Nice to be able to introduce Jason and his family.
We appreciate their ministry and the work there
and what God is doing and I pray for them all
the time. It's very important. We need prayer
and pray for his whole family as well. We do,
before you come up here, do want to remember
also Hunt Keith and Monica. That's a serious
request. It doesn't mean that others are not
serious, but that's a serious request. Jason,
you want to come up here and take your time,
and we are just thankful. Thank the Lord for
your outreach with the children. That's a very,
very, very important area to reach the precious
children. Amen. Thank you, brother. Well, good
morning. How are you all doing this morning?
Good. I'm going to start by doing a little something
for the children. I like that little stand. One
of the things you'll see me do, after I do something
for the children, I'm gonna go on Facebook, and
I put my videos on Facebook of my preaching.
And so what normally happens is you actually
multiply. And I normally get about 100, maybe
200 more people who at least see a blip of me.
I don't know if they watch the whole message
or not, but you know. But my thought is, is you
know, I've spent all this time preparing this
message. If somebody else sees it, praise the
Lord. Let's get as much mileage as I can out
of my sermons, right? All right, so I'm gonna
do something for the kids. So kids, if you can't
see the table over here, please get to a place
where you can see that. If you wanna come up
here and sit on the floor, you can do that. Or
if we wanna clear the front row, we can do that
too. Do you wanna clear the front row? I've got
some really cool little illustrations here. Okay,
it's clear. Come on up. Come on up. If you're
little or young and hard, let's fill up these
four chairs. You want to come up and see, honey?
There you go. And you can kind of scooch scooch
together. You have something? You can chair a
chair. There you go. There you go. That'll work.
There we go. Or we can bring an extra chair for
you, honey. There you go. All right, very good.
Well, I'm gonna start with this book right here.
Can somebody tell me what does that say? Holy
Bible, that's right. Now, the Bible is God's
true book, and he loves each and every one of
us very much. And the Bible, Sometimes when people
read the Bible, you know what they see when they
read the Bible? They don't see anything. It just
seems really boring. Have you ever read the Bible
and it just kind of seemed like a bunch of words?
And it was just like, I'm just not getting anything
out of reading God's Word. Well, I want to encourage
you to keep reading God's Word. Because the more
you read God's Word, the more you'll get to see.
And actually, you gotta watch it because if you
turn away, you'll actually miss what God has
for you in His Word. Did you see something different?
What did you see that was different? Yeah. It
was blank and then it saw pictures. It was blank?
Are you sure? Because when I flipped it, I think
it's just blank. I don't think there's anything
in there. I saw something! You did? Okay. You
saw a picture in there? Let me try that again.
Let me see if I see. How did that happen? Boys
and girls, if you know the Lord Jesus as your
Savior, the more you read the Bible, the more
it becomes alive to you. So I want to encourage
you to keep reading the Word of God. Keep reading
it and it will become more and more alive to
you. And when you get to my age, this is what
begins to happen. The word of God becomes so
much alive to you that there's even color in
it, all right? What I mean by that is that you
learn more and more of the scriptures, okay?
So keep reading God's word, even if right now
it seems kind of boring, or even if you're at
kind of the mid -level, or even if you are seeing
all the truths in it. We can never exhaust God's
word, so keep reading God's true book, the Bible.
Now, I've got this little book right here that
actually one of my summer missionaries made.
And this is a pop -up, wordless book. Some of
you may know Bethany Hutchins, and she made this
book. She made it by hand. There's only a few
of these in print. If you'd like to buy one,
talk to me afterwards. I'll be glad to show you
where you can get one. But this reminds us, this
little book right here, it reminds us of heaven.
I want it! You do? Do you know who lives in heaven?
Yes, I really like to pick people that raise
their hand. So if you raise your hand, I'll call
on you. Yes, sir That's right. God lives in heaven.
What do you think does God love us or does he
hate us? You gotta raise your hand Yes, sir That's
right, he takes care of the world and he is really
good the Bible says in John 3 16 for God so loves
the world That means that he loves you, and you,
and you, and you, and you, and you, and you,
and everybody, okay? There's not one person that
God doesn't love. But, there's one thing that
God can't allow into heaven. And that's what
the next page reminds us of. Sin. Sin is the
bad things that we think, say, and do that make
God sad and break his laws. In fact, I like to
do a little motion with that. You can do it with
me. Sin is anything we think, say, or do. that
makes God sad and breaks His walls. Can you guys
think of some examples of sin? Can you raise
your hand and give me an example? Yes, sir? Hitting
someone. Hitting someone. So I'm going to let
this little bottle right here represent sin,
because it's all nice and dark. And I'm going
to let this water right here represents our lives.
So when we sin, when we hit somebody or something
like that, ooh, that kind of messes things up,
doesn't it? Yeah. OK, what's another example
of sin? Yes, sir? We sin when we say cuss words.
Yes, we sin when we say cuss words. Yep, that's
a good example of sin. What's another example
of sin? Yes, sir? Being mean to someone. Being
mean to someone, lying or hitting someone like
we said before. Can you guys think of an example
of sin? No? Yes, in a row? Cheating. Cheating,
cheating on a test, yeah. Alright, one more,
one more. Yes, sir? Lying, that's right, not
telling the truth. Cheating and lying are actually
very similar to each other. And you know, the
Bible says that all of us have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Can you take your
hands and open them up like this for me? We're
gonna let these fingers represent everybody in
the world. And this thumb's gonna represent God.
