Understanding The Power Of The Perfect Timing of Jesus

James Greer: [00:00:00] And so today what I want you to learn is how Peter, when he said Make everything beautiful in its time, there was a time that he denied Jesus that he cussed and said he didn't know Jesus. And then later on you'll see he went from being bashful to bold. He went from denying to be a disciple. He went from fearful to faithful. He went from a wimp to a warrior. And we need some warriors. Amen. And so what I want you to do today is Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11 is going to kind of be a key verse for the next few weeks. And it tells us this. He, God, has made everything beautiful in its time. Now, there's one thing about it. If Jesus said it and God's Word said it, it can happen. Amen. So if you're here today and you're thinking, well, my life is just not beautiful. If you line up with Christ, it's either on its way or the time's not here. Because God's not done. Because He makes everything beautiful in its time. Also, He's put eternity in their hearts. Everybody that doesn't have Jesus Christ has something missing in their life. In fact, this verse teaches us two very, very important things. Number one, it teaches us that Jesus is going to make everything beautiful in its time. The other is God's put eternity in the heart of every single person.

James Greer: [00:01:24] And what happens when you're here today and maybe you don't have Jesus Christ in your heart, you're looking for it in other places, and you try to fill it with things. You don't even know what it is sometimes. And you go from person to person, from thing to thing, and it just won't quite satisfy you. And so it can be filled. Today you're at the right place at the right time and you want that hole filled. You'll get to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. You can fill that heart today. In the New Testament, it starts out in Acts 1:3. It said, After 40 days, Jesus had suffered and died. And he proved in many ways that he had been raised from the dead. Jesus is not dead. He's alive. And He appeared to his apostles and he spoke to them about God's kingdom, see? And while he was still with them, he said, Don't leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here. The Father will give you the Holy Spirit. Say Holy Spirit. Just as I told you He has promised to do. In other words, he said, I promise to do it. John, he baptized with water, but a few days from now, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, what I want you to know is before he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, he was fearful and afraid.

James Greer: [00:02:37] You're going to see Peter after the Holy Spirit. God made it beautiful in his time, that he's powerful and he's bold. And what happens is you're going to see after the Easter, after the Apostles begin to learn and understand about the Kingdom of God, is when they receive the Holy Spirit. See, if you're not careful before then they're wanting the Kingdom of God to be on Earth. It's just like many people today. They say, Man, I want to build my kingdom here. Now there's nothing wrong. I think you should work. I think Christians should be the hardest workers and the most honest people here. No problem. Amen. But this is not your home. This will never be your kingdom. We're going to read later on, even the disciples said, Hey, Jesus, are you going to give us a king now? See the Christian, your kingdom is in your heart. Your kingdom, in Romans, says, The kingdom of God is righteousness, joy, and peace. In other words, he says, Listen, if you keep trying to build your kingdom here without having the kingdom right in your heart, you'll miss the joy and peace. You might even accept Christ, you might be going to Heaven, but you just keep trying to build the wrong kingdom and looking for the wrong kingdom.

James Greer: [00:03:38] And you'll never have the peace and joy that God promised upon you. Because it's not for here. Second of all, it was only after Easter that we get to receive the Holy Spirit. It was only after Easter that the disciples received the Holy Spirit. It says, Listen, while the Apostles were still with Jesus, they asked him, Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king? They said, Man, Jesus, we've been with you. We went through all this and now we're with you again. Now you're going to give us a king? In other words, they were really saying, if you give us a king, we're going to probably be right up there with you. And Jesus said, you don't need to know the time of those events, that only the Father controls. Now, listen, they said we wanted to know it, but he said, you don't need to know it. But he said, There's something I'm going to do for you. Everybody's kind of wanting to know right now, when is Jesus coming back? Jesus told his disciples, the closest to him, You don't need to know it. In fact, Jesus later on says, I don't even know it. Only my Father knows. But if you'll really stay tuned, you'll find out. We can know a season that he's going to come. But he said one thing I do know, but the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power.

