Holy Shift in “Losing the Power”

James Greer: 00:00 Hey, let’s welcome Alexandria Journey Church, Amen. We’re so proud of them, man. They’re going to be baptizing today also.

James Greer: 00:08 Hey, we’re talking about how to lose the power that God has given us. We’re going to stay in the book of Acts, and how a holy shift, that God just unbelievably empowered the New Testament church. Just like he is in many ways our church, but you can basically lose the power and joy of God only because of Satan and sin. You gain it back by confessing and forsaken it. People often say, man, I just lost my joy, I’ve lost my power, I’ve just lost his presence. It’s Satan and sin. The Bible says, in Proverbs 28:13, “He who covers sin shall not prosper.” And you’re not going to be satisfied, you’re not going to be happy, you’re not going to experience the power of God. But whoever confesses it and forsakes it, we’re going to have mercy. Can I tell you, the mercy of God is for us right now. Now is the time he wants to give us. The Bible says in Acts 3:19, “Repent, therefore and be converted, that our sins are going to be blotted out until the times of refreshing (revival, a new breath of fresh air) comes upon you in the presence of the Lord.” I’m telling you, that’s what I want to happen in our church.

James Greer: 01:16 We’re doing that holy shift, and the theme is today, you can’t keep back without having kick back. And we’re going to find it in a few minutes, but I want to kind of bring us up to date. Acts chapter one is when we received the power. Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you.” You went from powerless, to this unbelievable new power. The word means dynamite. As a Christian, when you’re right with God and the Holy Spirit, you’re like a walking stick of dynamite. And he said to be my witnesses. You get to where the problem’s going to come, but you can walk through the problem with a new power and presence of God, like you’ve never done before. The New Testament says, you come to church, and you learn to leave and you be the church, Amen. And then in chapters it starts in two through four, it’s talking about they began to use the power. I’m talking about in chapter two, verse forty, that three thousand were saved. In Acts chapter four, five thousand were saved. That was pretty good Sunday, Amen. Acts 3:6 says, “Then Peter said, silver and gold, I have none. But what I do have…” In other words God doesn’t ask you to give what you don’t have, God wants you to use what you do have. He said, “So in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk.” In other words he says, listen, I want you to know church that Jesus will meet needs that nothing else in the world can, Amen. That’s the new testament that is just rocking the house. In Acts 4:13, It says, “That now they saw their new boldness.” And so there’s a new boldness in Peter and John, and they perceive that they were uneducated and untrained men, but they marveled.

James Greer: 02:59 See, when you get right with God, when you have the power and presence of God, it’s not about your education, is about your position. When you get positionally right, you have a new power to preach, and to teach, and to witness, and walk through problems like you’ve never had before. Then it kept going, Acts 4:29, it said, “Now Lord, look upon their threats.” I’m being threatened, people are talking about me, they’re talking about putting me in jail, and later on they did. And he says, grant your servant that with all boldness, they might speak the word. I decided to write that in the front of my Bible. God grant me the boldness to speak your word. Don’t worry about what other people say, don’t worry about them, just get me boldness. God wants to give you a new boldness in the midst of your problem, that you can be bold, and confident, and at peace, in the midst of your problem, because he might not remove your problem. Amen. That’s the shift that I want you to get.

