Comparative and Acceptable Hatred
Did You Know You Have To Hate To Be A Disciple Of Jesus?
James Greer
Feb 28, 2021 36m
In today's message, we learn that you must hate in order to be a disciple of Jesus, but it must be a comparative and acceptable hatred. That means that our love for God and Jesus must be so great, that our feelings towards all others appear to be hatred in comparison. Video recorded at Pineville, Louisiana.
Tags
disciple of Jesus disciple faith Jesus salvation love hate jealousy Christian discipleship Christ GodTranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
James Greer (00:00):
Well, I'm telling you what, if you want to help in that children's department, they will sign you up. Amen? I mean didn't that praise thing, man, did they knock it out of the ballpark? I'm telling you. I'm so excited. I mean I see people I hadn't seen in a long time. The first service had so many people in it. I mean I had somebody a while ago that come up, listen, y'all ready? Ready? He said, I want you to know I'm 80 years, fixing to be 80 years old. That's his physical birthday. But I want to be baptized. That's my spiritual birthday. I mean you gotta be excited. Amen? And then I'm so excited about the message. You know, I can finally come to church and say, I really hate you. I hate you downstairs, I hate you upstairs, and. I hate you online. But it's a biblical hatred so it's finally okay. I mean, you know, in Luke 14:26, I mean, and Darrell, every Sunday morning, I just, I love it. Because early, early in the mornings, Darrell, he'll say I want you to know that I'm praying for you. And he'll say something about what he knows what I'm preaching about. And I said, oh, I thank you and I just want you to know, I hate you in the Lord. A little while later, he said, oh, I got it.
James Greer (01:12):
And I put this verse, it says, Luke 14:26, it says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate. Can y'all say hate? Yeah. And who do you hate? You hate your father, your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers, your sister. Yes? And his own life. He cannot be my disciple. He didn't really leave anybody out. Amen? I mean He's in the hating business. And you gotta be in the hating business. I mean look to the person to the right and just say, I hate you. Look to the person. Say I hate you. Some of y'all are liking this way too much. We're going to talk about the true meaning of this hatred in a minute. But I wanted to get it out because I can't wait. But before I do, I got a couple of announcements. One, this is super cool. You know, you should witness, I know I should witness, we all know we should. But it's hard to witness. But man, we at Journey Church, we've made it so hard. You heard the announcement, we talked about we're gonna witness in Pineville. No, we're going to witness in central Louisiana, wherever you live. In Acts 1:8, it says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You know what you do when the Holy Spirit comes upon you? Yeah, you're a witness. In Acts 1:8, that’s what it says. Says you're witnessing Jerusalem. That's where you live. That's central Louisiana. That might be Pineville.
James Greer (02:34):
That might be Dry Prong, Colfax. I don't know. Deville. Wherever you live. That's what God says that we're to do. We're going to make it easy on March 20th. You'll come up. You'll get one of these packages like this. And what you do there, you should have one of these. And you just, you can just take your phone and take the QR code and you can just sign up. And you say, March 20th, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna get this package. And what you're going to do is you're just going to simply go your own neighborhood, your own Jerusalem. Some of y'all got to go to Marksville. Some of y'all got to go to Montgomery. You know, and you just hang this on the door. Is that cool? Y’all do the hanging on the door and they come that Sunday and I'll do the preaching. Is that great? And that's what the Bible says. So I know you want to do it. And not only that, if you'll go ahead and do it, you'll get called and you'll get a t-shirt. They'll call and get your size. So if you want to today, go ahead and sign up, March the 20th and get ready. And we find out how many people you want. You want 10 packages, 20, 40, whatever you want. And March the 20th, you'll do an outreach. You know that God's called you to do it and you'll be a part of it. You'll love it. And you'll be satisfied and you'll be excited. So anyway, sometime today, would you please sign up to do that?
James Greer (03:44):
Amen? Well, I want to say something else too. There's a lot going on in the world. And you know, I've decided that politics can't fix it. Political party can't fix it. But there's a person who can. That person's name is Jesus. Now I tell y'all at Journey Church, we honor positions. If Biden came through that door and Trump came through that door, we would honor them. We may not agree with them. Amen? I could tell you if a gay couple comes through that door and a straight couple comes through that door, we're still gonna honor them. We're gonna love them. Amen? I did not say that we were going to agree. In fact, there's a bill coming up. It’s called the Equal Act Bill. I don't want to agree with it. I do want to mention some of the things that it'll threaten the speech even. And y'all know I have trouble saying things. So we could be in trouble at Journey Church if it passes. Even if you use the wrong pronoun, so we're in trouble. You know I'm going to say something that's wrong, whether it's on purpose or by accident. It legislates that boys can be in the girl sports. Boys can be in the locker rooms of girls. They can go to the shelters. A man can go to the women's shelters and so on. It's going to force teachers, Darrell, and students of public to pretend that biological male is a female. You’ll have to do that.
James Greer (05:28):
Yeah. Schools will be encouraged and then mandated to instruct first, second, and third graders to choose whether they want to be boys and girls, not their parents. And you'll be mandated in school if you want to get the government money to do that. I'll be mandated what I preach and what I say, which is going to be a real problem. It's going to be a problem for me. It's going to be a problem for Journey Church. I can tell you. Because though I’m not too much on political party, I am not too much on political, but I am on biblical and I'm going to preach the truth no matter what. So you might want to do this. I've got some articles laid back on the back, back there. And if you want to read about it, you can. We are gonna have to make a stand sooner or later. It's probably going to be time to do it. You're going to probably have to vote that you don't agree with that. That's not a political stance. This is a biblical stance. We're gonna love everybody. I can tell you, we're gonna love them so much, you're not going to like this, but in June, I got a title. It's Why Journey. Church Loves Gay People. I know now you’re saying, oh man, you have gone crazy. No, no, no. But you're not going to mandate what I preach. You're not going to mandate that I can't say that. You're not going to, you're not going to.
