Perseverance in the Midst of Babylon, Faithfulness in Captivity — Dean Taylor

Welcome everyone. It's great to see everybody. Today I'm going to take a little break from my series on First Corinthians. I had a final message to give to the chapel and I was just really pondering on, you know, you're thinking as we come up towards the end of the year and what is the kind of thing that some, you know, students there would be maybe in a certificate program, a one-year program that I might not see.

And so, at least for a while, and so I really pondered the idea of the blessing of God and an exhortation that would go along with that. And the Lord, I think, just put on my heart a passage or a section in Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 5.

Perseverance in Babylon and Faithfulness in Captivity

And the, or starting at verse 5, but the name of the message that I'd like to focus this exhortation and promise is, Perseverance in the Midst of Babylon. Name of the message would be, Perseverance in the Midst of Babylon, Faithfulness in Captivity.

So let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ this evening. And dear God, I, we pray for your grace. We pray that your very presence would be here. And Lord, we think of the people of God and we say, Lord, spare thy people.

Give not your heritage to reproach that the heathen would say, where is their God? And so Lord, we come to you and we need your grace to live faithful lives. We need your grace and your power and your spirit, dear God, to persevere while we are in this Babylon that we live in.

You've called us not to dwell in little hiding places, but to go into all the world and to spread your kingdom and to tell people about you, to make your name great. But in the midst of that, we have to persevere and live lives and those things.

And so God, we need grace for that. It's hard. So Lord, I pray that you would have this message, this warning that you gave to Israel from the prophet Jeremiah, that you spoke through him, that this would also have a lasting word for us today.

Oh God, please speak to us through this word. Let my words fall to the ground. You accomplish the purpose that you want for your word and you be glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You know, probably one of the most, the beautiful promises in the Bible that you see like on posters or, you know, websites or things is this beautiful verse in Jeremiah 29 11.

And it's just, it's just a great verse. And I, and I, anytime I'm depressed or Tanya's depressed or feeling, uh, this is a common passage that I go to, to just sort of encourage myself that, yeah, I got to stop thinking bad about myself.

Yeah, I got to stop being depressed. And, and this passage is great for that. It's Jeremiah 29 11 for, I know the thoughts that I think towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope.

Isn't that just a great verse? I mean, anytime you get down, take up, uh, um, Jeremiah 29 11. Um, I love this passage. And it's so easy to get down and, and, uh, in our, in our circumstances. But as we unpack this passage of where it's tucked in, in Jeremiah, it gets even better because what it is, it's a promise that God is not thinking evil of us.

He doesn't have our bad interests. He wants our, our, our future to be positive, but it's a promise in the midst of a Babylonian captivity. He's promising you, I'm with you through this. This is tough.

This is going to be bad. This is going to be really bad, but I'm with you. And, and that's what comes out of it. So here's the context. Let's back it up now to verse five. So prophets are the false prophets.

We'll touch on that a little bit later, but the false prophets are warning, ah, this is just going to be a little, a little thing. Don't worry about it. And Jeremiah prophets said, no, it's going to be bad.

It's going to be really bad. And you need to persevere. You've got to persevere. So Jeremiah 29 five, it said, build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, take wives and beget sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters that you may be increased there and not diminish and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it.

For in its peace, you will have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets or your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed for.

They prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, set the Lord for thus set the Lord after 70 years are completed at Babylon. I will visit you and perform my good word towards you and cause you to return to this place for I know the thoughts that I think towards you set the Lord thoughts of peace and not evil to give you a future and a hope.

If we all know him and a good Bible students, Jeremiah was a priest and God used him to speak to this some of these particular problems that was happening. And at the beginning of Jeremiah, it starts off with Jeremiah 1 9.

Jeremiah’s Prophetic Calling and the Structure of His Book

Behold, I have put my words in your mouth, speaking through Jeremiah. See, I have this day set you over the nation and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.

So we got a major change, both to destroy, but also to build, to get the bad out, but also to bring things up. And in throughout Jeremiah, there's like these little poems and stories and things, and it's as it comes in as a little collection.

