Thriving in Babylon
Session 1 | Friday Evening
Introduction
Each year, at the beginning of the fall season, the men of Northwest Church gather to seek the mind of the Lord for the coming year. The leaders of the Men’s Ministry prepare for this by meeting numerous times to prayerfully listen to what the Lord is prophetically speaking to the church. We endure in this process until we feel we have heard the message for this retreat, and time after time that message has proven to be a prophetic word to the entire church, for the coming year. The Lord faithfully speaks to us. He shows us the need we are facing and His answer to that need.
This year the Lord has shown us that He must strengthen the men of the church, so they will be able to stand firm in the midst of the rapid change which is taking place in the United States, as well as in many parts of the world. And not only is change coming; change has already arrived. It’s been going on for a long time, and we have been passing some major spiritual thresholds along the way. Some have been obvious, some have been subtle, but gradually our society has changed until we now find ourselves living in a strange land; an America very different from the America of past generations; an America that officially, deliberately, aggressively has rejected it’s ties to the God of the Bible. And the Christian church, at large, has also changed. The historic mainline denominations, which in the past were the evangelists and conscience of the nation, have become virtually unrecognizable from the religion of their founders. Their influence has faded to nothing as they have followed the culture downward, finding ways to approve whatever the culture chose to do. This created a vacuum. Who would speak for God? Who would teach the Bible? Who would proclaim a salvation that actually saves people? To meet that need, the Lord has raised up new churches and new leaders, but without the history and training needed to give them a solid foundation, many of these have made the predictable mistakes you would expect a young movement to make. Meanwhile, America turned to other gods. In the absence of a strong Christian influence, the spiritual hunger that resides in every human being, drove people to search for something to worship, and they found it. They found the same old demonic spirits to which humanity has always fallen prey. Since America thinks of itself as too sophisticated to believe in a spiritual realm, we called them by other names, but the old primal forces have captured us just like every other people that come to worship at its altars.
When ancient Israel turned to these other gods, God removed them from the land and sent them into exile in Babylon. But we who live in America have not been removed to another land. Instead, another culture has come to us, so that now we find ourselves living in a strange land, surrounded by people who serve other gods. In a sense, we’ve become exiles in our own land. And the future holds some dangerous signs that more decline may be coming. Things may get worse. So, how does God want us to live as exiles in our own land? This is a new experience for Christians in America. In the past our laws and government supported our faith. We’ve been free to gather, to worship, to evangelize and to live according to our conscience. But today a battle is raging over those matters. How should we respond? What may the future hold? What does God promise us in times like these? Answering such questions will be the topic of this retreat. God wants to strengthen us to give us perspective and to teach us how to live, even thrive, in this environment. None of this is an easy message to hear, but it’s time to talk about it. We believe the Lord says it’s time for the men of Northwest Church to be like the tribe of Issachar:
“… men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” (1Ch 12:32).
We have a problem
1. What is a covenant? (Dt 29, 30)
• a solemn promise (blessing & curses)
2. Israel is a covenant nation:
• the prophets are spokesmen for the covenant: warning of curses; reminding of blessings; promising a coming king who will establish God’s kingdom on earth
• it’s a marriage vow: so to leave God, is to commit spiritual adultery
3. The background: (Jdg 2:1-23)
4. The pattern: (Jdg 3:7-11)
• they forgot the Lord
• served other gods
• God sold them into the hands of their enemies
• they cried to the Lord
• the Lord raised up a deliverer
• the land had rest
• then… they forgot the Lord…
5. The promise: (2Ch 7:14)
“If… My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
6. Is America a covenant-nation?
Or, is America just one more secular nation among all the nations of the world? If we are a covenant-nation then God will discipline us. If not, we will sin until our “cup of iniquity” is full, and then we will be destroyed (Ge 15:16; Lev 18:24-28). I’m not sure of the answer. I thought we were a covenant-nation, but our government is doing everything possible to rid us of all traces of loyalty to the God of the Bible. In the past, for all our failures to obey our faith, we still called on the God of the Bible for help and acknowledged the Bible as our standard for law and morals. As a result, we lived under His protective hand you might say, by faith we became a covenant-nation, but now, in every formal way and also by the will of the people as evidenced by the way we vote, we have rejected that covenant, which may mean that we are becoming one of the godless nations, among many.
7. What are we seeing as a result of this course we’re on?
Enemies are arising on our borders. It takes time for a culture to decline to the point that we have no will to survive, no will to resist, but when that point arrives, we fall. Our sin must reach certain thresholds before God will judge us.
8. A righteous remnant:
In Israel, even at the lowest ebb, there were always people who stayed loyal to God (1Ki 19:18): “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” And God still knows those who are His. He still distinguishes between the evil dominant culture and those who are righteous, living in the midst of that culture
• Noah (Ge 6:5-8, 11-13
• Lot (Ge 18:23-25)
• Goshen during the plagues on Egypt (Ex 8:22; 9:4, 6, 26; 10:23; 11:7)
• last days believing Jews (Rev 7:3-8)
9. Persecution vs. the wrath of God:
God will never pour His wrath on His people. But as Scripture has shown us, time and again, He will allow His people to be persecuted (Mt 24:22). Yet, even in the midst of persecution there is a protection given to those who walk with God, but it’s a protection which requires our active participation. It’s not a matter of “good luck;” it’s a process of walking in the Spirit, of receiving God’s protection by listening to Him and obeying by faith.
10. Things aren’t working anymore:
Have you noticed? Not only in the U.S., but in much of the world: wars, plagues, terrorism, “racial” tensions, mass migrations, confused, inept, lying leaders, family breakdown, churches compromising essential beliefs, cults rising, anti-Semitism rising, anti-Christianity rising, depression, suicide, widespread consumption of drugs and alcohol…. Something’s dreadfully wrong.
11. Will churches revive and turn America?
I don’t know; so far they haven’t. The church in Germany facing Hitler showed us just how far Christians will go to protect themselves from persecution. Most found it in their “conscience” to embrace Hitler’s “Aryan laws” (anti-Jewish). Only a few hundred church leaders had the courage to resist and pay the price (see: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas, Thomas Nelson). Aryan laws became a “litmus test” one must agree to in order to be accepted in Germany. We are facing a rising “litmus test” over Biblical sexual morality. We are being set up to be excluded as “haters.” Hate crimes, a supreme court decision, a media which celebrates immorality, leaves those who hold to the Biblical standards portrayed as extremists who are fearful, angry and misinformed. How long will it be before we’re asked to sign statements that declare we agree that a growing list of behaviors should be considered a normal, healthy option for Christians? Major denominations have already formally endorsed some of these standards. Even “evangelical” pastors have “seen the light” and declared that God has “instructed them” to be totally inclusive. And all of this is done in the name of the “Love of Jesus.”
Unless something changes, either by a backlash in the next general elections, or by a national catastrophe that frightens people, we are moving rapidly into a time when it will be costly to be a Christian. It will take courage and wisdom to find work and raise a family which is not corrupted by the surrounding culture. We are in much the same situation as Lot living in Sodom (Ge 19). He survived, but he did not protect his family and they were badly damaged by the culture. We may lose tax-exemptions, we may be forced out of government jobs (schools, post-office contractors, military…), we may be threatened with law-suits for speaking the truth in church. People may claim psychological damage from being subjected to Biblical teaching as a child. People may sue parents, claiming mental anguish for being made to feel guilty.
2015 Men’s Retreat | “Thriving in Babylon” | Northwest Church