Greg Laurie - No One Is Beyond the Reach of God
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All right, let's grab our bibles now, we're in the book of Daniel, we're going through it together, we're calling the series End of Days, and the title of my message today is No One is Beyond the Reach of God. Isn't that true? No one is beyond the reach of God. Let me ask you a question, can you think of someone right now that you know that you cannot in your wildest dreams even imagine ever being a Christian? Or maybe it's a public figure, a well known antagonist, atheist, person that's opposed to the Christian faith, you can't even imagine that person ever carrying a Bible and saying praise the Lord. By the way, I really struggled with that phrase when I became a Christian, 'cause I was surrounded by all these believers that would say it constantly.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Hey, this is great food, praise the Lord, pass the mashed potatoes. Praise the Lord. All this praise the Lord business, and I thought, I wanna say praise the Lord, but it feels so alien to say it, and one day I was feeling like saying it and so I just started, I said, you know, praise the Lord. Oh, it just, it felt good. It does feel good, let's all say it together, praise the Lord. See that, you were made to do that. You're wired to worship, you're created to bring glory to God. Well, back to those people that we think of that you can't imagine being a believer. Listen, no one is beyond the reach of God. It comes down to this, sometimes the least likely are the most likely to come to Christ. Let me say that again. Sometimes the least likely, they're the most likely, and let me explain. We think they're the least likely because they're argumentative, or because they're always getting in our face, or always creating trouble when we talk about Jesus Christ, but that may be because they're closer, not further, from the kingdom of God. Say, that makes no sense to me.
Listen, it might be because they're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The classic example is Saul of Tarsus. He was a Christian killer, literally. He hunted followers of Jesus for sport, he arrested men, and women, and took their children and threw 'em into jail, and even had a little fun doing it, and he thought, ironically, he was doing the work of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well one day Saul of Tarsus, the Christian killer, by the way, he presided over the death of the first martyr of the church, Stephen. He was on his way on the Damascus Road to hunt some more Christians down, and guess who shows up? Jesus, and he hears the voice of God speak to him, and the voice, who was the Lord Himself, says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? Then the Lord says, it's hard for you to kick against the goads. A goad is just a sharpened stick, and so the idea is God's trying to get Saul's attention, Saul's kicking against it. It's hard for you to kick against the goad. And then Saul says, who are You Lord? And I'm sure Saul was thinking, don't say Jesus, don't say Jesus, don't say Jesus. And Jesus says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
So Saul, the Christian killer, was transformed into the great Apostle Paul, the defender of our faith, so no one is beyond the reach of God. So I bring this up because here's sort of an Old Testament version of that. Not Saul of Tarsus becoming the Apostle Paul, but the most powerful man on the face of the earth, King Nebuchadnezzar, telling us how he came to faith. In fact, part of this very chapter we're gonna look at was written by the king himself. You have to understand, Nebuchadnezzar had unlimited powers, there was no congress, or senate, or press to try to keep him in check, there were no checks and balances, he just did whatever he did whenever he wanted, no one was his rival, no one could oppose him, he had effectively conquered the planet. It was Nebuchadnezzar's world, and everybody else just happened to live in it. And he was at the top of his game ruling over the magnificent city of Babylon. The hanging gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The walls of Babylon were 387 feet high, that's, by the way, a third of the heighth of the Empire State Building.
You could ride four chariots abreast across the walls of Babylon. The mighty river Euphrates flowed right through the middle of this city, and they had this massive temple erected to their false god of Bel, and ruling over it all was the great Nebuchadnezzar, but in all of this he forgot something, or maybe I should say he forgot someone. He forgot God. And even worse, he took credit for what God had done. Now, he should've known better because he had seen the Lord work. Remember, he had that vision, that dream of that statue with a head of gold, and breast and arms of silver, and none of his soothsayers, fortune tellers, or astrologers could interpret it, but they called in the prophet Daniel who told him exactly what it meant. And then later on he erected a giant golden image of himself and commanded everyone to worship it, and three courageous Jewish teenagers named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. They were thrown into a furnace of fire. The flames are so hot that the very men that threw them in died from it, but yet as they're in the furnace Nebuchadnezzar says, I thought I threw three men in but yet I see four, and the fourth looks like the Son of God.
