Standing Tall In Babylon

We are here because you have brought us together.

We enjoy being in your company.

We enjoy being with each other.

I want to go back to where Don started, Abba,

that when your spirit is here,

then we can expect things from you.

And so the truth is that your spirit is here.

We don't have to manufacture anything

because you promised us that when two or more gather together in my name,

I will be with you.

And so your very presence, Jesus, is in this place.

We get to enjoy you.

We get to hear from you.

Thank you for your word, Abba,

because your word is a light, a lamp unto our path.

It is a lamp unto our path.

So thank you that you're shining light on our path today

so that we know how to move ahead.

Thank you, Abba, that your word equips us.

It empowers us.

Your word gives everything we need to live well.

Thank you that you break things off of us

that aren't from you through your word.

So we sit here.

We are here expectant.

In Jesus' name, help us, Abba.

Amen.

So the title for today's message is Standing Tall in Babylon.

Standing Tall in Babylon.

So if you want to turn your Bibles to Book of Daniel, Chapter 1,

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

we'll go through a few verses together.

Book of Daniel, Chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

You see four Hebrew boys there,

among about 15,000 others who were taken from Jerusalem.

Is there an echo?

A little bit?

Can someone address a little bit?

Thanks, James.

So four Hebrew boys were taken, right,

with about 15,000 people from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And they lived there a certain way

that changed things in Babylon.

We read about them.

Kids read about them.

There is so much that we can learn from those lives.

What I hope is that we can learn from those lives

what I hope we can do today is look at a few things

about how they lived in Babylon

that allowed them to align their lives

with where God wanted them to go,

which then affected the very place and the people,

including a king, that they lived amongst.

That's what we look at today.

Four young men.

That was it.

So a couple of things.

Daniel, Chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

Let's read a few verses.

It talks about how in the verse 1,

in the third year of the reign of Jehoi, king of Judah,

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem

and besieged it.

So it's one king coming, attacking Jerusalem,

capturing people.

And among people, he also carries vessels

from the temple of God back to Babylon.

Now, when we hear Babylon, of course,

it was an actual place with real people.

But for everything we're talking about today,

for standing tall in Babylon,

we're simply taking parallels from that story,

from what really happened,

and then drawing things into our lives

based on what happened.

Yeah, so Babylon, yes, it's a real place with real people.

It actually existed.

Of course it did.

But for us, Babylon is the very place we live in today.

Yeah?

Where did Babylon start?

Well, it goes back all the way to Genesis, chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

11, Tower of Babel.

You see men getting together and deciding

that we want to build for ourselves a city.

Note that.

We want to build for ourselves a city.

It has nothing to do with God.

We want to build a city for ourselves,

and we want to make a name for ourselves.

The first city that was built was by Cain's son,

and then you see in Genesis, chapter 11,

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

another city being talked about.

And God completely disrupts that plan.

Because what he has always wanted,

like we talked about a few weeks ago,

is he wants to dwell with man.

That's always his desire.

And here comes a group of people in Genesis, chapter 11,

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

and they say we want to build for ourselves a city.

We want to separate God from everything we are about.

And we want to make a name for ourselves.

So God disrupts that.

That was Genesis, chapter 11,

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

but then you go through the Bible,

you see that by the time Daniel and his friends

are on earth, the same principle,

the same idea happens again.

What is it?

Babylonian kingdom is a kingdom that was put together

with the intent of everything that is enmity

towards God was Babylon.

Babylon existed, was a great city.

You read through the New Testament.

It's not just referred to in the Old Testament,

even in the New Testament,

Babylon is referred to about 11 times.

In the book of Revelation, it's referred to about six times.

So you see the idea, the Babylonian construct,

the idea repeated over and over again.

But it's simply this, two things.

Man wanting to build for himself, excluding God,

and two, man wanting a name for himself outside of God.

And if you look at the place we live in today,

the world we live in today, that's exactly what it is.

So Babylon is simply a name for what is actually referred to

in the Bible in terms of what actually happened there,

which also happens today.

So in your universities, you have this,

hey Josh, good to have you back, bro.

It's the same thing, right?

In your universities, you have the same thing,

where there is a construct,

there is something that's happening around the systems,

the institutions, the setup is all designed a certain way.

It is designed to do just one thing,

keep man away from the one who created them.

It goes back to the garden,

where Eve and Adam, they decided to do something

which resulted in what happened.

And so when I say standing tall in Babylon,

this isn't just going back and looking at the book of Daniel,

this is about our lives,

how we can be living in the world we occupy today.