James Greer (06:55):
Listen, I'm telling y’all. This bill mandates it. It's going to mandate what we say, who we marry, and how we do it. And I that’s going to be a problem. So I want to encourage you to go ahead and start making a stand. And you better do it quick. And we're going to have to eventually let our senators know that we do not agree with that bill and for them to vote no. And so I said all my life that I would not get politically involved. I do not believe I'm getting politically involved, but I am going to make a biblical stance. That's the difference. So, so much for that. All right? Okay. All right. Luke 14:26. If anyone, me, you, if you hate your mother, your brother, your father, your sister, anybody, you can't be my disciple. That's what we're going to be talking about. It is called comparative and acceptable hatred. When you learn acceptable and comparative hatred, breaking up is hard to do. This is the last message in Breaking Up is Hard to Do. And we started out saying, we want marriages where breaking up is hard to do. But the message really, if you'll get these points, most of these points will apply to any relationship. And of course, it'll apply it to your marriage, but it’ll apply to your relationship with Christ. When your relationship with Christ is right, your marriage, your relationship, everything else in your life will be better. And we taught you over and over and over the number one thing you have to do, more important than anything else, we got to learn to put, God's gotta be our number one and our mate's gotta be number two.
James Greer (08:30):
If you're not married, God still has to be your number one. Amen? The Bible says in Matthew 22:37, said, Jesus said, you should love the Lord the God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. He is number one. This is the first and greatest commandment. We've got to do it. And the second one is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is wrapped up in these two things. You got to make a commitment today. If you want to go forward in your relationship with Christ, if you want to have a better marriage, if you want to have a better life, you got to learn to put God first in your life. Amen? The second is you got to learn to get your priorities right in your life. I mean your priorities in your home, on your job, in your marriage. Everything. Because your priorities are going to determine the blessings in your life. They're going to determine the direction in your life. They're going to determine the destiny in your life. That's why one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Matthew 6:33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. In other words, let God be the source of meeting every single need in your life and everything else is a conduit. Not your job, not your mate, not anything else. God is the ultimate source that you look to to meet every need in your life. Because if you do that in His righteousness and you get in a right relationship with God, everything else will be added into your life. Everything. Then you don't have to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough to worry about.
James Greer (09:54):
Do you understand if you learn Matthew 6:33, he says, you have to quit worrying. Because why do we worry? We usually worry because there's some need in our life that’s not met. And Matthew 6:33 says, hey, you don't think God can meet your needs? That's getting your priorities right. My priority is no longer. I'm not looking to my boss. I'm not looking to my mate. I'm not looking to anybody else to meet the needs of my life. I'm looking forward, looking directly to Jesus Christ. He's the priority in my life to meet the needs in my life. Amen? Third, we gotta learn the importance of a vow. I taught last Sunday if you broke your vow, man, God can mend your vows. Amen? But don't break your vows. I mean if you make a vow to God or to your mate, don't delay to pay it. He doesn't take any pleasures in a fool. Pay what you owe. If you made a vow, do it. It's better that you don't even make a vow than make a vow and then don't pay it. So be careful. Let your yes’s be yes and let your no’s be no. Let it be that in your relationship. Let it be that with people that you know. I mean just come to the point, when you tell somebody you're going to do it, do it. Amen? That'll be better in any relationship. It wouldn't come to the point that that people's yes’s aren't yes and no's aren't no. You want to do better in your relationships, in your marriage? People say, well, you know, this is all about marriage. No, it's not. You go on your work and you tell somebody to go do it. How about just doing it? Amen?
James Greer (11:25):
Fourth, you got to understand that God is a jealous God and you can't change that. God can change you, but you're not going to change God. He's a jealous God. It's a legitimate jealousy. Anytime and anything you put before God, it’s legitimate in righteous jealousy because it's called idolatry. For some reason in the church today, we don't even talk about that. It's like, it's okay to put everything else before God. But America's in chaos. Marriages are in chaos. I mean you wonder what's going on today. Everybody says, man, it's just total chaos. It's because you got your life and your marriage and everything's out of order. So we have legitimate disorder. He tells us in Exodus 34, that He says, thou shall not worship other gods. How come? For the Lord’s name is jealousy and I am a jealous God. God is jealous. He has legitimate jealousy. When the children of Israel, when they would put other things, when they would go into idolatry, they would go into bondage. They would go into slavery. They would have fear and they would have defeat. But when they would get out of that and they'd say, God, we want to turn back to you, no matter how bad it was, man, he's a God of a second chance. We're in a society today, it seems like there's people that don't want to give people a second chance. They want to write them off. They want to wipe them out. Aren't you glad God's not like that? Aren't you glad that no matter what you've done in your life, if you turn back to God, he's a God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, a fifth chance?
James Greer (13:07):
Aren't you glad if you've been married one time, two times, three times, I got a friend who's been married five times, God still loves that sucker. Amen? And I'm praying if he can get married number six, he’d probably have to go out of state, but this time it works. Amen? And this time is not all the other person's fault. He probably had something to do with it. God still loves him. God still forgives him. Did you know if they turn back to God, that not only does God love them, did you know a verse like Deuteronomy 28:7 says, the Lord will cause your enemies that rise against you to be defeated? They'll just fall before your very faith. I'm going to tell you, when you're right with God, you don't have to worry about your enemy. Did you know I'm to the point in life, when people start talking about how upset they are with the enemies, it makes me understand that you're upset with God? Do you understand if you're really that worried about your enemies, you're not gonna have the right relationship with God? Or do you tell me that God can't take care of your enemies? People are going to talk about you. They talk about me. They talk about Journey Church. I've been out and heard people do it before. It's so funny. I listen now. I used to say, I used to chime in with them. They'd say that church is weird. I said, you just don't know how weird it is.
James Greer (14:30):
I'd say, if you knew their pastor, you'd really think they're weird. I just egg them on, man. And now I just say what the heck? You know? It doesn't really bother me. God is my defender and He's my provider. I know people that get upset when people say something or talk about them at work. You shouldn’t do that. But did you know if you're right with God, you'll see them fall before your very face? Did you know? I didn't know I gained a year. I thought I was 67, but I found out I'm 68. My own daughter-in-law did it to me. We're eating lunch. She said, you know, you're 60. I said, no, I’m not. She said, take your calculator. You're 68. I said, this is not a very good lunch. But I've learned that people that are really, really concerned about everything and everybody else, it’s because they're not in right relationship with God. Do you know in that time, that all the things that people have said and lied and done, I’ve seen God defend me unbelievably. I mean I have physically seen it. I've come to the point sometimes, I feel sorry for them sometimes. I say poor, poor them. You know? So you don't have to worry about that. Do you understand why it's so important that you put God first in your life?
