How to Wait Upon the Lord

James Greer: 00:00 Morning Journey Church. Woo. you all ready for a word from the Lord? Amen? How about Alexandria and Darrell? Hey you all welcome Alexandria campus. Amen?

James Greer: 00:10 I’m going to tell you, I hope that inside your bulletin that you got one of these cards, that talked about how to carry along with you there, it says to turn and learn. And what it’s really to remind us, it says, listen, we’re going to take our stress and our pressure and if we apply it the right way, we’ll understand its purpose, and it’ll cause us to grow. Now see what when pressure and stress comes, when we turn to God and learn from God, God will either remove the problem or he’ll give us the power to go through the problem. And what I say is that there are some verses that are written on those cards, and one of them is Second Corinthians 12 and it says, Paul, he said, “Lest I be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.” He said, what? “A thorn in the flesh was given me, a messenger from Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” In other words, God said, man, I’m suffering, I got some pressure, I’ve got some problems. But listen, he said, hey, “Concerning this thing, He said, listen, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart.” In other words, he had the problem, he had the pressure, he turned to God. So when you have a problem, when you have a pressure, the first thing we do is what? Turn to God. And then sometimes God removes the problem. If he doesn’t, we need to learn from the problem.

James Greer: 01:28 Here’s what he said in the next verse, he says, “And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.” He said, Hey Paul, I’m not going to remove the problem but, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. He said, therefore most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon me.” So Paul said, here’s the prescription. When pressure and stress come, it’s going to come. Amen? We turn to God. And first of all we do like he did. He pleaded with God three times to remove the problem. Three times, God take care of me. Three times, God heal me. Three times, God meet my needs. Three times. Whatever the problem and pressure is, the first thing you do is turn to God, and then you’ve got to learn from God. To learn from God, you’ve got to believe what God says. You do understand you were never created to be self-sufficient. No, no, we were created and made to need God, and that’s one of the things. I mean, I’m sitting here preaching this thing. Man, when you get under pressure, you turn and learn.

James Greer: 02:32 And me and my wife, we’re going to go out for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. And I get to the airport early, and I’m telling Debbie, hey, this is great man. This is no stress, I like us getting here early. And I said, look, I’m going to check us in before I go park the car. And I stand there and the girl says, I don’t see you on this flight. I said, yeah, I know I’m on that flight. She said, I’ll go get the boss. I said, go get the boss. Boss came up there, she said, let me see it again. I gave it to her, and she looked and looked. She said, are you sure you’re on this flight? Yes ma’am, I’m on this flight. She said, you’re on the wrong airlines. I had to learn, Amen? God has a great sense of humor, man. I mean, he just loves it, man.

James Greer: 03:13 I want to do a little review from last week, and then I want to give you an insight that God gave me this morning about two o’clock. But let’s get to that verse, we learned there’s a universal principle, a law set up with God, for our good. Whatever you sow, you shall reap. Amen. And we said, stress is a big deal. I mean it says, 89% of all Americans report they’re having problems with extreme stress, 43% are suffering health issue. So we learned this insight. This is what we learned, If you want what normal people have, you do what normal people do. Amen? And I said, Johnny Church, you’re not normal people. Amen? I guarantee if you come on the Journey Church, you’re not normal, or you won’t fit. And so let’s be different, and be proud of it. So if you want what few people have, you have to do what few people do. So 90% of the people, they’re suffering from unbelievable stress and pressure, and it’s even affecting them physically. But see we don’t want to be normal, we want to be abnormal as far as acting. We want to act in a supernatural way. When you say, do you go to Journey Church? You say, hey, yeah, there are different. Say hey, praise God, Huh? Well, Journey Church, I want our people to be different, and one of the greatest things people are struggling with today is stress and pressure. And by the time today’s over, I want you to learn to let it work for you, not against you. Amen? That’s good Brother James. Anyway.

