Genesis: Blessed From the Beginning | Trading God for Technology

In John 15, Jesus outlines his vision for who we would become: Healthy vines, bearing much fruit and thriving. But he points out that this is only possible if we’re abiding in him. To abide means to be connected to him, in his presence. So far in Genesis we’ve been studying how, to put it in the language of Genesis 11, people are moving further and further away from God by moving further and further east from Eden. In this final story we’re studying in Genesis before taking a break we see a group of people engage in a great project, a tower, for their own fame, living apart from God and his purposes for humanity. This was possible only because of a technological innovation, we learn. Thus, the story invites us to ask a similar question: How are we using technology to live distanced from God, and not abiding in Jesus? In this message, Pastor Joel unpacks how our phones can help us to live as if we need nothing else, and how they can sometimes create a shallow faith when we try to use them as our primary portals for abiding in Jesus.