BISHOP NOEL JONES - DON'T STOP WALKING

[Music] beginning at verse 22 i'm caught betwixt because i've got to be on a plane at three o'clock for dubai and down to joburg and so if you would i'll keep adding zeros while i preach said matthew's gospel chapter 14 verse 22 and onwards reads like this and straightway jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and go before him unto the other side while he sent the multitudes away and when he had sent the multitudes away he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come he was there alone but the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves for the wind was contrary and in the fourth watch of the night jesus went unto them walking on the sea and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were trouble saying it is a spirit and they cried out for fear but straightway jesus spake unto them saying be of good chair it is i be not afraid and peter answered and said lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water and he said come and when peter was come down out of the ship he walked on the water to go to jesus but when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying lord save me and immediately jesus stretched both his hand and called him and said unto him oh thou of little faith wherefore didest thou doubt and when they will come into the ship the wind ceased and they that were in the ship came and worshiped him saying of a truth thou art the son of god just look at somebody and say after all you've been through keep walking amen touch somebody else say don't stop walking whatever you do again when i think of matthew i'm always i always marvel at his precision as it relates to the parables and the didactic narratives or the teaching stories that surround the parables when you look at chapter 14 what you get is an astounding five stories that follow the parables in chapter 13. and somehow what matthew does is he links chapter 13 with chapter 14. and he literally shows the relationship between the didactic narratives and the parables themselves when you start with chapter 14 you will find the rejection of jesus at nazareth then you'll find the beheading of john you'll find the feeding of the 5 000 and peter walking on water it is interesting that the healing of the geneseverant sick would follow this story and it is interesting that each one of these stories reflect or are associated with a particular soil in the parable of the sower should i go over that again i sound a little too verbose uh the parables are associated with the stories in chapter 14 particularly and especially the parable of the sower and unlike mark mark declines in his dealing with the soils but matthew seems to be a little more positive because the reception the quality of the reception uh sort of escalates in matthew he seems to be a little bit more hopeful than mark when you consider them the first soil and the first soil is the hard soil the pathway and when the sower sold the seed it didn't penetrate into the soil but rather it stayed on the pathway until the birds came and swallowed them up when you associate that with this particular passage in chapter 14 what you find is the first soil is represented by the first and second story and that is jesus and john are both rejected it's an interesting thing because jesus of course was a little bit more flamboyant than john john was definitely harder in his presentation than jesus and still jesus would have them laugh and john would have them mourn and they rid themselves of both of them they beheaded john and they rejected jesus now the middle soil represents uh there is root taken in fact it goes in and it comes out but it doesn't last very long and the third and fourth stories and that is the feeding of the 5 000 and peter walking on water where they show a certain amount of enthusiasm and faith but ultimately it ends up where they're choked like the middle soil the fifth story is the one of the jenesseret receive the pagans who receive jesus totally and completely they're not rejecting him as israel did both jesus and john they're not caught in the middle of having faith for a moment and then losing it based on the challenge the genesis just receive him completely and totally and they definitely represent the good soil now the difficulty here is resolving the issue of faith and the disciples because one would ask the question how could they be so privileged jesus said you have the privilege of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but for those that are outside it's not given to them it's just given to you and the question for someone who is sitting in church all the time and uh does what we do so often the question we have to ask is how is it that the pagans can receive him when the people who are in the house and around his omnipotent power and his miraculous display have difficulties in accepting and receiving who he is i think that's a legitimate question for all of us and that is how can somebody who is in the space not have the same energy that people have who are not in the space and i think that's what we need to argue how is it that i can be in church all of my life and and still have less enthusiasm for the things of god than somebody who comes in suddenly he he declares my father has given you to know and i realize now that there's a tendency for us to feel as if we got this ourselves and when we believe that we got it ourselves then we're not as grateful and as thankful as when we really understand that the only reason we're here is because god is good and there's a tendency for us in a time of shelter in a time of sequester in a time of shielding not to understand really what we're all about and we lose ourselves because we think that we are mainstream and the divine exhibition must first come to us because we have been around here for so long i've got news for you that god does not work on a seniority plan he proves that when he declared to us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first and there are times when he literally turns the line around so that those of us who come in late in the day are just as blessed as those who have been here in the morning it's interesting because when you