James Greer (15:59):
Fifth, you've got to understand what love is and learn to live in it. Man, when you learn to live and love, especially if you live and love with a relationship with God, if you live and love with the relationship with your mate, man, breaking up is so hard to do. I've told you there's three kinds of love. And there's the sexual love. That won't sustain a marriage. There's a friendship love that’s the best love I think next to agape love there is. And it's when your mate’s your best friend. I love that. My wife is my best friend. We just celebrated 46 or 47 years. 46. And we're going out of town. And somebody said, y'all going by yourselves? I said, yeah, baby. Don't bother me. Yeah, we are. And that's my best friend still after 46 years. She was my best friend when I’d sneak over to her house at night and get in trouble. She was my best friend when we were teenagers. She's my best friend now. That's one of the best loves in the world. That does not mean we don't have disagreements. I hope your made is your best friend. If not, work at it. It takes work. Anybody that says they're married and they don't work at it, they are lying or they're not happy. It takes work. Of course, and then there's agape love that can only come from God. That's an unconditional love. God loves us no matter what we do. You cannot make God stop loving you. You can only get that when you get God's love and then you love the other person.
James Greer (17:43):
And then six today, we're gonna learn. We're gonna learn about acceptable hatred and comparative hatred. And I’m glad we're learning about it because that verse used to bother me so bad. I would read it. And in Luke 14:26, and you know, I would say, man, Jesus, you gotta be kidding. You tell me to love them. Now you're telling me to hate them. I mean to anyone, that's everybody here at Journey Church. That's everybody up there. That’s everybody online. And man, if you're online right now, you need to say who you are and where you're from. Because we got a new online pastor, Bruce, he's kicking it and he's excited. He'll minister to you. But anyone, everybody. Okay? Comes to Jesus. And if you don't hate father, mother, wife, children, brother, sister, yes, even his own life, can't be my disciple. He covered us all. You know why one of the reasons I think Jesus did that? Because sometimes one of those is more emotional than the other. Some of y'all had a special relationship with your dad. Some of you didn't, but maybe it's your mom, maybe it's your wife, maybe it's your sister, maybe it's your brother. Some of you love yourself. And when you hear that, you almost say, Jesus, what do you mean? Hate my wife, hate my mom, can't be my disciple? What does it mean to be a disciple, a believer, a follower, a lover, a lifelong learner? To be a disciple, it takes great discipline.
James Greer (19:25):
But when you find the discipline, you ready? It leaves an unbelievable, significant, satisfied life that you cannot find anywhere else. That's what happens when you become a disciplined disciple. You find what everybody in this world is looking for. You can't buy it. You can't go get it. But you can have it. You can possess it. There's an acceptable hatred that leads to it. It comes when we love and serve God. It brings a significant and satisfied life that you can find no place else. That's why people, they go from one thing to another. Maybe they go from one church to another. They go from one book to another, one conference to another. And they just can't find what they're looking for. They can't find the significance in life. They can't find the satisfaction. And Jesus tells you right there how to find it. Well, let me ask you a question. What's the opposite of hate? Love. You can't really come to Jesus or after Jesus in the way that He wants you to till you love Him more. You love Him more. He doesn't really want you to hate them. He wants to say compared to how much you love me, you hate them.
James Greer (20:48):
In other words, I want you to love me more than your father, your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers, and even your own life. That's how much I want you to love me. Because when you love me that much, it'll change your life. Your discipline, you become discipleship. Discipleship really means you become a lifelong learner of Jesus. I'm going to be a believer. I'm going to be a follower. It shows in what I do, not just what I say. It's easy to tell somebody that you love them. It means so much more when you show it. Actions outweigh our words. I think love is as much an action as it is words. When we learn to hate comparatively, the results are beyond our imagination and comprehension. Ephesians 3, starting in verse 17, puts it this way. That Christ might dwell in your heart through faith, that you may be rooted. Rooted? Yeah, I'm going to be a disciple. As I'm a disciple, these things are rooted in my life. I'm a lifelong learner. I change the route. I change the fruit in my life. I'm rooted. I'm rooted and I'm grounded. In what? Love.
James Greer (22:19):
I may be able to comprehend. It's hard to comprehend God's love. It’s hard to comprehend what He wants for you. It's hard to comprehend the satisfaction that you can have and the significance that you can have. But it's with all the saints. It's for everybody. What is the width and depth and height? This is not only what I want for you. It's what I want for my kids. It's a prayer that I say, God, I pray that my kids and my grandkids, that they can know your love and they can know the width, they can know the height. They can just know how much they love you. I know it's hard to comprehend. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. It's hard to comprehend, that you may know and be filled with the fullness of God. The fullness of His love that surpasses all comprehension. Then it drops into my favorite verse. Because when you start knowing the fullness of God, when you start knowing the width and the height, when you start serving God like He's called you to, when you love Him more than anybody else, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works, where? In us. You finally get the power of God working in you that you wanted your whole life.
James Greer (23:38):
But it's to the glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations forever. He says, I want what you want. I actually want it more than you do. And I'm telling you how to have it. I'll give you a couple of verses that kind of puts it into light. I read the verse about hating. Then I'll read the verse about what you get. Let me read Luke 14:26 one more time. If anybody, anybody comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sister, yes, his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Okay? But what you don't know is why does Jesus say that? See, people don't realize, let me tell y'all something. Remember this. It’s never what Jesus wants from you. It's always what He wants for you. Amen? Listen to this. You ready? Matthew 19:28, now anyone, here we go. Anybody, anybody here, anybody there, anybody online. Who left his house. Uh-oh. His brother, sister, father, mother, wife, his children, his land. Uh-oh. For my name’s sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life. You can't out give God. See, you read that verse and you think, man, God wants me to give up everything. Yes, He does. Where He could give you more than you've ever had in your life.
James Greer (25:10):
See, Jesus wants you to receive a double blessing. You can't comprehend what God has in store for you. It's beyond your mind. It's beyond your imagination. He wants to bless you a hundred fold here on earth. And He wants to bless you in eternity. It's not an active hatred. It's a comprehensive hatred. It's comparative hatred. It's never what God wants from you. It’s what He wants for you. It's unbelievable. You don't want to have active hatred though. I wouldn't want to close without talking about that for a minute. Matthew 5 tells us about active hatred. You've heard that it was said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. No. I say to you love your enemy. Bless those who curse you. That is hard. Do good to those that hate you. Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Guess what part of your homework is? That you might be the sons of the Father in Heaven. In other words, God said, I want you to do something where you'll be like my Son. There's something I want you to do. I want you to pray for those that hurt you. Part of your homework, whether you're online or you're here, is today when I close, is everybody's had somebody that's hurt them. Amen? I want you to pray for them. Because I want to be like the Son because that's what we are.
