Holy Shift in “Boldness”

James Greer: 00:01 Was that a testimony or what about being bold? How’d you like to go to your sophomore year and stand up in front of the class, and be asked what do you want to do? I want to lead at least two or three or four of y’all to the Lord Jesus Christ. I go to church, and one day I want to be a preacher. Man is that bold or what? Amen. You know what else was bold? Was the two or three people, I think it was Richard and Erin Andrews of the youth church that said, you know, that guy’s been coming to church, but y’all go out. So he went out in the parking lot and asked him, would you start coming to youth? And he started coming. He started growing, and my granddaughter Tori was helping mentoring him, and now he’s just flying. Man, he is bold. Amen. But do you know the kids that went out in the parking lot, they were bold too.

James Greer: 00:38 And I’m wondering how many people walk into our lives, whether it’s at church, or on our job, or our family that walk. That need the boldness from us to tell them about the wonderful name of Jesus. I mean, you know, he is our protector, our provider. He’s our savior. He’s our healer. He’s our deliverer. He’s the one who restores. He’s the one that’s saves. Man, we should be bold. We’re the ones that have the answer that the whole world is looking for. Amen.

James Greer: 01:01 What is boldness anyway? We’ll be talking about that today. Hey, let’s welcome the Alexandria campus, say Amen. Man they are rocking the house. I’m so proud of y’all. Last week y’all had to bring in chairs. That’s bold, the way you dress and the way you’re wearing your hair, sometimes that that’s bold. It standing up physically, listen to this, against somebody that maybe talked ugly about you or your family. Is that bold? Or is it more bold to just to walk away sometimes?

James Greer: 01:36 It’s like the guy in Dallas, true story, that they walked out of a play and they were in the parking lot. And some of the skinheads were making fun of his wife, and saying things, and so he was going to be bold. And he boldly walked up to them. and they killed him in front of the kids. See, sometimes the boldest thing you can do is have the discernment from God to do what you should do, and not what you feel like doing. Amen. Boldness in the truest sense is taking advantage and creating opportunity to stand up and be bold for Jesus Christ. Boldness is learning to address your biggest fears in life. I’m not very bold, and I’m preaching on boldness this week.

James Greer: 02:18 And so one of the places I had to go get some sunglasses. I was picking them up. I get ready to leave and the lady says, “Aren’t you pastor James?”

James Greer: 02:26 I hadn’t even invited her to church. I said, “Yeah.” I said, “I’d love for you to come to the church next door.”

James Greer: 02:31 She said, “Well, Jay’s already invited me.”

James Greer: 02:33 I said, “That’s good.”

James Greer: 02:34 She said, “But Ms. Shirley almost told me to get my ______ in church.”

James Greer: 02:38 I said, “Well Amen. Hey, would you go to church?” That wasn’t very bold.

James Greer: 02:41 So now I’m at Sonic, so I come the door, I said, “Lady, would you like to come to church?” I’m trying to be bold. And then I had my toenails done, that’s bold, especially my wife wasn’t there. And I had to keep telling them my wife usually comes with me, and then I had my fingernails clipped, but I left and did not invite her to come to church. And so suddenly I said, I got to go back. So I went to the nail salon and walked in and hugged her. I said, Mam, I’d love for you to come to church.

James Greer: 03:12 But see boldness is learning to take advantage of the opportunity that God puts into our life on a day to day basis. And because of your boldness, I mean last Sunday, we had over 53 first time visitors. Amen. We had 13 people join. I thought we had 150, but we had 180 something, I heard you back there, 180 something people join small groups. That’s unbelievable. We had a record attendance at both locations. We topped $300,000 in our Say Yes Campaign, Amen. See that’s a movement of God. That’s because the boldness of the people at Journey Church. Listen, I don’t want Journey Church just to be big, I want it to be big, I want us to be bold, Amen. I mean Pineville campus alone, it has 152 new members, that not counting the ones that are going to join today, Amen. We’ve already baptized 70, not counting the ones who are going to baptize today? Alexandra campus already had 28 new members and 14 baptized, not counting the ones that are going to baptize today. I mean there is a shift going on, Amen.

James Greer: 04:19 Do you know when I really thought about the shift of boldness? The shift of boldness is really when we shift from being so daggum wimpy to warriors. See the result of being bold in the New Testament is lives were being radically changed. There was thousands of people getting saved, and so they believe that Jesus was alive, and that he was the answer. So what is boldness? Number one. Boldness is taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. It was like Meyer, the opportunity presented itself at school, and instead of talking about himself, tell them about his career, he talked about Jesus. That’s bold. Amen. It was bold for those young people to go out in the parking lot and say, hey, we’d like for you to come to class, that’s a bold.

