Arks, Tokens, Covenants, & Names | Come Follow Me 2026 | Gen 6-11; Mos 8 | John Hilton III | Feb 9-15

The very thing that we're doing to try to project this image, to validate ourselves, becomes the source of actual pain and confusion. There's got to be a better way. The true ark was built from before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ is the true ark. Wherever you are, I testify that the door to the ark is still open. You just need to get in. It might just be me, but in recent years, I found that I have become totally reliant on GPS. Can you relate? A few years ago, I was in Rome and we're walking around using Google Maps trying to find the Colosseum. And my face is buried in the phone. And my son says, Dad, look up. It's right there. We could literally see the Colosseum, but I was just focused on the GPS. And that's not as bad as it could be. In 2023, and I am not making this story up, two tourists in Hawaii followed their GPS even though it led them straight into the ocean. They drove down a boat ramp into the ocean because GPS told them to. They were listening to the wrong voice. And that's exactly what the chapters that we're going to talk about today suggest is that when you follow the wrong voices, you get in big trouble. But there's also a lot of hope in these chapters because even with With the coming flood, Noah was still warned. Even in the midst of the Tower of Babel, God prepared a way for Jared and his family to escape. Jared, Noah, they teach us that even when society falls apart, we don't have to. And today we're going to explore two key moments in the early history of Genesis, the flood and the Tower of Babel. Now, if you remember in our very first class, we talked about a big picture overview of the Old Testament history. And for the past several classes, we've been zoomed in on the early history portion of creation, the flood, the Tower of Babel, and we're going to finish this section up today. As we do, we'll see how Jesus Christ is central in the Ark, the token and covenant, and the name. So in Genesis chapter six, we're introduced to the prophet Noah. We read, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Unfortunately, the people of Noah's day did not walk faithfully with God. In fact, there was a specific sin that was so serious, it caused God to send a flood to cover the earth. You probably remember what the sin was. And I'm reminded of family movie night. Maybe you've been there. It's the smell of popcorn is in the air. People are arguing about what movie we're going to watch. The kids suggest a certain title. you look up the online reviews, and I don't know if this is a good movie for us to watch. And the kids say, why? There's no sex, there's no swearing. It's just violence. Does that ever happen in your house? Well, in the Bible, we read that the sin that causes the flood is that the earth was filled with violence. So maybe we shouldn't say when we're making our entertainment choices, it's just violence. Modern prophets have warned against consuming this kind of media. and so does modern science. For example, one prominent psychologist taught, randomized experiments demonstrate conclusively that exposure to media violence immediately increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior for children and adults in the short run. And children's exposure to violent electronic media, including violent games, leads to long-term increases in their risk for behaving aggressively and violently. Translation, violence and violent media is not good for you, and it is not good for the Holy Ghost. Remember what Mormon said, the people delighted in the shedding of blood continually. The spirit of the Lord did not abide in us. Now think about your own lives. It doesn't have to be a dramatic experience. Have you noticed in your own life, violent media causing the spirit to leave? Now, I was talking with some people about this and somebody said, well, what about the Bible? There's pretty violent stuff in the Bible. And it's true. So I started to wonder, are there categories of media featuring violence that are acceptable? There are intense passages of violence in the Bible, but the Bible doesn't glorify violence and it doesn't overly emphasize gory details. I'm not seeing a terrible picture of it. So maybe there are some categories that feature violence that are in the realm of acceptability. On the other hand, is there a category of media featuring violence that is never acceptable? Think about, for example, being in early Rome. Maybe you're in the Colosseum watching one human being kill another. It's hard to imagine the Holy Ghost being present for such an event. So each of us can seek the Spirit's guidance in how to apply this clear principle, God grieves when his children embrace violence. I love thinking about this insight from a pastor named John MacArthur. He said, we should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died. But sadly, in Noah's day, violence had completely consumed society, so God calls for a divine reset. Noah is assigned the task of building an ark, and this is a pretty epic event. The ark is approximately 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, 50 feet high. That's about one and a half football fields in length and four stories tall. Now, by the way, if you are ever in Kentucky, you should definitely go visit the live replica of Noah's Ark. It's called the Ark Encounter, built to the same proportions. And what fascinates me about this replica ark, It took two years and $100 million to create. Now, Noah did not have that kind of budget. The Bible isn't clear on timing, but it seems likely that it took Noah a lot longer than two years to build the ark, which is especially impressive when we remember