In chapter 36, we see him taking Baruch and saying, okay, put this all together. It's interesting that the Bible project calls it an anthology, a group of poems or things that are brought together. And I like that idea.

Like it was a collection of stories and things. You know that a few years ago, as I think of the life of Jeremiah, I think of your lives. And when years ago, Tonya and I put together the book of our story of getting out of the army, and it was amazing putting that together.

I think the Lord blessed us in that, and it's done much better than we ever thought it would do. But it was interesting what that does too, even though it was just the beginning, and there's lots of stuff after that.

What it does to you by writing something down like that, it makes you think like if someone's reading your story, what do you, if you're reading the story of your life, what do you just hope that that guy is going to do on the next page?

What is he going to do on the next page? So think of your life. Think of writing the story of your life. What do you want the next page to say? And I think that that's an interesting way to look at this anthology, as the Bible project calls it, or these things.

It's a collection of who you are. As we head up to 29, the chapter we were on in passage, the Jeremiah is just full of these little chalks full of these poems and things. And I get these little, I have an email, for years I've got the, ever since I heard about the Moravian watchwords, you know, they would, the Moravians had this habit they would just randomly come up with a scripture, and they were really big into the lot and all that.

And so now to this day, apparently they're still, I get emails of just these verses. They're usually completely out of context, so you just get them. And so sometimes I forget the context. And there was one that I got, I came across, I think it was from that.

And it was an interesting passage from Jeremiah 12, 8. Again, we're just kind of going through that anthology as we make it to our passage. And it said this passage, and I took it wrong. It said, my heritage is to me like a lion in the forest.

It cries out against me, therefore I have hated it. When I first read that, I was thinking it was Jeremiah. I forgot that it was God that was speaking. I thought it was Jeremiah that was speaking. And I thought about Jeremiah and his background or his people and all that type of a thing.

And I thought of myself and just, I don't know, you sometimes feel like your background or your baggage of life. I think of Isaiah in Isaiah 6. It says, I dwell in a people of unclean lips. And I, you know, he himself, it's like his very nature.

And I felt this kind of thing, like sometimes you feel like your entire background and everything is just drawing you down. But when I looked at the context, it's much worse than that. It's actually God saying that.

It's God saying that about his people, that the people of God who are meant to be pressing on and following and doing the things and being that possession, as you talked about, brother David, that sweet treasure in Jim.

I love that. That they're actually coming out against him. And I thought, well, it's so much worse than even the way that I was reading it. And what's interesting also is that in that passage, I went and looked up the context of it and the whole thing started from a complaint from the people.

Perseverance Under God’s Rebuke

And I felt myself in this. It starts with a complaint. So in the passage of Jeremiah 12, 8, my heritage is to me like a lion in the forest. Back it up to the one. It starts off Jeremiah or speaking for the people, whatever he says.

Why does the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they bear fruit and you are near in their mouth, but far in their mind.

And this sort of jealousy that kind of raises up in him. I think the same thing that one of my most challenging passages that I come to frequently is in Psalm 73, where David is doing this. And he says in Psalm 73, Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease.

They increase in riches. And surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence. In other words, I've done all this stuff. And what's it helping me when that guy walking down the street has all this and I don't.

It's interesting taking this complaint, the rebuke that God packs in here, getting to that other rebuke. God answers and it's an answer, a challenge of perseverance, which is the theme of this message.

Perseverance in the midst of Babylon. And he says this. So remember the rebuke is why do they get to do this? And what's wrong with me? And he says this verse five. If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with the horses, the Calvary?

So in other words, if you're falling with the little easy steps in life, how are you ever going to contend with the horses? And if in the land of peace in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the flood plain of the Jordan for even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you?

Yes, they have called a multitude after you. And so it's interesting. I look at this and it's like, I mean, if you can't make it in the church, if church life is so hard, this is the blessed place, you know, and that you're offended or things aren't going or this and then how are you ever going to accomplish these things that I'm wanting to call you to?

