Turning the World Right-Side Up | Sunday Message

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. We're in the book of Revelation. In fact, we're in the last leg of this amazing book. So I'd like you to grab your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 20.

And the title of my message is Turning the World Right Side Up. Years ago, I was walking my dog late at night. Well, I wasn't really walking him.

I just let him go and do his business. And he was a bit down the street, and all of a sudden, a cat appears, and my dog starts chasing the cat. They go a little further down the street, and suddenly I notice this cat has a white stripe down its back, which means it's not a cat at all.

It is a skunk. And I hear this sound. And I already could smell it.

It's unbelievable how bad that scent is. My dog starts running toward me, full blast. He's terrified.

He's taken a direct hit in the face from a skunk. Now, I know what he's gonna do. He's gonna run to our house. So I'm running ahead of my dog, trying to get to my house.

I left the door wide open. I want to get there before he does and shut the door so he doesn't come on my house. Right as I'm getting to the front door, my dog runs right by me, runs through my house. I open up the back window, and he goes into the backyard.

He's rolling around on the grass. And the scent was so awful that my wife, who's asleep upstairs behind a closed door, she does have a supersonic nose though, she wakes up. What is that smell? And it was just horrible. And my poor dog is trying to get that smell off of him.

And you know, when you're hit point blank by a skunk, you're gonna know it. And this sort of reminds me of sin. It just wrecks everything. Our whole world has been infected by the stench of sin, and there's no way to get rid of it. You can run all that you want and try to escape it, but you can't get rid of the effects of sin any more than my dog could get rid of the effects of that direct hit in his face from a skunk. So we're looking now at the last days. And we're looking at what sin does in the lives of people. Satan is sort of having his heyday, and he's pulling out all the stops, and we're seeing the destruction and the misery that comes as a result. But why are things the way that they are at this time and in the last days? Number one, things are bad because Satan is allowed to have his way.

He's allowed. God allows evil in the world, and this is one of the hardest things to explain. Because things happen that are just not right, and sometimes we are hard pressed to come up with some kind of an explanation that will satisfy people.

But I can tell you this. Satan is described in the Bible as the God of this world and also as the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. And so he is behind the wickedness and the depravity and all the things that are wrong. But the title of this message is Turning the World Right Side Up. For the world to be turned right side up, the devil needs to be knocked off of his perch.

He needs to be dethroned. Listen, the devil may be invisible, and the devil may also be insidious, but he is not invincible. He's going down, and he knows it. In fact, one of the reasons things are so bad in the last days is because the devil knows his days are numbered. Revelation 12, 12 says, the devil has come down to you in great anger, and he knows he has a little time. It's interesting, this phrase, great anger, speaking of the devil, speaks of a violent burst of fury.

It's not just someone who's upset. This is a violent, emotional fury that the devil is unleashing. And why is Satan so filled with hate and venom? Why does Satan want our destruction? Why does Satan do all these things? Because he knows Jesus is coming.

For us to know Jesus is coming is an incentive to live a godly life and reach people with the gospel, right? When the devil thinks of Jesus coming, he wants to wreak as much havoc as he possibly can. He wants to destroy as many lives as he can.

Here's the second reason things are as bad as they are in our world today. The world is bad because God is not completely having his way yet. He's not completely having his way yet. He allows certain things to happen.

He is sovereign, which means ultimately in control, but he is allowing the enemy, the devil, Lucifer, and Satan to do what it is he wants to do. But ultimately the Lord is going to step in, and he's going to change everything and bring an end to the evil reign of the devil and his demons. Only God can do this. Some people think politicians will solve our problems.

I feel sorry for you in particular. Or they think the answer is technology or psychology or ecology, but the real truth is the answer is in theology without apology. And if we don't have theology without apology, we're going to have our own eulogy. We need God to step in. We need God to right all wrongs and turn things right side up. We're living in a day when basically bad is good and good is bad.

You know what I'm talking about? We're living in a time where something that is virtuous and wholesome, take the family as an example, take marriage, something God has ordained. That is good, but it is attacked constantly in film and in media and other ways. You take something that's good, someone who loves Jesus and wants to help others, and they're seen as extremist and narrow-minded and someone who's filled with hate which couldn't be further from the truth. Then you take bad, something that's wicked and evil and it's celebrated and even promoted.

The Bible even says in Isaiah 5-20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Hey, even our expressions sort of express that. For instance, there are certain expressions that have not, well, shall we say, stood the test of time.

