How to Make the Last Half the Best Half
God is preparing us so that the last half of our life will be the best.
James Greer
Oct 28, 2018 31m
This sermon teaches us that God is preparing us, and teaching us, that there are steps we can take to make the last half of our life the best half of our life. Pastor Greer teaches us several steps to prepare us in our marital life, and in our financial life, to ensure this. He also teaches way to cope with grief, so we don't get stuck in it. Video recorded at Pineville, Louisiana.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding 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 Good morning Journey Church, man, I love to see somebody to come back, amen. And they came back with what looked like all odds against them, and they came back and won the game. And the series today's really about how have the last half, to be the best. In my case it is the last quarter, can be your best half. But what I want you to know, is there is a process that you need to learn to prepare for, it is the process. In other words, if you first got married, you know you're in a honeymoon. But if you want to go over here and end up with a strong marriage, it's everything that goes in between, it's the process. If you want to be able to retire one day, and you start out financially here. It's all the hell you go through from here to here, to get to here, before you're finally where you think you want to be.
James Greer: 00:48 And it applies to almost any area of your life. Let me give you some age ideas. Kind of 20 to 30, that's the learning stages, that's the learning age. Man, you need to learn anything and everything you can about wherever you are. At church, on the job, hobbies, school, every day is just learn, learn, learn. Really from 40 to almost 60 is your earning years. You earn, earn, earn, earn, your best opportunities to earn. Now, unless you're like me, you know, at 45 we went broke and lost everything, and had to start over again. But, ideally from 40 to 60. And then from 60 up, that's kind of the burning years. If you did it right, you kind of start burning it up, and you start giving back. You want to see people grow, you're in place to do that. So there's learning, earning and burning. Now, so as you're going through these stages, if you're 20 years old, and somebody says that it's the right thing. And you're going to invest and give, maybe put it in whatever your retirement is, but in 20 years you'd be better off. I mean, hey man, that sounds good, Amen? I mean you wouldn't be 40. Well if you're at 40, and they said, you know, you have to do this and do that. At 60 you'll be better off, that pretty good. But when you get to be 60, and say you're not going to get the return until 80, that's not near as exciting. But when you get to be 80 man, I want immediate return, Amen? Because I don't know if I'm going to be here at 100. But what I'm trying to tell you, you got to learn where you're at. You've got to understand everything in life is a process. If you want the last half of your life, to be the best half of your life, you've got to understand how to work through the process, the stages of life.
James Greer: 02:26 You got to learn there's at least six things that you will have to really learn, and apply. And of course we won't be able to go through all of them. We'll kind of talk through them. Three of them start with P's, and three of them with G's, and you've got to have a prepared heart, you've got to have a praying heart, you've got persistent heart. That's kind of the process that you have to go through. Then the G's, you've got to have a grateful heart. You got to learn how to deal with a grieving heart. Boy, that's a tough, I think maybe the toughest one. And then you've still got to turn the grieving back, to you've got to have a generous heart. Or you'll become bitter, bitter, bitter. I really won't get to preach on all of them, and I don't expect you to try to [inaudible] them. But I am asking God to really impress upon you, one of these in your heart. One of these that maybe I need to start applying today, that I need to start preparing today. We will talk about it. It applies in your marriage and your finance and your spirits. Maybe you want to just take one of them. Say, God, today I need to start preparing and learning the process where the last half of my life will be the very best out of my life. I'm not preaching on these, but let me give you some characters and I may next Sunday.
James Greer: 03:38 Job, if Job would have quit in the halftime. Job would have lost his family, Job would've lost his wealth, Job would've lost his health. If he had quit, he would have died a sick, broken, man. But you know, because he didn't quit, you know, the last half of his life, God gave him twice what he had of everything he lost. So the last half was his best half.
James Greer: 04:02 You can talk about Caleb. Caleb was in the promised land with Joshua and Moses, and he was one of those spies that went in, and said, hey man, God, we should go in. The rest of the group, the rest of the congregation, they griped and complained and said we can't go. So they wandered around the wilderness for 40, 45 years. And if Caleb would have given up then, you would have seen Caleb die an old man in the wilderness. But instead, Caleb didn't give up, at 85 years old, Caleb said, give me another mountain. Caleb was still ready to serve. He's still ready to be used by God. So you understand how important is, don't give up at halftime, and the last half, could be the best half.
James Greer: 04:40 You can talk about Joseph. Joseph's brothers, they didn't like him, they were jealous. Part of it was his own fault, his own immaturity. They first threw him in a pit, and then sold him into slavery. And then he started getting a few promotions, and then he was lied about, and put back in prison. If Joseph would of quit at halftime, Joseph would've died in prison.
James Greer: 04:59 But because all these people kept going, they kept pushing through, they kept being persistent, they kept
letting every....Listen, they let every obstacle prepare them for what God had left, and so therefore the last half of their life ended up being the very best part of their life. See, most people aren't really prepared for all they're going to have to go through. We're never as prepared as we think we are. When I say prepared, I'm talking about to arrange your life for the process it takes, to really get prepared and ready to do what God's called you to. So you see, it is all about the process. It doesn't matter what part it is, it doesn't matter if you're in marriage now, are you trying to go through and prepare your life, and arrange your life that it can be better later on. In fact, Proverbs 21:31 puts it this way. He says, go ahead and what? Prepare. What do you prepare for? Conflict. But victory comes from God.
James Greer: 05:51 I'm telling you one thing, there's one thing you got to understand, you're going to have conflict. You're going to have conflict in our marriage, you say, well, I've been married, we never say a thing. Well, you're just keeping it in, one day you're going to explode. I have conflict, you've got conflict, we all have conflict. Amen. It's not a matter of having conflict, it's learning how to prepare for the conflict, and understand the process to work through it. You're going to have it in your finances, one day you're going to, say, man, I wasn't prepared for this. You can have conflict in your church, in your home, in your family with your in-laws, with your outlaws. In fact, one of my next series, I think I'm going to say how to learn to function in a dysfunctional family, Amen. Because we got conflict. Amen. It says, be prepared for it. You're going to have conflict.
