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I’m going to invite you to this morning to Revelation chapter 18 is where we are. Revelation chapter 18. And as we come to this section of Revelation, I told you last week, this this section of Revelation we’ve been at together, really starting in chapter 12, chapter 13. It gets pretty intense as it relates to the the judgment of God and the wrath of God. And here we’re we’re looking at this, this judgment of God, culminating here finally, to get to the place where God is going to talk about a new beginning, a new kingdom that he wants to introduce us to at the end of Revelation, as we look at his judgment, that’s what it’s driving to, is the reconciliation of all the brokenness in this world, to ultimately walk with Jesus in His kingdom. And so beautiful ending to the book of Revelation. But as we’re coming to the chapter 18, we’re at that point where God’s judgment, his final judgment, is being made known and as God’s bringing his judgment. He gives this final invitation for us to to think about what kingdom our heart belongs to. And as we’ve read the Book of Revelation together, we’ve recognized there’s really only two kingdoms. There’s the kingdom of Babylon, and there’s the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of Babylon has many temptations and idols. But really, the God of Babylon is self. It’s using the things of this world, the idols of this world, to honor and glorify ourselves.
And the problem with that is you didn’t make self right. That the purpose of your existence is not found within you, but beyond you. It’s only truly discovered in the one who created you, which is God. So anytime we live for something contrary to that, a kingdom that’s contrary to God’s kingdom, we’re living for a fallen, broken kingdom. And the end of that is, is that we we never discover our purpose. We never discover a true relationship with God. And ultimately it ends up in our lives being bankrupt because the things of this world will pass away. And so the invitation of Revelation, chapter 18 is especially important for us. And, you know, there comes times in our lives where our our spiritual eyes will be opened. And as we begin to look around, we think. We think to ourselves, you know, I’m not where I want to be. And we long for something more, something we know our soul is missing. And in Revelation 18 is reminding us of that, that God has called you to more in him. And it’s inviting us to go on that journey with the Lord, to discover that in him, in the way that John does it in Revelation 18 is is interesting from what we’ve seen in the rest of this book, this is almost like John sort of lays aside for a moment as he talks to us in this chapter, the idea of what apocalyptic literature is, and he speaks more plainly to us as if to say, I really don’t want you to miss the beauty of what it is to follow after Jesus.
And so Revelation chapter 18, that’s what we’re going to talk about, is, is making a spiritual move in the Lord. How do we do that? What does that look like for us? Let me give you a point, number one, as we get ready to to look at this passage of Scripture, point number one is this understand our predicament, understand our predicament, especially without Christ. If we if we live a life without Christ, you’re never going to move for a healthier change until you recognize the problem of where we are. And so under under understanding, our predicament becomes vital to taking healthy spiritual steps. And the way that John does this in this story is he he really paints a picture of a city, right? In fact, Revelation is about two cities. It’s the city of God or the city of man. And the city of man is seen through the image of Babylon. And we’ve talked about Babylon together, but I want to get a little more intimate with the where the origins of Babylon come from. The the idea of Babylon was really developed beyond just the, the, the people of Babylon. It was it was really developed in the idea of a city. So there was a civilization known as the the Babylonians or Babylon.
But the birth of what Babylon was really began with the concept of Babel itself. Babel became this, this representation symbolically of all that Babylon would represent, and how the. The gospel story continues to contrast Babylon from the kingdom of God. What do I mean by that? Is, you know, Israel at one point was taken into captivity by the Babylonians, right? And the idea of the Babylonians became this picture of every kingdom that walks contrary to the Lord, even in times of the New Testament, when the writers of the New Testament are writing about Rome and the brokenness of Rome, they wouldn’t directly say Rome. And here’s what’s wrong with Rome, but they would refer to Rome as Babylon, because Babylon became this image of everything that opposed who God was and what his kingdom was about. So like when when Peter is writing his epistles, he refers to Rome as Babylon. And his reasoning for doing that is, if you wrote directly against the empire that you were a part of, it could lead to your demise, your persecution, and ultimately your martyrdom. But when you read the letters of Peter, you recognize Peter’s acknowledging the time and place in which people live. And so we could refer to our civilizations today in a way, as Babylon. But the idea of Babylon for us came from this, this, this symbol of, of the city of Babel, beginning in, in Genesis chapter 11, verse four, it said this.