Jesus was walking with His boys through the furnace, and afterwards Nebuchadnezzar had to admit in his own words, quote, there has never been a God who can pull off a rescue like this. Yet he did not believe. Nebuchadnezzar knew about God, he had a respect for God, but now the problem is, he wants to take the place of God and he commits a sin that is probably committed more than any other, a sin that is probably at the root of most sins, I'm talkin' about the sin of pride. By the way, that was the first sin ever committed, not on earth but in heaven, by Lucifer, a high ranking angel, who in Isaiah 14, loose paraphrase, said, I wanna be God, I want the top job, I wanna rule. Lord says, you're done here. And he was cast down to the earth, and then he goes to our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, and tempts them with that forbidden fruit, which by the way was not an apple. Where did the whole apple thing come from? It's said over and over again, sometimes even preachers'll say, the apple. There's no apple in the Bible. I'm not against apples, I'm just trying to be technical, you know, get this accurate. It was a special fruit, but it wasn't the fruit that was appealing, it's what was promised if you ate of the fruit.
Satan said, go ahead and take a bite because in the day you eat thereof you will be as a God, knowing good and evil. Huh, appealing to their pride, and of course you know the rest of that story, we're still reaping the consequences of it. So now here's Nebuchadnezzar, he's filled with pride. So one night he goes to bed, he has a dream, it's a troubling dream. In his dream he sees a massive tree, a magnificent tree, a tree that is so big you can see it anywhere in the world, and there's a lot of fruit coming from this tree, and everyone is eating of the fruit of the tree. And then suddenly an angel comes down from heaven and cuts the tree down. The angel says, cut down the tree, strip its branches, but then the angel says, let the stump remain. Leave the stump in the ground.
Well, Nebuchadnezzar woke up and, you know when you have a dream and you wake up with that feeling, like that was not a good dream, and you try to figure out your own dreams? Well, he calls in the soothsayers and the astrologers and the fortune tellers and who knows why, he should've called for Daniel, none of them have the answer. Again, Daniel's brought in and he gives him the interpretation of the dream. And what Daniel says now to the king to me is a case study in evangelism, and it's also a case study in how to confront a person about their sin in hopes that they will repent of their sin. Let's read together, Daniel 4 starting in verse 19. He hears the dream, and upon hearing this Daniel, also known as Belteshazzar, was overcome for a time, frightened by the meaning of the dream.
Then the king said to him, Belteshazzar, don't be alarmed by the dream. Tell me what it means. Belteshazzar, that's Daniel, replied, I wish the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies and not to you. This brings me to point number one. When we share God's truth we should do so boldly, lovingly, and clearly. Let me say that again. When we share God's truth, we must do so boldly, lovingly, and clearly, and that's exactly what Daniel did. This was not an easy message to deliver. He's gonna have to tell him that, uh, king, you're the tree, and the tree's cut down 'cause you're going to be cut down as well. You know, it's hard to tell someone that you love the truth sometimes, so we'll pull our punches and we won't say what we really think, you know, and then we hurt them, we end up maybe sometimes enabling them in their sin or not warning them of something that could be spiritually destructive in their life.
Proverbs 27:6 says, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You know, there are some people that say, oh I love you, I love you, I love you, then they'll tear you down behind your back. But a true friend, someone who really loves you, will tell you the truth to your face. A true friend stabs you in the front, not in the back. But you do it with love. 'cause you know, sometimes we use the message of truth like it's Thor's hammer. Here it comes, boom, oh, and we're even happy. That's not the way to deliver truth. You deliver the truth in love. We're told in scripture that if a brother or a sister is overtaken in a fault you who are spiritual should restore such a person in the spirit of meekness, lest you also be overcome.
Listen buckaroo, one day it may be you, so don't be all arrogant. Like oh, let me tell you, shut up. You might be the person down one day and you're gonna need some help, so you do it with humility. Man, I'm really sorry to tell you this, I really care about you. My objective is to get you back on your feet again, not to kick you when you're down. And so this is the idea, Daniel has to deliver a hard message to the king, and this is very important, he had to tell him the truth. He couldn't candy coat it. And when we are sharing the gospel, we need to do the same. You know, sometimes we don't wanna tell a believer, excuse me, a non-believer what will happen if they don't believe, we'll leave those things out, but the promise, the hope of heaven without warning of the reality of hell is not the true gospel. To offer the forgiveness of God without telling a person they need to repent of their sin is not the gospel.
