Pastor Greer offers christian Parenting tips for mothers.

James Greer: 00:21 We have as many people usually watching online, on Facebook, and on TV, as we usually do at church. So I'm excited about that. I want to shout out to them too, because you can text 6401273, any question you have. Also going through this thing, you know, so many people struggle with their salvation. You know, they’re just not sure if they're saved. And we've gathered some really simple, good, information. And if you'd like that you can just text to 6401273 that and we'll send it to you.

James Greer: 00:48 Alright, let's get on Happy Mother's Day. Five steps of being a successful mom. Today's a special day for you. But moms, I know you never really feel like you're doing enough. You never feel like you can be good enough, and I know you're not appreciated enough, but thank God for grace because you're doing better than you think. Your loved more than you can feel, or even imagine. And what I want to do today more than any time before is try to give you five simple steps that can help you be a more successful mom.

James Greer: 01:17 When I first started looking, I said, how can I give you five steps to be a more successful mom? Well, one, I had a very successful mom, as far as a great mom. My mom, she believed that I was going to turn out right even when I was wrong. My mom used to drop scriptures all over the house. Sometimes I'd go home, they were under my pillow. She believed that God's word will not return void. I have a wife that loves me, loves the Lord, and is a great mom. So I has some great examples. But so when I started saying how can I give you five simple steps to help you be a more successful mom?

James Greer: 01:54 Number one, it's got to be a biblical principle based, because when you apply God's word, it won't return void. So let me read. We're going to be talking about Hannah. Hannah didn't have a child, and she prayed to God, and God gave her a prophet named Samuel. Samuel was used then to anoint and appoint two kings. And we're going to pick it up in First Samuel 1:8, "Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why do weep, why do you not eat, and why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better than ten sons?" What a typical man, now here's she is crying and weeping, I don't have any kids and I want kids, and the other ladies are making fun of her. And her husband walked in and said, but you got me. That proves men, we don't have a clue what's going on in women's life. I knew I'd get a woman to say Amen. But sometimes we love them, but we don't know how they feel. I can remember that, I can remember my wife coming home one time, she said, honey, I'd like to have more kids. That's what I thought too. I said, you've got me, and she wanted to have more. In fact, we had already had her tubes tied, and she had a tubal reversal because she just felt like she wanted more kids. So we didn't have kids for a while, and then God decided to give us three at once, and I didn't understand.

James Greer: 03:25 But many times men you don't understand the hurts, and the heartaches of women. But this is the good news ladies, God does, Amen. And you're going to see how God worked in her life in a supernatural way. Verse 9, "So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking, and Eli the priest was sitting at the seat by the door post in the Tabernacle of the Lord. And she was bitterness of soul, and she was brokenhearted, and she prayed to God, and she wept, and was anguished" And that's the beginning of giving us the first step of being a successful mom, one is learning to seek God first. If you want to be a successful mom, learn to seek the Lord. Too many moms are seeking other moms, and other people, for direction from the Lord. Instead of what? God who created you and the child. Now there is a verse in Titus that says, "Older women should teach, the younger women." But what people don't know, what are the older woman's supposed to teach the younger women? They're to teach them to love their wives? So all ultimately, when you need to be a better mom, the first thing you need to do is remember to seek God. Second Chronicles 26:5 puts it this way, "He set himself up to seek God, in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the things of God. As long as he sought, as long as he inquired of the Lord, God made him to prosper." I love that. Aren't you glad ladies? He didn't say, as long as you're the perfect mom, then you'll prosper. No, it's as long as you sought the Lord. God caused them to prosper. It's like Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and everything else will be added."

James Greer: 04:51 Listen, whether you're a mom or a dad, God's got to be the ultimate source of meeting all your needs and your life. Second Chronicles 26:5, "As long as he sought the Lord. God made him to prosper." It means that seek God for guidance, and wisdom. and direction, and when you do that it said, God will cause you to prosper. God actually wants you to prosper, ladies. He wants you to be more successful. He wants to bless you, in fact the very word means to become mighty women of God, to be able to push forward, when you want to give up. It means to be blessed, means to be more effective, means to succeed, it means to have mercy. So it says, "As long as he sought the Lord, God called him to prosper." So the first thing you got to do is learn to seek God. Jeremiah 20:9-11 says, "God's speaking, and he says, I know the thoughts, I think toward you said the Lord. Thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then he says, when you call upon me and you go and pray to me, I will listened to you." Verse 13 says, "You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart."