Expressions like golly or hunky dory or holy smokes or when you slip you say whoopsie daisies. No one says that anymore unless they're probably in their 90s, right? Then other expressions that were very cool in their day and the 60s groovy and far out and heavy, all those are dated as well. But then the funny thing is there are certain slang expressions that have stood the test of time like the word cool. They were using the word cool back in the 50s and we're still using it today in 2021. Oh, that's cool. And that's a positive thing. If we say it's cool, that means it's good.

It's cool. But then there's another word we use, hot. Oh, that's hot. And a funny thing is you can have something that is both cool and hot at the same time.

Seems contradictory. Oh, that's a cool car. Oh, that's a hot thing. And so we use those words interchangeably. Now, if something's really good or really cool or really hot, we say, oh, that's sick.

Okay, now I'm getting confused. Now at another popular word, dope. Dope. There was a time when we would say someone who was a bit slow on the uptake would be a dope. Oh, they're a dope.

Then if someone's using drugs, oh, they're on dope. Now it's a positive thing. Oh, that's dope. So I bring this all up because one day the earth is going to be well. It's going to be cool.

It's going to be dope, if you will. It's going to be healed because God is going to return our planet to an Eden-like state. And this period of time that is coming is called the millennium. Okay, let's pull out our graph again and review the chronology of end times events so we understand what's going on.

Because here in Revelation 20 we're looking at the millennium. Next event on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church. This is when the Lord comes for his people and we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Then we have the antichrist emerging on the scene. He rebuilds the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This is the beginning of what is to be a seven year great tribulation period for the first half, the first three and a half years. Antichrist comes off like a good guy, like a peacemaker, but in reality he's a bad guy and he's a troublemaker.

Then he performs the abomination of desolation, which is erecting an image of himself in the rebuilt temple and commanding people to worship it. This marks the seventh half of the tribulation. This is when God's judgment is poured upon the planet and then ultimately everything culminates in the battle of Armageddon and then Christ returns in the second coming. Again, the rapture is at the beginning, before the tribulation begins, before antichrist is revealed. The second coming is at the end of the tribulation period and then after the second coming are the events we're gonna be looking at together, including the millennial reign of Christ where Satan is bound for a thousand years. You know sometimes Christians will say, well one day I'm gonna die and go to heaven and I'll live there forever. That's actually not technically true because according to the Bible, one day heaven and earth are going to become one. God is not going to abandon his creation, he's going to restore it.

One day, years ago, my wife was driving along with our son Jonathan, he was only a little boy at this point, he was around age three. So she was talking to three year old Jonathan about the rapture. Oh Jonathan, it's gonna be so exciting, Jesus is gonna come for us and we'll go immediately to heaven. And the more she talked, the quieter little Jonathan became. And finally he blurted out, mom I don't wanna go to heaven and leave this beautiful world that God has made.

You know and it's sometimes hard for a little kid to understand this because the way we frame it isn't always biblical. Well God's gonna judge this world and destroy the world. Well wait, hold on, God's gonna redeem the planet. The system of evil and Satan is gonna be overthrown but our planet is going to be restored. Have you ever seen a super cool restored car drive down the road? Maybe it's a 67 Mustang Shelby or a 57 Chevrolet Bel Air just restored to original condition like it just drove off the showroom floor.

And if you're a car guy you go whoa that is so cool. Well that's because you like restored things, guess what, God is into restoration as well. He's gonna restore lives, he's gonna restore bodies and he's even gonna restore our planet. God's perfect plan according to scripture is to bring all things in heaven and earth together under Christ. Peter preached in Acts 3 21 that Christ must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through the holy prophets.

Listen to this, God is going to make earth into heaven and heaven into earth, the wall that separates the two will be removed. Okay so let's kind of get this chronologically before we read our text. At this point the antichrist is in power, he has established himself as the head of a 10 nation confederacy and he's led them to war.

They've faced off for the kings of the east and the battle of Armageddon and all kinds of destruction is unleashed. Now it's God's turn, now God's gonna step in. Read Revelation 20 verses one to four with me right now. John writes and then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things he was released for a little while and I saw thrones in them that sat on them and judgment was committed to them and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus. And for the word of God who had not worshiped the beast or his image or received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

By the way, the word millennium means one thousand, that's why we use that word. This is the one thousand year reign of Christ and the first thing he does is he chains up Satan for a thousand years. Verse two says that Satan is the dragon, the serpent of old, the devil and Satan. Now it's interesting, every one of these names gives us an insight into the character of our adversary. The word devil means accuser and the Bible calls Satan the accuser of the brethren.