Open up your hand. We're gonna let this hand
represent sin. We're gonna put sin between all
the people in the world and God. God can't get
together with us because what's in the way? Sin.
That's right, sin is in the way. Pastor Peter,
this is for the kids. So the Bible tells us that
we've all sinned and come short of the glory
of God. So God did something to take care of
our sin. Does anyone know what God did to take
care of our sin? Yeah. So when he died for us,
he took care of our sins. That's right. When
Jesus died on the cross, he paid for our sins.
Isn't that cool? He died on the cross to take
care of all of our sins. So we're gonna go back
over here to our little cup and we're gonna take
the cross and we're gonna put it in that little
cup. The cross is gonna represent the blood of
Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus died for
all of our sins and he paid for our sins so that
we could be made clean. We like to sing a song.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus the Bible tells us in
first Corinthians 15 3 & 4 it says Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures that
he was buried look at there He was buried and
he rose again the third day And he took away
Isn't that cool boys and girls look I want to
show you something else in my little book that
maybe you didn't see You see, you see the tomb
right there? Can you take and move that stone
away from me? Pick it up like this. Grab that,
what do you see in there? Nothing, you know why?
Because the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive.
Can you say Jesus is alive? That's right, Jesus
is alive and because of what Jesus did by dying
on the cross and paying for your sins. Oh, well
thank you. Yes, I will take a minute. I appreciate
that. Are you trying to say I have bad breath?
Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. The Bible
tells us that God gives us an invitation to heaven.
In John 1 -12 it says, but as many as received
him, to them he gave the right to become the
children of God. Boys and girls. Moms and dads,
have you ever put your faith and trust in Jesus
Christ? Have you ever asked him to save you from
your sins? You can do that today and be cleansed
from your sins. I did. Good. And once you come
to know Jesus as your Savior, he wants you to
grow in him. The way that you grow in Jesus is
by going to church. Hey, we're in church right
now, aren't we? Yeah, we're already in. Reading
your Bible. Because remember, as you read your
Bible, more and more it becomes what? more and
more alive to you. And then obey your parents
and those in authority and tell someone else
the greatest story ever told about the greatest
man who ever lived. All right, boys and girls,
thank you so much for being such good listeners.
I think it's time for you to go to Sunday school.
So we'll turn it over to the Sunday school teacher.
Are they staying in here? All right, okay, so
we're ready for you to all head out. Thank you
guys for being such good listeners. If you have
questions about that, come and see me afterwards.
So that's one of the methods that we use to share
the gospel with the children and we do a variety
of those things at the North Carolina Mountain
State Fair. We also do a Vangie Cube and all
kinds of fun stuff. So while this is booting
up, I'm gonna, there we go. Well, before I hit
that, I'm gonna give you all a little update
on the ministry. Thank you for letting me come
and share about the ministry of CEF. Thank you
for partnering us with us in the ministry of
CEF for many, many years. And it's been a good
partnership. It's been a wonderful, we've seen
the Lord do some amazing things. In fact, Monica
just tracked and I asked her to go back and look
at the last five years of ministry. And I said,
how many people have we shared the gospel with?
And on average, we share the gospel with maybe
three or probably about 3 ,000 people a year
on average. However, when she went back and looked
at our numbers, I said, I want you to count.
all the missionaries that we've had trained,
and that have used Child Evangelism Fellowship
as well, and the people that they have shared
the gospel with. And so over the last five years,
by God's grace, we've shared the gospel with
21 ,000, over 21 ,000 people have heard the gospel
in the last five years through Child Evangelism
Fellowship. And you're a part of that. You're
a part of the 1 ,600 that heard the gospel at
the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. 1 ,650
and 57 professions of faith. You're a part of
that. That's not us. That's Christ in us. That's
you and I partnering together to share the gospel.
Pete and Dorothy gave me their van. And it has
been a blessing. I drive that every day, almost.
And it's been a good vehicle. And I appreciate
that very much. It's been a blessing. It's been
a great help. So by together, we're partnering
together to reach the lost. Many years ago, when
I came and shared here, I think we had zero after
school good news clubs. Today we have 28 after
school good news clubs. And we'll have, actually,
we're close to 30, but we're actually in 28 schools.
The reason that we have 30 is because we have
one that's not in a public school. It's actually
in a mentally challenged facility. And then we
have one that's splitting into two, because there's
so many children in the club. There's about 50
children in the club, so we have to split it.
And it works much better. So we thank you guys
for being a part of the Ministry of Child Evangelism
Fellowship. You might ask, how do you get so
many people to North Carolina Mountain State
Fair? Well, I want to point to those three young
men that are sitting right behind Pete. Those
three young men, Joshua, Daniel, and Joseph,
were a tremendous, they were my bait. It wasn't
because of their good looks, although I think
they are good looking, but I'm biased. But it
was because the North Carolina Mountain State
Fair, they made little balloons, little animal
balloons. And we put up a sign, free balloons,
and that brought people in. And I'll tell you
what, we didn't have a lot of downtime. It just
brought the people in. We didn't have to stand
there very long until someone would come in.