James Greer: 03:53 I want you to understand, when you’re right with God, he doesn’t always remove the problem, but he says, my grace is sufficient. He says, I’m going to give you a new power, a strength, peace, even in the midst of your problem that’s going to draw people to Christ. Man, I. I mean, we need to be rejoicing in what God’s doing. I mean let’s rejoice in the result, but let’s always rejoice in the reason. We’ve already had, in three weeks, we’ve had 45 new members. Thank you Jesus, Amen. We’ve had 27 people already commit to their Lord in Jesus Christ, in three weeks. We’ve baptized 16, after today at both campuses, it’ll be over 20. We already had 107 first time visitors, not counting who’s there today. Amen, Praise God, Amen. Then listen, year to date, we’ve already had 211 members, 211. Twenty eight of those are from our new Alexandria campus. Hey Alexandria, I’m proud of that. It’s David Belgard, he’s going to be baptized over there today. He’s the one said through the holy shift I gave my life to Jesus Christ. If you’re here today, and you’ve never given your life to Jesus Christ, you’ll get the opportunity at both campuses at the end of the message, Amen. We’ve already baptized a 107 this year. I went for 20, 30 years, I said, man, it’s my goal, if we’d ever baptize 100. We did, we had a 100 time, we had the newspaper here. Man I was celebrating, I had little plaques put on my wall. I mean this year already, we’ve already had a 107, Amen. I mean that is a holy shift. Man God is shifting, God is rocking the house, and there’s all this power. What happened to the power? Up to this point, man they’re just rocking the house. They’re bold, nobody could stop them. They were witnesses, you could throw me in jail, give me boldness to preach. They just could not beat the Jesus out of them.

James Greer: 05:47 Something happens though in chapter five. They started thinking, some of them, these are Christians, that I could keep back what I’ve told God I’d give him, and that won’t be any kickback. That’s not true. Starting in Acts 5:1, it said, “But there was a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, they sold their possessions” But there’s nothing wrong with selling your possessions, that’s not what was wrong. There’s nothing wrong with selling them and keeping the profit. Except he kept back part of the possessions, that he really had committed to God. And his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain piece apart, and they laid at the feet of the apostle. Man, you would think, hey man, I sold some land, I’m going to bring it, I’m going to lay it at the feet of the church, and y’all just use as you want. You would think everybody should be saying amen.

James Greer: 06:41 Free insight men, the decisions we make spiritually, financially, emotional affect our wives. But wives, the decisions you make affect us. That’s why the most important decision, you better understand, is the Matthew 6:33 principle. That Jesus is the only one that can meet all our needs, and everybody else is just a conduit, But verse three, it says, “But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your (what?) heart?” This is all about the heart. You hear me? You get your heart right, everything else will be right. Why has he filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? See Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to keep back, it was all about the heart. Do you want to know how you know where your heart is? You all ready? You want to really simple way? You come to church, you say, amen, I preach. I sing. I jump up and down, I raise my hands…. Follow the money. I can prove there’s two ways, follow the money and follow the fruits. But see that’s what it was all about. They’d filled their heart. And they said, “While it remained, was it not your own?” In other words before you made a commitment, it was yours anyway, but after it was sold, was it not your own to control? Sure it is. But why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Listen, God knows your heart, you can’t lie to him. The Bible says, in Matthew 6:21, “Where your treasure is, there’s your heart also.” Where’s your heart? Where your treasure is. What was wrong with this? Ananias and Sapphira, they had committed to the Lord, to give to the Lord, and they kept it back.

James Greer: 08:30 But you know, that wasn’t the end of the story, you’ve got to learn where your heart is. The church. Listen, every member, it’s all about your heart. Your heart is deceitfully wicked the Bible says. Who can know it? You can’t even know it. It says the Lord knows it though, he searches the heart, he knows all things. And he gives every man, according to his ways. But he said he knows his mind, he knows his condition, according to the fruits of his doing. So if you want to know your heart, do you want to know your heart? Amen. Because it’s all about the heart. When your heart right, the power’s right, the peace is, right, the joy is right, the love is right. It’s all about the what? The heart. Follow the money, and check your fruit life. Follow the money, and check your fruit life. I mean, it’s so strange really, you know God only requires 10 percent, but that’s where we start. But don’t tell me you love God, and the heart is right, if you don’t tithe. This is not about tithing, we don’t need your money, God has blessed us supernaturally. But you need the blessings of God. See, when we made a commitment to God to do something, don’t keep it back. The kickback comes when God has blessed you. You Ready? With some time, some talent, and some tithe or money, and you keep it back. See, it wasn’t a matter of selling property and making a profit, that was yours, he said good business. Do it. But after he committed it to God, then there’s kickback.