If you can't get along with the footmen, how are you going to take the Calvary? If you can't dwell in this sweet place, then how are you going to go in the flood plain of Jordan? If even your brothers and sisters of your own household, how are you going to do this?

He rebukes them. And that's when he says in verse seven, I have forsaken my house. I've left my heritage. I've given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. My heritage is to me like a lion in the forest.

It cries out against me. Therefore, I have hated it. My heritage, he says, to me is like a speckled vulture. Ouch. The vultures all around are against her. Come assemble all the beast of the field and bring them to devour.

It's very strong. And then he gets really personal. He gets really personal with leadership positions in our life. And I'll give you a warning. Most of this is a very young congregation. All of you are going to be fathers, mothers, leaders in the church, pastors, and the responsibilities that God is expecting for the children of God to have for our children, for our churches, our places of influence is very real.

And he expects a lot from us. He goes on to say in verse 10. Again, this is in 1210. Many rulers have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion underfoot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

They have made it a desolate. Desolate, it mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate because no one takes it to heart. I think one of the most dangerous things that I've seen in my own life is when I get really complacent, when I get cynical, when I get tired.

And this whole thing on perseverance is in the context of perseverance is you're not taking things to heart. You're not caring. And this in a leadership role is a lot even worse. When you have children, when you have places of influence, when you have things, he says, no one's taking any of this to heart.

You don't care. You're just ignoring that all this stuff is happening and all these things, and you don't even care. Verse 10. Many rulers have destroyed my vineyard. And another place, he says in Jeremiah 23, woe to the shepherds.

Verse one, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus the Lord say to Israel against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away and not attended to them.

I'll tell you, it's really easy when in our life with troubling people, difficult situations your children are going through, people that I don't know, whatever, that there's a really big, easy thing to just kind of push them out, get away from it.

It embarrasses me. It humiliates me and get rid of it. You have scattered my flock and driven them away and not attended to them. And this idea that God is wanting us, this is part of that, is a severe calling that he's saying here.

He said, behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their fold and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And I will set up shepherds unto them who will feed them and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. So this calling as fathers, as leaders, as ministers, as shepherds, as mothers, this calling is a very important one.

Holiness as Loving Consecration to God

Jeremiah frequently all through his book here, he's comparing idolatry, like, you know, worshiping false gods with adultery. He's comparing things of calling this false worship like a lover. It's a lover who has betrayed him.

And it's like he's getting personal over these things. It's not just breaking a law or something. It's like God is letting us know deep inside that this is like the pain of adultery of a husband. And it's serious.

And he calls out in memory of this relationship. And I encourage you, think of our relationships with Jesus Christ and think of that love relationship. And that is the kind of thing that's supposed to motivate us to holiness.

At the very beginning of Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 2 .2, he says, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal. When you went after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown, Israel was a holiness to the Lord, the first fruit of his increase.

Israel was a holiness to the Lord. And when that love was there, when that sweetness was there, you know, this idea of a holiness to the Lord. I love at the end of Zachariah, where it talks about this idea of things being holiness to the Lord.

And the idea there is not a focus on what the things we can't do, but how we can anoint and be special and bring this life and a holiness, which means special, which means separated, which means a precious treasure, as you've talked about, to the Lord.

And what can I do for that? Paul lets us know all things are lawful. Everything's lawful, but not all things edify. And your definition of holiness is how you define that edified part. If you find yourself asking the question, what's wrong with this?

What's wrong with that movie? I mean, what's wrong with that song? What's wrong with these things? What's wrong with this clothes? What's wrong with this thought? What's wrong with these attitudes? I mean, is it a sin?

Is that a sin? Is this a sin? Is that a sin? I'm telling you, if that's the way your thinking is going, it's not a holy life. It's not. Because it's by definition, you get it. It's not about what you're not doing.

The whole idea of holiness is what you're consecrating, what you're making special. It's how you in your life and in your attitude and your music and your dreams and your thinking and your clothes and your eating and your, I don't know, everything you're breathing.

It's everything that you can offer as a sweet smelling sacrifice to the Lord. Spending a life, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with this? What's wrong with that? Is just looking at that's not holiness.

