James Greer: 00:01 Well, good morning Journey Church. Let’s welcome the Alexandria campus and our online campus. Amen? Man, I was at Alexandria last week and man, I really enjoyed my opportunity. And Darrel and Dustin and Steven, you all did a great job. Hey, you realize this month we’ve been here 10 years, but later on I’m going to tell you where we’ve come from and where we at. Matter of fact, we, we came, we were at Lee Heights and we had about 11 people and God, has just unbelievably blessed us in a decade. What I want you to know, that’s a physical picture of how God wants to bless you spiritually in every single area of your life. Matter of fact, there’s something in the next four weeks I want you to get that I didn’t get what I was going to church. I want you to know that God wants to bless you and God wants you to be a blessing.

James Greer: 00:56 Now, I knew that if I didn’t repent and accept Christ, I knew I’d go to hell. I knew that, knew that every Sunday. I knew that I was always looking for God to get me instead of give to me. But the true biblical basis for a child of God is I’m going to teach you in the next few weeks that God wants to bless you and he wants you to be a blessing. So what? Get this, you ready? God wants to bless you and he wants you to be a blessing. Amen? So what we’re going to do as we celebrate, we’ll celebrate thanking God for all he’s done. We’ll be talking about teaching how God can bless you in every area of your life. November the 17th we’re going to have a big celebration. Everybody that comes, you’ll be given a coin that Sunday. All 2000 something people will be called and reminded and all 700 and something people that have been baptized will be invited to come back. And you’ll get an opportunity that Sunday if you want to, that you can give a love offering to what God’s done. Absolutely no pressure whatsoever. We’re just given the opportunity because we don’t understand. In second Corinthians nine six it says this, but I say he who sows sparingly also reaps sparingly. He that sows bountifully also reps bountifully. So let each person give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly. For God loves a what? What does he love?

James Greer: 02:26 I used to give out of guilt. Now I give out of joy. I was so grateful this morning that I got to write my tithe check, and I’m still giving to say yes and if you are too, that’s great. And I was thinking God that it’s a privilege for to remind me that every single thing that I have come from God. I was studying the old testament last week and it showed why God, one of the reasons he wanted people to give the first 10th is to remind them of God. It’s just a time of worship about all the good things he’d done. And he says, but then he goes one and God is able to make all grace abound towards you. You ready? That you always having all sufficiency in all things. You should have what? All sufficiency in all things. And they have an abundance of good work. One of the translations says, God can bless you with everything you ever need. You will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things, even to other people. What I want you to know is that God does want to bless you and I want you to know 10 years will make an unbelievable difference. I used to always love it, because I tell the people. I’d say, listen, I want my last half to be my best half.

James Greer: 03:37 Now, I don’t know if I got last half. I got last quarter, but I still want it to be my best quarter. Amen? I want to live to the future. I don’t want to live in the past. Matter of fact, If I have to look at the next 10 years, what I really wants to be alive and healthy. Amen? But Ephesians 1:3 it’s kind of a key verse that we’ll be looking at every Sunday, and it says, bless it, be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has.

James Greer: 04:09 Yeah, I used to read that so quickly. I thought it say he will, he might, we could. He’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven. He said he’s already done it. Listen, this is so important. What he said, I’ve already given you the blesses and I’ll show you when you get them. When you’ve become a child, God, he’s already given, all we got to do is learn how to enjoy what he’s already given us. Amen? It’s like the fruit of the spirits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God’s already given us that. We just got to understand how to implement what God has already given us. Amen brother James.

James Greer: 04:50 Well, what I really want is you to be more blessed and less stressed. We’re going to be preaching on how to be blessed in your finances. They say it’s probably the number one stressor in so many people’s lives today. It could take some planning and some budgeting and of course I can tell you a free insight, until you learn to be a generous giver, God will always limit the blessings in that area. I’m working on a message right now on mental health. I’ve never really addressed it in church, but man, it’s such a need. It’s a hard message to work on, a haven’t gotten it developed out. But it’d be a message. It sure won’t be a cure, but we’re going to get it out in the open and we’re going to talk about it. Amen?

