BISHOP NOEL JONES : THE POWER OF PRAYER (PART 3)
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:05 (upbeat music)
00:32 - Primarily with Ephesians chapter one,
00:35 we are lost, if you remember,
00:39 into Matthew's gospel chapter six,
00:43 because we're leading to the exceeding greatness
00:48 of his power, which if you notice,
00:52 has a trademark of all of Paul's presentations
00:57 when he deals with prayer.
01:03 But I want you to go to Matthew chapter six,
01:05 and I ask for,
01:08 Bible today, you know, the physical Bible,
01:12 because I don't have the skills to move
01:17 on this thing quick enough to find the scriptures
01:19 quick enough, and I don't wanna get out there
01:22 and can't get back.
01:24 You know, so in Matthew chapter six,
01:31 I want you to notice verse nine again, and 10.
01:36 After this manner, therefore, pray ye our Father,
01:40 which I now call it be thy name,
01:43 thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth,
01:48 as it is in heaven.
01:50 Before he makes any petitions,
01:54 before he begins to ask for anything,
01:58 he extols the virtue of the name of God.
02:03 If you remember, last week,
02:07 we made very sure that we,
02:12 that in order to have any kind of significant communication
02:20 with anyone, you have to have some understanding
02:25 of who they are.
02:27 (audience laughing)
02:30 Why we don't have fixed marriages anymore.
02:33 People date before they get married,
02:36 because seemingly they're seeking to know
02:43 who it is they're about to make a life commitment to.
02:46 When we understand the scriptures
02:50 within the parameters of relationship,
02:54 then we recognize that the Bible, the Old Testament,
02:59 and the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus,
03:01 becomes actually God's resume.
03:07 Should I say that again?
03:10 In order to attract us, he has to present himself
03:16 that we begin to understand how badly we need him.
03:24 This is why, and I don't wanna digress too far,
03:28 but this is why, when you look in Romans,
03:30 he teaches us, he opens up the doctrine of condemnation
03:35 before he goes into the doctrine of justification,
03:40 because he is making a case that nobody,
03:45 but nobody can have any real life
03:47 without the love of God.
03:50 (audience member shouting)
03:54 He's making the case, and in order to make that case,
03:57 he has to bring us to a place where we understand
04:01 just how wretched we are without God.
04:05 So the case that he establishes is a case
04:10 of us being so totally reprobate
04:14 that none of us would choose or seek God
04:19 in and of ourselves.
04:21 So the case he makes then is, and if you study Augustine,
04:27 the case that he makes is to show total human depravity
04:32 as it relates to God, but he does not leave us
04:36 in the place of condemnation.
04:38 He brings us to justification, and what he says now
04:43 is in all of your weakness, and that's the marvelous thing
04:47 about grace, because grace is a calculation
04:51 that God made as to how he can use weakness
04:56 to establish salvation.
05:00 (audience member shouting)
05:04 You think, and I think, because of
05:09 (audio cutting out)
05:10 narcissistic Christian behavior,
05:13 that sound a little verbose, didn't it?
05:17 That we have a tendency to come to God
05:19 because we got power.
05:21 And some of us in our (audio cutting out)
05:26 think that we chose God.
05:28 But nobody chooses God.
05:31 God chooses you and I.
05:34 And we were chosen in him before we (audio cutting out)
05:40 which means then that he is not checking records
05:46 to decide who is qualified.
05:49 (audience member shouting)
05:53 I don't wanna go too far, but when I get one place,
05:56 then it leads to something.
05:58 But give a thought to the fact that he chose Jacob
06:02 instead of Esau, and he chose them,
06:05 the Bible stands in Romans, before he was born
06:09 to indicate that the choice had nothing to do
06:13 with the firstborn or the secondborn,
06:16 according to their tradition,
06:17 the choice had nothing to do with their behavior.
06:21 The choice simply had to do with the sovereignty of God
06:25 who has the right to choose who he chooses
06:28 to he wants to reject, because after all, he is God.
06:34 And so he has fixed it so that I can take your weakness
06:40 because that's all you're bringing.
06:43 And if you go through the Old Testament,
06:45 you're better than the folk in the Old Testament,
06:48 but all of us are depraved as human beings
06:52 until God shows up.