You can't get there by there. And so we don't want to end up asking the wrong questions when we're thinking about this and not walking in a legalistic way, but just this sweet betrothal he talks about when we came after him in the wilderness, praise God.

I'll do anything for you, Lord. What do you want to do? Can you remember those days I remember? What do you want, Lord? What's the Bible say about this? I'll do it. What's the Bible say about that? I love it.

And what else can I find? I might find something else in there. I get excited about it. That's holiness. And it's exciting. It's living. And then he says this right after that in chapter two. I'm using kind of an anthology as the Bible Project calls it, looking at this as we get our way back to 29.

And this idea that it used to be this way in 211, he says, remember, that's the way it was. But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn't profit. You had glory, the Shekinah glory of God.

You had the sweetness, and you're trading that for something that doesn't even do you any good. And he says, be astonished. Verse 12. Oh, heavens, and be horribly afraid. That's quite a word. Horribly afraid.

Be very desolate, saith the Lord. And then he brings it down to some specifics. Verse 13. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

You know, this idea is really powerful. These two things, these two evils. So you've forsaken truly who God is, and it says the fountain of living waters. And I think if you think of how we can kind of trade this love relationship with Jesus Christ with maybe a bunch of rules or a bunch of regulations, a legalistic understanding of God, and as you do that kind of a thing, then this becomes losing it.

Or if somehow you don't have this living water in you, and that you're looking at what's not a sin. It's not a sin. It's not this. And you're looking at life and a legal thing, and not as this sweet holiness to the Lord.

That's losing the living water. So have you got that? Have you returned to the living water and have that, as Jesus said, will flow from you? The next thing is, he said, that you've made for yourself, you've carved out for yourself cisterns.

They don't hold water. So let me ask you. Many of us have had some pretty big testimonies come from things, or some of you have come from very awkward religious settings. Some of us have come from political settings.

Some of us come from all different things, and now we've created for ourself a cistern. Does your cistern hold water? Does your system hold water? Does your life hold water, or does it have holes in it?

Can it hold that living water? Can it hold the holiness of God, or is it something that just keeps leaking out everywhere? Just be honest with yourself, because two sins that they've done. You've left the living water, and you can't hold the living water.

Building a Life That Can Hold Living Water

And so if you've come to that living water, do you have something in place in your life that's gonna be a way for you to hold that? I've given you maybe this analogy before, but I love this story. It was a novel by Alan Patton.

I think I've given this, so bear with me. I think it suits with this message here. And Alan Patton, Cry Beloved Country, and the whole idea was dealing with South Africa apartheid. And the scene was there were two black ministers that were there from the Anglican church or something like that, and their children of the church were getting into drugs, and one scene had been where they killed a white plantation owner, and now this young man was going to jail.

And it was a terrible story, and these two broken, dear, old bishops are meeting together and just distraught over what's happened to their next generation. And I'll never forget the scene, and he says, the one is talking to the other, and the one, the bishop says, it's not in my heart to hate the white man.

It's not. There was this, you know, they're mad because these people are getting thrown in jail and all these things. It's not in my heart to hate the white man. He says, the white man brought the gospel to my people, and I'm thankful for this, but this is in my heart, and I have to say it, that it suited the white man to break the tribe, but it has not suited him to build something in its place.

And this is the truth for me, and this is why our people are robbing and stealing and these types of things. So I ask you, we have many beautiful testimonies of coming and having salvation in Jesus Christ.

We've broken a lot of those things that we've come from and all those different things, but do we have something that can stand perseverance in Babylon? Can you make it? Does your cistern hold water? Because he wants to pour this living water to you.

Does it hold water? All right, so the context back into our Jeremiah 29 is captivity, and he's saying it's going to be bad, and it's going to be really bad. And Hananiah was a false prophet, and he said, no, no, no, that's ridiculous.

It's going to be a couple years. Don't worry about this. We're going to just stay here, and we'll have patience. And Jeremiah wanted him to know, no, and there's two things that he really wanted to know.

It's going to be bad, but I'm going to be with you. And it's very much like Jesus when he said, I will send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. If you just think about that analogy, you're like, that's not very encouraging.