In a world where things are, where sin is celebrated,

where pride is applauded,

where moving away from God is considered the norm.

How can you and I live not to just live for ourselves,

but to shine a light so bright

that those around us, like Nebuchadnezzar will talk about,

will look at that and go, wow,

I didn't know that your God is true.

I didn't know that this is the real deal.

And I want this because I see something in you

that I've never tasted.

And this becomes so practical for all of us.

One of my favorite things to teach about is the kingdom.

And ultimately this is the kingdom.

Jesus talked about the kingdom after he resurrected,

kept teaching about it.

We live in a kingdom that is in war with another kingdom.

And so everything you talk about, you hear today,

take it, use it in your lives is how can I apply it

so that I can live a life that's different

from what I see all around me?

Can you read Daniel chapter four, verse 30?

Daniel chapter four, verse 30.

This is Nebuchadnezzar saying,

and he can draw parallels to the Tower of Babel,

is not this, so he's looking at the kingdom

that he has built.

And Nebuchadnezzar says, is not this the great Babylon?

I have built as the royal residence

by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty.

I wanna take a quick second there guys,

because sometimes when we read it, right,

it just seems like the king, Nebuchadnezzar,

saying something, but see what he is saying.

I have built as the royal residence.

So he is the royal one taking residence

in the city of Babylon is what he is saying,

which is completely opposite to the design of God

that he wants to dwell with us.

Because if you read through Revelation,

you see this idea about the city being clearer and clearer,

the city, the holy city of Zion,

the holy city of Jerusalem, what is it?

A place where God dwells with man.

And so it's important to note here

that Nebuchadnezzar said this,

I have built as the royal residence

by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty.

Babylon counters God and his ways.

Babylon counters God and his ways.

Babylon is programmed by the antichrist spirit.

Babylon is programmed by the antichrist spirit.

So now think about the four young men.

Daniel was probably 16, 17 years old.

He lived much longer in that city, in that place.

Think about them.

So they were taken as captives, exiles in a foreign land.

Their eyes would have seen huge structures

that they had never seen before.

Money, power, majesty,

things that they had never been exposed to.

They're seeing for the first time.

They probably heard philosophies and ways of man,

thoughts that were so different from everything

that they had known the first few years of their lives.

And keep this in mind, it's not friendly territory.

It's a territory where anything you say

can be used against you.

Anything you do can be used against you.

That is where you find these guys.

Couple more things about Babylon.

Babylon's intent is to indoctrinate Daniel.

Babylon's intent is to indoctrinate Daniel and his friends.

Anyone who comes or goes to Babylon, same thing.

How can I indoctrinate this man?

How can I assimilate this man or woman

to be part of this culture?

So it's a slow erosion sometimes.

You go, you are there, or you are born on earth,

and slowly, slowly, slowly,

the intent is to assimilate you to that culture.

The intent is to draw you away

from the original call of God over your life.

So as I was writing some parts of this,

I realized that it's amazing how easy it is to see that,

because I could easily see things in my life

where over a period of time, slow erosion happens.

I guess erosion is anyway slow,

so you don't have to say it's slow erosion.

Things get eroded.

It doesn't stand out on one day,

but you see that you're assimilating

with something that's foreign.

And the prayer is that the Spirit of God

allows us to see where that may be happening.

So that we say no to it, and we say,

aha, I am, come in, man, come on in.

So that we can say, aha, I see what's going on.

I don't want to be part of a setup like that.

I'm different.

I am from my father,

and I choose to live differently in Babylon.

So in today's world, men and systems and institutions

have been conditioned by the Spirit of Babylon.

In today's world, think about it,

men you see around you,

systems, educational system, banking system,

you name it, all those systems, institutions,

they have all been conditioned.

Every single one of them, it's programmed,

it's conditioned by the Spirit of Babylon.

And as I said, when I say the Spirit of Babylon,

it is the anti-Christ Spirit.

So we have a world around us where sin is uploaded,

pride is celebrated,

and man doesn't want anything to do with God.

But it's also important to see where it's all ending.

Revelation chapter 11, verse 15, if you can go there,

Revelation 11:15

Revelation chapter 11, verse 15,

Revelation 11:15

then the seventh angel blew his trumpet,

and there were loud voices in heaven saying,

the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom

of our Lord and of his Christ.

He shall reign forever and ever.

That's where it's ending.

And the part that we should be so excited about,

truly, truly, truly, is we get to be part of this story,

this narrative, where like these guys in Babylon,

in the world we occupy today,

in the streets that we are in,

in the schools that we go to,

workplaces where we do our jobs,

we get to bring a kingdom that is foreign to the kingdom

in which we live.