look at the outsiders you look at folk who aren't in the mainstream the leper for instance he obviously was not in the mainstream at all and yet still when he approached jesus he simply said if thou wilt thou canst make me hold he was particularly modest about his approach he wasn't making any demands he was simply very carefully and very wonderfully saying to jesus if you don't do it it's not because you can't do it if you don't do it it's because you chose not to do it because if you will there is nothing i have that you cannot heal me from now notice how careful he is in his approach his approach is one that is saying yes i know who you are and i know the power you have i just want to know are you willing the centurion is another outsider i mean he is literally an enemy of most of the people in israel and yet still he approaches jesus as an outsider and he's very careful in his approach he says i'm not worthy for you to come in to my house yet still i command people all over the place and they do whatever i say now based on his own history he tells jesus all you have to do is speak the word because i give commands and i don't have your power and i'm not worthy for you to come to my house yet still in spite of that all you have to do is speak the word the word knows which freeway to get on it knows which exit to take it knows what side street to go down it knows how to move into the cool the sack and go to the right house the right room and the right person all you have to do is speak the word the south phoenician woman came to jesus and jesus was in her territory when he told his disciples not to do that he tell them don't go into the way of the samaritans or just stay don't go where the gentiles are but just stay in the house of israel and yet still she confronts jesus and she just starts screaming thou son of david have mercy on me my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil and the disciples told her to to get away they literally said uh move her out because she cried after us she's upsetting the service she doesn't know the protocol she doesn't know how to behave in church but the mistake they're making is in thinking that the woman or anybody comes here looking for somebody else the only reason she came was because jesus had something to give her in return uh don't get so carried away because you've been sequestered for so long that you have the unmitigated gall and audacity to believe that people come here to see you uh no we didn't come to join the clip we didn't come to be in your company we just came to see what jesus would do if we get close oh yes the father of the dead girl just kept on worshiping and calling on him the bleeding woman should never have been in the company in fact she tried to sneak a miracle if you understand she was another outsider she was another person who was not allowed to be in public and yet she believed if she could just touch the hem of his garment she should and would be made old the man with the palsy he was not around church he was out in sickness for years and years and yet still his buddies took the roof off the house in order to get him into the presence of the lord i think we have to ask ourselves a question do we ever get so comfortable that we forget that it is god who is the power in the building it doesn't matter how well organized it is it doesn't matter how smart we think we are at the end of the day there is a desperation to get into the presence of god it doesn't matter what other people think it doesn't matter what has happened in other people's lives nobody's life dictates how your life goes when it comes to being in the presence of god because if i can just get in his presence who will say what will happen if i can get into his presence who is it that will dictate what his will is for me if i can just get into his presence i found out that when you're in his presence prayers get answered when you're in his presence power is released when you're in his presence joy is restored all i have to do is get in his presence which means that i didn't just come by here to show off a new suit i didn't come by here to show off some shoes and some clothes but i came by in desperation needing a blessing from the lord he that hungers and thirsts i wish i could talk to somebody here he hungers and thirsts after righteousness that same person will be filled you see so prayer then is simply faith bringing need to jesus and without any needs at all faith is vague it is abstract and unreal because need is vital to focus on christ you have to have a need you just can't walk in and feel like everything in your life is comfortable and i really don't need to pray or need to fast or need to make connection to christ you've been too sheltered you see because when you're sheltered and you have everything comfortable then you don't feel the urge to go to jesus with a hungry disposition oh god's looking for somebody that's hungry somebody who believes he is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him he wants me to come after him more than i go after a car come after him more than i go for a house come after him more than i go for money seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added the disciples then were sheltered they were like sheltered saints and they lived in a sort of vague abstract and unreal environment because they were secluded they didn't even fast he said they don't have to fast they've got the bridegroom with them as long as i am with them they don't even have to fast they didn't have a job they gave up their jobs to be with jesus and whenever they needed anything he would tell them little fancy things like the money is in the fish's mouth go and pick it up i mean can you imagine leaning against him and being with him put them in a place of complete inner sanctum you know sometimes we get caught up with our organizational superiority and we have the unmitigated god to act as if nobody's right but us and then of course we end up with traditional pride and we act like we're completely sheltered and we're superior saints on an upcycle without anything to worry about let me point out to you that the disciples never looked good in the scriptures every time i saw him