James Greer: 05:57 See, let me tell you God wants you to prosper. God wants you to have peace and he wants you to be excited about the future. Not only does God wants you to prosper. Not only does God want you to have peace. Not only does God wants you to be excited about the future. He wants to assure you that you can access him, when you search for him, you can find him. Too many people think God's hiding from them. God is not hiding from you. Listen, God's waiting to work with you. So he's there. So number one, every woman in here can do that. By the way guys, to be a better successful husband, dad, boy, girl, same thing. Learn to seek God first.

James Greer: 06:37 Number two, you got to learn to surrender. Ladies, the way you can be a more successful mom, is learn to surrender. In fact, in First Samuel 1:11 it says, this is Hannah, "She made a vow unto God." Man, I wish I had time to teach all about vows. I'm studying about the vows of God. Did you all know when Jonah was swallowed by the fish, right, and right before the fish the spit him onto dry ground. He said, "I pray God, and I'll keep my vows that I have vowed." In other words a vow, when he vowed to God, that he was going to do what he said he did. Then the fish then spit him out on the ground. There is so much about vows. Psalms 50:15, is a verse I quote all the time, "Call for the Lord in times of trouble, and he'll deliver you." But right before that it says "You keep your vows, and then God will deliver you." In other words, there's so much power in vows. There's at least three things that vows do. Vows, first of all, they cause you to commit to God. God, if you'll do this, I'm going to do that. Then they say, God, I'm already committed to you. That means now you do it. Now with Hannah it means, hey, it's going to be part of her answered prayer. She had been crying, she'd been weeping. She said, now I'm going to avow a vow to God. I'm going to make a commitment to you, God, the Lord of hope. He said, "If you will indeed, look on the affliction of your maid servant, and remember me, and not forget your maid servant. I'm going to give your maid servants a male child." She not only wanted a child, she wanted a male child. "Then I'm going to give him to the Lord, all the days of his life, no razors shall be upon his head." See, God said, listen, really what I'm doing when I talk about surrender. You surrendering your will into God's hand. You're taking your greatest problems, and saying hey god, I can't handle it.

James Greer: 08:14 Are you ready? Surrender is always the pathway to peace. Surrender is the pathway to peace. When we learned to surrender our will for God's will, we begin our steps to peace. When you no longer have a will in the matter, that's all that really matters. When you can really go to God and say, listen God, I'm just surrendering this to you. I'm surrendering my greatest need, I'm surrendering my greatest problem. I've already sought you God for guidance and direction in life. Now I'm surrendering it to you. You just got to have steps to it, and you know, you've got to accept things you can't change. There's a lot of things you can't change. You know the hardest thing that I can't change, that I want to change, is other people. I mean do you know why I preach on that all the time? Because I keep trying to do it. I need to learn to practice what I preach more, that's what I say, Amen. I mean one of the things that gets me stressed out, is trying to change things I can't change, and most of the time that's trying to change other people. In fact if I focused on change me, as I try to change them, I wouldn't be so stressed.

James Greer: 09:15 So you just got to surrender whatever it is, to God, the things you can't change. You got to surrender the people you can't change. Then you got to remember, this isn't the end of the story. Whatever you're going through, just surrender it to God, and it may not look like it right then but that’s not the end of the story. When you see Hannah, she's crying and she's praying, and she's pleading with God. She was making a vow to God, and she still didn't have a child. That's not the end of the story, that was the beginning of the story. Because later on at the end of the story, God did give her a child, he did give her a male child, he did give her a prophet of God, and God used that prophet in a great and mighty way. So whatever you're going through, surrender to God, and realize this is not the end of the story. You got to believe that God wants what's best for you, and then you've got to surrender. When you really surrender. you leave your past, present, and future in the hands of God. So number one, every woman in here, you can seek God for guidance and direction. Number two, you can surrender today, the greatest problems, and stress, and needs in your life.

