Our prayers has to be careful, and I was talking about it on Wednesday night, that it's a concerted effort. In other words, that we should have all sincerity in prayer, that our prayer should be in earnest. And during that time of earnest prayer, it's more or less becomes more specific. Because when we go before God, we need to know what we're coming before Him to say. And I tell you, there's all different types of prayer. And the reason for us praying sometimes determines our earnestness. It determines our earnestness. As we do prayer to open up service, I think the prayer to open up service should be about that, about the Word of God, of studying and hearing the word of God focused on what we're about to hear. I think when we do prayer, corporate prayer on Monday nights, when we get together and pray, there's a variety of things we pray for at that time. But a lot of it should focus on unity, the unity of the church as when Peter and his people came together, when the apostles came together, the disciples came together to pray for Peter's release from prison, As a unit, they were praying for a specific thing. That's why it says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'll be the God in the midst of it. So if we are in agreement praying for corporate prayer, or whatever we pray for, we should be specific to God until we can make it plain as to what we are asking for, that the message should be clear. If at the end of the service when we pray over the finances of the money that God had came into the church sanctuary or whatever, I think that prayer should be about finances. It shouldn't be about anyone's health or anything else, but it should be about that. When I wake up in the morning and pray my morning prayer, I pray about that day, what's coming up that day, and that God will allow me to meditate on his word, that my day would be a success that i would accomplish everything that he has for me to accomplish that day during the noon time and you hear the muslims a lot of people in islam pray several times during the day daniel did that Well, that noonday prayer, that afternoon prayer a lot of times, that's the prayer I pray for intercession. I rarely pray for my children or my wife or the church members or anyone else in the morning time. That's kind of a private prayer to get my day going or whatever. So that noon prayer, I call it my prayer of intercession. That's when I pray for the church. I pray for my children. I pray for people that I've came across the paths of in portions of that day. people that had asked me to pray for them and intercede for them. A lot of time my night time prayer is praying for what happened that day and the mistakes I've made and the things that I'm thankful to God that he brought me through today. It's kind of a review of that day. In other words, that's why when it says pray with thanksgiving, he just read out of Colossians, the fourth chapter, the Colossians in the second Verse that says, continuing prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving. With a praying also for us that God would open up a door for us to speak. So we should pray throughout the day. The apostle says, pray without ceasing, continually praying and to enter into your prayer closets to pray. We see this morning in this morning's sermon, the proud brought low. sometime God has to bring us to the place of prayer. Because a lot of times what we do, we just rip off that Our Father prayer, or just a few words to God that we've practiced, and we just automatically say them without any heart, or without any feelings, without any sincerity, or without any earnestness in that prayer. And that goes nowhere, it's not touching God anywhere, that's just something you're saying, or something you're repeating. But when it's hurting, when he bring a catastrophe in your life, when he has calamity or pressure on you about a loved one or a bill or something that's going on in your life, a sickness, a illness, that's when you cry out to God. That's when you really pray to God with all earnestness that God would do something or it's gonna affect your life. It's already affecting your life and you call out to God. That's why when we read in the opening scripture there, he says, if my people, which are called by my name, if you're under that covenant, are you a spirit people, if you would humble yourselves and pray. See, you have to be brought low by God so that you can get self out of the way, because most of the time, self think it's all right. This is the worst nation for that. This is the worst group of people. He has to bring this nation to its knees. I see it coming. I see the dispersal of the nation. It has to get torn completely apart. We read about that Zephaniah. He says, Oh, wicked city. He's talking about a nation. He's talking about his people. We talking about one of the wickedest nations that ever live. And that's Babylon. We're living in Babylon. We're living in Babylon. In the people of Babylon, they're proud, they're high-minded, and God's gonna have to knock them to their knees. A lot of them, he's gonna have to knock their teeth out. God has to bring that day of judgment into your life. He says, pray that you make it through at that time. This thing that's coming up on this nation has become a reality. They thought it was a joke when they vote, how they voted and everything that they were doing. It's no longer a joke to somebody now. A lot of people are being deported. A lot of people are seeing their problems. And this is just the beginning of sorrows. It's going to get worse. It's going to get to where it says, the love of many shall wax cold. You're not going to be able to help your brothers. You're not going to be able to help your sisters and somebody. You could be trying to save yourself. It's going to come a time when you say, I can't help you now. It's a lot of people that are being deported. It's a lot of people that are losing jobs. It's a lot of people. It's going to come directly to your door. And Jesus said at this time of calamity, it's going to be a time of Jacob's trouble. Whether you rich or poor, it's going to knock on your door and you better be able to handle it at that time. You better be praying up. You better know who God is. He said they would have to turn