Week 8 | “What Looks So Good Can Leave Us So Empty”

Revelation 21.3 says, We are continuing our series in Revelation, and I want to start with showing you a video. I saw this video three weeks ago while on Instagram. My friend posted it on her story, and it made me laugh out loud, so much so that I watched it again and again. And then I texted another friend and said, Did you see the video? She said, I thought it was so funny. And I was like, I'm so sad that our friend didn't post it for us to keep coming back to. We only have 24 hours to enjoy how funny this is. I said, You know what? Let's get our friend to post it. So the two of us text the friend who posted it and said, Oh my gosh, you need to make a reel. Again, if you don't understand, don't worry. But basically, me and my friend Haley are trying to convince our friend Amy, who posted the video, to turn it into a video that people can enjoy. Like more people, even more people than people that follow her. And she's like, This is so dumb. It's a video of her dog. And we're like, No, no, no, it's going to go viral. She's like, Does this matter? We're like, It does. And so Haley and I, like Haley's like, Use this song. And I'm like, Don't forget, you need to have like before and after clips, because basically the dog went to the groomer and it was a rough cut. You know what I mean? She did it. Here's the video. Okay, so our friend posts this video and we're like, Why does the dog have a shoulder

like that? Like, when did it become human? And we think it is so funny. And we're like crying, laughing. We even like anticipate, like, it's going up in a minute. We're like, Here it goes, here it goes. And it like launches into the universe of the internet. And within one day, it got to a million views. Has anyone in the room by chance seen it? Weird, right? You saw it. That's my friend. I did that kind of. And you want to see it again real fast? So by the way, my friend, as soon as it got posted, she was like, Oh my gosh, dog groomers hate me. And I know it's my fault. I know it's my fault. I don't comb the dog or whatever. It's my fault. And I have a busy life. I have three children. Here, you can watch it again. Oh my gosh. And then all of a sudden, it just, oh my gosh, it's so weird. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here's the thing. What in the world does this have to do with Revelation?

It does. And I'll tell you why. Because animals will look like that in the end. I'm just kidding. By the way, it's within three weeks, up to 44 million views. Okay. So that first 24 hours, we are like crying, laughing, because this thing is just going. And then we're sending group texts. I mean, I, my, my sons are into it. We're like all checking how many views it's gotten. Like two days later, we're checking it, checking it, checking it, checking it, and then we're checking it some more. And you want to know what we did the next day? We checked it and then we checked it some more and we watched it again and we laughed and then we kept on checking it. I'm a little bit embarrassed how many times I checked how viral that video got. And I found so much joy and pleasure in it. I was kind of surprised. Like I obviously care the most about the Lord, obviously. But I like, for those first few days, I was like, something was happening in me. Like there was this weird thing in me that was like, we need more. You've got to get more. And I was finding this like odd, it almost felt like life, like enjoyment and pleasure on social media. Right? And we know, like there's, that's so innocent. Right? But what I realized is like my behavior slowly started to change. My life, like the amount I was staring at a phone and not at my kids, I mean it was just weird what happened.

It was like I was getting like seduced by the internet and I'll probably check it again next week. But I'm like aware, but it's weird because it's not like, for me it didn't feel like sin. It just felt like something that was really compelling and attractive to my heart that lured me in. Where we're at in revelation, we're about to meet someone personified, a system personified that represents seduction. And the reason I bring the video is this, it starts so subtle. Like I'm sure there are people in this room, I bring up the word seduction and you have very vivid regrets. And I bet you're thinking, how did he even get there? And that's why I love this warning, because it names it and I pray that we would find ourselves aware of where we naturally start to get lured to find life that will only ever be satisfied in Christ. So we pray for us to open our hearts as we open up the book of Revelation chapter 17. Oh Father, you gave us these hearts and these longings that I think we all know are satisfied in you and yet you give us your word to allow us to search our hearts. So Lord, before we hear from you directly and vividly, I pray that we would open up our hearts in honesty and in love. Tell the Lord where you're at this morning. Ask him to search your heart.