06:55 When he shows up, he says, when you learn how to pray,
07:00 because in order to communicate with God,
07:02 you gotta know who he is.
07:04 Feel like shouting on that one.
07:08 You see, we spend a lot of time with rules,
07:12 but Christianity is not a religion of rules.
07:15 It's a religion of relations.
07:17 And if you don't have a relationship with God,
07:20 he doesn't matter how you follow your rules,
07:23 because he already said your righteousness
07:26 is as filthy rags.
07:30 No matter how good you think you are,
07:32 you can't bring yourself to God.
07:34 You can only bring yourself in your weakness to God
07:38 and let God make the difference.
07:42 Now, I wanna show you today how significant it is
07:46 to put his business first.
07:49 How it be thy name,
07:52 thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
07:57 Because if we're going to get to that place
08:01 where the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
08:05 then you gotta know how to communicate to God.
08:10 Don't insult him with this continual begging.
08:15 Because a good provider
08:29 knows what his household has need of.
08:36 They ask.
08:39 (congregation applauding)
08:43 You gotta eat.
08:45 You gotta have shelter.
08:49 You gotta have food and rain.
08:52 What kind of ego would I have
08:56 to be sitting down in my living room,
08:59 waiting for my family to pay me homage
09:06 before I release a few dollars?
09:08 You know the kids gotta eat.
09:14 You know somebody gotta buy groceries.
09:17 You know we gotta pay the light bill.
09:22 We know we gotta pay the heat.
09:24 It's warm in here.
09:25 You know we gotta take care of the business of the household.
09:32 So why do I have to sit
09:34 and you come begging me every minute for a few dollars?
09:39 If I am the provider.
09:46 See one of the things that human beings have not realized
09:49 is that God in his omniscience knew
09:52 there would be six to seven billion people in the world.
09:55 The problem is he gave man dominion,
10:01 gave man authority,
10:04 and he has allowed man to operate the world.
10:07 Now if he intervenes every time a man makes a bad decision,
10:12 he no longer has free will.
10:17 Let me digress.
10:23 Do you know the hell that you have gone through?
10:29 What do you do with God except him allowing it?
10:33 But this is not his divine will.
10:38 His divine will is not for you to be mistreated
10:41 by other people.
10:43 His divine will is not for people to be saved
10:46 who are in his image.
10:47 His divine will is not for you to be talked to
10:50 like a piece of trash when you're in his image.
10:54 It's not divine will for somebody to murder you
10:57 over a few dollars.
10:58 It's not divine will.
11:00 Missive will because he gave man dominion.
11:05 And if he gives man dominion and people make bad decisions
11:09 and he intervenes on the bad decision,
11:13 then man no longer has free will.
11:15 If he no longer has free will,
11:18 then he's no longer responsible for his behavior.
11:22 I wish you'd understand.
11:24 This is why there's good and this is why there's evil.
11:27 This is why there's heaven and this is why there's hell.
11:30 Because once you give free will,
11:33 you have responsibility.
11:35 Are you understanding me?
11:37 And once you have free will,
11:39 you gotta deal with consequences.
11:41 The problem with church folk,
11:43 and I don't talk about church folk because I'm one of them,
11:46 but I'm focusing on myself.
11:52 The problem with church folk is they want free will
11:56 to make decisions,
11:59 but they don't want consequences of the decisions they make.
12:03 Oh, I gotta digress for a minute here.
12:10 It goes like this.
12:14 Lord, if you knew how that woman was gonna treat me,
12:20 you should have never
12:23 let her come into my life.
12:28 Well, mama told you she was no good.
12:32 Your best friend told you to watch her.
12:36 Her friend told you to watch her.
12:39 The man she was with told you.
12:42 Now, if that wasn't God talking to you,
12:49 (audience laughing)
12:52 but you had to have her.
12:56 And it goes both ways.
13:04 Amen.
13:05 Men been beat up on so much,
13:07 I decided to go the other way.
13:08 The truth is we make decisions,
13:14 but we don't want the consequences.
13:18 Now, I'll tell you this.
13:19 You make a decision to go rob the grocery store
13:24 and whoever sins with you will sin against you.