from their ways. So it's something in your life, whether you think you're all right, whether you think you're good with God, you better turn from your ways. You better be in a repentant mode, consistently keep pulling that beam out of your eye. You're not all right. You could be in churches that's telling you you're all right, and you could wonder what the problem is. It's you and your preacher. He said it's the preachers, it's the leaders of the people. And this could be everybody around you, and you're seeing that right now with the cabinet that's being installed. We're talking about mental illness being rapid, running rapid. You look at the things some people say, this guy we have now living in his own reality. He's living on his own planet, he's making up as it goes. We see a king that was a faithful king in the book of Daniel. He wrote one chapter of Daniel. We're talking about Nebuchadnezzar this morning. King Nebuchadnezzar, who was a servant of God. And see, that's why many people in this nation make that mistake. They like Elijah. They think they're the only one serving God. They think just because they're American, that puts them higher than somebody else. Well, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't an Israelite. He wasn't a Jew. But God says, he's my servant. He's a type of Christ, did you know that? A shouted type of Christ, king of kings. This was a Gentile king. I don't know how many of you studied, read Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the one that took God's people captive into Babylon. He's the one that destroyed the church, in other words, Jerusalem. That's just what's gonna happen with this nation. It's gonna have to be destroyed. before people come to their reality. We read in the 4th chapter of Daniel this morning from the 1st to the 37th verse of this Nebuchadnezzar. He had what you call a neurosis, a mental illness. in which he was a servant of God. And I tell you, a lot of us have that same thing. We have a neurosis, in other words, but God comes into our life. He came into Nebuchadnezzar's life that night and he showed him some horrible things about to happen. And he was scared. He was scared. This is the king that had conquered all kings. This was, he ruled the world at that time, Nebuchadnezzar did. Look at here at the fourth chapter. It says, I never, Chineza was at rest in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream and it made me afraid and the fantasies and thoughts of the visions that appeared in my mind. I lay on my bed and it kept alarming me. I never, Chineza was so frightened. So I issued an order, uh, calling in all the wise men of Babylon so they can tell me what my dream meant. When all the magicians and enchanters and astrologers and fortune tellers came in and I told them the dream, but they couldn't tell me what it meant. The world can't tell you what God's trying to show you. It's a lot of us don't realize what God's trying to show us. That's because we are partnered up with the world. Most of the churches can't show you that. That's why in the book of revelations, you see Jesus come back. He says, he's going to fight against the churches because the churches have become corrupt. The ministers of Satan has entered into the churches. They have transformed themselves in the ministers of light. Nebuchadnezzar was a good king. He was a servant of God and he was doing what God had told him. He knew who God looked like also. Go back and read it. When he thawed the three Hebrew boys in the fire, his administration called him to throw the three Hebrew boys into the fire. When he showed, thawed Ned, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, when he looked, he looked in there and he seen four in the fire. He says, didn't we throw three in? He says, but I see four, and one looks like the son of God. One looks like the son of God. So he had to know how God looked if he knew how his son looked. No king that's in power that God hadn't put in power. Wherever a king sets the date, God had set him on the throne. Whatever leader you have, whatever's going on, God is sovereign. He'd never stop running the universe, whoever's there. God allowed him to put that person in power. There's no power outside of God. He was doing, Nebuchadnezzar was doing just what God had told him to do. That's why he was so hard. That's why he was so hard on Zedekiah, one of God's kings that Nebuchadnezzar had installed into the office of king, Nebuchadnezzar had made him king, but he had made a vow with Nebuchadnezzar and he went against that vow trying to save himself. The last thing he knew, Nebuchadnezzar had put his eyes out, had killed his sons in front of his face first and put his eyes out. You know, it's a lot of us, we're gonna lose our family. God's gonna let us see us losing everything before he begins to torment us. And you'll know what's going on. You know, God, it's nothing to play with, with God. That's why I say this is a serious thing when you come into the church. When you start saying you're serving God, that's why I say in earnestness and with all sincerity and graveness and soberness, realizing that this is the God of the universe that you're dealing with here. You can't fool Him lying and conniving and being just what you are. He sees it from afar. He knows it before you do it. He knew what kind of person Nebuchadnezzar was. Nebuchadnezzar was a good man, but he had people, like I tell you, just like we have in the nation today. Have you noticed all of the people that have been placed in office, billionaires and rich people, they determined for themselves, this is a wicked and evil generation that we're in. But God loved Nebuchadnezzar and God came to Nebuchadnezzar and showed him that I'm going to take you through some stuff Nebuchadnezzar. I'm going to move you out of the way so I can deal with those in the palace. He moved him out of the way for seven years. for seven years he moved Nebuchadnezzar out of the way so he can deal with the other. You know a lot of times God moves us so he can deal with our children. He moves the parents so he can deal with the children and sometimes he moves the children so he can deal with the parents. He moves different people so he can deal with the other person. See, that's why we