3.045 Whose Name do You Seek to Build?

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose this day whom you will serve.

What's in a name? And does it really matter? We are wrapping up our week here today and tomorrow of our reading of Genesis chapter 6 through 11 as well as Moses chapter 8.

We've talked about Noah and the flood from a lot of different perspectives and we're going to touch base on really a small story that has quite a large history in the grand scheme of things. The Tower of Babel is quite an interesting historical piece that we look at and yet in the book of Genesis it's only a few verses to give us some perspective as to what exactly happened here. Our verse for the day is going to look straight into the people that were building this tower.

And really, even Babel wasn't even named in the verses. It happens afterwards. We've got these people; they all speak the same language.

It's after the flood. And here we have them. They decide they're going to build a tower all the way to heaven.

Let's see if we can dig into some of their motivations here. Genesis chapter 11, verse 4 is our verse for today: And they said, "Go to, let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name.

Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Now, there are a few key factors inside of here to be aware of. First of all, did you catch that they wanted to build this city and tower to reach to heaven? But you'll notice there the motivation behind it: "And let us make us a name." You know, when I first got into the world that I currently live in, in terms of coaching and helping businesses grow and what not, right?

The business coaching world, the speaking world, the training world. As I got into that world, it was amazing to me how many people were like, "You have to own your name right now." Never name yourself a business. Never name yourself an entity.

Name yourself "you." Because that is what people want to buy. They want to buy you. That's been an interesting road for me.

Although I do have, you know, Allen Roberds owned, I never built that website out. I have the URL, but it's something that I just couldn't sit down and be like, "Let's build a website to me." And I'm not trying to talk down to any of those that have built themselves a name, but it does give me pause. And this is the question I asked in the podcast episode, "Name Today." It's the question I pose to myself and I pose to you as well.

Whose name do you seek to build? And by whose path are you trying to build it? You see, the people building a tower at this time decided that they would simply choose their route to heaven, that it would be their path, their building, and that's where they dumped in their time and attention, was on their path.

Why did they want to do it? Well, they wanted to do it so that they got the name and the recognition behind it. There are some interesting extra reads around that idea.

I'm trying to understand, I'm at a stage in my life where I'm trying to understand better that the name that I want to build is the name of Jesus Christ. I hope that anything I do in my life is an example of Him. And I'm trying to align my heart that way.

This is part of the repentance process I'm going through, right? Repentance to change your heart and to change the desires of your heart. But as I get further and further into this, even Savory Salt here, I have a hard time like advertising it or throwing it out there, because really, at the end of the day, what I'm hoping is that the testimony that I bear leads someone to a greater testimony of Jesus Christ.

I hope you take an opportunity to remember whose name you're building. What are you building for? Whose kingdom are you trying to build?

Are you building yours? Or are you building Our Father in Heaven, the Kingdom of God? It's been something that's kind of a deep thought, but one that I wanted to share with you because I see the example here.

I see what they're trying to do. We will see today a world full of people attempting to build their own cities and towers on their own paths to heaven rather than the one that Jesus Christ has identified for us and by example led the way, and the path, to our Heavenly Father. I hope I can follow Him better.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith, and let's be Savory Salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.