James Greer: 06:35 But it doesn't stop there. It says, be prepared for the conflict, but victory comes from God. It's so important that you understand this. God says, you know, you prepare, you learn, you arrange your life. You do the best you can, but you better balance it with the understanding that victory comes from God. Because when you don't, you'll know people that seems like, man, they seem like they're working hard. And all of a sudden they're being successful, but it never lasts. Does it? This is the balance. It takes both. You know some people really worked real hard, but they're unspiritual, and then that collapses. And you know some people, they're real spiritual, but the real lazy, and so that collapses. It's growing, it's working hard, it's processing, growing spiritually at the same time. Hosea 4:6 puts it this way. It says "People are destroyed for lack of knowledge." In other words, God said, not just some people, my own people. These people, they come to church every single Sunday, they're hearing the word, and their preaching the word, they're listening to work. They're not applying the word, or they hadn't made it a priority in their life. Lack of knowledge, it means simply knowing God's will in a matter. It can be saying, many marriages are going to crumble for lack of godly knowledge. Many finances are going to go broke because of lack of knowledge. Health. In other words, it says, when you lack God's knowledge in any situation, it's going to be destroyed. So you've got to have earthly preparation, but you have to have godly preparation at the same time. See, I don't know if you're in the last half, or the last quarter like me, but you have to start preparing.
James Greer: 08:06 Now see, our halftime, for me and Debbie, it was our worst time. I mean me and Debbie, it was the worst time, it was the greatest financial stress, emotional stress, physical stress, spiritual stress. And we're preaching on halftime, so I had to call somebody. I called Clark, a friend of mine, the other day. I said, Clark, do you remember when this such and such happened at work? It was a devastating. Man, I was about 45 years old, and he said man, I was working. I thought I was doing good, that God blessed us. It looked financially, we were getting pretty sound, and I was like, hey man, look at us, how good we're doing. And then we had a lady embezzle a million dollars, every penny we had, all of it. After that, you're not going to believe it, the bank heard about it, they came walking in, and I thought they're going to say poor me. They said, listen, we're call all your loans. I said, how are you going do that? I never been late, I've never missed a payment. They said that's okay, we can still do that, we're doing it. So now here you we are broke, and now the bank is calling the loans, and trying to get on our feet. And about a year or so later, our granddaughter, we found out has cancer, and then my mother dies, and see our halftime was not the best time. And your halftime may not be the best time. It may be the first half, or last half. But can I tell you, we're going to all face crisis in our life, we're going to have conflict, things that really hurt in our life. At times it's so bad, you want to give up. It was so bad, I can remember one time at work, when I was working I was looking out the window. When I saw people, I thought they were coming to me looking for me, I would hide under my desk. It was that bad, I didn't want to see anybody.
James Greer: 09:45 I was talking to Debbie about it the other night and she said, well honey there's one thing for sure. You know, it's God and each other, but persistence, we just didn't give up. Do you understand how important it is you'll don't give up? Don't quit. I mean, I wanted to quit, I wanted to give up. We had a persistent heart. I mean, me and Debbie, man, we've been together. I mean, I love her. You all, I've known her since I was 13, 14 years old. She's been my sweetheart. I mean, we've been married over 45 years. Praise God. I mean, but there was a process. Her parents, they didn't really like me that much. I don't understand why. I can remember one time I had this little Honda, 65. And I was about 14, and I used to go over there at about 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I'm going to go to Debbie's window, not her mother's window. Debbie, I want to talk to Debbie. Debbie goes and tells her mother. True story. Her mother opens the door and says, James Greer, you better get out of here and never come back. I said, oh me. That was part of the process. And for some reason she didn't love me anymore, that Debbie did, but her mom didn't.
James Greer: 10:55 Life is a process man, and you're going to have problems. There's at least six things you have to learn, if you want the last half of your life to be the best half of your life and you don't want to give up in the middle of your life. I'll never get to all of them, but I'm going to talk about number one. First, you've got to have a prepared heart. When I say a prepared heart, you got to arrange your life, and your family, in a way that you can go through the process it takes to be prepared for life. It's not just going to happen. You can't say, hey, you know I'm 25, and I want to retire at 60, and just not prepare. It will not happen. Let me tell you this way. You can't just get married when you're young, and you don't prepare afterwards, and think you going to end up happy. Because it won't happen. Did you know every Sunday when I preach, I wish I didn't have to prepare. I wish. I know some people, God just speaks to them, he writes it on the wall. I have prayed and said, God, would you write your message on the wall for me, where I don't have to do it? He has not done it yet. He says, prepare.
James Greer: 11:56 My granddaughter came in last night. I saw her, and said, I'm going to go to bed because I going to get up at 4-4:30 in the morning. She said, what for? I said, for the same reason I tell you, every single Sunday, I never feel quite prepared, I want to be better prepared. So you've got to have a prepared heart. You've got to intentionally arrange your life to prepare, listen, for what you want to be most successful in life for. Now, I don't know what it is in your life. Sometimes it's family, sometimes it's finance, sometimes it's fitness. What I'm just telling you, whatever it is that you want to be successful at the end your life, or you want the last half of your life to be the best of your life, are you learning and preparing today for it? Kind of a preparatory heart.
James Greer: 12:37 Second of all, you've got to have a praying heart. You will never pray more than when you're hurting and fearful. But when you do pray, first of all, let your prayer requests be based on God's character, not yours. See, sometimes I want to say, Oh God, [inaudible]. My prayers are based on God's character, his goodness, his power, his presence. Second of all, when you confess all known sin. I'm going to tell you, there's nothing that brings confession like pain. I mean, when you're going through pain, you're going through financial things, and your kids are hurt, and you're sick. I mean guys, I go to God, and man, I start confessing everything in the world. Sometimes I'd go back 10 years, and confess it again. Confessing all known sin, gives you a new access, and power to God.
James Greer: 13:25 Then claim his promises. I love how Nehemiah 1:11 put it, because he said, "Lord listen carefully to the prayer." I like that. Man, Nehemiah has such a relationship with God, he said, God, you know, listen to this prayer of your servant. In other words, I'm already serving you God, and the prayers of your servants, who loved to honor you. He was saying, he didn't just come up. He said, God, you know, I've been trying to serve you, I've been trying to do. The people I serve with, they do. We want to bring honor to you. But then he says, give me, your servant, success today. I love that, I mean, I love that prayer, I've got it written in the front of my Bible. Sometimes when I get ready to preach, I say, God, would you give me success, and will you give me success today? But you know in my life, so many times, that never happens. In fact, the greatest needs in my life, the greatest heartaches in my life, God didn't answer that way. In fact, sometimes I'm thinking, God, are you even there? Can you even hear me? Are you going to ever think anything changed? And what I can tell you later on in life, many, many times, God never changed the situation of those that serve him. Many times God didn't even change the other people. God always wanted to change my heart, not everybody else's heart. It's easy for us to pray and say, God change that person, while God is saying, no, I want to change you. Learn this, don't spend the rest of your life when you're in hurts and pains, saying why? Instead say, God, what would you have me learn?