have to be careful who we're interceding and praying for and how we are praying because it might be God that you're fighting against. Josiah went in and tried to fight against Pharaoh Necho at the Battle of Carchemish. trying to help out because Babylon and Osiria was fighting. It wasn't none of his battle. See, this isn't the church's battle today. We're to watch out. We're just to watch what's going on in the world. We see that the nation, the majority of the people are correct in that we've been turned over to an illegitimate regime, a regime that God has to topple the whole nation to punish those. So the people in what they're asking, they're right for protesting and coming apart. But as the church, we can't be part of that protest. We just are watchers. We're just looking at what's going on. In other words, we don't have a dog in that fight. But we have to pray for the ones that are right. though the ones that are true, whether it be in government or out of government. You notice that the government is fighting within the government because there are a lot of people that's standing up on principle in the right thing. Boy, that thing is getting on now. And as it starts to cook, as that pot's on the stove, everybody's within that pot though. We all in that, so we have to be looking to God, hoping that we don't get a lick. But if you thanking, and you sitting back there proud and humble and thanking you somebody, that's usually who get the hit. Nebuchadnezzar got the hit. He had to send for a witness. He was so hurt. His astrologers and dreamers and soothsayers. That's why we are God's witnesses. He said, you are my witnesses. We supposed to be so prayed up. We supposed to be so strong in God. When people come to us and ask us what's going on, we supposed to show them what's going on in the world according to the Bible, according to God, not according to common sense and human philosophy and all this other foolishness. I got into it with another preacher this week. Well, he got into it with me. I didn't say much to him, but I couldn't back out. I had to stand my ground, but he burned himself out on talking about what he was talking about. He got mad. I didn't get mad because I know how this thing is and I know whose side we should be on. He was on the opposite side. Let me tell you, you visiting all these churches and fooling around with all these religions, they will cause you to compromise to what you believe in and you ain't gonna know who's right. You will be so confused that you will be fighting against the living God because you didn't stand in one place, steadfast, immovable in the faith and what you said you believed in, now you're contradicting yourself. And people hear you contradicting yourself and they go after that weakness. We can see weaknesses, but as I said, we're witnesses. So Nebuchadnezzar had to call a witness in. Daniel was that witness. It's been proven time and time again that Daniel was a servant of God, that he's chosen, he served the most high God. And Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzar was a man God had sent to serve. And when he called Daniel in to talk to Daniel, the eighth verse of the fourth chapter, he says, at last Daniel came in before me, and I told him the dream. He was named Belteshazzar, part of that name without the Nebuchadnezzar's God's name. Belteshazzar, part of it is from Daniel. Namely, but we're not gonna focus on that name and thing right now that much but his name was Bill chases are in his and the spirit of the holy gods is in him saying he had the Holy Ghost We do you have Jesus in you? He says if you pray to God for his spirit He'll give you the spirit if you pray earnestly if you serving honestly That's the only way you could be a son of God if the Spirit of God dwell it in you. I See, that's what we should be praying about. He'll give you the spirit. That's a gift, the earnest of our inheritance, because without that, we can't make it through here. I said to him, Belshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too great for you to solve. Now tell me what my dream means. While I was lying in my bed, this is what I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle of the earth. The tree grew very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. It had fresh green leaves and it was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade and birds nested in its branches. All the world was fed from this tree. As I told you, Nebuchadnezzar was a king of kings. All the nations came under Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was one of the stronger ones in the world. He was a servant of God doing what God had told him. But as God anoints you, as God starts blessing you, no good people could come into your life. No good people come into the nations. No good people come into the churches. You got a lot of places with no good people in it. But you need God to help search out those that's no good and weed out the bad. That's why he says, let the wheat and tar grow up together. I'll separate them. My angels will separate them in the end. Can I tell you we in the end of days? That there's a judgment that's coming and that we should help judge the world, that we should be walking in the grace of God, that we should have a spirit of discerning that he's looking unto us. to preach his word, to teach his word, and be witnesses, and that's the only way we can do this thing, is through the word. Not by might, not by power, but by his spirit, and by his spirit, we speak the word, we preach the word, we teach the word, we walk the word, we live it in the word. It is the word, that's where the power is, is in the word of God. Told you it was gonna involve something. It involves turning from what you are, your ways. Nebuchadnezzar was gonna have to turn and repent. He's gonna have to change his ideology. Because just like a lot of us, even though we believe in God, there's that bit of unbelief where we believe in ourself more than God. When it comes down to major decisions and things concerning us, that's when we say God understands. We don't do God right. Most people are not doing God right. They're serving and worshiping God. They're not treating God right. They're not making sacrifices. They're not in all earnestness