Pastor Ian Sweeney - Living in Babylon

Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song. While I have never emigrated, my

being here in the United Kingdom is as a result of my parents' immigration from

the island of Antigua. Immigration is the act of people entering settling in a

country or region to which they are not native. Since Brexit, some of

y'all know what that means. And so it is that my grandfather, Granddad

Sweeney, was himself an immigrant to Antigua from Ireland. Hence I claim Irish

ancestry. You know, immigration is made for many reasons. My grandfather was

a merchant seaman who, on arriving in Antigua, appreciated the beauty of the

island with its three one hundred and sixty five beaches, one for every day

of the year. He also appreciated the women, and so he never left.

But that's a different story. Some analysts that looking at the factors behind

immigration refer to reference it as being either pushed or pulled. Some people emigrate

because the primary motive is that they are pushed. Political instability at their whole

war, economic crisis maybe the primary factors that pushes people to emigrate. For

other people, the primary factor for emigration is that they are pulled by the

attractiveness of the country to which they are emigrating, such as we're economic opportunities,

a chance to make good money, maybe just for five years, then

go back home. Some emigrate because they are pulled by educational possibilities for their

family, the economic climate, employment prospects, a chance to have a higher

standard of living than at home. It is also widely acknowledged that moving home

is in the top three of life's most stressful experiences. It comes behind bereavement

and divorce. Immigrants combine the stress of moving home with the uncertainty that comes

in moving into a strange and different place. When one of my uncles experienced

his first winter in the United Kingdom nineteen fifties, having come from Antique,

with its lowest temperature being twenty two degrees celsius, to come and experience a

first winter with temperatures below zero, he resorted, and he wrote it in

a book to wearing women's tights, not because he was a champion for the

LGBTQI community, but because he was cold. He was prepared to wear anything

that would keep him warm. The reasons that underlie immigration are many. They

are varied They are complex, as are the challenges that immigrants face. Now.

I know that I'm preaching to some of the converted, but we younger

ones, and I think I'm still in that category. But we younger ones

need to who've never experienced immigration and emigration need to be reminded. You see,

some two and a half thousand years ago, the prophet Jeremiah and a

number of his countrymen were faced with the dilemma as to whether they should emigrate

from their homeland of Judah to head south and live in the neighboring country of

Egypt. It was following the war against Babylon, and Judah lay devastated in

every respect. And following this long and bloody siege, the capital city,

Jerusalem was in tatus. Government and civic buildings were destroyed. The Temple,

which was the spiritual heart of Judaism, was destroyed. The Ark of the

Covenant, which has been referenced was was the centerpiece. The most sacred peace

of furniture was hidden in a secret location. To this day, we don't

know where it is. With the invasion of the Babylonians, the bridess and

the best were taken captive to Babylon, including Hanna and Naya, Michael,

Azariah, and Daniel. The Babylonians left a small number of Jews back in

Judah, and they appointed officials who remained in charge of the country, but

the end of the war did not lead to the end of hostilities. Jewish

insurgents killed the Babylonian appointed leaders. You find that in Jeremiah chapter forty one,

and the people were in a panic as to how babylon would retaliate.

Along with the fear of the Babylonian reprisals, the prospect of living in a

country in which the infrastructure was good and everything and everything back in Judah had

to be started from scratch. Egypt looked appealing, and it was at this

point that the people were presented with what seemed an an obvious choice. They

could emigrate south to the southern powerhouse nation that was Egypt, who was still

at that time independent of Babylonian rule. In Egypt, they could eat and

live in relative peace and prosperity. The people had near starved to death during

the Babylonian invasion, and going down to Egypt, where the crops were growing,

was all enticing. The land of the Nile seemed to be a safe

and peaceful place in which to dwell. It was the granary of the East.

Its abundant harvest would provide much desired food as opposed to what they had

come out and in lamentation said during the siege that the Judaeans the Jews resort

to cannibalism just to eat mothers. It was recorded eight their own children.

So the people just said, we need to move, we need to emigrate.

But they did a good thing. They wanted to know God's will concerning

their proposal to emigrate to Egypt. And so we read in Jeremiah forty two.

And if you have your bible or holy device, at least make it

holy for a few minutes. Jeremiah forty two, verse one. And partly

it reads all the people from the least to the greatest approach Jeremiah the prophet

in verse two, and said to him, please hear our petition. Pray

to the Lord our God for this entire amendment. Verse three. Pray that

the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should

do. Verse six. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey

the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it will

go well with us, for we will obey the Lord, our God.