James Greer: 04:36 And so what’s the first thing we do? We learn to turn and learn. Galatians chapter six verse four says this, it says, “Let each one of us examine his own work.” Who’s work? His own work. Who do we have to examine? Our own work. “And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not another.” In other words, what God is saying is that every one of us has to learn to deal with our own burdens, our own pressure, our own stress. And how do we deal with, at the very moment we start getting stressed and pressured, what do we do? We turn and learn. What is the purpose of pressure and stress? For us to turn and learn to God. Okay?

James Greer: 05:12 Second. So first of all, we turn and learn. Amen? Second of all, we’ve got to learn to wait upon the Lord. Now, I’ve been dealing with this wait upon the Lord for several weeks now, I can even give you a message on how to wait upon the Lord, what to do while you’re waiting on the Lord. But this morning, God gave me another one, but let me read the traditional one first. Isaiah 40:29, “He gives power to the weak.” Who does he give power to? The weak. Who gives the power? God does. And to those who have no might, he increases their strength. Verse 30 says, you know, “Even the youth, they’re going to faint and they’re going to get weary, and the young man shall utterly fall.” In other words, it doesn’t matter, young or old you’re going to come to the point if you’re not careful, you can’t make it on your own. You’re going to say, man, I am stressed out, I’m pressured out, I’m about to go under. But 31 says, he says, “But those young or old that wait upon the Lord.” Those who do what? Wait upon the Lord. What do you have to do when you feel weary and tired and worn out and stressed out? What do you do? Wait upon the Lord. Say, wait upon the Lord. Amen? Okay, so we wait upon the Lord. Why? Because he’s going to renew our strength. They’re going to mount up on wings like an eagle. They’re going to run, they’re not going to get weary. They’re going to walk, and they’re not going to faint.

James Greer: 06:31 So here I’ve got this whole message on there, and God wants to talk. Now it’s two-o’clock in the morning, and I’m wanting to say, hey God, let’s talk in the morning. But really when God’s talking, you don’t really do that. What you don’t know is God reads your mind, so he knows what you’re thinking. And I’m saying, God, this is kind of a cool insight. He said, how come you have to wait on the Lord? And I was given all these illustrations. He said, one reason you have to wait on the Lord, because you’ve run before him, and now you’re without him. I said, ooh, that wasn’t in my message. He said, one of the real problems is you’re trying to get out in front of God, and the reason we don’t wait is because we’re trying to handle things ourselves. Listen, do you know how we come to God, we come to God by the weight of needs. We find God, we find rest in rescue. Do you know that a Christian, the relationship with God, do you know how it starts? You have a need, God rescues you. You have a need, God gives you rest. See, the relationship with God is, the very first relationship you ever had with God, you came to the point that you knew that you had a need. Apart from Jesus Christ, you would not go to heaven, so you had a need for Jesus. You came to Jesus, and he gave you rest, he came and rescued you. You’ll spend eternity in heaven. Amen? You have a need, he gives you rest. Alight?

James Greer: 07:59 We don’t like to ask for help though, most of us don’t like help. I don’t like to go to the doctor. I don’t like to go to the dentist. I mean I’m a wimp anyways, I don’t like shots, I just don’t like. But I don’t like to go and ask them either. You know what I really don’t like? I don’t like to ask for directions. I just hate to ask for directions. I’m so thankful for GPS now, and having it on your phone, I do not know, man. Me and my wife could go on vacation and enjoy each other. We used to go on vacation, Debbie had the map, you all probably don’t remember those, and I’m driving. And since she’s not here, I tell you, she’s not a good map reader. We never been on vacation. I rent a car, she gets a map, and we fight. We’re on the last day and I’m bringing the car back to the airport, and she said, did you notice we didn’t even fight? I said, praise God, GPS. Hey, you want to have less fights with your marriage? Get GPS. Amen? I mean, so we don’t like to ask.

