way God has set it up. It is a mercy that God confuses the languages. I have a family and I own a home and so I have a property.

And if you come on to my property and you're not welcome, I don't know who you are. You're just wandering around. I'm going to open the door up, sliding door up, and I'm going to send my £150 dog, Manny, and he's going to come after you and he will sniff you with all of his might. And then he'll walk away because he's scared. Then that will distract you while I call the cops and figure out who you are. So he won't do anything. He's a big sissy. But the point is that I have a property. There's boundaries. And that butts up to another property, which puts up to another property which butts up to another property. And when you think about the nations of the world or you think about neighborhoods, they are families. That live on a property that but up to other properties. Countries operate the same way. Countries are families that are united by language and culture and values. And they butt up to other countries with languages, different languages, often different languages, different cultures, different values. And this is done as a mercy. It is done by God to limit the capacity for evil to spread. It is a check in the world's system so that one empire, one nation, cannot impose evil from the top down everywhere. You can't do that. Remember last week when the Chinese spy balloon or the weather balloon or whatever that was that happened, they it floated all the way across America.

Now, how did you feel about that? You thought to yourself, What is that? And see, that was a reminder that there are hostile powers in the world. And it demonstrates that those hostile powers are held in check by other nations. It is a check in the system that that limits the spreading and flourishing of sin across the world. And so we are to interpret what happens in Babylon as a mercy from God. It is a mercy that God confuses the languages and eventually it is the gospel that will bring the nations back. It is the gospel that will reunite humanity. It is the gospel that will change the whole world and bless the whole world. So that people from the entire world, every tribe and tongue and nation and language will worship God. They will worship the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel will triumph. It's a beautiful thing. Question number four What do we do with these truths? What do we do with these truths? Many applications. I'm going to give you a couple of first. Live for the glory of God that you are to live for the glory of God. All of us have a decision to make in our lives as far as what we will live for. We live in a free country and you decide you can decide what you will live for, what you will give yourself to.

And wisdom would teach us the word of God would teach us that we are to live not for ourselves. The Gospel of Grace would teach us that we are not to live for ourselves, but we live for the one who loved us and died for us and rose for us to live for the glory of God. The story of the Tower of Babel is the story of human pride. It is the story of the futility and danger of pride. That when we build monuments unto ourselves. When we build towers unto our glory, it only leads to chaos and confusion and eventually our downfall. It is a warning sign in human history against the pride of men. My favorite definition of the word pride is that pride is disagreeing with God in agreeing with yourself. What is pride? What is a proud person look like? Is it just someone who likes to get into fights with people that can be a proud person? Is it someone who shakes their fist at God and says there is no God? That could be a proud person. That's a proud person. But see, a proud person can have a big smile on their face. A proud person can be a philanthropist. A proud person can help the poor. A proud person can go to church every week. A proud person can know much of the scriptures.

So pride comes in a thousand different packages, but the root of pride is just it's just simply disagreeing with God and agreeing with ourselves. Pride is trusting in your wisdom, your insight, your desires over God. It's doing what makes sense to you, apart from what God has to say. It's pride that moves our heart from being created. We are creating the image of God, but it's pride that moves our heart from worshipping God to living for our selves. Pride is the root sin behind virtually every other sin in your life. So you look at your you look at your life, you look at the sins of the world, and you trace that thing back. Where does it go to? It goes to pride, A proud heart. Pride says, Let's make a name for ourselves. Let's live for ourselves. Let's do life on our own terms. For our for ourselves. Humility is the exact opposite. My favorite definition of humility is that humility is when you joyfully agree with God, humility is joyfully agreeing with God. A humble heart says God is God, and it is good that God is God. God has got it and it is good that God is God. Whatever he says is right. Whatever he says is true. Whatever he says is good. And therefore we build our lives on what he has to say. So the humble heart delights in God as our highest good, as our greatest joy.

As our greatest treasure. The humble heart delights in the glory of God. And it is a humble heart that lives, that aims at the glory of God. The humble heart says, along with John the Baptist and John 330, he being the Lord Jesus, must increase. But I must decrease. He must increase. I must decrease. So practically, if you're like Ok ok Ok, I want to pursue humility. I want to I want to pursue the glory of God. What do you do? Where do you start? What do you need to do? Now, number one, I'm going to give you three tips. Number one, marvel at the grace of God. You must marvel at the grace of God. This is the foundation of the life centered on the Lord. It's a heart that is stunned by the grace of God. The Tower of Babel was a tower devoted to their glory. It was a monument to their pride. And all of us, every single person in this room, all of us before Christ. All of us were trapped by our own pride. I don't care if you are a nice person or you are a terrible person, it doesn't matter. There are a thousand 1000 manifestations of pride. All of us were trapped by our own pride. All of us were trapped into living for ourselves. But what we see in the Gospel is that God has overcome our pride.