I mean, that's not something you think of a positive speaker that's going to say to his coaches or something. I mean, a coach is going to say it or something. I'm going to send you out as a sheep in the midst of wolves, and when you start thinking about the way that's going to turn out, it ain't going to be too good.

It's getting cold now. It's not going to be too good, but I'll be with you, Jesus was saying. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. We know the story of every single one of those apostles, save John, had terrible deaths, but I'll be with you.

And this is the kind of thing. So Jeremiah 29, build houses, dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, take wives and beget sons and daughters. And he goes on and talks about this. I think of this idea of just a clear understanding of our calling, but yet knowing we're in the right place.

Perseverance Through Obedient Calling

In World War II, General Patton had an issue when they were coming to the Battle of the Bulge. And with General Patton, the supply line was one of the things that, of course, the Germans would just bomb the supply line.

And then who wants to be a trucker in the Battle of the Bulge? I'd rather be behind a tree and be an infantry guy, but being a trucker, no. So General Patton came to these truck line of truckers and he said, here's the way it's going to be.

Get into the truck, drive down the road until somebody blows you up. And he did it and it worked, but there was something relieving in knowing what your place is to be. And they went and they won the battle in this kind of a way.

Go out as sheep in the midst of wolves is a call to die. It's a call to die, but he wants us to be, he wants us to be strong. He tells us we have resurrection. He tells us that we will never die. So these places that he's leading, that the things that he's telling us to do will never die.

My favorite all time, all time favorite speech, I think my all time favorite history speech is Napoleon addressing his troops in 1796. He had taken France. He had taken Austria. He had taken now he's going, trying to go over and take Northern Italy.

He'd take Northern Italy and Piedmont and the troops had been through a lot. I mean, he'd taken the whole nation of France. He'd taken Austria. Now we're in Italy. And Italy was a little more difficult because people were a little more happy with their Kings and their situations.

And so they were there and Napoleon had to get the troops to just perseverance, keep going. My favorite, my favorite speech, it's kind of like Patton's short speech. He said this, I've given this to you before, but in the context of this Jeremiah passage, I want you just to ponder this as our captain says to us, remember he's calling us to persevere in Babylon.

So he said, imagine Napoleon and all his Napoleon stuff with his troops. And he says, in a fourth night, that's two weeks, you have won six victories, taken 21 standards, 55 pieces of artillery, several strong positions and conquered the richest part of Piedmont, Northern Italy.

You have captured 15 ,000 prisoners and killed or wounded more than 10 ,000 men. You have won battles without cannons, crossed rivers without bridges, made forced marches without shoes, camped without brandy, and often without bread.

Soldiers of Liberty, only Republican troops could have endured what you have endured. Soldiers, you have our thanks. The grateful Patre, the nation, will owe its prosperity to you. Two armies, which but recently attacked you with audacity are fleeing before you in terror.

Let me ask you, have you won some victories in Christ? I mean, big ones. Have you know that you've had that victory and you know habits in your life that were defeated and things that were accomplished and baggages that you've given up?

Two armies that were recently attacked you with audacity are fleeing before you in terror. The wicked men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced at the thought of the triumphs of your enemies are confounded and trembling.

I love the idea of Satan being confounded and trembling when we break the bonds of pornography or we break the bonds of complacency or we break the bonds of these things. Amen? But then he says this. I love this.

But soldiers, as of yet, you have done nothing compared with what remains to be done. It's a very sobering call. They're out there. They're in northern Italy. They're thousands or hundreds of miles from home.

And he said, undoubtedly, the greatest obstacles have been overcome, but you still have battles to fight, cities to capture, rivers to cross. Is there one among you whose courage is abating? No. All of you are consumed with the desire to extend the glory of the French people.

All of you long to humiliate those arrogant kings who dare to contemplate placing you in fetters. All of you desire to dictate a glorious peace, one which will identify the patria, long the immense sacrifices it has made.

All of you wish to be able to say with pride as you return to your villages, I was in the victorious army that took Italy. You know, we have these fights. We have these battles, spiritual battles. It's so easy, though, to give up.