It happens through real people like us,

simple people like us.

And it's something that we have to take on

as this is what we are about.

Luke chapter four, Isaiah chapter 61,

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

for the spirit of the Lord is upon me

to bring good news to the poor,

to bind up the brokenhearted.

This is what your life and my life is about.

There is nothing else outside of this

that should cause our heart to leap.

This should be the main thing.

Everything else is secondary.

And keep this in mind,

again, we are conditioned to think a certain way.

We are programmed to think that,

no, that's not us, that we are not enough,

that we are not good enough, that it's someone else's.

But the spirit of the Lord always has a different statement,

a different proclamation over your life.

And so please work with the spirit of God today

to say, like these men, you want to stand in this land,

standing tall with resolve

so that you can infiltrate this kingdom

with the values and the nature of the king you follow.

A few things, so number one,

Babylon cultivates a one among many mindset.

Babylon cultivates a one among many mindset.

It spotlights human abilities

instead of your divine mandate.

I'll explain those two things.

Babylon cultivates a one among many mindset.

Two, it spotlights human abilities

instead of your divine mandate.

Why do I say that?

Let's read this together.

Chapter one, verse three.

Then the king commanded, as Phaenus,

the chief eunuch to bring some of the people of Israel,

both of the royal family and of the nobility,

youths without blemish.

So here it goes, verse four.

Who did the king ask to be brought?

Youths without blemish, number one,

of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom.

Number two, endowed with knowledge.

Number three, understanding, learning.

Number four, in fight,

and competent to stand in the king's palace

and to teach them the literature

and language of the Chaldeans.

You see what Babylon is about?

Babylon is about simply this.

Babylon has you look at yourself and go,

are you meeting it or are you not?

Babylon sets a standard.

And Babylon says, if you don't get to this,

if you can't jump as high as this, you ain't good enough.

And some people could jump as high as that.

Some people won't jump as high as that.

And Babylon then dictates what happens

to those who can jump and not jump as high.

So let me go back to what I read.

Babylon cultivates a one among many mindset

and spotlights human abilities over divine call.

The divine call of God over your life says,

I formed you, I made you, you're my son.

Even before you were formed in your mother's womb,

I knit you together, I put you together.

All the days of your life are written in my book.

That is the father's word over him.

On the other hand, there is another word

being spoken over him, which is,

you must be like this, like this, like this.

That beard isn't good.

No, I just don't have something as good as you.

That's the whole point, where it keeps telling you,

this, that, the other.

If you don't meet that target,

if you can't jump as high as that,

then you're not good enough.

It's amazing how we can do the same to our kids.

Where we can teach them,

you gotta be this way to be successful.

You've gotta do it this way to be successful.

Because the very definition of success

has now been morphed by Babylon.

The very definition of what the world says is success

has been morphed by Babylon.

Think about it, guys, this is very true.

What men are after is something

that Babylon has constructed.

Babylon wants you to look at what human abilities you have.

And the truth of the matter is,

you will always find someone better than you.

I just found him better than me.

Better beard than me, for sure.

You will always find someone better than you.

And so as long as this setup

forces you to look at yourself,

look at your human qualities, or the lack thereof,

you can't be successful, is what that kingdom says.

And secondly, it forces you to think

that you are one among many.

You wrote an exam, you're one among many.

You have to apply for a job, 300 people applied.

I'm one among many.

I need to do this, I'm one among many.

Again, that's what's being yelled at you.

You're one among many.

But God says, you are the one that I have chosen

for such a time as this, at this point in time in history,

I need you and you only to do and accomplish certain things.

Any area in your life where you think

you're one among many, that a computer program

can decide where you get in and where you does not get in.

Think about it, please.

I'm not interested to run through this,

because it's so important, right?

This is the world we live in,

and we have to know how we think.

Because the fact of the matter is there are sometimes,

there are these gray areas.

There are sometimes black and white,

and you know the black, you know the white.

But there are gray, a lot of gray areas

where you choose and you opt for the ways of Babylon,

or you are succumbed by it,

and God wants us to say no to it.

So these qualities form the basis, the ones that I read,

the basis for selection and promotion in Babylon.

So Charles Darwin did not come up with

the idea of natural selection.

Who came up with it?

It was an old Babylonian construct.

Who came up with it?

It was an old Babylonian construct.

That the weak will die,

and the strong will be successful.

God instead has supernatural selection.

Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter one, 26.