We had one girl come in, and I shared the gospel,
and her eyes got real big, and I was like...
Okay, does she understand what I'm saying? Is
she from another country? And I had some bags
that some of you had packaged, Debbie had packaged,
for Helene, that were left over from Helene,
with little gifts in them and tracks. And I gave
her one. And she took off. And then I see about
five or six Muslim women coming into our tent.
And I started trying to share with them about
Jesus. I tried to start giving them tracks. And
they're like, nope, we're not gonna take any
tracks. Nope, nope, we're, nope, nope, nope.
I said, oh, well, would you like a bag of treats
and toys with tracks in it? No, I didn't say
there were tracks in it. And they're like, yes,
thank you so much. And they took them and they
took them. And of course we had wonderful opportunities.
Joshua had opportunities to lead some people
to the Lord. I had opportunities to lead some
people to the Lord. And it was just a wonderful,
wonderful time. There were those that came in.
And I started sharing the gospel. I remember
one couple all came in and sharing with their
son. And as I started sharing, I was actually
flipping through, not using the wordless book,
but my Avangy cube. And I showed a picture of
the cross and Jesus on the cross. And they went
like this to their child. And they actually blocked
their child from seeing the picture of Jesus
on the cross. There's a group of people that
believe that you should have no images of Jesus,
that that's idolatry. and so they'll cover their
eyes of their children when they do it. They
were Christians, but then I've had other ones
where I would be sharing the gospel and I, and
as soon as the parent realized what we were doing,
they would go like this to the children's ears.
No, don't let my children hear that. And you
think, well, why not? Well, it's because the
God of this world has blinded them. They do not
know, they do not understand. They do not know
the spirit of God. You're a part of the ministry
as the gospel goes out to those people. We have
Buddhists come into our tent. They were very
kind, very nice people. Do you like to receive
Jesus as your savior? No, no, we're Buddhists.
But they were very kind and very listening. And
had we not had those balloons, they would not
have come in. They would have just kept on walking.
Because other than the balloons, there's really
nothing very attractive about our tent. And other
than the Holy Spirit. But He's the most attractive
thing, isn't He? He's the one that draws people
with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we have the
North Carolina Mountain State Fair, we have the
Fair, we have the After School Good News Clubs,
and we have Christian Youth in Action, which
reminds me, I have with me, I brought with me.
I gave one to Dave, I mean Pete, but there are
other ones. We have a retreat coming up, February
20th, 21st, and 22nd. It's gonna be at Bryson
City. And so if you are 12 or up, and I think
all of you. in this room are either 12 or up,
you're welcome to come to this. And actually,
I need adults as well. Last year that we did
this, I really struggled with having adults at
this event to help with the children. I think
I didn't have that many, but I'm partnering together
with several churches in the local area, and
I'm actually having a Baptist pastor from Liberty
Baptist. Pete got to meet him the other day.
great young man, loves the Lord, really good
apologetic preacher. And he's gonna be preaching,
and our theme is gonna be modern day martyrs
for Christ. The message I preached last week
at our little church was about having a martyr
mentality. And I was gonna preach it this week,
but the Lord told me not to. So I said, okay
Lord, this is Friday, I'm preaching on Sunday,
what do you want me to preach on? And so I'll
be sharing that with you in just a moment. If
you would, go ahead, let's go ahead and start
with a word of prayer. And then we'll get started.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for
your goodness and your love and your mercy. Thank
you for the joy of the Lord. We're reminded,
Father, that your word says the joy of the Lord
is our strength. Lord, we pray for our children.
We thank you, Lord, for the children that are
coming to faith and trust in Jesus Christ and
the after school Good News Clubs. Lord, I'm reminded
of the little girl I was able to lead to the
Lord just last week. And Lord, I pray for these
other children as they reach out by faith and
take the Lord Jesus as their savior. Lord, we
thank you that we can have an environment for
them to grow and learn from the word of God about
your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, Father,
as we open up your word that you would convict
us of sin. Lord, that you would help us to live
with a martyr's mentality. but Father, that you
would also help us to live in your presence where
there is fullness of joy. In Jesus' name, amen.
Have you ever known a Christian who, well, to
put it nicely, they were not full of the joy
of the Lord. Rather, they were kind of scally.
And, you know, they would kind of look at people
funny when they came in late for the service.
Or maybe they'd scowl at a child as they run
through the church service and say, don't you
know they could knock someone over, or hurt somebody.
