Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another episode of walk it out where I meet with your favorite Christian creatives to experience what their walk with Christ looks like on a daily basis. Today we got somebody so special. Artist, worship leader, anointed young man. And a guy just dropped an album, The Good Shepherd.
Y'all, we got Joe L. Barnes coming to walk it out with us today. By the title of the video, you know we're going bowling. I would have not expected that from Joe L. I didn't know he got down with bowling like that.
But we're about to go pick him up as we speak. Y'all stay tuned. Let's go get him. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Man of God. Man of God. What's up, man?
How you feeling? Bro, I got you, I got you. I'm not so good.
I'm going to put it in the back for you. Oh, man. How you feeling? Feeling good, bro. We in Georgia.
We are in Georgia. We are really in Georgia. We are really in Georgia.
You can tell by the heat. Right. But Florida is also bad, but you don't really feel that humidity that much here. It's a little bit less. Man.
How you feeling? I feel like you got a lot going on. Camera, camera, camera.
We here, man. Man, this is it. Yeah, man.
It's good. It's good. How you feeling?
I feel good one. Thank you so much for Doing this one. It's a blessing and honor to easy man. I appreciate it man.
The honors my good man Every time I see you everywhere both weddings parties vacations Hey, I'm sorry to be sorry to be I try to be man. I gotta support the people that's been with me Since day one, they deserve the love, especially with us. But, we about to get into you. We about to get into you. This is why we're here, to walk out our faith.
With the the Joel the Joel Barnes take the D off But but bro if you don't mind what I know you were born and raised in Kentucky born and raised in Kentucky What? you know we know all the math stuff we know all the stuff you're doing now but what was the beginning like how did joe l become who joel is like now as far as the beginning as far as like you don't got to do the whole story but if you could just be like uh this is this is where this is where i came from uh born and raised born in fort knox raised in hockersville kentucky very small country town in kentucky mostly we don't even know where it's at it's like um right on the right on the border of tennessee So it's like right outside of Clarksville at least in Nashville There's an army base there called Fort Campbell like very small very secluded towns. I mean I say small it's like 40,000 people But small compared to like Atlanta, like Nashville, small compared to like, you know what I mean, like LA, New York, like small town. But mom is the advantage of my home church growing up. Dad is ex-military, like retired military, veteran.
I don't know man, I've always been in love with music. I originally wanted to be an R&B artist when I was six years old, all the way till I was about 17. R&B wasn't a thing? Well I wanted to, my mom was not happy heaven.
She was like, you're going to sing for Jesus. You're not going to sing no secular music. Not for the world.
She's not going to let me do it. So me and my brother had the great idea to say like, all right, what we're going to do is we're going to take the R&B styles like sonically in the way that it sounds and feels. We're just going to add like faith to the content, context, like lyrically we'll choose scripture, but sonically we're going to choose the sound.
Yes, the sound of R&B. Now that first album was when I was 18. No one would ever hear it, but Now we gotta go find out now. No, we gotta go find it.
You're never fine My mom loves the album though. So if anybody you know my mom call my mom she get out mama bars That's who you need to Okay. Mama Eva will give you that album if you ask her.
But then I started traveling with a guy named A.D. James around 2014, right after I graduated high school. I graduated high school in 2013. I started traveling with A.D. in 2014. And I went from 2014 to 2018. That's when I met Dante, Aaron, Jesse, like, Naysha, Michelle, Jerry, all my people, which ended up, like, leading to Mav because me and Aaron and Dante, like, me and Aaron snuck into Mav on Dante's, like, invitation. Yeah.
Because it was invite-only back then. Right. But, no, when I was in high school, I joined a Southern, like, Baptist quartet. The quartet group?
Like, yeah, like Roy Revelation, Dr. Jesus. Right. Like, Tim Rogers and the fellas. It was Richard McGregor and the South Jacob. That's what I was part of.
What the heck? Yeah. I feel like a lot of new people don't know about the old school, like, quartet music.
They don't know about quartet music. Yes. They don't know about it.
So, I grew up, when I was in high school, Southern. Singing in a quartet group with Richard McGregor and Sons of Jacob, me and some of my like, some of my close friends to this day. Yeah. We, uh, we're doing that all around the city, all around like the region of like... Kentucky, so anywhere between Hopkinsville and Madisonville and Greensboro and like, um, Katie's and all the things, so that's how I got involved in music, yeah.
This is good. So I'm gonna put you on the spot, I'm gonna get the timer ready. Okay. 60 seconds from beginning to wherever the Lord brought you in your testimony to just let us know how it is. Raw.