James Greer: 14:48 So you got to have a persistent heart, persistent heart. One of the hardest thing you can do, and to learn. You've got to say, Hey, I'm not going to give up on my marriage no matter what problems come. You prepare ahead of time, what you're going to do, how you're going to say it. The problem is going to come, the conflict's going to come, and you prepare now. Say, Hey God, listen, I going to be persistent, I'm going to push through. It can be in your family, it can be at your church, it can be on your job, and you just start saying, God, I'm going to have a persistent heart. I'm just not going to quit, until I get the honor and glory of God, til you bless my life, til you bring me through. See, I'm going to let God take care of it. See, if you do not do that, you learn to respond in emotions, versus courageous power that comes from God. So just tell yourself right now, I'm going to be persistent, I'm not going to give up. I don't know what you're going through right now, and you maybe feel like you want to give up, I want you to be persistent. That's what Galatians 6:9 is all about, it says, "Don't grow weary in well doing, in due season you shall reap, if you don't lose heart." You'll never know how many blessings God has in store for you right before you're going to have the victory, and you quit. It says, "Therefore, if you have opportunity, let us do good, especially to those who are in the household of faith." That's at church. He said, man, I don't want you to give up, but I want you to look for opportunities to do good, and one of the best place to do it is do it while you're at church. Look for opportunities to serve, look for opportunity and give, look for opportunities to help. God says, man, you'll have opportunities. Be Persistent, don't give up.
James Greer: 16:21 Learn to have a grateful heart. Learn to have a grateful heart, by you focusing on everything God's given you, not what you don't have. First Thessalonians 5:18 says this, "In everything, give thanks." Can I stop for a minute? I'm not going to thank God for everything that happened to me. In everything, because it has happened to me, later on I'm going to give thanks. I'm not going to wake up, I'm not like some of these people that wake up, I thank God I went broke. I'm not happy about that. Thank God my granddaughter got cancer. Thank God my mother died. At that time, all at the same time. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not that way. I know these real spiritual leaders, and they stand up, said, man, I'm going to tell you what congregation. If I could just do it all over again, to be where I'm at today, I'd do it in a minute. Not me, I say, God passed me up. I don't want to go through those things, but God, because I did go through there, in everything I give thanks. For this is the will of God, and Christ Jesus, for you.
James Greer: 17:25 Don't quench the spirit. Do you understand? Ungrateful, unthankful, people, quenches the spirit and the power of God in their lives. That they're so ungrateful, they don't experience the power of the love and joy and peace that God wants for you. See, you all ready? Gratefulness fights greed. You need to write that down. Gratefulness fights greed. Because the number one problem that all relationships have is greed, and selfishness, and gratefulness fights greed. The number one problem in marriage is, you may not know it, you want your way and they want their way. You see it your way, and they see it their way. So we're both selfish, so we fight about it, but when you become grateful, it fights against greed. So you've got to have a grateful heart.
James Greer: 18:06 Second, this is really, really hard. You got to learn to deal with a grieving heart. A grieving heart is one of the hardest things, I think, that anybody can ever learn to deal with. We have grieving hearts over death, divorce, financial disappointments, hurts. I mean, I'm just talking about real grieving hearts. Did you know that Job, Job after he lost his kids, and his wealth, and his health in Job 2:13, he says, "So I sat down with him on the ground, seven days, seven nights. No one even spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was so very great." He was grieving so great, that he had some friends that came and sat with him for seven days and seven nights, and they never spoke a word. Can I say something? Sometimes the very best thing you can do for somebody who is really grieving, it's not so much what you say, it's just be there with them. But he had to learn to deal with a grieving heart. So you see if Job would have given up right there, he'd of not got to the end. See what people don't know about Job is, Job, the end of his life. The Bible says, Job prayed for his friends, and God gave him twice of everything that he lost. He learned to deal with a grieving heart.
James Greer: 19:19 And let me give you some ideas how to deal with a grieving heart. First, you need a relationship with God, and we'll talk about that. Because I'm going to tell you that those times, man, you need a relationship with God. And hopefully you had it, before you go through it. You need a relationship with other people, and you need a relationship with yourself. Let me explain what I mean. First of all, you need a relationship with God. Because even through the hurt times, the hard times in your life, God can give you this strange amount of peace and power. You may not understand it, but Philippians 4:6-7 people might know, it says, "Be anxious for nothing." Well, you're going to have anxiety, I have it, you have it, I don't know anybody that never worried in their life. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, there's that word again, with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So God said, listen, when you're having to be an anxious, when you're having all these problems, make sure you turn to God and petition him, and thanking of what he can do, not what he's done ahead of time. Wow.
James Greer: 20:16 Verse seven, Why? and the peace of God, which does what? Surpasses all understanding. What's the peace of God do? It surpasses all understanding. You can't understand it, it will guard your heart, and your mind, and your spirit. In other words, there's this real thing, you're hurting, you're in pain, you're blaming God. I don't know if y'all have ever done that? I don't know if you've ever been hurting so much, in so much pain. And then I go outside, and I'm screaming, I'm blaming God and everything. And then there's still this, even in the midst of all that, see, God knows our heart. He knows that we really love him, in the midst of all the blaming and hurting and pain, there's this strange peace that comes into your heart. That pulls your comfort this way, and you're hurting this way, and God just speaks, I'm going to get you through this. I don't know how you get through it without a relationship with God, not just an acquaintance. I'm talking about a relationship with God, because you know God's character, you know God's going to see you through it, you know God's going to be with you, you know God's not going to leave you, so you need a relationship with God.
James Greer: 21:12 Then you need a relationship with other people. I hope the people, the relationship you have most of all, first of all, is with your mate if you're married. Because when you're grieving man, you need each other, and if you're not careful, you hurt each other. Because hurting people, hurt people, and we usually hurt the people that we love the most. So you need other people, man. I know of a couple of couples that I can think of in our church right now, I know that they both lost their kids, and I know they both had a relationship with God. I know they both grieved for months, and they hurt, I wondered if some of them were going to ever make it back. But I know I talked to them and they said, you know, if it wasn't for God, if it wasn't for other people, we wouldn't have made it. You need relationships.