Not realizing that, that that's the future of
the church, is our children. Or have you ever
met a Christian who is always grumbling, well,
this world is just terrible, you know, the president
and this, that, and the other thing, and I've
just got all these problems I'm dealing with,
and they're just, argh! Have you ever met someone
like that? Well, we're gonna look at a passage
of scripture. Go ahead and turn with me to the
Gospel of John chapter 15. Because we're gonna
be talking today about the joy of the Lord. There
was an old Chinese proverb, old Chinese proverb
of a king who wanted to be joyful, wanted to
be happy. And so he sent out his messengers and
he told his messengers, he says, or he took his,
brought in his wise men. He said to his wise
men, he says, what? What do I need to do to be
joyful? What do I need to be to be happy? And
they also, they had their little council and
they talked together and they said, well, what
you need to be joyful and excited is you need
to go and you need to find the most joyous, the
most happiest man in your kingdom. And you need
to get his shirt and you need to wear it. And
that will make you happy. That will make you
joy. So he sent out his messengers throughout
the whole land. And they came back to the king
a month later and they said, well, king, We found
the happiest man in your kingdom. This is okay.
Great. Where's his shirt? It says well, we got
talked about that you see we went and we found
this man and he's a farmer and he's extremely
poor and He doesn't own a shirt You see joy cannot
be bought It has to be found and the only way
that we can find the joy of the Lord is in the
presence of the Lord. And yes Joshua, it's time
for Psalm 16 11. I say that to my children because
they know that that is my favorite verse of all
time. And I'm actually gonna preach from it as
well. You can look it up or you can put your
finger in John 15, you can turn there if you'd
like or you can just listen to me as I quote
it. There are three points really. in Psalm 16,
11. It says, you will show me the path of life.
In your presence is fullness of joy. And at your
right hand are pleasures forevermore. You see
that Christian who is not full of joy is not
full of Jesus. They're full of anxieties and
worries and woes and of criticism. but they're
not full of Jesus. What's the remedy for that?
Well, the remedy is spending time with Jesus.
You will show me the path of life. That's the
first part of the verse. Psalm 23 says, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. He is the one
who's leading us. He's the one who's guiding
us. He's the one who's showing us where we're
to go, what we're supposed to do. In fact, further
on in Psalm 23, it says, you will show me, The
Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. He leads me in the
paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Oftentimes,
the animals that we have reflect the owner we
are. So if you're a good shepherd, your sheep
will be well taken care of. If you've got puppies,
which by the way, we have puppies right now.
You will love them and take good care of them
and be kind to them. Our good shepherd, he's
a good shepherd. He takes good care of us. He
takes good care of me and he takes good care
of you. He is the good shepherd who laid down
his life for his sheep. In your presence is fullness
of joy. That's the second part. Where do we find
joy? in the presence of the Lord. Now, John 15,
turn, we'll go ahead and flip over to John 15.
I've already given my first two points in the
first few verses, but that's okay. John 15, we
see a direct correlation between the joy of the
Lord and the presence of the Lord and abiding
in the Lord. So, John 15, we're gonna read verses
one through 10. And I'm going to give you a little
assignment as I read this passage. I want you
to see how many times you see the word abide
or abiding in this passage. John 15, I am the
true vine and my father is the vine grower. Every
branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes
away. And every branch that bears fruit, he cleanses.
He cleanses it so that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word which
I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you.
And a branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless
it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much
fruit. For apart from me, you can do hardly anything.
You can do almost nothing. Now, what's it say?
Nothing. Good for us to remember that, isn't
it? Without Christ, we can do nothing. If anyone
does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a
branch and dries up, and they gather them and
cast them into the fire, and they are buried.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you,
ask whatever you wish. Now, this is not a wish
list. And it will be done for you. That's because
you're abiding in the Father. You know what the
Father wants. And so you're going to ask for
things that the Father wants, not things that
you want. My Father is glorified by this, that
you bear much fruit. He is for us. He wants us
to bear fruit. He wants us to see souls come
to the kingdom. He wants us to advance his kingdom.
He desires that for us. And so, verse 8 my father
is glorified by this that you bear much fruit
and so prove to be my disciples show that you're
my disciples bear fruit just as the father has
loved me i have also loved you abide in me uh
love you abide in my love if you keep my commandments
you will abide in my love just as i have kept
my father's commandments and abide in his love
These things I have spoken unto you so that my,
oh, there's the word, joy may be in you and that
your joy may be complete. Psalm 16, 11. You will
show me the paths of life in your presence's
fullness. How much joy? Fullness of joy. Where
do we go to try to get our joy from? Well, yes,
that's where we should go. But where do we often
go? Worldly things. Just yell some out. What
are some worldly things that we go to to try
to find fulfillment? TV. TV, very good. What
else? Alabama football. Alabama football, you
said it brother. How about stuff? Do we try to
find our joy in buying things? Immoral things.
Yeah, immoral things. What's that? Materialism.
Materialism, yes. How about social media? Facebook.
How many likes that we get? Yeah. Friends. All
kinds of things that we go to to try to find
fulfillment. But I want to propose to you that
fulfillment is not found in things or whatever.
It's found in Christ. And that is the complete
satisfaction of our joy. The completeness of
our joy is Okay, now I'm going to stop for just
a moment because I remembered I asked you a question.
How many times did we see the word abide here?
Ten. Yes, either nine or ten times depending
on your translation. So nine or ten times abide
in me. Now what does it mean to abide? Remain.
What's that? Remain. Remain. To stay with me.
How many of you remember the time when you met
your future husband or your future wife? And
all you wanted to do was to abide with them.
You didn't have to say anything, although oftentimes
you did. But you just wanted to be with them.