James Greer: 05:44 We’re going to talk about how God wants to bless your marriage and your family. But I have to say with all honestly, I’ve never seen a time in my 35 plus years where Satan is destroying more marriages and more families than I do right now. It’s just rampant this epidemic. And so we’re going to, we’re going to be talking about that. And then we’re going to say, how can God bless our lives as we help further his kingdom? So that’s some of the things going to be talking about as we celebrate, we’ve been here for 10 years. Amen? So let me give you some insights about blesses though God has blessings for you in categories that you cannot even imagine.

James Greer: 06:10 Second, God’s blessings listen, are you ready? Are God’s children’s birthright. I never understood that. And I’ll show you that God’s blessings are his children’s birthright. Once you get saved, you become part. That becomes part of your birthright. Being blessed. Does that mean you’re immune to suffering and pain? John 16:33 says, these things I have spoken unto you that in me, you have peace in the world. You’re going to have tribulation. That’s not the end of the verse. That’s a comma be of good cheer. I have overcome the world period. Add exclamation point. So many times we want to start just says, Hey, you know we’re going to live in tribulation. No, no, no. What he’s saying is you’re going to have pain. You’re going to have suffering. You’re going to have heartache. But he says, I want you to know the blessings are on the other side of the pain and suffering and sorrow. No matter what you’re going through, he says, listen, I want you to know that you’re going to have tribulation but be of good cheer. I’ve overcome the world. I have overcome the greatest problem in your life.

James Greer: 07:20 Four, this is not in your bulletin, I don’t think. The blessings of God is a solution to our biggest problems in life, to our boldest prayers and to our greatest dreams. The blessings of God is the solution to our biggest problems. Our answer to our boldest prayers and the fulfillment of our greatest dreams. Genesis puts it this way. Genesis 12:2 says this, it’s going to be a key because I’m going to show you how it ties in. God says, I will make you a nation. I am going to bless you, I’ll make your name great and you shall be a what? He said. First of all, he said, I’m going to bless you. Then he said, I want you to be a blessing. Amen? That’s what I want you to get today. I want you to know that God wants to bless you and he wants you to be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you and I’ll curse those who curse you. Do you understand? When you really understand the blessings and power of God, you don’t have to worry about what anybody else says, what anybody else does. God always takes care of them. I’ve seen him do it time after time after time.

James Greer: 08:28 And in you, all the families on earth shall be blessed. That was the Abraham. Absolutely it was. God was saying, Abraham, I want to bless you and I want you to be a blessing and I’m going to curse those that curse you. Do you know the opposite of a blessing is what? A curse. Jesus comes on the scene. He dies.

James Greer: 08:54 In Galatians 3:13 says, I want to put this together. It says, Christ, he has redeemed us from the curse of the law. What did Christ do in Galatians 3:13 it said, he redeemed us from the what? The curse of the law. In other words, If you’re here today, I want you to know that God does not want you to keep living under the curse. Amen? I could prove to you that it’s whether it’s family inherited, you can break it, whether it’s financial, whatever that is. God says, listen, I sent my son that you don’t have to live under the curse anymore. What is a curse that you need to break? Well he became the curse. Did you know that for us it is written curse. It is anyone that hangs on the tree. And then he goes, the next verse, look at 14 says, it said that the blessings of what? The blesses what? Oh, that might come upon the Gentile. If you don’t know it, I am a Gentile. Now I know that God’s chosen were the Jews, but right now God says, because many of them rejected me, and Jesus came and died on the cross, I paid the price, the pass over and pass the covenant from Abraham unto the Gentile through Jesus Christ that you might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. The covenant in Genesis 12 was to Abraham, how he was going to bless them and he’s going to pass it though, but through Jesus Christ, we become heirs of the covenant. Amen?