13:31 (audience applauding)
13:35 Amen.
13:37 Now, you done got with somebody
13:38 and decided to rob the grocery store,
13:40 out and become state witness.
13:46 (audience applauding)
13:49 Now, he was the one who made the decision.
13:53 You followed him over there,
13:56 but then he quicker than you.
13:59 So he makes a deal with the DA.
14:02 He sinned with you.
14:04 Now he's sinning against you based on your decision.
14:14 I don't wanna stay there.
14:16 It is in all of our decision-making
14:20 that has been negative since Eden
14:24 that God has to give his resume
14:29 in relationship to recovery.
14:32 Everybody in here is a recovering sinner.
14:38 (audience applauding)
14:43 Nobody in here is a better than anybody else
14:47 because all of us got some sickness in a spiritual way.
14:54 Amen.
14:56 If you're not one of those, please raise your hand.
15:00 I said, "Why do I keep coming to church?"
15:10 I keep coming to church because I got a problem.
15:13 Whenever all my problems are solved,
15:15 I don't need to come to church.
15:17 I keep coming to church 'cause I'm still seeking God.
15:22 Whenever I have found him totally,
15:26 I'll quit coming to church.
15:27 I'm coming to church because I realized
15:30 that there's only one great physician in the house
15:34 and his name is Jesus.
15:36 And he's the only one walking around with a chart
15:40 going to every one of our beds saying,
15:43 "Let me fix this, let me fix this,
15:45 "let me fix this, let me fix this."
15:47 And let me tell you this,
15:49 sick person has need of a physician.
15:53 If you well, you have no need of a physician
15:57 and that's what Jesus said.
15:58 So anybody that's sitting in here,
16:00 you can't be on your bed laying up
16:03 talking about me on my bed.
16:05 All of us on our bed judging one another,
16:09 the devil is alive, amen.
16:11 You gotta get that beam out of your eye
16:14 before you try to get the mouth out of my eye.
16:18 You can't see to operate on me,
16:21 you gotta operate on yourself.
16:24 When grace is exhibited
16:31 and the power of God is seen through his action,
16:37 he's the resume of the Old Testament
16:40 to the point where when he introduced himself
16:43 to people who didn't know him,
16:45 he used people they knew.
16:47 Let me put another way,
16:50 there was no greater name dropper than God.
16:53 And he blesses people
17:00 so that other people can see them blessed
17:04 and seek him out.
17:07 [audience laughing]
17:10 Let me, you know, since I'm out there,
17:12 so I'm gonna connect the fact that grace,
17:15 the root word for grace,
17:16 the etymological root in the Greek is kharis.
17:20 But it's the same root for thanks.
17:24 The same word that is founded grace
17:31 is the same word whose foundation is thanks.
17:35 [audience member speaking faintly]
17:37 You see the relationship.
17:38 If I'm working for you and you pay me
17:46 after I've worked 40 hours, sweat,
17:50 you give me minimum wage.
17:52 If I say thanks, it's just a,
17:57 it's a come mama told me to say thanks.
18:04 I'm mad anyway 'cause you didn't pay me like you should.
18:07 [audience laughing]
18:10 I'm just gonna say thanks because
18:12 it's good manners.
18:16 [audience laughing]
18:19 But now, if you walk up to me
18:23 and give me that same amount of money
18:25 and I didn't do any work at all,
18:27 it's a different kind of thanks.
18:33 Because if I worked, you owe me.
18:36 But if I don't work, then you're being generous.
18:44 Grace, thanks, same root.
18:48 Because what God is saying is
18:51 what I'm about to do for you, you don't deserve.
18:54 So what are you going to give me in return?
19:01 The only thing you can give me is a genuine thanks
19:05 based on my grace.
19:10 So what the Greek said is grace and thanks
19:14 come from the same root.
19:15 Thanks is genuine when you don't deserve.
19:21 See, let me go another way since you're looking at me
19:29 like I let some wonderland.
19:30 [audience laughing]
19:32 A lot of times, thanks don't really mean much
19:36 because people are thanking other people
19:39 based on being old.
19:43 So you cook for me every day
19:49 and I bring you a tennis bracelet
19:51 and you say thanks.