Then they said, talking about the the dwellers and and Babel, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The idea of Babel and making a name for ourselves is is recognizing that the God of Babel is is really self. The God of Babylon is self, and we may have gods that we bow down to or worship. But under this type of religious thinking, the reason these false gods are worshiped worship is not because they truly see the value of those gods. What they truly see is the value of themselves, and they use God in order to honor themselves. It’s kind of like this. If we’re not careful with our relationship with the Lord, we can treat it in an unhealthy way. And what I mean by that is we’ll set up our own kingdom, our own desires, our own wants, and then we’ll go talk to God. But we don’t talk to God in order to align our lives with God. Rather, we invite God to honor the kingdom that we set up. Meaning we’ll say to God, God, I want this. And therefore here’s how you can help me achieve my dreams, because, well, what I matter is what is ultimate. And in so doing, what we’re truly worshiping isn’t the Lord because our lives aren’t really surrendered to him, saying, God, guide me, God for your glory, God your kingdom.
But rather we’re trying to invite God to live for our kingdom and all of the idolatry of Babylon. This is what it represents, the ultimate serving of self, because self is the God of Babylon, and in Genesis chapter 11 and verse four, in the city of Babel, that’s that’s what we discover. Now, a city in and of itself isn’t inherently good or bad. I think it’s important for us to recognize just because we’re talking about a city of Babel doesn’t mean every city is bad forever. Because when you read Revelation chapter 21, verse two, you discover what God ultimately wants to build. He describes as a city. In fact, he says, I like this. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I cannot wait till we get to Revelation chapter 21, because I’ve heard people teach on this before. And in teaching on this, people say so many crazy things about what Revelation chapter 21 is. Nobody here that I’ve ever heard say crazy things. Okay, so you guys, as far as I know, are perfect. Okay. But but I’ve heard I’ve heard some people teach on Revelation 21 where I’m like, they’re just they’re way off in loony land here, But, but, but I want you to know what God desires to build within us is is represented as a city.
So the city itself isn’t good or bad. But, but, but what is significant to acknowledge is the importance of a city, because the city is a place of influence. In fact, when you read the New Testament and you you read the book of acts and you discover how the Spirit of God works in the people of God to accomplish the will of God, what you discover is God’s people went out into this world to proclaim the gospel where they went, where the major metropolitan areas they went to, the the urbanized places they went to the cities because they knew as the city went, so went the rest of the country. And if they could reach the city so that they could also reach the countryside. In fact, as you read through the book of acts, you’ll see this peppered, for example, in acts chapter 16, verse 12, it says, and from there the disciples went to Philippi, which is a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. So they had this idea of let’s reach Macedonia. How are we going to reach Macedonia? Let’s start in the city. Let’s go to Philippi or in acts chapter 19, verse 11. Paul and his friends continued ministering in Ephesus for two years, so that as the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jew and Greek.
Now, at this point, Asia was not an entire continent. It was a region. But they’re saying as they ministered in Ephesus, so went the countryside. They had this influence on, on everyone around them. So the city certainly has a place. In fact, if you want to know the the big secret to how we began ABC and why we picked Lehi as its place, I visited Utah in 2003 and I moved back here in 2005. So I’ve been here for 20 years. And when I, when I, when I moved here, I, when I first visited and moved here, I did demographic studies throughout the state and I visited several cities just getting to know different. Towns. Places. Looking for a place to to start a church. To see God’s people continue to move forward in the mission God’s called us to. And here’s the here’s the way that we decided on this town is we wanted to find the highest concentration with the least biblical Christian presence, the least gospel centric, biblically rooted presence in our state. And lo and behold, here it is. But but can I tell you the purpose of that wasn’t to just sit here, it was to influence around us for the sake of Christ that people would have the opportunity to to flee from Babylon and and walk in a new kingdom and the new city that God wants to build in our lives. And so our heart here, we say, as a church is is not to be this insular existence, but rather we exist to give ourselves away for the glory of God to the benefit of others.