1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 26.

For consider your calling, brothers,

not many of you,

actually I'll read it.

I want you to really pay attention to that.

So once you get there, I'll read it again.

1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 26.

1 Corinthians one, verse 26.

So on one hand, everything I just said

is what Babylon speaks, but here is what the Lord says.

In this case, Paul is writing.

For consider your calling, brothers,

not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world

to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world,

even things that are not,

to bring to nothing things that are,

so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

How cool that in this kingdom,

in the kingdom of God, it's completely different,

where me being weak allows me to be strong,

where me saying I don't have the ways of this other world,

Lord, all I want is your way makes me wise.

And it isn't a thing where,

yeah, those guys are a little weird.

They don't believe in what we believe.

It's not that.

In fact, David, Daniel, and the other three guys

that we're gonna talk about,

they held on to their beliefs

that actually countered everything else

that the Babylonian construct said is true.

It challenged it.

It defeated it.

Oftentimes when Christians take a stand,

let's admit it, what does the world think?

Those guys are a little weird.

He talks funny.

So different.

I can tell you no one in Babylon said that

about Daniel and the other guys.

And Aniah, Misha, and what was the other name?

Yeah.

None of them were funny

because they believed in what they believed in.

Next one.

Babylon aims to seat you at Nebuchadnezzar's table,

lowering your threshold of godliness

and dependency on God.

Babylon aims to seat you

at Nebuchadnezzar's table,

lowering your threshold of godliness

and dependency on God.

Let's read this.

Verse five.

The king assigned them a daily portion of the food

that the king ate and of the wine that he drank.

They were to be educated for three years,

and at the end of that time,

they were to stand before the king.

So what happened here?

The king says, I'm gonna assign to you

daily portion of what you need to eat.

And that's what you need to eat.

At the end of three years, I have plans for you,

but Daniel, you've seen the verses down below,

he takes a stand.

You know this.

We all know this.

And he says, nope, I'm not gonna do this.

The question is why.

Why did Daniel say?

Because the king actually said a bunch of things, right?

You need to be trained this way.

You need to learn this language.

He didn't say no to any of that.

So it wasn't a, well, you took me here.

I am saying no, no, no, no, no.

No to everything, no.

He actually said yes to a bunch of stuff.

He said, okay, I'll be trained in this language.

I'll do that, I'll do that.

But when it comes to the daily portion of food and wine

that you're trying to give me

or that you wanna give me, no to that.

Why did he say that?

Could be two reasons.

One, it could purely be because there is,

okay, let me take that back.

On one hand, it is the Levitical law

that says you can't eat certain things.

So that's a given.

So you would expect Daniel and the guys not to eat that,

purely because of that.

But there is the other thing that can be forgotten.

It is that as soon as you're saying,

the king assigns me my daily portion,

that is them saying I am dependent on you

for the rest of my life.

That is also why Daniel said no.

So it isn't just,

it isn't just a, this meat we can't eat

because the wine he could drink.

He said no to the wine as well.

He didn't say no to just the food.

He said no to the wine as well.

Why?

It has to be something more than the Levitical law.

And I'm saying that it was a dependency

that was associated with the daily portion

of food and wine that the king was giving.

Okay, so let's proceed from there.

It is not worthy to enjoy the feast.

It's not worth it to enjoy the feast

that Nebuchadnezzar put in front of these guys.

It was not worth it for them.

Let's think through it.

On one hand, they know that God

gives them everything they need for their lives.

On one hand, they know that the God of their fathers,

this God has purpose for them.

And here comes the king who is saying,

I'm gonna issue you your daily portion.

Your ration comes from me.

If you have it, it's because I have it.

If you don't have it, it's because I don't give it to you.

And Daniel says no to it first.

You actually read, as you read through that,

the other three guys don't say no to it first.

They join Daniel in Daniel's decision for it.

And so that's the other thing to look at,

where my yes or no,

or me taking a stand for what is important,

will also empower those with me to rise up and stand up.

Sometimes we are in circles where someone has to say no,

where someone has to say yes,

where someone has to step up.

And you may think that there aren't many people like you,

but the truth is there are situations

where you have to be that one who says enough is enough.

It can't be like this.

Because there are many who are waiting

for those words to be uttered.

So you see glorious things about the other three boys

a little later, but, and in a passage in chapter three,

Daniel is not in the picture.

It's just the three boys.

But the first time it was just Daniel saying no,

and the others accompanied him.

The importance of standing up and saying things.

So what does it look like?

It could look like where at your workplace

you see something wrong, but it's widely accepted.