James Greer: 21:54 And then you need, what I'm going to call a relationship with yourself, which is weird. But God says, the greatest commandment, love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your soul one, and what? All your mind. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. What do you love your neighbor as? Yourself? So God says you need to have the right relationship with yourself. Let me tell you how the right relationship with yourself works. This says, man, I've come to the point, I have grieved. I have heard my friends have supported me. I know God's going to lead me and I've got to know that someday I've got to start giving back and helping people and they got hurt the same way that I did. So let's say you got to know yourself well enough to say, Hey, I'm. How am I going to get through a grieving heart? There's people right here today that never have got through their grief, and when you don't get your through your grief, if I stayed in between my grief am I didn't deal with my grief, I'd be bitter and angry and hateful. I blame you. I blamed God. I blamed everybody else. We all know people that are living with their grief. You got to have a relationship with God. Quit running from God, and run to God. You've got to have a relationship with other people, don't isolate yourself, build relationships with others. And then you got to have a relationship with yourself. You've got know, say, God, you said, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, and that you love me, and there has to come a point in time. I can never get totally over it. And you don't ever totally overcome it anyway, you get through it, you don't overcome it. But I can never go forward unless I start giving of myself, to give back to somebody.
James Greer: 23:16 Then you've got to have a generous heart. You got to work through all these things, and you've got to come back to have a generous heart. You know that everything you've got in your life, that came from God, everything good in your life came from God. You've got to learn to deal with it that way. You've got to learn that if you're not generous, if you don't give, you won't receive. The Bible says give, and it shall be what? Given to you. A Good measure, pressed down. You know what I have learned? You know when I need to give the most? It's when I don't feel like it. When I hurt the most I've learned, I need to give the most. And you'll never overcome the grief, and you never get back to generosity, and you never find your joy, until you work through this process.
James Greer: 24:11 All right, let me skip down. I don't have time to go through it all. So I want to tell you that what you need is a prepared heart. I was going to tell you how to prepare your heart in marriage, and how to prepare your heart in finance, but we're not going to have time. So what I'm going to ask is if you prepared your heart for heaven? And not one day, but today, are you prepared to go to heaven? Now, when I say that, I mean three things. One, there has been a time that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Yes? Okay, number two, have you prepared to bring with you, what you can send to heaven? You can only bring several things to have him with you, and you will be sorry if you don't. You can bring God's word. You can bring the finance you used to further his kingdom, and you can bring other people that have accepted Jesus Christ, that you helped further the kingdom. Basically everything else is going to be washed away. So really what I'm saying is are you prepared for heaven? All right, do you re-prioritize your life? That if today was the last day of your life, and you came before God, he'd say, well done, thy good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. If not today, today is the day to start preparing your life or heaven.
James Greer: 25:33 Have you been preparing your marriage, where the last half of your marriage, can be the best half year marriage? See, I think you keep learning, I think you keep being persistent, I think you keep saying, hey, I want to increase the process. I came across something on the other day, you know, it sends me an email every day and reminds me to pray for my wife. And she gets one every day that says, how to pray for her husband. Because see, I don't believe you ever arrive. I think it's a process, until one day you step out of this world and you step into heaven. Do you understand if you're married, and you don't understand Matthew 6:33, your marriage will never be what God intended to be. Do you understand where it says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added." Do you understand that that verse means that God is the ultimate source for being anything and everything in your life. Therefore, as you further his kingdom, he said, listen, everything else in your life is a conduit. If you don't understand, listen, that God is the ultimate source of meeting anything and everything in your life. You're ready? You start looking to the conduit to meet the needs that only God can. I see it all the time. People will come and say, if only my husband would do this, if only my wife did that, if only my dad did this, only if they did that in my job. Hey, man, all those things are nothing but a conduit that God uses. God's the one that meets every single need in my life. See, when you don't believe that, you'll constantly struggle in your marriage and your relationship. That's why Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house. They labor in vain." Unless you allow the marriage to build the house, they labor in vain. Unless you go to work and you have a spiritual dimension, it will be vain.
James Greer: 27:03 And the way you do it, is John 3:30, when John the Baptist was talking about Jesus, I'm talking about me, and I'm talking about you, I'm talking about relationships. It says, Hey, he must increase, and you must decrease. God's got to increase in your life, and you decrease. You're wanting your way in your relationship's got to decrease, and God's increase. Both spouses can't always want their way, you got to decrease, and let his way be better. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and let him build your house, and decreased and let God increase.
James Greer: 27:32 How about prepare financially? Did you know Proverbs 3:9 tells us the way to prepare financially, "Honor the Lord with our possessions, and with the first fruits of all our increase." The first fruit, is the first 10 percent, of what you make. Now, how come we do that? We do that because of this. So your barns might be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflowing with new wine. Can I tell y'all what that means? God says, listen, you want to learn how to finance? When you prepare financially, you're not only preparing financially, but you're preparing emotionally and spiritually and physically. Because then God says, only then, can I really give you supernatural protection and provision. Only then can I remove the financial curse that's in Malachi 3:9. Only then can you allow that God's blessings to pour out on your life. All kinds of ways to prepare financially, put God first. If you can't pay your bills, sell something, get an older house, smaller car, do whatever it takes to get free from being in bondage to that.
James Greer: 28:42 But this is what I want you to do right now. Say God, which area do I need to prepare most in? In my marriage, is it my finances, is it in relationships, is it spiritually? God, I don't want to go home the same way that I came. So the Bible says, today is the day to make a decision. Today is the day to commit to preparing. Today is the day to say, Hey God, I've got to re-prioritize my priorities where I can be prepared to go through the process, where the last half of my life is the very best half that it could ever be.