19:54 But in the back of your mind, you feel like you deserve it.
19:59 [audience laughing]
20:01 Because you're cooking every day.
20:03 Whole lot of folk go to the hospital Mother's Day
20:13 'cause Mother ain't satisfied with what you brought.
20:20 Whole lot of folk get mad Christmas
20:27 because people aren't satisfied with the gift.
20:29 Whole lot of folk get mad anniversary time
20:34 because in relation, subtle giving and expectation.
20:40 And you feel like you're old.
20:44 Who gets up in the morning and cook your breakfast?
20:50 Who wash your dirty clothes?
20:52 I've been married to you for 25 years,
20:55 you can't bring me no stockings.
20:57 Bring me a pair of shoes.
21:00 You got to dig deeper.
21:03 In relationships, for the most part,
21:09 I feel like we're old.
21:11 I work every day.
21:14 I make sure everything is covered.
21:18 You're supposed to hug me.
21:24 I'm not telling you to kiss.
21:26 You're supposed to kiss me
21:30 and everything else that goes with it.
21:34 [audience laughing]
21:37 Act like you're in my favor.
21:42 The issue of being old
21:48 has to be removed from God
21:53 so the praise
21:55 worship is pure.
21:59 And this is the power of grace and thanks.
22:05 So for the child of God who approaches him
22:09 and realizes how good he has been,
22:12 how good he has been,
22:15 good, completely and absolutely good.
22:20 For the individual that's sitting in this house
22:23 and realizes that they don't deserve it,
22:27 genuineness of the praise is real.
22:33 You see, the people who feel like,
22:37 "You know, goody, goody, two shoes.
22:40 "I ain't never done nothing.
22:41 "I've been a virgin all my life.
22:42 "I ain't never been nothing.
22:45 "I ain't never robbed."
22:47 You know, and sometimes we look at people
22:49 and we say, "Now this person is so good,
22:51 "they ought to be saved."
22:53 (congregation laughing)
22:56 They're so wonderful, they should be a child of God
23:01 because what have they done in their lives?
23:05 But here's what I've discovered
23:06 over 50-something years of preaching.
23:09 I've discovered the people who were so good
23:12 and so wonderful before they came to God
23:15 never praised God.
23:17 Who were working for the devil before they came to God.
23:21 The people who were steeped in the mess
23:24 when God brought them out with a mighty hand.
23:27 The praise is so genuine
23:31 that the goody, goody, goody, goody,
23:33 look at them like, "Why are you disturbing me?"
23:37 When you think of his goodness
23:40 and what he's done for me.
23:44 Oh, you weren't five years in prison.
23:46 You weren't seven years in prison.
23:48 You weren't jailed.
23:50 You weren't being mistreated like a dog.
23:52 Everybody treated you right, but I came off the street.
23:56 I came out of the gutter and God raised me up
24:00 and turned my life around.
24:01 And when I say the name Jesus,
24:05 praise comes out of my soul.
24:08 (congregation cheering)
24:11 I can't help myself.
24:13 Should have been dead.
24:17 Should have been in prison.
24:20 Should have been locked up.
24:23 Should have been broke.
24:24 Should have been despised.
24:26 Should have been crippled.
24:28 But God stepped in and a seed had made a way out of no way
24:36 when I thought it was right there with me.
24:39 And you're gonna tell me to shut my mouth?
24:41 The devil is a liar.
24:45 Hallowed be thy name.
24:47 (congregation cheering)
24:51 I don't wanna run anything.
25:00 I want you to run everything.
25:02 I don't wanna take charge of my life.
25:04 I messed my life up.
25:05 I want you to take charge of my life.
25:08 I don't want my kingdom to reign.
25:10 I want your kingdom to reign.
25:12 I want you to be in charge.
25:14 I want you to be the man.
25:16 I want you to walk heavy up in here, Lord.
25:21 (congregation cheering)
25:24 Lead us, guide us, direct us.
25:31 Made a mess of my life.
25:44 Until I met God.
25:46 And I'm glad he honors faithfulness to his name.
25:52 (congregation cheering)
25:56 (congregation applauding)
26:00 I don't know if it's a privilege.
26:24 I don't know if it's a privilege.