Can you speak up?

You may not be the most popular person,

but can you speak what you truly believe?

It could be, because the fact of the matter is

whenever we start talking along these lines,

I'm going away from my notes now, but that's okay.

Whenever we start talking along these lines,

the immediate things that come to mind is abortion.

You see why?

Because that's all you hear.

While yes, you have to take a stance against abortion,

100%, that is not all of Christianity.

There is so much more.

And so in my life and in your life,

wherever we are at, what are those things where we say,

it can't be this way, and you take a stand,

and you speak it, because once you do,

you realize that others around you

were just waiting for someone to say it,

and it blesses them.

And the agenda that God has will happen

because you said yes to what God wanted you to.

So when you think about it, the boys,

they were offered scholarships, really,

instead of slavery, and banquets,

instead of bread and water.

So it wasn't a difficult choice,

meaning it wasn't like, oh, you're forcing me to this.

They were being offered the best,

the best in the kingdom there is.

Look at those other boys, they don't get it,

but you get it.

You get it because you are of nobility.

You are from the royal lineage, and therefore you get it.

You see, it's not it.

They were being offered something

that others did not even get.

Babylon's meat and drink desensitizes my taste buds

to the flavor of God morals and principles.

Babylon's meat and drink desensitizes my taste buds

to the flavor of God morals or principles.

So I'll go back to what I read before.

Babylon aims to seat you at Nebuchadnezzar's table.

The intent is twofold.

One, to lower your threshold for godliness,

and two, your dependency on God.

I actually found this interesting

because in Matthew chapter four,

when Jesus finished the 40-day fast, what happens?

There comes the devil, and here is what the devil says.

If you are the son of God, command these stones

to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, it is written,

man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Similar, you see it?

The boys, they were told,

your daily portion comes from me.

To Jesus, after a 40-day fast,

the devil comes and says, you're bread.

It's a question of sustenance.

Babylon forces you to think

that your sustenance comes from its systems.

Babylon forces you or compels you to think

that your progress is dependent on your good job,

that your life is tied to the income you make,

that if you don't get this job, your life is outright gone,

that if you don't have those connections,

then how can you be successful?

That's what Babylon tries to do.

When you don't talk like that in that circle,

how come they'll ever invite you in?

They'll ever invite you in.

It's a question of significance

because Babylon tries to make you depend on itself

for your daily sustenance.

So if I can say, if you can say,

my bread, both physical and spiritual,

because it's easy to think that my bread

comes from the father alone,

very easy because the spiritual bread comes from him.

But my physical bread, what I need for me to live every day,

it's not tied to a job.

It's not tied to a thing.

It actually comes from him,

he who cares about everything he created.

When he cares about the sparrows that much,

how much more you?

When you as evil fathers think of your sons this way,

when you won't give them bread when they ask,

or stone when they ask for bread,

when you don't give them a soap and when they ask for fish,

how much more the father than I am?

My sustenance, your sustenance,

truly, truly comes from our father.

We cannot allow the devil to make us think and believe

that we need to hit that jackpot,

not that jackpot, that job, or this or that.

But, yes.

Do you agree this happens?

This happens.

Why?

It's very simple, guys.

It happens because it happens all around us.

Without you hearing, you hear it.

Without you seeing, you see it.

Without you smelling, you smell it.

It is all around you.

And so, if you're not careful,

you can go through six months and actually believe that.

And that is my point.

That is what I said, erosion.

That's the word that came to me,

because it's an attempt to slowly but surely

take away these things from you.

Can we be a people where we march out

onto the streets confident that we are cared for

by our father?

That when he said, when David said that,

I was a young man, now I am old,

but I know that it doesn't matter

which day of my life it is.

I know that he is faithful.

He will take care of me.

I have never seen a righteous man go hungry.

What does that mean?

It means that when God is our righteousness,

when he is our portion,

it's not Nebuchadnezzar or Babylon

who commands your daily assignment of bread.

It comes truly from heaven above.

And you and I have to enforce this

as this is what I believe in.

And then I need to go to Sheldon.

I need to go to those around me out in the world and say,

this is my God.

I know that this Babylon forces you to think

that you need to go this path

and only then can you be successful.

Can I tell you, can I tell you how different my father is?

Can I tell you that as I told Joe a little while ago,

this is how he thinks of you.

Next.

Babylon is designed to hijack your identity.

Babylon is designed to hijack your identity.

So come with me, verse six now.

We'll probably only go a few more verses, but we'll see.

