Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride

Today, I want to talk about the one issue that has destroyed more marriages, more churches, more people than any other issue, and that's pride.

I've been in this town for about, I don't know, how long, 22 years, something like that. I've seen churches and ministries rise up and I've seen them fall. And I mean, strong, strong ministries.

Not all of them, but most of the ministries I've seen that have fallen, they fell because of this issue right here. And I don't say that with pride. I say that with fear and trembling.

You'll never hear Chad Harvey say, well, that couldn't happen to me. Flesh is flesh. And I say this with fear and trepidation.

Lord, do not allow me and this church to become proud and haughty because I've seen what it does to other churches. A tyrant in the world has another dream. And in this dream, something happens that shakes him to the core. Look at Daniel 4, 9. He has this dream and he calls a man named Belteshazzar. That is the Babylonian name of Daniel. Daniel is his Hebrew name. Belteshazzar is his Babylonian name.

They renamed him. And after this dream, he calls him Belteshazzar, Daniel, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery is difficult for you, say to me the visions of my dream which I have seen along with its interpretation. In other words, Daniel, tell me what this dream means. Now, these were the visions in my head as I lay on my bed. I was looking and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew large, became strong, and its height reached to the sky and was visible to the end of the hole. The whole earth, its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant. And in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade underneath it and the birds of the sky inhabited its branches and all the flesh fed itself from it. I was looking in the visions in my head as I lay on my bed and behold, a watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven.

This is kind of an angelic being. And he called out loudly and he said thus, chop down the tree and cut off its branches. Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from underneath it and the birds from its branches. Yet leave the stump with its roots in the earth but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field and let him, so now we understand this is not an it.

This shifts here. We're talking about a person. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him share with the beasts in the grass. Let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth and let his heart be changed from that of a man and let the heart of a beast be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him. So Daniel, who believes in the true and living God, here's my dream.

Now what does it mean? Look what Daniel's response is, verse 19. Daniel said, you want to know the interpretation? I hate you and its interpretation to your adversary.

Stop right here. Daniel, a believer, is talking to a wicked pagan man and yet you notice there is some kind of love that he has for this lost man. He says, I'm about to give you the bad interpretation of this dream and even though you're a lost pagan, even though you're the man that single-handedly came to my country and destroyed my country and killed a lot of my friends, there's something about you. I love you and I wish this applied to your enemies, not to you.

Beloved, we've got to do a heart check. The pagans out there, the lost people out there, they are not your enemy. You do understand that, right? We have one enemy. That is Satan, the enemy of our souls. He has taken them captive. He's taken them hostage. We don't hate lost people.

We love lost people just like Daniel loved this lost man. He's a drunk that everybody wanted to see get saved. He's a wicked man, drunk, mean, hateful, vengeful, crime-ridden. Everybody wanted him to get saved and this famous evangelist came to town and everybody said, man, let's pray that he'll go to church and hear this evangelist. This notorious man goes to the church.

He hears the evangelist and he just sits there and he laughs the whole time. Didn't get saved, walked out of the church. A few months later, another humble, low-key evangelist comes to town and lo and behold, that notorious man goes to that service, hears the same gospel and gets saved. They asked him later on, they said, you heard two evangelists. They're basically preaching the same gospel. You didn't get saved when this man preached. You did get saved when this man preached. What was the difference between the two preachers?

I love what he said. He said both of them preached the same message but the second one preached it with tears in his eyes. We need to have tears in our eyes for this lost world just like Daniel does. Here's the interpretation, O king. This is the resolution of the most high which has reached my lord the king that you be driven away from mankind and your place of habitation be with the beasts of the field and you be given grass to eat like the cattle and drenched with the dew of heaven and seven periods of time will pass over you until you know that the most high is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever he wishes. In that, they said to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will endure for you after you know that it is heaven that rules with power. Therefore, O king, may my advice seem good to you.

Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity. As personified by you, you're the head of this empire. Throughout the Old Testament, throughout the Bible, trees often represent nations. In the book of Ezekiel, the Assyrian nation and the Egyptian nation are compared to a cedar tree. Paul in Romans compares the nation of Israel to an olive tree so you see that in the Bible where nations are compared to trees. He said this is the biggest, baddest tree of them all.

