Finding the Favor of God | When You Receive The Favor
Understanding What You Get From God's Favor As A Christian
James Greer
Jan 15, 2023 24m
When you receive God's favor as a Christian, you can accomplish and overcome anything. In today's message, Brother James explains what the favor of God is, how to get it, and how it will change your life. 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: [00:00:04] If you really focus in today, you can learn something that I was never taught most of my life. You're going to learn what the favor is. God, you can learn how to have the favorite guide. But I never learned how to increase the favor of God faster. And then if there's anything that I want for myself and if there's anything I want for you, it's to have the favor of God. And I want you to have it faster and greater than you've ever had it before. Amen. And if you're really listen today and learn, you can learn how to have not only the favor of God, but how to have it faster. We have a verse at kind of a key verse that goes along with the favorite God and sound in Psalms 90:16, it says, And let your work be manifested to your servants. That's me and you. And your glorious power to their children. In other words, this this. Let the favor of the Lord, our God be upon us. In other words, it's okay to ask God to let his favor be upon us. And you do want the favor of God upon you. Amen. And prosper for us, the work of our hand. In other words, God, it's okay. We want the favor of God and part of the favorite gods for us to prosper in the work of our hands. O prosper the work of our hands. And in case you don't understand, he says, Look, let me.
James Greer: [00:01:31] Let me give it to you. In a living translation, it says, And the Lord, may your blessings or your favor be upon us and give us success in all we do. In other words, God says, I want you to know when the favor of God is upon your life. You have success in everything you do. Wouldn't you like to be successful in every area of your life? So first of all, I'm going to quickly go over what the favor of God is. A favor of God is simply when God takes a natural thing and does the supernatural in a person, place or thing, it's like he's doing in Journey Church. Journey Church has the favor of God. Abraham had the favor of God Everywhere Abraham went, God blessed when Lot left when Abraham and Lot split up. Abraham said lot, If you want to go to the left, I'll go the right. If you go the right, I'll go left. Lott said Boyd looked beautiful over there in Egypt. He had Egypt as. He was looking what the world had to offer. So he went over there and Abraham said, That's okay. I'll go to the right. And he went over here, God bless. What looked like there was just plain pastures. Lot went over here. And lost everything he had, including his family. When Lot was under Abraham's favor, he was blessed beyond measure. Say God bless us individually and cooperatively. See, when you're in God's favor, it doesn't matter where you go.
James Greer: [00:03:09] It doesn't matter where you work. Where I've worked. Everywhere. I've sold at different places. Everywhere I've ever worked. God's favor has blessed me. And when I preach, God has blessed me. So it's. It's the God's favor can be with you wherever you go. It can be individual. It can be cooperatively. And I want God to bless you, whatever you're doing. Amen. Because it's when he takes the natural and does the supernatural, it can be big or it can be little. But it's when God gets the honor and glory in whatever it is you're doing. I mean, it's when he takes the ordinary and does the extraordinary. It's like. It's like a physical father. He'll show favor to his kids that he doesn't show favor to other kids. I do things for my kids that I don't even believe I do it. I mean, I can't believe I'll even say I'm not going to do that and I do it anyway. Sometimes I should not do it, and I still do it. I want to give them grace, I give them guidance, I give them protection. I give them provisions. But I'm not going to do it for your kid. And see when you get saved, you get God's favor. But the problem is, yeah, it was like Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She received the favor of God when she believed God. She activated the favor of God when she obey God. I love the verse in Luke 1:37 when it says, And for with God, nothing will be impossible.
James Greer: [00:04:45] And the reason that God threw that in is because when it says with God, there's nothing impossible. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Holy Spirit lives in us and God is with us. So that you that are saved have the Holy Spirit lives in. You can take Luke 1:37 and said, with God nothing is impossible. You got God with you. The only thing that's impossible for you is what's outside of God's will for you. And then when Mary said, Behold the maid, serve the Lord, let it be done according to your word and the angel depart. The reason the angel departed because Mary had just activated the favor of God into her life. How to have greater favor faster. Say amen. Fast faith leads to greater favor. The faster the faith, the greater the favor. Now I'm going to read some verses and I'll explain that. Romans 10:17 says, So faith comes by hearing and hearing because by the word of God. Amen. So you're here today. So you're hearing the word of God for by grace, by God's favor, unmerited favor. You're saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Deuteronomy tells us, I call Heaven and earth as a witness. All the universe is going to witness today. This that I set before you Journey Church. Everybody here. Life and death blesses a curse.