We need you. Amen. To catch you up if you haven't been to church in this Revelation series. Revelation begins with Jesus being revealed as the risen and reigning king and then he calls churches to remain faithful and then heaven declares as this scroll comes on the scene, heaven declares Jesus is the only one worthy to open the scroll and then you see these pictures. You see, yes, the seals, the trumpets, the bowls and what's happening basically as we're leading into this portion in Revelation is this, that humanity's rebellion is growing. John is getting this vision of humanity's rebellion growing as God's justice is unfolding on the earth and people are given opportunity after opportunity to repent and here's what's sad. Not all of them do and I just wanna say, we'll have an opportunity to repent today. Don't make that same mistake. There are two realizations that are happening as we approach this. Number one, Jesus is establishing his eternal kingdom while the kingdoms of the earth are gonna be exposed and here's what we find in Revelation chapter 17. God is showing us it's not just these evils and this evil power but ultimately there are systems that are happening in our world that are seductive and the language of this chapter, 17, one through five

and then 18, one through five are very visceral. So much so that on my first read, I went like this. And my friends that I've had conversations with in the past just even two weeks about these passages, I'm like, no, no, seriously, read it, read it, read it. Open your Bible right now. You know, get on your app, get on your app right now. I've done this with all of my friends. I'm like, read it, read it out loud. I want you to read it out loud. I want you to read it out loud. What it says is shocking. Hear the word of the Lord, chapter 17. One of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came to me and said, come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who sits by many waters. With her, the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. Then the angel carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. There, I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

The name written on her forehead was a mystery. Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the abominations of the earth. Did you pick it up? You got it? Let's keep going, more fun. Chapter 18, after this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority and the earth was illuminated by his splendor with a mighty voice. He shouted, fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. Then I heard another voice from heaven say, come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues. For her sins are piled up to heaven and God has remembered her crimes. Babylon is introed as more than just a city. Babylon is introduced here as a symbol of all the promises that are trying to seduce you to find satisfaction outside of God.

It looks desirable, yet it seduces with idolatry. In chapter 18, the angel announces its collapse. Babylon is destined to fall. Here's where we're headed for you note takers and everyone who just likes organization. First, we'll look at the seduction of Babylon, then we'll see the emptiness of Babylon, then eventually the fall of Babylon before we see the beautiful promise of Christ. So first, the seduction of Babylon. Back to chapter 17, there is a prostitute and then there's Babylon. They are different aspects of the exact same reality. The prostitute is seduction who lures kings and nations into spiritual adultery. Babylon is the system behind the seduction. It's the organized political, cultural, economic, religious world that is opposed to God. But it's not just that. It's also the world that is built on things that are fairly socially acceptable like status, money, pleasure, anything that holds this illusion that you can find satisfaction or life apart from God. And this chapter is warning you and I feel so honored that we get to come to church to warn you, it's dangerous. And Revelation gives this name, gives this system a name, Babylon. It doesn't represent the persecution of the church.

It represents the seduction of the world. Let's read it again, chapter 17 for funsies. One of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came to me and said, come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, the face of Babylon who sits by many waters. Why waters? Because waterways are the pathway in which it goes from culture to culture, place to place to place to place. It's moving everywhere. With her, the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adultery. It's not just kings, those of influence. It's the inhabitants of the earth, everyone. Then the angel carried me away into the spirit, into the wilderness. There I saw a woman, so now it's represented as a woman, sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and was glittering with gold, precious stone and pearls. What are these? These are beautiful objects. She's really attractive. She held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things

and the filth of her adulteries. She's addressing longings within us. And here's what I want to tell you. She's not inventing longings. She's redirecting good longings toward herself. And this is important because I've realized it's not like you just wake up one morning and decide, you know what I'm gonna do? Go in the opposite direction. of Jesus, I'd really be into sinning today. Like no one wakes, well hopefully you don't, wake up like that. What happens? Your heart just starts to drift. And here's where it gets personal, and I feel so grateful to be able to warn you on this one. It's that subtle drift when suddenly you're looking to your career to tell you who you are. It's when suddenly you're looking at your achievements to feel worthwhile. It's when you kind of want to bring those up in conversation, you know what I mean? Do you or is it just me? See here's the thing, the greatest threat to our faith in the American church, it's not suffering. Suffering just unearths our faith. It's comfort. It's believing that we somehow deserve ease. And the weirdest part is none of it is evil on its own. The longing you have within you to be accepted

