Living In Babylon: Staying On Mission Series

FAITH FOR EXILES: LIVING IN BABYLON

STAY ON MISSION

DANIEL 7:13-14 & JEREMIAH 29:4-14

INTRODUCTION… stacker.com/stories/5269/famous-consumer-brands-no-longer-exist

This morning I am sharing with you some bad news… some brands and companies that you thought would be there forever, are not. Some favorite stores and companies are gone and they are not coming back.

* No one who ever went to a Blockbuster on Friday night at one of their 10,000 stores ever thought that by 2013 all of them would be closed.

* There used to be a Walden Books which became Borders in just about every mall in America and as of 2011 they are all gone.

* There used to be a huge warehouse type store where a kid could be a kid… Toys R Us finally gave up and died in 2018. By the way, KB Toys is also gone.

* Oldsmobile, which died at the ripe old age of 106 in 2004, was one of America’s oldest car brands and is no more. Pontiacs are gone as of 2009 and even Saturns are gone.

* I haven’t seen a Sizzler in years.

* There are only 3 K-Marts left.

* Circuit City had 550 stores at one point, but closed down in 2008.

* Jello Pudding pops haven’t been seen since 2004.

* I wore Bugle Boy jeans when I was a kid… nope… they are gone too as of 2001.

* Minolta, Mervyns, Excite, Ask Jeeves, Hollywood Video, Crystal Pepsi, Kinny Shoes, and so many other companies and products you assume are out there, but are not.

The reasons for these companies and brands not being around are various. Mismanagement. Downturns in the economy. New technology took over. Failure to adapt. Rival companies did it better. Some of them lost sight of their mission and purpose. They are gone as a result. Keep that last reason in mind… ‘lost sight of their mission and purpose.’

SERIES REMINDER

Today, we finish a 5-week sermon series (5 of 5) that focuses our attention on a basic truth that we no longer live in a Christian nation. We live in a land where God is not the priority in politics, dating, marriage, values, sexuality, entertainment, education, family, or worldview. Just about everything in our culture is designed to pull us away from God. We do not live in a nation rooted in Biblical values, but rather we live in ‘Babylon.’ ‘Babylon’ was a real place in the Bible, but in the Bible, it also became a symbol for a culture or a society that marches away from God and away from His way of living. We live in ‘Babylon.’

In this 5-week series, we have focused on the life of believers in God who were forced to live in Babylon and draw important life principles for us.

We discovered the first week (1 of 5) that Babylon is pressing us with clutter and complexity and a fast-paced life and the only way to be a resilient disciple of Jesus is to prioritize intimacy with Jesus and our priority must be our relationship with Jesus above all else.

We discovered the second week (week 2 of 5) that in a society that draws us away from God regularly, we must have a mindset that we stand our ground with God and be assured He is right because He is always faithful and we need to be effective and faithful right where we are at. God will be faithful to Himself and we must trust in Him and in His way.

We discovered the third week (week 3 of 5) that our culture drives us to be all about ourselves and me-sized and self-centered and to prize entertainment and distractions. As a result, investing in our faith in our church and in relationships is a wise use of our time, energy, and effort to help us sharpen our identities in Christ and serve others.

We discovered the fourth week (4 of 5) that our culture is very self-centered and fame oriented so we need to work with excellence and perseverance and faithfulness no matter what job we are doing and we need to be prayerful and faithful when the workplace turns into a lion’s den and gives friction when it comes to faith.

Today, we finish up this series and we will be reading from Daniel 7 and also Jeremiah 29.

ILLUSTRATION… FAITH FOR EXILES (Kinnaman & Matlock, page 33) [adapted]

Before we dig into the Scriptures, I want to share with you a little bit about our culture and how it relates to Christianity and the Church. I am not talking specifically about our church alone, but the big ‘C’ church which would include Christians of many different flavors across our country.

Folks that study culture and church and do surveys (Barna Research) tell us that there are 4 different groups that a church may encounter in our culture that express some kind of faith in Jesus. Each of these different groups have different practices, beliefs, perspectives, and attitudes when it comes to the Christian faith. I am not talking about folks who are complete non-Christians and have never heard about Jesus, but those who have expressed some kind of Christian faith at some point in their lives.