James Greer: 29:28 Would you stand? Let me pray with you and pray for you. God, you're an awesome God. I'm so thankful that you want our next quarter, or next half, to be the very best of our life. God, I know you've got spiritual principles. And God, I pray that there's those here today that are not prepared to go to heaven, maybe they've never given their life to Jesus Christ, that they come today. Maybe they've never followed through in public baptism, and they come today. Maybe today they hadn't been putting your word first place in their life, they just come sometimes, and they don't. And they hear the word, but they don't apply the word. Maybe today they didn't realize that your word, and their family that come to know Jesus Christ, is one of the few things. And today they want to come and commit to preparing their life. Maybe it's marriage. You're married, and it's okay, we get through. But today you want to commit to really preparing for the process. You don't ever want to stop learning, you don't want to take each other for granted. You want to say, hey man, God, I want to start preparing better today. I want to have a better marriage. I want the end of my marriage to even be better than the beginning of my marriage, God. And I don't want to give up, I want to be persistent, God. And today you're just got to come and make a commitment to God, that you're just going to, hey, I'm going to prepare. Maybe it's financially, maybe you hadn't been prepared like you should. Maybe you're like me, and you went broke at some point in your life, and you had to start over. And God said, I can still make the last half of your life, to be the best half of your life. See, I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what your hurt is. I don't know what your pain is. I don't want you to live in pain and grief. I want God to begin to set you free, and do it today. So whatever single area that God's put his finger on today, I pray that you let him have his will, and his way. It's in Christs' name I pray. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
James Greer: 00:48 And it applies to almost any area of your life. Let me give you some age ideas. Kind of 20 to 30, that's the learning stages, that's the learning age. Man, you need to learn anything and everything you can about wherever you are. At church, on the job, hobbies, school, every day is just learn, learn, learn. Really from 40 to almost 60 is your earning years. You earn, earn, earn, earn, your best opportunities to earn. Now, unless you're like me, you know, at 45 we went broke and lost everything, and had to start over again. But, ideally from 40 to 60. And then from 60 up, that's kind of the burning years. If you did it right, you kind of start burning it up, and you start giving back. You want to see people grow, you're in place to do that. So there's learning, earning and burning. Now, so as you're going through these stages, if you're 20 years old, and somebody says that it's the right thing. And you're going to invest and give, maybe put it in whatever your retirement is, but in 20 years you'd be better off. I mean, hey man, that sounds good, Amen? I mean you wouldn't be 40. Well if you're at 40, and they said, you know, you have to do this and do that. At 60 you'll be better off, that pretty good. But when you get to be 60, and say you're not going to get the return until 80, that's not near as exciting. But when you get to be 80 man, I want immediate return, Amen? Because I don't know if I'm going to be here at 100. But what I'm trying to tell you, you got to learn where you're at. You've got to understand everything in life is a process. If you want the last half of your life, to be the best half of your life, you've got to understand how to work through the process, the stages of life.
James Greer: 02:26 You got to learn there's at least six things that you will have to really learn, and apply. And of course we won't be able to go through all of them. We'll kind of talk through them. Three of them start with P's, and three of them with G's, and you've got to have a prepared heart, you've got to have a praying heart, you've got persistent heart. That's kind of the process that you have to go through. Then the G's, you've got to have a grateful heart. You got to learn how to deal with a grieving heart. Boy, that's a tough, I think maybe the toughest one. And then you've still got to turn the grieving back, to you've got to have a generous heart. Or you'll become bitter, bitter, bitter. I really won't get to preach on all of them, and I don't expect you to try to [inaudible] them. But I am asking God to really impress upon you, one of these in your heart. One of these that maybe I need to start applying today, that I need to start preparing today. We will talk about it. It applies in your marriage and your finance and your spirits. Maybe you want to just take one of them. Say, God, today I need to start preparing and learning the process where the last half of my life will be the very best out of my life. I'm not preaching on these, but let me give you some characters and I may next Sunday.
James Greer: 03:38 Job, if Job would have quit in the halftime. Job would have lost his family, Job would've lost his wealth, Job would've lost his health. If he had quit, he would have died a sick, broken, man. But you know, because he didn't quit, you know, the last half of his life, God gave him twice what he had of everything he lost. So the last half was his best half.
James Greer: 04:02 You can talk about Caleb. Caleb was in the promised land with Joshua and Moses, and he was one of those spies that went in, and said, hey man, God, we should go in. The rest of the group, the rest of the congregation, they griped and complained and said we can't go. So they wandered around the wilderness for 40, 45 years. And if Caleb would have given up then, you would have seen Caleb die an old man in the wilderness. But instead, Caleb didn't give up, at 85 years old, Caleb said, give me another mountain. Caleb was still ready to serve. He's still ready to be used by God. So you understand how important is, don't give up at halftime, and the last half, could be the best half.
James Greer: 04:40 You can talk about Joseph. Joseph's brothers, they didn't like him, they were jealous. Part of it was his own fault, his own immaturity. They first threw him in a pit, and then sold him into slavery. And then he started getting a few promotions, and then he was lied about, and put back in prison. If Joseph would of quit at halftime, Joseph would've died in prison.
James Greer: 04:59 But because all these people kept going, they kept pushing through, they kept being persistent, they kept
letting every....Listen, they let every obstacle prepare them for what God had left, and so therefore the last half of their life ended up being the very best part of their life. See, most people aren't really prepared for all they're going to have to go through. We're never as prepared as we think we are. When I say prepared, I'm talking about to arrange your life for the process it takes, to really get prepared and ready to do what God's called you to. So you see, it is all about the process. It doesn't matter what part it is, it doesn't matter if you're in marriage now, are you trying to go through and prepare your life, and arrange your life that it can be better later on. In fact, Proverbs 21:31 puts it this way. He says, go ahead and what? Prepare. What do you prepare for? Conflict. But victory comes from God.
James Greer: 05:51 I'm telling you one thing, there's one thing you got to understand, you're going to have conflict. You're going to have conflict in our marriage, you say, well, I've been married, we never say a thing. Well, you're just keeping it in, one day you're going to explode. I have conflict, you've got conflict, we all have conflict. Amen. It's not a matter of having conflict, it's learning how to prepare for the conflict, and understand the process to work through it. You're going to have it in your finances, one day you're going to, say, man, I wasn't prepared for this. You can have conflict in your church, in your home, in your family with your in-laws, with your outlaws. In fact, one of my next series, I think I'm going to say how to learn to function in a dysfunctional family, Amen. Because we got conflict. Amen. It says, be prepared for it. You're going to have conflict.
James Greer: 06:35 But it doesn't stop there. It says, be prepared for the conflict, but victory comes from God. It's so important that you understand this. God says, you know, you prepare, you learn, you arrange your life. You do the best you can, but you better balance it with the understanding that victory comes from God. Because when you don't, you'll know people that seems like, man, they seem like they're working hard. And all of a sudden they're being successful, but it never lasts. Does it? This is the balance. It takes both. You know some people really worked real hard, but they're unspiritual, and then that collapses. And you know some people, they're real spiritual, but the real lazy, and so that collapses. It's growing, it's working hard, it's processing, growing spiritually at the same time. Hosea 4:6 puts it this way. It says "People are destroyed for lack of knowledge." In other words, God said, not just some people, my own people. These people, they come to church every single Sunday, they're hearing the word, and their preaching the word, they're listening to work. They're not applying the word, or they hadn't made it a priority in their life. Lack of knowledge, it means simply knowing God's will in a matter. It can be saying, many marriages are going to crumble for lack of godly knowledge. Many finances are going to go broke because of lack of knowledge. Health. In other words, it says, when you lack God's knowledge in any situation, it's going to be destroyed. So you've got to have earthly preparation, but you have to have godly preparation at the same time. See, I don't know if you're in the last half, or the last quarter like me, but you have to start preparing.