James Greer (26:47):
We're walking examples of Christ. He said, I want to give you a new freedom. I want to give you a new significance. I want to give you a new satisfaction that you've never had. See, I've taught you over and over and over, hurting people hurt people. Amen? So you're going to pray for the people that hurt you. Insecure people, they need attention and they need reassurance. I want you to get your security from Christ. You get you who you are in Christ brochure. Healthy people help people. I want you to sign up to help people. Amen? They can sign up. Steven will be here. They can sign up to helping the children, the nursery. Amen? Healthy people help people. You're never satisfied till you serve. Insignificant people, they're unsatisfied people. They're selfish people. They're never happy. Galatians 5:13 puts it this way. You ready? You got to form new habits. Galatians 5:13 says, for you, brethren, we're called to freedom. Do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh. But through love, make your habit. Make it a habit. Make it a habit to serve one another. You know why you make it a habit of serve one another? It's right habits that make you happy. If you're not happy, change your habits. Right habits make you happy. Serving people brings satisfaction.
James Greer (28:28):
If I wanted to serve, man, I can't think of an easier way today. You can serve in your class. You can serve and sign up. Every single person at Journey Church, listen, every member's a minister. Amen? Everybody that's a member, you sign up to sign up and bring these to your neighborhood. Amen? Do it today. Want to know how many t-shirts to order. I mean do it. Not only that, I want you to be satisfied. I want you to be significant. Okay. Let's get ready to close. You can leave today with a new satisfaction and a new significance like you've never had. It's beyond your comprehension. You gotta put God number one. If you're married, you gotta put your mate number two. You gotta get your priorities straight in your life. You gotta keep your vows. You gotta understand that God's a jealous God. If God's not first in your life, you better make a commitment to put Him first where He can provide and He can protect for you. You gotta understand love and enjoy it. The eros, fileo, and agape. The sexual, the friendship, and the unconditional love. You've got to learn acceptable and comparative hatred. Compared to how much I love God, I can hate something else. In other words, He's my number one I love Him so much. You make a habit of serving, helping other people. You're never going to be satisfied, you're never going to have significance till you serve. God created us that way.
James Greer (30:13):
Some of you know that today and today's the day I want you to take your next step card out in a minute or you can come to the front and see brother Darrell or somebody. You don't even have to know where. But you just say I think I need to serve. There's an easy way. I don't believe, if you're a member of Journey Church or if you've been coming to Journey Church, you need to be a part of this March 20th. I want you to go to your neighborhood and I want you to put these on the doors. We've made it as simple as we can. And so if you say you don't know how to scan that, just put your next step card and say, I want to sign up for March 20th and we'll take care of the rest of it for you. It can't be any simpler than that. Amen?
James Greer (31:06):
I want you know that the right habits will make you happy. You got to learn to develop the right habits. The area that you're not happy in, change your habits. Serving people are the most satisfied people. Pastor Steven, I think when I give an invitation, you know, you probably should come to the front. Not only for that, but if people want to serve in that area, you can be there. I’d like for some commitments today. The first commitment is I want everybody here to pray for those people that have hurt you. I want you to forgive them and I want you to pray for them. I want you to ask God, say God, who is it that’s hurt me? It could be in the past, could be years ago. And I want to pray. Say, God, I want to pray to forgive them. And God, I want to pray that they come to know you. God, I want to pray a blessing upon their life. And you're not gonna feel like doing that. It's not a matter of how you feel. It’s a matter of you want to obey God.
James Greer (32:10):
I want you to commit, first of all, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, that you would make Him your savior today because you'll never be satisfied, you'll never have significance in your life till you do that. And you just say today, whether you're 80, whether you’re 8, do it. Maybe you’ve never been biblically, publicly baptized. Whether you know it or not, it's one of the joys of my life, every time somebody gets baptized. I’m either baptizing there or I'm sitting right there where Andrew is. And I stand up and I'm shouting. I don't know if everybody else is, but I am. Because I know the significance. I know the meaning. You can come talk to one of them in the front or you can take your net step card. You can mark it. You do understand we're making this about as easy as it can be for you to take your next step? You can do it right there at your seat or you can come to the front. Why would you not let the Holy Spirit have His way today? He's here in a big way. I think He's going to move on everybody's heart. Everybody here is going to take a next step. Maybe it's time for you to join the church and you've been visiting, but yet you know today's a day for you to be here. Do it on the next step card or you can come forward. I can't believe, I really in my heart, I believe everybody here has a next step to make.
James Greer (33:36):
And I think you should make it, whether it's the Easter commitment where it's to serve, whether it’s to join, whether it’s to follow-through, whether it’s to forgive somebody. Let's make that next step. Okay. Would you stand and let me pray with you and pray for you? God, it's been a great day. It's been a great day for me to have you here with me. I can feel your presence in a supernatural way. I thank you for that. I pray that I don't take that for granted. I pray it for our church. God, you know how bad that I want our church, each member, each person online, everyone here, I want them to find that significance. I want them to be satisfied. And I know that it can only come with a right relationship with you. I want everybody here to take that next step to finding that. God, everybody, every single person, if they're online, they can do it.
James Greer (34:34):
We've got an online pastor now. They can contact him. They could pray with him. They can join online. They can tithe online. They can serve online. But God, right now, for those that are in the sanctuary, you place upon their heart, March the 20th, they want to serve. They want to serve in the children, the nursery, some other department. They want to join the church. They want to accept Christ as their personal savior. They want to follow through in baptism. That every single person, God, take their next step. And we're going to give you the honor and the glory because it's in the precious name of Jesus we pray. Everybody said amen.