James Greer: 05:04 And Acts 4:13-14, it talks about boldness. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. Who? The religious people of that day, and they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men and they marvel. But you know what they realized? They realized that they had been with Jesus. Can I tell you what? When you have been with Jesus you’ll change. When you have been with Jesus, things speak different in your life. When you’ve been with Jesus, you have a purpose. When you’ve been with Jesus, you become bold. Amen. And then the next verse I want you to read is 14, it says this, “And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them. They could say nothing.” They saw the boldness, but there was a man that had been healed, and they couldn’t say anything. They said I saw the results of the preaching, and the power and presence of God, and the man was healed. So I can’t say too much about their education, but I know they’ve been with Jesus because the man was, what? Healed.

James Greer: 06:16 I mean, we got one here. Josh’s dad, Kevin. Raise your hand Kevin. You were healed, man. I mean, Kevin before, I mean 20, 30 years, he went home every day and drank probably a gallon or fifth of whiskey. Amen. He was at the end of his ropes, he couldn’t find his life. His life didn’t have purpose, it didn’t have meaning. He totally surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. And now he was dead, and now he’s alive, he was healed. I mean I’m going to tell you, see, they can talk about everything else. But you can’t think of anything to say when somebody is healed, and that’s what it does. If you read it in another translation in Acts 4:13, in the new Living Bible. I love it because it said, “And the members of the council, they were amazed.” They were what? What were they? Amazed. I’m going to tell you, we’re serving amazing Jesus. I mean, they were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. You know they could see that they were just ordinary men. They had no special training in the scripture. They also recognize that these men had been with what? Jesus.

James Greer: 07:15 I’m telling you what, when ordinary men get with Jesus, extraordinary things started happening. See boldness is taking advantage of the opportunity. Boldness is often creating the opportunities to speak of Jesus. You wear this shirt, you will have opportunities. People will ask you about what is this Holy Shift. They say what about that Journey Church? What’s going on over there? I mean they’d be talking about your pastor, they’ll be talking about the church. But let me tell you, it gives you an opportunity to tell them the greatest shift in the power of the world was when God’s split the temple, and the Holy Spirit came to live with us, and we have direct access to God. Bold. Amen. Create the opportunity. I saw one of our guys, Fred Rubles, we just baptized him last year. It’s the dad of his son. He got on Facebook and he gave the opportunity to explain the Holy Shift. He said that was a shift in power, like the world has never done. It shifted a few people from priest to prophet, so that we can go straight to God. I mean he took the opportunity. That’s bold, create opportunities, that’s bold. I had one guy, true story, call me last week or the week before that. He said, listen, is there anything wrong with me calling my employees together and saying, listen, if you’ll come to church, I’ll just pay you while you’re there. I said that’s creating opportunity to hear about Jesus, Amen.

James Greer: 08:37 And so what I’m telling you about. See Peter and John, they were bold, bold about the death, the burial and resurrection. They were bold because they knew you can have forgiveness, they knew you could have a brand new start. See Jesus had told them physically prior to that. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” See, the disciples heard him tell them that, the disciples got to see him do that. Man, when you see somebody give their life, and you think that’s the end of life, but the disciples got to see him the resurrected Jesus Christ. So now they had a new boldness. Boldness is deciding to say something when it’d be easier to say nothing. See boldness is confidence, it’s openness. It’s assurance to who you are in Christ. See to preach the holy shift where they were, it takes boldness.

James Greer: 09:39 See I’m so tired of being wimpy as a Christian. Christians in the New Testament, they weren’t wimpy, man, they were bold. They would feed them to lions, they would nail them to the cross. They said, we’re not going to deny the Christ that we know. So I have a heart to reach people that don’t go to church. I have a heart to reach people outside the church, and if we’re going to reach people outside the church, Journey Church we got to do some things that are outside the box. Amen. That’s who we’re trying to reach. See bold is not so much an expression of your knowledge and your education, it is a bold application of the truth, and the confidence, and assurance of who Christ really is. When you know who Christ is, and you know who you are, you will be bold. Boldness is believing that everyone, you ready, everyone this side of heaven, that’s me and you if you accept Christ, owes everyone this side of hell an opportunity to know about Christ. Hell is still real. I know it’s not talked about, it’s not preached about. But see these disciples, they were so bold, they said the only way we can keep people out of hell is tell them about Jesus Christ. See boldness proves this. Boldness proves that being with Jesus can take ordinary people, and do extraordinary things. See boldness is not a matter whether you’re educated or not educated, boldness is learning to be in the right position with the right person, who is Jesus Christ, that produces the right power. The right position, the right person, the right power, the results are people will be amazed. Can you imagine Peter uneducated, fishermen preached the first message, 3000 people got saved. That’s not a bad start, Amen. They were saved in there. But did you know, did you know, Peter who started a new church, and he wouldn’t qualify to pastor many of the modern, un-biblical churches today. They would say, Peter, I know you preached the first message and 3000 got saved, but you’re just so ordinary. You don’t have the education, you haven’t been in the seminary, you haven’t been to school where you’ve been. Now listen, you should never stop learning, but it’s like I’m so ordinary and so formally uneducated. Now I think leaders always learn.