So here's how it works, Satan whispers in your ear why don't you go ahead and commit this sin, no one will ever know and then you commit this sin and he condemns you for it and accuses you before God so he's the devil or the accuser. Then he's called the serpent and that speaks of his deceptive ways. You know serpents or snakes are subtle, they can get out of the tightest spaces, they can get themselves into something that you would never expect a snake could get through. I remember years ago I was really into snakes as a kid, I collected them, I love snakes, I read books about snakes and so I talked my mother into going to a pet store and buying me a snake. So we went to the pet store and we had a terrarium with us, that's just an aquarium without water in it and so I bought my snake and I put him in the terrarium in the trunk of the car. And we drove home and we opened up the trunk of the car and there's a terrarium and no snake. Somehow the snake got out of the terrarium and he was loose in that car, my mother said I'm never driving that car again. So a couple weeks later she had to drive the car and she pulled up to an intersection because the light was red, she's waiting for it to turn green and suddenly she felt a cold coil drop on her ankle. She opens up the door of the car, jumps out screaming, there happened to be a police officer standing nearby, he said ma'am what's wrong? She said there's a snake in my car and it just landed on my ankle and he ran over to the car and it was a loose coil that had come undone.

And so she never drove that car again and I got that car so it worked out pretty well, it was an old Ford Starliner, here's a picture of what it looked like. But anyway, that's how a snake works, you never know what a snake is thinking, you know snakes have no expressions on their face. You know what a dog's thinking, they're happy, they're smiling, their tongue's hanging out.

You even know how a cat feels for the most part, but snake they'll be looking at you and they'll be thinking I'm gonna bite you in the face or go lay in the sun, I'm not sure which. So the devil's like a serpent, you get into one little area of your life where you compromise just a little bit. But now he is humble, he's brought down, notice in verse one an angel does that, we don't even read it's a mega angel like Michael the archangel or Gabriel, another high ranking angel. It just says an angel does this, this is Satan's day of humbling.

Maybe a few days earlier the anti-Christ and the devil thought they were on a roll and this whole coup was gonna work out in their favor, but now the party is over. Verse one, I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Now earlier in Revelation we read about the demons coming out of the pit, now they're put back in the pit with the devil.

You've heard the expression you can't put the genie back in the bottle, but here the devil is put back in his pit and he's there temporarily for a thousand years until he is released for a brief time and then he is judged again. But let's talk for a moment about what our world's gonna be like during the millennium. What's it gonna be like?

Well it's gonna be amazing, it's gonna be sick, it's gonna be dope, it's gonna be hunky dory, it's gonna be beyond your wildest dreams. Number one, when Christ comes and rules on this planet there will be world peace, world peace. Isaiah 2, 4 says the Lord will settle international disputes and all the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop and military training will come to an end. Right now over in Israel they are being barraged with rockets from Hamas.

Hamas is a terrorist organization that is backed and funded by Iran and I have friends that live in Israel and they've asked for our prayers and we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But when Christ comes and reigns again there will be world peace, no more conflict. Number two, during the millennium there will be joy and happiness and no more disabilities.

Am I talking to somebody right now with a disability? When Christ comes and reigns there will be no more depression, no more wheelchairs, no more blindness or deafness. Isaiah 35 says when he comes he'll open the eyes of the blind, he'll unstop the ears of the deaf and the lame will leap like a deer and those who cannot speak will shout and sing. Another feature of this time is people will live really long lives. Isaiah 65, 20 says no longer will babies die when only a few days old, no longer will adults die before they've lived a full life, no longer will people be considered old at 100.

I like the sound of that. I read about a woman who at that moment was the oldest woman on the earth, she was 117 years old. Her name was Emma Morono and she said the reason she lived so long was because of what her diet was. Every day Emma ate two raw eggs and cookies. What an interesting combination. Two raw eggs and cookies, she said I didn't really eat much because I didn't have any teeth.

Those are her words. Another woman made it to the ripe old age of 116 and she gave credit to eating bacon every single day. She had a steady diet of bacon and eggs.

Then I read about a much younger man, he was only 110 years old. He'd never been sick for a day in his life and he said it was because he eats garlic, honey, cinnamon, and olive oil. I don't know if he ate all of those things at the same time.

Every single day, incredible. But his father, he said, told him never to eat red meat and especially hot dogs. But then I read about another guy who made it past 100 and he said the secret to my longevity is I eat a hot dog every day.