Even this, this Friday we’re going to have a a gathering of church planters throughout the state of Utah, where we’re going to be encouraging families that are planting churches like this throughout our state for the purpose of of seeing people come to know Jesus and continue to see life transformed around us. It’s about using our influence for God’s glory so that the city becomes an important part of that. You know, I, I love being here. I plan to be here for as long as you guys have me. When I moved to Utah, I said I moved with my casket in hand. I’ve got no I’ve got no plan to leave. Lord willing, I’ll be here forever. Right. And if you don’t like me, you’re going to have to go somewhere else. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding, but I plan. I want to be here forever. But can I tell you my. My bigger dream is is more than ABC. I want to see a healthy church in every community in our state. I want to see God continuing to work in the lives of people everywhere. Right. And so it constantly has this idea of looking beyond us. Right. And the idea of city. This is what it represents. When I belong to this city, this kingdom, this is this is what my life is.
If I if I walk in alignment with with Jesus. So the city, it’s not good or bad, but rather the city really mirrors the heart of the people that belong to it. And so if it’s seen as a bad city, it’s a city whose heart is not given over to to the Lord. And when you read Revelation chapter 18 and it talks about Babylon here, the image of Babylon you see peppered throughout this, this chapter is if I gave you an example of verse, verse five, it says, And God has remembered their iniquities. Or in verse seven, just like the city of Babylon in Genesis 11 and verse seven of chapter 18 of Revelation, they give this declaration that I am the Queen. So as if to say, I’m sitting on the throne of my life, and this is for my glory, and, Lord, I’m not giving this throne to you, even though you made me for your glory. So you see this, this city warring against the Lord. And so for all of us, this becomes a picture for us to stop and reflect in our life. What? What is my heart truly given over to? Am I just simply inviting God into the kingdom I’m building, or do I really live for his kingdom? Everything in the city of Babylon is opposed to God. And you see this in the first three verses.
Look after this. I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having a greater authority than the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. And the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her. And the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. See, all of the cities are saying all of the people groups of the earth have indulged itself and have quenched their appetite and the lustful temptation of what Babylon is. And therefore all the cities find themselves their identity in this. But here you see this warning so that we would be reflective in our own life to understand the predicament of self apart from God. It ends in ruin. So that point number two, we would discover a new destination. And this is the invitation in verse four and five, I want you to know I’m not going to be able to read every verse today, because we’re going to run out of time. There’s 24 verses here, but I do want you to understand how these verses break down. And so verse number 4 to 8 carries this similar idea.
Verse four is this invitation. And verse five, six, seven and eight explain to you why this invitation is given in light of of what Babylon’s going to lead to. But I’m going to read just those these two verses here, it says. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins have heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. So the invitation here is is for us to discover a new destination, really, by going on a new exodus. And the reason I say new exodus is if you remember the story of the Old Testament, the great Exodus that really helped mark God’s people as belonging to him. Israel found themselves as slaves in Egypt, and God delivered them to freedom into his promises. And so that picture of Israel stepping in freedom in the Lord really became a picture of God’s calling for all of his people. That Exodus became this mini exodus of a greater Exodus, in which God has invited all of us to participate in. And the reason, you know, this is these couple of verses are actually quoting from the Old Testament where the prophets looked back at the Exodus and continue to paint a picture of how God is leading us on a further Exodus in him. In fact, in verse four and five, this is quoting from Isaiah 48, verse 20, and Isaiah 52, verses four and 11, and Jeremiah 5051, verse six and nine, and even in the New Testament, second Corinthians, chapter six, verse 17, it’s painting this invitation for our lives of leaving Babylon, and all the temptations that we find ourselves given over to, to to find a new life in the Lord.