James Greer: 09:43 Fifth, you’re destined to be blessed if you’ll allow it, the next decade of your life. You’ve really got to change your whole thinking. I really tell you, growing up in church my whole life, I didn’t really think God really wanted to bless me. I thought he wanted to take me to heaven, but I never realized the blessings that were available to me. So until we start changing the area of thinking in our life that God wants to bless me and he wants me to be a blessing, we’ll never receive the blessing. Amen? So number one, we’ve got to start with this. We’ve got to think about where we’ve come from, where we’re at, and where we want to go. Now, some of you need to go back two years, some three years, some 10 years. I’m going back 10 years. Now, my plans in the future, I want to go be three years at a time.

James Greer: 11:21 You know why you have to go back, you go back in your past? You ready? Not to live there, but to learn from there. So, it’s so important that we do. In other words, in other words, I hope to get this out to you all before too long. Here it is. Here’s a picture of when we were at Lee Heights. And Joy, you’re in that picture. Way back then. Elsie, Bell’s in there. Ms. Pat Rhymes is there, John Griffin’s in there. In fact, John Griffin, I don’t know if he’s here this morning, but John, are you here John? Stand up John. He’s the only man with all those women. Whoa, he’s the man. Alright, John. Do you all know that John’s class, his Journey group is small group now. It’s probably twice as large as the church was when we got together, John. No really.

James Greer: 12:10 That’s why sometimes we’ve got to look back where we were. We don’t want to live there with 11 people and one man. Amen John? We’ve got to enjoy where we’re at. Amen? But we want to keep going forward. Amen? There is a living, walking example right there. You can look back, Miss Elsie’s behind you and you can look where you’re at now, and where you want to go from, from the last 10 years. You really listen. We’ve had over 189% increase of people. We’ve had 719 people accept Christ. But listen to this, we personally have baptized 767 people. Amen? You know why? If you don’t look back, you don’t get to enjoy all things God has done.

James Greer: 12:49 We’ve had 2,412 members join. All 2,412 will get a call this week. So, if you get a call and say, man, I want you to remember, we’re going to celebrate November the 17th say amen? Amen? Don’t say, well, I already go to church. I’m glad I want to celebrate. Amen? If you are one of the 767 that got baptized, you really ought to be celebrating, because you got a new life and a new home in heaven. So, we’ve got to look back to see where we’ve come from to where we want to go. Now, some people need to look back three years, some people five years. But here’s the honest question. Whether are you going back three years, five years, or 10 years like we did, John. Are you better off physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually, today then you were then?

James Greer: 13:47 You’ve got to be honest with yourself, yes or no. If the answer is yes, praise God. You need to learn why. because it’s probably because you started coming to church. You applied God’s word and you’re being transformed. If you’re not better off than you were in the last five years, why don’t you make a commitment? Why don’t you choose today that I would like my next 10 years, or the next year, next five years to be the best years of my life? Why don’t you choose that right now? Amen? You’ve got to make the choice. Now I have to say, ah, if I look back the last 50/57 years, I probably was in better physical shape than I am now at 67 but, second 2 Corinthians 4:16. So we don’t give up our physical body may becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside is made us new every day. I’m going to tell you, God’s done more in the last five years as I got older than he did the whole 30 years prior to that.

James Greer: 14:46 So, I’m telling you your last half, last quarter, last year, it very definitely can. The best you can ever have. So why don’t you choose today. Proverbs 4:23 says, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs all the issues of life. It is so important because if you don’t remember why you changed. I see this happen all the time. Listen, people start coming to church. Their marriage gets better. The kids get married. Then they think they got it all together and then they get out and they get away from God’s covenant, God’s blessings that God’s umbrella and they get worse off than they were before. Listen, if you’re doing better, hang in there. Amen? Don’t go backwards. Say, Hey, go forward. Chase God.

