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Genesis | Week 4 | Full Service · Rewind

Rock Point Church

83 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Jan 30, 2023 · 5 min read · 83 min listen

The big idea

Pride builds towers to make a name for ourselves and avoid what God asks; humility takes up a cross and trusts Him even when it's scary.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7The Tower of Babel shows people worshiping God while disobeying His clear command.
Point 2 of 7Babylon represents humanity's recurring pattern of one-world power and one-world religion built on human pride.

Point 3 of 7Pride is usually rooted in fear, and it shows up when we worship God but ignore His word.
Point 4 of 7God confused the languages and scattered the people as an act of judgment that was also grace, protecting His redemptive plan.
Point 5 of 7Jesus calls His followers to give up their own way and take up a cross rather than build their own towers.
Point 6 of 7Even Jesus' own disciples worshiped Him while doubting Him, yet He still commissioned them to make disciples.
Point 7 of 7Real identity is found only in God's plan, not in towers we build for ourselves like career, sexuality, or possessions.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Genesis 11
Genesis 3:15
Matthew 16:24-25
Matthew 28

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Bill Bush · Jan 30, 2023 · 83 min watch · 2 min read

Genesis | Week 4 | Full Service

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Genesis 11
Genesis 3:15
Matthew 16:24-25
Matthew 28

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Pride builds towers to make a name for ourselves and avoid what God asks; humility takes up a cross and trusts Him even when it's scary.

God offers real life on the other side of surrender, but we keep trying to build our own version of a good life on our own terms. The Tower of Babel shows people who wanted to worship God while ignoring His word; Jesus calls us instead to give up our own way, take up our cross, and trust that He knows what's best.

Key points

1
1The Tower of Babel shows people worshiping God while disobeying His clear command.
Pastor Bill walks through Genesis 11, where all humanity spoke one language and settled in Babylonia instead of spreading out as God had told them to after the flood. They built a ziggurat, a tower meant to reach into the heavens as an act of worship, while at the same time refusing to scatter as God commanded, making it religion without relationship.
2
2Babylon represents humanity's recurring pattern of one-world power and one-world religion built on human pride.
Pastor Bill traces how Babylon functions throughout Scripture as a symbol contrasted with Jerusalem, the city of God, and connects it to the spirit of antichrist that resurfaces in the book of Revelation. He frames this as the same lie from the garden repeating itself: people trying to be like God instead of trusting Him.
3
3Pride is usually rooted in fear, and it shows up when we worship God but ignore His word.
He unpacks how the builders said staying together and building the tower would keep them from being scattered, essentially rejecting God's instruction while still claiming to worship Him. He compares this to churchgoers today who attend but ignore what discipleship actually requires, and illustrates how fear drives pride through stories of arguing kids, animals acting aggressive when afraid, and even his own encounters with mountain lions.
4
4God confused the languages and scattered the people as an act of judgment that was also grace, protecting His redemptive plan.
Pastor Bill explains that God's scattering kept humanity from reaching a point of no return, forcing them back toward His plan that would eventually produce Abraham and the road to Jesus. He uses the illustration of time as a cruise ship, where people have real freedom to make choices but God alone decides where the ship ultimately docks.
5
5Jesus calls His followers to give up their own way and take up a cross rather than build their own towers.
Pastor Bill reads Jesus' words about denying yourself, taking up your cross, and losing your life to truly find it, contrasting 'your way' with 'Yahweh.' He warns that refusing this call leads either to personal anarchy, walking away from God's authority, or to legalism, turning obedience into a transaction to control God.
6
6Even Jesus' own disciples worshiped Him while doubting Him, yet He still commissioned them to make disciples.
He points out that after the resurrection some of the eleven disciples worshiped Jesus but still doubted, paralleling how many believers today worship while doubting God's ways for their lives. Despite that doubt, Jesus declared His authority and sent them to make disciples of all nations, promising to be with them always.
7
7Real identity is found only in God's plan, not in towers we build for ourselves like career, sexuality, or possessions.
Pastor Bill argues that 'making a name for ourselves' is really about finding identity and purpose apart from God, and warns that marriage, parenting, possessions, and sexuality were never meant to be our identity. He points to Jesus' own Gethsemane prayer as the model of honest, humble surrender: admitting the difficulty while still praying 'not my will, but thine.'

Application

Pastor Bill's challenge is to have your own Gethsemane moment: be honest about what's hard, and then surrender anyway.

Check whether your worship matches your obedience
Lay your life down next to what Jesus actually asks of a disciple and be honest about whether your time, money, and focus match up with your Sunday worship.
Name the fear behind your pride
When you feel resistant or defensive about what God is asking, recognize it's likely fear, and be willing to admit that instead of digging in.
Make room in your calendar and checkbook for disciple-making
If you want to help reach people, start making practical room in your schedule and budget to support that mission rather than just gathering for yourself.
Stop looking for identity in towers
Whether it's marriage, kids, possessions, or sexuality, stop building your sense of self on things God never meant to hold that weight, and root your identity in what He has already told you.
Have your own Gethsemane moment
Be honest with God about what feels too hard or scary, sit in that honestly like Jesus and like the preacher's own mother did, and then choose 'not my will, but thine be done.'