Okay. Make sure this is on you. Nah, I can see. We good, we good.
Okay, we good. Alright. Two second testing. You ready?
Yeah. Three, two, one, go. Born and raised in Kentucky by my mother. Being an evangelist in my church.
My father, an ex-military man. There was a three year period of disaster that happened. In 2009, my parents got divorced.
2010, my mother has to have a surgery because she won't stop bleeding. In 2011, my brother committed suicide. In that time, my mother decided to run to the Lord instead of blaming the Lord for all the disaster that happened, which is what sparked and it was the catalyst for my curiosity.
about this man named Jesus that my mother decided to run to instead of blame for everything. So then, through the years of 2014 to about 2018, I started to discover who Jesus was actually, outside of bad theology, outside of skewed vision and all the things, which led to me moving to Covington, Georgia in 2020, submitting under Mark Anthony Castle at the Homestead Covington and Damon Thompson Homestead Mobile, which led to my revelation of Jesus being the good shepherd to this day. So then we're able to give that same revelation to God that he's faithful, he's consistent, he's honest, he's genuine to us. the day that we die and he will lead us to the land of honey in jesus name amen yeah bro that was great oh my gosh there's a lot that you said that i really want to unpack that was that was crazy because i remember the first time hearing you i didn't even know you i heard a million little miracles and you brought up that even in the death of my brother and i'm hearing that testimony is so good even even to the point to where you It was like your mother she didn't decide to blame Jesus right but but to run to him Yeah, and so many times in art like like struggles and our troubles and the things that we go through Sometimes we blame Jesus instead of running to him that he was The answer to everything all along and that sometimes it was a setup for us to be able to experience him like in the first Place there's so many things I could say no, it's like Trying to be careful what I say, but I'll say this I I've seen it over and over again where, and even I've almost felt, like not victim, but almost felt into the same like space to say like, God if you allow this to happen I'll never forgive you kind of thing.
Right. That's usually what happens. Everybody, I feel like in the human experience we are all one text message, one phone call, one bad day, one email, one catastrophic event away from blaming God for everything and walking away from him. Right.
If you see the story like people are like. My mother had cancer and then I believed God to heal her and he didn't. So I blame him and I'll never forgive him kind of thing. It's just like, I understand that. I understand like where you're at, but also like he wasn't the one that, like he wasn't the author of it.
Right. And I think like while we believe God for things, we can't hold him hostage to things. I think a lot of times in the Christian walk, we try to hold God hostage to things. And a lot of times we think that. like saying yes to something guarantees us something like we like we were that's usually what happened in the in the like church for a while it's like people started to tithe because they thought it guaranteed them access to heaven and it's like that's not how it works even in old testament it's like that's not how it works jesus is the only way to the father your tithing is not going to get you access your good behavior isn't going to get you access because you can't behave And expect that that's going to, like, get you access to the kingdom.
Like she said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one sees the Father except through me. So I think we, a lot of times, think that when we don't see the miraculous, or we don't see God's, like, healing power in our lives, we immediately blame Him.
And we never forgive Him for things in that regard. And I think it's interesting. I always ask this question, how different would life have been if Adam would have ran to God instead of hiding from Him when he fell?
How different would the world look if, you see what I'm saying? If he went looking for the Lord, like I made a decision that he told me not to, I'm going looking for him. Because a lot of times we run because we're afraid of disappointment, or we're afraid of the punishment, we're afraid of the backlash. Like there's a lot of things that I think we run from, and I think like how different would it be if when we got ourselves into situations.
We called the Father instead of hiding from him because a lot of times we try to clean ourselves up and make it all back the way it was. We end up making an even bigger mess. But I think we talk about Jesus'death a lot, but we never talk about his life.
And I think while his death was for the cleansing, the remission, and the resurrection, And reconciling the world unto himself. I think his life was fixing our vantage point about the father I think we've lived in this fear of the Lord of saying like I messed up I made mistakes or I whatever and he's going to like smite me and it's like no actually the father is very kind and approach My understanding is like if you would go to him you would actually see it. Anyway, yes. No You with some people's closets. You with some people's closets and I'm like, bruh, this is what this is about And we're getting knowledge.
We're getting wisdom from people who have walked this thing out. And, again, we're thankful and we're grateful. Yeah, man. Appreciate it, man.
So we're going to play a little song association. Are we keeping it worship or are we just all genres? Let's keep it worship. Okay.
Let's keep it worship. Absolutely. So we can either do it two ways.