James Greer: 15:28 Ecclesiastic 3:1 says to everything. There is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. This is your time. This is your time to find your purpose. This is your time to enjoy your true purpose. Your true purpose is to be loved by God, to be blessed by God and to be a blessing. That’s your purpose. When you’re really loved by God and blessed by God, you’ll want to bless other people. But the main purpose is so many people don’t let God love them. I don’t know what you did. I don’t care what you did. I want you to know that God loves you and he wants to be with you and he wants to help you. 1 John 3:5 says, See what incredible quality of love that the father has shown and bestowed to us. Why? That we should be permitted to be called the children of God. God said, listen, you’re a child of God. You’ve now got a new inheritance. You’re entitled to a new blessing. See, when we love him back, that’s called fellowship. So, the first thing we need to do now, really, truly if you want to do better in the future, ask yourself how you were the last five, 10 years and are you better right now than you were then? Good, learn why. And if not, make a choice this morning that you want to change.

James Greer: 17:11 Second of all, you’ve got to understand what it means to be blessed. To be blessed means a good word. Sometimes that means a blessing. It means to speak good words. It can mean bountiful, it can mean make happy, it can mean to prosper. You ready? The words we speak greatly determine the blessings we receive. If you don’t get anything, you need to get this. Why do you want to wait to be blessed when you can start being blessed today? Why do you want to wait next 10 years. Wouldn’t some of you all like to start receiving God’s blessings today? Amen? So, the words we speak greatly determine the blessings we receive. That’s why Proverbs 18:21 puts it this way, life and death are in the power of the tongue. Wow. You can kill a relationship. You can bring life to a relationship through the power of your tongue and those who love it will eat the fruit of it. You know, it’s okay to ask God to bless you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, first Chronicles 4:6 he said, God, I wish you had blessed me and bless me indeed. Isaiah 65, Psalms 6:4. So, have you ever asked God to bless you? Not selfishly, but God I want your blessings, where I can be a blessing.

James Greer: 17:58 So, but it said that life and death are in the power of the tongue. If you want to start receiving a blessing, be careful what you say and how you say it. Amen? Psalms 107:20 says this, he sent forth his word and they healed them. Many times when I’m praying for somebody that sick and I don’t know how to pray for them, I pray that I say, God, send forth your word and heal them. Some of you need emotionally, spiritually, financial, even physical healing. God said, he sent forth his word. I think the other Proverbs he’s talking about, we’ve got to be careful that we speak God’s word and we speak the truth as we speak life into them. And then he’s teaching us, Hey, why don’t you speak my word because it can bring healing and deliverance from all the destruction. You don’t have to wait.

James Greer: 19:02 We need to learn to speak healing words in life in ourselves first, and then the best talk you could have today is a self-talk. You tell yourself, I mean, instead of being negative, be positive. Instead of saying, I can’t, I can do all things through Christ. Instead of a spirit of fear and God didn’t give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love sound mind. I’m going to tell you the best talk, it starts to be in a self-talk and then you just go from your self-talk to get it to your heart, so that you can speak it outside. Amen?

James Greer: 19:38 I mean when you talk about the blessings are greatly determined by the words we speak, by the words we read, and the word we obey. Because when I’m talking about blessings, when God blesses something or someone, he takes what they have naturally and he multiplies it and make it sufficient to meet every need in your life and then some leftover. So, when God blesses something, he takes what you have naturally. Physical, emotional, financial, marriage, or whatever you have naturally. And he says, listen, if you’ll apply my word, my principles, I’ll meet the need in that area and you’ll have some leftover. And one of the examples of God’s blessings is when Jesus took the fish and the loaves of bread and he fed the 5,000 and there’s a great example of that. I’ll read it, Matthew 14:19 and there’s a crowd and they’re all there and he commanded the multitudes to sit down in the grass. And Jesus, he took the five loaves and the two fish and he looked up to heaven and he, what’d he do? He blessed it. You ready? He blessed what they had, not what they didn’t have. The true blessings of God. He will bless what you have. Quit waiting to what you say. If I had this or I got that, I’d be blessed. No, God will bless what you have. And he broke it and he gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples gave it out to the multitudes. So, they all ate and they were what? They were satisfied.