James Greer: [00:06:22] Choose life. God saying, Listen, I want you to know that I'll all the world, all the universe, everybody here, God said, I want you to know I'm sitting before everybody here at Journey Church today. I'm sitting before you Blessings and curse. God says, I want you to choose life. I want you to choose blessings that you may love the Lord your God and that you may. Obey his voice. That you may what, obey his voice and that you might cling to him. Why? That your life. And length of his days be long. In other words, God says, I want you to choose life. I want you to. Blessing. I want you to obey me where you have life. That means abundant life in your days will be long. Favor or blessings come by the choices we make. The faster we make the right choices, the faster we get. Favor. The faster we obey, the faster we're blessed with God's favor, not feelings. Right. Don't get feelings mixed up with facts. Don't get feelings mixed up with God's Word. Don't get feelings mixed up with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never goes against God's Word. Our whole our feelings will deceive us. The Bible says you don't even know your feelings. The Bible says the heart is the seemingly wicked. Who can know it? You can't even know it. So you. You don't. You don't choose by your feelings. You choose by the Holy Spirit, which lines up with God's Word.
James Greer: [00:08:00] Important insight people often want to know. And I'm maturing in Christ. Do you obey? When you hear God. Or do you delay? If you delay, you're not maturing. If you obey, you're maturing. Now, I've been on a trip. My wife showed me favor. For my Christmas, she couldn't find anything to get me. So she let me go to Costa Rica on a photograph trip. And on the plane I was sitting next to some people and I was wanting to sleep. But anyway, the guy says, What were you doing in Costa Rica? I said, I was taking some pictures and start showing him some of the pictures from Costa Rica. And there should be some pictures and different pictures were there and showed all. Yeah. And I showed him this. That picture and some more pictures came up. And after the picture showed up, there finally were three or four pictures that showed. And then he was telling me what the pictures were. And I'm talking about how you obey or do you delay? And there it goes. And he looks at this and he says, Jesus Christ. I said that. Yeah. Jesus Christ. That's okay. I'm thinking I really want to sleep. I said, okay. So I put my phone down and the Holy Spirit promised me. He said, You're going to talk about a lizard. Are you going to tell him about Jesus Christ? I said, Oh, I wanted to sleep. So I get my wordless book out. Now there's a lady in between us.
James Greer: [00:09:48] And this guy over here is talking about Jesus Christ on a tree. That's what he says. See that lizard? He said, Jesus Christ on that tree. I said, Okay. I said, I know another Jesus Christ and orange tree. Yeah. I said, Yeah. And I get my wordless book out. I said, See this black? And I didn't say the Bible says, because they not even into all that. I said, You know, we've all messed up. I've seen done something I shouldn't have had. And yes, sure have. I said God sent my Jesus Christ. His name was Jesus and he was nailed to a tree. And he shed his blood for me and you. When we know that we sinned and we believe the real Jesus that came from God came to Earth to live sinless life was nailed on the cross and shed his blood for me and you. And you believe you sin and you ask and forgive your sin. He washes away all you're saying now They're just watching him watching. I said, But the wonderful thing, after you do that, now we're in a plane. If you do that, then you can go to Heaven. He said, Wow, that's cool. That's little plane. And there's a lady sitting between. And I said, Man, did you know if I wouldn't have been studying? About. The faster you obey. The fact you have God's favor. I probably wouldn't have done that. But do you know, after I did that inside of me, I was going, Hoo! There's a party going on.