it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. So think about the faith it would take day after day, year after year, to build an ark that you are not 100% certain you will even need. Can you picture Noah? His hands are caked with dirt, sandals full of mud. He smells like gopher wood. He's walking with a limp from an injury that happened the previous week as he's hauling timber. He's wiping the sweat from his face when he hears one of the villagers call out, hey Noah, you still building that ark? You're crazy. And maybe he thinks to himself, am I crazy? This would be so challenging. That's why in the book of Hebrews, it says, by faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. Now, I am really grateful that today we are not asked to build arks. I can't even build a swing set for my kids. So this would take a huge amount of faith. Think about this verse, by faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. And this is not just ancient history. Jesus Christ himself brought Noah's ark into our day. He said, speaking about the time leading up to the second coming, just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the son of man. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. In other words, up until the flood came, it was just business as usual. People were eating, drinking, scrolling on their screens, doing whatever they do. And then many were caught off guard when the floods came. Christ says the second coming will be like that. Regular life is just going to keep moving forward. People will keep having wedding receptions. But one day, a lot of people will be caught by surprise. Others, however, will have been listening to the prophets. They will have been warned of things not yet seen. Like Noah, we've received those warnings. We have prophetic guidance on how, metaphorically speaking, we can build an ark to protect ourselves and our families like Noah did. I think about something as simple as daily scripture study. Picture a mother who leads a short devotional each morning with her family. It's nothing dramatic, a few verses of scripture, a prayer, maybe, maybe, if we're lucky, one verse of a hymn. It's not easy. Kids are complaining, the toddler's crying. This picture makes it look like it's always happy. It might not be that way at your house. But can you see this woman through her diligence is putting a nail into the ark for her family every morning, one step at a time. And I realize as we talk about this, it could be frustrating for some people who are doing the very best they can, but they say, I'm not building an ark. I just got a leaky rowboat. I'm doing the best I can. That's all I got. But here's the good news. In one sense, we like Noah are doing the best we can to build an ark to help our family. But ultimately, it's not about the ark we build because the true ark was built from before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ is the true ark. Have you ever noticed all of the scriptural connections between Jesus Christ and the Ark. For example we read that there was the door of the Ark It singular not the doors just one door And that of course reminds us of Jesus Christ who said I am the door By me if anyone enter in they shall be saved Ultimately, you've either entered the door and you're in on the ark, or you don't enter the door and you perish in the flood. The ark is the only means of survival, just as Jesus is. Now, there's another connection to Christ. This one is really powerful, but it's easy to miss. It's in verse 14. The Lord says, make thee an ark and pitch it within and without with pitch. This could be a little confusing. I'll be honest, when I first read this verse, I was like, I have no idea what this is talking about. And I just kept on reading. But sometimes it's helpful to look at another version of the Bible. So I got a different translation and it made it clear. Make yourself an ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. So that was a little easier to understand. Noah's supposed to take this pitch, which I inferred was some type of tar, and completely cover the ark with it so that it would be waterproof. And I was just about satisfied with this, but then I thought, I wonder if I looked at the Hebrew words behind the English, if there could be more meaning to uncover. But there's a problem. I don't speak Hebrew. I don't read Hebrew. I can't even read cursive. But fortunately, there are online tools that can help us. And if you're not already familiar with it, I definitely encourage you to check out the Blue Letter Bible. It shows you what the word that's been translated to in English meant in its original language. And you can easily access it for free either with the Blue Letter Bible app or at blueletterbible.org. So I looked up this tricky verse about pitch and the Blue Letter Bible did not let me down. I'm going to walk you through how to use it. And I would really encourage you to follow along, try to figure out how to use this in your own study. So as you can see on the screen, we're clicking through the Blue Letter Bible, we get to Genesis chapter six, verse 14. Then if you click on that, you can click on interlinear concordance. And then as you start scrolling down, you're reading the verse in the English column, and you can find the key phrase that you're interested in, in this case, and shalt pitch. and you click on that. I see that phrase comes from the Hebrew word, kaffar, which means to cover, purge, make an atonement. Genesis 6 is the only time that this Greek word is translated as pitch. But if you scroll down the screen, you'll be able to see all these other times where it's translated, the same Hebrew word, is translated as to make an atonement for. Now we could do the same thing. the word pitch