Bruce Goulart (35:18):
On behalf of Pastor James, I just want to say thank you for doing our online experience today. I just want y'all to remember what Pastor James said about if you get your heart spiritually right, then you start to help people more and you become a better person. And we all need to take that home today. If you need prayer right now, we have a link in your comments that you can click on and there's someone on standby waiting for you to pray with you right now. So click on that link. Also, we have a WhatsApp group for online. That means it's for you and we want you to join. So there's a link in your comments right now that you can click on and join our WhatsApp group. That way you can stay connected and be part of the community online. And finally, you need to join our Journey Fam Online Campus. The link is in your comments right now. All you have to do is click on it and sign up and you are part of the fam. So I hope that y'all take the time to sign up today. Thank you all. And I hope to see you all next Sunday.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
Well, I'm telling you what, if you want to help in that children's department, they will sign you up. Amen? I mean didn't that praise thing, man, did they knock it out of the ballpark? I'm telling you. I'm so excited. I mean I see people I hadn't seen in a long time. The first service had so many people in it. I mean I had somebody a while ago that come up, listen, y'all ready? Ready? He said, I want you to know I'm 80 years, fixing to be 80 years old. That's his physical birthday. But I want to be baptized. That's my spiritual birthday. I mean you gotta be excited. Amen? And then I'm so excited about the message. You know, I can finally come to church and say, I really hate you. I hate you downstairs, I hate you upstairs, and. I hate you online. But it's a biblical hatred so it's finally okay. I mean, you know, in Luke 14:26, I mean, and Darrell, every Sunday morning, I just, I love it. Because early, early in the mornings, Darrell, he'll say I want you to know that I'm praying for you. And he'll say something about what he knows what I'm preaching about. And I said, oh, I thank you and I just want you to know, I hate you in the Lord. A little while later, he said, oh, I got it.
James Greer (01:12):
And I put this verse, it says, Luke 14:26, it says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate. Can y'all say hate? Yeah. And who do you hate? You hate your father, your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers, your sister. Yes? And his own life. He cannot be my disciple. He didn't really leave anybody out. Amen? I mean He's in the hating business. And you gotta be in the hating business. I mean look to the person to the right and just say, I hate you. Look to the person. Say I hate you. Some of y'all are liking this way too much. We're going to talk about the true meaning of this hatred in a minute. But I wanted to get it out because I can't wait. But before I do, I got a couple of announcements. One, this is super cool. You know, you should witness, I know I should witness, we all know we should. But it's hard to witness. But man, we at Journey Church, we've made it so hard. You heard the announcement, we talked about we're gonna witness in Pineville. No, we're going to witness in central Louisiana, wherever you live. In Acts 1:8, it says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You know what you do when the Holy Spirit comes upon you? Yeah, you're a witness. In Acts 1:8, that’s what it says. Says you're witnessing Jerusalem. That's where you live. That's central Louisiana. That might be Pineville.
James Greer (02:34):
That might be Dry Prong, Colfax. I don't know. Deville. Wherever you live. That's what God says that we're to do. We're going to make it easy on March 20th. You'll come up. You'll get one of these packages like this. And what you do there, you should have one of these. And you just, you can just take your phone and take the QR code and you can just sign up. And you say, March 20th, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna get this package. And what you're going to do is you're just going to simply go your own neighborhood, your own Jerusalem. Some of y'all got to go to Marksville. Some of y'all got to go to Montgomery. You know, and you just hang this on the door. Is that cool? Y’all do the hanging on the door and they come that Sunday and I'll do the preaching. Is that great? And that's what the Bible says. So I know you want to do it. And not only that, if you'll go ahead and do it, you'll get called and you'll get a t-shirt. They'll call and get your size. So if you want to today, go ahead and sign up, March the 20th and get ready. And we find out how many people you want. You want 10 packages, 20, 40, whatever you want. And March the 20th, you'll do an outreach. You know that God's called you to do it and you'll be a part of it. You'll love it. And you'll be satisfied and you'll be excited. So anyway, sometime today, would you please sign up to do that?
James Greer (03:44):
Amen? Well, I want to say something else too. There's a lot going on in the world. And you know, I've decided that politics can't fix it. Political party can't fix it. But there's a person who can. That person's name is Jesus. Now I tell y'all at Journey Church, we honor positions. If Biden came through that door and Trump came through that door, we would honor them. We may not agree with them. Amen? I could tell you if a gay couple comes through that door and a straight couple comes through that door, we're still gonna honor them. We're gonna love them. Amen? I did not say that we were going to agree. In fact, there's a bill coming up. It’s called the Equal Act Bill. I don't want to agree with it. I do want to mention some of the things that it'll threaten the speech even. And y'all know I have trouble saying things. So we could be in trouble at Journey Church if it passes. Even if you use the wrong pronoun, so we're in trouble. You know I'm going to say something that's wrong, whether it's on purpose or by accident. It legislates that boys can be in the girl sports. Boys can be in the locker rooms of girls. They can go to the shelters. A man can go to the women's shelters and so on. It's going to force teachers, Darrell, and students of public to pretend that biological male is a female. You’ll have to do that.
James Greer (05:28):
Yeah. Schools will be encouraged and then mandated to instruct first, second, and third graders to choose whether they want to be boys and girls, not their parents. And you'll be mandated in school if you want to get the government money to do that. I'll be mandated what I preach and what I say, which is going to be a real problem. It's going to be a problem for me. It's going to be a problem for Journey Church. I can tell you. Because though I’m not too much on political party, I am not too much on political, but I am on biblical and I'm going to preach the truth no matter what. So you might want to do this. I've got some articles laid back on the back, back there. And if you want to read about it, you can. We are gonna have to make a stand sooner or later. It's probably going to be time to do it. You're going to probably have to vote that you don't agree with that. That's not a political stance. This is a biblical stance. We're gonna love everybody. I can tell you, we're gonna love them so much, you're not going to like this, but in June, I got a title. It's Why Journey. Church Loves Gay People. I know now you’re saying, oh man, you have gone crazy. No, no, no. But you're not going to mandate what I preach. You're not going to mandate that I can't say that. You're not going to, you're not going to.
James Greer (06:55):
Listen, I'm telling y’all. This bill mandates it. It's going to mandate what we say, who we marry, and how we do it. And I that’s going to be a problem. So I want to encourage you to go ahead and start making a stand. And you better do it quick. And we're going to have to eventually let our senators know that we do not agree with that bill and for them to vote no. And so I said all my life that I would not get politically involved. I do not believe I'm getting politically involved, but I am going to make a biblical stance. That's the difference. So, so much for that. All right? Okay. All right. Luke 14:26. If anyone, me, you, if you hate your mother, your brother, your father, your sister, anybody, you can't be my disciple. That's what we're going to be talking about. It is called comparative and acceptable hatred. When you learn acceptable and comparative hatred, breaking up is hard to do. This is the last message in Breaking Up is Hard to Do. And we started out saying, we want marriages where breaking up is hard to do. But the message really, if you'll get these points, most of these points will apply to any relationship. And of course, it'll apply it to your marriage, but it’ll apply to your relationship with Christ. When your relationship with Christ is right, your marriage, your relationship, everything else in your life will be better. And we taught you over and over and over the number one thing you have to do, more important than anything else, we got to learn to put, God's gotta be our number one and our mate's gotta be number two.