they had some sort of attitude that completely is different totally from jesus they would have sent 5 000 people away hungry they had no compunction for the 5 000 they would have sent them away after being with jesus for many days the lord said they'll faint if we send them home without food but what they did was they had their little bag and you know had theirs we got ours away and worried about theirs and that's why jesus said to them what do you have uh give me the little you have and you trust me to eat with the rest of these folk they would have sent the children they tried to keep the children from coming to jesus uh jesus said to them suffer the little children to come unto me and they were trying to keep you know many times we make our young people so uncomfortable because we as church folk want them to act like they're 60 and 70 years old when they're just 14 and 15 and 17. amen ain't no sense and try i don't know why we would want them to dress like us when most of us are trying to dress like them let that alone they would keep the kids from coming to jesus uh they didn't want him to talk to the woman at the well as far as they were concerned he should have avoided dealing with her and particularly when the five husbands came out and the one she was with was not our own they didn't want him to go to zacchaeus's house they couldn't stand the public on they didn't want him to even deal with the canaanite woman they had a nerve to tell him to send her her away in another place they accused him of not caring you know it's one thing for you not to believe that you love god it's one thing for man not to love god but it's worse for us to believe he doesn't love us and they accused them of not caring terrorists down not that we perish they were unable to heal the man's son when he was on the mount of transfiguration and he came back down and had to rebuke them because they were not able to heal the man's son so the question now becomes what are they doing if they're not able to heal the man's son they accused jesus of not caring they run the canaanite woman off if they could didn't want him to go to zachus's house didn't want him to talk to the woman at the well they tried to keep the kids from coming to jesus and they would send the 5 000 away hungry the question now has to be what are they doing and i'll tell you what they're doing they're sitting in a little circle and they're debating among themselves which one of us is the greatest in the kingdom well it couldn't be any of you fellas because all you do is try to stop jesus from doing the will of god you see when you got the special privilege i feel like preaching just for a minute you see everybody does not have the privileges everybody does not have somebody to watch out for them and to make sure everything is all right everybody's not walking around with security uh does not have the favor of certain folk uh i wish i could preach some people have to park 12 and 13 blocks away some people have to wear keep their heels in the purse and walk with their flats till they get to the house of god because they're coming from so far away everybody does not have the pastor's ear and everybody does not get invited to the preacher's house you see some people have to struggle for everything that they get in the house of god whereas others feel privileged well i'm here to tell you that we can enjoy the corporate blessing the inner sanctum but some folks have always been favored never been sick never had a trial oh i feel something coming now no hunger but for power no thirst but for personal aggrandizement no praise but for self and you better remember to praise them when they do anything in the house of god no need but for recognition and i've come to tell you that that's a front that's about to be tested oh i feel like having church give somebody a high five and say don't get carried away with yourself carry it away with god so there's a time of shielding but some people have always had contrary winds and i am convinced now that this is a setup where jesus is setting his disciples up because revelation is invariably revelation only for somebody in a concrete situation of concern you've got to have a need to have revelation god does not give general revelation without need you have to go through something for god to show himself and give you the answer to the trial that you're facing ah there is no general revelation with what paul tillich would say it isn't specific as the need it is not abstract it's not vague need is real and sometimes when you open your mouth to talk to somebody beside you you ought to open your mouth with a smile because you don't know what the person sitting right beside you had to do to get in the house of god you know sometimes you're sitting behind the pulpit and you're telling people well uh get your joy and praise the lord and and then well you're not praising them you're not getting yours you don't know that some people's praise is just being able to walk through the door now you might have a fallout praise but somebody's praise is a sit-down praise i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord you don't know the pain i carried into the house of god and when i came in i came in looking for a blessing i don't want anybody to play with me and have me shouting jesus jesus 20 million times i need a blessing and i need to cut to the chase get to the point so i can walk out of here in my right mind feel something pushing me he meets our needs and he reveals himself in our needs so now he has to create a need for the fellows who thought that they were secure he sent them ahead now notice he would not allow them to take any bows for feeding the 5 000 he didn't allow them to walk around shaking hands because they didn't want to feed them anyway you see many times we take the credit for what god does when oftentimes we didn't want to do his will anyway and he had to push us into doing his will and yet still we want all the accolades as if we were the ones who commissioned god to help us to do what we wanted to do the devil is a liar there are times we didn't want to get up there times we did not want to press our way there are times we didn't want to lay hands on the sick