Cadyville Wesleyan Church
Thriving in Babylon challenges us to hope in God and strive to live in a unique way, even compared to other religious people. In what appears to be an increasingly godless society, we are called to live as people of hope, humility, and wisdom. Though Daniel lived thousands of years ago, he has much to teach us today.
What influences you shapes your worldview.
Celebrate! Jesus is King.
He has won the victory!
And he’s coming back to set everything right.
The Gospel isn’t just about something that happened, but something that happens, and something that will happen!
It’s about a Kingdom that declared victory, but is looking ahead to the day it will be fulfilled.
John 18:36 NLT
Like the exiles in captivity, the one thing we must never forget, the one tension must always feel, is that we don’t belong to Babylon.
Colossians 1:13-14 NLT
Philippians 3:20 NLT
As Kingdom of Heaven people, we must reorient our allegiances.
With a new allegiance comes new values, ones that are influenced by different goals, different desired outcomes, and different worldviews.
We exist in the tension between investing in the good of our country and working to see God’s Kingdom advance.
“They would serve Babylon, seek its wellbeing, but their loyalty was always to God… the way of the exile is a combination of loyalty and subversion.”
- the Bible Project
How can they believe in the God we claim to believe if our belief doesn’t trigger transformed values?
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
- Brennan Manning
Romans 12:2 NLT
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NLT
“ln a sense we are a worldwide network of underground operatives, poking more holes in Satan’s enterprise than he can possibly plug. We live out a daring mission, serving others and pulling them back from his traps while his back is turned on other problems and projects.”
- Ed Stetzer
Are my values Kingdom values or am I allowing someone or something else to influence my worldview?
John 6:60 NLT
It’s in these moments that we reveal just how much of our value systems still belong to the Kingdom of the World.
If the values of Jesus drove the church, people would flock to us as they flocked to Jesus.
The Scriptures say that the singular defining reputation that Jesus had amongst religious folks was that he ate and drank with the worst of the worst.
Far too often the church of today sounds more like a political party rather than a movement of the Kingdom of God.
As kingdom of heaven people, what are we going to do with the world Christ has entrusted to us?
1 Peter 1:15-16 NLT
1 John 1:9 NLT
James 5:16 NLT
One of the most significant troubles in the church today is that people are unwilling to confess their sins to one another.
It’s time to allow our worldview to be set by none other than the teachings of Jesus, the inspired Word of God, and the overflow of the Spirit in our lives.