I can just throw out words at you or I can give you a number between 1 to 25 and you give me a number. And there's a... Word attached to that number. Usually everybody goes for the middle, so I'm not gonna do that and I'm gonna go with two.
Two? Yeah. Okay.
I'm gonna go 15 seconds. Okay. Love. Ooh. God I can't believe how you love me.
What a friend you have been. So good to me. God I can't believe how you love me.
What a friend you have been Love that record Ah, love that record He's singing, he's singing, he's singing I love that record 14 14 Yeah Shepard Come on man Oh good Shepard Lead me on Oh good Shepard I'm right where I belong, I belong here Come on man, that's too easy. Yeah, it is. Hey, alright, you know what, now I'm just picking words at this point. Maybe the numbers not doing me well.
Now I'm just picking words. Alright, alright. Okay, come on. Church.
Feel joy church, feel joy church. He do this y'all. Gotta run them down, it's your church. Yeah, love that record too.
Wow Anymore? I'm just like at this point, I'm like this what you do, this what you known for I mean if we're in a worship like bracket like there's so many songs that like Like we love that like my friends have like been a part of or created or written on so I'm like, you know I've never been here. Y'all don't know he gonna get me right at singing. We actually been doing lessons this whole time and We've been doing like lessons on zoom and whatnot and he really get me ready for the next album Absolutely be like a guest appearance. Of course so y'all just be on the Hey we out man we out You mad right now?
I can't even do this We're at Fumble Henry County to go to go hit him with the Who gonna win? I don't know, but it's all about fun and more conversation. He chose this for a reason, so he know what he doing. Don't believe the hype. Yeah, who is he?
He's just humble. He's just humble. Alright, alright, alright.
What about my name? Your name? I was trying to think of something creative. Kill em! Alright, let's do this.
We good? It's a warm up. It's a warm up.
My leg! Warm up, warm up! There we go, there we go. I just got to make contact. Just stop killing him, just stop.
Mr. Barnes. Focus, focus, focus. Spares. Awesome. Warm up.
Warm up. It was just a... I was...
would you say like the beginning warm-up basically yeah really get the juices on I won by three if you would have got the last ones it would have ended in the top but I know he just showed me grace because you know you know you're about to win this one I'm not going to guarantee, but I mean. But one question I definitely want to ask is, what is one of the most tangible moments where you feel like you've experienced the Lord, and how did that shape your faith? There's one that I've never talked about on camera. I was in Cleveland, Tennessee, at a church called OCI.
Those were my... The father used to like be a youth back other things yet I think all work that's so random Tuesday night like they would have Tuesday night prayer and like service all things off sitting there and They're taking up offering and the things are doing the announcements They play a video clip of the Warrior Fest that's coming, the next one. And they're showing a bunch of the old generals, like the C.S.
Lewis, and they're showing Billy Graham, they're showing T.L. Lowry, they're showing old clips of people preaching. to the max all things but i remember feeling this like for a black a bit of word that's like spark spark off of my chest no one's praying for me no one's laying their hands on me no one's like doing anything it's just like i'm sitting there and i'm watching like something like broke i didn't get what this is i remember walking outside like getting up the service so i get up and i walk outside i sit on the like outside on the front like um area where there's lots of chairs and stuff i remember the spark that started in the building like took over my entire body when I'm outside by myself and I remember weeping hot tears for an hour and a half I'm like crying and laughing and crying and laughing for an hour and a half and I don't think I could speak any English for like that entire time like it's nothing but English right and I'm sitting there like what is happening I remember writing in my journal the next day like what happened I don't know what you did I don't know what you birthed in me but that marked me so like at that point I'm like there's no there's no way to like turn that off yeah head.
It's like, it's solidified. So that's what happened. That's crazy.
And how did that like push you forward to where you are now? I don't say that it pushed me forward. I think it like solidified the foundation so that God could build on top of the foundation. Right. I think hard times show where the foundation is.
I think trials reveal where the foundation is. I think it's moments like that that set the foundation, if that makes any sense. That is really good. Um... I'm gonna start just bowling but another question is we talked about foundations and I felt like this was a great segue to go here when it when we talk about foundations I know I have a lot of friends in the industry and you have friends in the industry that you know everyone talks about the foundations of Jesus Christ is but a lot of the times those foundations aren't as sturdy as a lot of people say they are so what have you seen in your life is the best way to to make sure that that foundation is really solid and you're not swayed with the wind and it's not built on like sand you know what i mean as far as like my walk with jesus yes okay the way i the way i discovered it is that i remember my aunt um was telling a story about like her old house so they were knocking her old house down they bought the property off of her and they're putting her in a new house and she's like keeping sentimental things from the house she's like oh i remember when we first moved in and we had this little keypad or oh Oh, I remember when I bought the first baby crib for my daughter.