but he was the power that moved us and he will not give his glory to another he has to be praised for what i do he has to be praised for what you do and your voice and your ability to preach and whatever it is that your gift is it comes from him so he sent them away and he personally uh sent the 5 000 away now notice if you will he knows they're out on the water and he takes his time to send the 5 000 away i wonder how long it would take for him to move around 5 000 folks it's going to take a little time and he knows they're out in the middle of the water and then of course he goes and he goes to pray and i don't know how long jesus was praying but by now they're in the middle of the water you know the lord will put you in a place where you can't go back and you've got to go forward because the distance between going back and the distance between going forward is the same because now they're in the middle of the water and they're rowing for their lives you know at first when you get into a storm the first thought is well god's gonna bring me out and i've got a little nest egg here laid aside because mama said put some money aside for a rainy day and i have enough reserved in my spirit i've got enough joy in my tank that i can go through a few things and just reach for my reserves i can still see my way i can still get through the process but as the wind keeps on blowing i feel like shouting here as the wind keeps on blowing then all of a sudden you lose a little bit of that zest all of a sudden a little doubt starts creeping in particularly when the little nest egg begins to decline and begins to reduce itself when you're looking for your joy and you're using up the reserves that you've had on the inside because you haven't been through anything recently and so all that little joy now is beginning to swain and beginning now to lose you're still a little encouraged but now you're getting just a little nervous because things did not come round as quickly as you thought uh and if the wind keeps on blowing now you have used up all that you had in reserve and now you're calling on some folk to see whether or not you can get some encouragement and maybe somebody will help you out but as the winds keep on blowing all of a sudden your friends begin to decline and now the all they got to do is look at the caller id and when they see your name they won't even answer the phone your family is not even answering your friends don't want to deal with you and as the wind keeps on blowing oh god now you're being talked about said thought you were saved and thought you loved the lord and look at all that you're going through now you're being talked about particularly if you were superior in your disposition towards others and you look down on folk who were struggling and now you're in the middle of a battle yourself and if the winds keep on blowing then all of a sudden you move into anger and bitterness you feel abused and you're tired and if it keeps on blowing i want to talk to somebody here who's been through something uh give somebody a high five and tell him i don't look anything like what i have been through and the winds keep on blowing all of a sudden you're just sitting there waiting to die and many times you've given up in your spirit because the wind just kept on until now you're tired and don't know which way to go it got so bad that when jesus decided he was on his way in the fourth watch of the night he just let them stay there and let them go through it and let them suffer until they realize that they need jesus i don't care if you're the greatest singer in the world i don't care if you're the greatest pulpit here in the world i don't care how anointed you are everybody needs jesus i feel the power coming on i feel the shout coming on give somebody high five for the third time and say even you need jesus i know i need him i need him badly oh god in all of a sudden he comes walking on the water and they are so afraid now they've been in the negative for so long that now they're even forecasting that here comes a spirit you can be in a battle so long and you can have gone through stuff so long until you don't trust who god is moving into your life but i just came to tell somebody here that the next person god sends receives them don't you look like it's a ghost everybody's not in your life to destroy you god's got somebody that's going to come in your life that's going to help turn your situation around i feel like lifting him up oh i wish i had the time i feel like preaching today there's a recognize your help give somebody high five for the third time and say you got to recognize your help you got to know the difference between what's negative and what's positive and sometimes people have to look you dead in the face and tell you exactly what god wants you to hear oh many times you take the kisses of your enemies but it's better to have the rebuke of your friends god's going to put somebody in your life that's going to help you out of the situation at this point now they are totally desperate and there's no question now as to who is the greatest among us because now they're rowing for their lives they now from need they've gone to desperation now they've gone to obsession i'm rowing for my life because jesus is not in this boat i feel like preaching i'm going to work but i need a word from the lord he's not in the boat but if i can just get a word he's not in the boat but if i could just hear his voice if he's not in the boat and all of you fellas in the boat but none of you can save this situation uh i don't know have you been there until you discovered that mama couldn't bring you out that daddy couldn't bring you out your best friends couldn't deliver you the only person that you know who can make the difference is jesus christ the lord i feel like preaching in here whenever we get to that place there'll be revival in the house wherever we get to that place there'll be a move of god that we have not yet experienced whenever we get to that place demons will tremble because the saints are calling on the name of the lord not as a show but because they need the power of god to overcome the circumstances in their lives and so now they're huddled together