And sometimes it would go from California all
the way over to North Carolina. You'd fly, you'd
drive, or you'd do whatever you could just to
be with that person. And it was like I just,
and then you'd get there and you're just... Why
is that? It's because you love them. And when
they start to love you back, something happens.
You start to be indwelt with a joy and realization
that somebody loves me. You see, joy comes from
love. It comes from love. That's why we can be
joyous as Christians. Because... God loves us
just shared that with the kids and when we receive
that love it turns into joy as I was meditating
on this I was thinking of a waterfall and That
beautiful waterfall maybe in heaven. I don't
know. I'm just you know. I'm using my my spiritual
imagination So in heaven spiritual imagination
a beautiful waterfall, and it falls down into
a pool And then that pool goes over into another
waterfall. The first waterfall is love. The second
waterfall is joy. There are many Christians that
will greedily, readily agree, yes, God loves
me. But they have yet to go over the second waterfall
to be filled with the joy of the Lord. But the
Bible tells us in this passage that he wants
us to be full of joy. joy, and in him is complete
joy. Okay, so we know God loves us. We know that
he wants us to be full of his joy. All right,
how do we get it? Well, Psalm 16, 11. In your
presence is fullness or complete joy. What is
the presence of the Lord? What is the fullness
of the Lord? It is in prayer. It is in being
with him, fellowshiping with him in prayer, abiding
in him, loving him. If I were to ask the average
person, if I was to take a survey and I was to
ask the average person, what are the two things
that you want out of life? I think they would
all say, once you get down past everything, you
know, surface level, they would say to be loved
and to be happy. Translation, love and joy. When
you look at the fruits of the spirit, the first
one is what? Love. What's the second one? Joy.
Love is God giving us his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when Jesus died on the cross and paid
for our sins. That's love. What is joy? Joy is
when we receive that and let it come out and
spend time in his presence. I was asked, By my
friend hunt a couple of years ago. We first came
into the ministry about four years ago. He said
Jason How much time do you spend in the presence
of the Lord praying? and I said He said I thought
so I Didn't really have much of an answer. I
mean, yeah, I did I did pray but I like hunt
praise And he said, you need to be spending an
hour to two hours of prayer every day. I said,
how do you do that? Don't you run out of things
to say? And things to do? And he said, I'll pray
for you. That God will show you how to pray.
The next morning, I woke up at 4 .30 or 5 .30.
I don't remember exactly what it was. Religiously,
I got up until that point four years ago at seven
in the morning. But the next day I woke up at
about 4 .30 or 5 .30 and I woke up with this
on my mind. God is calling the prayer. And what
that is is a calling to go deeper with God than
you have been before. So when you have those
sleepless nights, pray. When you wake up in the
middle of the night and you don't know what to
do, that's God calling to you like with Samuel.
Samuel, Samuel. And what are you supposed to
do? You're supposed to run to his arms. You're
supposed to jump into that pool of joy and let
him carry you over a waterfall of love and joy.
He wants to fill you. In his presence is fullness,
his complete joy. So whenever we try to find
joy in something else, it will leave us dry.
But when joy, the love of God, and then the joy
of God become our source, Then, everything else
flows out from underneath of that. Love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
self -control. That all comes down. Other waterfalls,
more waterfalls, just going down, flowing down,
deeper and deeper until what happens? Until it
overflows and the people get around to say, you're
weird, but I like it. Your wife ever say that
to you? Or your husband ever say that to you?
Maybe they didn't say weird. You're different.
But you know that difference attracts the world
to you actually it attracts them to Jesus Which
is exactly what we want. We want them to be attracted
to the Lord Jesus We want to have that fullness
of joy Turn with me if you will to the book of
Revelation chapter 19 You know, I wanted to share
a little bit about hunt this morning. Please
continue praying for Hunt. He is in his last
days. I heard from Nathan Boone, who's a summer
missionary and a very dear friend of our family's,
and he said that Hunt was, or Monica said to
Hunt that Hunt was packing his bags. He was getting
ready to go to heaven. He doesn't have much longer.
Maybe three more weeks. We don't know but we're
trusting and we're waiting on the Lord for whatever
happens and knowing that he's ready to go and
I got to see him and if that was really a good
thing and I thank the Lord for allowing me to
see him When I went to see him I was sitting
in a rocking chair was outside of his apartment
building and I heard them before I saw them.
But if you know Hunt, that's Hunt. But you know
what I heard? I heard this, yippee! And he comes
running out of the door down to see me. And we
had a wonderful time. We had a wonderful time.
And I share that, that with you because this
next passage reminds me and what... reminds me
of what it's gonna be like to go to heaven. What
are we gonna say? What are the first words when
we go to heaven? Yippee, I'm finally here, I've
made it. Yes, thank you Lord. Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah, hallelujah. I wanna look at this
word hallelujah because this word hallelujah
has actually connected with God's love and his
joy and his peace. And in the New Testament,
there are only four times that we come across
the word hallelujah. And guess what? We're gonna
read all four of them in one passage right here
in Revelation chapter 19. In fact, let's do something
fun. As we read this, we're gonna try to do this.
We're gonna do another corporate reading today.