James Greer: 08:06 Now see, our halftime, for me and Debbie, it was our worst time. I mean me and Debbie, it was the worst time, it was the greatest financial stress, emotional stress, physical stress, spiritual stress. And we're preaching on halftime, so I had to call somebody. I called Clark, a friend of mine, the other day. I said, Clark, do you remember when this such and such happened at work? It was a devastating. Man, I was about 45 years old, and he said man, I was working. I thought I was doing good, that God blessed us. It looked financially, we were getting pretty sound, and I was like, hey man, look at us, how good we're doing. And then we had a lady embezzle a million dollars, every penny we had, all of it. After that, you're not going to believe it, the bank heard about it, they came walking in, and I thought they're going to say poor me. They said, listen, we're call all your loans. I said, how are you going do that? I never been late, I've never missed a payment. They said that's okay, we can still do that, we're doing it. So now here you we are broke, and now the bank is calling the loans, and trying to get on our feet. And about a year or so later, our granddaughter, we found out has cancer, and then my mother dies, and see our halftime was not the best time. And your halftime may not be the best time. It may be the first half, or last half. But can I tell you, we're going to all face crisis in our life, we're going to have conflict, things that really hurt in our life. At times it's so bad, you want to give up. It was so bad, I can remember one time at work, when I was working I was looking out the window. When I saw people, I thought they were coming to me looking for me, I would hide under my desk. It was that bad, I didn't want to see anybody.
James Greer: 09:45 I was talking to Debbie about it the other night and she said, well honey there's one thing for sure. You know, it's God and each other, but persistence, we just didn't give up. Do you understand how important it is you'll don't give up? Don't quit. I mean, I wanted to quit, I wanted to give up. We had a persistent heart. I mean, me and Debbie, man, we've been together. I mean, I love her. You all, I've known her since I was 13, 14 years old. She's been my sweetheart. I mean, we've been married over 45 years. Praise God. I mean, but there was a process. Her parents, they didn't really like me that much. I don't understand why. I can remember one time I had this little Honda, 65. And I was about 14, and I used to go over there at about 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I'm going to go to Debbie's window, not her mother's window. Debbie, I want to talk to Debbie. Debbie goes and tells her mother. True story. Her mother opens the door and says, James Greer, you better get out of here and never come back. I said, oh me. That was part of the process. And for some reason she didn't love me anymore, that Debbie did, but her mom didn't.
James Greer: 10:55 Life is a process man, and you're going to have problems. There's at least six things you have to learn, if you want the last half of your life to be the best half of your life and you don't want to give up in the middle of your life. I'll never get to all of them, but I'm going to talk about number one. First, you've got to have a prepared heart. When I say a prepared heart, you got to arrange your life, and your family, in a way that you can go through the process it takes to be prepared for life. It's not just going to happen. You can't say, hey, you know I'm 25, and I want to retire at 60, and just not prepare. It will not happen. Let me tell you this way. You can't just get married when you're young, and you don't prepare afterwards, and think you going to end up happy. Because it won't happen. Did you know every Sunday when I preach, I wish I didn't have to prepare. I wish. I know some people, God just speaks to them, he writes it on the wall. I have prayed and said, God, would you write your message on the wall for me, where I don't have to do it? He has not done it yet. He says, prepare.
James Greer: 11:56 My granddaughter came in last night. I saw her, and said, I'm going to go to bed because I going to get up at 4-4:30 in the morning. She said, what for? I said, for the same reason I tell you, every single Sunday, I never feel quite prepared, I want to be better prepared. So you've got to have a prepared heart. You've got to intentionally arrange your life to prepare, listen, for what you want to be most successful in life for. Now, I don't know what it is in your life. Sometimes it's family, sometimes it's finance, sometimes it's fitness. What I'm just telling you, whatever it is that you want to be successful at the end your life, or you want the last half of your life to be the best of your life, are you learning and preparing today for it? Kind of a preparatory heart.
James Greer: 12:37 Second of all, you've got to have a praying heart. You will never pray more than when you're hurting and fearful. But when you do pray, first of all, let your prayer requests be based on God's character, not yours. See, sometimes I want to say, Oh God, [inaudible]. My prayers are based on God's character, his goodness, his power, his presence. Second of all, when you confess all known sin. I'm going to tell you, there's nothing that brings confession like pain. I mean, when you're going through pain, you're going through financial things, and your kids are hurt, and you're sick. I mean guys, I go to God, and man, I start confessing everything in the world. Sometimes I'd go back 10 years, and confess it again. Confessing all known sin, gives you a new access, and power to God.
James Greer: 13:25 Then claim his promises. I love how Nehemiah 1:11 put it, because he said, "Lord listen carefully to the prayer." I like that. Man, Nehemiah has such a relationship with God, he said, God, you know, listen to this prayer of your servant. In other words, I'm already serving you God, and the prayers of your servants, who loved to honor you. He was saying, he didn't just come up. He said, God, you know, I've been trying to serve you, I've been trying to do. The people I serve with, they do. We want to bring honor to you. But then he says, give me, your servant, success today. I love that, I mean, I love that prayer, I've got it written in the front of my Bible. Sometimes when I get ready to preach, I say, God, would you give me success, and will you give me success today? But you know in my life, so many times, that never happens. In fact, the greatest needs in my life, the greatest heartaches in my life, God didn't answer that way. In fact, sometimes I'm thinking, God, are you even there? Can you even hear me? Are you going to ever think anything changed? And what I can tell you later on in life, many, many times, God never changed the situation of those that serve him. Many times God didn't even change the other people. God always wanted to change my heart, not everybody else's heart. It's easy for us to pray and say, God change that person, while God is saying, no, I want to change you. Learn this, don't spend the rest of your life when you're in hurts and pains, saying why? Instead say, God, what would you have me learn?