Seems to me it is good to ask God's will, particularly in such a

momentous decision as whether to emigrate, and God gave an answer ten days later.

Verse seven tells us the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Verse

nine. He said to them, this is what the Lord, the God

of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says verse

ten. If you stay in this land, I will build you up and

not tear you down. I will plant you and not uproot you, for

I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Verse eleven.

Do not be afraid of the King of Babylon, whom you now fear.

Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with

you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. From the answer

God gave. God's will was clear, don't emigrate, stay home, stay

in Judah, don't go to Egypt. And God said, I promise to

protect you in Judah. But as it transpired, having promised to obey God's

will in this matter, the leaders responded in chapter forty three, Verse two,

You are lying. The Lord, our God has not sent you to

say you must not go to Egypt to settle there. This is quite incredible.

The people asked God to share with them his will concerning their proposal to

emigrate to Egypt. They promised, whatever God says, they will obey.

But as soon as they hear God's will through Jeremiah, they told the man

of God. As it reads in the iww S translation, that's the Ian

Walter Wellington Sweeney translation, it reads, they said, you're to lie Church.

We should not make promises to obey God when we have no intention of

obeying him, or when his answer is dependent on it being in accord with

what we are going to do. Anyway, For ten days Jeremiah awaited the

Lord's message. You can imagine those ten days were days of suspense and tension.

The prophet wanted to be certain that he was speaking the Lord's will.

He was not gonna offer his own opinion. He spent time in prayer.

Jeremiah was not going to announce God's will until he knew it. Here was

a matter on which the entire future of the nation might depend. It was

crucial for the remnant. After ten days, God came through with a powerful

message of hope that he would build them up. He would grant them peace

and security in Judah. They didn't need to be frightened of Babylon, as

God would be their protector. But their only response to Jeremiah, you're too

life. As I read this, I was reminded of what the wise man

Solomon wrote in Proverbs twelve, verse five when he said, in the Good

News translation, stupid people always think they are right. The American author Mark

Twain put it succinctly when he said, never argue with stupid people. They

will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience. Sometimes

God's people are stupid. We are ignorant, as exhibited by refusing to listen

to God's counsel. Now, while these events occurred two and a half thousand

years ago, they have a contemporary message and relevance for us as Seventh Day

at Venus Christians today. We should learn from this experience that when it comes

to seeking and doing God's will, we should not predecide what we are going

to do, then seek God's will to rub a stamp our plans. Some

of us pray too much, but don't listen. As a matter of fact,

God knows what we're gonna do before we ask him for his guidance.

That's in forty two, chapter forty two, verse fifteen. We someime praying,

Lord, what is your will? What? God already knows what you're

gonna do. Jeremiah's answer was inspired by God as evidence in Jeremiah knowing that

the people were gonna emigrate to Egypt. They were gonna do it in spite

of their professed willingness to follow the counsel of the Lord, whatever it might

be. And Jeremiah was aware of this. He pointed it out. He

said, you're going on like his spiritual but you already decide what you're gonna

do. God knows it. I know it, You know it. How

many times do we meet in board meeting, business meetings, committees, Lord

help us conference sessions asking the Lord show us your will? What are you

asking him for? You already know how you're voting. Were you asking the

Lord to show you what you should pray? Is? Lord showed them how

they should vote like me, at least, it's honest. Were always praying

all if we pray more, pray more, for what. Nobody ain't changing

their vote, So what are you're praying for? Why do we bother to

pray? We already know what we're gonna do. I mean, I know

God is infiniden all of this, but I still say we waste God's time.

We're not looking for his will. What we're doing in our prayers sometimes

is looking for his rubber stamp of approval to the course of action we're gonna

follow anyhow. And beyond wasting God's time, why waste the prophet's time?

Now? I know it was good for Jeremiah to pray for ten days,

but there is an element of the people's request wasting his time. They were

not interested in any outcome that differed from their own predetermined decision, and we

still today some of us waste the profit's time. Pastor, should I marry

her? Pastor givening did I marry him? You already know what you're gonna

do? So what are you asking, pastor for? Friend of mine sister

came to him, said, be honest with me, Pastor, give me

your counsel about marrying my boyfriend. So the pastor took time to counsel her

and gave sound reasons why it was unwise for her to marry a man who

was effectively a stranger, whom she had only recently met, who did not

share a love for God, whose temperament was unknown, and what little was

known was suspect. But she was in love. And all she heard the

pastor say was blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. You see when

you're in love some now you don't hear sense oi hear blah blah affects your

hearing. When we're fixed upon a course of action, we lose our sense

of hearing and reasoning. She was in love, so, having wasted the

pastor's time and breath, she married the man. Anyhow, stop wasting.

