Autumn Seacat: Up or Out

image_pdfimage_print

Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact [email protected].

Autumn Seacat: Up or Out (Genesis 11:1-9, 12:1-4a; Acts 2:14-21)

Autumn Seacat, associate college minister at Highland Baptist Church in Waco and student at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, asks if Christians are building towers or blessing nations. “How do we live a life that matters?” she asked. People have a choice of paths; the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) illustrates a wrong path.

Seacat outlines the failures of those who built the Tower of Babel—self-reliance, self-security and self-importance—and how those failures are echoed today. God’s call of Abram (Genesis 12) depicts the path of promise and blessing for oneself and the world. The key differences between the two paths are obedience and being filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). She includes practical counsel for walking the path of obedience.

This sermon was delivered on Mar. 23, 2021, for College Night at Highland Baptist Church in Waco. The sermon is designed for conversation, stopping at points to allow listeners to discuss questions at their tables.

A sermon script is available here.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard