Thank you, Mike. Every year about this time, I give what we traditionally call the State of the Church Address. Now the name, as you might guess, plays on the annual State of the Union Address, which the President of the United States gives every year in January. In his address to Congress, the President touches on some of the key challenges and accomplishments of the past year, and he lays out the agenda of his vision for the year ahead. I, too, usually highlight some of what the Lord has done for us over the past year and look ahead to what he's telling us for the year to come, or what seems to be what he's telling us for the year to come. But beyond that, there's not a whole lot of resemblance between the two. I don't have a teleprompter. Now, the state of the church address also keeps an eye to our church purpose statement. It's a brief summary distilled from God's word, so it's biblical. It's a brief summary of what we're after as a church family, and we have it listed in our bulletins on the back page every week. You'll see it on the screen now, and I'd like you to stand, and if you are a Cornerstonian, I'd like you to say it with me now. A one, and a two, and a three. Cornerstone Community Church is committed to God-centered worship and vibrant community by biblical discipleship through loving service and empowered evangelism. Okay, thank you. You may be seated. whether you realize it or not that purpose statement has a bearing and every message that is preached and then every ministry that is carried out and every activity we do as a church it falls under what we're doing some under at least one of those categories and and often over uh... falls under a couple of them we take this seriously then but i think maybe the most important thing about the state of the church address at least with how i've chosen to do it over the years is that it comes out of the sermon series that we've been in see i believe firmly that god speaks to us together as a church family directly through his word the word that we've been immersing ourselves and week after week after week i mean if we're doing that over that period of time We're God's people, and we're here to listen to Him. Doesn't it make sense He's going to be speaking to us through, of all things, His Word? Now, that's not the only thing that He speaks through. In the service, of course, the whole service is an interaction between us and God, in terms of our singing, our praying, even with the announcements, but also, preeminently, with the reading of the Word, and then the proclamation of the Word. And so I believe firmly that as we have gone through this series in the book of Revelation, week after week, God has been speaking to us and it's not a bunch of scattered things. There are certain things that he's been speaking to us and perhaps it's varied from person to person. You know, the Holy Spirit individualizes things. But nonetheless, he's been speaking. And so the message usually comes out of a passage in the sermon series and a passage that it just happens to land on for that week or that Sunday and amazingly it works out. sometimes though i may draw from several different passages in the series and i did that last september for example we were near it nearly finished with the series on the book of daniel and i was led to shape the message according to the god-centered character of god's saints that we decide displayed in the book of daniel of daniel and his friends and so i grew from those passages what i'd thought and seemed that god was speaking to us for the coming year their example provides a vital direction for us in the turmoil of these last days. I believe that God put them in the scriptures in the book of Daniel to be examples for such a time as what we're going through and any time that God's people are going through difficulties. but especially in the last days, which Daniel looked toward, very much so. And a lot of the book and the theology of it and the doctrine of it and the themes of it are caught up into the book of Revelation. Listen to the four things that we looked at last year as God's directives for us for the coming year, his guideposts for us for the coming year. To be loyal to God above all. to be convinced of God's sovereign care over all, to be devoted to God's people for all, the people here and the God's people around the world, and to be faithful messengers of God in all things. Now, at least three of those, loyalty to God above all, being convinced of the sovereignty of God in all things, and being faithful messengers are repeated themes. There's a drumbeat going through the book of Revelation for those things. And of course, through the other things we do as a church throughout this year, there has been an emphasis on our togetherness. And how many times have I said, we do this together. We don't want to leave anyone behind. And I'm not just simply thinking of the rapture there, but I'm thinking of everything in terms of God bringing us and ultimately into his presence. So we've actually been emphasizing, through the book of Revelation and through a number of other things that we have done, through a number of studies and other things, those four things this year, whether you've realized it or not. God's been underscoring those for us, and I hope and I pray that we have been deepening in our relationship with Him in those areas, because if we are, that really, those four things cover, embrace all the things in a Christian life and growing in Christlikeness. Now we need the rest of