James Greer: 08:56 But do you know what else happens? We don’t like to ask God. We would like to just do things for our own. How many times do you get up in the morning, and you just leave, and you just go to work, and you start doing your thing. Before you stop and wait upon the Lord. So what you’re really saying is, God, I’m going before you, I’ve got this under control. But God said, no, wait upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord before you leave the house. Man, what if you waited upon the Lord before you went to work? I mean, you’d go to work and you have the people that are cocky, they’re ugly, they’re mean, they just sarcastic and all these things, and God put them there for you. He’s trying to do a work in you, and through you. Don’t worry about them, worry about you. Because see if you wait upon the Lord, man, you’ve got a new strength. You mount up on wings like an eagle, you have a new insight. You understand what’s going work, but when you don’t, you’re doing it on your own. I do it over and over and over, it’s called pride, There’s a problem with pride, when you have pride, you have to deal with your problems. When you begin to get rid of pride, most of your problems go away.

James Greer: 09:58 So see, what I want to tell you today is before you do anything, before you go anywhere, what I want you to start doing this, wait upon the Lord. Amen? I mean, right in the morning, we started out. We wait upon the Lord, and he gives us some new strength. Man, he gives us new insight. He gives us new power. But we have to learn to wait. Have you ever felt God, just to be at a service like this man? And by the way, God is here. I’m telling you, he’s is rocking the house. But have you ever been like that, and just felt like God wants you to move? Maybe God just wants you to come to the front, and he just wants you to rededicate your life. You’re not as on fire as you used to be, or you’ve got a burden and you need to give it to God. And you just know you can just feel his power, and you feel as presence, but you just don’t. So without knowing it, you’re saying, I wonder what somebody else is going to think about me. You do you do know what that’s called, right? Pride. So you go home the same way as you came, and you continue to deal with your problems yourself. Remove the pride, and you’ll remove a lot of the problems.

James Greer: 10:55 So, instead of waiting on God to guide us, and direct us, and provide, we start thinking, are you ready? We start thinking I can do it. Well when we start thinking I can, God gets us to the point that we say, I can’t. Now if you’re really wise, when we all start on I can, we get the point to say I can’t. And then if you’re really wise, you turn to God and say, I believe God can. And then we can, we can’t, God can, and then God’s says, we can. And then he says, hey, you don’t have to keep going through the circle, but most of us do. That’s most of our life, that’s the most of our relationship with God. I mean you start thinking you’re getting one thing, about the time you get your marriage going really good, then you got finance problems. You get your finances going good, and then you’ve got kid problems. I mean it’s just something, like when you get a problem at work. I mean God says you’re just going to learn to turn to me.

James Greer: 11:50 You know there is this verse I love. It says in Philippians 4:13, it says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It’s one of my never again list. But what I’ve got to remember it says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I can’t do all things with James. You’ve got to say, with Christ. I can do anything God’s called me to do, with the strength of Christ. Guess what? I can do nothing of any value without that. That is so cool, I mean I can remember sometimes I’d come ready to preach. Man, I have studied, and I’ve been ready, and I walk up here and I forget to wait on God. Man, you talking about hard to preach, with somebody with dyslexia and BB brain like me. I mean, next time I do that, I’m just going to stop and wait on God. I mean that’s what God wants us to do, he wants us to learn to wait upon God. So listen, we come to God with a need, we find God, and we find rest and rescue.

James Greer: 12:54 I want to say, hey God. God’s doing all this. He said, you got this? And I’ll say, God, I think I got it. Can I go to sleep, and we’ll talk about it in the morning? I said, you know, I’ve got to sleep, I’ve got to get up in the morning, I’ve got to preach in the morning. He said, sucker, you still don’t have it. He didn’t use sucker though. I put that in. He said, no, no, you do need to go sleep, but when you get up it needs to be we. Let’s us get up, let’s we go to church, let’s us preach together. I said, wow, it took me til two o’clock in the morning to get that? He said, yeah, you’re not too smart. He said, but you can go to sleep now. Thank God! Huh? I mean, God’s just rocking the house, and I’m enjoying talking to him. But you know, I am ready to go to bed, you know. And then God can read your mind, and so he tells you all these things, and so I think it’s really cool. So it’s we, not I. The ‘we’ is partnering up with Christ. Amen? It’s the relationship with God. The relationship is all about we come to God with a need, and when we find God, we find rest or rescue. The whole Christian life, we’ve got a need, we’ll get rest, we’ll get rescued.