It's the Babylonian empire as personified by you, Nebuchadnezzar. And like that tree that was chopped down in your dream, you're going to be chopped down to size. God's about to humble you, Nebuchadnezzar. And it says it'll be happen for seven periods. That means for seven years, you're going to be humbled.

And the stump, the stump with the roots in it, did you see that in your dream? Nebuchadnezzar said yeah, that means it's not over. There's still life.

There's still going to be hope. After those seven years, God's going to bring back life. And that fence or band of iron and bronze may represent the cage that you will be put in like an animal, Nebuchadnezzar. What was Nebuchadnezzar's response? He's just been told God is about to humble you. If you don't humble yourself, God will humble you. Beloved, I think God wants to say to somebody here today, you've gotten too big for your britches. You think you're the man. You think you're the woman.

You think life revolves around you. If you don't humble yourself, God is going to humble you. We call that humiliation. I would rather humble myself under God's hand than to be humiliated by the God of the universe. And look, you see this in the word that verse 29 says God gives Nebuchadnezzar a year, 12 months to get right. And then one day, verse 28, all this reached Nebuchadnezzar the king. At the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The king answered and said, Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal house by the strength of, look at this, my power and for the glory of my majesty?

Look at verse 30 again. Babylon the great, which, who is built? I have built as a royal house by the strength of my power and the glory of my majesty. He takes a walk one evening and says, I'm the man. Look what I've done. And he actually had a lot, I guess, to be proud of. You've heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Have you ever heard of that? Did you know one of the wonders of the ancient world was the hanging of gardens of Babylon? Here's an artist rendition.

We're not sure what that looked like, but it was interesting. Nebuchadnezzar married this lady from the mountains and she loved the mountains. She loved the foliage. She loved, you know, it's like growing up in western North Carolina. I grew up in western North Carolina and then my husband drug me all the way down east where there's no mountains. Babylon had no mountains, but she missed her home.

She missed the mountains. And so what he did is he actually built an artificial mountain and covered it with foliage. And he actually had pumps going from the Euphrates River, pumping, it was an ingenious thing, pumping up water.

And so it was like this man-made mountain with all this foliage. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world. And the walls of Babylon itself. Herodotus, the Greek historian, said that the walls of Babylon, listen to this, were 15 miles square. He said, now he may be embellishing, but Herodotus said that the walls were 350 feet high. That is one-third the height of the Empire State Building, 15 miles all around square. Herodotus said that the top was 87 feet high, the top of these walls. He said you could have chariot races with four chariots abreast going around these walls. Can you imagine that?

If he's right, and we don't know if he was, but if he's right, 15 miles square, a third of the height of the Empire State Building all around, and you can have basically drag racing with four cars on the top. He has a lot to be proud of. And when he says, look what I've done.

I'm the man. God said, your time is up. Verse 31, while the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is said, the kingdom has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your place of habitation will be of the beasts of the field, and you'll be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you know that the Most High is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever he wishes. Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was accomplished, and he was driven away from mankind, and he began to eat grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, and his hair had grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. He lost his mind.

The most powerful man in the world goes insane. He doesn't bathe. He doesn't live inside. He's filthy. He's dirty. His hair gets long. I remember seeing on, I think it was the Guinness Book of World Records one time, you ever seen this when people let their fingernails grow out real long? I always thought it'd be straight.

They're always starting to kind of curve around. He looks nasty. He smells nasty, and he literally gets on all fours and starts eating grass like he was a cow. There's actually a psychological term called lycanthropy.

Lycos means wolf. Anthropos means man. It's actually a psychological condition where somebody starts acting like an animal, and underneath that there's actually a condition called bowanthropy where an individual will actually start acting like a cow.

It was actually observed in 1946 in an insane asylum in England. In 1946, for five years, a man acted exactly like Nebuchadnezzar's acting, like a cow. The most powerful man in the world is reduced to a filthy, smelly human being who walks around on all fours eating grass like a cow. Now, I've got to be honest, in full disclosure, scholars and critics who don't believe in the Bible have looked at this and they've said, it doesn't make sense.

I don't think it'll happen. Number one, how could the mental decline of the most powerful man in the world be hidden from everybody for seven years? Gee, I don't know. How could the mental decline of the most powerful man in the world be hidden? Why don't you ask Kabbalah?