And this would not have been an easy thing to deliver this message to someone as powerful as Nebuchadnezzar. With one word your head could be separated from your body, or he could have you tortured, or your family, so you're walkin' on eggshells around a guy like this, but I love the boldness of Daniel, but also the humility of Daniel. Now, other people of God spoke boldly as well. Moses spoke boldly to the pharaoh, Nathan the prophet spoke boldly to the king when he was in sin, Elijah courageously confronted King Ahab, and John the Baptist faced off with Herod. They all told the truth, and this is what Daniel does, but look at the love he has for the king in verse 19. I wish the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies and not to you.
Listen, Daniel took no pleasure in delivering this bad news to the king. I wish this wasn't true. I wish I wasn't the one that had to tell you this things, but king, I care about you, even though you're a pagan, even though you changed my name and the names of my friends, even though you held me here and have held me as a captive for many years, I've kinda grown to like you, I have to admit. I have an affection for you, and I wish this was for your enemies, not you. And now he's gonna have to give him the interpretation. Daniel 4:24, this is what the dream means, your majesty, and what the Most High has declared will happen to my lord the king. You will be driven from human society, you will live in the fields with wild animals, you will eat grass like a cow and you will be drenched with the dew of heaven. Oh, that must've been a lot of fun to tell him. Excuse me, your highness, you're now gonna become your lowness. I've got bad news for you, king, you're gonna go out in a field and eat grass like a cow.
What I'm saying to you is you're gonna be moving out of the palace soon and I'm givin' you the udder truth here, king, I'm trying to, you know. Look, I don't wanna milk this thing, but I gotta say. He's like doin' stand-up comedy, hey tough audience, I get no respect, right? But he delivered the message. So yes, we need to speak the truth lovingly, boldly, and clearly, but point number two, always point people to the God of second chances. Always point people to the God of second chances. Despite this ominous warning from Daniel, there is still hope, look at verse 27. King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice, stop sinning, this is another way to say repent. Stop sinning and do what is right, break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor, perhaps then you will continue to prosper.
Now, considering Daniel's perfect track record up to this point, you would've thought the king would have listened. Daniel's saying buddy, this doesn't have to happen if you repent, but the king was not having it. But here's the thing, we tell people the truth but we always give them hope. Yes, you're a sinner, yes, you're separated from God, no, there is nothing you can do to right this wrong, nothing you can do to earn God's approval, that's the bad news, you've gotta tell 'em. 'Cause you know what, you're not going to appreciate the good news if you don't first know the bad news, and so then I give 'em the good news. But the good news is, the good news is there's a God in heaven who sent His Son to die on the cross for your sin, and if you'll turn from your sin you can be forgiven.
On the day of Pentecost Simon Peter was preaching to some of the very people who crucified Christ, I mean literally the people that nailed him to the tree. And as he's speaking to the crowd he says, and some of you played a hand in this, and I wonder if he pointed his finger to a centurion over here or a religious leader over there. It was you, I saw you, man. And the Bible says they were cut to the heart. That's an interesting phrase that means something that happened suddenly and unexpectedly, like a knife going in your heart. They were cut. Conviction of the Spirit, and they said what shall we do? And Peter said, you're all gonna burn in hell, that's what you'll do. No, that's not what he said, is it? He says, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and times of refreshment will come from God.
See, there's hope, and that's what Daniel was saying to the king, there is hope for you. So yes we tell 'em the truth, but we always point them to the God of second chances. Well, sadly the king didn't really listen. Look, this is the thing, we have a divine responsibility to share the gospel message. If you agree, say amen. Not as many amens. We should do it every opportunity. I look at it this way, it's like if you were a doctor and you ran some tests on a person and they were gettin' ready to go on their vacation, and you wanted to give 'em good news but you found something that concerned you, in fact, you found cancer. Now, you have a responsibility, you have taken the Hippocratic oath, do no harm, you have to tell them the truth. But then you think, I don't wanna tell 'em that, they're going on vacation.
So you walk in and say, everything's good, everything's clear, go on vacation, you don't have a problem in the world. Thanks, doc. That is not only wrong, that's immoral to not tell them the truth. No, you have to deliver that bad news, as hard as it is, hopefully have a course of treatment, something they can do to remove this cancer, so I have to deliver this message, as uncomfortable as it can be at times, but then tell the person what the solution actually is, and you have this message. And let's use another analogy, let's say you're a medical scientist and you have cancer. Let's say you spend hours, and hours, and weeks, and days, and months trying to find a cure, and one day you discover the cure. One pill taken one time, and your cancer is gone.