James Greer: 11:58 There’s churches in our areas recently that said, they told you y’all shouldn’t go to Journey Church, because of it’s lack of education. That’s real biblical. His lack of qualifications, you know what I said? Thank God my qualifications didn’t come from people or religious leaders. God called me, how about that? Amen. And God called you. So listen, if God can use me, he can use you. If God can use me, he can use anybody. I mean, God uses. It’s not a matter of how much education. I mean, Paul, who was a great educator, he was brilliant. He wrote three fourths of the New Testament. Peter was considered uneducated, formal education, yet he started the new church. It’s not a matter of how much education you have or don’t have, it’s where you get the power to present the Gospel of Christ. See in Romans 1:16, “I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.” I love it because when you start talking about the Gospel of Christ, it is the death, the burial, and resurrection. But it’s more than that, it’s the good news that there’s somebody that came to restores broken lives. And he says, I’m not ashamed that we have the answer to broken lives. For it’s the power of God to bring salvation for everyone who believes. For who? Everyone. If you’re here today and you want the Gospel of Christ, it’s for you. It’s to repair your broken life, there’s only one way, it is the death, the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was for the Jews, and it’s for the Greeks. I’m going to tell you what Journey Church, you’re so ordinary, that’s why God can use you extraordinarily, Amen.

James Greer: 13:36 Man you are an extraordinary church. You all are. We’ve got unity, we’ve got power, we’ve got love, I mean that’s not normal, that’s abnormal. That’s not natural, that’s supernatural. Journey Church, you’re an extraordinary church. Journey Church, don’t just be big, Journey Church, be bold, Amen. Why are we not bold? Let’s look back at Acts 4:13, and the members of the council, the religious people, that were what? Amazed. I’m telling you guys when you really see Jesus in action, you are amazed. And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and they could see that they were just ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures, they also recognized them as men that had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been (what?) healed. See I’m telling you, when the amazing work of Jesus Christ comes, families are healed, individuals are healed, reputations are healed. I saw them standing there among themselves, and there’s really nothing they could say. I love that. They were so amazed, they couldn’t say anything.

James Greer: 14:49 But one of the reasons that we’re not bold. Boldness will bring amazement, which is what you want, but boldness brings assaults, and attacks, and accusations. See there were so amazed that they couldn’t say anything, but that didn’t mean they didn’t do anything. See they were so bold, they were so fearless, that assaults would come. And if you look at Acts 4:15, you can see now but it says, “But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council.” Who then came in? The other religious leaders, they conferred among themselves. That this drives me crazy, that’s the way cowards do. Cowards don’t come face to face, they go to Facebook. Listen Journey Church if you got something to say to somebody, do not say it on Facebook. If you want to say it go see them face to face, don’t be a coward, don’t be a traitor. And everybody said, Amen. I’m serious, that’s what cowards do. They don’t want to come face to face, when it’s really happening, they want to get behind your back and plot, and get their coward friends to come together. If you have something to say to somebody, say it face to face, or keep your mouth shut.

James Greer: 16:17 Acts 4:17, “But so that it…” They’re talking together, the religious leaders, they’re talking together. They didn’t even want to say the Gospel, they said it, Because the Gospel, because they said that’s the good news, is restoring lives, people were being healed. It spreads no further among the people. Let us severely threatened them. Uh oh, that’s an assault, that’s an attack. See it goes from amazement, to they assaulted them. That from now on they will speak no mention of his name, that name is Jesus. Listen, they can’t even talk about the Gospel, they can’t even hardly say the name of Jesus, and they called them and they commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. The attacks were coming, the salts are coming. But Peter and John said to them whether it’s right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, judge for yourself. There were bold. They said, hey man, I’m going to do what God tells me, no matter what you say. Boldness continues to bring amazement, for we cannot but speak of the things which we have seen. Stop. You don’t have to know a lot about the Bible, when you start seeing lives changed, marriage’s come together, and total radical transformation. You can say, what can I say? I don’t know about what you, but actually what I see and what I hear it’s happening every Sunday, I do know that.