Let me keep that. And my uncle was like, they're like, we're about to knock down a house. Do you want us to keep one of the bricks and give it to you? Because you built this house with your own hands. Yeah.
Like for sentimental reasons. And she said that God started talking to her like, who told you that that is what it meant to be sentimental? Who told you that was sentimental?
You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And she was like, it's that kind of thing.
So she was like, I guess I taught myself that. She's like, I started, she basically told me to like, abandon everything you think you know about the world. Anything you think you know about him, anything you think you learned about him up until this point, let all of that go and let God teach you who he actually is. Right. And I think for me, I'm like, okay, that sounds easy enough.
So I decided to try it. I'm like, God, I'm going to abandon everything. I know about you I'm going to let you teach me yourself because you think we look at the Bible Paul is the only person that had like Jesus outside of the disciples teach him the things of the kingdom right you know what I'm saying after the death burial and resurrection he was He was one of the only people that wasn't a part of the disciples at the time.
That was God was teaching him who he actually is. You see what I'm saying? So I think, oh my God, I'm embracing the narrow way, the road less traveled.
Show me who you actually are. Let's go through the text and I want to know who you are from you. I don't want to hear it from all of these different sources or whatever, why they could be good reference points or they could be good like voices.
I want you to teach me exactly who you are. Your nature, your character, your likes, your dislikes, what you really feel like strong about, injustice. Like what you really feel like convicted about like teach me who you actually on in as you get to know Your foundation will be laid without you ever even thinking about laying a brick. Right.
The best way I'll say it is my pastor said this, if you walk with Jesus, you'll discover that the Father is an excellent gardener. We think we have to pull out the weeds of our garden, our internal garden. He's speaking. He's speaking.
But if you walk with Jesus, he'll tell you, like, my father's an excellent gardener. So let's take a walk outside and go and just explore and talk and whatever. When you come back, you'll realize there's less weeds. There's more lilacs. There's more lilies.
There's more roses. There's more dandelions. There's more sunflowers in your garden than when you left this morning.
It's like you'll find out that he's an excellent gardener. So I think... We, somewhere along the line, we have to realize like our walk with Jesus isn't about our works or our efforts or our striving. It's literally about integration. I used to tell my people this way.
I said, God, if you want to interrupt me, interrupt me. If I'm out with my friends, if I'm at dinner, if I'm watching a show, if I'm playing a game, you tap me on the shoulder, I'll leave it all behind and I'll come away with you. And then my girlfriend said, you know, that's really great and noble, but if you live an integrated life, you won't have to live in an interruptible.
See that? Yeah. So instead of like allowing God the space to interrupt you, why don't you invite him into everything you're doing?
Right. Live integrated. And with you living integrated, he's going to be the foundation. And if he's the foundation, nothing's going to shake you.
So I hope that answers the question. No. That is really good. If you live, she said if you live integrated, you won't have to live interruptible. eruptable.
That's really powerful. Bro, that's some good stuff. Yeah.
We're going to come back to this but I'm going to start this. Wow. Damn.
You say you're not playing with me today. I gotta. Man, man, man. I gotta bring my A game. Dang, man!
Dang! Oh, when the storm's out on the ocean That's a throwback! I'm trying to get them off this.
I'm trying to get them off this. Hey, game. And the violent winds get blowing Lord, take me back Back, all the way back. I think this moment is a prime example too, like when we came to bowl and we saw these guys over here and met them.
How do you feel like being a public eye and people know who you are? What does it look like to navigate that space? And expectations that people may set on and put on you. It's such an interesting concept. Because if I'm honest, I hate the concept of Christian celebrityism.
it's it's never it was never supposed to be a thing like worship was never meant to be a industry it was always meant to be a priesthood stephanie gressinger said this and i fully agree with that like perspective and i think while i'm i'm moved at the fact that people love the music right i'm moved at the fact that people like join into those moments of worship and like god is amazing things with it i'm also very like careful about it because I'm like listen my my whole job is to create a space where God can be found and discovered and if he's not found he's not discovered if what people leave with me being the focus I didn't do my job one of my own mentors said this Eddie James he said my job is watching it every time I step on a platform every time I step into a space to lead it's to it's to cultivate and create an atmosphere so heavy with God's presence that I can leave the the platform and no one would notice because they were so fixated on the face of Jesus. If I can do that, then I did my job well. Because it's not about me as the person leading.