in the boat and there is no voice but the voice of him who is coming across the water and he hollis be not afraid oh god dude jesus is never the obstacle he's always the solution and there are times he sets us up touch your neighbor say it's a setup to reveal himself to you in a greater way and what he's telling you now is when i'm coming you can release yourself and come on to me that's peter he said be not afraid don't be afraid because it is i and it is a command he's not asking them not to be afraid he's commanding them not to be afraid so immediately upon the command the boldness comes has you ever been awakened in the middle of the night and the lord soothed your soul he didn't change the situation but he changed your disposition in the middle of the circumstance i feel like lifting him up every now and then he does not move the fire but he delivers you in the fire he doesn't deliver you from the situation he just changes your attitude in the situation where i don't have to be out of the situation in order to lift up the name of my god i can praise him anyway give somebody high five for the fifth time said i had to praise him when things were rough i had to lift him up when things were bad i had to give him the glory in the middle of my pain so he can show me i don't only deliver but i sustain i can keep you in the middle of a great trial uh we might as well have church i had to let some things happen in order to reveal i am that i am i am that i am i have to let some things happen so i create situations i'll just touch somebody said this is just another situation that's created for revelation i created a situation and i called it we called it jehovah jireh he created a situation and we called it jehovah figure he created a situation and we called it jehovah rover he created a situation and we called it jehovah's sycamore he created a situation and we called it jehovah neesee he created a situation and we called it jehovah macadis he created a situation and we call his name jesus that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord and he goes down so low to bring people up so high that if you have a need and you call him and he will answer this poor man cried and the lord delivered him out of all of his troubles give some money high five say all you gotta do is cry out cry out to the lord don't let anybody make you feel like you're too cute to cry out sometimes you gotta lay flat on your face and a holla jesus i need your help jesus turn the line around jesus i need you to move on my house in my house on my children in my children every now and then you gotta get ugly forget your hairstyle forget your high heels and just call on the name of the lord i heard peter holler if it be you bid me to come to you can i preach like i feel it if it's you i know your voice but i don't see your face because the storm is raging and i feel like it's a spirit but if it's really you lord then bid me to come i feel the holy ghost in here somebody said he walked on water but underneath that water was the word of god when he said come it changed the dynamics of the water so it could now carry peter's weight i've got news for you whenever you are in a state where you don't have any help but jesus he changes the dynamics so that everything around you will go for you if you just keep your eyes on jesus i feel like preaching in here give somebody high five and say take your eyes all for folk that don't like you get your eyes off of the haters that want to hurt you and keep your eyes on jesus get your eyes off the stormy winds get your eyes off the lightning and the thunder and keep your eyes on the one who called you and said come come walk on out of there i feel like preaching in here i'd rather step out and sink than stay like a coward in the boat i'd rather have a testimony i might have seen after a while but for a while i was walking with jesus in the middle of my storm and as long as i had my eyes on him there is no weapon that's formed against me that shall prosper reaping me is coming in the morning walk i feel the holy ghost in here give some money high five for the second to the last time and said keep on walking you walk through 214 with all kinds of trials all kinds of tribulation but you kept on walking i saw the winds and the waves but i'm so glad i kept on walking i would walk through heartache i would walk through poverty i've walked through working but i'm still here and i'm still walking because i got a word from the lord he said come i feel like preaching pull on your neighbor and say this year let's step out and keep on going walk into your future walk into your blessing walk into a new house and walk into a new car walk into new revelation walk into greater manifestation walk walk while they're talking about your walker while they're trying to hurt you walk around and trying to put you down give somebody for the last time i said don't you see me walking i'm walking into my blessing i'm walking into my holiness i'm walking into my power i'm walking i'm walking i feel the holy ghost in here let the winds blow let the storms come i'm walking with jesus and the victory shall be mine walk walk walk this is your year [Applause] good [Applause] i'm closing [Music] now i'm a swimmer spend a lot of time in the pool but i want you to try something the next time you get to a pool i want you to just step off the edge into the pool and say lord save me and see can you get it out before you're submerged i mean i've tried it 20 times and i couldn't get lord save me out before my head was on the water yet jesus slowed peter's sink i want to talk to somebody here [Applause] if you have the nerve to step out on his world he'll even slow your sinking down to the point where you can holler lord save me [Applause] [Music] and as i close to show you it was a setup as soon as they got in the boat the storm ceased every now and then he will take away your comfort zone no matter how sanctified you are to prove that even righteous people need him [Music] you

Channel: Official Bishop Noel Jones

Views: 107,509

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Id: oLastR4P6Vc

Length: 50min 9sec (3009 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2022