Here's what I find interesting. In all these diets, there's no mention made of tofu or kale. Hot dogs, bacon, eggs, so that's gonna be my new diet.

Hot dogs, bacon, and eggs every single day. But during this tribulation period, we'll live long lives. Also, number four, the animal kingdom will be subdued. This is where the wolf and the lamb are together with a little child reading them.

We're all familiar with that, I think. Animals will be completely tame and docile. Isaiah 11, six says, the wolf will romp with the lamb. The leopard will sleep with the kid. Calf and lion will eat from the same trough and the little child will lead them.

Can you imagine? I was watching this special on TV the other day about whales and this one was about orcas. Now, we call them killer whales, but they're better known as orcas and they're probably the most intelligent creature in the ocean and certainly one of the most intelligent animals that God created and they move about together in pods and they have their own languages and orcas from some parts of the world have a different way of communicating than orcas in another part of the world and I thought, what a magnificent creature.

I'd love to go swimming with an orca. Maybe you can do that in the millennial reign of Christ. Or you can take your cat for a walk. And I will not mock someone who's walking a lion. The cat jokes are over with if you have a lion or a Bengal tiger or something like that, but an amazing time where the animals are subdued and there will also be universal justice and righteousness. Universal justice and righteousness.

No more corrupt lawyers or corrupt judges or frivolous lawsuits. Psalm 72 2 says, He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy. And listen to this, the curse that came upon the world because the sin will be lifted completely. Romans 8 19 says, All creation is waiting for this day when God will remove the curse from the planet. This all happens in the millennium. But there's trouble in paradise.

Satan and his minions are released after 1000 years of incarceration. And people follow them. Now this just goes to show that people are wicked in their heart.

We like to say it's all the fault of the environment or where you're raised. But in reality we have people living in a perfect environment. You say who are these people? These are the children of the children of the children of those that survived the great tribulation period. They're descendants who still have sinful natures. We who have been with Christ are in new bodies. We don't have sinful natures anymore.

But these are these people. They actually rebel against God after being ruled by Christ for 1000 years. Looks like Satan's time of being incarcerated hasn't changed him one bit.

He picks up where he last left off and he does what he does best. Raises hell. But the Lord finally says it's over.

No more of this. Verse 10 of Revelation 20. The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are. They'll be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Okay let's shift gears. Now we move from the millennium on earth to the great white throne judgment in heaven. Last time I talked to you about the judgment seat of Christ. Also called the bema seat of Christ which is where the Lord is giving out rewards to his faithful servants.

This is different. This is that ominous great white throne judgment. Revelation 20 verse 11. Then John writes, I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great standing before God and books were open. You might underline that word books.

Notice it's plural. And another book singular was open which is the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written in the books. And this he gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Wow. What an ominous scene. This is probably the most serious and sobering passage in all of the Bible. In Dante's poem Inferno are the famous words over the gates of hell, abandon hope all you who enter here. So here's this great white throne.

Why is it white? Because it's pure and God is gonna judge from this pure throne. And if a person ends up at this judgment it's too late. There's gonna be no debate over guilt or innocence. There's gonna be a prosecutor but no defense attorney. There'll be an accuser but no advocate. There'll be an indictment but no defense mounted by the accused. The convicting evidence will be presented with no rebuttal or cross-examination.

There is no jury, there is simply a judge. And that holy judgment will be final and binding for all eternity. Some people say, well I stand before God, I'll make my case.

No, it's too late. There are thousands of chances before death but if you end up at the great white throne judgment, my friend, it's too late. Who will be at this judgment? Well number one, there'll just be out and out sinners. By out and out sinners I mean people who acknowledge they're a sinner.

They own it. They don't make excuses for it. They kind of like being a sinner. These are people that have no interest in God. Maybe they even go out of their way to mock God and make fun of people who believe in Jesus Christ.

Yeah, they'll be there at this great white throne judgment. But there's some other people that will be there as well, like self-righteous people. Now they're different from the outright sinner because the self-righteous person feels because of the things they've done or the good life they've led, they'll be admitted into heaven. They don't think they need God. They don't need Jesus.

They don't need forgiveness. They'll be there as well because they ignored the passage that said it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Procrastinators will be there as well. Now these people are different from your average sinner or even your self-righteous person. The procrastinator is a person you tell about Jesus and they'll say something along the lines of, well, you know what, I really am interested in that. I'm gonna look into that and yeah, I'll go to church with you sometime or I'll watch Harvest at Home maybe someday and I think it's good that you seem to have found something that has helped you and I'm open to this, but I'm busy and I don't have time right now. They'll be there too because they procrastinated for too long.