James Greer: [00:11:10] That was so cool. What I'm trying to tell you is this I don't care if you can quote the entire Bible. I don't care if you can quote Leviticus. Yes, I know. If you don't obey God and you don't do it quickly, you're not maturing. When you're not maturing, you're not enjoying the blessings and favor of God. You might have the favor of God, but you're not enjoying the favor of God. There's a big difference than having the favor of God. Enjoying the favor of God. I want to give you another insight. Blessings in favor of God can bring burdens. Blessings can bring burdens that most people don't know about. It can be the same thing at work. You can get a promotion, maybe you got your own company and you start getting blessing. Then you got more responsibility. And sometimes that's a burden. It could happen at any church. I can remember when we were small and my wife said, Do you really want to grow? I said, Yes, ma'am. She said, Are you crazy? She said, You got it. Great. Just come and preach and enjoy it. Please come home. No, I want to grow, baby. I want to be blessed. I want the favor of God, she said. With the favor of God and the blessed kind of comes the burdens, the responsibility, the criticism. You do realize the bigger you had and the more the blessing you had, the more criticism you have, the more hearts you have, the more pain, the more complaints.
James Greer: [00:12:47] You just do. I mean, you cannot please everybody, I promise you. You can't do it. So sometimes the blessings come with the burdens and the burdens hurt. People are going to hurt you. They're going to say things and do things. You're going to be betrayed. You're going to be hurt. You know what you got to do? You got to remember where the blessings came. You got to remember the favor of God. Are you living the burden? And you won't enjoy the blessings. So some important things you got to remember. The faster you obey. The greater the favor. If you want to know if you're maturing, are you obeying or are you delaying? Now, I got a rock because of time. Plus, I'm having fun. There's three things that you can quickly obey on a day to day basis that can help you mature faster than anything I know. Forgiving, giving and submitting. Giving, forgiving, giving and submitting. Forgiving. Giving and submitting. Giving quickly. Forgiving quickly. I did not say whether it's your fault or not. I said just forgive quickly. Because Christ forgave you. Forgive your family. You said, well, of course you're forgave your family. Listen, you have to give your family more than you'll forgive your enemies. You just don't realize it. You say I just can't forgive my enemies. Well, you're not with your enemy all the time.
James Greer: [00:14:17] You live with your family all the time. Forgive them. Forgive your family. Forgive your loved ones. Forgive your enemies. The Bible says be angry and sin not. Don't even let the sun go down on your wrath. Forgive and forgive. Quickly. You don't even have to think about. The Bible tells you to do it. So you're going to do it. You're going to obey. Are you going to delay? Second of all, give. Giving. Generously. The Bible says and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, not James, the Lord Jesus, that it's more blessed to give than to what receive. So first of all, you give to the Lord, you say, Well, I know that. I didn't say that. You know what I said? Did you do it? You don't favor God number one. You give to the Lord. Number two. You get to the poor, those in need. Number three. You give to those who deserve not that need. So most people don't know that you first give the Lord, you give to the poor and you give to those who deserve. Most people know about giving to the poor. I know people that don't tithe and they'll give to the poor. Are you crazy? You really give it to the poor. They give to Jesus. Anyway, I'm not going to preach on. I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit just. Anyway. Matthew 6:26. Jesus. When he was in the town of Bethany, he was eating in the home of Simon.
James Greer: [00:15:53] He was who had leprosy. God healed him. Oh, my goodness. And the woman with a bottle of expensive perfume, she came and poured it on Jesus head. Everybody should say amen. But no, no, not the disciples. Those are close to it. They became angry because they were jealous. They started complaining. It's a typical church. You can't. Please. You had a guy just been healed of leprosy. You had a girl comes in with expensive perfume. She gives it to Jesus, the one that healed him. And you got some people complaining about it. Proof. You just can't. You can't please everybody, can you? They said we should have sold perfume for a lot of money. We could have given it to the poor. They didn't care about the give it to the poor. They cared about what they could have done with their selves. Selfishness. Jesus knew what they were thinking. And he said, Why are you bothered this woman? She's done a beautiful thing. For me. Stop for? Just say. Do you think Jesus needed it? Did Jesus deserve it? Absolutely. You can always have the poor with you. But you're not going to always have Jesus with you. Some. She's poured this perfume on my body to prepare it for my burial. He didn't need that. She did it, though. Hmm. You may be sure that whatever the good news or wherever the good news is told all over the world, people are going to remember what she has done.