Maybe she'll tell you. It happens. When you want to keep power, you will do whatever it can to hide what's going on with the main man. Y'all heard of King George III?

King George III was the king during the American Revolution. Do y'all know he was insane, like verifiably insane? He would run around naked. He would talk and he'd have sentences that would have 400 words in them, like manic. He would foam in the mouth. He had blue urine.

I don't know where that came from. They said he had blue urine. The guy was absolutely insane. And yet his people, his royal entourage, kept that secret from the rest of the world.

Why? Not because they believed in him. They just wanted to keep their power.

And so it is possible to do that. Well, the second criticism is, well, why isn't there any record of this in Babylonian history? There's nothing in Babylonian history that says, you know, let me carve this out. King Nebuchadnezzar went insane. Two things. Number one, kings did not inscribe their failures. Did you know that?

They just didn't do that. Secondly, historians say this is very interesting. You look in the ruins of Babylon. There's all kinds of records in ancient Babylon during the time of Nebuchadnezzar about his life, tons of it. And then all of a sudden, for about six, seven years, there are no records of King Nebuchadnezzar. And at the very end of his life, there's a few records again.

Isn't that interesting? It's an argument from silence, but it's a pretty powerful argument from silence. Something happened. What's Nebuchadnezzar's response? But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, after seven years, I lifted my eyes toward heaven and my knowledge returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

And no one can strike against his hand or say to him, what have you done? And at that time, my knowledge returned to me and my majesty and my splendor were returned for me or to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my high officials and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished in my kingdom and extraordinary greatness was added to me. Do you see what happened?

He said that stumped vision was true. I was cut down and humbled for seven years. And yet after I turned my eyes back to God and humbled myself, God restored life to me. Beloved, I want to talk to you for a few seconds about pride and humility because this is so, I need you to listen to me.

This is so important for this church and it's important for your family and it's important for you personally. Do you know the most referenced statement of Jesus? Jesus said a lot of great things. There's one statement of Jesus that is referenced more than any other statement in the Bible.

Do you know what that is? Whoever exalts themself will be humbled and whoever humbles themself will be exalted. That was a core teaching of Jesus Christ. Humility versus pride. Now, when you're about pride and humility, what do you mean by humility and pride?

Because the definitions are all over the place. I want you to hold your place right here and turn, if you would, to Philippians chapter 2 verse 3. Hold your place there. Okay, so, Chad, you tell me, I've got to abolish pride in my life and I need to humble myself? What do you mean by humility and pride? The Apostle Paul gives a great definition of humility in Philippians 2, 3. He says, do nothing from selfish ambition or vainglory but with humility. What is humility? Regarding one another as more important than yourselves.

So watch this. Humility is regarding others as more important than you. That's humility. Now, if humility means regarding others as more important than you and pride is the opposite of humility, then what is pride? Well, pride simply means you are more important than everybody else. You are the center of everything.

At BK, have it your way. It's all about you. You are the center. That's pride. And, beloved, that pride has saturated our culture. We live in a self-promoting, self-exalting culture. We drill it into our kids. We have seminars about pride and self-esteem. We have child-centered parenting.

Mom, Dad, you don't understand. You love your kids, you be good to your kids. But your kids are not the center of your marriage.

Listen to me, the greatest gift you can give your kids is your love for each other. But, see, we've drilled this pride thing into our kids from an early age, and now we wonder why we have a bunch of self-obsessed, self-centered kids running around. It's because we drilled it into them from day one. We spend, conservatively, 90% of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, I even asked somebody this one time, because I do this a lot. I do what I'm about to tell you, okay?

So don't, whatever. I'm just kind of getting off on a little tangent here. When you pray out loud, like, hey, Chad, could you come up and pray?

Let me ask you a question. How much of your prayer is really directed at God? And how much of your prayer is trying to say things in just the right way with just enough whatever to impress the people who are listening to you? Even our prayers are self-centered.

It's entered the church. I hear this all the time. Well, Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself, so you can't learn to love others until you've learned to love yourself. That's not what he meant. You're superimposing a little bit of Oprah Winfrey back onto Jesus.

That's not what he meant. That's not the message of the Christian life. I'm afraid that we don't come to church to focus and adore God. I still am afraid that sometimes we want sermons that give us great life lessons, strategic life lessons to have successful lives. In fact, I was reading about this phenomenon in churches today where pastors are now paid life coaches. There's one pastor in Texas. He is a paid life coach.