Verse six, among these were Daniel, Hananiah,

Michelle, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.

And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.

Daniel, he called Belteshessar.

Hananiah, he called Shadrach.

Michelle, he called Meshak.

And Azariah, he called Abednego.

They came, they were given a new identity right away.

Now here is what it means.

The word or the name Daniel means God is judge.

That's what Daniel means.

Daniel means God is judge.

Belteshessar means Prince of Baal.

God is judge was his name.

Babylon says your name is Prince of Baal.

I'll explain that in a little bit.

Hananiah means gift of the Lord.

Hananiah means gift of the Lord.

His name was changed to Shadrach.

What does Shadrach mean?

Servant of sin.

Shadrach means servant of sin.

Let's go to the third guy, Michelle.

Michelle means who is what God is.

Who is what God is.

Meshak was the name given to him,

which means who is what the moon god Akku is.

Who is what the moon god Akku is.

Fourth person, Azariah.

Azariah means whom Jehovah helps.

Whom Jehovah helps.

Abednego, the name given to him,

means servant of Nebo, another false god.

You see this is not just a name thing.

This is to hijack their identities.

The very thing that God spoke of them

is what Babylon was after.

It wasn't, let's just name them something.

Please understand, that's absolutely not what it is.

It's a carefully drafted name change.

As soon as God speaks something over you,

there is always another voice that tries to combat it

and tries to make you believe that that's not true.

It happened in the Garden of Eden.

Did God really say?

So let's look at these names

and try to draw out a couple more things.

What does it do?

Babylon tries to have you forget your identity

by introducing you to new titles.

That's what happened with Daniel.

God as judge was changed to Prince of Baal.

Prince.

Prince of Baal.

New titles, new initiatives, new prospects,

new symbols of success.

That's one thing that Babylon does.

But it doesn't operate the same way with everyone.

So what does it do with some other folks?

Here's what it does.

It tries to have you forget your identity

by having you be stuck with your past failures.

You're a servant of sin,

which is the name that was given to Hananiah.

Shadrach.

Wow.

Basically all of what you are is what happened to you.

All of what you are is your failures.

All of what you are is your shortcomings.

All of what you are is your flaws.

So it's pre-calculated.

God says something and Babylon says something else.

It forces you to be overpowered.

It forces you to be bound by its ways.

But this is where,

like, it's amazing how it got repeated over the last little while,

but I love repeating it again.

This is where, like Abraham,

you and I can lift our hands to heaven

and say everything that we are,

everything we have,

everything goes to the mighty possessor of heaven and earth.

My name is not that.

My name is what he calls me.

He calls me son.

He calls me beloved.

He calls me friend.

He calls me forgiven.

He calls me righteous.

He calls me all these names.

And that is my name.

And those are my names.

What you want to give me, Babylon,

it will not stick.

So some of us have to stand up like these guys

and shake off a few names that's been given to you.

True thing.

You have to stand up and say,

this isn't me.

This was never me.

This is a label that's been thrown at me.

And for no, not one more minute will I carry it.

Will I bow down to it?

Take your place.

I think we started this year.

Yeah.

We started this year by that series that Jacob started.

Take your rightful place.

Take your right.

So take your rightful place.

So Babylon tries to hijack your identity.

So the intent is to have you forget your life source.

The intent is to have you forget your life source

and have you lift your hands to something else.

Galatians chapter four, verse six.

And because you are sons,

God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts,

crying, Abba, father.

Wow.

So on one hand, Babylon says all of that,

but we have to remind ourselves continually who we are.

It has to be continuous.

Where I continually tell myself,

think Jacob used to say this for meditation.

How do you, what does it mean?

How do you meditate?

What does that really look like when it says,

I meditate in the Lord's presence,

I meditate on his words.

What does it mean?

God directed self-talk.

God directed self-talk.

God said these things.

And you're telling yourself,

you're informing your own being

that this is what God says of you.

And it helps.

Next.

You can write this thing down.

Babylon morphs wealth to greed.

So Babylon has a thing where it takes the good things

that God said and morphs all of them to bad things,

evil things.

It takes wealth and morphs it to greed.

Dominion to control and power.

You see that all through the world, right?

People are given a position to drool, to do things,

but what does that immediately end up as?

It ends up as control and power.

Faith to religion.

Seeking God's will becomes sorcery.

Morality becomes legalism.

Significance becomes success.

So when I say that, I don't think success is bad.

It depends on what you mean by success.

Definitely not what Babylon sets it to be.

Order to equality.

Wisdom to the knowledge of good and evil,

like it is in Genesis chapter three.