James Greer: 10:02 Verse Five, “Ananias, hearing these words, he fell down.” That sucker died. It said he took his last breath, but no, he died. He fell right… Can you imagine? You come into church, and everybody that lied to the Holy Spirit, just boom, boom, boom? We wouldn’t have any members at our church. So great fear came upon those who heard these sayings. What did they hear? They heard that if you make a commitment to Jesus Christ, you follow through with it. It wasn’t what he sold, he had to get it to the Lord. You don’t have go out and sell your house, your car, your motorcycle, and give it to the Lord. But if you commit to give it to the Lord, or do something for Lord, you better do it. The young men rose and they wrapped him up, carried him out. The rest of the story, I’m not going to read it, but his wife came in and they asked her a question, and then she died. Hey ladies, you don’t always do what your husband tells you, Amen. It can cost you your life, that God’s first. If they ever ask you to do something contrary to what God says, do what God says, Amen. Wimpy’s same goes for you.

James Greer: 11:07 Hey, keeping back, keeping back, is going to have kick back. It can be physical, but it’ll always be spiritual. There is a sin, a sin unto death. I often wonder, and there’s no telling how many people, there’s really that sickness, and sorrow, and emotional, is just a result of sin. Sometimes the kickback’s physical, sometimes it’s emotional, many times it’s financially, and spiritually. Do you know what Ecclesiastes 5:4 says? “When you make a vow, or a promise, or commitment to God, don’t delay to pay it.” I’ll read this to myself. I did the message. I got up early this morning. I started checking God, have I’d made my commitments, have I given my tithe? Whatever I said yes to, am I still giving it? I’m just going to pay it, because he doesn’t take any pleasure in fool. I don’t want to be a fool. Pay what you have vowed, what you’ve committed to. It is better that you don’t even make a vow, than to make it and then not pay it. It’s like say yes, as a matter of fact do you want to hear a praise report? Already, $308,800 plus for say yes. Everybody said, Amen. Whoo. We had people that said, Hey, I’m selling my boat. When they sold the boat, they gave the money. It was their boat. they didn’t have to do that. In fact we had several of them sell their boats. We had people sell their motorcycles. It was their motorcycles, they that could have sold it, kept the money. But once they said, if I sell my motorcycle, I’m going to give it the Lord, don’t sell your motorcycle and keep the money, Amen. There’s people that gave guns, there’s people that gave money, see that it was all theirs. But once you make your commitment to God, once you make a promise to God, pay it. Do it, or you’ll have kickbacks.

James Greer: 12:57 There’s a verse that I’ve memorized, it is Psalms 50:15, and I would use it all time, “Call upon the name of the Lord in times of trouble, and he will deliver you.” That he’ll get the honor and glory. But there’s a problem, there’s a verse before that, it says, “Offer to God thanksgiving, pay your (what?) vows to the most high.” Then it says upon the day of trouble I’ll deliver you. In other words it said, I’m going to deliver you, but it’s condition is, is your heart right? Have you made a commitment? When you’re in trouble, how many of you all men ever been in trouble? [inaudible] God, if you get me out of this, I’m going to go to church, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that. If you make this deal, and then you get out of it, he said well Scott, it doesn’t really work that way. God’s always in charge. See, me personally, I believed God always gets the tithe, he gets it one way or another. You just get to give it, or you just lose it in other things, in breakdowns, and other things. So, I mean, he gets it. God doesn’t need your money.

