In 1989 I went off to varsity as an eighteen-year-old to Liberty University to turn into a young champion for Christ, as Dr Jerry Falwell would say, and be great for God. What I didn’t realize then, thirty-six years ago, I realize now as a fifty-four-year-old man: my ambition can have been more selfish than noble; my goal can have been more misguided than godly. If the reality be told, I desired to be great for God. I don’t know that I wanted God to be great in me as much as I desired to be great for God.
When I used to be a freshman at Liberty, I made a commitment to read the Bible 10 chapters a day. I’m now in my 107th reading of the Bible. Recently I started this recent reading of the Scriptures and got here across Genesis 11:1-9:
“Now the entire earth had one language and the identical words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain within the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to 1 one other, “Come, allow us to make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And that they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, allow us to construct ourselves a city and a tower with its top within the heavens, and allow us to make a reputation for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the entire earth.” 5 And the Lord got here all the way down to see town and the tower, which the kids of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they’re one people, and so they have all one language, and this is just the start of what they may do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be not possible for them. 7 Come, allow us to go down and there confuse their language, in order that they might not understand each other’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all of the earth, and so they left off constructing town. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all of the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all of the earth.”
Toward the start of time humanity desired to make a reputation for themselves. If the reality be told, after I went off to varsity, I desired to make a reputation for myself. I desired to be famous for God. But did I need God to be famous in me? Maybe! But I needless to say desired to be famous for God. Certainly, there are worse things to be famous for. But I actually have learned along the best way that my desire to make a reputation for myself is futile, vain, and unproductive to the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth.
Not only that, but it surely is offensive to God, and thus led to God sending a spirit of confusion over the lives of the people of Babel in order that they were dispersed and unable to do what they desired to do, which was making a reputation for themselves.
But God makes it clear within the book of Isaiah: He will give His glory to nobody; He will share His glory with nobody.
Isaiah 48:10 – 11 says, (God talking) “Behold, I actually have refined you, but not as silver; I actually have tried you within the furnace of affliction. 11 For my very own sake, for my very own sake, I do it, for a way should my name be profaned? My glory I won’t give to a different.”
It is an offense to God for us as His creation to hunt to make a reputation for ourselves in order that we are able to share the glory that only belongs to Him.
God brings confusion and affliction into our lives to get our attention because our repute cannot support His glory. When our repute tries to contain His glory or take credit for His glory in us and thru us, it only results in self-destruction. It will not be power that destroys us. It is the ability of God that we take credit for that ultimately destroys us because we are able to’t handle it.
God addressed the seven churches in Revelation and every of them had a personality flaw or character trait that needed confronting. The same is true of us as followers of Jesus. The church of Sardis really loved their repute over true godly character. Listen to what God said to the church of Sardis through John the Beloved,
Revelation 3:1, “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. ‘I do know your works. You have the repute of being alive, but you’re dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what stays and is about to die, for I actually have not found your works complete within the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you won’t get up, I’ll come like a thief, and you may not know at what hour I’ll come against you.”
Reputation is how others perceive you. Character is who you’re and the way God knows you.
The church of Sardis was just like the people of Babel. They desired to make a reputation for themselves. But the need to make a reputation for yourself will not be from God. The desire to make Jesus’ famous along with your name is from God. Maybe you’re disillusioned that you could have not made “a reputation for yourself” for God. Count yourself blessed by God!
Confusion and affliction are the constant state of your life in the event you live to make a reputation for yourself, even when that name is supposedly for God.
God doesn’t want you to make a reputation for yourself. Matter a fact He made it really clear to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 45:5, “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not …”
God confused the people on the Tower of Babel because they desired to make a reputation for themselves. Now lest you’re thinking that God is insecure, only one chapter later God involves Abram and says in Genesis 12:1: “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out of your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I’ll show you. 2 And I’ll make of you an important nation, and I’ll bless you and make your name great, so that you just will likely be a blessing.”
God calls Abram and tells him to go from his father’s house to the land He would show him. And by the best way, presently he had no idea where that land was or what could be involved within the going. But God gave Abram a promise. If Abram would obey and go, God would bless him and make his name great. Why? So that Abram might be a blessing.
If the reality be told, I desired to make a reputation for myself at 18 in order that I could feel like I mattered on this world. Whereas God told me to go like Abram, to go away my dad’s house and land, which I did. I left the motherland of Glasgow, Kentucky, and went even further to Colorado to plant Vanguard Church with the Southern Baptist Convention. And there I actually have lived the last three a long time of my life with my wife, Tosha.
Like Abram in Genesis 12:4, “We went, because the Lord told us.” We have raised five of our own children and now have 4 additional children-in-law and 4 grandchildren. We have been fruitful and multiplied. We have lived out God’s calling on our lives in Colorado like Abram did within the land of Canaan.
Abram pitched his tent East of Bethel, which implies house of God, and built an altar to God. Genesis 12:8 says, “he called upon the name of the Lord.”
Abram understood his calling was from God. He understood that his worship was within the name of the Lord. Abram lived to call on the name of the Lord as a substitute of constructing a reputation for himself. How about you?
If we reply to God’s calling and make His name the main focus, He will deal with making our name great in order that we could be a blessing to others for Him.
See, my desire at eighteen was not all bad, just misguided. And during the last thirty-six years God has brought confusion and affliction into my life in order that I could learn to let go of wanting to make a reputation for myself and easily live to make His name famous to others.
God allows confusion and affliction to get our attention in our calling from Him to purify our motives in order that His glory can shine through us to others and so they can receive blessings from Him through us.
Whose name are you living for? Live to make Jesus famous and trust Him to make your name what it must be so you may be a blessing to others in His name.
I like this quote from D.L. Moody, “If I deal with my character, my repute will deal with itself.”
Let go of your repute and watch God develop your character.
And by the best way, God modified Abram’s name to Abraham, and in that name change, he became an important nation for God. Through Jesus, so are you able to.
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