James Greer: [00:17:25] And they will tell others. We're still telling people what she did. She gave to Jesus who didn't need it but deserved it. When is the last time you gave to somebody because they deserved it and didn't need it? Oh, man. Brother James, you are preaching. Okay. Okay. You ready? Number one. Number one. You forgive. Forgiving and give forgive quickly. Generous. Get to the Lord. Give the poor give to those deserve. Number three. Submitting willingly. Because Jesus always submitted to the Father. Jesus came to please the Father, not me and you. Now. He gave his life for me and you because he came to please the father. The authorities are God's servants. Set for your good. But if you're doing wrong, of course you'll be afraid of them, for they have the power to punish you. So just stop doing what's wrong. But who are they? Servants of God. So, you know. Verse five says this. So you must submit to them. Not just avoid punishment. Also to keep a clear conscience. That's your Holy Spirit. You want to have a clear conscience. You don't have offenses. You don't have turmoil going up. You don't want to have anxiety going on in your life. Part of anxiety. Not all anxiety. Part of anxiety is the Holy Spirit's connectedness of one thing. And we're pushing it down and not dealing with it. So submit to God. Submit to those authorities your bosses, and do it willingly. The people you work for.
James Greer: [00:19:28] I know some of you are just cringing. That's because you think you work for them instead of God. And you got it all. Messed up. It's a nice word. Submit to God. Submit to your boss. Submit to your teacher. Submit to police. Submit to your pastor, and that goes on preaching. But it says obey those who rule over you. No, it does. And be submissive. I have to watch for your soul. I'm responsible. As I got to give an account. And I hope let them do it with joy. So many of them aren't today. I wish she knew how many pastors were getting out of church. It's phenomenal that are quitting. I get to do it with joy. Not with grief. That'd be unprofitable for you. It can be joy or grief for me, but it ends up being unprofitable for you. Submit to God, to your boss, to your teacher, to the police, to your pastor. You ready? And wives and husbands. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, it says, Submitting to one another in the fear of God. Have you learn as couples how to submit to each other? It's not why I've just met your own husbands. But it is to your own husband, as unto the Lord. Husbands love your husbands as head of your wife. Also head of the church. You love her like Christ. Love the church. But have you learned to submit to each other? The one that's the best and that best area.
James Greer: [00:21:09] Husbands, Are you taking the lead or you getting up, helping them get ready for church? I'm telling you, if you learn to do those three things and you do them quickly and you do them every day. First, you have to have the favor of God and you get it at salvation. You're saved by grace. It's unmerited favor. If you're here today and you're not sure that you're saved. Today would be the day to absolutely settle it for sure. We have counselors down front. And in just a minute, when I give the invitation, I'd come. You can put it on your next step card. But I just come and I'd settle it. You grow in favor by obeying God, and the faster you obey, the greater the favor. Is there somebody that you need to forgive this morning? Past. Present. Do it quickly. Don't leave today. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. It can be somebody, your loved ones, it could be your family, it could be your enemy. Today's the day to come in to do that. Are you giving generously? Are you giving of your tithes? Are you giving to the poor? Are you giving to those that deserve it? Are you submitting? First of all, submitting to God what God's called you to do what he says in His Word. Are you submitting to your boss at work? Are you doing it willingly? Not talking about them. Teachers. Police, pastors, wives, husbands to each other, because ultimately you have a choice to make this morning.