Guess who else will be there? Unsaved church members. Being a member of a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than, well, being in a car makes you a garage.

No, excuse me, being in a garage makes you a car, got that reverse, right? So just because you go to church, it doesn't necessarily mean you're a Christian and there are people that attend churches, there are people that have their name on the membership role of a church, but they are not followers of Jesus. They're living a double life because they're not really Christians at all. They'll be there at the great white throne judgment.

Everything's gonna be known. Look at verse 12, I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God and the books were open. Now here's a question, why is someone at the great white throne judgment? In other words, if they've lived this wicked life and rejected God's offer of forgiveness, why doesn't the Lord just send them to judgment?

Answer, because he wants to reveal to them why this is happening. The final confrontation between God and man is there to demonstrate why this is happening. Jesus explains it in John 3, 18, he that believes in me is not condemned, but he who does not believe in me is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son. Listen, I know this isn't popular, I know this will offend someone, but I'm gonna say it because it's in the Bible. There is only one way to come into a relationship with God the Father and that is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me. So if you reject that, if you say no to Christ who suffered and died in your place on the cross and say I don't want your forgiveness, I don't care about your sacrifice, you'll end up in this judgment because there's only one way to get to heaven and it's by having Christ come and live inside of you. As I've said many times, heaven is not for good people, heaven is for forgiven people.

Have you been forgiven of your sin? If not, I'll tell you how to be in a few moments and I'll tell you how you can be sure your name is written in the book of life, so stay with me because I'm almost done. Isn't it interesting how we read here that books are open, plural, and a book is open, singular, which is the book of life. So what is written in these books?

Well, I don't think I can say with certainty, but I think I can offer an educated guess based on other passages of the Bible. I think one of these books may be the book of God's law. The book of God's law, by that I mean it's the 10 commandments. The Bible tells us in Romans 3, 19, the commandments were given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world would be guilty before God. The 10 commandments opened my eyes and they shut my mouth because I might say, well, I lived a good life and I was a good person.

Okay, really? Here's the 10 commandments. Remember the story of that guy that we called the rich young ruler? He cruised up to Jesus in his lowered, super cool BMW chariot drinking a latte.

Not really, but he was a wealthy guy. He came up to Jesus. He says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, you know the commandments. And Jesus quotes a bunch of the commandments to the rich young ruler and then that young man said, all of these I have kept from my youth up. And then we read, Jesus looked at him and loved him. It would have made more sense if we read, and Jesus looked at him and smacked him.

Like, what are you talking about? You've broken all these commandments, son. But the point is, Jesus quoted the commandments to show that young man he had broken them.

And that's why he needed Jesus, but that young guy missed the memo. Every one of us have broken these commandments. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen? Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain?

Have you ever coveted something that belonged to someone else? You say, well, of course. Okay, then you've broken a commandment. And the Bible says if you offend in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. So we might say, well, I'm good.

I lived a good life. And God will say, open up this book and it's a book of the law showing that I have broken these commandments. Perhaps another book would be a record of everything I've said and done.

Everything I've said and done. Ecclesiastes 12.14 says, God will judge us for everything we do, including every hidden thing, good or bad. Think about that. Everything you've done is recorded in heaven. Every word you spoke, every thought you had, every text you sent, everything is recorded in heaven. And Matthew 12.36 says, every idle word a man speaks, he'll have to give an account of on the day of judgment.

Maybe another one of these books would show that you didn't even live up to your own standards. Because sometimes people will say, well, I'm not into organized religion. I have my own beliefs that I live by. Really, when you say you're not into organized religion, can I be so bold as to suggest what you're really saying is I don't want to hear about Jesus Christ or the Bible? Because what is organized religion? Is that what you call it?

I call it a relationship with Jesus Christ. But anyway, I have my own rules that I live by. I suggest you don't even live up to your own standards. You'll set a standard, this is wrong and I'll never do this thing, then you do that thing. Well, maybe it's not as wrong as I thought. It's other thing is bad, I'll never do that, then you do that.

Well, you keep adjusting it according to bad choices you make. The Bible says in Romans 2, 14, even when non-believers who don't have God's law instinctively follow what the law says, because in their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate God's law is written in them because their own conscience will accuse them or tell them what they're doing is right. The day will come when God through Christ will judge everyone's secret life.