Pastor could visit somebody else who want to listen. If we already know what

we're going to do, irrespective of what is said, we should not ask

for a revelation of God's will, and most certainly, we should not make

promises that we have no intention to obey. When we do that, I

say to you, you to lie. But there's an additional lesson, and

it's about cause and effect. To be more specific, there is a relationship

between human cause and define effects. Let me explain. The prophet said to

the people that if they were obedient and stayed put in Judah, if they

stayed in Judah, they would experience God's blessing in being restored in their land.

Remember some were in Babylon, Daniel Hanna and I Michel Lezah. Some

were already in Babylon, but there was just these few left. But God

said, I know you're only a few, but stay put. I will

bless you. I know the Babylonian armies has defeated the country. Stay put,

I will protect you. That was God's promise. Now here's the point

when we become aware of what God's will is. Obedience to it is required

of us, and there is a blessing in obedience. That's why we sing

the song Trust and Obey, for there is no other way to be one

yes. In fact, obedience is a hallmark of our relationship with Christ.

First John five three puts it this way. This is love for God to

obey his commands and they are not burdensome. I love God, so whatever

he wants me to do, I'll do it because I love him. And

in doing what he wants me to do, I don't find it a burden.

Now, if obeying God is not burdensome, please understand that disobeying him

is a burden. You see, God was clear with the people if they

chose to emigrate. God said, let me tell you what's gonna happen with

my divine eye Chapter forty two, verse fifteen. If you are determined to

go to Egypt and to go to settle there, verse sixteen, then the

sword you fear will overtake you there, the thing you're running from. He's

saying, go and find you, and the famine you dread will follow you

into Egypt, and there you will die. Indeed, all who are determined

to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, lord,

famine, and plague. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster

I will bring on them. Can anything be clearer? God, in his

mercy, did not leave the people without warning. This ain't Brexit. Nobody

knows nothing about Brexit. God ain't dealing with Brexit. God said, listen

me, you go down there, You're going to die. If sword don't

catch you, famine go and catch you. If those two don't catch you,

play, go and catch you. Understand You're going to die down there.

God didn't leave them ignorant, so if they followed their human cause,

there would be divine effects. You want to go, but understand what Divinity

said, You're going to die down there. You see this is about this

is the first time we see one of the first but this is an indication

of sowing and reaping cause and effects, acting and selfish the two go together.

You understand, God was not hiding anything from the people. Cause,

human cause, divine effects. Jeremiah said, if you are determined to emigrate

to Egypt, your human cause will bring about catastrophic divine effects. And so

he went on forty three, verse eleven. He that is neb you can

Anser, the king of Babylon, said he will come and attack Egypt and

bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity,

and the sword to those destined for the sword. Or, as my MoMA

would have said, if you're not here, you're gonna feel cause effects.

Even though the people are stupid, the inevitability of their demise is frightening and

it is horrible to witness. And we see this so often in life.

The inevitability of cause and effects. So the cause. For whatever reasons,

you don't want to open your book and read a school book. You don't

want to get an education because that's boring. You just want to hang around

on the street with your friend with your blood. That's fine, But understand,

there is cause and there is effects. That's all I'm saying. Cause

you have sex with him, you have sex with her, there will be

an inevitable effect, cause and effect. How many times have I heard,

Oh, come to me, tell me. I don't know how it happened

past her. You should have opened your book biology. Would I tell you

cause effect? Man, I don't know how I got this disease? Cause

effect? Oh, I nearly forgot the lady who wasted the pastor's time because

she was in love. Well, the Lord did not reveal to the pastor

as he did to Jeremiah, the inevitable effects. But it was a few

months later that she went back to the pastor because then she realized her beloved's

head wasn't too good. And we're not talking about mental illness here. The

man head wasn't good. She got in there fast. She couldn't get out

of that relationship faster. It's causing effects. But in following through with their

stupid decision and the emigrating to Egypt, all hope was gone. There was

nothing for them to look forward to accept death and destruction. They were victims

of self delusion and self deception. So, having decided to go to Egypt,

and they forced Jeremiah to go with them, they settled in their new

land. They reached the Motherland. But whilst they were in Egypt, they

began to resume the worship of idols, and then they began to engage in

a spot of romantic reminiscing. And Jeremiah, whether he was in Judah,

he was invited to go to Babylon by the king. He was taken and

forcibly down to Egypt. But the one thing about Jeremiah, as we look

at identity, Jeremiah always knew who he was wherever he was, He always

represented faithfully God. But the idiot people who wouldn't listen to him, they

were now in Egypt, and they now began to worship idols. And in

chapter forty four you read from verse sixteen in part it says we will not

listen because Jeremiah told them stop worshiping these foolish idols. This is the same

stuff that got us in trouble in the first place. But you know,

and it shouldn't be the case, but it seems to be the case.

