Babylon vs. The Kingdom
I.
Babylon or the world’s
system is man trying to meet his own needs without God; Socialism is society
(man) trying to meet it’s own needs without God-Genesis 11
A. We see the world’s system
really begin to take shape here at the tower of Babel and that’s why we refer
to this system of man trying to meet his own needs without God as the
Babylonian System
1.
ERV-Let’s build ourselves
a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we
will not be scattered all over the Earth.
2.
MSG-Come let’s build
ourselves a city and tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t
be scattered here and there across the Earth.
3.
VOICE-Let’s go build
ourselves a city with a huge tower that reaches into Heaven. That way we will make a name for
ourselves. If we don’t, we’ll run
the risk of being scattered over all the Earth.
B. Genesis 3:7-The first
place we see man trying to meet his own needs without God was just moment after
the fall of man when Adam lost the glory and tried to make clothes for himself
1.
This
is Adam becoming his own source; Trying to meet his own needs
without God; This is Adam having a need and he’s going to TAKE CARE of it
a. THEY sewed fig leaves
together and MADE THEMSELVES aprons
2.
Any time a man tries to
meet his own needs without God he will ultimately fail to do so because man
wasn’t created to be able to meet his own needs without God
a. Any attempt you make to meet any need you have on
your own without God will be a failure; it was predetermined before the
beginning of time; YOU CAN’T DO IT
b. 10,21-Adam failed in
trying to make clothes for himself
3.
Matthew
6:28-Jesus came preaching don’t try to take care of what you wear because he
preached the Kingdom, not Babylon and in the Kingdom God takes care of what you
wear
a. The only question is what
kind of clothes do you want
b. In the Kingdom of God you receive from God
according to your faith, not according to what he wants you to have
II.
The enemy is trying to
take you to back to Babel; To the place where you have needs and don’t even
look to God; To the place where you try to meet your own needs without God
A. Satan’s trying to get you
to a place that when you have a need you just try figure it our in your
strength, in your own understanding, you’re going to take care of it
1.
Satan
wants to create so many options and so-called “answers” that when you have a
need, going to God about it is the furthest thing from your mind
a. Our society tries to
produce an answer for just about everything (Can’t sleep take a pill, can’t
loose weight try this diet, kids our rowdy we got medication for that,
etc.)
2.
What
you end up with is believers who are hooked to Babylon, the world’s system
(which is man trying to meet his own needs without God); That’s what Satan
wants, he wants to hook you
a. Satan is trying to get
you off of the Kingdom and onto Babylon
B. The world’s system was
birthed by the devil and therefore it was not set up for anybody to succeed
1.
When you choose Babylon
failure is inevitable because Babylon wasn’t set up for you to succeed; it was
set up to keep you moving so much that you’re going nowhere and don’t even know
it
2.
There’s
always this illusion that it’s going to get better
C. When don’t have a
revelation of how to go to the Kingdom and get your needs met, then you’ll be
forced to go to Babylon
1.
A big problem in the
church is we’ve been more schooled in Babylon than we have in the Kingdom
2.
We
are coming out of this world and into God’s way of doing things
III.
When you lay Genesis
11:2-4 up against Genesis 12:1-4 you see Babylon vs. The Kingdom; The language
is totally different in these verses
A. Everything about what
they’re doing is wrong: They journeyed from the east, they’re looking for a place
– They found a plain, they chose a place – They said one to
another, they’re coming up with a plan – Let us make brick, they’re
trying to make their plan work – Let us build us, Let us make us, they’re
trying to meet their own needs without God
1.
It’s sad to say, but this
his how most of my people are living; They’re out looking for a place where
they can figure out a way to take care of themselves
2.
You
have believers out here trying to pray and use their faith to bring to pass a
plan that wasn’t God’s to start with
3.
