Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 9 - 10

 What we just ended with in our last study was looking at the character

of the world at the time of the end, which is even quite aligned with

the world we live in today. “I am the top, I site as queen, I need no

grace and I won’t see sorrow.” And the very next verse, she’s

burning!!!

 The kings of the earth, the best this earth has to offer, chasing pleasure

and luxury, weep and lament (or passionately expressing grief),

standing afar off full of fear. They weep and fear for themselves!

Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 11

 Their weeping is purely over their own condition and for themselves!

No one wants their junk anymore… All that they’ve lived for and built

themselves to be. Their entire value, gone. This is exactly what Jesus

was talking about in Mark 8:34-36, “When He had called the people

to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires

to come after Me, let him deny Himself, and take up his cross, and

follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but

whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For

what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own

soul?””

 Notice their merchandise…

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 12 – 13

 None of the items listed are what people actually need. These are

things that people want, for sure. But…, they’re all luxuries and in the

end, they end up being junk, and in a way loss.

 Such is the fate of one living for themself. Eventually, no one’s going

to want to deal with their junk anymore and they will weep…not in

humility or repentance…but for themselves. You gotta take a minute

and just think, what is your merchandise? What are you a distributor

of in the lives of the people around you and the world?

 Is it the things that appeal to the flesh? The lust of the eyes, the lust of

the flesh and the pride of life? Or is it what people actually need? The

things that will retain their value over time and increase your value in

their hearts and lives? So, what are those things?

 Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control. And Galatians 5:23 ends, “Against such there

is no law.” Why? Because these things bring freedom! All of the

things the world desires so much, make that your distribution priority

and it brings the law! Cuffs and courtrooms and shackles and cells

and sentences…

 Look at this last thing listed that these merchants peddle. The bodies

and souls of men! What? Does that mean people are bought and sold

in the Great Tribulation? Does that mean people are bought and sold

today? Of course it does! People sell themselves for the smallest of

things, problems, pride-packed-precedence!

 Every time you choose to serve yourself, whatever it is you’re

getting out of it, that’s your price. Because ultimately, it’s going to

cost you freedom of heart, soul, mind and strength!

Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 14

 Notice, it’s the longing of the soul and not the spirit. The soul speaks

of my humanity. My likes, dislikes. My preferences and my

inclinations. Who I am and my personal personality. All good things

but those things don’t and shouldn’t reign. Why? Because I am not

God. People live, definitely live, as if they are and the world revolves

around you. And I get it! You live behind your eyes! If you’re hungry

then no one else feels it but you! If you cut yourself, you’re the only

one that bleeds. I totally get it! But that feeling, that experience, that

centrality of your perspective being only you STILL doesn’t make you

God. And those that live like they are will one day (and actually many

times throughout life) find out the hard way that they’re not.

 The fact is God is God. And even though this life I live, I live in my

personal experience, the soul is not the captain. Unless you aren’t alive

in the spirit. Then that’s the only option you have. We should be, as

Christians, alive in the Spirit and led by the Spirit.

 There is more to life than what you possess. What you eat, what you

drink, what you put on, how you look, all that you can amass in life.

Life does not consist in what one has… And even in what happens to

you or around you. It’s not what does in a man that defiles him, it’s

what comes out (Matthew 15:11). You dictate the virtue of your life in

how YOU live it!

 Jesus gave an incredible message one day that we find in Matthew

Chapter 6. Let me just give you a few pieces of it. “Do not lay up for

yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where

thieves break in and steal.” In other words, one way or another, we

keep nothing that we earn, buy, secure for ourselves in this life in

terms of things! Whether we lost it naturally, moth and rust, death…,

I have not yet once done a funeral service and seen a hearse pulling a

U-Haul, or whether we lose it because of the evil that is in the world.

Thieves, breaking, stealing. The original Greek word there is TAXES,

HA!

 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth

nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For

where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 “Why do you worry about getting more clothing, securing more food,

amassing for yourself. For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For

your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek

first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things

shall be added to you!”

 Put everything in prioritized order behind walking with the Lord and

doing what is right in His eyes. Put everything under His stewardship

in your life. He is a far better investor profiteer than I am! Make God

the god of YOUR life and you will actually have IT! (Life in your

life!)

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 15 - 20

 The voice from heaven ceases and the centrality of the message…you

wasted your life. It’s all burning now. All the trinkets. All the tokens.

All the totality of the legal tender, what’s it all worth now? All of the

false gods, fallen. All of the worshippers of the great harlot…weeping

but notice the reaction of heaven…great rejoicing!

 The Bible says that Godliness with contentment is great gain (1

Timothy 6). 2 Corinthians 8:12 says, “For if there is first a willing

mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to

what he does not have.” And in one collaborative voice the world says

we’ll get to that…

 The intention is almost always there. To just love your wife, to just

appreciate your husband, to invest in your kids, to serve others and to

calm down…, but the self-centered sensation of “there’s still time”

blinds us to just how far we’re drifting.

 You ever wake up at 1 AM and go get some water or go check the

lock on the front door and it just seems like you could just stay up?

You’re not dragging but rather you’re very awake and you think,

“Well I have more time,” and then you go back to bed and wake up at

your normal time, you know when you have to wake up and what do

you say? “Nooooooo! Just. So. Tired!” Why? Because you know

you’re out of time…and it just weighs on you. The reality of work, of

school, of chores, of what you need to do, sets in and all of the sudden

the energy of “more time” that you had at 1 AM is gone…

 It’s the same spiritually. When we feel like we have more time…we

go back to sleep but the reality of the realm of the spirit is that there is

never more time! This second counts. This breath impacts eternity. It

definitely impacts your life!

 I make coffee for the future me every night! I prepare it and it doesn’t

turn on until the morning! It’s exactly like that in terms of living the

Spirit! It either builds Babylon in your brain or heaven in your heart!

 So many just want peddle their junk and they’ll clean up later. Later

never comes! The whole idea of later is continual delay! And what’s

in store for them is weeping, lamenting, standing afar off and full of

fear because “later” is the mantra, dissatisfaction is the fuel, and all

along the flesh has promised pleasure, leading folks directly into

violent loss! (We call this blindness…)

Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 21 – 24

 Anymore, anymore, anymore! Six times the mighty angel says all of

the things of this world will not continue anymore. Six, the number of

man. The number of imperfection and incompletion. The number

representing the one who looks to self for sufficiency, but it wasn’t

always that way. Six is also the number of days in which God created

and He looked upon His creation and indeed it was very good. He is

effectively putting the good back into Genesis.

 And folks, the time is near. The time of God ultimately restoring

creation to the splendor of the sixth day…