James Greer: 13:58 Do you all know the story about Jonah? Jonah that ended up in the belly of the fish, I almost said whale, this big fish you know? Did you know if you look at Jonah chapter two, verse nine, it says, “I will sacrifice to you were the voice of thanksgiving, (Uh, oh) I will pay what I have vowed.” Jonah said, listen, God, you know what… God had spoken to him, he said, look, you go preach to Nineveh. And he said, no, I’m not going. Oh, well you may not go, but how’s it now, you’re in the belly of this stinky, smelly fish. I don’t think that was too good, and so now he says, he’s uncomfortable. Some of you here today are uncomfortable in your life, you’re uncomfortable in what you’re doing, you’re uncomfortable where you’re going. But he said, God, I’m going to change my ways, I’m going to do what you told me to, I’m going to pay my vows. And then it said salvation, which means also, to be delivered, it means to help, it means to have victory. If anybody needed help, if you’re in the belly of the fish, you need help, Amen. It said salvation is the Lords, so the Lord, he just spoke to the fish, and the fish vomited him up. It’s amazing to me, the fish obey God, the winds obey God. We’re the only people that don’t want to obey God. Everything in nature, it has to do it. My question is, you know, I wonder how uncomfortable you have to get before you’re ready to change?

James Greer: 15:17 Let me give you some insights about Satan, who is a liar, and a cheater, and the main way he has victory over you is not his power. It is simply believing his lies. Once your saved. One of Satan’s greatest lies is to get us to believe that we can keep back, without kickback. You can’t do it. Ananias and Sapphira, they died physically. Jonah took a little cruise, but it wasn’t the kind of cruise boat you want to go on, it was in the belly of the fish. There’s always consequences. Are you trying to keep back your tithe or your money, how about your time, how about your talent? You know God, he gave it to some of y’all, you can play, you can sing. I can’t, I mean I can’t even the hum tune. I mean I can’t clap. I can’t dance, I can’t do it. I still like to praise God, Amen. What do you mean you just keep back your time, your talent, you too busy. God’s going to slow you down, I promise you. I know, there’s going to be kick back.

James Greer: 16:16 Satan wants us to think that God needs or wants what we have. God doesn’t need anything from you. It’s not what God wants from you, it is what God wants for you. Satan has always done it. Satan wants us to think that God doesn’t want what’s best for us. That’s what he did with Adam and Eve, and they started having a conversation with Satan, which they shouldn’t have done. And in Genesis 3:5, it says, “For now God knows.” Sure God knows everything but not the way you did it. “God knows that the day that you eat, your eyes will be open and you’re going to be like God.” I mean he was trying to make them think that God was holding back on them. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was what? Pleasant for the eye, you’ve got to be careful what you look at. And the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and she ate it. She gave it to her wimpy husband, and he did it also.

James Greer: 17:33 So you see the ticket, first of all Ananias held back the money, and Sapphira his wife agreed, they both died. Now let’s flip around, now the woman, she eats and she was deceived, Adam knew what he was doing, but he ate anyway. Then there’s kickback, there was problems, that’s when the fight started. Their eyes were open, they found out they were naked, and they ran and tried to sew fig leaves to cover their sin. We’re always trying to do something to cover sin. Today, thank God, we have Jesus Christ. And in the blood of Jesus will cover any and every sin in your life. I mean at the end of this service, I don’t care where you’ve come from. I don’t care what you do, I don’t care that you come back. You can come, and confess, and plead the blood of Jesus Christ, and he’ll forgive you all your sins. That’s good brother James. Satan wants to make you think that you can keep back, and not limit the power and joy in your life. I told you, it’s not what God wants from you. It’s what God wants for you.