James Greer: 14:20 Have you got a need? So, I guarantee everybody here today, if you’d be honest, has some need. Amen? Why wouldn’t you come to God and get rest and rescue? You all ready? Pride. So when you don’t deal with your pride, you have to deal with the problem. Man, don’t you know today, when we give an invitation, we’re going to rock the house. Amen? I mean, it’s unbelievable. Almost every Sunday there’s a verse that I quote, we’re not even in the outline, so you all can just forget that dude. But anyway, almost every Sunday there’s a verse that I quote, and it’s Matthew 11:28 and it says, God speaking, come to me, turn to me, all who labor. That’s all of us. And heavy laden. And I’ll do what? I’ll give you what? Rest. Well, what you don’t understand when it says all who labor. That just means, hey, you decided to go to work, and you worked good, and you worked hard, but you’re working on your own. And so you went to work, work is not the curse. The work is working without Christ is the curse. And so he said, come onto me. God gives an invitation, an open invitation to everybody who labors. And that’s a physical work. you’ve gone to work. Now you’re heavy laden, now you’ve got an unbelievable stress and pressure that brought upon your life. And he said, hey, why don’t you come to me and I’ll give you a rest.

James Greer: 15:37 So what do we do? We learned to turn, we learn, and hey, and then he’ll either remove the problem, or gives the power. He’s telling us right here, listen, listen, you come to me with your need, and you find me and you go with rest or your rescued? I mean that’s what God wants every single one of us do. God wants to use us in a supernatural way. He wants to say, hey, I want to use you on your job, I want to use you on your home, I want to do everything. But not us, we do this again. I can, I can’t. God can, we can. See, if you’re not careful about the time we say God can, and we can. And God starts meeting our needs better, and starts removing a little of the pressure, we start thinking I can do it again. God didn’t create us to be self-sufficient, God created us to depend upon him. What is the purpose of stress and pressure, to get us to turn and to learn. So God says, hey, the whole relationship’s about this, so if you have a need…Then we need to make sure we leave time at the end of the service, because I think everybody here has a need. And I believe everybody here needs to find rest. I believe some of you need to be rescued.

James Greer: 16:56 But God said, hey, you got pride, you deal with the problem. Get rid of the pride, maybe I can deal with the problem. So what do we got to do? We got to wait upon the Lord. Why? Because he renews our strength, because we rise up, he gives us new insights over the problem. But what he says, is God is the one that does it all. And I told you all last Sunday, and I’ll remind you again. As a parent, be very careful that you don’t continue to try to take the place of God. Your children have problems, they got pressure. And what do we do if we’re not careful, we step in. But we’re learning the purpose of problems and pressure, is for us to learn and turn to God. And so if we don’t, if we’re not careful, we’re not letting them go on their own enough to do learn and turn from God. We want them to turn to God and get their strength, their comfort, their power, their provisions. And if we’re not careful, they start turning to us. We want them to come to the point they don’t turn to us. They turn less and less to us, and turn more and more to God. Amen? So we got to be careful as parents and grandparents.

James Greer: 17:59 Psalmist said in 27:14, “Wait upon the Lord. Be of good courage.” Because when you wait upon the Lord, and the Lord is with you, you began to have good courage. And he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I said on the Lord. Now what’s God trying to tell us? Wait upon the Lord. Amen? So when we’re stressed, we’re pressured. one of the things you got to go out of here today is understand that mainly because you didn’t wait upon the Lord. It’s because you’ve been out here trying to do it on your own. It’s because you’re saying I can. And God said when you keep saying I can, I’m going to bring it til you say I can’t. Now you can live with, I can for so long, but you will come to the point that you’re going to say you can’t handle it anymore. I can’t handle the pressure. I can handle a marriage. I can’t handle the finances, I can’t do it God. God says, praise God, took you long enough, slow learner. Come to me and you can find rest, I will rescue you. He said, I set it up like that. I said it up where you cannot live a life independent of me. Well, because of time we’re going to skip on over here.