and loved and significant is not a bad longing. It's just really problematic when you look for it to be satisfied anywhere other than Christ himself. And it's so subtle. John is not describing Babylon as evil. He actually describes it as beautiful. Look at verse four with me. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet. Purple was wealth and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand. And this is how temptation works. It's not through fear. It's actually through desire. And this is unique and distinct to chapter 17 and 18. Remember the dragon and the beast from chapters 12 and 13? Remember those? Those guys, the sin, the evil that comes is by force because they're demanding endurance from the saints. While Babylon in 17 and 18 rules by seduction. It's a golden cups of luxury that's hiding deception on the inside. It's not saying from the outside, reject God. It's saying this, chase me. What feels successful, satisfaction, comfort, recognition, stuff, security, it's subtle. And from the outside, even beautiful. But what is happening in this passage is what's on the inside is being exposed. And in the next chapter, it will be demolished.

Don't fall with it. The false promises it makes eventually turn on itself and it gets exposed for what it actually is. So not only is there the seduction of Babylon, there's also the emptiness of Babylon. The prostitute is holding a cup. And at first she's saying, drink this, there's life. Drink this, there's life. And what John is seeing in this picture and he writes down, he's saying this, look inside, let's get specific, 17 for the second half says this, she held a golden cup in her hand. He's saying it looks compelling. To be really successful in your career, it looks really compelling. But be very careful when you get defined by your career. Because what happens, she held a golden cup in her hand but look what it's filled with, abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. It's filled with corruption and death. The temptation wants you to admire the cup from the outside and wisdom is telling you, look what's inside. It's like social media. Does anyone else get like a lot of parenting tips on social media? What's the promise there? If you do this, your child will stop sinning. Ever notice there's like these kind of like two different, back in the day it was like just get your authority, tell them and now it's the parenting is so soft.

I'm like, it feels like I'm choosing a pillow in my parenting. Which one am I gonna go with? There's just so, and the seduction is this, like if only you did this, well there's false promises in it. Everything will be better. Oh, if only you figure out this vacation spot. If only you looked like her. It's the word if or the word when. When I get the job. If I, as soon as I. Have you thought it? I love this moment to like catch you. Have you thought that lately? As soon as, and we're being fed, we have to be very mindful of this because the weird part is, it's not like Babylon is lying about what we long for. It's just lying about where it's gonna be satisfied. The cup is so disorienting. It's beautiful on the outside, but on the inside there's corruption. And so we have to look inside. And I wanted to be real specific. I didn't want it to just be these like, I hope you really think about it. No, no, no, no. Here, let's get specific. We have a slide.

Look at all the things. The outside of the cup. Here's what it wants you to see. The goal of life is to be successful, comfortable, approved, wealthy, control, power, freedom to live for yourself. Have you felt the lure? And it's compelling. It looks really good, but notice what it's promising. So let's go to the top. The outside of the cup is success. If you are successful, then you will have an identity that is secure. But look at the inside of the cup, what it actually produces. Never enough. In Tim Keller's book, it was called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. I'll never forget, there was an interview in Vogue magazine with Madonna. And he was saying that she is very self-aware. That she actually, right after she does a really successful performance, Vogue was interviewing her about this. Like, do you just get to enjoy? She goes, no. All I'm thinking about is how I'm gonna beat it next time. How I'm gonna outdo this one. There's no enjoyment in the success. And Tim Keller's like, she's so aware.