appeared twice in Genesis chapter six, verse 14. So we could back out, go to the same verse, scroll down to that last phrase with pitch. I click on it here. I see that it's a related word, kofir, and a definition listed is price of a life, ransom, bribe. So in the context of Genesis six, it is referring to a type of tar, but in the broader context of the Bible, it's frequently translated as a ransom. And that took me to a statement from Paul who said, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. So now let's take these Hebrew definitions. We'll plug them back into the original verse. Make thee an ark and kafar it within and without with kofar. Remember, kafar is most frequently translated as atonement and kofir is most frequently translated as ransom. So if we take these words and put them back in to verse 14, make yourself an ark and make atonement inside and out with ransom. So the ark is completely covered with this pitch inside and outside of ourselves. We need to be completely covered with Christ's atonement. We're safe in the ark, not because we are strong, but because Christ is, and he became a ransom for us. And when we're covered in his true ark, then we're carried safe through the storms. So remember, you don't need to build the ark. Jesus is the ark. You just need to get in. Now, I want us to pause and think about this. Christ is the true ark. So in practical terms, what might it mean in our lives to get in rather than trying to build your own boat? My mind instantly went to the garment of the holy priesthood. It covers me and protects me in many ways. And then inside it's reminding me that Christ is in me. And last night when I was saying my prayers, I thanked Heavenly Father that I was making progress in having the temple in me. Thank you. I love that this arc that is talking about references both inside and outside. It's like you'd think that the pitch on the outside might be adequate, but the Lord knew better. It had to be not just on the outside, but also on the inside. It had to be in both places. So I love her comment about you can go to the temple and look at the outside and admire its beauty, but you have to get inside. But even that's not quite enough. You have to let it get inside of you. Thank you. So we've seen that there's just one door and the Savior is covering us inside and out with pitch. And there are other connections between the ark and Christ. For example, did you ever think about how did the door of the ark, the one door, get closed? Does Noah have like a little deadbolt? No, we actually read that the Lord himself shut him inside. So think about that, God sealing Noah in the ark. There's other connections as well. As far as we know, the ark doesn't have any rudder. There's no steering wheel. I already told you that I love GPS. I really like it when God gives clear directions, turn right, turn left, go straight. That's not how it was for Noah. He had to completely trust in the Lord. Sometimes we hear the phrase, Jesus, take the wheel. And I love that phrase, but we can also remember Jesus is the wheel. He was the one steering the ark. Now think about one more parable. When the ark came to rest, Noah stepped out into a cleansed earth. And this points out to the cleansing we receive in baptism. Peter writes, in the ark, only a few people, eight in all were saved through water. And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So just as the earth receives a fresh start with the flood, so do we with baptism. Paul wrote, Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. So the flood points to this moment where we become new creations in Christ. And that takes us to the covenant and the token that God makes with the flood. So after the flood, there's a covenant God makes with Noah that he'll never flood the earth again. And to drive the point home, God puts a rainbow in the sky. You're probably like me. You love looking for rainbows. I don't know when you see a rainbow, if you think about a pot of gold, you look for leprechauns or maybe just take out a camera to snap a picture. But I hope that the next time you or I see a rainbow, we remember these words from the Lord. He says, I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. When I've read this verse before, I've always assumed that by bow, that was just short for rainbow. And it It definitely means rainbow in the context of this verse. But if we went back to our friend, the Blue Letter Bible, we'd see that the Hebrew word that's translated here as bow often is translated as bow in the sense of a weapon, like a bow, an arrow. Now think about that. If you think of the rainbow as a bow, a literal bow, note that it's not pointed towards us. It's pointed away from us. So maybe the rainbow itself is symbolic of the fact that Christ took our punishment for us. The arrow isn't pointed at us, it was pointed to him. As Isaiah said, he was pierced for our transgressions. Now, in the King James Version, this rainbow is called a token. Other translations refer to it as a sign. These words token and sign have special significance for us as Latter-day Saints because they're connected to temple ceremonies. As the prophet Brigham Young taught, your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being able to give them the key words, the signs and tokens pertaining to the holy priesthood and gain your eternal exaltation. So as we're trying So if you're trying to unpack a verse like this, I think another helpful study tool is the 1828 dictionary, which you can easily just Google. You could Google 1828 dictionary token, because a lot of us might wonder, what does the word token even mean? Like when I was a kid, I meant like the things you put in a Chuck E Cheese right So in the context of Brigham Young quote