James Greer: 18:23 He gave us an illustration. I don’t have time to go through it all, but I’ll refer to it. In Matthew Chapter Twenty Five. It says, the Kingdom of Heaven, what is it like? It is like a man traveling off for a journey, and gave us service, deliver some goods. In other words, God, Jesus, was here physically, now he’s in heaven. He’s going to come back, and we’re going to give an account. But he says, in the meantime, this is what you’re going to do. He said, I gave one servant five, I gave another servant two, I gave one, one. I went on my journey, I’m in heaven. But what are you doing while he’s gone? He said, hey, the one that gave five came back. He said, Hey God, I received another five. The one that got two, gained two more. The man came to give an account for it. The one that gave five said, Lord, here’s the other five. He said, well done, thy good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. I’m going to tell you God wants you to have joy. The one that had two, did the same thing. He said, well done, thy good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. I’m going to tell you when you’re serving and giving and doing what God said, you will be happier than any other time in your life. The one that got just one, he acknowledged that it was God’s. He said, God, I got it, it’s yours. I mean he didn’t even spend it. But he said, God, you’re a hard man, you reap where you have not sown. Can I tell you every time somebody gets saved, it is a result of Jesus Christ and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. He said, I was afraid, you were afraid. The only thing you need to be afraid of God as afraid of missing out what he’s got for you. I went and hid your talent, it was your money, but I hid it and I didn’t use it. I put it in the ground. The Lord had a response to him and to me. He looked at him and said, you wicked lazy servant. See lazy, wicked people are always making excuses why they don’t use what God’s given them to use.

James Greer: 20:09 You got to be careful, Amen. God’s called ever one of us to be in ministry, yes? Amen. What are you doing with it? See, he was hiding it. Are you hiding your talents, your time, your gifts? I mean some of y’all need to be running and tackling Trey after this service. Say man, Trey, I play an instrument, I sing. Hey Trey, please let me be used. If not, let me get up here and fake it until you have somebody, Amen? I mean, that’s what I’m talking about man, use your talents, use your time, use your energy because there’s a real truth about kick back. The worst thing you could ever do is not give your heart to Jesus Christ.

James Greer: 21:44 Some of you, one time gave your heart, now you’ve gone far away. There was a story in the Bible about a rich man, and you know what he did? He didn’t give his heart to Jesus Christ, he gave it to the world, and give it to people, give it to places, and gave it to things. But in Luke 16:23, he ended up in hell, and in the next five verses he talks about torment, torment, torment. He said, being in torment hell, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried out father Abraham, have mercy on me. Mercy is for right now, God will show you mercy today. He said, call upon me in time of trouble and you can find mercy. Mercy on me, and send Lazarus at least, that he may dip the very tip of his finger and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in flames. Can I tell y’all something that you forget, and the church doesn’t preach it? There’s still a real hell, and in hell there’s still torment. You only go to hell for one reason, that’s rejecting Jesus Christ as your savior. But he said, Abraham, remember that in your lifetime, he told him you, you received good things and Lazarus bad things. And now he’s comforted, but you’re tormented. He says, besides this, are y’all ready? Between us, and you, there is a great gulf fixed.

James Greer: 21:54 When you die, there’s a gulf, you either go to Heaven or hell. So that those who want to pass from here, you came. I can promise you when people joke and say oh go to hell, they don’t mean that. You don’t want anybody to go to hell, because you can’t pass back. Nor can those from there pass to us. In other words it’s it y’all, it’s over, once you’re dead, you’re dead. You going to spend eternity somewhere, either in Heaven or in hell. But he said, okay, okay, I don’t want to do that, I want to help, I’m in torture. But I beg you father, that that you would send to my father’s house. He said man, there’s something going on, I want you to send somebody to my father’s house. You know why, I’ve got five brothers, that they may be testified to them, that they also don’t come to this place. Nobody wants any of their family to come to hell with them. I’ve heard people sarcastically say, hey, my family’s in hell, so I’m going to go to hell. Your family doesn’t want you to go to hell, and God doesn’t want you to go to hell, nobody wants to be in hell. You know why? Because this place is in what? Torment. God answered him. Abraham said to them, they’ve got Moses, and they’ve got you and me. They’ve got Journey Church, let them hear it.

James Greer: 23:14 See those that don’t know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we need to be telling them.