James Greer: 10:16 And number three is sacrifice. Man it's a sacrifice to be a mom. I guarantee first Samuel 1:11 says, "But I'll give your maid servant a male child. Then she says, I'll give him to the Lord all the days." It's a sacrifice. She said listen, you've given me this child, I'm going to give this child back to you." Raising children is serious sacrifice, because listen you give, and you give, and you give. All they do is cry. Watch it, and sometimes they make a mess, and all you have to do is clean it up. So being a mom's, really, you sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something you love, for what, for something you love more. And I've seen that happen. I saw that happen with my mom. I see that happen with my wife over and over and over, giving up her time, her energy, and her money, because she wants to sacrifice where they can have more. There's all kinds of it, if you really love, you will sacrifice.

James Greer: 11:13 I mean, you know, I pray that we get so full. That all of us have to park in the back. I mean when we all come in now, all the staff now, we park in the back and we walk to the front. Now we don't walk, thank God for those people driving those golf carts. Amen. Let's hear it for the volunteers, But you know what, we sacrificed this, because we want you to be able to have a place to park. I hope you all have to park back there. Amen. You all weren't near as excited. I hope we're so full, some of you have to give up a seat, the next service. God, it's going to be like that. What I'm telling you, sometimes you got to give up something you love, for something you love more. We sacrifice, sometimes we do one service at the early service, we do a second service at the second service. Sometimes we sacrifice one, because we love something more. Guess what? As long as you're giving up something, because you love something more, and that more Jesus Christ. You're on the right track. What I'm saying is ladies, to be a mom, you got to sacrifice, you've got to surrender. And then this is the tough one for me, you got to love them, you've got to correct them, you got to train them and then start leading them. I don't want to do that part. I want to correct them, I want to train them, I want to love them, and I want to keep correcting them. But when your child gets grown, they don't want you to correct them anymore. That's when you got to have influence in their life. That's when you got to try to lead them in your life. That's one of the things I struggle with most in my life. I can love them, I can sacrifice, I can give to them, but if you continue to...listen ladies, I'm trying to help you, even though I don't do good at this. God always puts me through this stuff before I preach it. You keep trying to correct your child, like I do many times, when they're grown and they don't want to come home. So be careful. That's a sacrifice not to do that.

James Greer: 13:20 So she wanted child, also for the right reason. Hannah didn't want a child just so she could carry it around and say look what he's doing, look how he's acting, look how he sits right, look how he's dressed, he's so cute. No, she said, God I want a child that I can dedicate to you. Do you know what that means? She wanted a child that she could give to the Lord and that child will make an impact wherever he went for the Lord. Man don't you want a child that will make a difference in the school, don't your child will make a difference in this church, wouldn't you like to have a child that make a difference in the city, and then a child will make a difference in the world. That's the kind of child she wanted. She wanted a child for the right reason, and so you know what kind of child do you want? And if you have one, what do you want them to do?

James Greer: 13:59 Fourth, so we seek God, we surrender to God, we sacrifice for the child and then we believe in the supernatural. Man I believe more in the supernatural now, more than any other time in my life. Man I used to think when we had twelve join, if we got to a hundred that was going to be supernatural. Then I prayed if we ever get to five hundred, oh man, that is God is going to bless us, we're going to be the most supernatural people God. And then God we hit five hundred. Now, praise God, I want to hit a thousand, Amen. And then today I pray we get twelve hundred or more, and then last Sunday we give an invitation and fourteen people join, ten people got saved. That's not natural, that's what? Supernatural, Amen. Hey man, if you all can't get excited about that, you can't get excited. Ten people joined, ten got saved. Amen. I mean that's not natural. I've been in church before, where I went a whole year, and ten people didn't get saved. We're baptizing every single service. God sending us people, it's not natural, it's unbelievable. We got people that have never been straight in their life for 30 and 40 years. They got transformed and radically changed their life. They're serving at church. Some of them are helping teach it. We got them in celebrate recovery. We got them that had never been off drugs most of their lives and the now their lives are radically changed. When we got marriages that were going to fall apart, now they're back together. I'll tell you, God can take the natural, and make the supernatural. And if you're living in the natural, you start believing the supernatural, for God for your life.