James Greer: [00:22:46] And Deuteronomy tells us in Deuteronomy 30, death and blessings and curses. Or the choices we make. Choose life today. Choose blessings. Would you stand? Let me pray for you. God, I just thank you for your favor upon this church. I pray your favor for every single person here today. I pray not only your favor by salvation, I pray that they could grow in favor. I pray that they would obey quickly. I don't know what area it is. I don't know if it's forgiveness. Maybe they need to accept forgiveness from you. Maybe for something they did in the past and they need to quit living in the past and come to the present. Look forward to the future. Maybe it's somebody in their life. Maybe it's giving generously. Maybe it's submitting willfully. God, whatever it is. I pray that nobody leaves here today. Without a clean heart, a clean conscience, the Bible said. Maybe God's called you to lead a small group, and today you want to surrender to do that? Maybe you want to say, I need to start getting into a small group and you just want to come today and say, Hey, I need to be in a small group and just let us know that we'll help you find one. Maybe you need somebody to pray with you and pray for you. Whatever God lays upon your heart, I pray you'll let him have his will and his way this morning. I pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
James Greer: [00:01:31] Let me give it to you. In a living translation, it says, And the Lord, may your blessings or your favor be upon us and give us success in all we do. In other words, God says, I want you to know when the favor of God is upon your life. You have success in everything you do. Wouldn't you like to be successful in every area of your life? So first of all, I'm going to quickly go over what the favor of God is. A favor of God is simply when God takes a natural thing and does the supernatural in a person, place or thing, it's like he's doing in Journey Church. Journey Church has the favor of God. Abraham had the favor of God Everywhere Abraham went, God blessed when Lot left when Abraham and Lot split up. Abraham said lot, If you want to go to the left, I'll go the right. If you go the right, I'll go left. Lott said Boyd looked beautiful over there in Egypt. He had Egypt as. He was looking what the world had to offer. So he went over there and Abraham said, That's okay. I'll go to the right. And he went over here, God bless. What looked like there was just plain pastures. Lot went over here. And lost everything he had, including his family. When Lot was under Abraham's favor, he was blessed beyond measure. Say God bless us individually and cooperatively. See, when you're in God's favor, it doesn't matter where you go.
James Greer: [00:03:09] It doesn't matter where you work. Where I've worked. Everywhere. I've sold at different places. Everywhere I've ever worked. God's favor has blessed me. And when I preach, God has blessed me. So it's. It's the God's favor can be with you wherever you go. It can be individual. It can be cooperatively. And I want God to bless you, whatever you're doing. Amen. Because it's when he takes the natural and does the supernatural, it can be big or it can be little. But it's when God gets the honor and glory in whatever it is you're doing. I mean, it's when he takes the ordinary and does the extraordinary. It's like. It's like a physical father. He'll show favor to his kids that he doesn't show favor to other kids. I do things for my kids that I don't even believe I do it. I mean, I can't believe I'll even say I'm not going to do that and I do it anyway. Sometimes I should not do it, and I still do it. I want to give them grace, I give them guidance, I give them protection. I give them provisions. But I'm not going to do it for your kid. And see when you get saved, you get God's favor. But the problem is, yeah, it was like Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She received the favor of God when she believed God. She activated the favor of God when she obey God. I love the verse in Luke 1:37 when it says, And for with God, nothing will be impossible.
James Greer: [00:04:45] And the reason that God threw that in is because when it says with God, there's nothing impossible. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Holy Spirit lives in us and God is with us. So that you that are saved have the Holy Spirit lives in. You can take Luke 1:37 and said, with God nothing is impossible. You got God with you. The only thing that's impossible for you is what's outside of God's will for you. And then when Mary said, Behold the maid, serve the Lord, let it be done according to your word and the angel depart. The reason the angel departed because Mary had just activated the favor of God into her life. How to have greater favor faster. Say amen. Fast faith leads to greater favor. The faster the faith, the greater the favor. Now I'm going to read some verses and I'll explain that. Romans 10:17 says, So faith comes by hearing and hearing because by the word of God. Amen. So you're here today. So you're hearing the word of God for by grace, by God's favor, unmerited favor. You're saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Deuteronomy tells us, I call Heaven and earth as a witness. All the universe is going to witness today. This that I set before you Journey Church. Everybody here. Life and death blesses a curse.