serving God. See, when you earnestly serve God, there's supplication, there's sacrifice going on. You don't have your chest poked out. It's not all about you. You hadn't humbled yourself. And if you're a true child of God, God said, I'm gonna mock you. I'm gonna scourge everyone that I have. So Daniel said, preached an epitaph about repentance. A lot of people come into church and want to preach it, not to say anything about them or their lives or what they're doing. No matter how horrible what's going on in their life, they think they're right and that they're a good person. That's what Seth does to you, that you all right. That's why most of the churches are piped, because they don't preach on sin and clarifying the individual. Let that word wash you. People say, I'm washed by the word. Okay, the word says this, but are you still holding on to that sin? Are you still holding on to seeing you being hypocritical? You know what the words say, but you know what you're doing wrong. And if you're in the words, studying the word and earnestly praying, God shows you the fault. He shows you what's wrong. You're not ignorant of those scenes. He says, I wish that you were not ignorant. So if you could constantly praying to God and walking and doing it and seeking him all earnestly, he's going to put his hand on just what that fault is that you're doing. Now you're going to need God to overcome that fault. You're going to need him to help you overcome it. But you yourself ain't going to want to get rid of it. You can excuse it off. And you can have a spouse or a family member or somebody to help you excuse it off. They're going to say, oh, we all do a little bit bad. We all do this. No, you've got to tighten up. You've got to get up. Not a spot of blemish could be there. So Daniel says, Belteshazzar, that was the dream. I mean, he said, Belteshazzar, that's the dream. Our King Nebuchadnezzar has a head. Now tell me what it means, for none of the wise men of my kingdom can do so. But you can tell me because the spirit of God is in you. You're not like the rest of these shysters and hustlers that's around here in my kingdom. That's what's happening with the cabinet. That's what's happening with the government. That's why I say, pray for our governor, John Bel Edwards. He's a good man, I think. We need to pray for him, we need to pray for our mayor. But when that happens, you have people that's around that's no good. We should have to pray for our legislatures and also the city councils and all these people because there's wickedness out there. We don't know the hearts of these people, I said. So even though I said John Bell is a good man, he may have areas that he need to tighten up. We know everybody have areas they need to tighten up in. That's for God to fight that battle. Daniel explains that he says, upon hearing this, Daniel was overcome for a time, frightened by the meaning of the dream. Then the king said to him, Belshazzar, don't be alarmed by the dream or what it means. Why was Daniel so alarmed? Because he liked it, Belshazzar. Daniel liked the king Nebuchadnezzar. He seen he was a good man. This man I was talking to this week, I told you was a minister. And just like a lot of people I know, I know a good people or whatever, and I kind of like them, but I see their lives going the wrong way. I see it in some of my children. And I try, it hurts to see what's the end result is, what God's showing me. It's like Joseph when God showed him what was gonna happen to the butcher and the baker. And everybody wants good news, but nobody wants to hear the bad news. Nobody wants to hear where they're wrong at. When he told the butcher, he says, your neck's gonna be taken off of you. He didn't want to hear that. Daniel was worried about what he heard, what he seen in his dream, because it meant, he said, you could go crazy, King. God's about to put the hurt on you. You know, I talk with my brothers and sisters, I talk with my family, God's about to put the hurt on us. Now I can only tell you, a preacher can only tell you, a mailman only can put that letter in your box. You have to do something on that letter, whether it's a bill or whatever, he only delivers the bills. I only deliver the message. I give you the word and what thus said the Lord. Daniel gave him the word. Daniel told him, he says, I wish the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to you enemies, my Lord, and not to you. I hope this didn't happen to you, King. I would rather it happened to you enemies. and not to you. But let me tell you this, the tree you saw was growing very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. And it had fresh green leaves and it was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade and birds nesting in its branches. That tree, your majesty, is you. That's you. You're the one that is that picture. For you have grown strong and great, and your greatness reaches up to the heavens and your rule to the ends of the earth. Everything around you, you rule and reign. Then you saw a messenger, a holy one, come down from heaven saying, cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump and the roots in the ground, bound with a band of iron and bronze and surrounded by tender grass. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals of the field for seven periods of time. This is what that dream means, Your Majesty, and what the Most High has declared will happen to my Lord, the King, what he showed you is gonna happen, King. What God just showed you is about to happen. You will be driven from human society and you will live in the fields with the wild animals. You will eat grass like a cow and you will be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses. You will learn this. Now that verse is key. That's a key verse. He says you will learn that the most high rules over the kingdoms of the world and roots and gives them to anyone he chooses and that calls you the king and then calls you a good guy that you so smart. Don't go picking out your chest how much you smart and you better than anybody else. That's why this nation has to fall. We think we so smart. And with most of them following after their leader, that's a sign of a downfall. That's pride, that's arrogance. And it's based on a