So you take it, you're cancer free, and then you say, well I'm not tellin' anyone about this, because I'm uncomfortable talking to strangers. Excuse me, but this is not about you. This became much bigger than you now. Now you need to share this with others because they need the cure too. What we have, Christians, is even more important than the cure for cancer, we have the cure to eternal death and separation from God, we've gotta share it. We've gotta share it, and Daniel did, and Nebuchadnezzar blew him off. He had a full year to come to his senses, but his heart just filled with more pride, look at what happens next.
Daniel 4:38, excuse me, 28. All these things did happen to King Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later. He had a year to get it together, a year to repent, 12 months later. He was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon, he looked out across the city and said, look at this giant city of Babylon. By my own power I built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor. While these words were still in his mouth a voice called down from heaven, oh King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you. You no longer are the ruler of the kingdom. You'll be driven from human society, you will live in the fields with the wild animals, you will eat grass like a cow. Wow. How the mighty have fallen. You know, you see these great, powerful individuals strutting the world stage.
Two people come to mind, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein. At one moment, Hitler was a real threat, as was Germany. They had amassed a military machine unlike any other, we didn't even know it was happening until Hitler began his invasions and things began to escalate, and the only one standing up against him at this point was England, led by Winston Churchill, and they were being bombarded by Nazi planes day and night, London was under siege, and Churchill was asking Roosevelt, our president, for the United States to come and help, and there was a sentiment in America at that time still in the aftermath of World War 1, we don't wanna get involved in this, this isn't our conflict. And then the Japanese attacked us in Pearl Harbor, and so America declared war on the empire of Japan and declared war on Germany, they were allies, and so we began to build up our military forces and we came and ultimately defeated Hitler, and it's a good thing, because his mission was to eradicate all of the Jewish people living in Europe in what he called the final solution.
And so Adolf Hitler with his country unraveling around him would not surrender, and he built a little concrete bunker there in Berlin, and he went down there and ultimately took a gun out and killed himself. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Saddam Hussein, with all of his threats, lived in his royal palaces. American forces went in and cleaned their clock, and they found him hiding in a hole. Yeah, you know, you can be on top of the world one day and down at the very bottom the next day, don't be so proud. That breath you draw in your lungs right now is a gift to you from God Almighty. That was Nebuchadnezzar's problem. Nebuchadnezzar forgot God, even worse in some ways, he thought he was God, but God didn't give up on him. God gave him another chance. Jesus told a story, loose paraphrase now, of a guy who had a lot of stuff, and he said, man, I have so much stuff, I have to build bigger buildings to house all my stuff so I can go buy more stuff. Filled up more buildings. And then one night, the Lord says, God spoke and said, this night your soul is required of you.
Now who gets all your stuff? See, that guy died without faith, without faith in God. There are people that need to hear this message, and sometimes we're going to initiate that conversation, and other times they might initiate the conversation, but let's just make sure we have the conversation with them. Daniel went in and did what God led him to do. There might be someone the Lord is directing you to talk to right now about Jesus. Hey, it might be your mom. It's Mother's Day, and you're here today because maybe your children said, would you come to church with us mom? And here you are, and you are not really wanting to follow Jesus, you don't know what's happened to your kids. They were once predictably weird, rebellious, horrible children, and then they became Christians and all this God bless you, praise the Lord stuff, and you don't know how to deal with that. And here you are at church trying to figure it all out.
Guess what, that was my mother. My mother, who I always had a difficult relationship with, she was married and divorced seven times, and was a raging alcoholic, and it was a very difficult childhood with her, but I became a Christian and I went to my mom and I wanted her to come to faith, and she said, I don't wanna talk about it. Every time I'd bring up Jesus she'd say, I don't wanna talk about it. And that went on, folks, for years, it went on for decades, it went on so long, I wondered if she was ever gonna come around, and one day the Lord prompted me to go have the conversation about Jesus with my mother, and it was very hard to talk to her about this. And it just came out of the blue, and I said to Cathy, Cathy, I'm gonna go talk to my mom today, I feel the Lord's leading me to talk to her.
