Touré Roberts - Mindfulness, Minding What Matters

While you’re standing, Genesis chapter 11, beginning at verse 1: Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. It came to pass that as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. All of the earth, all of humanity, were one language and one speech, and it came to pass that as they moved together as a unit, they journeyed from the east, found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there. Then they said to one another, «Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.» They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. They said, «Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.» But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. He came down; He wasn’t mad at their unity. He wasn’t upset that they were one. He wasn’t angry that in their sense of unity, they had faith to believe they could build anything. He wasn’t mad at that; in fact, I believe that part of what they were doing pleased Him. To be honest with you, your oneness is what Jesus prayed for; He prayed that we’d be one. You got that right—you are one. But when He comes down to see what they are building, He feels frustrated because He realizes they’re not building for Him; they’re building for themselves, for their own glory. The Lord said, «Indeed, the people are one—that’s good—and they all have one language—that’s good too. And this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.» In other words, there is power in unity; it’s powerful to be on the same page, but not all power. He says, «Come, let us go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.» God shut it down, shut it down, shut it down, shut it down. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, literally confusion, because the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 4: And being assembled together with them, Jesus commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, «You have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized fully—submerged, fully immersed—baptized, not a little bit of this, not a sprinkle of that, not a hit-or-miss of this. You are going to be absolutely and unequivocally immersed and submerged.» That’s what that word means in Greek: you are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, «Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?» They asked this question because Jesus spoke powerfully and uniquely about this experience they were about to have, leaving them to wonder within themselves and voice the question: If this is when the fullness of everything God promised His people will come. In other words, they could tell by the way He spoke about this baptism, that whatever this was—because they had never experienced it before—was so powerful, so meaningful, and so revolutionary. «Is this going to be the day the world ends and we are restored to everything?» Jesus said to them, «It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has placed in His own authority. But I will tell you this: you shall receive—are you listening? —but you shall receive power.» The reason why I’m taken by this is because it’s one thing for a man to call you powerful, because we throw that term around carelessly; it’s another thing for Jesus—who just experienced the power of resurrection that rebukes death—to say, «Something significant is about to happen to you, and you are going to be powerful like you have never been before. Something is getting ready to come over you that is so awesome and so wonderful that the very gates of hell itself will not be able to prevail against you.» This wasn’t your friend calling you powerful; this wasn’t someone commenting on how powerful you prayed the other day or preached the other day. This is something different. He says, «You shall receive real power—from the Spirit of God. You’re going to receive something real, not something cute. I’m not talking about church power; I’m not talking about religious power. You’re going to receive real power—power that changes your life, power that makes you never be the same again, power that gives you authority.» Watch this: «Power that, when you have it, makes it impossible for you to fear at the same time.» Are you tracking with me? You cannot be filled with this power and feel anxious at the same time.