Scripture, of course, to fill that out and to focus on certain things, but there you have it. Now this year, I'm doing something a little bit different. I'm going to give the State of the Church address in two parts, and I decided upon this just about a week ago. It might have been last Sunday, actually. It might have came to me during the message, actually, because it was pretty recent. I thought, wait a minute. There's something going on here and I need to pay attention to this. And so as I look through chapter 18 of Revelation, I saw two things in there that really, obviously they jump out from the passage, but which seem to be impressive to me is this is what the Lord is directing us to this year. Not that He's not directing us to other things, but these are two key things. So two parts, two messages, which are really one message from Revelation chapter 18, the first part of it this week, the second part next week. Now last Sunday in Revelation 17, That passage portrayed the end time evil empire Babylon as a prostitute which God will judge for her blasphemous idolatry, her seductive luxury, her unrestrained immorality, and her bloodshed of God's people. God's people, there's a lot of bloodshed going on in the world this day, from little kids on to old people for the kingdom of God. Now, Revelation describes how Babylon's destruction, Satan is behind all this stuff, and Babylon is the kingdom that Satan raises up and co-ops, and he does it through the Antichrist. But Revelation 18 now describes her destruction more fully. It particularly focuses on her economic oppression, and we'll probably be getting into this a little bit more next week. But God gives us, in this chapter, two very simple but absolutely essential commands in the light of his coming judgment. And it's good for any time on the prophetic timeline that we're on. Whether we're years away, decades away, even centuries away, or whether it's right on the threshold. God gives us two simple instructions for this year. First one, come out. And the second one, rejoice. Come out and rejoice. These are God's marching orders for Cornerstone Community Church in the year ahead. Come out and rejoice. Separation and jubilation. I wonder how those go together, but we'll see over this week and next week. Now today in Revelation 18, verses 1-8, God urges us to come out from Babylon. And Babylon may not be fully operated yet, but all the trends and movements are there. They've been there for quite some time, moving in that direction, and we contend with it as if Babylon is fully here. God urges us to come out from Babylon, the end-time evil empire, lest we join her sins and thus share in her soon-coming judgment. He calls us to be separate, not in the sense of no contact, but of no contamination, and there's a big difference there. Jesus was in the world, fully engaged in the world, but the world did not contaminate him. Nor does it need to contaminate us who are in Christ for walking in him day by day. You see, the contamination went the other way when Christ was around. He made the unclean clean, the lepers and all that. The same is true as we're following his will and serving him in his power. The contamination goes the other way as well in this world as hope and life and grace is extended and lives are changed. But He calls us to be separate. Not in the sense of no contact, but of no contamination. Being in the world, as Jesus said, but not of it. Distinctly His. To be separate means to be distinct. Not simply better than or anything else like that, but different from. And it's that distinction in Christ that makes us distinct. Otherwise, there's really no difference between us and the rest of the world. In verses 1 through 3 of chapter 18 here, Babylon will fall because of her sins with the nations. The scene opens here with the angelic announcement of Babylon's fall and desolation, verses 1 and 2. After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority, and Eli gave emphasis that great authority. He did that well. Great authority. And the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. Now the angel comes from God's presence here because he's bearing great authority, God's authority. He's come right from the very presence of God. He reflects God's glory such that he lights up the whole earth. That's the vision that John sees here. And he repeats the announcement of Babylon's fall that first rang out back in chapter 14 in verse 8. The fall of Babylon has not yet actually happened. John is seeing something which is going to happen and in the vision it hasn't happened yet because it's simply being announced. But his weighty announcement, the angel's weighty announcement in verse 2 means that it is certain and that we need to heed it. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. It draws from Isaiah chapter 29, 21 and verse 9, where the historical Babylon that Isaiah proclaimed against, it was announced, fallen, fallen is Babylon, the same words as here. And all the carved images, that passage goes on to say, of her gods, fallen with her. The destruction of Babylon includes the destruction of her idols, including the one that the Antichrist had set up for himself. The angel further describes the result of the end time Babylon's devastation in terms that both Isaiah and Jeremiah had used for the destruction of the historical Babylon centuries before and other wicked cities which had flaunted God's laws and fallen under his judgment. Language is very similar to what we find here. You see, there's a reason for this. You see, just as those prophecies John is reminding us, or the Revelation, the vision is reminding us here, just as those prophecies concerning the historical Babylon had been fulfilled, so too this one will be fulfilled with the end-time Babylon. The connections of the patterns with scripture that we've been seeing over and over again in Revelation are screaming that out to us. These other things in the Old Testament, many of them came true as stated. The same will be the case for the end-time evil empire, the end-time Babylon. That too will be true in the same pattern of things because it's that which sums up and culminates all the kingdoms of men and it will be destroyed. It will be destroyed. Babylon the Great will be reduced to a deserted city here, stripped of anything human. A barren wasteland, look at it, fit only as a jailhouse. That's the significance of one of the terms there, the haunt there. Fit only as a jailhouse for unclean spirits, unclean birds, unclean and hateful wild beasts. It means they have no place in God's presence. They're driven from it. Babylon will be utterly degraded. Ultimately, this is... Listen to this. Ultimately, you see, this is the very best that the world has to offer you or me. This is the world's best here, and this is what will happen to it. Now, is this the riches and the wealth that's represented by Babylon? The power? Is this what you're giving your life to? Is this what you're pouring yourself into? Is the wealth-building system of Babylon what you're hoping in? The things are already in place now. Are you relying for your security on Babylon and not realizing it instead of on God? What a contrast here to the beautiful and honorable city, the Garden City. I love this one. It's a Garden City of the New Jerusalem that we find God preparing for us and bringing to us at the end of Revelation. What a contrast. The things of this city, Babylon, will disintegrate and be destroyed. Not so the city of God, not so the new Jerusalem that's coming, not so the community of God that God will establish at the very end as a garden city. The reason for Babylon's destruction here is her immorality with the nations and her self-indulgent luxury, verse 3. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. There are three groups here that fall with Babylon because they have freely participated in her debauchery and self-indulgence. The nations, the kings of the earth who lead those nations, and the merchants of the earth who provide the wealth for the nations. The partition of the nations and the kings and Babylon's sexual immorality and the idolatry repeat what's already been said earlier in the announcements and the statements of Babylon's fall in previous chapters. But including the merchants here is new. This is the first time in Revelation this has been done. Their participation lies in having grown rich from the power of Babylon's luxurious living. Economic sin is big in this chapter, and as I mentioned, we'll focus on it in the last part of the chapter that we'll be in next week. And the network of the sea trade and luxuries which supported But the Roman dominion in John's day provides the model here because this is a very apt description of what Rome and an empire was like and its wealth was like in the days of John. It was not the final expression of the evil empire. There's a lot more to go on that. But it was the preliminary, it was the pattern for it. See, economic sin is a big thing in this network. And you may not be rich, you may not be powerful, but we can sure be guilty of economic sin in many different ways, of financial sin. Rome had grown fat by John's day, very fat. Used to be a lean people, lean empire, but it had grown fat, very corrupt. And it had done so by forcibly taking goods and taxes from conquered lands to support its imperial bureaucracy. Goods were taken out of the provinces to support the elite in Rome, who used their wealth to socially control their subjects and to suck them in, in ways that further supported them. Well, they thought they were getting, these other people thought they were getting a good deal. Not so. It was said that all roads lead to Rome. That was because all commerce led to Rome. The materials, the provisions, the wealth of other lands were sucked into Rome to underwrite the power structure there. And it left most of the common people living at a subsistence level, below the poverty line. Roland's merchants were wholesale dealers who traveled all over the empire, selling their merchandise in huge quantities, and providing the network that made all of this work, and at the same time, they got wealthy themselves. Nothing wrong in getting wealthy, but if it's through the oppression and the ripping off of other people, that's not well. That's not good. The surrounding powers scrambled to become a part of Rome's wealth machine in the first century and willingly participated in the idolatry and the immorality necessary to maintain their place in it. And I mentioned this is idolatry and immorality by God's standard. They didn't view it that way. Now, don't be fooled by appearances in this world. discern the true condition and the true peril of this world system and its ways. The wealthy seem to be having it made. very often. Nothing can touch them. They can survive the downturns just fine and even get wealthy during them. You heard the expression follow the money, do that in relation to how our government is operating these days and has operated for some time, follow the money. There is a growing corruption in our businesses with a growing infiltration of more and more government because more and more government makes it feasible makes it actually palatable for businesses to do what they do to survive and make money and that involves corruption. It corrupts both government and business and they're in bed together very often. Now that's not complete today. I'm not saying pull out your stock, you know, investments and all of that. Some of them maybe. But Ephesians 5.11 says this, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Expose them. We're to flee from them, but expose them for the protection of the people of God and for the warning of anyone who will hear. We need to be doing this together. Verse 10 in Ephesians 5 is the flip side to that. Try to discern, Paul says, what is pleasing to the Lord. Discerning what is pleasing to the Lord, exposing the darkness. Several of our MTC studies this fall are especially geared to do just that, the truth project that Jim will be leading. First and Second Peter, the suffering church, does that as well. And the spiritual warfare study looks at the underpinnings of the spiritual world behind these things. But Babylon will surely fall because her sins with the nations will deprive and exploit others, and it disregards God. And so, God calls us to come out because of her judgment. He calls us to come out because of her judgment, verses 4 and 5. for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." God commands his people to separate so as not to share in her judgment. His call in verse 4 echoes Jeremiah 51 and verse 45, which says, "'Go out of the midst of her, my people,' again addressed to Babylon, historical Babylon in that case, let everyone save his life from the fierce anger of the Lord. Likewise, Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 6 and verses 14 and 17, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Often that's applied to marriage and that's a suitable application of that. It's an application to a business relationship as well that may entwine us in things that are not right. Doesn't mean you can't have business partners who are non-believers, but to be yoked in such a way that you have to compromise is not right. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Therefore, and here Paul is quoting from another Old Testament passage, Isaiah 52.11, therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, and then I will welcome you. Then I will welcome you. Sometimes this may involve actual separation, physical separation. Sometimes you have to get away from some old influences. They will drag you down in order to be strengthened. And maybe then you can minister to them at a later point. But sometimes there's a place and a time and a reason to flee. It means fleeing from the temptation for sure. But what's primarily in view here is spiritual separation, not physical separation necessarily. It's an interchange that is being talked about. A reorientation which refuses to accept the world's norms, the world's values, and its belief systems, and all for the sake of orienting ourselves and our lives around God, around Christ. See, throughout Revelation, believers are called to be Jesus's faithful witnesses as they remain in the world and interactive with it. How else can they testify? How else will they see a concrete embodiment of the gospel and the power of the gospel at work in formerly fallen creatures? as they still struggle with sin. And they see the forgiveness of God at work. Can't be done in terms of a message getting out unless there is contact and interaction. So this is not a fleeing physically from the world, but from the ways of the world. It's a separation from that, and it's a total reorientation that we're involved in, and that is a lifelong process for us. Paul elsewhere will talk about taking off the old and putting on the new, and doing it on a regular, constant basis. That's increasing and growing in Christlikeness, another way of putting it. But throughout Revelation, believers are called to be Jesus's faithful witnesses as we remain in the world and are interactive with it. Even when engaging in the suffering that's inflicted by the world, and we see that a lot in Revelation, we see it in concrete forms in our world today like never before, for us at least. So, this is a call here. Come out, my people. This is a call to holiness, to distinctiveness. We're no better than anybody else, but Christ makes us distinct, and he makes us better than they were. He makes us different from the way we were. separation from the wicked ways of the world and to a loyalty and obedience to God. You see, he calls us come out of her. What my people, my people. This was the challenge to the seven churches in John's day, and it's likewise a challenge to us in our day and will be and continue to be until the final day. Our Lord's churches in Pergamum and Thyatira that we looked at weeks and weeks and weeks ago in chapter two, both were in danger of being seduced into sexual immorality and food offered to idols, idol worship. That is, into idolatrous worship and sexual immorality that were part and parcel of the trade guild and the business feast in which the business associations were developed, networking took place, and deals were cut. Remember that, when we went through that weeks and weeks ago? They were a big part, these feasts were, of what it meant to do business with others. But they involved you in sexual immorality, they involved you in idol worship, whether you