James Greer: [00:04:53] Then you tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Another translation, one eight. It says this. It says, And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You shall be witness to me Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. In other words, if you will invite and invest, you will receive the power. When you invite and invest, you receive the power. What Jesus was telling us is you don't need to know when the kingdom is coming, but there is something you need to know. You need to know that you can receive the power of God while you're right here. You need to understand what the power of God is. It's dynamite, explosive power. It's an abundant power. It's the strength. It's the ability to do whatever God has called you to do and do it with joy. And God said, you can have that right now. You don't know when Jesus is returning, but you can have it. And in fact, before He received the power of God, He lived in fear, and so did his disciples. See, many of you either have not received Christ, and that's when you get the Holy Spirit or you've not activated the Holy Spirit.

James Greer: [00:05:56] You receive the Holy Spirit at salvation. You activate the Holy Spirit when you're witnessing or living the right life. You receive the Holy Spirit when you get saved, but you activate it when you do what God says. Here's Peter beforehand and the disciples. Jesus said to the mob, Why do you come with swords and clubs to arrest me like a criminal? Day after day, I sat and I taught in the temple. And you didn't arrest me then. But all this happened so what the prophets wrote would come true. All Jesus' disciples left him and ran away. They all deserted Him. This was why I said Jesus makes everything beautiful in His time. There may have been a time that you either don't know Jesus or you turned your back on Jesus. There may be a time that you deserted somebody that you loved. And Jesus said, Hey, Jesus is still going to make it beautiful in His time. Maybe a time that you hurt somebody. Then, Peter, he had gone out to the gates. They had taken Jesus. They had come and captured Him. They were going to later crucify Him. And they come to getting this little servant girl. A little servant girl saw Peter and said to some of the people, This is the man that was with Jesus of Nazareth.

James Greer: [00:07:13] Big deal. And Peter denied it. He let this servant girl scare him so bad that here he is. That's why I said Jesus makes everything beautiful in its time. It wasn't time. Here he is denying it. This time he swore. He said, I don't even know the man. Who's the man? Jesus. A little while later, some other people standing were walking over to Peter, who said, Hey, we know you. You're the one. We can tell you are because of the way you talk like some of those Galileans. Peter said, I'll prove to them I'm not. And so Peter began to cuss and swear. What did Peter do? Cuss and swear. Now, every now and then, I might say a cuss word, every now. So do y'all. Come to church like a bunch of goody goodies. I've heard most of you. And y'all are sitting next to your mate. They wish you would stop. But anyway. But Peter said one of the ways I'm going to prove that I'm not a Christian, I'm going to start cussing and swear. If you cuss and swear all the time, you do not look like a Christian. Amen. So stop it. And if you're doing it, don't tell them you go to Journey Church. I was going to say something, but I was going to say tell them go to blank and blank.

James Greer: [00:08:24] But I won't. But anyway, just but anyway, if you do. Peter said, Listen, this girl came to me and I said, I'm not going to do it. They all came to me. I'm going to cuss and swear. I don't know Jesus. I don't even know that man. And right about that time, the rooster crowed and since the rooster crowed, you know, Peter, then he remembered that Jesus said to him, before the rooster crows, You will say to me three times, I don't know you. And Peter went and he cried. So what I'm trying to tell you, I want you to know that before Peter had the Holy Spirit, he denied Him. He cussed Him three times. He said, I don't even know Jesus. After he received the Holy Spirit, he comes to preach to these same people. And Jesus is going make everything beautiful in its time. The reason that I say that is because everybody here has done things in the past they wish they hadn't have done. Amen. Jesus wants you to repent, be forgiven, and have a time of refreshing on your life. Now, here's Peter. All right, let's just play like y'all are the crowd. All of y'all are the ones that, y'all were making me afraid before. Y'all still, some of you do. But I'm going to look up. But anyway.

James Greer: [00:09:40] I see y'all up there. Can you all say amen up there? Hey, hey, hey. Raise your hands. All right. Okay. Anyway. My dyslexia's kicking in. I got to settle down. Anyway. Before Peter was saved, he was running around cussing and fearful. Right? After he saved all these people were there. And Peter said to them, Repent. And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Wasn't that cool? We just had baptism. Amen. Do y'all understand the service before, we had two more baptisms? Do you understand the service after this, we're going to have another baptism? And everybody said amen. And what else is cool? What else is cool, at the end of the service, if you want to get baptized, we'll give you a chance to get baptized. So nobody has to leave today without getting baptized. Let me give you another free insight about repentance. It means change your mind. But it also every healthy relationship has to maintain and intentionally do two things. Repent and forgive.