James Greer: 23:20 If you are here today, and you’ve never surrendered your heart to Jesus Christ, today is the day to do that. See God not only saved you from hell, he saved you to Heaven, to bring some of Heaven down to Earth. That’s why I often say that everyone this side of Heaven, owes everyone this side of hell, an opportunity to hear how to go to Heaven. That’s why our vision is to bring those people far from God, close to God. That’s why we will do anything, apart from sin, to reach people that are far from God. Because there here is still a real hell, and if you’re here today, and you’re not sure… That when we give the invitation, I want you to know how to go to Heaven. Amen.

James Greer: 23:59 And next as I get ready to close, I’m going to tell you keeping back your time, your talent, your tithes, there’ll be kick back. There will be kick back. God wants you to use your time, your talent, your tithe, he wants you to use it all to further the Kingdom of God. That is our only purpose in life. That’s the only reason God leaves me here, that’s the only reason God leaves you here. You only have one purpose, and it’s wherever you are, whatever you’re doing to help further the kingdom of God to bring honor and glory to Him, nothing else. Some of you here have lost your joy, the joy of your salvation. There was a time you were excited, you served God, but now you’ve just lost it. Kind of like David, the psalmist, in Psalm 51:12, “Restore the joy of my salvation, give me a generous spirit.” You know what? When you’re right with God, your heart is right, you got a generous spirit. You’re not running around saying, hey, why can’t everybody do it? Your running around looking at, hey, what can I do for somebody else? You’ve lost the power, you lost the joy, and you want it back today. And then the most important, it’s never preached on, this many people, we’ve got a bunch. There was a time and you committed something to God. It may have been, God, get me out of trouble, deliver my kids, save me, help me in this. Whatever it is, and you just said, God, I promise you, if you do this, I’m going to serve you, or I’m going to do whatever you call me to do, or I’m going to give my money, or I’m going to tithe, then you just didn’t do it. So you’re kind of like Jonah, and you’re in the belly of the whale, and I just want to know how long are you going to miss this power and joy, how uncomfortable are you going to have to be. If you went on to read the next chapter of Jonah, chapter three, it said, “And the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time, and this time he said, he arose and went to Nineveh.” How many times is God going to speak to you, before you hear him? The second time, third time, fourth time? You know what, you know how you know? You come back, and you had the same test, and you fail it. You got to go through the same thing again, and the same thing again, and the same thing again. And then finally, I hope, some people never pass the test. You know what it is, it may be the way you respond, it may be the way you get yourself in trouble, it may be a marriage, it may be church, it might be friends, I don’t know what it is, but it’s time to change today. Give your heart to Jesus. Some of you have gone far from God, today you want to come to say hey man, I want to come back. Some of y’all are out in the [inaudible] again, and you’re just hiding. You’ve been hiding your time, your talent, your tithes. Today is the day not to keep back, you ready? Just give it all back. Totally surrender to God. The happiest, most powerful place in the world is when humble ourselves.

James Greer: 26:44 Stand and let me pray with you and for you. God, you’re such an awesome and mighty God. There’s absolutely nothing too hard for you. There’s no heart too hard for you. There is no sin that’s too bad for you. And God, I pray right now that our hearts would come right to you. I pray that every person here, and every person watching, says, Oh God, search my heart and know my ways. And God says, look, I looked at the man’s heart, and I know is there any fruit in your life? The fruit of love, joy and peace. The fruit of other people being transformed, other people furthering the Kingdom, other people getting saved. And then where your treasure is, your heart is. Hey, are you tithing, are you giving, do you have a generous spirit within you? If you don’t, just come to the front and admit it. Say, Oh God, forgive me. Have you made a commitment, and you hadn’t followed through on it? Did you tell God you do something, now you’re not doing it? Oh God, this for every single person here today. When I get the invitation, God, I pray that our hearts will be soft, and they will be tender, and we surrender to you. And for those that are not sure that if they died, that they would go to heaven. I want to tell you today, hey, I want to fight hell with all we got. I want you to come and give your heart. It’s in Jesus Christ’s name I pray, Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.