God has overcome our pride. But how does he do it? How does God overcome our pride? Does he overcome our pride by yelling at us from heaven? Is that what he does? Certainly not. See, the only way for our pride to be overcome is the glory of God. It is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, only the glory of God, only the cross of Christ can humble the soul. See, Jesus is the greatest, clearest manifestation of the glory of God, and it is the cross that demonstrates the greatest act of humility of all time. It is the cross that reveals the greatness of glory of God. More than anything else. It is the apex of the glory of God. Where God, where God dies in the place for sinners that we might live forever. See, Jesus is the invisible God who became visible for us. Jesus is the one who came down from heaven because you can't work your way to heaven. Philippians two says that Jesus became a man and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. I was thinking this week about how Jesus died. Just think about that whole thing. God creates the universe. He endures humanity. He loves human beings. We keep rebelling. I was just thinking about the whole biblical story and how it's the Lord Jesus Christ who goes to the cross.

There's Jesus hanging on the cross, bleeding and dying. And I thought, Why is he there? Like, why is he there? The Son of God. And so he's there because of my pride. He's there because of my pride. He's there because of our pride. He went to the cross. Because I am a proud man. And see the Lord Jesus. He has overcome our pride. He has overcome our pride by overwhelming us with humility. He has overwhelmed us with his humility that the Son of God went to the cross for man because man wanted to be God. Why did he have to die? Because you wanted to be God. You want to be God. You want to be in charge? And from that impulse to be God comes all the sin in the world. And so because of that, the Son of God who is God in the flesh went to the cross for us. That he humbled himself to the uttermost. That because of his great love and his great mercy for us, for me. For the world. He died that our sins might be paid for, that we might be forgiven. And see, the more I think about what Christ has done for me, the more it humbles my soul or the more I think about all that I have in my life. I mean, just considering. Do you guys have anything good in your life? Where does it come from? Paul says in first Corinthians four seven, What do you have that you have not received? See the heart that wants to be God says, No, no, no.

I've earned what I have. I've worked hard for what I have. I deserve what I have. In fact, I should have a lot more than what I have. But see, humility recognizes the grace of God. It marvels at the grace of God. It's humility that says whatever virtue I have, whatever strength I have, whatever health I have, whatever friendships I have, whatever money I have, whatever success that I've had in life. Is a gift of God's grace. All of it. And so it humbles us onto the ground. It lowers us to the floor. And it should overwhelm our heart. Our proud heart should be overwhelmed by the grace and humility of God. And see when people when people live on the ground before God, they're humble. Before God, everything changes. Everything changes. Our problem is when we stand up and we start taking credit for everything and we demand our own way. And so Marvel brothers and sisters marvel at the cross, marvel at the humility of God himself. Number two tremble at his word. Tremble at his word, marvel at his grace, tremble at his word. And verse four, we see that the Babylonians knew what God had said. They knew the command of God, but there were scorn for the Word of God.

They just said, We don't need the Word of God to live. Do you want to know what Pride looks like? Pride looks like a heart that says, I don't need the word of God to live. I can live according to my own knowledge. My own instincts. My own desires are sufficient. So I do not need the word of God. I can live without it. Give me Instagram. Give me tick tock. Give me you two. Give me Twitter. Give me my daily bread. Of entertainment. That's what I need. See the Babylonians. They knew the command of God, but they disregarded it. They said, We can make sense of life by ourselves. But see, you will never walk closely with God. You will not walk closely with him. You will not know him deeply. You'll not have a deeper understanding of his grace until you tremble at his word. This is why the most, arguably the most the most significant discipline of every day of your life is to tremble before God. I don't mean literally shaking all the time like I'm so scared about what's going on. That's not what I mean. I mean that your heart gets in tune with God every day that you're reminded of who he is. Isaiah 66. Thus says the Lord Heaven is my throne in the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me? And what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made.