lie. It's based on provable lies. That can't stand. You can't build on that kind of foundation. If you're building on the wrong foundation, he says, But the stomping roots of the tree were left in the ground. This means you will receive your kingdom back again when you have learned who rules. King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning. I'm telling you today, stop sinning. As I tell a lot of y'all, stop sinning. I tell the nation, stop sinning. The city, my children, my family, anybody, stop sinning. Now you may be proud and high-minded and think you're doing the work of God. You better allow some word to search in your heart like a flashlight and point out your sin to you. And do what is right, he says, do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will prosper. A lot of us not merciful unto the poor. We are arrogant, high-minded with this narcissism. hung up on self, self-pride. It's always about you. You're the smartest man in the world. You're the smartest person in the joint. You know everything and you can just do whatever you're doing and you don't have any problem. You're not on your knees enough. I'll give you seven years to learn this message out. A lot of us been in the wilderness a long time, like they wanted in the wilderness 40 years. if you don't change judgment is coming it's the day of the lord the day of the lord is up on his children not that all these things were forty eight but all these things did happen to king nebuchadnezzar a year later twelve months later he had been war as a witness daniel had warned him and told him to repent but not just like a lot of us in like the nation we think we are right we think god has us doing what we're doing They're not listening at true preachers. They're listening at preachers. But if we go read the third chapter of Zephaniah in a few weeks, they're listening at the wrong preachers. They're listening at the wrong things. They're following the wrong leaders. He says, 12 months later, he was taking a walk on the flat roof of his royal palace in Babylon. As he looked out across the city, he said, look at this great city of Babylon. By my own power, I built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majesty and splendor. I made America great. Just look at this nation. I made this world great. Look at the splendor of it. That's pride. That's being proud of your accomplishment. You're not saying God did what God's doing. A lot of time we use God's name in there. It's just like putting ketchup on a burger. It's just to give it a little flavor. It's just not, we're not giving God the whole thing. He's not the meat on the bun. He's just the ketchup. He just put him on there as you like him. Just a little dab. See you out front, you receiving the glory. You like the bun and the meat. That's what Nebuchadnezzar was. Look at the kingdom I've built. And it was God who had told him to go in and capture Jerusalem. It was God had been directing his life, but he failed to give God the glory, and he didn't start having mercy on the poor, because God had allowed him to capture his people. His people were some of those poor that was in within Babylon, but his administration had caused them to crack down on God's people. You know, sometimes when we crack down too hard on people and we lose mercy and we're not merciful, God's not gonna show us mercy. You better watch who we're listening to. You better watch those close to you. You better watch the hand you're dealing because God had sought out a law of sowing and reaping. So, while these words were still in his mouth, he was still bragging a voice called down from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, This message is for you. You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. You will be driven from human society. You will live in the fields with the wild animals. You will eat grass like a cow. Seven periods of time will pass over you. It's the same words Daniel had told. That same thing, believe me, you're not gonna skip adjudication of the verdict. You've been indicted. Once you're indicted, that's bringing the charges against you. There's a trial, and that was a 12-month trial. He didn't turn. He didn't repent. There was time for repentance. God gives us all the space to repent. He gives us a time to get in church. And once we get in church, we can't just get in church and do nothing. You have to turn from all you was doing. You have to begin to do right. You have to get rid of the old life and everything it was doing. Everything that was attached to the old you. You have to cut it loose. You can't drag any of the world in the church with you. What all you was doing, turn away from it. If you don't turn, you'll burn. Repentance is necessary before regeneration. Now it was ground so hard in Nebuchadnezzar, it took him seven years. Seven is a number of completion or maturation. A lot of scholars argue over the length of this time. But it was seven years that he had to go through for this perfection to be completed in him. You could go through the perfect time. God only knows the season. A lot of us may not come out of this thing. We might have to go through this thing because we won't let loose the world. We like Lott's wife. Lott's wife died right out there on the plane of Sodom and Gomorrah. Looking back, she couldn't leave her other daughters. She'd had other daughters, other children in Sodom and Gomorrah. She couldn't leave that life behind. We got to be like old brother Lott. Brother Lott and them other two daughters, they didn't look back. If you don't look back, wife and daughter might be back there dead, but at least you got out there with your life. Lott was able to live another day to tell a story. His wife wasn't, she was a pillar of salt. You better save yourself from this untoward generation. Don't care what your children or whoever done, that's their problem with God. You save yourself, it's the house on fire, you get out of there. The house on fire Nebuchadnezzar, you should have got out. He says, that same hour the judgment was fulfilled and Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society. He ate grass like a cow and he was drenched with the dew of heaven and he lived that way for seven years. God humbles the proud. We talked about