He charges $87,000 a year to be your life coach, but you've got to prove that you make at least $1 million a year before he'll take you on. Do you see the apostle Paul ever saying to the church at Ephesus, I'll teach you and I'll speak into you, but you've got to pay me $87,000. But see, that self-centered pride, it's infiltrated our churches. We post pictures of our breakfast on social media because we think everybody's interested in what we're eating. We're not. We don't care what you're eating. Stop posting it, okay?

It is a self-aggrandizing, self-promoting culture. Here's what the Bible says. God is love, and that is true. First John says, God is love. He is love. Did you know the God of love actually hates some things? Did you know that? Proverbs 6 gives us a list of seven things that God hates.

Do you know what's number one on that list? Pride. Proverbs 8, verse 13 says, God hates pride. There's something, a visceral hatred that God has toward this self-centered mindset. Why does God hate pride so much?

I want to take a shot in the dark here. Number one, I think God hates pride because pride reminds God of Satan. You know, Satan was an angel in heaven, and that cosmic rebellion took place because Satan said, I, I, I, I want to be like God. I will ascend to the most high.

I will have everybody worship me. Pride is what Satan would call Satan to fall on. I heard one person say, we are never more like Satan than we are when we are proud. God hates pride because it reminds him of Satan. And God also hates pride because it destroys everything it touches. In fact, I want you to turn, now look at this, and this is a good verse to memorize. Look at James 3, if you would.

Real quickly, turn over to James 3. So why does God hate pride? Because when you're proud, God's like, I've seen that somewhere before.

Oh yeah, that's right. It reminds me of Satan. He had that same attitude.

And then secondly, it's destructive. James 3, this is written by James, the half brother of Jesus. James says this, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, you know what selfish ambition is?

Pride. Verse 14. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, pride in your heart, don't be arrogant and lie against the truth. This wisdom is not coming down from above, but it is earthly, it's natural, it's demonic. For wherever jealousy and selfish ambition, that's pride, exists, there is disorder and every evil practice. This is serious stuff. Verse 15 says this is me attitude.

Everybody look at me, it's all about me, I'm getting my way. Jesus, verse 16, it's demonic. There's now demonic entities at play with that attitude. He says in verse 16, it brings disorder.

You know what that means? Everything falls apart. Pride destroys everything it touches. Pride destroys families and it destroys marriages. Well, you know what?

After that third child, she gained some weight and she never was able to lose that. You know, a man's got his needs and so that's why I did what I did, that's pride. Well, I'm a little bit older and she got a little bit more wrinkles and I'm gonna, that's pride. It destroys families. Pride destroys societies. 2 Timothy 3, 2 says in the last days, as things begin to fall apart, you know what he says? People will start loving themselves. We call that pride or self-esteem or whatever you want to call it. Isn't it interesting that in our society, we have an entire month devoted to the very thing God hates?

Interesting, isn't it? It destroys families, it destroys societies, it destroys leaders. You see this all over the Bible. Uzziah was a great king, he's a good king. 2 Chronicles 26, 16 says, though he became proud and he fell. Herod, Acts chapter 12, he's proud and he's cocky, he's in front of everybody and he's speaking.

They're like, man, that guy's good looking, he's got nice long hair, he's a charming, charismatic guy. It's like the voice of a god, not a man. It says, this man got so proud and arrogant and took all that accolades that he was struck down and eaten by maggots. Have you read that before in Acts 12? Saul, first king of Israel, wouldn't he fall?

First Samuel 15, 12 says that Saul set up a monument to himself and everything went downhill from there. Pride destroys families, it destroys societies, it destroys leaders, it destroys individuals. I want to tell you something, as a pastor, I can tell you, the most miserable people I have ever met are self-centered people. It's all about me. Can I tell you the most joyful, loving people I've ever met? It's not about me, it's about you. I want to bless others, I want to love others.

Isn't that interesting? It destroys individuals. Church, listen to me, it destroys pastors and ministries. I've seen humble people turn into tyrants in this church because their ministry got successful. I've told our staff, I don't want to hear this anymore. Well, our ministry is the most important ministry in the church.