Free will to casting off restraints.

Submission to slavery.

So that's what Babylon is good at.

It morphs all these things.

Wealth to greed.

Morality to legalism.

So you can see, think about this.

The spirit of Babylon tries to infiltrate the church.

Let's think about it differently.

Genesis chapter three, what happened?

The serpent speaks to who?

The woman.

Who did God set in place?

Adam and then Eve.

Who did God say, don't eat this?

God said that to Adam before Eve was formed.

Before Eve was formed.

But who does the serpent go to?

Not Adam, to Eve.

Who is the bride of Adam?

What does the devil try to do today?

He didn't get it with the second Adam.

So he tries to go to the second Eve.

But if the second Eve knows,

second Eve as in the bride of Christ,

but if the second Eve knows that that is not my father,

that is not my God, that is not my bridegroom,

then the second Eve is also empowered

by the spirit of God to say, no more.

Yeah?

So it's so important to see it in that light,

in that there is these voices that come at us.

We have authority over it.

And again, I'm going off script,

but let's finish it off in five minutes.

One of the, it's not directly related to this,

but while we are on the subject.

Your progression in life is dependent on

your ability to discern the thoughts in your mind.

Your progression in life is dependent on your ability

to discern the thoughts in your mind.

Can you look at some thoughts?

Can you hear some thoughts that you have inside your head

and say, that's not me.

That's not my father.

There is your victory.

So when we say the mind of,

your mind is the battleground,

it actually means that God has given us the gift to discern,

to say, that's not me.

What the devil wants you to do is to think that that's you.

And as soon as you realize that that's not me,

there comes your victory.

Because he just said it, that's not me.

He goes, oops, failed.

True guys, so true.

I promise you.

Your progression in life is dependent on your ability

that God has given you, your discernment,

to distinguish between his voice and the other one.

I'm gonna skip a couple of things.

Maybe we'll do it next time around.

I wanna finish it off with,

maybe you can write it down though.

Next one, Babylon rallies to cast a shadow on the father.

Babylon rallies its troops, rallies everything.

Babylon rallies its troops, rallies everything.

Babylon rallies its troops, rallies everything.

Babylon rallies its troops, rallies everything.

Babylon rallies its troops, rallies everything.

To cast a shadow on the father.

You see this in the story when the three guys,

Daniel, not in the picture,

is in front of the fiery furnace,

and Nebuchadnezzar asks this question.

But if you do not worship,

you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

You see that?

There is an attempt by Babylon

to cast a shadow on your father.

Babylon always wants to make you look at your father

and doubt him.

So Nebuchadnezzar asks the question,

who is your God that he can save you from my hands?

Matthew chapter four, you see Jesus' second temptation.

If you are the son of God, throw yourself down,

for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you,

and on their hands they will bear you up

lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him, again it is written,

you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.

What's my point?

When these thoughts come,

when Babylon tries to cast a shadow on your father,

rise up, take a stand, and say,

my father is not that.

It requires you to make a declaration.

It requires you to make a statement.

And as I said before,

sometimes you make a statement,

sometimes you making that statement

is just that one thing that someone else is waiting to hear.

Because they couldn't say it, but you have spoken,

you have put words together

to express their feelings that they had,

but they didn't have the words for.

In the kingdom of Babylon,

Daniel then finds himself at a place

where an injunction was signed,

the seal was placed on it,

because he was bowing down to Yahweh,

he was commanded to be thrown into the den.

There is one thing that is very important

in the Bible, and it is the fact that

he was thrown into the den.

There is one thing that I want to take from that story.

Daniel actually says once he comes out of the den

to Darius, another king by this time,

he tells Darius, I wasn't wrong,

I never committed anything wrong.

It's important to note that,

because condemnation, when you read that chapter,

I think it's Daniel chapter six,

everything that was charged against this man

was based on the law of the land,

the law of Persians and Medes, it says.

So the injunction was signed based on something.

For you and I here on earth, Romans chapter eight,

there is a pull, and Paul writes it so well.

Paul says, there is this thing,

the law of life and death, sin and death,

sin and death, sin and grave,

and then on the other side is this beautiful thing

that Christ has offered us, the law of the spirit.

To live in Babylon, we must know that we have been freed,

Romans chapter eight, there is no condemnation,

and that we now have his fullness inside of us.

It changes everything.

Guys, as Christians, we hear it too often,

but may we never be dulled to this.

As Dawn started today,

that the possibilities of the spirit of God

living inside of us,

the possibilities of the spirit of God

living inside of us,

may we never paint it with a small brush.