And as I read this, when we come to the word
hallelujah, or I'll just point at you, and I
want you all to say hallelujah, okay? You do
that with me? All right, here we go. Yes, sir?
I am in, I am using, what is this one? It is
MacArthur, it says LSB. Yes. John MacArthur.
That way everybody yells, that way everybody
yells hallelujah at the same time. There you
go. Well, that's why I point to you as well.
So that worked out just fine. All right. After
these things, I heard something like a loud voice
with a great crowd in heaven saying, hallelujah.
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God
because his judgments are true and righteous
for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting
the earth. with her sexual immorality, and he
has avenged the blood of his slaves shed by her
hand. And a second time they said, Hallelujah!
Her smoke rises up forever and ever, and the
twenty -four elders and the four living creatures
fell down and worshiped God, who sits on the
throne, saying, Amen! Hallelujah! And a voice
came from the throne, saying, Give praise to
our God, all ye his slaves, you who fear him.
the small and the great then I heard something
like the voice of a great crowd and like the
sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty
peals of thunder saying for the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns let us rejoice there you
go there's our joy word Let us rejoice and be
glad and give glory to him for the marriage of
the lamb has come and his bride has made Herself
ready and it was given to her to clothe herself
in the fine linen and bright and clean For the
fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints
How many of you have ever been to a wedding before
I think all of us probably have been to a wedding
It's a phenomenal event where the bride gets
decked out in a beautiful garment and the guy
dresses up but he can't really match the bride
but anyway you know he tries but in heaven it's
a reversal right it's the bridegroom that is
the glory of heaven the bride is still beautiful
and it's still be wonderful but in the in this
culture it's the bridegroom that takes front
and center stage And we see this word. Hallelujah.
Let's talk about this little word. Hallelujah
real quick. This is a this is a really neat word
Because if you go to Russia, you know the Russian
word for hallelujah's Hallelujah, it's practically
the same thing you know if you go to almost any
country in the world and You use that word. It's
the same thing. It's pronounced the same way
why? Because it is a heavenly word You see right
here in this passage, they're saying this in
heaven. Hallelujah. What does it mean? It means
praise to our God. Praise to God. Praise to Yahweh.
Actually, J -A -H is an abbreviation, a short
verb of Yahweh. If I was speaking to a Jewish
congregation right now, a messianic, you all
would be going like this. He just said the name
of Yahweh. They weren't even supposed to try
to say the name of Yahweh, the name of God, that
sacred name. Why? Because it's so special. But
getting back to hallelujah, where in the Old
Testament do we see the word hallelujah, that
word used? Well, we see it in Psalm 146 to Psalm
150, at the beginning and at the end of those
psalms. We see it in the beginning. Oftentimes,
now in those particular Psalms, you don't necessarily
see this, but there are other Psalms where it's
at the beginning and the end of a battle. Praise
to God. Hallelujah. Here, in this passage, it's
at the end of the battle. Hallelujah. You see,
oftentimes us Christians live as defeated Christians,
but we need to live as victorious Christians.
where we can say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
He has won the victory. Aren't you glad today
that he has won the victory? And we can live
with this in mind, that you and I will be a part
of that throng someday, that we'll say hallelujah,
hallelujah, what, a savior? We're gonna skip
down to verse six. Then I heard something like
the voice of a great cloud, crowd and like the
sound of many waters. That's what made me think
of the waterfalls and like the sound of mighty
peals of thunder saying hallelujah for the Lord
our God, the almighty reigns. We oftentimes sing
the song oftentimes when we come here to this
church, behold our God seated on the throne.
Come let us adore him. Behold our King. When
you pray think about that sing that song think
about being The one who loves us the one died
for us What would it be like to come before his
throne? That's like getting in that pool of love
going down the waterfall of love and joy There's
nothing like being in the presence of the Lord
in your presence is fullness of joy. Now we come
to the last point. And at thy right hand are
pleasures forevermore. Psalm 23, the last verses
in Psalm 23 say, and goodness and mercy will
follow me all the days of my life. And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Not just
a weekend, not just a vacation, but for... The
joy of the Lord doesn't stop at death. No, no,
no, no. It's increased at death. The love of
the Lord, it doesn't stop at death. It increases
at death. We go up another level. I'm reminded
of Pilgrim's Progress, where Pilgrim is in the
city of Vanity Fair, and he's there with Christian,
and they're in that city. Faithful is put to
death and he dies And Christian says this is
he sees that mighty chariot come down from heaven.
He says I Considered that faithful did better
than me Because he went to heaven before me So,
you know when we have loved ones who die friends
and so on and so forth They're actually doing
better than us Oftentimes we think, well, I'm
still here. But no, the heaven is real. And they
are believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and they
died before us. They're better off. They're better
off. Turn with me to the book of Acts. Book of
Acts chapter seven, verse 56. You will show me
the paths of life in your presence is fullness
of joy in your right hand or pleasures forevermore
That's Psalm 16 11. I haven't memorized it. Go
memorize it. I tell my boys Where is it gonna
be Daniel? Where are you gonna put it? On my
tombstone. It's going there Psalm 16 11 and Then
you can put underneath that's where he's at right
now He's in heaven. He's in the presence of his
Savior In your presence is fullness of joy, and
at your right hand, oh, you will show me the
path of life. In your presence is the fullness
of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures
forevermore. That phrase, at your right hand,
is repeated right here in Acts chapter seven,
verse 56. It says, I saw the heavens open and
the Son of Man, that's Jesus, standing at the
left hand of God. Nope, that's not what it says.
