Thesis
Using the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 as a mirror, Pastor Bill argues that humanity's deepest problem is the prideful refusal to trust and obey God — gathering to worship while ignoring His Word and resisting His mission. This pride, usually rooted in fear, leads either to personal anarchy or legalistic control. The antidote is the humble Gethsemane posture of Jesus: honestly acknowledging the cost, then choosing God's will over our own, taking up a cross rather than building a monument to ourselves, and joining His mission to make disciples.
Key points
- 1
Worshiping God while ignoring His Word is not worship — it is rebellion and pride.
- 2
Pride is most often rooted in fear — the fear of what trusting God will actually cost us.
- 3
God's 'judgment' at Babel was an act of grace, forcing obedience to redirect humanity toward His redemptive plan through Abraham and ultimately Jesus.
- 4
Jesus calls His followers to give up their own way, take up their cross, and follow Him — there is real life on the other side of what looks hard.
- 5
Without a God-centered moral foundation, individuals and societies collapse into either anarchy or authoritarianism.
- 6
Our identities are not found in possessions, roles, or sexuality — God has already told us who we are and what we are built for.
- 7
The church's mission — and every believer's personal mission — is to scatter, share the gospel, and make disciples, not merely gather under a tower.
Outline
Introduction: Fort Building and the Tower of Babel
Pastor Bill uses his kids' elaborate fort-building as a playful entry point into the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11, framing it as humanity acting like children who think their self-made society is epic — until God steps in.
Genesis 11 in Context: Babylon and the Big Idea
Pastor Bill places Genesis 11 within the larger arc of Genesis — God creating, humanity falling, and God marching toward redemption — and introduces the sermon's big idea: pride builds towers, humility takes up a cross.
Reading and Unpacking Genesis 11:1-9
The text is read and explained: the people built a ziggurat to make a name for themselves and avoid scattering, directly defying God's command to spread out — a picture of worshiping God while refusing to obey Him.
The Pride Problem: Worship Without Obedience
Pastor Bill exposes the core issue — saying 'I'm here to worship God' while ignoring His Word is actually rebellion. He unpacks how this pride is almost always generated by fear, and how it plays out in daily life.
God's Judgment as Grace and the Path to Abraham
God's confusing of the languages was an act of saving grace, forcing the scatter that led to Abraham and the redemptive story of Jesus — God's sovereign will advances even through our disobedience.
Jesus' Call: Give Up Your Way, Take Up Your Cross
Drawing on Matthew 16:24-25, Pastor Bill applies the Babel story personally: pride without surrender ends in either personal anarchy or suffocating legalism. He also references Francis Schaeffer's observation that societies without a transcendent moral foundation collapse the same way.
The Great Commission and the Mission We Ignore
From Matthew 28:16-20, Pastor Bill challenges the congregation to ask whether their time, money, and voice have ever been invested in making disciples — warning that gathering at a 'tower church' while ignoring the mission is the same Babel sin.
Identity, Sexuality, and the Towers We Build
Pastor Bill confronts the lie of finding identity in possessions, roles, or sexuality, calling every distortion of God's design — across the whole spectrum — a tower built in place of trust, and affirming that God's Word defines who we truly are.
The Gethsemane Moment: Humility in Practice
Pastor Bill closes by calling the congregation to a personal 'Gethsemane moment' — honest about the cost, sitting in the grief or frustration, and then surrendering with 'not my will, but Yours' — because Jesus did exactly that so we could be saved.
Memorable moments
pride builds towers, humility takes up a cross
a religion without a relationship with God, which means loving, knowing his love, and following his love, a religion without a relationship is actually rebellion
if you say you're gonna worship God without listening to the word of God, you're actually at war with God
You can have your way or you can have Yahweh
every seat has a person sitting in it. And every person has a story
not my will, thy will be done
Application
Pastor Bill's call is direct: stop building towers — religious activity, personal empires, or identity projects designed to avoid doing what God actually said. The first step is honesty. Like Jesus in Gethsemane, admit out loud if you're afraid, frustrated, or just don't want to obey. Sit in that for a moment. Then choose humility. Concretely, that means examining whether your time and money are invested in making disciples, not just attending services. It means trusting God with the things that feel most like your identity — your security, your relationships, your sexuality. And it means saying, with Jesus, 'not my will, but Yours' — because on the other side of the hard thing God is asking is the real life He built you for.