We are all one worship team. You know what I'm saying? It's a very interesting space.
I'm like, while I'm grateful and I'm humbled, I'm also like, I'm not the Lord. I can't do anything for you. One of my secret prayers before I leave worship at any moment is I'm like, God, I am not depending on my gifting.
I'm not depending on my knowledge of you. I'm not depending on my knowledge of presence or how to navigate it. I solely depend on you because people here are actually hurting.
They are actually here expecting transformation, restoration, healing, miracle signs and wonders for their lives. their family, like they're dealing with all kinds of things and them getting out of bed and showing up to this doorstep is their yes and expectation. If they only get me and some good singing, they're not going to leave in freedom. They're going to leave it in bondage.
And they're not gonna be impressed and neither am I. We need you. You are the focus. You are the entire point of this moment. So, we have a set list.
We have things that we set. But like, you can completely throw all of it out the window if there's something else that you wanna do or there's something else you wanna say. Because I think, um...
People actually are in need of a lot of things. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm in need. I'm like, God, sometimes it's me standing in a need of prayer. Like, I'm in need of some things.
And I'm like, I'm not... I do not want to be the focus. I do not want to steal your shine, steal your spotlight, steal your glory. Like, I do not want to be a thief. And we've all been thieves.
Boy... I'm about to weep. I'm sorry.
I just feel like we've all been thieves at some point or another. And I'm like, God, I don't want to be a thief. I want you to be the focus.
I want you to be the face. It's going to be you anyway. It's going to be you anyway.
So I think it's a very interesting space to be in as a worship leader that's leading and is gaining influence and gaining notoriety because God is very particular about the priesthood. Like, if you want to be, if you want to be, if you want to have notoriety, you want to have influence, you want to have fame, go be a mainstream artist. Right. That's the marketplace. Like, I think that like, that's the place where God is not going to be mad at you for having notoriety.
He's not going to be mad at you for being like, yeah, you know, I'm, you know, He's never going to be mad at you about being the it person. So what would you say to those people? Because there are a lot of people who start off and worship music, but then want to go mainstream. But my question is, was their heart in it for the right reasons?
or do they you know where I'm going I know exactly where you're going and I have an answer for you here's the thing I think that there's a guy that has this thought process that I think is very controversial but I think it's interesting he said there are a lot of people that are playing in bars that should be leading worship and there are a lot of people that are leading worship that should be playing in bars but they never gave themselves the permission because they felt like I'm going to be going against God to be in mainstream music and I'm like that's not true You don't get a Phil Collins, you'll be in my heart, for the Tarzan album, unless you're in the mainstream market. Right. You see what I'm saying? Yeah.
I think that there's a space for it, there's a place for it. But I think that you're right, posture is where it's at. For people that don't believe that they have what it takes to make it in mainstream, to then try to utilize the priesthood to be the segue into mainstream, that's where it gets dangerous.
Because the one thing that Jesus ever got violent about in the New Testament, Right. is when they turned the house of prayer to it. You turned a priesthood into a marketplace. You prostituted the priesthood. That's when Jesus is going to get violent about something.
So, I think that if you're called to the priesthood, be a priest. If you're called to the mainstream market, go in the mainstream market and understand God is going to navigate your way in either one. As long as your heart, your intentions, and your submissive nature is pure.
Boy, this is something. So yeah. This is some good stuff!
I'm about to go bowl right now because I'm about to... Go kill em! Kill em?
Kill em softly! Oh kill him oh kill him oh Hey, no gutter You just finished. It's the walk-off. Ah, I got too confident. God always going to humble you.
He's always going to humble you. You lost the last one. We broke 100 on this one.
I mean, but this was the one that counted, though. This is the one that counts Both count Yeah So we have to like Tiebreaker One day Right right One day We might run it back part two Who knows But Thank you sir Anytime Anytime And just If you have anything you want to Share What's coming up What you got Let the people know Nah man I'm moving Album's already out Go listen to the album If you haven't heard it Nah man God is the good shepherd He is You'll discover it If you listen to the album Amen Yeah amen We out Make sure Make sure you like, comment, subscribe. Love y'all. Thank you for supporting Walk It Out.
We out! Thank you for watching to the end of the video and for your constant support. I cannot do this without y'all. And with that being said, now we got a problem with YouTube for real. TimberWare demonetized my entire channel.
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Till the next time, love y'all. Y'all be blessed. See you.