By the way, I left out one thing, at this point she's 70 years old, all of her drinking, and smoking, and partying has taken its toll, she's on dialysis three times a week, her health is not good. So I go over to her house and I say hi mom, I wanna talk to you, and she's like why are you here, like what's going on? I said, I wanna talk to you today about your soul. She said, I don't wanna talk about it. I said, today we're gonna talk about it. And we had that conversation. She was resistant at first, then she softened up a bit and it resulted in her committing her life to Jesus Christ, I'm glad I listened to the leading of the Spirit. I was hoping that we would make up for lost time now, have that relationship we never had. How was I to know that one month later the Lord would call her to heaven? But I'm thankful I had that conversation.
Sometimes we initiate the conversation, sometimes a person who's not a believer might ask us for the answers. Now, I told you my mom was married and divorced seven times, and most of the guys my mom married were very similar. They were guys that hung out in bars, they were guys that had their shirt buttons unbuttoned a too few many buttons. You go, how many is too many? Just, I'll talk to you after church, I'll tell ya. It's just like, just button that one, don't go, no, stop, you know? Big drinkers, big smokers, you know, playboy type guys. She married guy after guy after guy, they were like the same guy, she kept marrying the same guy but they were different guys. And then lo and behold she meets some guy named Oscar Laurie, what a name, Oscar Laurie. He's not a guy that hangs out in bars, in fact he worked for the Bar Association, he was an attorney. And he didn't have too many buttons undone, he was buttoned up, he was Ivy League, he was conservative, he didn't drink and he didn't smoke.
I don't know what my mom saw in him. She said, this is your dad now. I'm thinkin', who's this guy? Well who this guy was, he was a guy that treated me like a father should treat a son, starting with adopting me. And he loved me, and he tried to help me, and he tried to guide me, and when my mom left him I was devastated. This is a long story, so I'm just gonna put it in fast forward. So years have passed, now I've become a Christian, I'm a pastor, and I decide that I want to share the gospel with him. I find him in New York City, excuse me, in New Jersey. I found out that he had a heart attack only a few weeks before, blacked out at the wheel of his car and almost died, so I went to his home, he's remarried, he has a wife named Barbara now, very nice lady, and so he makes a nice Italian meal for me, Cathy, our son Christopher, Jonathan wasn't born yet, and Barbara says, Greg, tell us how you became a Christian.
So I'm sharing my story of how I came to faith, and my dad's on the other end of the table, he just has his hands up to his face like this. I felt like I'm in a court and he's the judge, and I'm not doing well. He just looks at me, doesn't react, just looks at me. So after we're done we go to bed and he says Greg, will you walk with me in the morning? He wanted to walk every day because of his heart, I said sure, dad. So he wakes me up the next morning, we're walkin' along, he says Greg, I listened very carefully to what you said last night. Yes dad? And I want to accept Jesus Christ right now. What? Yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ right now. No, wait, maybe you don't understand what I said. I went over it again, he said yes, yes, I understand, I want to accept Jesus Christ right now. He says, what do I need to do? I said, well we need to pray, and he drops down on his knees right there. I wasn't gonna get on my knees, I'll be honest with you. So we're praying.
So here's my point, he made that commitment to Christ, guess what? He's in heaven now, my mother's in heaven now, my son that was there is in heaven now. I wanna get as many people to heaven as I can while I'm alive on this earth, and we all should want that. And I know it's hard sometimes, someone asked me recently in an interview, what if you have a hard time talking to strangers? They cited a poll that says some people would rather text than talk. I said, then go unto all the world and text the gospel, right? Go unto all the world and tweet the gospel. Do people know you're a Christian? See, Nebuchadnezzar, after God forgave him, gave him his sanity back, sent out a decree saying to all of his kingdom, I'm a believer in the Lord God now. He used his platform to get the word out.
Have you used your platform? Do people know that you're a Christian? If I went to our Facebook page would there be any indication of your faith there? Not just your political views, not just pictures of your cat. If I went to your Instagram page would I find anything that indicates faith, or would it be 1500 selfies of you with the trout pout? You know the trout pout, right, it's this look, here, get a close up, I gotta do the trout, come here. Can any of you come close? Okay, as close as you can. See, this picture. Right? And you hold your phone up like this, you go. I don't know why you do that. Do you think it makes you look thinner? You look like a fish. That's why they call it the trout pout. Don't do that. So, hey, okay go ahead, do your trout pout, but have a Harvest America sticker there holdin' it. Whatever. By the way, you know with Harvest America coming for all of you that are on social media, if you go to our website, harvestamerica.com, there is downloadable social media graphics. I would encourage you to go grab them and put them out there, let people know this event is coming because as you're aware, it's a nationwide event that everyone can participate in.