So maybe if we ask a reflective question, we could we could say, how do I rewire my Babylonian desires in a in a heart to pursue this new destination? I feel like my life just keeps falling into these temptations. And so how do I how do I leave behind this, this broken kingdom, for this new kingdom that God desires for me. And can I tell you, number one, I would say this. And there’s probably many things I could say here, but I’m just going to give you two thoughts. One, one is it’s important to declare not not only what you’re leaving, but where you’re going. Right. Have have the purity of that target in front of you. Because sometimes if we hear this with a religious mentality and we look at the brokenness of Babylon, what we could say to ourselves is, well, Babylon is bad. I belong to Babylon, therefore I’m bad. I don’t want to be bad. I’ll stop doing bad things right. And that’s kind of a religious mentality. I’m a bad person and I don’t want to do bad things anymore.
So I’ll stop doing bad things. And can I tell you if that becomes your pursuit, it doesn’t mean you’re ever still going to reach a good destination, because the Christian life is not about leaving bad things. Now that should be a result of the Christian life. But the goal of the Christian life is to know Jesus. And inevitably, the purity of that target will lead us to forsake the brokenness of Babylon. The desire of my heart and life is to know Jesus. That should be what we say. The the point of the Christian journey is not I quit being, you know, bad. That’s that’s not the the call of Christ at all. The call of Christ is to find new life, to take the deadness of my soul and be resurrected to this beautiful calling in Jesus as he gives me new life in him, that I may know him and enjoy him all of my days. So, so one. It becomes important for us just to declare, I’m no longer that. But this is who I am. My identity is Jesus. So we want to make this this declaration because Babylon has has many lures over us. But this invitation is to stop pursuing these false gods that serve self, but and rather follow the Lord. And the question we should maybe ask is who is on the throne of your life? Is it yourself, or have you surrendered yourself to the true King who is the Lord? Because remember, you didn’t make you.
And it’s not until you’re willing to surrender yourself that you begin to discover the reason for which you were created in him. And when you look in throughout the New Testament, it reminds us of that to make your target pure, clear. Right. Romans chapter 12, verse two. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Or Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, that we would look unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. It’s the the clarity of this identity. And then in so doing that you would grow your affections for your new destination. And the Bible tells us in, in Matthew chapter six, verse 2021 that that where your treasures are, there your heart will be also. So God deepen my affections for you. And as we look at the grace of God, the mercy of God made new for us every morning the richness of Christ. It helps our life appreciate what it means to know God and journey with him. God didn’t have to pursue us yet, and in our brokenness, he knows every fault that we have, every dumb thing we’ve ever done, and he never gave up on us. And understanding the richness of who that God is leads our heart into deeper affection with him. You know, before I moved to Utah, I have lived in a handful of different states.
Utah is the fifth state I’ve lived in, lived in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Utah, and people and people find that out sometimes. I’ll get the question asked. Out of all the states you’ve lived, which one, which one have you appreciated the most? And and I say the same thing to everybody with every state I’ve ever lived in. And this is true anywhere you ever lived, there’s always something to appreciate and something to ignore. And there’s always something to to appreciate and something to ignore. And, and when you learn to just delight in the delightful things around you, you just have a better time, right? And we can’t change everything. There’s some things you have control over, but there’s a lot of things you don’t. And so learning to appreciate the the opportunities of the things around you become important. Because on the other side of that, sometimes I have met people that have moved to Utah and they have come kicking and screaming. I don’t know if you know this or not, but there’s a lot of out of state people that have moved here, right? And traffic isn’t quite what it used to be, but a lot of sometimes I meet people every once in a while. They’re just sour grapes when it comes to their Utah experience. And, you know, it’s it’s I think I find it tragic because I love living here. I love waking up every day with purpose and life and getting an opportunity to honor the Lord.