that the other week, and it's dangerous, and I try to correct those prayers when I hear people saying, God, humble me, and God, humble us. Okay, if you're praying a private prayer, it's okay for you to ask God to humble you. But believe me, on nights of corporate prayer, don't pray, God, humble us. I want to humble myself. I knew Nebuchadnezzar would humble themself. See, that's what I would read in scripture says in my people, which are called by my name would do what humble themselves. You want to humble the word of God. You have to death to self. In other words, take up your cross, deny yourself. That's what humbles you. That's what humbles you. The way this guy talked to me this weekend, I just said, look, I'm sorry. I don't know what you have against me. I'm sorry. You know, we won't have to talk again or whatever because I don't want you to sin against yourself by talking about me like this. If you feel this way about me, you shouldn't even come around me. You have to humble yourself. You still have to stand up on the word of God, but it's gonna require sacrifice. People come around, no, I don't do that anymore. Don't ask me to do it. I don't want to condemn you in that way, but don't ask me about it or talk to me about it. That's in the past. I used to do that. You talking to a new man, I'm a new creation now. I don't even want you talking to me like that. I don't even want that language around me. You understand? You have to sever all ties. All ties. Then as I lay dreaming, I saw a messenger coming down from heaven. This was Daniel was saying. And as he humbled Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar was out there those seven years, Sometimes things are not written in the Bible. What was happening during those seven years is not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible. What was he doing those seven years? What we should be doing now? We should be in prayer and supplications. I can just kind of see him out there pleading to God. I can see him out there living his past through eating grass, that his nails are growing, this neurosis that he had, this mental illness. A lot of us have depression, times of depression. I don't know if anyone went through a time of depression. It was just like Elijah. I told you he had fought against the prophets of Baal and Jezebel come up against him. It wasn't that he wasn't a man of God, he wasn't that he was strong, it was just that so much was against him. He was afraid, he didn't have anybody standing on his side. A lot of times, just as this morning, I was going and I was working and everything, and I was wanting to go into prayer, I said, well, Deacon Hubbard normally calls me at about this time, but it was a little bit later calling, and I'm saying I wanna go into prayer, I don't want to be in prayer and he called it. I'm not going to have a chance to talk to him to tell him this or whatever. And during that time, a lot just came up on me. You know, a lot of times you get your check and it don't go as far as you want it to go. Something happens with your children or something's going on in, in doing that time. That's the time you reminiscing. See, that's why I say sometime God gets us all by ourselves. And that's when we start seeing ourselves for ourselves and just how much has piled up on us. Just how many people you've tried to help and they've turned you and written you on the foot. How many people that you was attempting to do good and evil was right there and you want to give up and you ask, Lord, I'm trying to do this and this happens. I'm trying to do that. And you plead and I need you. If you give me another chance, God, You know, if you get me out of this hospital, if you get me over this illness, if you get me past this time, I'll change. See, during that seven years, I know he had serious supplication in prayer to God. That's why it says, enter into your prayer closet, see, because it's no one's business what you say to God. That's why I tell you, you got specific times of prayer. See, when we come to church with corporate prayer, it's no time to talk about somebody else's problems and air that out so somebody could hear you praying about somebody else. We need to talk about the church as a collection. But each and every day, you need to get that time to go to God to talk about, to God, what's going on in your life. That morning, what's going on with you, where you fall short here. Your weakness is what you've done wrong. And see, you had seven years. That animal, that portion of us that comes out to show us what we are. During that seven years, he saw himself for the miserable, wretched, naked mess he was, and that he wasn't as great as he thought he was. God says you will suffer until you realize who's the most high, who rules. A lot of us, God's been keeping broke for 20 or 30 years. And you've always thought you would see that silver lining. It's because you really hadn't realized who God was yet. until you wake to consciousness, until you turn from what you're doing with your mind here. God know what's on your mind and what's on your heart. It's like baking a cake. It ain't ready to come out of the oven yet. You think it's ready to come out, but it's not done in the center. A lot of us are brown on the outside. We're done on the outside, but you can't take that cake out of that oven and let it sit out there and cool. And then you get in there and cut it. It's kind of doughy. It's not right on the inside. You can't put it back in there and let it cook no more. There's a problem with that. That's why God keeps us in the fire. That's why your life's been the way it is for so long because you're not quite right. Because when he lets you go, you will go back and do the same thing. You will be like the dog that returned to the vomit. You hadn't learned your lesson yet. That's how we grow our children up a lot of time. They ain't gonna do it no more. And you just whipping them and beating them. And then they ain't gonna do it no more. And they ain't gonna do it no more. And you have to be back on his tail again in two or three months. He go back and do something else. But then when you get hold to him, see, that's what society didn't ruin us at. You can't go tell a child, go stand in that corner and have time out or