Standing at the where? The right hand of God.
So, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Psalm
16 11 and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Who's at the right hand of God? Jesus! That's
where our joy is. That's where our love is. It's
at the right hand of God. And how long? Forever
and ever and ever and ever. We can think of our
loved ones. Our husbands, our wives, our grandparents.
Sometimes our children. at the right hand of
God, where complete joy is, full joy, not just
partial joy, but full joy, complete joy at His
right hand. The Bible tells us in 1st Samuel
17 47, as David gets ready to go fight Goliath,
he says, the battle belongs to the Lord. You
know, so how's that fit into what you're saying?
Well, this is it. Our lives are like that battle.
Our lives belong to the Lord. And so if we're
full of the joy of the Lord, we're full of the
spirit of the Lord, then guess what? We've already
won. The winning takes place when we put our
faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And then he
leads us on. He says, okay, now I'm your shepherd.
Follow me. Now I'm your shepherd, abide in me.
Now I'm your shepherd, be full of joy and let
your cup overflow so that other people can know
the joy and love of God. Psalm 23 says, my cup
runneth over. You anoint my head with oil. My
cup runneth over. The picture, if you, and I
probably have said this here before, I know I've
said it in other messages. My boys know what
I'm going to say next. My wife probably does
too. Because those things that you really love,
you share over and over again because it means
so much to you. And this is something I heard
three or four years ago from another person.
I can't claim it. But it says your cup runneth
over. When you were invited to a meal back then
and you were wanting your guests to leave, you
would fill their cup up halfway with grape juice
or wine or whatever you were given. And that
was a sign that it's time for you to go home.
But if your cup was kept full, that means you
stay here for as long as you want. And so when
the cup was full, it's you being in the presence
of the Lord. And God is saying to you, Peter,
stay with me as long as you want. Just stay here.
Just stay. And you know, when you get into that
baby, when you hit that, You don't want to leave.
There are times it's like, okay, I got to go
make breakfast. Oh, I don't want to leave. The
word of God is so good. The Holy Spirit is so
strong. I want to stay right here. That's why
God wants us to get up earlier or stay up later
and spend time in the word of God. And when we
come before Him, worship Him. When we talk about
prayer and being in the presence of the Lord,
it's hard to define this. And we talk about,
and I am winding down here, but when we talk
about coming into the presence of the Lord and
praying, we say, well, how do we do that? Well,
yes, you confess your sins. Yes, you pray for
other people. Yes, you pray for the governors
and leaders. The Lord reminds you to do that.
Yes, you can have a book. You can write your
prayer request down. But the pinnacle of... Prayer
is praise. It's not even Thanksgiving. You say,
Jason, how do you know that? Well, Psalm 100,
glad you asked. Psalm 100, it says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. That's because the God knows
that some of us can't sing. But yes, we're supposed
to praise the Lord. Okay, we're supposed to sing,
make a noise to the Lord, okay? But it says,
enter into his gates with what? Thanksgiving.
We Christians miss out on a blessing because
we are not thankful for the things that God has
given to us. And when you stop and you realize,
God's given me a wonderful wife, He's given me
a wonderful children, He's given me a wonderful
child. You just start realizing, well, God's
blessed me. Go visit another country if you don't
think that God's blessed you. But that's not
the pinnacle of prayer. The pinnacle of prayer
is praise. Why? Because you forget about who
you are and you think about who God is. Praise
the Lord. Okay. I just need to be quiet. I just
need to stop. I just need to, woo! Praise him
for being the creator king. Praise him for being
God Almighty. Praise him for sending his son,
Jesus, to die on the cross and pay for our sins.
And then that can just go on and on and on. And
you're just like, okay, all right. And what that
is? That's the anointing. That's the Holy Spirit.
That's the cup being full to overflowing. So
that when you get around other non -Christians,
they say, whoa, what's different about this God?
And that's exactly what Hunt has. It's exactly
what he has. I've just started going to a Bible
study with Peter and Pete. And the other guys
in the Bible story are like, oh man, we miss
Hunt. We miss him. He's full of the joy of the
Lord. Everywhere he went. My children, oh man,
we want to see Hunt. Can we go see Hunt? Nathan,
can I go see Hunt? I want to see Hunt. There's
a friend of Hunt. who, if I said his name, you
might know him, who knows and has acquaintances
with presidents of the United States, past presidents
of the United States. I don't think he could,
maybe, I don't know. A very important man, he
called me. I want to see Hunt. That's because
Hunt is full of the love and the joy of the Lord.
And so we need to pray for that. for ourselves,
that we would be full of the love and the joy
of the Lord. Why? Because the joy of the Lord
is our strength. It's our strength. David is
a long boy. The battle belongs to the Lord. He
is our strength. He is our song. There is a song.