what is a token So if we go to the 1828 dictionary we see that it a sign something intended to represent or indicate another thing or an event. It's interesting that the dictionary at this time uses this episode of the token of a rainbow to define the word. And by the way, some of you might be like, this is so tedious, Brother Hilton. Why are you talking about the blue letter Bible in the 1828 dictionary? it's because I hope that these are really tools that you are using in your own personal study. I don't want this class to just be like, oh, let me just share a couple of cool insights with you. I hope that when you're studying, you find a verse and you're like, this verse makes no sense. And you use these tools to dig out and unpack things. As I started to read this definition and think about what a token meant, I was reminded of Chief Captain Moroni and the title of Liberty. Do you remember when the people came running together, rending their garments in token or as a covenant? that they would not forsake the Lord their God. In this case, the torn clothing was a symbolic representation of the covenant they were making. Just like the rainbow is a token of the covenant God made with us. Tokens are reminders of our promises. And I think it's interesting that in the case of the rainbow, it's a reminder not just to us, but to God. He said, whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and you. In other words, a rainbow is God's way of saying, I remember you. Now, of course, God does not need a rainbow to remind him, but it is very helpful for us to have reminders of the covenants that we've made. God's pattern has always included tokens and signs to help us remember our covenants. Now, our last topic today is seeing how Jesus Christ is central in the name. So thus far, we've seen an ark, a covenant, and a token, all of which point us to Christ. But before we talk about Christ and the name, I want to take three side quests, just little adventures along the way. First, if you step back and look at the flood narrative as a whole, we see that not only is it a miraculous account, it's a literary masterpiece. piece. It's a chiasmus. And many of you have probably heard of chiasmus. It's a form of Hebrew poetry. It looks something like this. You've got A, B, C, D, and then there's a central main point, and then it backs out in reverse order, D, C, B, A. This flood narrative is structured as a chiasmus. It's beautiful. Remember, this is a form of Hebrew poetry. It begins and ends with Noah and his sons being named. Then there's a covenant that God makes with Noah, paralleled by a covenant God makes with all flesh. Then the waters of the earth rise and recede with symmetry. And the most important part, as you know, with the chiasmus is what's in the middle. The central message is God remembered Noah. That's the whole story. Now for Latter-day Saints, we're especially interested in chiasmus because there are chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. And you might think to yourself, how is it possible that Joseph Smith, who doesn't know anything about chiasmus, could put this form of Hebrew poetry into the Book of Mormon? The simple answer is he couldn't have. But if you look at a chapter like Alma 36, the chiasmus structure here is so intricate. I'm pretty sure that if Joseph Smith did put it in the Book of Mormon, he would have told people about it. Like in 1836, there would have been a sermon and it came to pass. Joseph Smith said, did you guys ever notice that awesome chiasmus in Alma 36? That's amazing. I honestly don't think Joseph Smith knew about the chiasmus in Alma chapter 36. It wasn't discovered for more than a century after his death. Now, please don't get me wrong. I would not base my testimony of the Book of Mormon on the presence of chiasmus. But it's one of those little pieces of evidence that testifies that Joseph Smith did not make a visit. He could not have known Hebrew poetry, but Alma could have. Now, I know you might be thinking to yourself, wow, Brother Helen, this is awesome. I wish I could read a lot more about chasmas. Wish granted. So I've linked to this and other articles on the Course website. But the most important thing to remember is the central part of the chasmas in Alma 36 is the atoning power of Jesus Christ covers us. and the center of the chasmus of the flood is God remembers you. And I testify, just as God remembered Noah, he remembers you. Okay, so that's one side quest. The second side quest is a little more difficult. It's this crazy story in Genesis chapter 9. When you read it, you probably thought, what is going on here? Noah gets drunk and he's naked. Then his son Ham discovers him in the tent, tells his brothers, and his brothers walk backwards so they don't see their father naked, cover their father. And when Noah wakes up and realizes what has happened, he's really angry, and he curses not Ham, but Ham's son Canaan. He says, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brethren. Now, we might read this story and think to ourselves, what is going on? That is a great question, and I do not know the answer. We've got to remember, this story is thousands of years old. There are obviously lots of details we're missing. For centuries, Bible commentators have wrestled with the story. They've offered up different possibilities. But historically speaking, there's one interpretation that is really disturbing. And that is that historically, this passage has been used to justify the enslavement of black people. I love what Martin Luther King said. To use the Bible to argue for slavery and racial discrimination is blasphemy. This is against everything that the Christian religion stands for. He's totally right. I can't explain what happened in Genesis