I think Utah is a fantastic place to live. But every once in a while, there’s someone that’s just decided what they’re going to think about it before they get here, and there’s nothing you’re going to say that’s going to make it different, right? And and the same can be true with God’s kingdom, right? There’s fallen Babylon and there’s the sweetness of who Christ is. And no matter what, you’re just not going to convince someone how great Jesus is. They’ve got to discover it for themselves. Now, let me just tell you, the way that this illustration breaks down is in this world there are fallen, broken places, fallen, broken things. So when you have a problem in an area, sometimes the area is the problem. But when it comes to God’s kingdom, with God’s kingdom, it is perfect. And so if you have a problem with God’s kingdom, I can tell you it doesn’t fall on the kingdom side, but rather the battle is is within us. But but truth be told, we still war against God. Even though we know Babylon is fallen, we still crave the temptations of this world over and above the greatness of who God is. And so, learning the beauty of Christ and and to deepen our affections for Christ is significant to, to to walking in purpose, faithfully in him. In fact, there’s a famous Scottish pastor whose several centuries dead.
But he said this Thomas Chalmers, he said the only way to dispossess the heart of all an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. J.i. Packer was an American theologian who who passed away recently. He said what makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance. And this is this the Christian has in a way that no other person has for what higher, more exalted and more compelling goal can there be than to know God. You know what? A gift for our lives. The privilege it is to know our creator. And when you think about the this section of Revelation, chapter 18, I just want to recognize that when we follow God that there’s a struggle in that there is a battle within our soul to let go of the sinfulness in our heart and the temptation of Babylon to really embrace the greatness of Christ. And, you know, as a pastor, when I interact with people and I, I hear that struggle happening. You know, sometimes the struggle feels heavier than others. But can I tell you that in the midst of that struggle, there’s still a delight in my heart? And the reason for that is it’s because you’re still struggling. You know, the danger is when you stop struggling, when you stop warring, to lay aside the the idolatry of life, to embrace the the richness of Christ.
Even when you look at Revelation chapter 18, I think what’s important to remember is the battle that John is in right now. I mean, he’s the last living apostle as he’s writing this, because all of the rest of them have been martyred. He’s he’s writing this at the height of the Roman Empire, as his brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted and martyred, and he himself has been exiled to the island of Patmos as a prisoner. And he’s writing this letter, finding himself saturated in the richness of Jesus, that even when the enemy feels to be at its greatest, he knows who he is because he knows who he belongs to. Saying the same for you would be that even in the height of the battles that we face, the richness of Jesus is more than enough to carry us through. In fact, Susanna Spurgeon said this love the Lord with a passion that never cools. You want to follow Jesus in this new identity. Live with that passion in Christ. Let the richness of Jesus saturate your life so that, number three in your notes, you will leave with your heart, not just your feet. You’ll leave with your heart, not just your feet. And starting in verse nine to verse 20 and again, we’re not going to read all of these verses, but I do want to summarize it for you. And we’ll look at a few of these verses.
But in verse nine to verse 20, it shows the internal battle of some people that belong to Babylon. Verse nine and ten, it reveals to you the battle that rests in the kings of Babylon. The leaders in verse 11 to half of verse 17, it shows you the battle of the merchants in warring with Babylon, and and being brought into its temptation. And then the second half of verse 17 all the way to verse 20. It talks about the sailors. So the their battle is, is discussed here. And, and for us it becomes a reflection point in our own heart. If what you’re giving yourself over to and why you might, why you might be reluctant to really wholeheartedly dive into to the Lord. I mean, you’ve maybe met someone in your life, or maybe this has been you where you’ve talked about doing something in your life, but you you never truly stood up and took that step that you talked about accomplishing. And then if you encounter that person years after the fact where they had this dream and they never truly did it, when they go back and reflect. Oftentimes they just kind of blame other people for never doing it, or they they blame circumstances for never allowing them to do it. But but I can tell you, there is no excuse in life that should ever stop you from trusting in the greatness of who Christ is.