liked it or not, it was just part and parcel. And so, God says, Jesus says to them, I'm coming in judgment and discipline on you. Change, repent. Repent. Now, note the two reasons for separating here. Very important. Lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. means being separate so that you won't share in our sins and in the judgment that it brings. Why the warning if we have in so many other places, both in Revelation and elsewhere in Scripture, that we've been assured of God's protection for His people? Why these kinds of warnings here, lest we be caught up in the judgment on Babylon, lest we get sucked into our sins? Well, it's often specifically through these kinds of exhortations and warnings themselves that God protects and preserves us. Don't say when you get a scripture like this coming to you and you happen to run across it or it happens to pop into your mind, flee. Don't say, God didn't provide for me here. He gave you the exact instruction of what you needed to do. You're not ignorant, simply foolish in that. When he gives you the word, oh, I wish, how many times, I wish God would speak to me personally. I wish I could hear him. That happened to me one time. I know it was from God, and I went and disobeyed anyhow. And it taught me something. If I'm not obeying this word, I'm not going to obey a verbal, an audible word from God. If I'm not obeying the scriptures, which are there for me day in and day out, I'm not going to pay any attention, not in the long run, to an audible word apart from this. So don't go asking for God to speak some special word to you. Ask Him to help you get the word that He's already telling you and been screaming at you a lot of times, and the word, and a lot of times through the word that other people give to you. God supplies, he protects. Don't be a fool with it. Now, God demands just judgment, which will come in a single day in verses six through eight. He pronounces his verdict against Babylon in verse six. Here it is. Pay back as she herself has paid back others. And that's a reference there, an allusion to how Babylon has treated God's people. And repay her double for her deeds. Mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. Just punishment fitting to the crime. Now I want you to note here how God repeats the verdict to pay back double and he does it twice in the three lines calling for payment here. The double payment is either a metaphor for full payment or compensation for their sins or it's a double payment in the sense that it's a severe payment for the sins in line with some of the Old Testament passages which required certain offenses to receive a double payment. Usually those are connected with the economic sins and exploitation of others, such as theft. You have to pay back the double, it was said. You pay back what you took and you pay back compensation for the harm that you caused by taking it. And that's what Babylon is called to pay back here, or be paid back the double, or full compensation, one or the other here. Doesn't matter, same thing comes out. Now, look at her mix of sins for which she has received the verdict in verse 7. First, she glorified herself rather than God in verse 7. Second, she lived in a sensuous luxury. The word for luxury has the idea of sensuality along with it. Now, listen to her arrogance. This prostitute, as we saw in the last chapter, she's actually portrayed as a prostitute. This prostitute says, I sit as queen. She's really a prostitute. I am no widow. I haven't been touched by evil or by losing a husband. And mourning I shall never see. I haven't lost any kids. I haven't gone through any grief. I've got it made. I'm invincible. It echoes Babylon's boast in Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 47, 7-8. I shall be mistress forever. I'm queen. I am, and there is no one beside me." Hey, that's what God says. That describes God. She's taking it to herself. I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children. So we have similar passages here. Now what's scary here for me is that the church in Laodicea in chapter 3, verse 17, was similarly arrogant and boastful in its wealth and self-sufficiency. God's people fell into this trap. They got sucked in. Come out from her! Come out from Babylon! That's what they needed to hear here, and here the Lord is giving it to them. In Revelation 3.16, Christ says to His church, You say, I am rich and have prospered, and I need nothing. How many wealthy churches do we have in our country? We have lots of wealth here. And maybe they won't, I'm sure they wouldn't say that, but that is subtly thought. Jesus says, you're not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. If you realize that, you could get some healing and help. And it is a danger for us today. In America, we're especially prone to rely on our own resources, our own sufficiency to package the gospel. Now we won't put it that way, but that often is what happens even in churches that don't have a lot of money. And we end up promoting idolatry instead. I'll give you one extreme example here. A few years ago on Easter, a well-intentioned attempt to reach out to the community on Easter in a church, a Texas megachurch, On Easter, they gave away 16 cars, 15 flat screen TVs, and furniture as prizes to get people into the building so they could hear the gospel. All they wanted was to hear the gospel. But I wonder if anyone left impressed with the resurrection of Jesus Christ that day. Or were they thinking about the cars and the other things that