James Greer: 20:59 Wait, what, listen. When you’re really blessed, God takes your natural abilities, which you have naturally. He takes it and he makes it sufficient for what you need, your field and they took it up 12 baskets. So, he gave them what they needed and then some. Amen? That’s a physical picture of what God wants to do in your life. What, I mean, he wants to bless you. He wants to, he wants to meet your needs and then some. I was, this weekend I was blank thinking about that and I was thinking God has blessed me and my wife just so much and unbelievable. I can look back. I can pinpoint the time when I started getting back to my family and church, when God started blessing, I know exactly what went well. I know what I was struggling with, I know what I wrestle with, and I know soon as I started being obedient, God started blessing, blessing, blessing. I know it comes from God.

James Greer: 22:03 Do you understand that every good thing you have in your life came from God? But you know what else I think? I think any blessing that I have or anybody else has to some extent anybody can have if they obey God’s principles. I mean, what I mean by that is he can meet any need in your life where you are just with the ability you have and you can have some leftover. See, God has a principle is called a law cannot change and it cannot be broken. I think it’s a, it was almost set in place to rule the universe. It was set in place to bring blessings and curses and it’s Galatians 6:7 he said, anything you know, hey, don’t be deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will reap. That is not just a verse. That’s a universe. It’s like gravity. You can all pray for me and I jump. I’m, still going to hit the ground. And God set it in place to say, hey, you greatly determine your blessings and curses by what you reap, what you say and what you do. It’s a principle. It’s a law, you can’t change it. This is the truth. This is.

James Greer: 23:22 You’re just, you’re either in the planning stage right now of your life, you’re in the watering stage, or you’re in the reaping stage of which you have already sown. Your life, every season there is a season under heaven. You’re either in the planning, the watering or the reaping. Whether that’s good or bad, but you’re in one of those. The only way to change the stage that you’re in, is change what you’re sowing and give it time for you to reap. That’s why I don’t understand why does so many people want to wait to be blessed? Whatever area, what is it that you really need to be blessed in? What areas is it? Your family, finances, whatever it is. Why don’t you start sowing the right seeds into that area right now and let God start cultivating it where you can be blessed.

James Greer: 24:17 See, this is what happened when we read, whatever a man sows, so he surely reap, right? It says what you so you shall reap. If you try to, it’s not you don’t sow what you have reaped. Most people live their life. You listen it so important. They try to sow what they have reaped, instead of sowing what they want God to bless. In other words, somebody had been mean, ugly and hateful and jealous to you. So you, you sow it back to them. That’s what you get. So most people live their life and blinded to this law, this principle that cannot be changed. You’re going to sow what you reap. So many as live our lives, sowing what we’ve reaped. You want to change your life, think about that and change it. It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been bitter to you. Matter of fact, if you learned to sow love and peace, it doesn’t matter what they do.

James Greer: 25:18 Luke 10:5 says this, but whatever house you enter, but first say, peace be to this house, and if the son of peace is there, you’re going to have peace. If it’s not, it’s going to return from you. In other words, they can’t take it. It’s not limited. Listen, your blessings and your peace is not limited to what somebody else does it’s limited by what you do, what you say, what you reap and what you hear. Amen? And nobody can take that from you. It’s not limited to how big your need is. It’s not limited to the situation. I used to think of the situational limitations. You ALL know what situational limitations are? You got yourself in that situation, so it limits God to get you out of that. That’s not true. I don’t see any such thing as situation limitation. You’ve probably got yourself into that, because you sowed and now you’re reaping. Amen? Now God says, why don’t you just start sowing the right thing and you can reap the right thing. So it doesn’t matter how you got there. As a matter of God has the power to get you out of there, God’s word obeyed and applied is always more powerful than any problem you’ll ever have.