26:26 But on Saturday nights,
26:29 the young fellas around the country, they call me.
26:32 And some of them say, "Send me some outlines.
26:37 "I gotta preach tomorrow."
26:38 I had a discussion.
26:43 Thought I'd share because it felt right in line
26:49 with the presentation, with the teaching,
26:53 because we gotta get this prayer thing right.
26:56 I want you, I asked for the, move that as quickly.
27:03 I want you just to look at Revelation chapter three
27:07 and about verse nine.
27:11 Is it verse nine?
27:16 We'll start at verse seven.
27:21 And the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,
27:24 "These things saith he that is holy."
27:28 Now, it falls in line because he's dealing
27:33 with church folk.
27:36 Safe folk.
27:39 Trying to be safe folk.
27:42 Unsafe folk, acting like safe folk.
27:50 All that goes on in the church.
27:51 "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true,
27:55 "he that hath the key of David,
27:59 "he that openeth no man's shut door, no man openeth."
28:06 He says, "I know thy words.
28:10 "Behold, I have set before thee an open door
28:19 "and no man, no man, no woman, no AI can shut it."
28:24 Now, when I saw this, immediately it dawned on me,
28:45 why is he opening a door that no man can shut?
28:50 What is the, Philadelphia, of course, brotherly love.
28:56 So it's a place of love.
28:58 And unless love is exhibited in the church, we are joking.
29:03 We are playing.
29:06 Because the basis of spiritual relationship with God
29:13 is how freely you love.
29:15 All right, you think holiness is somebody wearing a dress
29:24 instead of some.
29:25 You ought not to have any pants in the pulpit.
29:29 Well, if you can't have it in the pulpit,
29:31 it don't ought to be anywhere.
29:33 Amen.
29:37 Place don't matter to God.
29:42 I heard him say, "I don't dwell in temples made by hand."
29:47 You know, I'm hanging with some fellas sometime
29:51 and they start cussing.
29:53 And they, you know, they say curse word or something.
29:55 They say, "Oh, I'm sorry, you're worried about me.
29:59 "What are you worried about me?
30:03 "I'm doing my best to keep from cussing too."
30:05 So what are you worried about me?
30:08 (audience applauding)
30:11 I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
30:15 They don't worry about me.
30:20 The one you gotta worry about is God.
30:23 Amen.
30:26 I mean, all of a sudden I preempt God.
30:29 Don't lie in the church.
30:31 What does the church got to do with it?
30:34 They ought to lie anyway.
30:36 Now, so the issue here is,
30:40 what is the motivation for opening the door?
30:44 And this revelatory, no, it's not revelatory,
30:49 it's illumination.
30:50 This illumination was astounding to me last night.
30:54 He says, "For thou hast a little strength."
31:05 You're not strong.
31:06 You're not a powerhouse.
31:13 Then I said, "Well, why don't you give them
31:22 "some more strength since they have a little strength?"
31:25 And then of course the illumination is plain.
31:30 And that is, no matter how much you give,
31:33 they're only gonna use it according to
31:38 the level of faith they have.
31:40 And since none of my creatures
31:47 have the little strength,
31:50 the question is, what do they do with the little strength?
31:57 Yeah.
32:02 I don't have enough strength to do everything.
32:06 I don't have enough strength
32:11 to open some doors I'd like to open.
32:15 And I don't have enough strength to keep doors open
32:23 that are open.
32:24 I need a doorstop.
32:30 All right.
32:31 See, when I tell you,
32:37 "For thou hast a little strength,
32:38 "that will be done," pray for his business.
32:41 Here's what he said, what they did with the little strength.
32:45 He said, "For thou hast a little strength,
32:49 "and hast a little strength."
32:53 (audience applauding)
32:58 You didn't take your little strength
33:01 and go for yourself.
33:05 You didn't take your little strength
33:08 and get the things you've always desired.
33:12 You didn't take your little strength
33:15 and go after the Rolls Royce and go after the big house
33:19 and go after the car and go after the corporation.
33:23 You took your little strength
33:25 and kept my word.
33:29 You took your little strength
33:31 and has not denied my name.
33:37 So because you took your little strength,
33:40 I'm getting ready to do something for your business
33:47 that nobody can stop.