James Greer: 15:28 Matthew 17:20 says, "If you had the faith, as a grain of mustard seed, you should say onto this mountain, which is your problem, move from hence to yonder, and it shall be moved. Nothing shall be impossible unto you." I used to miss quote that, I used to misquote that. Then you all were singing it while ago, and I said Trey you are robbing my song man, my verse. It said nothing will be impossible for you. You know there's nothing impossible for God. Whatever God says, is going to happen. He spoke the wording into existence. I mean he created the animals. He created you, but he said, listen, "When we had the faith of a grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible unto you." The only things impossible to you, are the things that are outside of God's will for you.

James Greer: 16:09 So here it is. She hadn't had any kids. She couldn't have one. She was crying. First Samuel 1:12, and it happened, what happened? "She continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watching her mouth." He was the priest wasn't too sharp anyway. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice did not. It was not heard. Therefore, Eli, he thought she was drunk. So Eli said, "How long will you be drunk? He said put your wine away. And Hannah answers and said, no, my Lord. I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I hadn't drunk wine. I didn't even take an intoxicating drink." She said I haven't even had a drink today, but I poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maid servant to be a wicked woman, for I'm out of an abundance of my complaint, my sorrow, my grief. I have spoken unto now. And Eli answered her, go in peace. This is so important because here she had been petitioning God, she had been crying out to God, she had been fasting, and she had been praying. She wouldn't eat. She had been weeping, and now the prophet sees her, and says, hey go in peace. Now had she had a child yet? Nope. Has she been pregnant yet? Nope, But what did she did, the difference was, now she came before God, listen she sought God, she surrendered to God. She said, I'll sacrifice to God, and now you start believing in a supernatural God. She said, listen, if you give me that child, I'm going to give him back. And now the now the prophet says, go in peace, and the God of Israel will grant your petition, which you have asked him. So far, all she did listen all she did, come into the presence of God. It'd be like she did was came to church today and you got a promise from God, back then he spoke through prophets, today he speaks through God's word. And you've got a promise from God, and you went out of here excited about God was going to answer your prayer, before it was ever answered. That's what faith is.

James Greer: 18:05 In fact, I'm so excited about next Sunday, Darryl, we're starting a new series that's Faith That Works. Man Hannah knew how to have faith that work. Because see what she did, she heard from God, and she believed God, and she went out in the peace of God, before God ever answered. It's easy to have faith after God's already answered your problem, real faith is believing God before it happens. He said, go in peace. And she said, listen to this, "Let your maid servant find favor in your sight." So the woman went away, and she ate, and her face was no longer sad. She hadn't even got pregnant yet, all she'd done is heard a word from God. There's too many people that come every single Sunday, and you're hearing the word of God, God has a promise for you. But you're going away the same way that you came. Your lack of faith, and you're not believing, and you're not surrendering, and you're not sacrificing, you don't believe in the supernatural. She went away and her whole countenance changed.

James Greer: 19:01 So that brings me to the last point. You've got to be satisfied when God gives you an answer to your prayers. I've never seen so many discouraged, defeated Christians, when God says, I got to answer for your problem. You don't think that God can take care of your problem, when he can take care of giving her a child? You don't think Carrie, he can take care of your problem, when he said nothing is impossible for you. I mean, true story, she'll be here in the next service. There's a couple that come every Sunday. About a year ago, they quit coming, you all may have seen them, they were on Facebook giving testimony. They got to hurting so much, because every time they came, it seemed like all we saw was a bunch of babies at that church. She said, I mean I tried drinking the water, I tried doing everything, I still couldn't get pregnant. She'd found out it was absolutely impossible for her to get pregnant. On her own, she told her husband, I'm ready to go back to church. First Service, she came. I knew them personally. She said, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus Christ, she said, I'm going to follow through in baptism. They'd been coming, but now she surrendered, she gave her life to the Lord, we baptized her. One week later, she adopted a baby boy. Absolutely, don't tell me God can't do the supernatural. And she's satisfied, she's excited. I'm telling you what, she no longer grieves, she never complains. And you know what? I believe sometimes that discouragement, that defeat, that discontent in spirit. I believe sometimes it limits the power of God. So you've got to learn to let the promise of God, to produce the peace and the power of God. Let the promises of God, produce the peace and power of God.