whatever. You can't just talk to people. Sometime you have to bring out the big sticks. You have to bring in the big guns. And once you put the fear of God in his heart, once some husbands put the fear of God in their wives, sometime you have to put the fear of God in people. She may not stop fooling around and she might've wasted his money or did this or whatever, but when he had to put the fear of God in her, or he had to put the fear of God in him, You know, the fear of God, you know, they bring you within an inch of your life. You can see it flashing before you. When you jump on that child and you beat him and said, beat him with a rod, he won't die. When you take him and tear him all apart, I was telling you about this young man that had broke into his neighbor's house and the two women talked about it. And the other woman said, don't call the police. I'll take care of him. He won't do that no more. And then the police want to arrest her for beating her son. But I bet you he won't break in no more houses after she finished with him. Once he tore him all to pieces. See, the kind of fights you have in school and everything where you fight this guy this week and then next week y'all have another fight. You never had them guys you had to fight two or three times? That's because everybody out there saying, well, we don't know who won. And some people saying this guy won. Some people saying that guy won. But when he gets you out there and he tear you all to pieces, it ain't no doubting who won. You won't have to worry about him no more. See, Nebuchadnezzar, he was to all the pieces. Sometime God's gonna have to tell you all the pieces. He's gonna have to bring you to that last minute. He might have to bring you to the last few years of your life before you say, God, I give up. I give. But he's gonna make you say, uncle. You can't, Jacob wrestled with God. You remember when I told you, you're wrestling with God. But you can't beat God. The bed's too short to stretch yourself out. He's just too strong. Your arm's too short to box with God. You just wants to give in. Daniel had said never, but now he's like, I wish this was somebody else. It's a fight you can't win. This is a fight you can't win. Who's gonna fight against God and win? So you better watch the fight you get in. Nebuchadnezzar, when God tears you all apart, God restores you. He know how to restore you. And we talk about restoration here. Verse 34 to 37. After this time had passed these seven years, now this is a so-called king that people talk about. This is him writing a chapter in the Bible now. So he must not have been too pagan, huh? He just wasn't like them. See, a lot of times when we've not liked the other person, they torment us. You know, a lot of people, racial equality in America, a lot of the races are getting along and you ever had somebody on your job say, oh, you ain't like the rest of the black people that I've met. You just didn't get to know me. Everybody had you prejudice toward me because you were prejudging me before you got to know me. You didn't understand my trials and tribulations. You didn't know who I was. That's the same thing we're doing with people of Islam, Hispanics, and other people. We're allowing other people to prejudge people. God's gonna bring out the good in us. God knows what's in you because he put it in you. He knows what you capable of. He knew what Nebuchadnezzar was capable of. Nebuchadnezzar says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up into heaven. You see, a lot of times we have our head down, but when we're praying, when we get that answer from God, we looking up and he says, I looked up to heaven, my sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the most high God. You remember, God says, until you learn who the most high God, he said, I praised the most high. and honor the one who lives forever. His rule is everlasting and his kingdom is eternal. All the people of earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people on earth. No one can stop him or say to him, what do you mean by doing these things? He could witness to old brother joe joe couldn't see joe but asked god why he was doing all that Now but you never could say look brother joe don't ask god why he doing what he do he do what he want to do He's god god do what he want to do And see that's the testimony. We should be going out to have god is god He do what he want to do whatever he do And he had to beat joe to joe blowing that lesson. He had to take his children take his money and everything say now I understand god God has to whip us. We're not learning that lesson just by preaching. We go through it experientially. God has to put us through the wringer before we actually learn, because you don't think that's right. You don't think that God's gonna show you it's right. He said, I chastened every son, I scourged every son I received. He says, what do you mean by doing these things? Nobody can answer that. When my sanity returned, to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. When he found out who was who, God put him back on the throne. God gave him back rule over that king. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom. with even greater honor than before. Just like Job, he gave Nebuchadnezzar more than he had. He gave Job double what he had. When you learn of God, that's when you're laying down blessings upon you. But he has to bring you that place of supplication and prayer. That's when he says in Chronicles, if my people would pray, would just humble themselves and pray, that's when I'll heal their land. You're not being healed when you're getting this. You know, you get a little money. You ever had a little money? You're not used to money. You get $1,000, $2,000. You think you got money? That ain't no money. That ain't no money, but you've been doing wrong, and you got that little money. And that's what Satan does. He gives you a little bit. He told Jesus, I'll give you all these kingdoms you worship me. That ain't nothing. You've given me what I already got. See, God's trying to talk you into becoming a son of God and Satan's trying to talk you out of laboring for the world. You gonna lose that little bit and you think that that's something. You think that that woman or that man or