James Greer: [00:06:22] Choose life. God saying, Listen, I want you to know that I'll all the world, all the universe, everybody here, God said, I want you to know I'm sitting before everybody here at Journey Church today. I'm sitting before you Blessings and curse. God says, I want you to choose life. I want you to choose blessings that you may love the Lord your God and that you may. Obey his voice. That you may what, obey his voice and that you might cling to him. Why? That your life. And length of his days be long. In other words, God says, I want you to choose life. I want you to. Blessing. I want you to obey me where you have life. That means abundant life in your days will be long. Favor or blessings come by the choices we make. The faster we make the right choices, the faster we get. Favor. The faster we obey, the faster we're blessed with God's favor, not feelings. Right. Don't get feelings mixed up with facts. Don't get feelings mixed up with God's Word. Don't get feelings mixed up with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never goes against God's Word. Our whole our feelings will deceive us. The Bible says you don't even know your feelings. The Bible says the heart is the seemingly wicked. Who can know it? You can't even know it. So you. You don't. You don't choose by your feelings. You choose by the Holy Spirit, which lines up with God's Word.
James Greer: [00:08:00] Important insight people often want to know. And I'm maturing in Christ. Do you obey? When you hear God. Or do you delay? If you delay, you're not maturing. If you obey, you're maturing. Now, I've been on a trip. My wife showed me favor. For my Christmas, she couldn't find anything to get me. So she let me go to Costa Rica on a photograph trip. And on the plane I was sitting next to some people and I was wanting to sleep. But anyway, the guy says, What were you doing in Costa Rica? I said, I was taking some pictures and start showing him some of the pictures from Costa Rica. And there should be some pictures and different pictures were there and showed all. Yeah. And I showed him this. That picture and some more pictures came up. And after the picture showed up, there finally were three or four pictures that showed. And then he was telling me what the pictures were. And I'm talking about how you obey or do you delay? And there it goes. And he looks at this and he says, Jesus Christ. I said that. Yeah. Jesus Christ. That's okay. I'm thinking I really want to sleep. I said, okay. So I put my phone down and the Holy Spirit promised me. He said, You're going to talk about a lizard. Are you going to tell him about Jesus Christ? I said, Oh, I wanted to sleep. So I get my wordless book out. Now there's a lady in between us.
James Greer: [00:09:48] And this guy over here is talking about Jesus Christ on a tree. That's what he says. See that lizard? He said, Jesus Christ on that tree. I said, Okay. I said, I know another Jesus Christ and orange tree. Yeah. I said, Yeah. And I get my wordless book out. I said, See this black? And I didn't say the Bible says, because they not even into all that. I said, You know, we've all messed up. I've seen done something I shouldn't have had. And yes, sure have. I said God sent my Jesus Christ. His name was Jesus and he was nailed to a tree. And he shed his blood for me and you. When we know that we sinned and we believe the real Jesus that came from God came to Earth to live sinless life was nailed on the cross and shed his blood for me and you. And you believe you sin and you ask and forgive your sin. He washes away all you're saying now They're just watching him watching. I said, But the wonderful thing, after you do that, now we're in a plane. If you do that, then you can go to Heaven. He said, Wow, that's cool. That's little plane. And there's a lady sitting between. And I said, Man, did you know if I wouldn't have been studying? About. The faster you obey. The fact you have God's favor. I probably wouldn't have done that. But do you know, after I did that inside of me, I was going, Hoo! There's a party going on.
James Greer: [00:11:10] That was so cool. What I'm trying to tell you is this I don't care if you can quote the entire Bible. I don't care if you can quote Leviticus. Yes, I know. If you don't obey God and you don't do it quickly, you're not maturing. When you're not maturing, you're not enjoying the blessings and favor of God. You might have the favor of God, but you're not enjoying the favor of God. There's a big difference than having the favor of God. Enjoying the favor of God. I want to give you another insight. Blessings in favor of God can bring burdens. Blessings can bring burdens that most people don't know about. It can be the same thing at work. You can get a promotion, maybe you got your own company and you start getting blessing. Then you got more responsibility. And sometimes that's a burden. It could happen at any church. I can remember when we were small and my wife said, Do you really want to grow? I said, Yes, ma'am. She said, Are you crazy? She said, You got it. Great. Just come and preach and enjoy it. Please come home. No, I want to grow, baby. I want to be blessed. I want the favor of God, she said. With the favor of God and the blessed kind of comes the burdens, the responsibility, the criticism. You do realize the bigger you had and the more the blessing you had, the more criticism you have, the more hearts you have, the more pain, the more complaints.