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So as we read it, there's a big idea I wanna kinda draw out of it that I'm gonna show in this. It's simply this, pride builds towers, humility takes up a cross. Pride builds towers, humility takes up a cross. What does that look like? All right, like I said, Genesis chapter 11 is this crazy story”
From the transcript
“Because the reality is what they're building here is they're building a one world government and and and a one world religion way early on in the process. They're listening to this lie of Satan and the reason he wants to do that is he wants to be God. When he builds this up, he wants to be worshiped and what he really is trying to do is keep Genesis three fifteen from happening where it says that God's gonna rescue us through the seed of the woman”
From the transcript
“Let's look at the words of Jesus here before we close-up shop here to tie this together. First of all, in Matthew 16 verse twenty four and twenty five. This is Jesus sharing what we need to be about. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way”
From the transcript
“Because look what Jesus says in Matthew 28. The last thing he said, the last thing he was teaching his disciples as he was ascending in heaven. I always imagine he's going, he's like, one more thing”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

The people of Babel had every resource they needed — a common language, shared energy, remarkable skill. And they turned all of it inward. 'Let us build a tower that reaches to the heavens,' they said, 'so that we may make a name for ourselves.' Pastor Bill pointed out something easy to miss: they weren't irreligious. They were building something that looked impressive and even sacred. But they were doing it on their own terms, ignoring what God had actually told them to do. That's the uncomfortable mirror Babel holds up. It's possible to show up, sing, serve, give, and still be building a monument to ourselves rather than following God's Word. Worship that sidesteps obedience isn't really worship — it's a performance. And often the reason we sidestep obedience isn't indifference. It's that we've quietly decided we know better, or we're afraid of where full obedience might lead. Before any of the harder questions this week asks of you, today is simply about honesty. Where in your life are you putting real energy into something that looks godly but keeps you from doing what God has actually said?

For reflection

What is one area where you've been active and busy — even in religious ways — but have been quietly avoiding what God has clearly asked of you?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see where your energy is going and whether it aligns with what God has actually asked of you.

Day 2

It would be easy to read the scattering at Babel as pure punishment — God seeing human ambition and shutting it down. But Pastor Bill reframed it in a way worth sitting with: what looked like judgment was actually grace. The people had gathered against God's mission. Scattering them didn't destroy them; it redirected them. It forced the obedience they refused to choose, and it kept the door open for the redemptive story that would run from Abraham all the way to Jesus. Grace doesn't always feel like grace in the moment. Sometimes it feels like disruption, loss of control, or a plan falling apart. The tower the people of Babel worked so hard to build came to nothing — and that nothing became the space where God's plan could move. If there's a season in your life right now that feels like scattering — a transition, an unexpected setback, something that didn't go the way you built it to go — it may be worth asking whether God is redirecting rather than abandoning. He has a history of doing exactly that, and the story that came after Babel was far better than anything the people of Babel imagined.

For reflection

Is there something in your life that has 'fallen apart' that you haven't yet considered might be God redirecting you toward something better?

Pray

Pray for the trust to believe that God's redirection — even when it's disorienting — is rooted in grace and not abandonment.

Day 3

Long before Babel, in the wreckage of the garden, God spoke a quiet promise into the worst moment in human history. He told the serpent that a descendant of the woman would crush his head — that the damage done by humanity's first act of proud self-will would not be the final word. Pastor Bill grounded the Babel story inside this larger arc: humanity keeps reaching for its own glory, and God keeps reaching back with a plan that runs toward rescue. This verse is sometimes called the first gospel, and it matters here because it means that pride and its consequences — which we see so clearly at Babel and so clearly in ourselves — were never beyond God's intention to redeem. You are not reading your own story in isolation. Your tendency to build your own towers, to choose your will over God's, fits into a story God has been writing since Genesis 3. And He didn't stop writing it. The same God who scattered Babel was already moving toward the One who would say, in a garden of His own, 'not My will, but Yours.' The antidote to our pride was being planned before we ever had the chance to express it.

For reflection

How does knowing that God's redemptive plan was set in motion before Babel — before any of your own failures — change how you feel about where you currently are?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of wonder that God's rescue plan is older and larger than your greatest mistake.

Day 4

Jesus didn't soften it. 'If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me.' Pastor Bill named the real tension in this verse: the cross is not a metaphor for mild inconvenience. It is the specific, costly thing God is asking. And the reason so many of us stall there — building towers instead of picking up crosses — is fear. Fear of what it will cost. Fear of what we'll lose. Fear that the real life on the other side isn't actually real. But notice what Jesus says next: 'If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. If you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.' The tower builders at Babel were trying to secure themselves — their name, their future, their place in the world. Jesus inverts that logic entirely. Security is not found in what you build; it's found in who you follow. The cross Jesus calls you to pick up is real, and so is the life waiting on the other side of it. That's not a sales pitch. It's the pattern God has been demonstrating since Genesis 3.

For reflection

What is the specific 'cross' — the costly thing God seems to be asking — that you have been building a tower to avoid?

Pray

Pray for courage to name the hard thing honestly, and for the faith to believe that real life waits on the other side of it.