James Greer: [00:10:56] And it's not, you got to maintain it as you go. Not just, you know, when you're dating. Oh, you know, I love you. You love me. It's one big happy family. You do something wrong. Oh, I'm so sorry, honey. Oh, it's okay, baby. Those days go. Yeah, they are. You just lied in church. I mean, we still love each other. I mean, man. I mean, really love them now. Back then, it was something else. But anyway. So this is what you do. When you're wrong, just say I'm sorry. What can I do to make it right? You don't say I'm sorry because I cussed and I was angry. Because the way you were acting, that's not really repentance. I wouldn't act like that if you wouldn't have acted like that. I wouldn't have said that if you wouldn't have done that. That's not repentance. That's self-justification. You're not saying I'm sorry. And then dah dah dah dah dah. And you're wanting to win. When you repent, you just say, I am sorry. Forgive me. What can I do to make it right? Amen. The other thing, if you want to have a healthy relationship, be quick to forgive. Now, what can happen is it takes two people. It's like being a row boat. If one's rowing, it's just going to go in circles. And there's a lot of people that have relationships, only one rowing and they just go round and round. Hey, both of you, row, and you'll get somewhere.

James Greer: [00:12:18] So both of you practice repentance and forgiveness. Amen. Amen. Now, that's not only for married people. That's for families. That's for relationships. Why would you not forgive somebody when you're only hurting yourself? Okay. The promise is for you and your children. That's us. And for all those that are far off and as many as the Lord our God calls. It's for everybody. Then he goes on. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted. Now, this is Peter. The very people that he is afraid of. And they're all most of them unbelievers. And he's exhorting. He's encouraging. He's almost begging them. And that's what I'm doing for you. He's exhorting them saying be saved from this perverse generation, from this corrupt generation. It's the generation that we're living in now. And Peter was saying, be safe from that. Now you can be saved from that.

James Greer: [00:13:27] Accept Jesus Christ as your savior, and one day you're going to Heaven. But that's not simply what he was saying. He was saying he wanted them to be saved from this generation. What he was saying, I want you to be delivered, protected, made whole. What he was saying is you still got to live here or go through this corrupt generation. There's more corruption now than there's ever been in the world that I know of. But what he's saying, without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it's going to be tough to live here. But he said, Let's be saved where I give you the power to go through it with the presence of God. What he's really saying, poor you. They're trying to live in this world without being saved and having the power of the Holy Spirit living in you. There's going to be turmoil. There's going to be fear and frustration. Flip it over. Jesus can make it beautiful in His time. You could accept Jesus Christ today. You can activate the power of the Holy Spirit.

James Greer: [00:14:27] And the power of the Holy Spirit, man, it's unbelievable. Sometimes they called it dynamite, but it was the ability to do what God called you to do and do it with joy, in spite of any situation, any circumstances. He said this perverse generation, corrupt generation. Then there's a stubborn generation. It means they're calling what's good, bad and bad, good. He talked about the season we live in today. In Matthew 24:36, you see, but of the day and the hour, no one knows when Jesus is coming back, not even the angels. Only the Father knows. You want to know when Jesus is coming back? You don't know. Only the Father knows, not even the angels. But there's one thing you can know. It was as the days of Noah. Also, the Son of Man will return. Man, I just got to go see the ark that Noah built. Man, it was cool. It was so big. 500ft long. And when I was there, I looked like a midget. I got a picture of it here in a minute. You can look at it when I was there. But what I also found out is when I was there, it had things. There it is. Look how big that thing is. That's me standing in front of the ark. Look. See how big in the background? Isn't that something?

James Greer: [00:15:56] Huh? That's saying, the serpent tempted the women. I had them stand in front of it. That was fun. There's the rainbow. That's the real purpose of the rainbow is he made a covenant with me and you that he would never flood again. And there's just some other pictures. But what he wanted to do when he was telling us, you don't know the day or the hour, but you can know the season. And it was during the days of Noah. I forgot that was up there. That was just fun. You should have seen me riding a merry-go-round. But anyway. It showed us what it was like in the days of Noah. And it was brutal. There was brutality. Unbelievable sexual immorality. There was brutality, immorality, sexual perversion, and homosexuality. Now, listen, we love everybody at this church, and we want everybody in this church to come. But there's never been more brutality, immorality in the world ever than there is right now. Never. And Jesus says that's one of the ways you're going to know He's on His way.