James Greer: [00:12:47] You just do. I mean, you cannot please everybody, I promise you. You can't do it. So sometimes the blessings come with the burdens and the burdens hurt. People are going to hurt you. They're going to say things and do things. You're going to be betrayed. You're going to be hurt. You know what you got to do? You got to remember where the blessings came. You got to remember the favor of God. Are you living the burden? And you won't enjoy the blessings. So some important things you got to remember. The faster you obey. The greater the favor. If you want to know if you're maturing, are you obeying or are you delaying? Now, I got a rock because of time. Plus, I'm having fun. There's three things that you can quickly obey on a day to day basis that can help you mature faster than anything I know. Forgiving, giving and submitting. Giving, forgiving, giving and submitting. Forgiving. Giving and submitting. Giving quickly. Forgiving quickly. I did not say whether it's your fault or not. I said just forgive quickly. Because Christ forgave you. Forgive your family. You said, well, of course you're forgave your family. Listen, you have to give your family more than you'll forgive your enemies. You just don't realize it. You say I just can't forgive my enemies. Well, you're not with your enemy all the time.
James Greer: [00:14:17] You live with your family all the time. Forgive them. Forgive your family. Forgive your loved ones. Forgive your enemies. The Bible says be angry and sin not. Don't even let the sun go down on your wrath. Forgive and forgive. Quickly. You don't even have to think about. The Bible tells you to do it. So you're going to do it. You're going to obey. Are you going to delay? Second of all, give. Giving. Generously. The Bible says and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, not James, the Lord Jesus, that it's more blessed to give than to what receive. So first of all, you give to the Lord, you say, Well, I know that. I didn't say that. You know what I said? Did you do it? You don't favor God number one. You give to the Lord. Number two. You get to the poor, those in need. Number three. You give to those who deserve not that need. So most people don't know that you first give the Lord, you give to the poor and you give to those who deserve. Most people know about giving to the poor. I know people that don't tithe and they'll give to the poor. Are you crazy? You really give it to the poor. They give to Jesus. Anyway, I'm not going to preach on. I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit just. Anyway. Matthew 6:26. Jesus. When he was in the town of Bethany, he was eating in the home of Simon.
James Greer: [00:15:53] He was who had leprosy. God healed him. Oh, my goodness. And the woman with a bottle of expensive perfume, she came and poured it on Jesus head. Everybody should say amen. But no, no, not the disciples. Those are close to it. They became angry because they were jealous. They started complaining. It's a typical church. You can't. Please. You had a guy just been healed of leprosy. You had a girl comes in with expensive perfume. She gives it to Jesus, the one that healed him. And you got some people complaining about it. Proof. You just can't. You can't please everybody, can you? They said we should have sold perfume for a lot of money. We could have given it to the poor. They didn't care about the give it to the poor. They cared about what they could have done with their selves. Selfishness. Jesus knew what they were thinking. And he said, Why are you bothered this woman? She's done a beautiful thing. For me. Stop for? Just say. Do you think Jesus needed it? Did Jesus deserve it? Absolutely. You can always have the poor with you. But you're not going to always have Jesus with you. Some. She's poured this perfume on my body to prepare it for my burial. He didn't need that. She did it, though. Hmm. You may be sure that whatever the good news or wherever the good news is told all over the world, people are going to remember what she has done.