Day 5

Related passage

Jesus in Gethsemane is the sermon's central image for a reason. He did not walk to the cross with easy confidence, feelings already sorted and fear already gone. He fell on His face. He asked if there was another way. He was honest about the weight of what was in front of Him — and then He chose His Father's will anyway. Pastor Bill held this up as the posture God invites all of us into: not suppressing the fear, not pretending the cost isn't real, but bringing both of those things honestly before God and then choosing humility. That sequence matters. The Babel builders never got to step two because they skipped step one. They never admitted their fear; they just started stacking bricks. Jesus modeled a different way entirely — full honesty first, then full surrender. You don't have to have your feelings resolved before you can obey. You don't have to feel brave before you can trust. You just have to be willing to say, like Jesus, 'Not my will, but Yours.' That prayer, prayed honestly, is not weakness. It is the most courageous sentence a human being can speak.

For reflection

What would it look like for you to follow Jesus' Gethsemane pattern — being fully honest about your fear or reluctance before God, and then choosing surrender anyway?

Pray

Pray for the honesty to bring your real feelings to God before asking Him to change your circumstances.

Day 6

The great commission is where the sermon lands practically, and it's worth noticing what Jesus does before He gives the command. He grounds it in authority — 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me' — and then He closes it with a promise: 'I am with you always.' The command to go and make disciples sits between those two anchors. Pastor Bill pointed out that the church's temptation is the same as Babel's: to gather under a tower rather than scatter on a mission. Attending can become an end in itself. Community can become a comfort zone. But Jesus' last words before the ascension weren't an invitation to gather more impressively — they were a charge to go. That going doesn't require a missions trip or a platform. It begins with your actual life: the relationships you're already in, the conversations you're already having, the time and resources you're already spending. The question isn't whether you are qualified to make disciples. The question is whether your life is oriented toward that mission or toward building something more comfortable and self-contained.

For reflection

Who is one specific person in your life right now that God might be calling you to move toward intentionally, as part of His mission?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the people around you the way Jesus sees them, and for the willingness to move toward them.

Day 7

Reading the whole Babel passage again at the end of this week, it looks different than it did on day one. The problem at Babel wasn't ambition or energy or community — it was the direction all of those things were pointed. Inward. Upward toward a self-made name. Away from God's Word and God's mission. And the grace of the story is that God didn't leave them — or us — there. He scattered, redirected, and kept writing. This week you've sat with the pride that masquerades as worship, the fear underneath it, the grace that disrupts our towers, the cross Jesus calls us to pick up, the Gethsemane honesty that makes surrender real, and the mission we're sent into. None of those are abstract ideas. They are the shape of a life that says 'not my will, but Yours' — not once, but as a daily posture. You are not building toward a name for yourself. You are following a God who already knows your name, who planned your redemption before Genesis 3 was finished, and who is still, patiently and graciously, in the business of turning scattered people into a family on mission.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, what is the single most important shift — in attitude, habit, or direction — that God seems to be inviting you to make?

Pray

Pray for the grace to carry this week's honest reckoning forward into real, daily obedience — one small surrender at a time.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think of a time you've seen someone — or a whole group — work really hard on something impressive, but somehow miss the whole point of what they were supposed to be doing. That tension between looking faithful and actually being faithful is right at the heart of what Pastor Bill unpacked from Genesis 11.

Discussion questions

1
Genesis 11 describes people who are building, worshiping, and working together — and yet Pastor Bill says God sees it as rebellion. Looking at Genesis 11:1–4, what clues in the text help explain why activity that looks religious can still be a form of pride?
2
Pastor Bill made the observation that pride is most often rooted in fear — specifically, fear of what trusting God will actually cost. How does that reframe the way we tend to think about pride in ourselves or in others?
3
When God scatters the people at Babel in Genesis 11:5–9, Pastor Bill described that as an act of grace rather than punishment. What does it look like for a consequence or disruption to actually be grace — and how does that connect to where the story is heading through Abraham and ultimately Jesus?
4
In Matthew 16:24–25, Jesus tells His followers to give up their own way, take up their cross, and follow Him. Pastor Bill tied that directly to the Gethsemane posture — honestly naming the cost, then choosing God's will anyway. What do you think Jesus means by the paradox that losing your life is actually how you find it?
5
Pastor Bill challenged us to consider whether our time and energy are invested in making disciples or simply in gathering — pointing to Matthew 28 as the mission Jesus actually gave. How might a community or a church tell the difference between those two things in practice?
6
Pastor Bill suggested that the honest first step — like Jesus in Gethsemane — is simply admitting out loud when we're afraid or just don't want to obey. How might that kind of honesty before God actually be a form of humility rather than a lack of faith?

Pray together

Honest surrender — bringing to God the places where fear is masquerading as faithfulness, and asking for the courage to choose His will over our own

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Genesis

Week 4 · 8 messages

Where these passages are preached

Genesis 11 Genesis 3 Matthew 16 Matthew 28

Explore related topics

Discipleship and Mission Fear and Trust God's Will Over Our Own Identity in Christ Pride and Obedience Tower of Babel

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