May we never limit it.

Wow, we are in this kingdom,

because we have been appointed for a time such as this,

to stand up and say who our Father, speak of our Father,

to say to the watching world that I know someone

who is so different from how you perceive God to be.

He is a loving Father.

He is kind and he is good.

And just so that you know,

this is what my life looked like,

but he brought me out,

and I know that he can do the same for you.

The law of the spirit, the freedom that comes with it.

I'll finish off with this story.

It's six o'clock.

I don't know when I started becoming so conscious of time.

Sorry, I have to take my mic back.

There was a time when I was unconscious, but...

See, the spirit of God takes us on adventures.

We have to live on earth today,

having a mindset of adventure.

When I first walked into Acts 29, about 13 years ago,

Wayne may be listening to this.

Wayne was doing sound back then.

And so I was sitting at the back,

and one day he came and he put his arm around me.

I was going to UBC then, like you guys.

He put his arm around me and he said,

Derek, with God, life can be adventurous.

I was 23 years old.

I haven't forgotten it.

I will never forget it.

With God, life can be adventurous.

Guys, there's so much to stand up for.

There is so much to fight for.

There is so much to content for.

It is worth it to rise up like men and women of valor,

to allow the spirit of God inside you,

to issue forth, like it says in John chapter four,

because what you have been given is his spirit,

and his spirit is strong.

His spirit is powerful.

His spirit is, it leads you.

He leads you.

He directs you, not just you.

It is for others around you.

And let us not limit this thing

to just a few different things.

It's so big, it's so vast, it changes nations.

These guys changed.

Babylon, you read chapter five or so,

you see Nebuchadnezzar, he talks about God, about Yahweh.

He sends a letter to the kingdom about Yahweh.

That's what we are after,

that we stand tall in this kingdom.

And there are so many adventures for us.

Story I was gonna say, I'm not gonna share it.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, we recognize,

we recognize who you are.

Before the earth was formed,

you hovered over the waters with a plan and a purpose.

You are the one who created the earth.

You are greater than any power

that's out there in Babylon.

You are King Jesus.

So we surrender our lives to your ways,

to your principles.

We say in this world,

our identity goes back to you.

You call it your identity.

You call us sons and daughters.

We are not one among many.

We are your prized possession, apple of your eyes.

We say we will not have our identity be hijacked.

We will rise up to take a stance for you, Jesus.

We will wear and we wear your name on our forehead.

It's an honor for us to stand on your behalf,

to speak for you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that in our hearts right now,

you will cause wells to spring up,

wells to spring up that will change our lives

so that we know where erosion has happened

so that we can put an end to it

and return to your ways, Holy Spirit.

I pray that over my life, over our lives,

that erosion stops and we say enough is enough.

We go back, we return to the original mandate,

to the original call over our lives.

And we say, Holy Spirit, we are here for your adventures.

Take us in Jesus' name, amen.

Hey guys, quickly wanna say something to you.

Some of you who come to Pursuit know that

this is exactly what we've been talking about.

In Revive 24, we have been talking about this.

And every time God stresses something,

there is a reason behind what he says.

Because Derek and I, we did not talk about what we wanted.

We talked, we are in good terms with this.

Yeah, like that, something like that.

We actually kind of did not talk.

Please pray for us.

But there is a reason why,

he doesn't know what I'm teaching at Pursuit.

What's her name?

I just don't know what she asked me to teach,

whether it was based on what I was speaking.

But nobody knows that my point is that.

But when God tells something to the church,

he has a purpose behind it.

And so I do not believe that.

And when the word of God says that,

he speaks something and the word does not come back void.

It does its thing.

And so when Derek spoke today,

I believe, and this is where we started, right?

We believe that the spirit of God is doing his work.

You should have the faith to believe

that the spirit of God, what he wants to do,

is done in your hearts.

And we might think big things, guys,

but small things as breaking cultures in your life

is only possible by the spirit of God.

Okay, so believe what we heard today.

And it's not just for the young men and women.

We can easily think this is for the newer culture.

It's not.

For guys who are as old as I don't want to name names.

But it's for you too.

It's for you too.

It's not for the young men.

For you mostly because you're right in the thick of it.

But for the older people too.

It's as much as much applicable as the younger ones.

So Father, we thank you and we bless your holy name.

Derek prayed so I don't want to pray again.

But we bless you, Jesus, and it's a privilege.

Cool guys, see you.

Thank you.

Be people to pray for you if you need prayer.

There'll be people to pray for you.