There is no excuse that’s even worth comparing to that. And we wrestle in our lives to to go in that direction, to to truly give everything to God. That sometimes we might take the steps, but our heart never fully belongs to him. And and you see how this plays out with with the idea of these, these individuals in in Babylon, the king, the merchants and the sailors, and they tell us in verse ten and verse 17, and they repeat it again in verse 19. They said, the hour is coming, or in that hour it can be taken away, meaning they’re recognizing they live for all of these things in this world. And all of it, in just the blink of an eye, can pass away, and it just leaves them utterly bankrupt. All that their life has been about and it’s come to nothing, and it’s to help us to stir our own soul, to think about what is it we’re we’re living for. And they they are living as these these pretend levers. They look like they’ve left Babylon because of what’s happening to Babylon, but they haven’t truly left. We call this in Christianity worldly sorrow or false repentance. And I want you to see we’ve got to be careful when we as believers, we live in this world, because sometimes we might encounter people that are sorrowful in their circumstances, but it’s not a healthy sorrow. And what I mean by that is, you know, we I think by nature we have a compassionate side to us as human beings.
And when we see someone else broken or sad, we feel towards that, right. We want to be empathetic towards that or sympathize with that. And so I’m not telling you not to be a compassionate person, but I want you to know, getting to the root of what causes sorrow is important, because sometimes our sorrow is birthed out of a hope in a false idol. And when you read in Revelation verse nine, you see this with the kings of the earth. Look, it says, and the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will, weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off and are in fear of her torment and say, alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come, and the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore. Here’s what’s interesting when you look at these, the we’re reading here about the king and the merchant. We don’t see the sailor yet. But you’re seeing this, this sorrow. And we may look at this and be like, oh, I’m sad that they’re sad, but but again, it’s it’s worldly sorrow, not godly repentance. They’re not lamenting because of all the bad things that Babylon has done to people and hurting them, even killing them.
They’re not lamenting because Babylon opposed God. They don’t lament because they’re. Well, let me say they’re lamenting because Babylon has been a tool to serve their own glory. And they realize at the demise of Babylon, they’re losing what they found, created, or gave them value and worship to themselves. In fact, they really don’t even care about Babylon. What they care about is themselves. And you’re seeing this in the way they’re describing Babylon. They know Babylon’s destruction is coming. And so they’re running away and saying, oh, man. Poor Babylon. Right. But notice they’re not running to Babylon to help Babylon because they don’t care about Babylon. They’re just standing in a distance from Babylon, describing the destruction of Babylon. But when they’re really getting to the core of why they’re upset, it tells you in verse 11, they’re upset and they’re mourning because, well, they don’t have the things that they felt like gave them importance and value anymore. The merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore. Oh, no. Look what what I lost all. Poor me! My idol! My idols are gone. That’s. That’s why they’re weeping. This is this is false repentance. This is this is worldly sorrow. This is not godly. And we have to even be careful in our own life and recognizing when broken things happen. What what truly am I repentant about? Where is my sorrow deriving from? Is it the loss of my idols? Or is it because I’ve warred against the heart of God and one of my favorite songs? Out of all the worship songs, I know, one of my my favorite lines out of any worship song comes in the song Hosanna, and it says, break my heart for what breaks yours.
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause. These individuals don’t care about Babylon. They don’t care about the Lord. What they care about is themselves. And what’s interesting here is they’ve left Babylon with their feet, but their heart still belongs to it. See? We want to see more of the opposite of that. Truly. Leave it with your heart. You can still serve the people within it as they have opportunity to know the Lord. Right. But but we want to belong to a different kingdom, and in that sense, our feet need to leave. But. But these merchants are weeping. I want you to see another verse here in second Corinthians seven. It warns us in our own hearts. It says, as it is Paul writing to the church of Corinth, I rejoice not because you were grieved. So I’m not happy you’re sad, but because you were grieved into repenting, for you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through it. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Now Paul, in this in writing to Corinth, he needed to come and say some hard things to the church because they weren’t following Jesus. And he said, you know, when I said these hard things, I was afraid it was just going to give you sorrow for the sake of sorrow. And that’s not what I wanted, but rather I wanted you to see where things were broken so that you would turn to Jesus, so that when you gave up these things, it wasn’t it wasn’t really a true loss because you gained so much more in Christ. And so that’s the difference between worldly sorrow and and godly repentance. Repentance for us isn’t the idea of paying a penance. It’s it’s the idea of my heart transformation. It’s it’s I was following a path of Babylon, but then I turned to God’s kingdom, and I’ve surrendered my throne to him. And now I’m. I’m pursuing this new journey because of of who Christ is. Leave with your heart, not just your feet. So that point number four, you would celebrate the move. You would celebrate the move. Celebration has this way of creating new patterns in our life. And repeating these celebrations help us create a legacy, a new culture, and sometimes with staff, I’ll repeat the idea that what you celebrate, you replicate. And so it’s this, this important thought that, you know, when we we celebrate what God has done in our lives so that we, we not only recognize it, but we want to keep repeating it.