The problem is, we're not. Back to the chart. Success. Comfort, which creates the spiritual apathy because the goal becomes comfort. And it promises peace. But the weird part is you just begin to critique everything and everyone based on how comfortable you feel. Continuing down, approval, why? Because we wanna be approved of, because we wanna be ultimately accepted. These promises, these longings are not bad longings. The problem is that if you're searching for acceptance by being approved by your friends, you will live in social anxiety trying to find it. Wealth for security. Friends, it won't work. Control. It promises that if you're in control, then your body will finally rest. But you know what it creates? Anxiety. Power. The promise would be, if you have power, then you'll be finally loved. And here's the problem. When you find and control and focus on your power, you might find yourself at the top, but here's where you also find yourself

completely isolated up there and absolutely prideful thinking you're the one that got you there in the first place. Freedom to live for yourself, that's life. And you'll hear this one a lot. People are pretty explicit with this one. If you have freedom with no rules, and here's the problem, you become a slave to your own personal pleasure and satisfaction. And these all sound, I mean, when you see the visual, you're like, ah! But it starts subtle. So let me ask you, where do you see your heart being pulled to have those deep good longings satisfied? Because Babylon is empty. Babylon offers a cup that looks beautiful and it's not necessarily evil, but friends, it is poisonous when we ask it to satisfy a thirst that only Christ can. The problem is not wanting these good promises. The problem is not the want. It's asking something else to save you. So let me ask you, who or what have you been asking to save you? Or put another way, what have you been running to have those good longings satisfied? And just a simple word, ask the spirit. Is it the job? Is it the relationship status? Is it, I mean, even good things can become problematic

when we're expecting them to be God things. The emptiness of Babylon. So why is this so urgent? Why does it matter for us to bring it up here? Why are we going through Revelation? Here's why. Because one chapter later, Babylon falls. Revelation chapter 18, after this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority and the earth was illuminated by his splendor with a mighty voice. He shouted, fallen, fallen is the Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. Notice, she falls, it's destroyed, but as we'll get to in future chapters, Babylon is not thrown into the lake of fire. This one's distinct and here's why. Because it doesn't make it. It really doesn't work. It falls on its own and we don't have to wait for this day. You're experiencing the effects now. And it's shocking because in the ancient world, Babylon and Rome were these like dominant powers and no one thought they would ever be defeated. Everything in this world has an expiration date except for what is in the kingdom of God. Friends, you will not find a U-Haul behind a hearse. And this is a warning for us, but also a really kind invitation, but a vivid one. Hear the word of the Lord, verse 4, then I heard another voice from heaven say, come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues, for her sins are piled up to heaven and God has remembered her crimes. The word remember stands out to me because to remember something is to turn and then act. Like if I remember your birthday, I turn towards you and then I sing. You're welcome. The whole song. You just have to stay on there. Remember, but listen to this, God remembers her sins. And I don't say this to be scary. I just say this if you have not

turned toward the Lord Jesus. God remembers the sins and God is pure and yet God provides a way. And so ultimately, the first thing you have to get straight with the Lord is if you have received the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Christ Jesus. He is telling the church, he is warning the church, come out of her, my people. Before Babylon is judged, God's heart is being revealed. People are warned. The church is sleeping with the prostitute of Babylon and she's going down. Church, don't go down with her. This will happen to her. We need to free ourselves from her. Her sins are being piled up. This, by the way, indicates God's patience to allow sin to reach a level. But hear me, God will enact his full justice. No one knows when. It is harsh and it is intentionally jarring language because it will not satisfy. And church, it's harming you and I know I don't have to convince you of that. But I also want you to hear his heart when he makes that invitation to get out of there. He says, my people. It's because you're his. You're in Christ. You're his. And here's something you don't hear often enough. God really wants what's best for you. He has your good in mind. And then John gives one more picture. I'm just going to add two more verses because I want to. Chapter 19. We need some hope because there's some false promises from Babylon but there is point four. The promise of Christ. Verse nine. Then the angel said to me, write this. John's like, okay. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. And he added, these are the true words of God. At this I fell at his feet to worship him but he said to me, don't do that. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, church. For it is the spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus. Babylon says, earn your place. Jesus is saying, I've already prepared one. Our response. Here's the surprise. If you want to know what do you do if this is like hitting your heart, what do you do? Here's the encouragement in these two verses. He's not saying that your first step is to stop loving bad things. He's saying this, come receive the greatest thing. Let's go back to the chart and fill out the table. The wedding banquet, the promise of Christ Jesus. First, we had the promise of Babylon. Let's change that. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, the table of what Christ truly gives.