that house or something, it's gonna rot. It's gonna get old, it's gonna need painting, it's gonna get dilapidated, she gonna gain weight, he gonna get fat and get bald-headed. Are you still gonna think you got something? Huh? Is love going to endure during that time? God gives us enduring love and love never fail it. That's how you tell his disciples your love for one another. But is she going to stick with you through health and sickness and poverty? Is she going to be right there with you? I know God is. He says, I'll never leave you and forsake you. You should be married unto God and don't put anybody before God. Not even self. And they should learn that. So as we draw this to a close, we see where even the greatest of greatest praise God. And I didn't tell you how this story began. You've ever been watching a movie and they tell you somebody that's narrating the story and they're telling you from the end And that's at the beginning of the movie, and then a little caption or something came up there, and it says, five years before, this went before. They're telling you after it's been completed, then they come back and tell you how you got in that position. Well, that's what Nebuchadnezzar started this thing out with. He started out, verse one says, King Nebuchadnezzar, this is verse one of chapter four, sent this message to the people of every race and nation. So he's not like America. He didn't raise the walls. He didn't shut everybody off. He says, I want to preach to every race. I want to tell every nation about God. And that's why what happened in chapter four is why he was telling them. He says, every race and every nation and every language throughout the world, peace and prosperity to be to you. That's true peace and true greatness. He found out who God was. He's able to talk to all men because that's why Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. As a witness, that's what we should be telling everybody. Just like Nebuchadnezzar has the gospel here. He has the good news that Jesus is Lord and He reigns. And that serving the Most High God says, I want you to know all about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. Go out there and tell people what God's done for you. Don't you have some things that God's done for you? See, Nebuchadnezzar was telling people how he got in the position he was, but what God did to bring him through that, and what God did after he brought him through, he glorified him. He said, how great is his signs and how powerful his wonders. His kingdom will last forever. His rule throughout all generations. This is a pagan king talking about the most high God. Who is God? See, you must not be through that trial yet, or you may not be going through because after you come through, you will start telling people about God. You will start witnessing, but if you're still doing what you used to do, you hadn't got there yet. He still has to hurt you some more. You still have to suffer losses. You might not even see it in this life if you don't learn that lesson, but you will learn. He says, you shall remain in this condition until you learn who rules in heaven. Who learn? Some of us never learn. You done heard some people say, ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth? It's some people that'll never catch hold because they'll never get it. But when you get it, you will glorify and praise God. Thank God I got it. Thank God. And you could go through anything and you could help people through things. But the world ain't gonna change. Forget what them churches telling you, the world will change. This same Nebuchadnezzar. If you notice, Babylon didn't change. Go to chapter five. In the very next chapter, you'll see that's who came along later on, not Beltachazar, Nebuchadnezzar's nephew came in, and that's when he destroyed Babylon. So they didn't stop treating people wrong just because Nebuchadnezzar learned this. Nebuchadnezzar passed off the scene. You remember when they called Daniel in again? That same Daniel, he had to testify to Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. about his kingdom have been numbered and that the Medes and the purge was going to come in and destroy Babylon. He didn't do it under God, under Nebuchadnezzar though, because Nebuchadnezzar respected God. When he raided Jerusalem, he took those vessels, the holy vessels that we about to have for the Lord. So he took those vessels and he put them in the house of his God. In other words, he stored them out. He respected God so much, he wasn't going to touch the holy vessels. But see, Belshazzar, not Daniel, but this was a king that followed Nebuchadnezzar, his grandson or son. Years late, he came along. He took those same vessels. He just like America today, he took those same vessels and was cursing and drinking. And he said, let's have this party. Let's drink out of the golden vessels. They brought the vessels in there and they started drinking out of them. And that's when the famous appeared the fingers of a man's hand and wrote on the wall, TK, TK, Armenia, you saw some, is that your kingdom have been numbered and divided. You see, so the world ain't gonna change because you get converted. It's still gonna be a fight and a struggle in the world until God finished judging the world. It's not gonna change until God takes this kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar had two or three dreams. He has to take the kingdom. But what I wanna get over to you today is, while you're struggling down here, make prayer and supplications to God. earnest prayer. We may not know what's going on, what's being said to God, your private struggles and what's going on, but he does say, confess your faults to one another. So we know he had faults because Daniel told him to stop sinning. So we should have to struggle in corporate prayer, in private prayer, but the conclusion is God's going to restore you. God's gonna make a great restoration in your life, but he's gonna have to completely burn away all sin. So in this dispensation, we're gonna have to walk in the word of God. He's gonna have to purge us and cleanse us, and sin cannot reign in our mortal bodies where we obey it and let us down. Heavenly Father, as we come before you this day, Lord God, we ask you to strengthen us