James Greer: [00:17:10] Then he said, Because of that, y'all ready? He says, I'm fixing to come. And there'll be two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. That's cause he's going to blow the trumpet. And those that are saved, dead first, and then the others are going to rise. When I used to read that, I was, Hey, I just going to be the one that goes. Y'all come next Sunday and I'm gone. Adios. No. If y'all come next Sunday and half the church is gone, I always knew half of y'all were lost. But anyway, no. What was not funny is two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and one other. It's like they knew each other. Wouldn't it be something if we're with our friends, good people, but one of them doesn't know the Lord. And you do. And you're gone. And they're left. When I talked about brutality and violence as bad as it is now, listen, we that are saved, the Holy Spirit lives. We're holding back the violence and brutality. When we're gone, there'll be nothing holding it back. It'll be so mean and so brutal and so violent. It'll be horrible. And I don't want one of my friends left behind. Peter was talking. So that's why I was wondering why he was almost begging them. He was begging them right now to be saved. He was saying, listen, first of all, how do you live in such a corrupt world if you're not saved?

James Greer: [00:18:46] Because if you're saved, he said, listen, you still got to live in the same world, but now you got the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit with you. In other words, once you're saved, there should be a change in your life. You saw Peter before you had the Holy Spirit. He was fearful, cussing, afraid of a girl, afraid of everybody. Afterwards, you see him, he's preaching. He's bold. He's saying, Hey, man, you need to get saved. You need to change your life. The Bible says, any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. See, it doesn't matter whether you join the church. You've been baptized. If you really accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior at salvation, you get the Holy Spirit. When you activate the Holy Spirit, it doesn't matter how bad the world gets. That's just fulfilling the Bible's prophecy. And you still have the power to walk through the world. In fact, you should shine more now than any other time in history because you have something they don't have. They're fearful and they're worried, and you're saying, Hey, man, the Bible is just being fulfilled. Jesus, here, come on. I've often wondered, often wished that when He had come, it'd be the end of one of our services. When I give people an opportunity to get saved and people raise their hand, Boom! And Jesus comes. I think that'd be one of the greatest times in my life.

James Greer: [00:20:00] Because I don't want him to come when I'm driving down the road or screaming and hollering, cussing at somebody. Not that I do that. Who said oh? You know what I'm saying? I want Him to come one of the good times. Peter went on. He went on preaching in Acts. He said in Acts 39, he said, I want you to remember now that this promise is for you and your children. That's me and you. He said, and for those who are far off. He's talking about those that have come, as many as the Lord God will call. God calls you. You have an emptiness. We found out. in Ecclesiastes. Everybody's not saying you have an emptiness and you should have a pull, a nudge, something in you that's calling you. And with many other words, he testified. He's just saying there. And he exhorted, he encouraged and he said, be saved. That can also be made whole because you're missing something. It can be healed. It means delivered. It means protection. It means to give you the power to go through this perverse and corrupt generation. He was saying, Man, I can't imagine you trying to live this world, live a marriage, live a life without the salvation and the power of God in you.

James Greer: [00:21:20] They gladly received the Word and were baptized. You know what I pray today? I pray you gladly receive the Word. And I pray that you all that hadn't been baptized are baptized. I love baptism. I used to baptize every single person in this church. I used to love it. Because it's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection. But man, it's a picture of a brand-new life. Everything you ever did in your life was forgiven. Where's Cindy? We love it, don't we? I'm still to this day, it's still exciting, isn't it? We're never going to get. It's great. So not that you join the church, but that you accepted Christ and that you follow through in public baptism. Amen. There's a picture. I'm starting brand new. That day, 3,000 got saved. That wasn't a bad Sunday, was it? I go for 300 or whatever it was. But Peter went from fear to unbelievable faith. Some of y'all here today came with fear in your life. God didn't give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. If you're saved, activate the Holy Spirit in your life. Activate the faith. There'll be some counselors here after a while. Let them get you a promise.