If a person would every
find out the plan of God for their lives and get in it they would find
themselves being taken care of in a way that went beyond their wildest dreams
a. I only do what my father
shows me to do and I only say what my father tells me to say: If you ever
discover what he has showed you to do and what he has told you to say and get
in it, your life is about to change
b. And therein lies the
biggest attempt the enemy is making against my people in these days; the attack
against their hearing and against their confidence that they in fact heard from
me
B. Fear is the fuel Babylon
runs on (The Fear that I won’t be taken care of)
1.
The
thing that they don’t want (or they fear) is being scattered over all the Earth
a. They’re afraid if they
don’t do something they won’t be taken care of
2.
(When people are afraid
they’re not going to be taken care of) Fear pushes people to come up with a
plan of how they can TAKE CARE of the situation
a. In Babylon there is this
continuous fear that me, my life, my situations won’t be taken care of
b. That fear manifest like
this, “I have TAKE CARE of
this because if I don’t it won’t be taken care of”
3.
This is the essence of
Babylon: We got to take care of ourselves
a. In the undertones of Genesis
11:2-4 you can hear, “We got to TAKE
CARE of ourselves.”
4.
There
is something for you to do, but it’s not to TAKE CARE of it
a. “I got to do something,”
yes you do --- The something you are to do is to inquire of the Lord and find
out what he’d have you to do and say and that’s the “something” you’re supposed
to be doing
IV.
In Babylon they said one
to another, coming up with their own plan; In the Kingdom God said to Abraham,
revealing to Abraham His plan-Genesis 11:3, 12:1
A. The first problem is
their plan is against God’s plan; (God’s plan was that man bless the whole
Earth and to do that man’s going to have to be scattered over all the Earth)
1.
God
didn’t show them this (build a tower, make a name), He didn’t direct them to do
this
2.
You get out there where
you’re trying to do something that God didn’t ordain and you better fit
yourself for flop because it’s coming
a. Anything you do over
yourself is a flop-John 15:5, Psalm 127:1
3.
John
5:19,30-Jesus said I can do nothing of myself; that means he didn’t come up
with the plan
a. You don’t decide what YOU
are going to do
4.
To
do something without the Lord (to try to work your own plan) makes the thing
you did nothing-Ps127:1
a. If the Lord doesn’t build
the house (if it’s not his plan), it’s vain, it’s nothing it’s empty; If the
Lord doesn’t keep the city, the watchman wakes in vain-John 5:19,30, John 15:5
b. You can build a house on
your own, you can watch a city on your own – That’s man trying to meet
his own needs without God and that’s nothingness, emptiness, vanity,
worthlessness
5.
When God tells you to do
something he authorizes you to do it and if authorizes you to do it, then he’ll
empower you to do it and if he empowers you to do it, then you can do it, but
if he doesn’t you can’t
a. John 5:1-When Jesus went
to the pool of Bethesda that was surrounded by sick people he only healed one;
For him to say, “God loves the people and wants them healed so I AM JUST GOING
TO lay hands on them too,” that would have been a flop because God didn’t tell
him to do it (That’s Babylonian based religion)
B. In their fear that they
won’t be taken care of they come up with a plan to TAKE CARE of their situation
1.
Any plan you come with in
fear will always fail; Fear always fails
a. Fear that you won’t have
enough finances so YOU come up with a plan; Fear that your husband won’t get saved
so YOU come up with a plan to take care of it; Fear that your kids won’t serve
God so YOU come up with a plan to take care of it; Fear that your business is
going to fail so YOU come up with plan to take care of it
b. EX: You’re going to come
up with plan to make extra money, to get free from addiction, to come up with a
plan to fix your husband
2.
In Babylon man came up
with the plan to TAKE CARE of himself; In the Kingdom, God has the plan and in
that plan the man is taken care of
C. ***There’s always a plan,
but it is not for you to come up with, it is for you to discover***
1.
Genesis
12:1-Abraham is on another system (He’s not trying to figure out a plan to take
care of himself, but rather he’s discovering a plan and in it he’s taken care
of)
a. He’s not talking to Lot
and Sarah and his family trying to come up with plan, but rather God’s talking
to Him and Abraham is discovering the plan that God had already come up with
2.