James Greer: [00:17:25] And they will tell others. We're still telling people what she did. She gave to Jesus who didn't need it but deserved it. When is the last time you gave to somebody because they deserved it and didn't need it? Oh, man. Brother James, you are preaching. Okay. Okay. You ready? Number one. Number one. You forgive. Forgiving and give forgive quickly. Generous. Get to the Lord. Give the poor give to those deserve. Number three. Submitting willingly. Because Jesus always submitted to the Father. Jesus came to please the Father, not me and you. Now. He gave his life for me and you because he came to please the father. The authorities are God's servants. Set for your good. But if you're doing wrong, of course you'll be afraid of them, for they have the power to punish you. So just stop doing what's wrong. But who are they? Servants of God. So, you know. Verse five says this. So you must submit to them. Not just avoid punishment. Also to keep a clear conscience. That's your Holy Spirit. You want to have a clear conscience. You don't have offenses. You don't have turmoil going up. You don't want to have anxiety going on in your life. Part of anxiety. Not all anxiety. Part of anxiety is the Holy Spirit's connectedness of one thing. And we're pushing it down and not dealing with it. So submit to God. Submit to those authorities your bosses, and do it willingly. The people you work for.
James Greer: [00:19:28] I know some of you are just cringing. That's because you think you work for them instead of God. And you got it all. Messed up. It's a nice word. Submit to God. Submit to your boss. Submit to your teacher. Submit to police. Submit to your pastor, and that goes on preaching. But it says obey those who rule over you. No, it does. And be submissive. I have to watch for your soul. I'm responsible. As I got to give an account. And I hope let them do it with joy. So many of them aren't today. I wish she knew how many pastors were getting out of church. It's phenomenal that are quitting. I get to do it with joy. Not with grief. That'd be unprofitable for you. It can be joy or grief for me, but it ends up being unprofitable for you. Submit to God, to your boss, to your teacher, to the police, to your pastor. You ready? And wives and husbands. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, it says, Submitting to one another in the fear of God. Have you learn as couples how to submit to each other? It's not why I've just met your own husbands. But it is to your own husband, as unto the Lord. Husbands love your husbands as head of your wife. Also head of the church. You love her like Christ. Love the church. But have you learned to submit to each other? The one that's the best and that best area.
James Greer: [00:21:09] Husbands, Are you taking the lead or you getting up, helping them get ready for church? I'm telling you, if you learn to do those three things and you do them quickly and you do them every day. First, you have to have the favor of God and you get it at salvation. You're saved by grace. It's unmerited favor. If you're here today and you're not sure that you're saved. Today would be the day to absolutely settle it for sure. We have counselors down front. And in just a minute, when I give the invitation, I'd come. You can put it on your next step card. But I just come and I'd settle it. You grow in favor by obeying God, and the faster you obey, the greater the favor. Is there somebody that you need to forgive this morning? Past. Present. Do it quickly. Don't leave today. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. It can be somebody, your loved ones, it could be your family, it could be your enemy. Today's the day to come in to do that. Are you giving generously? Are you giving of your tithes? Are you giving to the poor? Are you giving to those that deserve it? Are you submitting? First of all, submitting to God what God's called you to do what he says in His Word. Are you submitting to your boss at work? Are you doing it willingly? Not talking about them. Teachers. Police, pastors, wives, husbands to each other, because ultimately you have a choice to make this morning.
James Greer: [00:22:46] And Deuteronomy tells us in Deuteronomy 30, death and blessings and curses. Or the choices we make. Choose life today. Choose blessings. Would you stand? Let me pray for you. God, I just thank you for your favor upon this church. I pray your favor for every single person here today. I pray not only your favor by salvation, I pray that they could grow in favor. I pray that they would obey quickly. I don't know what area it is. I don't know if it's forgiveness. Maybe they need to accept forgiveness from you. Maybe for something they did in the past and they need to quit living in the past and come to the present. Look forward to the future. Maybe it's somebody in their life. Maybe it's giving generously. Maybe it's submitting willfully. God, whatever it is. I pray that nobody leaves here today. Without a clean heart, a clean conscience, the Bible said. Maybe God's called you to lead a small group, and today you want to surrender to do that? Maybe you want to say, I need to start getting into a small group and you just want to come today and say, Hey, I need to be in a small group and just let us know that we'll help you find one. Maybe you need somebody to pray with you and pray for you. Whatever God lays upon your heart, I pray you'll let him have his will and his way this morning. I pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
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