Once a hidiot, always a hdiot. I know the English isn't quite right,

but it makes the point a little stronger. So hear them now in

Egypt, Jeremiah telling them now stop worshiping the idols. Hear them, we

will not listen to the message verse sixteen. You have spoken to us in

the name of the Lord. We will certainly do everything. Verse seventeen.

We said we would. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven.

This is not God, this is their idol God. We will pour out

drink offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings,

and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem

at that time. Listen to them. Now, at that time we had

plenty of food, were well off, and suffered no harm. But ever

since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offferings

to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.

Now this is interesting. The people were looking at their past with rose

tinted spectacles that they really should have gone like me to Specsay, just follow

me and forgive my language. But the idiot people, the idiot people were

immigrants in Egypt because they and their forefathers rejected God's counsel. The stupid people

were in Egypt because they never listened to Jehovah God. The stupid people forgot

that. During the war, they starved to death and resorted to cannibalism.

But now they're in Egypt. Man, things were so nice back home.

They claimed that idolatry had done for them good. They could not connect because

they were idiots. They could not connect their being in Egypt and the trials

with their sins. For those of us who are immigrants, and I ain't

talking about farad type immigranting home and past often seems much better when you don't

live there. I use I heard my late father and mom, you know,

not so much more, but Dad, you know, and some of

us, you know, we talk about back home and we ain't talking about

London. Ye, I'm back home. And the one thing I noticed,

and it happened to me, I've just come back from Australia. Immigrants can

be more nationalistic and proud of their homeland when they are no longer living there.

Some of y'all didn't wear no flag of no country, no island when

he was back there, so you can't even recognize your own flag. But

in England, why they wear my flag. No I'm not I'm not knocking

that. That's all right, But sometimes learn from this this this stuff what

we experience isn't new. I was conducting a week of revival pastors in Canada

six hundred plus congregation, and it was one of those congregations that was made

up of immigrants from the Islands, and I was introduced by the pastor who

said I was from Antigua. Who tell him to say that my first cousin,

my first cousin who worships in that church. Part of the praise team

on hearing that, shouted out loudly, no pastor is an english Man.

Now here's what should have happened. The deacons and elders should have done their

job and put my cousin out of the church. But no, they didn't

do that. They, along with the six hundred coup members, engaged in

a belly laugh laughing at me, the man of God touching, not the

Lord's anointed. They laughed at me, this black Irish man. And although

vengeance belongs to God, I silently prayed in the spirit of Samson, Lord

strengthen my mouth just one more time, that I might slay my enemies.

And words were placed upon my lips. Because I couldn't start, I couldn't

preach. I had to Now you can preach. After that, six hundred

people laugh after you, Then you're going to preach. You're mad. So

before I preached, the Lord laid something on my heart, and I said

to the congregation, you know I was born in and come from a country

that is so good that I still choose to live there. Where do you

come from? If home is so good, what are you doing here?

If home is so brilliant, why ain't Babylan what you're doing in Egypt.

I'm not saying home isn't good, But sometimes when we're away from home,

I head go funny an I'm immigrants. Sometimes we can have a somewhat romanticized

view of home. When I was in Australia just last week for a camp

meeting, I don't support the England cricket team. But when I'm in Australia,

I sure do because they mock me about how England rubbish. So why

did the Lord bring me back before England beat the Skin at the cricket We're

back on seveth things. Sorry, but sometimes as immigrants we have this romanticized

view of home. But we need to be honest and realistic. Unlike the

people of Judah, they were immigrants in Egypt as a result of their disobedience

to God, and so consistent with their rebellious nature, they resumed their worship

of idols, but still longed for the good old days back home. So

now we're here in Babylon called the United Kingdom. Some of us didn't choose

to be born here, but we're born here, so we all chose to

come here, and even had the audacity to call the place the motherland.

And no it ain't no motherland. Africa your motherland and some of us so

foolish me not African. How the skin did your grandparents end up in the

West Indies. Holiday, Let me get back to this thing. We're gonna

close on this and don't be upset by him. Well, if you're upset.