33:48 (audience applauding)
33:52 (audience cheering)
33:55 You took your little strength to see about me,
34:01 and I'm the powerhouse of the universe.
34:05 You didn't say, "Let God take care of it.
34:07 "After all, he is God."
34:09 You took your little strength to back me up.
34:13 Now I'm about to open a door that can't nobody shut.
34:19 (audience cheering)
34:22 What I'm gonna do for you, can't nobody stop it.
34:28 (audience applauding)
34:33 Oh, hallowed be thy name.
34:35 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
34:39 (audience applauding)
34:44 Oh, you don't know how your prayers
34:48 just release your blessing.
34:50 When you pray for his kingdom,
34:52 it release your blessing.
34:54 It release your home.
34:56 It release your car.
34:57 It release your future.
34:59 It release your money.
35:01 For money, you pray for his kingdom.
35:04 And he said, "With your little strength."
35:06 (audience cheering)
35:09 Give somebody a high five.
35:13 And so the next one is on God.
35:18 (audience cheering)
35:21 I'm not buying a house.
35:23 God is buying it.
35:25 I'm not buying a car.
35:27 God is buying it.
35:29 I'm not seeking, running after the woman.
35:31 God will protect me.
35:34 And when God does it, can't nobody.
35:37 (audience cheering)
35:40 (audience applauding)
35:44 Glory!
35:48 Glory!
35:51 Glory!
35:53 (speaking in foreign language)
36:02 (audience cheering)
36:09 (audience applauding)
36:12 (audience cheering)
36:15 (audience cheering)
36:25 (audience cheering)
36:30 (audience cheering)
36:41 (audience applauding)
36:44 You gave it to me.
36:54 (audience cheering)
36:55 You gave it to me.
36:57 (audience cheering)
37:11 (audience cheering)
37:14 (audience cheering)
37:38 (audience cheering)
37:41 (upbeat music)
37:45 ♪ With all my strength ♪
37:54 ♪ I'm gonna worship him ♪
37:55 ♪ With all my strength ♪
37:58 ♪ I'm gonna lift him up ♪
38:00 ♪ With all ♪
38:02 ♪ All ♪
38:04 ♪ All my little strength ♪
38:08 (audience cheering)
38:11 (upbeat music)
38:16 (upbeat music)
38:33 (upbeat music)
38:36 ♪ Praise the Lord everybody ♪
38:43 ♪ Praise the Lord ♪
38:44 ♪ Praise the Lord everybody ♪
38:46 ♪ Praise the Lord ♪
38:47 ♪ Praise the Lord everybody ♪
38:49 ♪ Praise the Lord ♪
38:50 ♪ Praise the Lord everybody ♪
38:52 Come on, put your hands together, come on.
38:54 (upbeat music)
38:57 (upbeat music)
38:59 Is there anybody in here today?
39:09 (audience cheering)
39:11 As the altar workers come,
39:12 is there anybody in here today?
39:15 Something for you in your life.
39:19 I dare you to walk down right now.
39:20 I'm the first one down here.
39:22 Is there anybody?
39:24 Is there anybody with anything going on in your life?
39:27 And you need the hand of the Lord in your life,
39:29 I want you to come on down right now.
39:32 While you're praising,
39:37 somebody is being delivered.
39:40 While you're praising,
39:40 somebody is being healed in this place right now.
39:44 Maybe it's not you,
39:45 maybe it's somebody that you know,
39:47 that you've been praying for.
39:48 I challenge you to intercede on their behalf.
39:52 I challenge you right now. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. Glory be to God.
40:01 Praise the lord.
40:04 Praise the lord.
40:07 Praise the lord.
40:10 Praise the lord.
40:13 Praise the lord.
40:16 Praise the lord.
40:20 Praise the lord.
40:23 Praise the lord.
40:28 Praise the lord.
40:32 Praise the lord.
40:36 Praise the lord.
40:40 Praise the lord.
40:45 Praise the lord.
40:51 He's doing it right now. He's delivering somebody right now. He's healing somebody right now. He's saving somebody right now. Do I have any believers in this?
41:09 You can wave your hand and say hi.
41:13 Oh.
41:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]