I want you to look at me right here. There is no most important ministry in this church. The Bible says we're a body. We're not all one big eye, all one big ear, all one big hand. We all need all ministries, the visible, the invisible.

There's no such thing as the most important ministry in the church. That's pride. A lady told Pastor John Knox one time in Scotland, she said, Pastor Knox, you're the greatest preacher in Scotland. He said, I know. The devil tells me that all the time.

So watch this. Humility means it's about you. I want to bless you. Pride is it's about me. And you actually see that definition played out in verse 27 where Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, Therefore, O king, may my advice seem good to you. Break away now from your sin by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, stop being so self-obsessed.

Start trying to bless others even the less fortunate. Pride is focused on me. Humility is focused on others. And incidentally, Jesus Christ, the one we worship. He was the epitome of humility. Nebuchadnezzar was the exalted king who was humbled. Jesus is the humble king who's exalted.

Philippians 2 5 says, Have this way of thinking. Have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who, although he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be held onto. He didn't hold onto his position as the God of the universe.

No, he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance of a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, and therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. So the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that the every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That's the epitome of humility right there. I'm the God of the universe. I created it all, and I can hold onto this, but I see all these people dying and going to hell because of their sin. So I'm going to give it up and come to earth and take their sin upon myself.

I'm going to die in their place. He humbled himself, and the day is going to come, and today may be the day when every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. God hates pride, but he exalts the humble.

Have I made my point with that? Honestly, this is something God's speaking to me about, because as our church grows and God blesses us and all this kind of stuff, I tell our guys all the time, we have more to fear from success than we do from failure. Have you noticed when you're failing and things aren't going well, you run to Jesus. When you're the man and things are happening and everything's firing on all cylinders, I don't need Jesus. I have that proud attitude.

There's one other thing here. Actually, this is beautiful, because I see the gospel in this passage. God pursues us like he pursued Nebuchadnezzar. You don't see this, but scholars are now saying, or they've said for a long time, chapters 1 through 4 of Daniel, it looks like it took place over a period of several months. Do you know how long it's been from chapter 1 to now chapter 4? It's been 30 years.

This is a 30-year stretch. Have you noticed in chapter 1, 2, 3, and into 4, Nebuchadnezzar will periodically say, did you know this? I believe that God is the true God of the universe.

Have you noticed that? He said that in chapter 2. God smacks him around and says, oh yeah, I believe he's the God of the universe. From chapters 1 through 4, he keeps saying, I believe in God, yeah, I trust him. That tells me that for 30 years, God's been pursuing that man.

God wants a relationship with that man. Let me remind you, Nebuchadnezzar is not a very good man. He is brutal. He has a horrible temper. Chapter 2, if he doesn't get what he wants, he says to my staff, if you don't give me what you want, I'm going to take horses and tear you limb from limb.

Remember we talked about that? We're going to have this arm put on this horse, that arm tied to that horse, this leg tied to that horse, that leg tied to that horse, and we're going to have those horses go in opposite directions and they're going to tear you apart because you didn't do what I told you to do. That's a brutal man. In chapter 3, he threatens to burn three innocent young men alive because they didn't do what he told them to do. I told you before, history says that Nebuchadnezzar, this man that God's pursuing, would have a man stand right here and bring his wife and innocent little children and have him stand right in front of that man. He would slaughter those innocent little children and slaughter his wife and poke out that man's eyes so the last thing he would ever see is the death of his family.

Have I made my point? He is not a good man. Yet, despite his sin and despite his iniquity, for 30 years we see God pursuing him, trying to draw him into a relationship with him. Why would God do that to such a wicked, evil man?

There's one word and it's called grace. Nebuchadnezzar didn't earn it. He didn't deserve it. He's a wicked man and God says, I know all that, but I still want you to spend eternity with me and so I'm going to draw you to me. And he doesn't stop pursuing Nebuchadnezzar for 30 years.

And he's pursuing some of y'all in this place today. Some of y'all have been searching, what's the meaning of life? I don't understand religion. I don't understand what's going on. I need answers.

Let me give you the answer. There is a God of the universe and he loves you and he wants to spend eternity with you and he is on your trail. He is pursuing you.

That's what somebody in this place needs to hear. God, one of the old Puritans called him the hound of heaven. You know how they used to have blood hounds to trap people? He is the hound of heaven. He is tracking you. He's on your trail to bring you to a love relationship with him.