Whereas Babylon says it's success. Hear me. At the table of Christ, you can receive an identity that was never earned, never could be earned, and also can never be taken away in Christ. You can receive a peace that is not circumstantial. You can receive acceptance that cannot be revoked because the moment you believe on him, he takes your sin and places in you his son. You are accepted, why? Not because you're good enough, but because he was, and your faith and trust is no longer in your ability to be good enough. It's ability, it's his willingness to have been good enough and also to take that which we deserve and then to gift you his life. A security that cannot be shaken. Rest in the sovereignty of God that you don't have to be in control. Love expressed in the opposite backwards way in humble service. And lastly, life that is truly free in Christ. This past week, Scott and I took our four boys to serve at a camp called Hope Heals. And the timing was wild to be studying this passage, that and living for a week at a camp with families with a disability. So this camp exists for any family to come and whether it's a parent that has a physical disability or a child that has a mental disability or amputees

or any type of disability family can come and be here. And I'll tell you, I actually have a couple of pictures of my kids and I wanna show you before I tell you. My little boy, Jed, and my other four boys, my other four total, there's so many of us, his job at Hope Heals, we got to volunteer as a family, his job was to be a friend maker. How cool is that? I had a job, I got to teach, my little boys got to be friend makers and learn what it means to see people and the value of all people. And it was wild, not only here, I want you to see my other son welcoming them through a parade, here's another one, where there's just a parade and then there's a dance party and suddenly what it does at this Hope Heals, and all we kept saying is this tastes like heaven. Like we're doing this dance party where people's dance abilities didn't matter. People who had abilities or people who had disabilities, every single person was having the time of their life. And you wanna know why? Because all the things that we seduce to find life weren't there, it wasn't about success, it wasn't about talent, it wasn't about wealth, it wasn't about power, it wasn't about ability, it wasn't about any of that. It was about a bunch of people coming together,

being reminded of who they are in Christ Jesus and then enjoying it. And I got to watch my little boys come alive because this world tells them that it's all about them and I'll be honest with you, it's crazy. When Randy, my late husband, went to heaven, I didn't realize how much I focused on my kids' comfort, which is great, they needed to be comforted for sure, but I did not realize I had built this really interesting system where everything was about them being comfortable. And I didn't realize it until we go to serve at this camp and I'm like, okay, so here's what we're gonna do. You're going to get incredibly uncomfortable at times. Oh, and everything I've ever taught you, we're gonna flip it on its head, shoot, this is a problem because here, it's not about us. Here, it's not about us. So go into the room and make it about somebody else, be a friend maker. And my boys came to life in serving others. So hear me church. So hear me church. So hear me church. So hear me church. The world's gonna make it about inviting popular people to dinner. And I love the way Catherine Wolfe put it, she goes, find the people that don't have the people and make them your people.

The seduction of the earth says it's about wealth, having, attaining and impressing. Friends, it's gonna fall. And the truth is, some of our hearts are falling with it. So by way of response, here's my invitation. Would you just confess it? Ask God to search your heart and get that out of you. by his grace. Let's pray. Father I thank you for your Word and I thank you for your Spirit and I pray Lord for anyone listening to the sound of my voice that does not have your Holy Spirit and I pray that today would be the day of salvation that they would go, I want a power source other than this world. I want a power source other than myself. I want you Jesus and I pray that they would not leave church today without giving their life over to you Jesus because they can believe that you gave your life for them. You didn't just ask for them to give their life, you gave your life for them and went to the cross for them to forgive them for every moment, every time they've been seduced successfully, every single time and I also pray for the believer Lord that can hear my voice that they would go and run to your throne room of grace today to find forgiveness and purification and thank you Lord Jesus that all of us cannot just put our faith and trust that you died for us, we can put our faith and trust in the fact that you also came back to life for us so that we could receive your Holy Spirit within, a power source for change. So in the meantime Holy Spirit search our hearts, find any unwholesome way within us and lead us in the way everlasting. And all God's children said amen. Church as we continue in worship, as always we have a prayer team ready to fight battles so you don't have to fight them alone. So let's stand and worship him together.