James Greer (08:30):
If you're not married, God still has to be your number one. Amen? The Bible says in Matthew 22:37, said, Jesus said, you should love the Lord the God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. He is number one. This is the first and greatest commandment. We've got to do it. And the second one is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is wrapped up in these two things. You got to make a commitment today. If you want to go forward in your relationship with Christ, if you want to have a better marriage, if you want to have a better life, you got to learn to put God first in your life. Amen? The second is you got to learn to get your priorities right in your life. I mean your priorities in your home, on your job, in your marriage. Everything. Because your priorities are going to determine the blessings in your life. They're going to determine the direction in your life. They're going to determine the destiny in your life. That's why one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Matthew 6:33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. In other words, let God be the source of meeting every single need in your life and everything else is a conduit. Not your job, not your mate, not anything else. God is the ultimate source that you look to to meet every need in your life. Because if you do that in His righteousness and you get in a right relationship with God, everything else will be added into your life. Everything. Then you don't have to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough to worry about.
James Greer (09:54):
Do you understand if you learn Matthew 6:33, he says, you have to quit worrying. Because why do we worry? We usually worry because there's some need in our life that’s not met. And Matthew 6:33 says, hey, you don't think God can meet your needs? That's getting your priorities right. My priority is no longer. I'm not looking to my boss. I'm not looking to my mate. I'm not looking to anybody else to meet the needs of my life. I'm looking forward, looking directly to Jesus Christ. He's the priority in my life to meet the needs in my life. Amen? Third, we gotta learn the importance of a vow. I taught last Sunday if you broke your vow, man, God can mend your vows. Amen? But don't break your vows. I mean if you make a vow to God or to your mate, don't delay to pay it. He doesn't take any pleasures in a fool. Pay what you owe. If you made a vow, do it. It's better that you don't even make a vow than make a vow and then don't pay it. So be careful. Let your yes’s be yes and let your no’s be no. Let it be that in your relationship. Let it be that with people that you know. I mean just come to the point, when you tell somebody you're going to do it, do it. Amen? That'll be better in any relationship. It wouldn't come to the point that that people's yes’s aren't yes and no's aren't no. You want to do better in your relationships, in your marriage? People say, well, you know, this is all about marriage. No, it's not. You go on your work and you tell somebody to go do it. How about just doing it? Amen?
James Greer (11:25):
Fourth, you got to understand that God is a jealous God and you can't change that. God can change you, but you're not going to change God. He's a jealous God. It's a legitimate jealousy. Anytime and anything you put before God, it’s legitimate in righteous jealousy because it's called idolatry. For some reason in the church today, we don't even talk about that. It's like, it's okay to put everything else before God. But America's in chaos. Marriages are in chaos. I mean you wonder what's going on today. Everybody says, man, it's just total chaos. It's because you got your life and your marriage and everything's out of order. So we have legitimate disorder. He tells us in Exodus 34, that He says, thou shall not worship other gods. How come? For the Lord’s name is jealousy and I am a jealous God. God is jealous. He has legitimate jealousy. When the children of Israel, when they would put other things, when they would go into idolatry, they would go into bondage. They would go into slavery. They would have fear and they would have defeat. But when they would get out of that and they'd say, God, we want to turn back to you, no matter how bad it was, man, he's a God of a second chance. We're in a society today, it seems like there's people that don't want to give people a second chance. They want to write them off. They want to wipe them out. Aren't you glad God's not like that? Aren't you glad that no matter what you've done in your life, if you turn back to God, he's a God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, a fifth chance?
James Greer (13:07):
Aren't you glad if you've been married one time, two times, three times, I got a friend who's been married five times, God still loves that sucker. Amen? And I'm praying if he can get married number six, he’d probably have to go out of state, but this time it works. Amen? And this time is not all the other person's fault. He probably had something to do with it. God still loves him. God still forgives him. Did you know if they turn back to God, that not only does God love them, did you know a verse like Deuteronomy 28:7 says, the Lord will cause your enemies that rise against you to be defeated? They'll just fall before your very faith. I'm going to tell you, when you're right with God, you don't have to worry about your enemy. Did you know I'm to the point in life, when people start talking about how upset they are with the enemies, it makes me understand that you're upset with God? Do you understand if you're really that worried about your enemies, you're not gonna have the right relationship with God? Or do you tell me that God can't take care of your enemies? People are going to talk about you. They talk about me. They talk about Journey Church. I've been out and heard people do it before. It's so funny. I listen now. I used to say, I used to chime in with them. They'd say that church is weird. I said, you just don't know how weird it is.
James Greer (14:30):
I'd say, if you knew their pastor, you'd really think they're weird. I just egg them on, man. And now I just say what the heck? You know? It doesn't really bother me. God is my defender and He's my provider. I know people that get upset when people say something or talk about them at work. You shouldn’t do that. But did you know if you're right with God, you'll see them fall before your very face? Did you know? I didn't know I gained a year. I thought I was 67, but I found out I'm 68. My own daughter-in-law did it to me. We're eating lunch. She said, you know, you're 60. I said, no, I’m not. She said, take your calculator. You're 68. I said, this is not a very good lunch. But I've learned that people that are really, really concerned about everything and everybody else, it’s because they're not in right relationship with God. Do you know in that time, that all the things that people have said and lied and done, I’ve seen God defend me unbelievably. I mean I have physically seen it. I've come to the point sometimes, I feel sorry for them sometimes. I say poor, poor them. You know? So you don't have to worry about that. Do you understand why it's so important that you put God first in your life?