It really is. And I'll tell you, it continually gets harder. But we have the grace of God. We have this promise that he's going to pack into Jeremiah 29 here. You're in Babylon. You're supposed to minister there in Babylon.

You're supposed to be active and keep going. I'll be with you. But it is tough. How many of you have all read the Pilgrim's Progress? Does anybody remember what is the last and hardest trap in Pilgrim's Progress before they cross the river?

The last and most difficult trap of it. Do you remember? Thank you. Good. The enchanted ground. Oh, in the enchanted ground was worse than the vanity fair, worse than the pride place, worse than the all those, the enchanted ground that everything in you, as you've been walking through your life and going through these things and marching on everything in you, just drags out to just go to sleep right before you cross the river.

Just give up. And I'm telling you, at 56, it doesn't get any better. It gets worse. Dean, isn't it time to go fishing? Shouldn't you get one of those mobile, you know, those little, you know, those little, what do you call them?

What are bagels or whatever, you know, you could spiritualize it. You know, you could have like a fishing ministry or something. I don't know. But the tendency is for us at all times in our life to do that.

It happens in many ways. You're discouraged. You didn't do as well as you thought you would in school. It didn't go well with the relationship. A job didn't happen. There's frustrations that there's problem in the church.

There's different things. And everything in you just says, you know, it's time to just kind of relax and feed myself a little more. And I'm telling you, I'm going to confess to you publicly. I fight this all the time.

I do. I'm like, I just want to stop. But I see that little, in the cartoons, you see the little smell coming up of the flowers trying to enchant me. And I realize, okay, I got to keep marching. I got to keep going.

I got to keep fighting. I got to keep this going. You know, we are living in a day and age, and I know everybody says it, but seriously, this day and age has got to be the most, you have so much opportunities for the church.

Just in my lifetime, when I first moved our family to Pennsylvania, this is, I don't know, 15 years ago or so, maybe a little bit more. Something like that. 20 years ago. Okay. Sorry. Ouch. Okay. So when I was there, I remember Daniel Kiniston, who was here preaching.

I remember he was just recently in Africa, or not too long in Africa. He was already there. But we had talked about buying a satellite phone. And we were going to take a collection because it was $10 ,000 to get a satellite phone.

And then Daniel had to climb up over to a hill and go up to this mountain. And then if there was trouble, like that was happening in the church or pastoral problem, and he needed to call for advice, he would climb up to this hill with this $10 ,000 satellite phone and or something like that.

And then call us, you know, to tell the pastor and get advice or something. Nowadays, I send him a WhatsApp video. And that's the kind of opportunities we have. I mean, communication, I mean, and the military communication was key.

Just figuring out how to run a battle and how to do things to be able to communicate at the end of the world at the touch of a of a phone call. Within 48 hours, we can get to the main cities 24 hours, we could practically get to the main cities of any place on the earth for not that much money.

For really not that much money, children could mow the grass and have enough money to go to Hong Kong within a couple weeks. That's the kind of world we're living in now. The opportunities are incredible.

We don't have... All right, maybe a month. Okay. These guys are good though. All right. So the tendency for us to give up, the tendency is there. Jeremiah 29, back to our text. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners, and watch where he goes with this.

Rejecting False Prophecy and Self-Directed Dreams

Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed. That's an interesting twist, isn't it? Don't listen to the false prophets and get out of your own head.

That's the way I read that, is that, you know, yeah, you know, Dean, I'd really love to... I got this kind of vision. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, and the other. And it's just, you know, there's so many things that are dragging us down to compromise, even your own dreams and your own things that are in your head.

Let the word of God direct you. Let the word of God give us a life to live. I tell you, one of my favorite little works by A .W. Tozer, the title alone is a sermon. Here it is. The title alone is a sermon.

Here it is. The world, playground, or battlefield. That's it. We're in Babylon. Tozer said, the world, the name of the message, the world, playground, or battlefield. It's like, that sentence alone just kind of puts things together about how we live in Babylon as we're here, how we address things.