That was that was written many years ago about
a man a Pastor actually a preacher and he wrote
this song it says Jesus keeps me singing as I
go It says There's within my heart a melody Jesus
whispers sweet and low fear not I am with thee
peace be still in all life's ebb and flow Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my
every longing, keeps me singing as I go. He wrote
that song, and you know, when I sing that song,
I'm full of excitement and joy. But just this
morning, I was doing some research, and did you
know that the pastor, right before he wrote this,
learned that his wife and children were caught
in a fire and all died. You see, he wrote this
song out of adversity. Why? Because it was full
of the love and the joy. of God. Now, as we really
do wrap up, I really am wrapping up here. I want
to share one more thing, and I'll let you go.
It is not enough to talk about prayer and being
in the presence of the Lord. It is not enough
to preach about being in the presence of the
Lord. At the beginning, we talked about the grumpy
Christian. If that's you, repent. Do you know
what the opposite of praise is? Complaining.
The opposite of praise is whining. So repent.
Take that complaining and whining attitude and
ask God to replace it with joy, love, and thankfulness
to Him. We started with talking about that we're
gonna end With talking about a man who I've already
talked about a little bit, but who loves the
Lord It's full of the joy of the Lord and that's
hunts You just got around him and when you left
him you felt better You know, he was not afraid
to say Jason I love you to me a grown man He
was not afraid to take me and grab me and hug
me. He was not afraid to share his faith. He
was not afraid to let God overflow his cup and
to spend time in the presence of the Lord. And
so I want to encourage you to ask God to increase
your prayer life. Say alright Lord What do you
want to say to me? What do you want me to say
to you? play some good Gospel music and pray
the Lord at the same time worship him Spend time
in his presence because where why because that's
where their fullness of joy is found So you can
get to the point When you're ready to enter into
heaven to say Yippee! Hallelujah! Praise to God!
I am going to heaven. And you know what? The
road from earth to heaven isn't so bad. When
the Lord is your shepherd. Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for these beautiful passages of
scripture. And Lord, I just confess that Lord,
I didn't do them justice. But Lord, I thank you
so much for this verse, Psalm 16, 11. You will
show me the path of life. Lord, the path on this
earth, in your presence is fullness of joy. Lord,
I pray that our cups would be full and overflowing
into other people's lives so that he would sense
the joy of the Lord in and through us. I thank
you so much, Father, for friends like Hunt, Father,
friends like Peter and Pete. that I've known
for many years that love you, Lord, many others
that are in our lives. Father, help us to be
friends to others, like Hunt was a friend to
me. But even more so, Father, I know that if
he were here today, Hunt would say, don't listen
to me. Don't follow me. Follow Jesus. And so,
Lord, would you help us to do that? And as we
jump into that pool of love, Lord, help us to
go over that waterfall into the pool of joy.
And Lord, help our lives to be a living sacrifice
for you. A love, Lord, a love book of joy that's
inexpressible. Lord, I've tried to talk about
it, but Lord, you know that it's just, there's
just no talking about it. Lord, we just, we have
to know it. We have to experience it. And I pray
to Father that you would help each one to experience
the joy, the joy of our salvation. In Jesus'
name I pray, Amen. And before that, what it boils
down to is relying and trusting in God's grace,
the sovereignty of God, that He really is in
charge. And you don't have to earn His favor.
You don't have to try to stay there in your own
effort and let you just abide there. Let God
be God in your circumstances. And I can tell
you from personal experience, we had a similar
testimony in the sense that we spent many years
in the church. doing things for God, do, do,
do, do, do, and it can wear you out. And talk
about that, you know, and I can tell you the
same thing, very true. But when you spend time
in His presence, and you get to know Him in His
Word, and you pray, and you obey, and you say,
yes, Lord, whatever it is, yes, I'll do it. You
begin, not immediately, but begin to grow more
and more in appreciation of Him and see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus. Let's close by singing
this little chorus, Yes, Lord, Yes. When the
Spirit speaks to me with my whole heart, I'll
agree and I'll say, Yes. I'll say yes, Lord,
yes. I will trust you and obey. Give your spirit
to me. With my whole heart I'll agree. And my
answer will be yes, Lord, yes. I'll say yes,
Lord, yes. Do your will, do your way. I'll say
yes, Lord, yes. I will trust you and obey. Father
we do thank you for the memories that we have
of loved ones that have passed. I know that my
wife is with you and we're thinking of Warner
and sometimes we shy away from thinking about
stepping across this great devoid so to speak
but with you is fullness of joy and there is
in this life, hope that we can become more and
more satisfied with being with you and less comfortable
in this world. I just thank you for your goodness
to us. We used to spend time together there,
the Bible said it, my son mentioned, we know
where he's going. We thank you for him. I'd like
to see him if it's possible before he goes, but
I just pray your will would be done. Thank you
for these people. Thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Help us to follow him closely. Also,
we thank you for Jason. We pray for him and the
ministry of CEF. We pray that you would bless
that work, make it effective. We pray for Monica
and Hunt. We pray for their peace, their stability,
that you'd watch over them. We pray your blessing
upon this day. We pray also for the service the
Bible studied tonight. We thank you for these
things. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.