James Greer (15:59):
Fifth, you've got to understand what love is and learn to live in it. Man, when you learn to live and love, especially if you live and love with a relationship with God, if you live and love with the relationship with your mate, man, breaking up is so hard to do. I've told you there's three kinds of love. And there's the sexual love. That won't sustain a marriage. There's a friendship love that’s the best love I think next to agape love there is. And it's when your mate’s your best friend. I love that. My wife is my best friend. We just celebrated 46 or 47 years. 46. And we're going out of town. And somebody said, y'all going by yourselves? I said, yeah, baby. Don't bother me. Yeah, we are. And that's my best friend still after 46 years. She was my best friend when I’d sneak over to her house at night and get in trouble. She was my best friend when we were teenagers. She's my best friend now. That's one of the best loves in the world. That does not mean we don't have disagreements. I hope your made is your best friend. If not, work at it. It takes work. Anybody that says they're married and they don't work at it, they are lying or they're not happy. It takes work. Of course, and then there's agape love that can only come from God. That's an unconditional love. God loves us no matter what we do. You cannot make God stop loving you. You can only get that when you get God's love and then you love the other person.
James Greer (17:43):
And then six today, we're gonna learn. We're gonna learn about acceptable hatred and comparative hatred. And I’m glad we're learning about it because that verse used to bother me so bad. I would read it. And in Luke 14:26, and you know, I would say, man, Jesus, you gotta be kidding. You tell me to love them. Now you're telling me to hate them. I mean to anyone, that's everybody here at Journey Church. That's everybody up there. That’s everybody online. And man, if you're online right now, you need to say who you are and where you're from. Because we got a new online pastor, Bruce, he's kicking it and he's excited. He'll minister to you. But anyone, everybody. Okay? Comes to Jesus. And if you don't hate father, mother, wife, children, brother, sister, yes, even his own life, can't be my disciple. He covered us all. You know why one of the reasons I think Jesus did that? Because sometimes one of those is more emotional than the other. Some of y'all had a special relationship with your dad. Some of you didn't, but maybe it's your mom, maybe it's your wife, maybe it's your sister, maybe it's your brother. Some of you love yourself. And when you hear that, you almost say, Jesus, what do you mean? Hate my wife, hate my mom, can't be my disciple? What does it mean to be a disciple, a believer, a follower, a lover, a lifelong learner? To be a disciple, it takes great discipline.
James Greer (19:25):
But when you find the discipline, you ready? It leaves an unbelievable, significant, satisfied life that you cannot find anywhere else. That's what happens when you become a disciplined disciple. You find what everybody in this world is looking for. You can't buy it. You can't go get it. But you can have it. You can possess it. There's an acceptable hatred that leads to it. It comes when we love and serve God. It brings a significant and satisfied life that you can find no place else. That's why people, they go from one thing to another. Maybe they go from one church to another. They go from one book to another, one conference to another. And they just can't find what they're looking for. They can't find the significance in life. They can't find the satisfaction. And Jesus tells you right there how to find it. Well, let me ask you a question. What's the opposite of hate? Love. You can't really come to Jesus or after Jesus in the way that He wants you to till you love Him more. You love Him more. He doesn't really want you to hate them. He wants to say compared to how much you love me, you hate them.
James Greer (20:48):
In other words, I want you to love me more than your father, your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers, and even your own life. That's how much I want you to love me. Because when you love me that much, it'll change your life. Your discipline, you become discipleship. Discipleship really means you become a lifelong learner of Jesus. I'm going to be a believer. I'm going to be a follower. It shows in what I do, not just what I say. It's easy to tell somebody that you love them. It means so much more when you show it. Actions outweigh our words. I think love is as much an action as it is words. When we learn to hate comparatively, the results are beyond our imagination and comprehension. Ephesians 3, starting in verse 17, puts it this way. That Christ might dwell in your heart through faith, that you may be rooted. Rooted? Yeah, I'm going to be a disciple. As I'm a disciple, these things are rooted in my life. I'm a lifelong learner. I change the route. I change the fruit in my life. I'm rooted. I'm rooted and I'm grounded. In what? Love.
James Greer (22:19):
I may be able to comprehend. It's hard to comprehend God's love. It’s hard to comprehend what He wants for you. It's hard to comprehend the satisfaction that you can have and the significance that you can have. But it's with all the saints. It's for everybody. What is the width and depth and height? This is not only what I want for you. It's what I want for my kids. It's a prayer that I say, God, I pray that my kids and my grandkids, that they can know your love and they can know the width, they can know the height. They can just know how much they love you. I know it's hard to comprehend. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. It's hard to comprehend, that you may know and be filled with the fullness of God. The fullness of His love that surpasses all comprehension. Then it drops into my favorite verse. Because when you start knowing the fullness of God, when you start knowing the width and the height, when you start serving God like He's called you to, when you love Him more than anybody else, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works, where? In us. You finally get the power of God working in you that you wanted your whole life.
James Greer (23:38):
But it's to the glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations forever. He says, I want what you want. I actually want it more than you do. And I'm telling you how to have it. I'll give you a couple of verses that kind of puts it into light. I read the verse about hating. Then I'll read the verse about what you get. Let me read Luke 14:26 one more time. If anybody, anybody comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sister, yes, his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Okay? But what you don't know is why does Jesus say that? See, people don't realize, let me tell y'all something. Remember this. It’s never what Jesus wants from you. It's always what He wants for you. Amen? Listen to this. You ready? Matthew 19:28, now anyone, here we go. Anybody, anybody here, anybody there, anybody online. Who left his house. Uh-oh. His brother, sister, father, mother, wife, his children, his land. Uh-oh. For my name’s sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life. You can't out give God. See, you read that verse and you think, man, God wants me to give up everything. Yes, He does. Where He could give you more than you've ever had in your life.
James Greer (25:10):
See, Jesus wants you to receive a double blessing. You can't comprehend what God has in store for you. It's beyond your mind. It's beyond your imagination. He wants to bless you a hundred fold here on earth. And He wants to bless you in eternity. It's not an active hatred. It's a comprehensive hatred. It's comparative hatred. It's never what God wants from you. It’s what He wants for you. It's unbelievable. You don't want to have active hatred though. I wouldn't want to close without talking about that for a minute. Matthew 5 tells us about active hatred. You've heard that it was said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. No. I say to you love your enemy. Bless those who curse you. That is hard. Do good to those that hate you. Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Guess what part of your homework is? That you might be the sons of the Father in Heaven. In other words, God said, I want you to do something where you'll be like my Son. There's something I want you to do. I want you to pray for those that hurt you. Part of your homework, whether you're online or you're here, is today when I close, is everybody's had somebody that's hurt them. Amen? I want you to pray for them. Because I want to be like the Son because that's what we are.