James Greer: 17:49 So when they had further, what? Threatened them. They assaulted them again, they attacked them again. They let them go, finding no why to punish them at this point. Later on there were beaten and put in jail, and they thank God for it. You Ready? Because the people since they all glorified God for what had been done. What did they do? Glorified God. See, after being threatened, after being amazed, the glory of God came. See, most people are afraid to be bold because you’re afraid of being attacked. You’re afraid of what people say. You’re afraid of what people think about. Let me tell you something, free insight. It’s not in your notes. Most threats, most problems, are nothing more than an opportunity for God to be glorified. Most of your threats, most of your problems in your life are nothing more than opportunity to bring honor and glory to God. How do you know if your assaulted? How do you know if people are attacking you for the right reason? Jeremiah tells us, Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful, above all things.” My heart, your heart, it’s deceitful, it’s desperate and wicked. Who can even know it? It’s saying who can judge somebody else’s heart? You can’t even hardly know your own heart. And then the next verse tells us how, “But God says, I’m the Lord.” God can judge your heart, he searches your heart, he searches your motives, he searches your intent. I test the mind, I know why you’re doing it, I even give to every man according to his way, according to the fruits of his doing. Man, let me tell you what, Do you want to know if your assault’s right? Do you want to know if your attack’s right. How’s your fruit life?

James Greer: 19:25 Are lives being changed, are people coming to church. Do you have a new power of God’s presence? See you only know, you don’t know how you feel, you don’t even know what other people are saying. You go to God’s word. The only way that you know where you’re at is by your fruit life. So I’m asking you, how’s your fruit life? See if there’s no amazement, there’s no assault, there’s no change. If there’s no amazement, there’s no assault, there’s no attention, there is no change. Can I tell you the name of Jesus is amazing. It’s the amazing name of Jesus. He’s worth the assault. Boldness is all about amazement, it’s about being assaulted, most assaults come because of jealousy. Uh oh. Now this can be at church, this could be at home, this could be on your job, this is everywhere. You ready? Most assaults come as a result of jealousy. In fact, the religious leaders of that day, you know why they were attacking and assaulting John and Peter? They were jealous because people were leaving their church. They were leaving the church, and they said, we’re going to be followers of Christ. It’s like our church, we want you to come to church, but when you leave, we want you to want to be the church. So they had come to the temple, and they were learning, they were going out in the streets, they were going house to house, and they had become being the church. The religious leaders, they were jealous. They said, man, we’re losing our power, we’re losing our position. Listen jealousy will rob the power of God from your life.

James Greer: 20:49 So what is jealousy? Jealousy is really saying, hey, somebody else got what I deserved. You know, they got that house, they got that job, they got that promotion, they got that church, and you don’t even hardly like the person. When you’re really jealous about a person, somebody speaks their name, you just cringe. You don’t want to be impossible to them. You really resent what they have, because you believe what they have was really owed you.

James Greer: 21:13 So what do you do with jealousy? Learn to celebrate the other person’s victories. Learn to celebrate. Celebrate what God’s given you. Celebrate what God has given to others. Celebrate somebody got a bigger house, if they can pay for it, celebrate with them. Celebrate somebody’s pregnant, even though you can’t be right now, celebrate with them. There’s an old saying, fake it till you make it. But really if you’ll continue to celebrate, and eventually your celebration will lead to the cure of your jealousy. That is good, brother James, I can amen me, I’m having to practice it. Do you know the bad thing about preaching, if you end up having to practice what you preach. I like it better when I do the preaching, and y’all do the practicing.

James Greer: 22:04 Second reason, second reason, most of us are not bold. Because we’ve allowed the blessings of God to rob us from our boldness. We live in the safest place in the world, we live in the richest country in the world. We can talk about Jesus, we can be bold about Jesus, were not going to be beaten. We’re not going to be thrown in jail. We’re not going to be tortured. But we have allowed the blessings of God to rob us from being bold for God. Christians overall in America, they had become so wimpy. They have a very low threshold of pain. They have fear of suffering, a very, very low threshold. Because they missed with the blessings of God were for. The blessings of God were for us to be bold, and tell other people what Christ has done for us. They fear that it might hurt their business. There’s people that come to church to connect with business, there are people that come to church to connect with other people for personal prosperity. I want you to come to church to connect with other people, where you have a better relationship, where you can celebrate together, and when you can suffer together. I know people they’re not bold because they’re afraid somebody going to make fun of them.

