This Sunday, we're excited to welcome best-selling author Kat Armas to preach as we continue our Year of Putting Down Roots! Looking at the stories of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and Pentecost in Acts 2, Kat will explore how the world often demand sameness, but God celebrates our diversity. Together, we'll discover what it means to stay rooted in who God created us to be and how embracing our differences can lead us into deeper community and a truer sense of belonging.
Abiding in Christ is the foundational practice of the Christian life. Everything else is built upon it. Jesus made this abundantly clear throughout his life on earth, especially toward the end.
Choosing not to abide in Jesus makes as much sense as ignoring the invitation of a hospitable homeowner when you are a weary traveler. It makes as much sense as collapsing in the street instead of a warm bed because we are too proud or self-reliant to admit that we need help.
Jesus makes it really clear: “apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 Without him, we can’t do anything of value, anything that truly matters.
Genesis 11:1-9 — The Tower of Babel
“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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.”
Acts 2:1–13 — The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”