How To Get Out Of Babylon

INTRODUCTION: The sentiment of the Israelites during this difficult time in their history is summed up there in the fourth verse. "How shall we sing the Lord's song in this strange land?" In other words, we really don't belong here in Babylon. We are aliens here. We are refugees here. We are wanderers here, and the compelling task that we are facing at the moment is to try and figure out how we can sing the Lord's song in this strange place. We used to sing praises to the Lord all the time, but now—now we just don’t feel like singing much anymore. And how frustrating it is to be somewhere you know you don’t belong.

They were in Babylon, and Babylon (trust me) is not a place you want to be. In fact, Babylon is the worst place on earth. It has the worst real estate known to mankind; it is a horrible, horrible place to be. And how I know this to be true is not through research or study, I didn’t watch a documentary on the History channel about it—but I know it to be true through first-hand information because I’ve been to Babylon, and you have too. The minute you arrive in Babylon, is the very minute you want to hurry up and get out. I heard somebody say that Babylon is the closest thing to hell on earth. And nobody, especially a Christian wants anything to do with Babylon. Geographically speaking, Babylon is today’s Iraq—and in Iraq as you know is where many of our young men and women are engaged in battle. And one of the main topics today that’s on President Obama’s plate is how and when will we get out of Iraq? Since Iraq and Babylon is one in the same, you could say that we have been dealing with this problem, this question for a long time now—when and how will we and can we get out of Babylon? Now that’s geographically speaking, but speaking in a metaphoric sense of the word, Babylon is any situation which makes your life uncomfortable. [That’s what Babylon is] If you are sick today with some disease that’s your Babylon. If you are poor and you can’t make ends meet in life, that’s your Babylon. If you’re caught in the statistics of a 9.7% unemployment rate, that’s your Babylon. If you’re suffering from an addiction that you can’t seem to get rid of that’s your, Babylon. I have two things I want to discuss with you and they are how we get in Babylon and then how to get out of Babylon. And I’m gonna use four brief points and after that I’ll take my seat. And first point is that…

I. BABYLON IS A PLACE OF WEEPING

“…there we sat down, yea, we wept…” once you are in Babylon you automatically get into a crying mode. If you are not crying on the outside, you are crying on the inside. And sometimes in life you just have to cry—there are some things in life that will make you cry. And (and) being in Babylon will make you cry. It reminds me of the song we like to sing every once in a while, “Trouble in my way. I have to cry sometimes. I’ve got so much trouble, I have to cry sometimes. I lay awake at night, But that’s alright, Cause I know Jesus, He’ll fix it after while.” There are times when we are sad. We have lost a friend or family member to sickness or disease, or they are moving away. A disagreement, a lack of trust or misunderstanding has caused painful stress in an important relationship. An illness or injury has changed our lives.

These are all times are where we have or will experience some sadness. Someone going through this can feel very alone even in a crowded room. There are some things that are guaranteed to make you cry, and one of them is Babylon. I’ve been there and I know for a fact—that Babylon will make you weep. They (the Israelites) were weeping because they missed their homeland. You see, they were in exile for 70 years. This is because they were supposed to let the land lay fallow every 7th year, but they had not done that for 490 years. God therefore exiled the people for 70 years for the land to receive its due rest, after which they were to return. And now here they are missing Jerusalem; they were in exile—separated, bitter, distressed and persecuted. You know we’ve got some people in the church living exiled lives; it’s not geographical because you can live in the same neighborhood for 30 years and still live an exiled life. An exiled life is a life a long ways from God because you refused to listen to Him—and anytime you are away from God it makes you want to weep. When you are away from God because of disobedience whether you know it or not you are living in Babylon. It’s a place of weeping, and then…