James Greer: 14:48 So you got to have a persistent heart, persistent heart. One of the hardest thing you can do, and to learn. You've got to say, Hey, I'm not going to give up on my marriage no matter what problems come. You prepare ahead of time, what you're going to do, how you're going to say it. The problem is going to come, the conflict's going to come, and you prepare now. Say, Hey God, listen, I going to be persistent, I'm going to push through. It can be in your family, it can be at your church, it can be on your job, and you just start saying, God, I'm going to have a persistent heart. I'm just not going to quit, until I get the honor and glory of God, til you bless my life, til you bring me through. See, I'm going to let God take care of it. See, if you do not do that, you learn to respond in emotions, versus courageous power that comes from God. So just tell yourself right now, I'm going to be persistent, I'm not going to give up. I don't know what you're going through right now, and you maybe feel like you want to give up, I want you to be persistent. That's what Galatians 6:9 is all about, it says, "Don't grow weary in well doing, in due season you shall reap, if you don't lose heart." You'll never know how many blessings God has in store for you right before you're going to have the victory, and you quit. It says, "Therefore, if you have opportunity, let us do good, especially to those who are in the household of faith." That's at church. He said, man, I don't want you to give up, but I want you to look for opportunities to do good, and one of the best place to do it is do it while you're at church. Look for opportunities to serve, look for opportunity and give, look for opportunities to help. God says, man, you'll have opportunities. Be Persistent, don't give up.
James Greer: 16:21 Learn to have a grateful heart. Learn to have a grateful heart, by you focusing on everything God's given you, not what you don't have. First Thessalonians 5:18 says this, "In everything, give thanks." Can I stop for a minute? I'm not going to thank God for everything that happened to me. In everything, because it has happened to me, later on I'm going to give thanks. I'm not going to wake up, I'm not like some of these people that wake up, I thank God I went broke. I'm not happy about that. Thank God my granddaughter got cancer. Thank God my mother died. At that time, all at the same time. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not that way. I know these real spiritual leaders, and they stand up, said, man, I'm going to tell you what congregation. If I could just do it all over again, to be where I'm at today, I'd do it in a minute. Not me, I say, God passed me up. I don't want to go through those things, but God, because I did go through there, in everything I give thanks. For this is the will of God, and Christ Jesus, for you.
James Greer: 17:25 Don't quench the spirit. Do you understand? Ungrateful, unthankful, people, quenches the spirit and the power of God in their lives. That they're so ungrateful, they don't experience the power of the love and joy and peace that God wants for you. See, you all ready? Gratefulness fights greed. You need to write that down. Gratefulness fights greed. Because the number one problem that all relationships have is greed, and selfishness, and gratefulness fights greed. The number one problem in marriage is, you may not know it, you want your way and they want their way. You see it your way, and they see it their way. So we're both selfish, so we fight about it, but when you become grateful, it fights against greed. So you've got to have a grateful heart.
James Greer: 18:06 Second, this is really, really hard. You got to learn to deal with a grieving heart. A grieving heart is one of the hardest things, I think, that anybody can ever learn to deal with. We have grieving hearts over death, divorce, financial disappointments, hurts. I mean, I'm just talking about real grieving hearts. Did you know that Job, Job after he lost his kids, and his wealth, and his health in Job 2:13, he says, "So I sat down with him on the ground, seven days, seven nights. No one even spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was so very great." He was grieving so great, that he had some friends that came and sat with him for seven days and seven nights, and they never spoke a word. Can I say something? Sometimes the very best thing you can do for somebody who is really grieving, it's not so much what you say, it's just be there with them. But he had to learn to deal with a grieving heart. So you see if Job would have given up right there, he'd of not got to the end. See what people don't know about Job is, Job, the end of his life. The Bible says, Job prayed for his friends, and God gave him twice of everything that he lost. He learned to deal with a grieving heart.
James Greer: 19:19 And let me give you some ideas how to deal with a grieving heart. First, you need a relationship with God, and we'll talk about that. Because I'm going to tell you that those times, man, you need a relationship with God. And hopefully you had it, before you go through it. You need a relationship with other people, and you need a relationship with yourself. Let me explain what I mean. First of all, you need a relationship with God. Because even through the hurt times, the hard times in your life, God can give you this strange amount of peace and power. You may not understand it, but Philippians 4:6-7 people might know, it says, "Be anxious for nothing." Well, you're going to have anxiety, I have it, you have it, I don't know anybody that never worried in their life. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, there's that word again, with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So God said, listen, when you're having to be an anxious, when you're having all these problems, make sure you turn to God and petition him, and thanking of what he can do, not what he's done ahead of time. Wow.
James Greer: 20:16 Verse seven, Why? and the peace of God, which does what? Surpasses all understanding. What's the peace of God do? It surpasses all understanding. You can't understand it, it will guard your heart, and your mind, and your spirit. In other words, there's this real thing, you're hurting, you're in pain, you're blaming God. I don't know if y'all have ever done that? I don't know if you've ever been hurting so much, in so much pain. And then I go outside, and I'm screaming, I'm blaming God and everything. And then there's still this, even in the midst of all that, see, God knows our heart. He knows that we really love him, in the midst of all the blaming and hurting and pain, there's this strange peace that comes into your heart. That pulls your comfort this way, and you're hurting this way, and God just speaks, I'm going to get you through this. I don't know how you get through it without a relationship with God, not just an acquaintance. I'm talking about a relationship with God, because you know God's character, you know God's going to see you through it, you know God's going to be with you, you know God's not going to leave you, so you need a relationship with God.
James Greer: 21:12 Then you need a relationship with other people. I hope the people, the relationship you have most of all, first of all, is with your mate if you're married. Because when you're grieving man, you need each other, and if you're not careful, you hurt each other. Because hurting people, hurt people, and we usually hurt the people that we love the most. So you need other people, man. I know of a couple of couples that I can think of in our church right now, I know that they both lost their kids, and I know they both had a relationship with God. I know they both grieved for months, and they hurt, I wondered if some of them were going to ever make it back. But I know I talked to them and they said, you know, if it wasn't for God, if it wasn't for other people, we wouldn't have made it. You need relationships.
James Greer: 21:54 And then you need, what I'm going to call a relationship with yourself, which is weird. But God says, the greatest commandment, love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your soul one, and what? All your mind. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. What do you love your neighbor as? Yourself? So God says you need to have the right relationship with yourself. Let me tell you how the right relationship with yourself works. This says, man, I've come to the point, I have grieved. I have heard my friends have supported me. I know God's going to lead me and I've got to know that someday I've got to start giving back and helping people and they got hurt the same way that I did. So let's say you got to know yourself well enough to say, Hey, I'm. How am I going to get through a grieving heart? There's people right here today that never have got through their grief, and when you don't get your through your grief, if I stayed in between my grief am I didn't deal with my grief, I'd be bitter and angry and hateful. I blame you. I blamed God. I blamed everybody else. We all know people that are living with their grief. You got to have a relationship with God. Quit running from God, and run to God. You've got to have a relationship with other people, don't isolate yourself, build relationships with others. And then you got to have a relationship with yourself. You've got know, say, God, you said, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, and that you love me, and there has to come a point in time. I can never get totally over it. And you don't ever totally overcome it anyway, you get through it, you don't overcome it. But I can never go forward unless I start giving of myself, to give back to somebody.