So Nebuchadnezzar has truly come to faith now, he's really committed his life to the Lord, and he tells his entire kingdom, you can read about it in Daniel 4:34. Let me say one last thing about my father, Oscar. After he became a believer he pulled out some papers and told me about the history of the family I was adopted into, the Laurie clan from Scotland. And I found out one cool thing, William Wallace is in our family tree. Not Mel Gibson, William Wallace. Mel Gibson played William Wallace in the film Braveheart. Now, I'd never even heard of William Wallace at this point, this is long before the film came out, and he told me about William Wallace, but then here's what's really interesting to me. We have a family crest as they do in Scotland, and in our crest it has a stump of a tree that's been cut down, the roots are still there, and there's a little bit of growth coming out, and there's one word, it says, repullulat, repullulat, which means, it buds afresh.
I'm thinking of Nebuchadnezzar. He had a dream of a tree, a mighty tree, and it was cut down, but remember, the angel said, leave the stump in the ground. See, if you tear the stump out the tree can never grow back again, but if you leave the stump in the tree can come back to life. So really what was happening is you're gonna be cut down, but there's hope for the future, 'cause the stump's still in the ground. That's our family crest, it buds afresh. Listen, maybe you feel like, I've messed up everything. You're here today and you're sayin', I'm the worst mother of all time, I don't even deserve the little virtue tote bag. Well you know what, God gives second chances. I'm the worst father of all time, you're thinkin', I've failed. Well, there's always today and there's always tomorrow to make it right, to make up for loss, I'm the worst child ever. You can change. I'm the worst sinner ever, God can forgive you. Listen, Nebuchadnezzar, they don't come any more wicked than this guy, and yet God forgave him, and God will forgive you because He is the God of second chances. Repullulat, it buds afresh. It's for everyone. That's not just for our family, that's for your family. That's for all of us. There us always hope. God gave Nebuchadnezzar another chance, he'll give you one, too.
Maybe there's some of you today who have never asked Jesus Christ to come into your live and forgive you of your sin. Why don't you do that today? Maybe there are some moms here that came at the urging of your family, and I'm so glad you're here, moms. But maybe you're a little bit, if you're honest, like my mom was, I don't wanna talk about that, and we've been talkin' about that, and I would love what happened to my mother to happen to you. Will you get right with God? Maybe you are a person who's been running from God for years and you just think you can run out the clock and do whatever you want, but you have to realize that ultimately you're gonna reap the consequences of your action. God might be giving you a warning today. God fired a shot effectively over the bow of Nebuchadnezzar's boat. He said, you've got 12 months, you've got time, and then Nebuchadnezzar just left it off, and didn't think about it, and just became more prideful. This is a little moment right now where you can get right with God. Don't miss this opportunity, you may never have another one like it again. Let's pray.
Father, thank You for Your word to us, thank You for Your offer of forgiveness to us. Now I pray for every person here, every person watching, listening, wherever they are, Lord, would You speak to their hearts and help them to see their need for Jesus. Help them to come to You and believe in You and follow You this day we pray.
Now while our heads our bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, how many of you would say today, Greg, pray for me, I need Jesus, I need a second chance, I need forgiveness, I'm tired of running from God, I wanna know God, I want a relationship with God, I wanna know that I'll go to heaven when I die, I want my sin forgiven. If that's your desire, if you wanna go to heaven when you die, if you want God to forgive you of your sin, if you want your guilt taken away, if you need this second chance in life, would you raise your hand up wherever you are and I'll pray for you today. Raise your hand up high where I can see it. Let me pray for you today, saying I need Jesus Christ, I need His forgiveness, pray for me. God bless you.
Wherever you are, raise your hand up high where I can see it, please. God bless, God bless you. God bless you. God bless each one of you raising your hand, God bless all of you. Some of you are watching a screen right now and of course I can't see you, but this isn't really about me at all, this is about you and the Lord, isn't it? Why don't you just raise your hand saying yes, Lord, here I am, I need You, I want You. Wherever you are watching, just lift your hand up and say, I need Jesus. All right, all of you that are raising your hand I want you to pray this prayer after me right where you are, again as I pray pray this, in fact you could even pray it out loud after me now, just pray these words:
Lord Jesus I know I'm a sinner, but I know You're the Savior who died for my sin on the cross. I turn from that sin, I ask You to forgive me of it now, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.