James Greer: 23:26 The real reason we’re not bold is because our low threshold of pain, and our lack of godly self-esteem. See when you have a lack of self-esteem of who you are in God, and who God really is, you try to find it in people, places and things. You’re not really content, you’re not really happy, you’re not really bold about what God has given you. Listen, that’s why sometimes in my life I create ways that I have to be bold, because I’m so wimpy, I just create them. That’s what this is all about. I can’t ask you to do it, and me not do it. But if I was sitting with you all, I don’t even know if I’d wear the shirt, but I do and I will. Some of you are really scared that somebody’s going to ask you about it. Some of you are scared they’re going to make fun of you. Some of you are scared they’re going to make fun of the church. Well, listen, it’s time to step up, and quit shutting up.

James Greer: 24:28 Let me give you some insight of being bold. Bold can bring a happy hurt, you’ll say you can’t say that. Yeah, I can. Boldness can bring a happy hurt. Matthew 5:11 puts it this way, “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 5,000 souls were saved.” But in Matthew 5:11, it says, “People will insult you, and hurt you. They’re going to lie and say all kinds of evil things about you. You follow me, when you follow me, you’re a fisherman of men.” It says, they’re going to say insults, they’re going to hurt you. They’re going to say evil things about because you’re following me, because you’re trying to get people into the kingdom. But listen, when they do, you will be happy. That’s what it says. Matthew Five says, Matthew 5:11 says, “When they start lying about you, when they make fun of you, when they try to hurt you, you’re going to be happy.” You can have a happy hurt. I love it. I mean sometimes people say stuff about me, and sometimes people say stuff about the church, and sometimes it gets my family just furious. And I say, it’s okay. I had one of the seniors, who I love, they said, hey, you might have to come get me out of jail, I’m going to finish them off. Now the flesh, I wanted to say go get them, but I didn’t, instead I got a happy hurt. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. When is the last time, you ready, you’ve had a happy hurt? When was the last time you’ve been hurt because you’re so bold for Christ?

James Greer: 26:10 I’m getting ready to sum it up, but we’re not summing up yet. You should have a card. Everybody got one, should’ve been in your bulletin. Acts 4:29 says this, “For the Lord looked on their threats, (They had been threatened, and some of you feel threatened.) and said grant your servants that with all boldness, they may speak the word.” Verse 30, “By stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through name of Your Holy Servant, Jesus Christ.” Now Ready? We’re going to pray something together first. Ready? We’re going to pray together. Say, Lord, help your servant to be bold and speak your word. Lord, would you do something so great that those who see it will know that it can only come from you, and draw others to Christ. Now see you’ve got the card, and I want you to pray about it. I want you to write somebody’s name on it, and I want you to invite somebody. Because as we get ready to close, I’m going to tell you this. Some of you need to be bold and come and join Journey Church today. Some of you need to be bold and follow through with public baptism. Some of you need boldness and address the fears that you came in here. Some of you need bold and invite somebody to come to church next week. Journey Church, I want everybody to invite somebody. Amen? Amen. That doesn’t mean they’ll come. It’s our responsibility to invite, it is their responsibility between them and God whether they come. Some of you, I want you to be bold on the job. I want you to quit worrying about what your pay and what everybody else is doing. I want you to remember God has you there for a purpose on purpose, and you look for somebody that’s hurting and you know the answer, and the answer is Jesus Christ. He’s the one that provides. He’s the one that heals. He’s the one that cares. He’s the one that saves. And on your job you’re going to have the opportunity. It’s going to be in your school. Some of you all it’s going to be on your hobby. I want you to be bold, and talk about Jesus Christ. Some of you all in here today, I’m officially given the invitation just a minute, and I want you to be bold enough to come and say, God, I got a prayer that’s so bold, God, if you answered it, it would bring honor and glory to you God. And today’s the day I’m going to bring my bold prayer to you, because I know that God that you want to get the honor, and that you want to get the glory, and I want you to have it.

James Greer: 28:44 Stand and let me pray with you. God, you’re a great God. I pray for our church, that our Church would be bold God. Give us words of boldness on a day to day basis. Give us words of boldness at Church. Give us words of boldness at home. Give us words of boldness in our hobby. Give us boldness that when we walk through the halls, when we walk to work, when we go to the shop, and said, Oh God, help us to be bold. God knows that here today, God, they’re not here by accident, they’re here by divine appointment. Help them to be bold, surrender their lives to you. Help them to get to know they could have a brand new start. God help those that have never been publicly, biblically baptized to come. Help those that have this unbelievable burden in their life to come, that their life would be radically changed, and God that you would get the honor and glory. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.