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Daniel BrownGenesis 11:1-9Textual structure:I. The people are together with a common language.v 1-2II. The people builds a city and a tower to reach heaven. v 3-4III. God comes down v 5aIV. to see the city and the tower and language.v 5b-6V. God confuses their language and scatters the people.v 7-9Text Theme:God confuses a people building according to their own plan.Goal:To dissuade the people from building according to their own plan. Need:The people build according to their own plan.Sermon Theme: Build according to God’s plan.Goal: To encourage Christians to build according to God’s plan Need: We build our lives according to our own plans.Sermon outlineIntroduction: Moo-vivor and BarbequesI. How do the people mess things up?v 1-4II. How does God fix the problem?v 5-9III. How does it apply to us?Conclusion: Towers or Temples, building as a child would.1
 
A couple of years ago I signed up for Moo-vivor.It was a small town take-off on the reality show Survivor but witha Dairy-fest twist. Over the course of three days we were dividedinto herds. We slept in plastic calf-huts, we competed in immunitychallenges, and we culled the herd by voting people out of the barn.On the first day of the competition they loaded us up into a steellivestock trailer and they drove us into town. We had no idea wherewe were going or what they were going to make us do. We had nowindows. Only slits at the top of the trailer to let some light andair in.When they finally let us out of the trailer, we were led to the firstimmunity challenge. In front of us were two boxes – one for eachteam. And in the boxes were disassembled barbeques. Our task was to put the barbeque together, without any mistakes, before theother team could finish.Our herd had a quick conference before we started. It turned outthat none of us had put a barbeque together before. So we reachedfor the plans and started to work.The other team had already started but they left their plans in the box. Apparently someone had done this before. And before longthey had quite a lead on us. Now it’s pretty obvious for you to see where I’m going with thisstory. About half-way through, the other team realized they missedan important step. And so they had to take their barbeque apart andstart over. And since we began with the plans we were able tofinish first and win the challenge.We like to do things our own way, don’t we?
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For me it’s directions. I hate to ask for them. And I’ll never admitthat I’m lost. Sound like anybody you know?How about Ikea furniture? Anybody have shelves left over fromwhen you put the TV stand together? Do you ever worry wherethose extra screws were supposed to go?We’ve got the same sort of thing going on in our text today. Thetower of Babel is a story about people building with the wrong setof plans.And as we look at our text today we’re going to ask threeimportant questions. The first is “How bad did they mess thingsup?” The second question is “How did God make things right?”And the final question remains – “How is this important for ustoday?”Let’s start by looking at the problem.Verse one begins: “Now the whole world had one language and acommon speech.”Everybody was on the same page. They spoke the same language.They understood one another completely. They had something weas a church dream about: unity!And so the people moved together, and they moved to the east, andthey found a spot in Shinar, which is modern day Iraq, and theysettled there. And here’s where the problems begin.Genesis was written by Moses and so we need to put on our Mosesglasses when we read a story like this. And two very importantdetails in the eyes of Moses are that God gathers his people atSinai, and that the home of God’s people is the promised land.
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