James Greer: 19:09 How do we wait upon the Lord? Well, of course we wait by slowing down and acknowledged that we need God. But the Psalmist said in Psalms 130:5-6 it says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.” How do I wait? I wait on the Lord, my soul waits. And in his what? How do what upon the lord, in his what? I do what?` Hope. So one of the ways you wait on the Lord is you wait upon the word, and in hope. Now you’ve got to understand these two things because it’s so important. If you’re really going to wait upon the Lord, if you’re really going to have a new power, if you’re going to really have God’s presence in your life. I’m going to tell you, when you learn to wait upon the Lord in the word, and in hope, it will radically change your life. Because he don’t want you to just come sit down here and say, I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m waiting. No, he wants you to come down here and say, I want you to find a promise that talks about your problem, and I want you to fulfill that promise where I can give you the provision. He wants you to wait in the word, he wants you to be using the word, he wants you to be agreeing with the word, he wants you to apply the word. In Second Peter One it says, listen it says, “Grace and peace is multiplied to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.” He said, knowledge gives us grace. What did Paul say we needed? My grace is what? Sufficient. And in Second Peter chapter one, he says, grace and peace is multiply through the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God, the divine power that’s given to us through the knowledge. And he says they’re exceedingly great in their precious promises. He’s saying, listen, I want you to know the promises of God, they’re precious and they’re powerful. He said, I want you to know, that I want you to use them. I want you to know when you start claiming them, he said, listen, grace and peace will be multiplied. So what is it saying? Man I’m stressed out, I can’t believe it, I’ve got a problem, I don’t know what’s going on. And said, hey, why don’t you start applying the word? Apply the word to the problem. So you rest in the word, and in hope, it said.

James Greer: 21:02 Let me read the verse to you one more time. Psalms 130:5-6, “I wait for the Lord”. James, you’ve got to wait for the Lord. My soul, my emotions, now begin to wait. Why? In his word do I hope. That’s really two things that you do. Number one, you go to God in his word. When you want to hear God, talk to him through his word. Just like when the Old Testaments prophets, they would hear God audibly, he would speak to them. He speaks to us today through his word. So he said you’d go to him in your word, and then in him do I hope. Now hope is not like we hope. Sometimes I said, I hope I make good grades. I hope I do a good job. I hope I do….No, no, no, no, that’s not what hope is. Biblical hope is not that at all, biblical hope is it’s a confident expectation of a positive future, in spite of your present circumstance. Biblical hope is the Romans 8:28, “That you know all things work together for the good of they who’d called to love the Lord.” Biblical hope is not, it’s confident, it’s an expectation, I believe God’s about to do something. It’s like when, how do you know that? Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by what? The word of God. Faith comes by what? Hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. See, listen, listen, hearing, we’ll stop you fearing. You got that? Hearing will stop you fearing. What you need is when you’re fearing, is because you’re not hearing. In other words, we hear, but we need to hear God’s word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the word of God.

James Greer: 22:30 And so what I want you to know is see, listen, if I’m fearing something, it’s because I’m not hearing something. I need to hear the right person, I got to hear God’s word. That’s why it’s so important to come to church, and be in the word, and to be under the word. I’m telling you right now. God says, I want to increase your faith. How? By hearing, and hearing God’s word. We’re preaching God’s word. So you stay in the word, and you stay under the word, then you apply the word. So you might be here today and you say, my child, my grandchild, you know, they’re getting far from God. You just say, well, Isaiah 54:13 says hey, “All the children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of our children.” Hey man, Hey, I don’t know where they’re at right now. But God says, Hey, that my children are great, they shall have peace. God, I’m claiming your peace for my kids, I’m expecting them to be better tomorrow, God. In fact if they’re not better tomorrow, I’m going to get up with a confident expectation, the next day they will. I’m going to call on Psalms 37:24, Though he fall..” My kids fall, I fall, we all fall. Amen? “But he shall not be utterly cast down.” Why? Because the Lord upholds him with his hand. I have been young, and I had been old, and yet have I seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.