Can I tell you something? God found him. Because I want you to see how Nebuchadnezzar begins this chapter. Chapter four, verse one. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue who inhabit the earth, may your peace abound. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the most high God has done for me. How great are his signs and how strong are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.

That's how he starts this chapter. Look at how Nebuchadnezzar, this wicked man, ends this chapter. I bless the most high and praise and honor him who lives forever. His dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the kingdom of heaven, for all of his works are true and his ways are just.

Do you know what he's saying? God pursued me for 30 years and he got me. I now belong to him. I personally believe you're going to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven one day. I personally believe that this wicked man was finally found by the God of the universe. How many of y'all been praying for somebody for 10, 15, 20 years to get saved and they're still not saved yet?

Anybody in this place? Okay, how many of y'all put yourself in Nebuchadnezzar's shoes? I may not have killed a bunch of kids and poked their eyes out.

I've not done that before, but I'm just not a good man. See, I see Nebuchadnezzar in me. And I see Nebuchadnezzar in some people I've been praying for for decades who still haven't gotten saved. And I'm telling you, do not give up. You keep praying. You keep bringing them before God. And I just believe by the authority of the word of God, one day God's going to get them. Don't give up praying for that child. Don't give up praying for that grandchild. He pursued him.

He's pursuing them. Heard a pastor read about this. He said we had a baptism service. Next week we'll have a baptism here.

Y'all know that? So if you've never given your life to Jesus or if you've given your life to Jesus Christ and now you want everybody to know, you've got to sign up and be baptized. Jesus, why? Because Jesus told you to. Jesus said you don't keep this to yourself. When you give your life to me, you show everybody.

How do you do that? By walking forward and saying a prayer? No, the way you show everybody that you've given your life to Jesus is through baptism. The old me is dead, I'm buried in this water, and I'm a new person in Jesus Christ.

So sign up and do that next week. But this pastor said that we had a baptism service. And I asked her if there was a woman. She was just crying. She was sobbing.

And he said, I went up and asked her. I said, honey, are you okay? She said, quote, my mom was baptized today.

I've been praying for my mom every day for 20 years. I almost gave up at the five-year mark of praying for her. I said, I give up.

She ain't going to get saved. At the 10-year mark, I said, I quit. I'm just wasting my time. At the 15-year mark, I said, this is absurd. What am I doing?

At the 19-year mark, she said, I'm a fool. This prayer stuff ain't working. Then she said, after 20 years of praying, she got saved and she was baptized today. I will never again doubt the power of prayer.

He's pursuing somebody in this place. I don't care what you've done. Have you heard me say this before?

I don't care what you've done, who you've done it with, or how many times you've done it. I don't care how wicked and evil you are. As a wicked man right there, the vilest offender, the vilest, most messed up person who turns to the Lord Jesus Christ can be saved, forgiven, washed, and given a place in heaven, even Nebuchadnezzar. We get confused, I think, sometimes, and maybe I'm responsible for this. We get confused about the gospel. I was talking to a guy a little while back. He said, man, I was witnessing somebody at my work. I said, you're witnessing to him?

He said, yeah. I said, that's great that you're witnessing to people at work. What were you telling him? He said, well, he smokes all the time.

I told him, you really need to stop smoking. That smoking doesn't honor Jesus. I said, that's not witnessing to somebody. Let me tell you what the gospel is. Can I give you the gospel in under one minute? 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That's the gospel. On the cross, he, God, treated Jesus as if he had committed every sin of every person who would ever believe in him.

Let me make it personal. On the cross, God treated Jesus like he was me. He took our punishment. He treated Jesus as if Jesus committed every sin of every person who would ever believe in him, even though he had never committed a sin. God turns right around and treats us as if we lived the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God takes our filth and our sin and he puts it on Jesus. He takes the righteousness of Jesus and the holiness of Jesus and he puts it on us. Now when God looks at Jesus on the cross, he sees you. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus. There's complete forgiveness, total spiritual adoption. There's a new beginning, a fresh start in Jesus Christ. I want you to bow with me right now.

Everybody bow. I'm going to ask you this. Do you know that you're a sinner? Do you realize you've sinned against the holy God of the universe? You're not a good person.