chapter 9. Commentators have come up with dozens of theories and they don't know for sure. What I do know for sure is that these words from President Russell M. Nelson are true. He said we abhor the reality that some would deny others respect and the most basic freedoms because of the color of his or her skin. The creator of us all calls on each of us to abandon attitudes of prejudice against any group of God's children. Any of us who has prejudice toward another race needs to repent. Now, I know we still need to get to the name in Genesis chapter 11, but we still have one more side quest because in between Genesis 9 and Genesis 11 is Genesis 10. That was an easy one. Genesis 10 is one of those chapters where you might not even have to fake a yawn. A genuine yawn might come. It's called the table of nations. It's one of those so-and-so begets so-and-so and half the names sound like they belong in a Marvel movie. And you might just read through the list and think, why is this in the Bible? But hidden within this table of nations is something really cool. If you count the number of nations listed in Genesis chapter 10, there are 70. It's a symbolic number that represents the entire known world. Think about Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 10. He sends out 70 disciples, two by two, into every city. This isn't a coincidence. It's an echo of Genesis chapter 10 representing the 70 nations as Christ sends his message into the entire world. And of course, think about today. We have modern quorums of the 70. The 70 today, like the 70 of old, are pointing us to the symbolic gathering of the 70 nations. The message is really clear. God's story has always been global. He's taking the message and he asks us to help take the message to the entire world. Okay, let's go to the story of the Tower of Babel where we'll see the centrality of Christ in the name. You're familiar with the general storyline. The people said, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Notice that they weren't building a temple to worship God. They were building a platform for self-promotion. They wanted to make a name for themselves. It's the oldest thirst in the world. Notice me, validate me, remember me. I love this insight from a pastor named Timothy Keller. He said, what does it mean to make a name for yourself? It means I want to know I'm valuable. I want to know I'm somebody special. We have to find people who we impress. We have to prove ourselves. Now, just to be clear, it is really important to use our talents, to build up the kingdom. God wants us to be competent, but not for the purposes of making a name for ourselves. I don't know if any of you remember the movie Rocky. It's about 50 years old. In the movie Rocky, Rocky really doesn't want to be a bum. That's his whole thing. He's like, I don't want to be a bum. He's about to be in the fight of his life through a strange series of coincidences. He's going to box the heavyweight champion of the world. And as Rocky is talking to Adrian the night before, he says, I don't want to win. I just don't want to get knocked out. I want to go the distance because no one's ever done that before. Rocky says, if that bell rings and I still standing I going to know for the first time in my life that I weren just another bum from the neighborhood Now in the movie it a beautiful scene but in real life it tragic Can you see how Rocky all of his hopes and dreams who he is, is wrapped up in some external form of validation? I doubt that any of us are gonna be stepping into the boxing ring anytime soon, but do we ever say something like, if I get that job, my life will come together. If I look a certain way, I'll feel more confident. If I get enough followers, I'll finally feel seen. If my children make good choices, I'll know my life had meaning. I'll finally have a name. The truth is we were never meant to make a name for ourselves. We're meant to receive the name of Jesus Christ. Do you remember what King Benjamin taught? Because of the covenant which he had made, you shall be called the children of Christ. Therefore, I would that you should take upon you the name of Christ." We don't have to go make a name for ourselves because Christ has already given us His name. Can you see how freeing that is? I don't have to compare myself to anybody else. You don't have to look at the niceness of your kitchen and compare it to someone else's kitchen. It doesn't matter how many people commented on your last post. I don't need to make a name for myself. I simply take his name on me. So think about your life. In your life, how has taking on Christ's name helped free you from the need to prove yourself? When I take upon Christ's name in my life, it gives me a framework of how to act and how to believe and what to do. Thank you. So we moved to Utah about three years ago. We were meant to be here for six months and we moved, sold our home in Virginia, moved here and we're going to be here in my mother-in-law's basement. And so all of our earthly possessions are in storage and, but we came here because our kids are out here in school and we wanted to support. We have younger one that wouldn't know his older siblings if we weren't here. And things have not worked out as we anticipated they would, but we find that we are super happy. We are able to be in the temple more frequently. We are involved in our ward and just, just, we find that taking upon us and really focusing on Christ, despite what the world thinks we should be doing with our lives right now, We find that we have a lot of joy because of the right things because of Christ. How is it that you're able to do that when you could look at your external circumstance and say, wow, I'm not making a name for myself. Things could