James Greer (26:47):
We're walking examples of Christ. He said, I want to give you a new freedom. I want to give you a new significance. I want to give you a new satisfaction that you've never had. See, I've taught you over and over and over, hurting people hurt people. Amen? So you're going to pray for the people that hurt you. Insecure people, they need attention and they need reassurance. I want you to get your security from Christ. You get you who you are in Christ brochure. Healthy people help people. I want you to sign up to help people. Amen? They can sign up. Steven will be here. They can sign up to helping the children, the nursery. Amen? Healthy people help people. You're never satisfied till you serve. Insignificant people, they're unsatisfied people. They're selfish people. They're never happy. Galatians 5:13 puts it this way. You ready? You got to form new habits. Galatians 5:13 says, for you, brethren, we're called to freedom. Do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh. But through love, make your habit. Make it a habit. Make it a habit to serve one another. You know why you make it a habit of serve one another? It's right habits that make you happy. If you're not happy, change your habits. Right habits make you happy. Serving people brings satisfaction.
James Greer (28:28):
If I wanted to serve, man, I can't think of an easier way today. You can serve in your class. You can serve and sign up. Every single person at Journey Church, listen, every member's a minister. Amen? Everybody that's a member, you sign up to sign up and bring these to your neighborhood. Amen? Do it today. Want to know how many t-shirts to order. I mean do it. Not only that, I want you to be satisfied. I want you to be significant. Okay. Let's get ready to close. You can leave today with a new satisfaction and a new significance like you've never had. It's beyond your comprehension. You gotta put God number one. If you're married, you gotta put your mate number two. You gotta get your priorities straight in your life. You gotta keep your vows. You gotta understand that God's a jealous God. If God's not first in your life, you better make a commitment to put Him first where He can provide and He can protect for you. You gotta understand love and enjoy it. The eros, fileo, and agape. The sexual, the friendship, and the unconditional love. You've got to learn acceptable and comparative hatred. Compared to how much I love God, I can hate something else. In other words, He's my number one I love Him so much. You make a habit of serving, helping other people. You're never going to be satisfied, you're never going to have significance till you serve. God created us that way.
James Greer (30:13):
Some of you know that today and today's the day I want you to take your next step card out in a minute or you can come to the front and see brother Darrell or somebody. You don't even have to know where. But you just say I think I need to serve. There's an easy way. I don't believe, if you're a member of Journey Church or if you've been coming to Journey Church, you need to be a part of this March 20th. I want you to go to your neighborhood and I want you to put these on the doors. We've made it as simple as we can. And so if you say you don't know how to scan that, just put your next step card and say, I want to sign up for March 20th and we'll take care of the rest of it for you. It can't be any simpler than that. Amen?
James Greer (31:06):
I want you know that the right habits will make you happy. You got to learn to develop the right habits. The area that you're not happy in, change your habits. Serving people are the most satisfied people. Pastor Steven, I think when I give an invitation, you know, you probably should come to the front. Not only for that, but if people want to serve in that area, you can be there. I’d like for some commitments today. The first commitment is I want everybody here to pray for those people that have hurt you. I want you to forgive them and I want you to pray for them. I want you to ask God, say God, who is it that’s hurt me? It could be in the past, could be years ago. And I want to pray. Say, God, I want to pray to forgive them. And God, I want to pray that they come to know you. God, I want to pray a blessing upon their life. And you're not gonna feel like doing that. It's not a matter of how you feel. It’s a matter of you want to obey God.
James Greer (32:10):
I want you to commit, first of all, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, that you would make Him your savior today because you'll never be satisfied, you'll never have significance in your life till you do that. And you just say today, whether you're 80, whether you’re 8, do it. Maybe you’ve never been biblically, publicly baptized. Whether you know it or not, it's one of the joys of my life, every time somebody gets baptized. I’m either baptizing there or I'm sitting right there where Andrew is. And I stand up and I'm shouting. I don't know if everybody else is, but I am. Because I know the significance. I know the meaning. You can come talk to one of them in the front or you can take your net step card. You can mark it. You do understand we're making this about as easy as it can be for you to take your next step? You can do it right there at your seat or you can come to the front. Why would you not let the Holy Spirit have His way today? He's here in a big way. I think He's going to move on everybody's heart. Everybody here is going to take a next step. Maybe it's time for you to join the church and you've been visiting, but yet you know today's a day for you to be here. Do it on the next step card or you can come forward. I can't believe, I really in my heart, I believe everybody here has a next step to make.
James Greer (33:36):
And I think you should make it, whether it's the Easter commitment where it's to serve, whether it’s to join, whether it’s to follow-through, whether it’s to forgive somebody. Let's make that next step. Okay. Would you stand and let me pray with you and pray for you? God, it's been a great day. It's been a great day for me to have you here with me. I can feel your presence in a supernatural way. I thank you for that. I pray that I don't take that for granted. I pray it for our church. God, you know how bad that I want our church, each member, each person online, everyone here, I want them to find that significance. I want them to be satisfied. And I know that it can only come with a right relationship with you. I want everybody here to take that next step to finding that. God, everybody, every single person, if they're online, they can do it.
James Greer (34:34):
We've got an online pastor now. They can contact him. They could pray with him. They can join online. They can tithe online. They can serve online. But God, right now, for those that are in the sanctuary, you place upon their heart, March the 20th, they want to serve. They want to serve in the children, the nursery, some other department. They want to join the church. They want to accept Christ as their personal savior. They want to follow through in baptism. That every single person, God, take their next step. And we're going to give you the honor and the glory because it's in the precious name of Jesus we pray. Everybody said amen.
Bruce Goulart (35:18):
On behalf of Pastor James, I just want to say thank you for doing our online experience today. I just want y'all to remember what Pastor James said about if you get your heart spiritually right, then you start to help people more and you become a better person. And we all need to take that home today. If you need prayer right now, we have a link in your comments that you can click on and there's someone on standby waiting for you to pray with you right now. So click on that link. Also, we have a WhatsApp group for online. That means it's for you and we want you to join. So there's a link in your comments right now that you can click on and join our WhatsApp group. That way you can stay connected and be part of the community online. And finally, you need to join our Journey Fam Online Campus. The link is in your comments right now. All you have to do is click on it and sign up and you are part of the fam. So I hope that y'all take the time to sign up today. Thank you all. And I hope to see you all next Sunday.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
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