You don't even live up to your own standards, much less God's standards. See, all these books are open to show you really brought this on yourself. Maybe another book is a record of every time you heard the gospel and rejected it.

Because someone might say, well, wait, wait. No one ever told me about Jesus. No one ever told me he died on the cross for my sin. No, hold it.

Check this out. And maybe there's a film reel with highlights of your life, all the times you heard the gospel. Here you are as a little kid in Sunday school and a teacher's telling you Jesus loves you and you're cutting off the pigtail of the girl sitting in front of you. Here you are as a young man and someone engages you on the street and talk about Christ and you push them away. Here you are flipping the channels or you're on YouTube just looking at different things and you hear some bald guy telling you you need Jesus and you say, I don't want to watch that right now.

I want to go watch a cat video instead. See, you heard the gospel and you're held responsible to what you've heard. You know more than you think you know.

Knowledge brings responsibility. The question will be, is your name written in the book of life? One day every person on earth will meet Jesus Christ. He's inescapable and he's unavoidable. And if you don't meet him as savior, you will one day meet him as judge.

Let me say that again. One day everyone's going to meet Jesus Christ. And if you don't meet him as savior, you will meet him as judge. Because Philippians 2 says at the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bow of those in heaven and those on the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Every person, world leaders, presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, movie stars, rock stars, billionaires, unknown people, everyone will stand before God. And know this, the road to hell is paved with excuses. If you end up in hell, you have no one to blame but yourself. Hell is a prison in which the doors are first locked from the inside by us and then are locked from the outside by God.

The last thing God wants is for any man or woman made in his image to spend eternity separated from him in this place called hell. And this is why Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and for me because we've all sinned. We've all broken God's commandments. We've all fallen short.

We've all messed up. But Christ died for us and he rose again from the dead and now he stands at the door of our life and he knocks and he says if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he'll come in. I mentioned earlier that passage that described this time of judgment as the second death.

Listen to this. If you're born once, you'll die twice. If you're born twice, you'll die once.

What does that mean? If you're born once, you'll die twice. What this simply means is you're born physically but then you will die physically and you'll face the second death which is the judgment of God. But if you're born twice, you'll die once.

Let me explain. Born twice, you're born physically but then you're born again. Jesus said in John 3, unless you're born again, you will not enter the kingdom of God. By the way, Jesus said that to a religious dude named Nicodemus, a man who was pretty self-righteous, a man who was known to be a spiritual person but a man who was searching for God and was honest enough to come to Jesus and look for help. Jesus said I'll just cut to the chase.

We didn't say that but it's implied. I'm just gonna cut to the chase with you, buddy. Nick, listen. You need to be born again. What does that mean? It means you're born from above.

It means you ask Christ to come and live inside of you and he forgives you of all of your sin. Remember I told you earlier, God's into restoration. Have you made a mess of your life? Have you made decisions you wish you had not made? Have you done things you wish you had not done? Have you said things you wish you had not said but you can't turn the clock back, right? Well, listen. God can make all things new.

The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is an altogether different kind of person. Old things have passed away and behold, everything becomes fresh and new. I love it when it rains, don't you?

For starters, people with dirty cars get their car washed if they want to or not. The sun comes out, the birds start singing again and this is what can happen to you if you believe in Jesus, the sun can come out in your life again. You can find purpose again. I'm talking to somebody right now that is really depressed. I'm talking to somebody right now that is so despondent, you've contemplated suicide, maybe even someone who's attempted it. Listen, I want you to know, there's a God in heaven who loves you and he has a plan for your life.

Don't give up hope. This is your moment for your life to change. When I was just a young kid, 17 years old, I heard the gospel in a way I understood and I put my faith in Jesus and I've never looked back with regret on that decision. Right now, you can have your life changed because Jesus is ready to forgive you and come into your life. Would you like to be forgiven of your sin? Would you like to go to heaven when you die or would you rather go to hell and face the great white throne judgment? The choice is yours. Listen, you decide in this life where you will spend the afterlife. Where do you want to go? I think you want to go to heaven.

I know I do. So in a moment, I'm going to pray a prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer with me. This is a prayer where you would ask Christ to come and live in your heart. You would ask him to forgive you of your sin and you're making the decision to follow Jesus.

This can happen for you right here, right now. So if you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want your sin forgiven, I want you to just stop what you're doing and I want you to pray a prayer with me. You can pray it out loud if you like. You can pray it quietly, but say this to God and mean it.

Let's all pray. Pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin, Lord, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D dot org.