James Greer: 20:38 Verse 20, "So it came to pass, in the process of time, that Hannah conceived and bore a son and called him Samuel." Well, l tell you, I wish I could teach people the process of time. Because to put it in a simple way. where you understand, that if you would understand that process of the promises of God, that is a process. If you understood the process of the promises of God, and you obeyed the process of the promise of God, it'll always produce the power of God in your life. It was just a picture, it is a picture, of what it means to understand the process of the promise of God.

James Greer: 21:18 So this what I want to do, as we get ready to close, one of the things I told you, surrender is the path to peace. What is it that you need to surrender to God this morning? Is it worries, is it discouragement, is it your attitude, is it your child. You know one thing for sure, every one of us need to surrender our self to the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be here, and maybe you've never really surrendered to God. Maybe you've come to church, maybe you've been baptized, but maybe you've never truly put your faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe you never said, Hey God, I know I'm a sinner, I believe there's only one way to go to heaven, and that's because you sent your son. Maybe some of you accepted Christ, maybe some of you been baptized, to the death, the burial, and the resurrection, but then you've gone back and you said, I took my life back.

James Greer: 22:08 Do you understand that's what Jonah did? Jonas acknowledged, I'm a prophet, I'm a preacher, but I'm not going to go do what you told me God. He did do it by the way. Some of you have done that, some of you have come to church, some of you have accepted Christ, but now you've gone back to live just like you did before then. And you want to come today, and you say, I want to surrender my life. Some of you just need to surrender worry. Some of you need to surrender your problem. Whatever it is, in just a moment, I'm going to give an invitation. You can just step right out and say, this is your act of surrender. You just come to the alter and say God I am surrendering this. I'm surrendering my child, I'm surrendering my problem, I'm surrendering my mate, I'm surrendering my finance, whatever it is.

James Greer: 22:42 So then what do you do? Number one thing we had to learn is to seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Second Chronicle said, "As long as I sought the Lord, God caused me to prosper." What is it that you need to seek God and quit seeking counsel from other people? There's too many people going to other people with the same problem, and when you do that, you get the same results they do. He said, as long as I sought God, that meant I'm seeking God for guidance, direction and protection. You know, isn't it great, he didn't say in what area. It is usually the area that you're struggling with the most, that God says, hey, I want you to come see me. See when you seek me, you'll find me. When you search for me with all your heart, surrender your problem, seek God and believe today, there's absolutely nothing impossible for you. The only thing that is impossible, is whatever is outside the will of God for your life. Some of you need to do, like Hannah did. Hannah before she ever became pregnant, she just got the word from God, and she started believing it. Some of you all have a word from God in the matter, I don't know what's going on in your life. And today's the day you need to say, God, I'm going to hang onto this promise, until you deliver me.

James Greer: 24:00 Will you stand and let me pray for you? God I thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, man, who's the center of everything. I pray today God that our church would surrender to your will. I pray that they surrendered their problems. God, surrender is definitely the path to peace. So whatever it is, that area it is that you don't have peace in, is the indication that that's an area God wants you to surrender this morning. So you just come in an act of obedience, and just say, God, here it is, I'm giving it to you. Maybe some of you God has called to join this church, and you want to come and join today. Maybe some of you want to follow through with public baptism. Whatever God has called you to do, I pray that you'd do it this morning. It's in Christ' name I pray. Amen.


Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.