Right. And and more than just with me. I want to see my my home, the people around me enjoying the things that God has done in us as a community. And so we keep putting those moments of reminder of what God has done before us. If I give you an example in Deuteronomy chapter six, it says, when your sons, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you, then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Exodus he’s saying, look, I want to show you kids as as you’re looking at this and you recognize there’s something special about this, I want to point to that. What what what helps us find identity so that we can celebrate this to, to see this in our lives. And as you look at the end of Revelation, chapter 18, the final four verses of Revelation, starting verse 20, all the way to verse 24, God says that a similar idea here he says, rejoice over her talking about Babylon. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you, saints and apostles and prophets. For God has given judgment for you against her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, so will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more.
So the idea of celebration here isn’t just simply celebrating a demise, right? Oh. Babylon’s gone. I’m celebrating over you. Your destruction. You know, it’s not. It’s not about celebrating demise, but rather what this is celebrating is ultimate victory. So what? What they’re recognizing is that now that Babylon has been defeated in their life, they rejoice over that, because the things that tore against their soul, that ripped at them as human beings has no victory over them anymore, because they belong to a different king and a different kingdom, and they are his. And so rejoicing for them is that reminder that Babylon has no authority over their life any longer, and now they belong to King Jesus. And the the journey that they’re on is a journey of victory. The image of that is seen through this picture of the millstone. The idea of this millstone is this. This millstone is a representation of Babylon. And when it’s thrown into the sea, this is an important symbol. And we’ve talked about the idea of water for, for, for the Jewish people was this place of chaos. And by throwing it into the sea, it’s this place of abyss. And it’s saying, this will never resurrect again. This will never have authority over you again. You will never belong to this again.
It will. It will never destroy you again or tear at you or tempt you. You belong to Christ. And so that celebration for us becomes this glorious reminder. But as we walk in this world, this fallen Babylonian world, we’re reminded we’re always at war because the sinfulness and the temptation of life is always around us. But the question is, where does your heart belong? Who sits on the throne of your life? When you look at ancient Rome, when the Book of Revelation was written, the people in Rome, especially the Christians in Rome, they saw more and more people coming to Jesus. And they started to see Roman civilization as the catalyst for bringing about spiritual change in the world. But there became a problem in the fifth century, the beginning of the fifth century. In 410 A.D., Rome fell to the hands of the Goths, and the ultimate demise of Rome came about 60 years later. But as the Romans began to be attacked and the Roman civilization fell, Christians were distraught because they had this idea of what they thought Rome was going to do, but now they were finding out that that wasn’t taking place. And there was this great theologian known as Augustine who wrote the book The City of God. And it was a response to this, that there are two kingdoms in this world. And yes, you want to bless the people around you and fallen Babylon.
You want to seek peace in the city you belong. You want the best for for people around you. But but you also want to be reminded that that this is not as good as it gets, that you belong to a greater city and a greater king. And that’s where your hope should rest. When Augustine came to know the Lord, he wrote a book called confessions, and in confessions he he recognized in his own life. And it relates to us as well, that we have this battle to leave Babylon and grab Ahold of the Kingdom of God. And he described it like this. He said, God is always trying to give you good, good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. Now here we are, always trying to go back to Babylon to grab Ahold of things, just like you read with the merchants. But what God calls us to do is to let go of those things, to come to him with empty hands, giving him the throne of our life, that he will fill it up with his greatness. We talk about making a spiritual move. We’ve got to understand our current predicament without God and discover that new destination. Determine that direction we want to go to leave with with your heart, not just your feet, and celebrate the move the Lord has us on.