James Greer: [00:22:35] And you focus on the promise, not the problem. He was very bashful. Sometimes that means just bashful around people. But this meant more bashful about talking about Christ. I want Journey Church people to be proud of Christ. I know it's hard. There's no better time to invite people to come to church than Easter. Every one of you invite at least five people and try to bring them with you for Easter. Don't be bashful. He became really bold. He was kind of a wimp. He was. Everybody said no, Peter was tough. Well, he wasn't. Let a lot a little old servant girl scare him. That's kind of wimpy. At the end, he's a warrior. He said, I don't care how many people are out there. I don't care what you do. He said, Hey, I'm going to tell them about Jesus. A little while later, if you keep reading it, they say he was so bold. They said, Isn't that the same Peter? He's kind of unlearned. He's uneducated. He hadn't really been trained. But he's so bold and so powerful. There's something different. You know what the difference? They said he must have been with Jesus. See, it's not a matter if you're trained, not a matter of educated, not a matter of uneducated. You should do both. But the question I have, can you and other people tell that you have been with Jesus?

James Greer: [00:23:51] It then said they marveled. See, right now, with things so corrupt as they are, and we can have a peace that surpasses all understanding, no matter if it's in school, no matter if on your job, no matter what's going on in your family, because you got the peace and the power of God that lives in you. You can activate the Holy Spirit. Other people just marvel and say, How could they do that? Because it's not you, it's the Christ in you. If you stand in just a moment, I want to ask you something. Peter begged them. I'm going to encourage you, whether you're down here or upstairs, I'm going to ask you something. Peter begged them, saying, I want you to be saved where you can live better in this perverse, corrupt generation. That's what the generation you're living in. If you want to invite Jesus Christ in your heart, that's when you get the Holy Spirit. In a minute, I want to ask you to raise your hand. Maybe you've done that. Maybe you want to follow through in baptism, or maybe you want to join the church. So what I'm going to ask you in just a minute is to bow your heads and then I'm going to say, hey, just go ahead and bow your heads right now everybody, upstairs and downstairs.

James Greer: [00:25:03] And if you want to invite Jesus Christ into your heart and that's the moment you get the Holy Spirit, if you want to follow through in baptism, if you want to join Journey Church and make this your family, when I count to three, you just raise your hand. One, two, three. Just stick it up real high. Amen. Stick it up high. Keep it up. Upstairs. All upstairs. Keep it up. Keep it up. Amen. Over here. Keep it up over here. Keep it up. Let's go. If you hadn't received a package yet, just keep your hand up. Keep it up. After you get one, you can put it down. Keep it up, though. Upstairs. Just keep them up. Yeah. If you want to accept Jesus as your Savior and have the power of the Holy Spirit living in you, if you want to join the church, if you want to follow through in baptism, just stick your hand up real high. If you've received it, you can put your hand down. If you hadn't, keep it up high. If you've received one, if you receive your package, you can put it down. If you hadn't, raise it back up. Since that's the most important decision of your life, please fill out the pamphlet and give it back to the usher in just a minute.

James Greer: [00:26:21] In a minute while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, I'll tell you, man, someone said I've been saved. But you know, I really, really, really need to activate this Holy Spirit in my life. The same Holy Spirit Peter had when he went from fear to faith is the same one you have if you're saved. So I'm praying today that God will give you that faith, not fear. He'll give you that boldness, not bashfulness. He'll allow you to be a warrior for God. And some of you right now need to say, God, forgive me. You know, I hadn't been faithful. I hadn't been bold. And God, going out this week, I want to be bold for you. I either want to tell people about Jesus, I want to talk about Jesus, or at least invite people to come to church. They're going to be more receptive right now than any other time. Some of y'all have hurts and counselors right up here in front. They want to pray with you and pray for you. You can come and pray with them about accepting Christ. You can pray with them about joining the church. But whatever God has laid upon your heart, I sure don't want you to leave without having the power and the presence of God.

James Greer: [00:27:29] You can't activate the power and presence of God, listen, without forgiveness and repentance. Some of you right now, heads bowed and eyes closed, who do you need to ask or who do you need to tell I'm sorry? Who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to ask forgiveness of? You do it today. Father, I thank you for today. I thank you for what you've done. I thank you for what you're doing. God, I just pray that each and every person, they need somebody to pray with them, pray for them. God, I pray that lives would be changed and you'd have your will and your way. I ask it in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.


Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.