James Greer: 26:09 All right, you’re going to need to get this verse, Deuteronomy 30:19 because it’s going to be a takeoff first for next week as well. Deuteronomy 30:19 is talking about the difference your life can be. He said, I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you. Can you imagine? In Deuteronomy 30:19 God says, listen, I’m going to call heaven and earth. I want them to be a witness. If God says anything, it’s important. Amen? But if he says, I’m going to call heaven and earth and I want them to be a witness, it better be special. It better be something that we pay attention to.

James Greer: 27:00 I call heaven earth to be a witness today against you. I’ve set before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life. God said, listen, I’m going to set before you. He said, listen, I want all heaven and all earth to know what you reap what you sow. I want all heaven and all earth and all humans. No, I give you a choice. You could choose a blessing or a curse. You could choose long life or short life. And then he said, the choice is yours. He says everything. It’s a choice. Then he said, I want you to choose life. God said, I want to bless you. I want you to choose a better life for both you and your ascendants, that they may live. Anytime God calls heaven and earth is something very important. But listen, this is what you get. Many times one word or one choice away from the blessings of God. One choice or one word.

James Greer: 28:04 I’m going to start closing, but I’ll tell you something. Blessings are God’s children’s birthright. It’s your birthright, but if you’re not a child of God, that’s not your birthright. If you’re here today and you’ve never accepted Christ as your savior, which breaks the curse in your life, today is the day to do that. Just acknowledge that you sinned and you believe Jesus died on the cross and rose on third day and you want to invite him into your heart. Bingo. God becomes your partner at that point. Today’s the best day to do that. Second, today’s a day to be honest about your past, your past. Why wouldn’t you this morning, choose you ready, choose for the next three years, the next five years to be the best years of your life. The choice is yours. It’s greatly determined by the words you speak, the words you read and the words you obey, but you do not have to wait to be blessed. You can choose it today.

James Greer: 29:07 If you’ll allow the Holy spirit, you ready? This morning he will nudge your heart on the decisions you need to make. Just say, God, what choices? He said, life and death are in the choices we make. Amen? Let’s just start saying now God, what choices do I need to make? What is it that I can into my last half can be my best? Is it I need to change the words I’m speaking? Just ask God right now. Say, God, do I need to change the words oI am speaking where I can start speaking blessings? Do I need to change the way and talking to myself? God, I want to make a choice, literally today when Brother James gives the invitation. I want to choose that. I want to choose to speak different in my life. Maybe you need to spend more time in God’s word because see speaking God’s word, reading God’s word, obeying God’s word is what brings the blessing of the God. Can’t change it. You don’t have to wait.

James Greer: 29:58 Is there something that you need to start obeying that God’s already told you to do that you haven’t been doing? This is limiting the blessings in that area of your life? What I’m telling you, God has spiritual blessings in every single area of your life. And there’s principles that are applied that he’s going to bless you, that nobody else can change, nothing anybody else can do about it. And God said, I call heaven earth as witness. And I want you to know that. I want you to choose today. Do you want to choose blessings? Do you want choose curses? God said, I want you to choose life. So some of you need start saying, I want a better life. Some of you need to, you ready? Choose what area it is that you feel like you might be cursed under. Is it your finances? Is this your marriage? Is it your job? Is it your emotions? Is it your health? And today you say, I’m going to make a willful choice, you ready? To start sowing into that area that makes a difference and why wait, and I am asking you to do it today? Would you stand and let me pray with you and pray for you.

James Greer: 30:55 God, you’re a great God. I’m so thankful we don’t have to wait. God, I pray this morning. Everybody that hears this word, whether it’s online, whether it’s here, whether it’s later, they understand that you want to bless them and that you want them to be a blessing, but God, you said there’s choices that we make. A lot of it’s the words we speak, a lot of it is the way we talk to ourselves. God, I pray today, if somebody here doesn’t know Christ, they do that. Somebody needs to come and join the church. They do that. Somebody just needs to make a choice that they want the next three years or five years to be the best they have. They just come to the altar and just pray and give it to God. Whatever decision that be made today. God, I pray that you get the honor and glory in your name we pray. Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.