James Greer: 23:42 I mean, so what are you going to do? Are you’re going to get your expectations from yourself, or are you going to get into the word, and you’re going to get hope. I’m going to apply the word, I’m going to have a biblical hope, I’m going to have an expectation that God’s in control. And he said, all things work together for good of them who love the Lord. And God’s going to take this mess, and he’s going to turn around to something good. I don’t know how, but I believe it. Amen? I mean it’s the same thing, you get bad reports, you know something’s going on. You said, I’ll just call upon the Lord and he’ll answer me, and if my trouble, he will deliver me. When he said, deliver me. He says, listen, I’ve come, I’ll either take the problem away, I’m going to be with you, or I’ll give you strength to go through the problem. And he said, I’ll do something. I’ll deliver you, and honor him with long life, and I will satisfy him to show him my salvation. Hey God I’m saying, listen, God, I want a long, satisfied life. Amen?

James Greer: 24:29 It just goes on and on and on. My finance, God said he’ll supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. He says, honor the Lord with the first fruit, and your barns will be full. Patiently wait upon the Lord, he said, expectation. He says, for I have despised, unless I believe that you would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I mean, you just start claiming God’s word. You should start believing the word. Faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by what? The word of God. If you’re fearing, you’re not hearing. If you’re fearing, what? You’re not hearing. So, if you’re fearing, what you really need to do is start hearing, but you need to hear God’s word. Amen?

James Greer: 25:01 All right, God’s so good. Guess what, you all? You’re one of three places. You’re pridefully walking around saying, I can do it. I can. Or God’s allowed you to come to the point that you’ve saying, I can’t. If you’re at the point saying, I can’t. I pray through God’s word, and through faith, that you believe God can. And so we’re going to bring your can’ts, to God can. But then God wants us to end up saying, we can, God wants to use us, but it’s the process. We bring our needs to God, we find God, we find rest, we find rescue. He commanded us, he said, come to me. Jesus said, turn to me all who labor, you’re weary, you’re worn out. You’ve been working hard, but you hadn’t been with God. Heavy laden, you’re stressed out, you’re pressured out, you’re about to burn out, I’m going to give you rest. Take up my yoke, and learn from me. What are you going to learn today? I can, I can’t, I believe God can, or we can.

James Greer: 26:28 So what we’re going to do today in a minute, Trey come on, and we’re going to give an invitation, because I want to have time. I want to have time for people to come to God, give God your need, where when you find God, you can find rest. Or maybe you’re in that process of you really didn’t realize you’re at the, I can. And before you get to the, I can’t, you want to say God, you can, God use me. Are you as excited about serving God as you were at one time or another? Have you become lukewarm? Have you gotten the habit of just coming to church just to check off I was here, and you’re not letting God change your life? Do you understand you are not created to be self-sufficient? You were created to need God. See, even when you’re right with God, you had this burning desire in your heart. Man, I need you God, I need you every day. Then God said, here I am, coming into me, and find rest.

James Greer: 27:34 Would you stand and let me pray with you. God, I thank you for your word. It’s so powerful. It’s so practical, God. I want it to change our lives starting with me. God, I pray for every single person at both campuses this morning, God. I pray that God, we have needs, I pray we bring our need to you. I pray we find you, God, and I pray we’d get rest. I pray you rescue us. Now, God, whatever it is we need today. I pray that, God, our hearts would be tender. I pray that we’d be humble. I pray that we’d put away pride, where you can help us with our problems. Whether it’s to join the church, rededicate our lives, follow through in public baptism, God. Whatever it is you’d have us to do, God, let us bring our need to you. It’s in the precious name of Jesus, I ask. Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.