The
Lord said to Abraham here’s the plan, here’s what you do and here’s what you
say
a. Abraham is not trying to
figure it out on his own; God’s got it figured out and he’s telling Abraham
b. “Go to a land that I will
show you,” vs. “They found a plain” – In Abraham’s place God had the
plan, In Babylon the man came with the plan
3.
In Babylon (Genesis 11)
man on his own tries to figure something out – In the Kingdom (Genesis
12) God already has it figured out and tells the man
D. How do you get the plan?
You inquire of the Lord for him to show you what the plan is, to show you what
he wants you to do and what he wants you to say
1.
It’s not just the
generalities of the plan (like he wants you healed and your needs met) it’s the
specifics of “what’s my part in seeing to it that your plan is carried out?”
V.
In Babylon man has to
make his plan work; In the KOG man gets the plan from God and the plan just
works
A. When you come up with the
plan then it’s on you to make the plan work---Genesis 11:3-“Let us
make brick”
1.
Their plan is the tower
and they have to make the brick to make their plan go
2.
If God gave them the plan
for the tower, he would have provided the brick but because he didn’t give them
the plan he isn’t given them brick so they got to make it
B. The only way to make your
own plan go is to toil by the sweat of your brow; Herein enters toil-Sweat,
labor, unrest, self-effort because you’re having to make something work that
God didn’t ordain; When it’s on you to make it work toil will be the result
1.
It
is the wearisome effort to make it happen through your own labor; It could be
prayer labor, it could be worry labor, it could be good idea labor; It comes
from this idea that it’s all on me to make it go
2.
Genesis
13:6-12-Lot’s toiling in strife and selfishness; while Abraham is working the
Kingdom
3.
When you realize this
isn’t my plan, this is God’s plan he’s going to do the work and I’m going to do
what he says; it removes toil from the process
a. Babylon is not just
trying to make your own plan work, it will have you trying to make God’s plan
work
b. Ezra 6:3-12-Message
Bible-He’s rebuilding the Temple and the plan just works
4.
Psalm
127:2-Anxious toil manifests when man tries to meet his own needs without God,
to TAKE CARE of it
a. You got to get up early
and stay up late in anxious toil because you got to make your plan work
b. Babylon is what has you
crunching pennies, couponing, doing sleep studies, trying to figure out the
right dosage of medicine, googling, facebooking, getting two jobs
c. 1Pet5:7-God
gives his beloved sleep-My Father loves me, my father cares for me, I’m going
to sleep
C. Genesis 12:4-“So Abraham departed” - Abraham didn’t
come up with the plan so he didn’t have to make the plan work, he just worked
the plan
1.
There
was an ease to this rather than a toil-The plan was go to a place I’ll show
you, I’ll bless you, make your name great and you’ll be a blessing; you don’t
have to make that work, go to the place that I’ll show you, it works
2.
You
don’t have to figure what to do and what to say to make it work; the Lord will
show you what to do and say and it will work-John 11:41, Luke 8:48
a. John 11-The plan was to
wait here two days, go to Lazarus’ tomb and tell Lazarus to come forth; Jesus
doesn’t have to make that work, it just works
3.
Abraham
worked the plan by obeying God
a. Genesis 13:2,
24:1,25-Abraham just got in the plan and the plan worked
b. It worked because God
came up with the plan; Abraham just had to work the plan
D. In Babylon man does what
he wants and labors make the plan work – In the Kingdom man does what God
says and God does the work-John 5:19,30,14:10
1.
“Let
us build us” and “Let us make us” – This is man doing it
2.
“I
will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name
great.” – That’s God doing it
VI.
In Babylon everything
ends with us – In the Kingdom we are blessing all the families of the
Earth
A. Babylon it’s all about
you; In the Kingdom it’s about raising you up to a place where you can bless
B. In Babylon I’ll push
others down as long as it means I get to the top (because I got to take care of
myself)
1.
Babylon
will have you taken stuff from the hotel room, tipping your waiter based on
service, using coupons you know are expired trying to see if you can get away
with it because it’s you taking care of you and as long as you are taken care
of that’s all that matters