Wait, what?  Yep, if you are lifer in the church, you have seen it happen more than once.  God works within the Body of Christ to grow and mature the people from the inside out and outside in.  People come because they are drawn to the smiling faces who are in awe of what God is doing in their church.  All kinds of people come because of who they first see when they arrive.  They see Jesus on the faces and feel the positive energy of the staff and volunteers—all of God’s work among them.  Let’s admit, there is great strength and encouragement in numbers. With the growing numbers of people attending come more opportunities to join God in the work He is doing among His people.  Lost people find Jesus who bring other lost people who are seeking what they are missing, too. 

The Enemy of God hates it when unity with God and with His people happens.  So, the old tricks of deceit and manipulation of how to think about God are pulled out the bag he continues to use.  Same bag, same tricks.  While God is work doing great things; the people become arrogant and believe the work being done is because of their efforts.  This is the first sign of danger.  Patting each other on the back; leaders think they no longer need God.  “Thank you, Lord God” we sing happily in worship. But later, in our everyday life of serving, we arrogantly think, “we’ve got this, God.”  “Thank you for helping us get started.”  God begins to be put aside to pursue what we want for ourselves—”making a name for ourselves.”  THIS is the danger of unity among a people who leave unity with God. 

We become just a bunch of “babbling” church goers in need of restoring our relationship with God through Jesus.  “Apart from Me, you can do nothing,” (John 15), words of Jesus echo in our minds as churches split because of arrogance, pride, selfish ambition, and greed. God’s work diminishes when His people think they have become God.

Genesis 11

The Tower of Babel

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves 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.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ 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. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ 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.

From Shem to Abram

¹⁰ This is the account of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father^[d] of Arphaxad. ¹¹ And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.^[e]

¹⁴ When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Abram’s Family

²⁷ This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

³² Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

It hasn’t been that long ago that the Enemy used his tricks for the first time to deceive Adam and Eve into thinking they could be God!  Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  (Read all of Genesis 3 to refresh our memories.) Since it worked the first time, he will keep using them.

But we have help! Jesus reminds us to stay in unity with Him!  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”—Jesus, John 15:5

Paul mentors Timothy with; “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Timothy 4:16

Paul warns all church leaders; “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6

Jesus reveals the outcome of forgetting and leaving behind why we do what we do; “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” –Revelation 2:2-4 (To the Ephesus church)

We can do all the “things” but the main thing is why we do it and for Whom we do it.  We must be in unity with God, seeking Him and His will first, before doing anything of significance for God.  We join God; He does not join us.  God plans; we trust and obey His plan.  Jesus, Son of Man/Son of God trusted and obeyed God while staying in complete unity with God as our supreme example. 

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

Pause, reflect, be still, let go, allow God’s Holy Spirit to convict, correct, console, comfort, and compel us to stay in unity with Him.

In Jesus Name, we pray, Amen

At the end of this passage, we are introduced to the next cast of characters in the story of God!  Abram and Sarai faithfully believe in God.  They will demonstrate a few wonders and doubts for they are human but they stay in unity with God.  God will work through this beautiful couple in ways that will amaze those around them.  But that’s how God works!  God—always at work on the behalf of those who believe, trust, and obey because of their unity with God.