And so all these things came to be declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look. What is God looking for? Like in this room right now? You're here and praise God that you're here. I'm so happy you're here. I hope you're blessed by being here. Now, what is God looking for? But this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. It's a heart that is in tune with the Word of God, with the glory of God. And if we do not tremble at his word, we will tremble someplace else. If we do not tremble at his word, if we are not stunned by his glory, his greatness, the glory of who he is, a lesser glory will capture your heart. And when a lesser glory captures your heart, we will build a tower into that thing. And that will lead to chaos and confusion and ultimately our downfall. I mean, look at what's happening in our country right now. Everywhere you look is another monument unto our glory, another monument of our greatness. Another monument to our pride. And chaos reigns, confusion reigns. So brothers and sisters tremble throughout the course of a week. There should be times where you say, Oh man, this is God's word.

What has God said? And we pay attention. And then number three. Obey from the heart. Obey from the heart. Marvel at his grace. Tremble at his word. And obey from the heart. They knew the command of God and the Babylonians knew the command of God. They said, We're going to dig our heels in. We will not move. We're going to build a city with the tower. And we're going to we are going to stay here. We will not obey God. And one detail in the story that stood out to me this week, I've never really noticed this before, but it's the truth that God is not impressed by human achievement at all. And the story? He's not impressed at all. The most important thing happening in the world at that time and the minds of the Babylonians is the building of the city and the tower. And it probably would have been impressive if you were there. You would have said, Wow, that's incredible. That is incredible. But it's so small and insignificant. God has to come down and say, What do you what are you little guys doing? What's happening here? What are you doing? It's not significant. He's he God is not impressed at all. Which brought about a question in my heart. In my soul. I thought if God is not impressed by human achievement. Then Is he impressed by anything you do? Do you see what I'm saying? If he's not impressed by the building of the tower.

The building of the city. If God is not impressed by the Super Bowl. We're impressed by many of us. We're impressed by the Super Bowl. If he's not impressed by that, is he impressed by anything? Well, I think there's a very clear answer to that. And I think it helps us to live for him. A number of years ago, our family went through a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle phase. I don't know if your family's been through that yet, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle phase is the phase where I told my kids about how I played with these toys and we got a bunch of these toys and we're building them all the time. And it was really a lot of fun. And one day I got home and my kids surprised me with a gift. And here's the gift if you want to put the picture up. It's a journal with the coloring of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So it's a custom made, custom made journal. And they knew I like journals. And then they colored the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now, if you're a parent, you probably have some of these things laying around your house somewhere. Some of you have a garage filled with this stuff. And I want to ask you a question, parents. Why is this stuff valuable to you? Why is it valuable to you? Why? Why do you feel bad when you throw it away? If you throw it away, like, can I have I sinned? Is this a sin to throw all this stuff? I don't know if it's a sin or not.

Like, why do you feel bad about it? And why do you? I bet you, if you have grown kids, I bet you still have some of those things somewhere in your house that you that you that you like, that you value. Why is it valuable? Is it valuable because of its inherent excellence? No way. It's not. I'm not trying. It's not like this should zoom in on one. Turtle. Are you ready? So here's. Here's Raphael. So his shell is blue. Did you notice that? What's up with that? Its shells aren't blue. Or notice the color difference between his head and his arm. Or his neck is not even painted at all or colored at all. It's inattention to detail, which bothers me then. And then you have the staff. And the staff is not orange. And it's the bow staff, Donatello's bow staff. That's not the right color. And the orange is outside of the line. And we could look at each one of the turtles and we could keep going and we could pick out the things that are wrong with it. So let me ask you, why is it valuable then? Because it was done for me.

It was done for me. It was a gift from my kids to me. Like if you if you had that thing, you wouldn't be like, Oh, that's so valuable, you wouldn't think that way. It was done for me. And you know what pleases God. When you obey him from the heart, when you do it unto him. You say, God, the father. Father. I'm doing this for you. This is why I'm closing my mouth right now. I'm doing it for you. This is why I'm opening my mouth right now. It's for you. This is why I'm going to be kind to this person who's been unkind to me. This is why I work hard unto the glory of God. For Him, it's for Lord. It's for you. And all of life will take on a new dimension. When it's done, When life is done unto the Lord. When your heart is set on pleasing him. What have you said? Lord, I'm going to do this unto you. And not only will life take on a new dimension. Your life will become much more fruitful. So brothers and sisters marvel at the grace of God. Tremble at his word. You need to tremble for before his word. And then last of all, all of those things are designed that we might do. The third thing, which is obey him from the heart.