We are not good people. We have sinned. Somebody's going to have to pay for that sin. Either you're going to have to pay for it in hell for all eternity or somebody else is going to have to pay the price.

Thank God 2,000 years ago somebody else paid the price. God sent his son Jesus to pay the price for your sin. Now if you'll simply turn from your sins and turn to Jesus, the Lord Jesus will forgive you of all of your sins.

He'll come and take control of your life and when you die, he'll take you to heaven. I don't want you to repeat a mantra. Mantras don't save you. Jesus saves you. But I want you to imagine right now it's just you and Jesus in this place. Nobody else is in this place but you and Jesus.

Let's just say this to Jesus. If this captures what's going on in your heart, say this to Jesus and meet him with all your heart. Jesus, I am a sinner.

I deserve to be punished. Lord, I've done some bad things. Lord, I turn away from those sins and I turn to you. Lord, forgive me of all my sins. Come and take control of my life. And when I die, take me to heaven.

What else do I have to do? Do I have to pray the rosary or light a candle? No, no, no. The Bible simply says all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. And the redeemed, forgiven people of God said, Amen. The messed up people in this church said, Amen.

The guilty people in this church said, Amen. Thank you, Jesus. And Jesus said, I don't want you to ever forget what your salvation cost me. If I ever to ask you, why are you going to heaven?

And you start with because I got to be real careful. Because it's not because you, it's because he. He died for you. He paid the price. But it cost him something. Your salvation is free. It doesn't cost you anything, but it wasn't cheap.

Why can't I have that? If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're a born again believer, why don't you take out that bread? And remind yourself that 2,000 years ago, Jesus, the bread of life, left the throne in heaven and he came to planet earth. And his body was broken. He was tied to a post and the fire was just beat out of him. He was beaten to within an inch of his life. And a 75, 80 pound cross was put on his back and he was made to walk up a hill.

And he was crucified and he hung on that cross for six hours, bleeding. And that blood that was shed 2,000 years ago has not lost its power. It still has the power to just cleanse us. From how much unrighteousness? All unrighteousness. Jesus said, take and eat.

This is my body which is broken for you. Take out that juice. It's an old song. You remember the song?

The hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. You know what that means? When I stand before God one day and I walk into heaven, it's not going to be because I was a little bit more disciplined than you are. I followed the rules better than you all did. I didn't do some of the bad things some of you all did.

No, no, no, no. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. We're all sinners. When I get into heaven one day, it's going to be because of what Jesus did to that cross 2,000 years ago. Jesus said, don't ever forget that. That's why I want you to take and drink. This is my blood.

You stand with me. Just right now, wherever you're standing, let that almost be like a personal prayer closet versus you and Jesus. Would you just lift up your hands right now and just say, don't ask for anything.

Lord, help me get a new job. Lord, help that kid to come back. Don't ask him for anything right now. Just raise your hands and thank him for being so good to you, for saving your soul. Thank him that you've got a place in heaven where you're going to spend eternity because of who he is and what he did. Just raise your hands and thank the Lord Jesus right now. Let's just bless the name of the Lord. And then gang, let's just sing this to the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. He's the one who set me free. Hallelujah. You have lost his clear body.

You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe out of the silence. Your glory, my end, she planned to break, has no grave on me. Hallelujah. He's the one who set me free. Hallelujah. You have lost his clear body.

You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.

Jesus Christ, my living hope. Man, if you're resting with pride, you think you're the man, you're the woman, there's a little saying we have around here that's going to help you. It's not about you. It's all about Jesus.

You know, I told the team up here when we were getting ready, I said, look, there's something about being on this platform. They shine a light out on you. They raise you up above everybody.

They amplify your voice. That's a breeding ground for pride. And I told them, remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem, remember this? He's on a donkey. Be ridiculous for that donkey. When he hears all the hallelujahs and the shouts, the donkey says, wow, they're praising me. I'm something.

These people really like me. Donkey, they're not talking to you. They're talking to the man that you are bearing, that's sitting on your back. It's Jesus. Not you. It's Jesus.

And I told them, remember I said this a little while back? You're just the donkey. You're just a jackass for Jesus. You're just carrying Jesus. You're just lifting him up.

It's not about you. It's about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. And so now to Him, who's able to do more than all we ask or imagine? According to His power, He's now working within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Forever and ever. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.