October 5, 2025 - Ministry Partners Conference - Session 4 - Jason Beverly, CEF Asheville, NC Chapter

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

John 15 · chapter mention

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

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

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

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

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.