were given away? And I wonder if this is why the Lord keeps most churches, including us, and ministries, including Zach's, and missionaries, including Zach and a whole lot of others, on the financial edge. In order to keep them, keep us, dependent on Him. Dependent on Him. You find that the missionaries who did great things over the years and others, men and women who did great things for the Lord, had no idea they were doing great things for the Lord. They didn't see it. They were simply struggling and trying to make it through, make ends meet financially, hang by a thread spiritually in the situations they were in. And later on we look back and say they're heroes of the faith. We see how God worked through that in ways they did not. So you can see several people in the scriptures that are that way as well. In Luke 6, 24, Jesus warns, So verse 8 concludes here, For this reason, her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her. See, the Lord is the only almighty one around. The judgment of the end-time Babylon here echoes Isaiah's prophecy again. So many ties with the Old Testament. Prophecy again against historical Babylon in Isaiah 47, 9, where she would suffer, Babylon would, the full loss of all she boasted in, in a moment. Isaiah says, in one day. What's it say here? Babylon will be judged in one day. Babylon's overthrow, historical Babylon's overthrow, did historically happen in a single day. As the river was diverted, the Euphrates was diverted from flowing in its course, and Babylon opened up a way for the forces of Cyrus to go in at night, take the city without a fight. So, also, the end time Babylon will be overthrown ultimately in a day when Christ returns. It already starts with Antichrist, as we saw last week, turning in on his own empire. Boggles the mind. But the phrase, in a single day here, in verse 8, will be repeated in the form of, in a single hour, at the end of each of the three laments, the funeral songs, which follow in the rest of the chapter. And we'll look into those next week. But the Lord God alone is almighty. As the day of God's judgment approaches, flee the fleeting attractions of this world and vest your life in the riches of his kingdom instead. The issue isn't whether to pursue riches or pleasures, but which riches and which pleasures and how. In your presence, the psalmist says, sings to the Lord, are pleasures forevermore. Our God calls us now, come out from her, my people, come out. It's time to come out from the pornography you're linked to and enslaved by. And if anyone here is enslaved by it, please see me or our elders. We want to help in that situation, not beat you down or embarrass you. Come out, the Lord says, and that means going to the people that can help and letting your sin be exposed to trustworthy people that way. Come out. It's time to come out from that. It's time to come out from our reliance upon our 401k plans. To come out from our lethargy in prayer. Judy sent a note. saying, pray for the pastor. I love that, Judy, and I know some of you pray for me regularly, some every single day, and I feel it. And believe me, throughout this series, I have had periods where I'm struggling against something and I don't know what, except I know it's not something normal, and I have to work through that and struggle through it, and finally then things kind of begin to gel. But thank you for the prayers. We need to be praying for all of each other that way. Because we're all in the ministry in these days. We all need to come out from Babylon and be separate and be holy to the Lord. In Matthew 6, 19-21, Jesus said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, nor where thieves do break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where is your heart this morning? Where is your heart this morning? Is it in Babylon? Is it enslaved in Babylon? Do you feel Babylon pulling on you? You may have been freed by Christ, but you still may be feeling Babylon pulling on you. I think we all feel that from time to time, at least, and sometimes, many times, often, we struggle with that. Be honest. Every day, with Babylon's cling. But where is your heart? Where are you investing your heart in these last days, perhaps the last day soon to come? Where are you investing your heart? Is it in heaven, where the real treasures are, where there are pleasures forevermore? No, it's not that we don't seek pleasures. We don't seek good things. We seek the joy of the Lord, which is the greatest pleasure of all. That's what we're seeking. We're meant to seek pleasure, that pleasure, with God and find our satisfaction in Him. Lay up your treasures, therefore, where it's really going to count and where it is really pleasurable. in the presence of God. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will take the searchlight on our hearts this morning and expose what ought not to be there so that we can see more clearly ahead to where you are leading us, both individually and as a church family together. And I pray, Father, that you will help us to continually flee from Babylon, not from engaging with people who need you, but to flee to you for our help and our strength and our hope so that we might be able to minister to them with the power that is needed to raise the spiritually dead to life. Because that's what you've commissioned us to do, is to bring the message of the gospel which brings light and life. but give us life, Father. Help us to cling and to invest ourselves into that which is really life indeed. In Jesus' name, amen.