be going so much better. How are you able to shift to feeling that joy? We have turned our focus more to the temple, more to better family scripture study with our young one, more focus on talking about it with other people, sharing the gospel. And just, I think, having more gratitude and being able to recognize the eternal blessings, thinking celestial and being focused more on those eternal blessings than worldly blessings right now. I think it's just helped us to realize that that's what really matters, that this worldly stuff, you know, it just isn't that important. Thank you. The thing that came to mind for me was the yoke. And the yoke is designed to take two animals to work together. And Christ invites us to be yoked with Him. So if you're yoked with Him, you don't need any more name than that. That's the all-powerful partner. Amen. Thank you. This makes me think about the scripture in the Book of Mormon that talks about being perfected in Christ. and how we are asked to be perfected. Like the goal is perfection. But this helps me understand that passage a little bit better about as I take His name upon me, then He makes up and allows me to become more whole despite my weaknesses or insecurities. And I don't have to worry so much about whether my strengths are going to get me where I need to go because it really doesn't matter. What matters is that I choose Him and allow him to strengthen me so that I can move forward in a way that will allow him to make a difference in other people's lives, not only my own. Okay, so I love that. And we're here in this class. It sounds perfect. Like, oh, great. I'm just going to do that. But how do you do it? Like in real life, when there's a real worry, there's a tension, how are you able to free yourself of that by connecting yourself to the Savior in his name? So I can't think of something personal to myself, but I have a grandmother who is 95 this month, actually. During her life, she was called many times to serve in great leadership positions, specifically in Relief Society, both at the ward and stake level. And I remember her sharing with me how she just didn't think that someone like her could do anything wonderful or make such a difference. And yet she would get called again and again to serve. And as she leaned on Jesus Christ and she allowed him to strengthen her, she was able to make such a big difference. And she made connections with people that she didn't think she'd be able to make connections with. But I think it gave her confidence, which is similar to what I think President Nelson's asked us to do, find confidence before the Lord. And I think that her taking upon herself the name of Jesus Christ in her callings, she was able to have confidence to go about and serve others and help them to find confidence and to find the Savior and allow them to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ and thus move forward and find confidence and kind of create that ripple effect. I love it. Thank you. I appreciate all of these heartfelt experiences and thoughts. Thank you. Now, if we go back to the Tower of Babel, the people want to make a name for themselves. What happens next? 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 had 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. Now, don't take this the wrong way. It's not like God is intimidated by the people's architectural prowess. He's not worried that they're going to actually climb to heaven. He's just sorrowful that they are so prideful. So he confounds their languages and the tower is left unfinished. Think of the irony. The very thing they built to make a name for themselves became a symbol of confusion. And isn't it that way in our own lives sometimes? the very thing that we're doing to try to project this image to validate ourselves becomes the source of actual pain and confusion. There's got to be a better way. And there is. Timothy Keller points out that there's a contrast between the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. So as you probably remember, 50 days after Christ's crucifixion, Jews from all over the world came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost. The disciples were all gathered together in a home when a mighty wind came in, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. Can you see the connection? People from all over the world, speaking many different languages, are all able to now understand the disciples testifying of Jesus Christ. Can you see the contrast? The people of Babel were scattered, but at Pentecost, they were gathered. At Babel, people went from one language to many, but at Pentecost, they went from many to one. The Tower of Babel was designed for men to build a name for themselves, where at Pentecost, the name of Jesus Christ was praised. So Jesus Christ reverses the Tower of Babel. The people of Babel tried to climb their way up to heaven, but Jesus came down to bring heaven to us. At Babel, they tried to make a name. Through Christ's atonement, he gave us his. So friends, instead of asking, how can I make a name for myself? We can ask, how can I rest in the name he's already given me? That's a question worth deeply pondering. Now, as we've spent our time together today, we're going to head outside. And no matter what the weather looks like outside, we know that there are spiritual storm clouds gathering. And we're all in different places. Maybe some of us are safe and secure in the ark. Maybe some of us are standing outside and starting to rain. Maybe some of us are driving straight into the ocean. Hopefully not. But wherever you are, I testify that the door to the ark is still open. There are tokens and covenants and names to receive. Remember, you don't have to build the ark. You just have to get in.