I'm sorry, but Lord said, forgive your enemy, love your enemies.

There you go. But let's be honest. Let's be honest. For

many of us, my parents, most definitely included, when they came to

the United Kingdom nineteen fifties. They did not come because they felt the impression

of the Lord to be a witness in the British Isles. They didn't come

to be missionaries. They came for the filthy luca which you call money.

Hello. Now, there may be some in the congregation who left in the

fifties and sixties because God laid it on their heart that they were to be

a missionary in the United Kingdom. But most folks came for money. Let's

be honest. Most folks came for five years getting a whole heap of money

to send the folk back home. Let's be honest. Some of us play

like we're so holy in the UK. Yes, and we did have an

invitation following the war. For some of us going, oh, you know,

adventism here and fine, but you didn't come about adventity. You came

for money. Stop going on about how back home was this, that and

the other. And if you notice what's happened. You know this, how

back home the church thrive without us. The church has grown leaps and bounds

since we left. I wonder why, let's be a little humble with ourselves.

Many of us came for the money. But whatever the reason, we're

here now. We're in the United Kingdom, and I believe that now is

the time, more than any other time, for us to put at the

top of our agenda that we are here to share with the millions of citizens

of the British Isles the love of Jesus Christ and make relevant the Three Angels

messages. This country is godless, beyond God. We've made the money.

You may not think you've made the money, but if you have a house,

you made the money and your children looking on you and the house.

Let's be honest when they're asking you how you're feeling today. Someone is not

how you feel. They're looking at the house, but they can't afford it.

But there is a higher agenda. We need to be like Jeremiah.

Wherever he was, he represented God. We have done great things as immigrants,

as people born here, but God wants us to do even greater.

Sixty six million people don't know God we're hearing for whatever reason, but God

says, I want you to make me known to the people of the United

Kingdom. Make relevant the Three Angels messages interpret it that they can understand what

we're talking about. There is a higher purpose for us here in the British

Isles. Those of the Brexit telling you we should go back home, Well,

this is home. And while you're telling me to go home, I

want to tell you about Jesus Christ and his love. And actually you're telling

me to go home. I am home, and you are my brother,

and you are my sister. God we share an ancestry that goes well way

back to Adam and Eve. I tell folks, I didn't choose. I

did not choose. I honestly can confess I did not choose to be born

black and beautiful. I didn't choose none of this stuff. It's just the

way I came out. I am not gonna hate on you for coming out

your color, because you beautiful too. I didn't choose to be born in

the United Kingdom. None of us chose the country in which we were born.

But the one thing I did choose was Jesus Christ, and so He's

given me a whole new perspective, and I see every person, whether they

look like me, whether they those broad like mine or narrow and pointy,

whether they dark and beautiful or light and nice. We are all God's children,

and you are my brother, and you are my sister. You may

not like it, but that's just the way it is. And God has

called us to make him known. You want to know what your purpose is

in this country, in London, young people, God wants you to make

him known on the streets, to your friends, to your peers, in

whatever way that is relevant and meaningful to them. Let's make him known in

a scripture silence. On what happened to Jeremiah after he was forced to emigrate

to Egypt. Some legends state that he was killed in Egypt. We don't

know. Other views suggest that he emigrated to Babylon. He was definitely invited

by the king to go to Babylon, and he would have lived a peaceful

life in Babylon. Another view, not widely held but by the British Israel

movement, is that Jeremiah emigrated to Ireland, home of my granddaddy. Now

there ain't no scripture for this. I kind of like the idea that Jeremiah

went to Ireland because that means me and him shear blood. As I said,

the Bible is silent. We just don't know what happened to Jeremiah.

We know that Jeremiah didn't want to go to Egypt because it was against the

expressed will of God. But even as an immigrant in Egypt, in a

country he did not want to live desire, he was still committed to doing

God's bidding, and so he kept on preaching, and he kept on sharing.

And I say this to say, the United Kingdom, London, whatever

you wear, maybe a strange land for some of us, but I truly

believe God has a purpose for us in this land. Whether we're living in

Babylon or living in Egypt or live in back home. God wants us to

represent him. We got the houses, we got the land, but God

wants us to reach people so that they can have a house and they can

have a land in the New Kingdom to come. So my appeal, my

appeal, let's find and live to the higher purpose God has called us to

live. To ask the Lord to use us to be a Jeremiah in Egypt,

in Babylon, in Judah wherever, let's represent our God before a fine

world. This isn't about houses and lands. This is about Jesus. Let's

choose to represent him. Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song