James Greer: 23:16 Then you've got to have a generous heart. You got to work through all these things, and you've got to come back to have a generous heart. You know that everything you've got in your life, that came from God, everything good in your life came from God. You've got to learn to deal with it that way. You've got to learn that if you're not generous, if you don't give, you won't receive. The Bible says give, and it shall be what? Given to you. A Good measure, pressed down. You know what I have learned? You know when I need to give the most? It's when I don't feel like it. When I hurt the most I've learned, I need to give the most. And you'll never overcome the grief, and you never get back to generosity, and you never find your joy, until you work through this process.
James Greer: 24:11 All right, let me skip down. I don't have time to go through it all. So I want to tell you that what you need is a prepared heart. I was going to tell you how to prepare your heart in marriage, and how to prepare your heart in finance, but we're not going to have time. So what I'm going to ask is if you prepared your heart for heaven? And not one day, but today, are you prepared to go to heaven? Now, when I say that, I mean three things. One, there has been a time that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Yes? Okay, number two, have you prepared to bring with you, what you can send to heaven? You can only bring several things to have him with you, and you will be sorry if you don't. You can bring God's word. You can bring the finance you used to further his kingdom, and you can bring other people that have accepted Jesus Christ, that you helped further the kingdom. Basically everything else is going to be washed away. So really what I'm saying is are you prepared for heaven? All right, do you re-prioritize your life? That if today was the last day of your life, and you came before God, he'd say, well done, thy good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. If not today, today is the day to start preparing your life or heaven.
James Greer: 25:33 Have you been preparing your marriage, where the last half of your marriage, can be the best half year marriage? See, I think you keep learning, I think you keep being persistent, I think you keep saying, hey, I want to increase the process. I came across something on the other day, you know, it sends me an email every day and reminds me to pray for my wife. And she gets one every day that says, how to pray for her husband. Because see, I don't believe you ever arrive. I think it's a process, until one day you step out of this world and you step into heaven. Do you understand if you're married, and you don't understand Matthew 6:33, your marriage will never be what God intended to be. Do you understand where it says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added." Do you understand that that verse means that God is the ultimate source for being anything and everything in your life. Therefore, as you further his kingdom, he said, listen, everything else in your life is a conduit. If you don't understand, listen, that God is the ultimate source of meeting anything and everything in your life. You're ready? You start looking to the conduit to meet the needs that only God can. I see it all the time. People will come and say, if only my husband would do this, if only my wife did that, if only my dad did this, only if they did that in my job. Hey, man, all those things are nothing but a conduit that God uses. God's the one that meets every single need in my life. See, when you don't believe that, you'll constantly struggle in your marriage and your relationship. That's why Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house. They labor in vain." Unless you allow the marriage to build the house, they labor in vain. Unless you go to work and you have a spiritual dimension, it will be vain.
James Greer: 27:03 And the way you do it, is John 3:30, when John the Baptist was talking about Jesus, I'm talking about me, and I'm talking about you, I'm talking about relationships. It says, Hey, he must increase, and you must decrease. God's got to increase in your life, and you decrease. You're wanting your way in your relationship's got to decrease, and God's increase. Both spouses can't always want their way, you got to decrease, and let his way be better. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and let him build your house, and decreased and let God increase.
James Greer: 27:32 How about prepare financially? Did you know Proverbs 3:9 tells us the way to prepare financially, "Honor the Lord with our possessions, and with the first fruits of all our increase." The first fruit, is the first 10 percent, of what you make. Now, how come we do that? We do that because of this. So your barns might be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflowing with new wine. Can I tell y'all what that means? God says, listen, you want to learn how to finance? When you prepare financially, you're not only preparing financially, but you're preparing emotionally and spiritually and physically. Because then God says, only then, can I really give you supernatural protection and provision. Only then can I remove the financial curse that's in Malachi 3:9. Only then can you allow that God's blessings to pour out on your life. All kinds of ways to prepare financially, put God first. If you can't pay your bills, sell something, get an older house, smaller car, do whatever it takes to get free from being in bondage to that.
James Greer: 28:42 But this is what I want you to do right now. Say God, which area do I need to prepare most in? In my marriage, is it my finances, is it in relationships, is it spiritually? God, I don't want to go home the same way that I came. So the Bible says, today is the day to make a decision. Today is the day to commit to preparing. Today is the day to say, Hey God, I've got to re-prioritize my priorities where I can be prepared to go through the process, where the last half of my life is the very best half that it could ever be.
James Greer: 29:28 Would you stand? Let me pray with you and pray for you. God, you're an awesome God. I'm so thankful that you want our next quarter, or next half, to be the very best of our life. God, I know you've got spiritual principles. And God, I pray that there's those here today that are not prepared to go to heaven, maybe they've never given their life to Jesus Christ, that they come today. Maybe they've never followed through in public baptism, and they come today. Maybe today they hadn't been putting your word first place in their life, they just come sometimes, and they don't. And they hear the word, but they don't apply the word. Maybe today they didn't realize that your word, and their family that come to know Jesus Christ, is one of the few things. And today they want to come and commit to preparing their life. Maybe it's marriage. You're married, and it's okay, we get through. But today you want to commit to really preparing for the process. You don't ever want to stop learning, you don't want to take each other for granted. You want to say, hey man, God, I want to start preparing better today. I want to have a better marriage. I want the end of my marriage to even be better than the beginning of my marriage, God. And I don't want to give up, I want to be persistent, God. And today you're just got to come and make a commitment to God, that you're just going to, hey, I'm going to prepare. Maybe it's financially, maybe you hadn't been prepared like you should. Maybe you're like me, and you went broke at some point in your life, and you had to start over. And God said, I can still make the last half of your life, to be the best half of your life. See, I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what your hurt is. I don't know what your pain is. I don't want you to live in pain and grief. I want God to begin to set you free, and do it today. So whatever single area that God's put his finger on today, I pray that you let him have his will, and his way. It's in Christs' name I pray. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
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