Joy To The World

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy radio show.

I say this calls for action, and now! He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders of His love. Joy to the world today. How fun is that?

Right? We got joy to the world. I got my friend Bob Young with us. And, very shortly, we're actually going to have Justin Gambino. He sang that song and it's his new rendition of Joy to the World.

He's going to be on the show with us. You know, there's just nothing like singing Christmas carols on a road trip, right, Bob? Absolutely. Some of my best memories. My mother especially.

Right. My mother loved to sing in the car. Silver Bells was her favorite. But she loved them all.

But Silver Bells, I can still hear her singing that to this moment. Yeah. And you'd get in the car and you're on your way to Grandma's or wherever you were. And you know, that would be the thing.

And it's still the thing today if you're in the car with me. And we're going to be going, you know, I love stuff like that. And, you know, it just, I guess it goes like that. So, as Justin wrote this new rendition that I've started to listen to these lyrics and really think about these lyrics, you know, some things came to my mind and I'm wondering if they might come to yours.

You know, just the opening verse, which is, you know, just a classic Christmas verse written by Isaac Watts in the 1700s, Joy to the world the Lord has come, let earth receive her King. Right. Let every heart prepare him room. How many songs have just been written about that line right there?

Right. As Jesus, there was no room for him in the end. And I should say this, you know, of all the episodes of Christian Car Guy, I've done nearly 1500, I think, that the most downloaded podcast ever is Where Are You Christmas? And the next out of the top five, three of them were Christmas shows. That's just, I guess I do Christmas or people love Christmas shows, whatever it may be, they just are.

And the biggest episode ever of Christian Car Guy Theater was a Christmas Corolla. So, you know, Christmas is an amazing thing to me. So, as I look at this, and I want to make sure I prepare him room because this season, you know, kind of cracks open right here.

Tomorrow is the first of December and the beginning of Advent. Right. Here comes the line that I really want to hone in. Of course, we want to prepare him room.

That's what we're doing. But it says in heaven and nature sing. And of course, you just heard in the verse that Nick got for me in the intro, you know, the hills and all these things are going to begin to sing. So, when have you ever heard heaven sing?

I want you to call in and share this. When have you ever heard heaven sing? When have you heard nature sing? Right. And of course, it's many things, you know, Isaac Watts was clearly quoting the 98th Psalm, but he was also quoting Isaiah 14, and he was also quoting Isaiah 55. And so, all those things are going on.

So, clearly according both to Psalmist and Isaiah, nature is going to be singing, and heaven is going to be singing ever since Jesus came. And so, when have you heard that? I would love to know.

866-348-7884, 866-348-7884. And I have a sound bite. This was taken on episode that we did with actually Bob Young's young son, Rob. It was tragically a few weeks before his death. I think it was 12 weeks before he died in 2014. But listen to what he has to say, and he heard something I honestly have been telling myself.

Have I heard anything like Rob heard shortly before he passed on? And when I look at my young Christian junkyard guy, Rob Young, he wows me, because I know how God's worked in his life. And if you take a minute, that's about all we got, Rob, and share what God's been doing in your life. Well, I would say the other day I was hauling a car down 421 South, and the truck I was in started, the turbo went bad in it. So, here I am broke down on the side of the road.

I just picked up my first car. There was a lot of people waiting on me to get where I was going, and my trucks broke down. There's clouds of smoke.

Two fire engines are out there. And it's just this really big scene. And really, it reminded me of my life before my coming to Christ, how big of a wreck everything was. And I never really was able to accept God's will for my life. But once I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and accepted God's will for my life, I have been blessed with being able to acknowledge these beautiful things. And the trees are clapping, and the mountains are singing.

That is for sure. Yeah, it's just like that in our own life. As Jesus is put in there as the capstone, we begin to see things that just had—we'd missed it before. We'd missed it before. Like as I was at that funeral of the missionary this week, and I could hear the stories that somebody played the shofar, and it just wowed me on what God had done with her life. I would have missed it if the capstone hadn't been in place and the trees hadn't started clapping their hands.

Sometimes, you know, it takes a clapping tree to get us to realize what we're missing out on, you know? So yesterday, last night, about 4.30, I get a text from my good buddy Bob at 109 that he had come down with the weather, what I consider his son. I was so thrilled to have my new young Christian junkyard guy with me here today. Rob, I am so grateful for you being here with us today.

I really, really am. I'm really grateful for the opportunity. Thanks for having me, Robbie.

So Bob, it has to be a little hard to listen to, I imagine. It was joyful. It brings me such joy. And to hear his voice again, you know, you don't hear his voice every day. And for me to get to hear that this morning, it just, it lights me up, it fills my wings, and it gives me air to fly on.

Yeah, and I've thought about that ever. I went back and listened to that yesterday as I was, you know, thinking about, like, oh my goodness, Rob clearly heard, there he was in the middle of the scene with his truck blown up, with the smoke and the fire engines. And what he was describing was hearing the trees clapping, right? Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing, it's, you surprised me this morning, and thanks for the heads up that I was going to be exposed to that this morning. But what a joyful thing to hear his voice. That was music to my ears.

Yeah, and so I'm curious, how about you? When have you heard nature, maybe you've heard a tree clap their hands, or maybe you've heard a mountain sing. You know, the more I studied this this morning, and the more I looked at it, I realized this is a common theme. You know, they did a whole, the sound of music begins with the hills are alive with the sound of music, right?

With songs they've sung for a thousand years. Well, I was telling you about the, I sent you a picture. It was right after my friend, my dear friend, had passed from the lake. And such an awesome guy. And I went driving down towards his place and towards mine. And right over his house, down the cove, most beautiful rainbow I'd seen in a really long time. And it was like, it was like orchestra playing.

It was just, you know, it was a vision that you could hear. And I sent you that picture and a little later, you sent me a picture of the same rainbow. You were experiencing it from a different angle on a different part of the lake.

Both Bob and I, for those of you in Washington, whatever, we both have houses on Blues Creek Lake here in North Carolina. And he'd taken that picture and of his friend. And it was a glorious rainbow. It was such a glorious rainbow. We were on another part of the lake. And I just said, Tammy, man, I gotta get a picture of that rainbow.

It's so glorious. And I love the idea that those things, they are singing, right? Well my friend had passed a little bit before that. But we had had a service for him that day. And after the service, and a little later that day, I went down by his place. And that's when I saw the rainbow there. And it just let me know that God and he were doing just fine. And that was my message. Wow, that's so exciting. Well, great news. We got Justin Gambino with us. He is, again, that song that we just played here a minute ago. We're gonna have it back when we come back.

And we're gonna have Justin when we come back. Joy to the world. When did you experience heaven and nature singing? We would love to hear your story. 866-348-7884. 866-34-TRUTH. Call us. We'll be right back.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven, heaven, nature sing. Joy, joy to the world.

Joy to the world today on The Christian Car Guys Show. Maybe you've been on those road trips where you've been singing those songs. And, you know, the question I have for everybody today is when did you hear heaven and nature sing?

Or heaven or, like, maybe all of a sudden you heard something come from heaven. You're like, oh, that's singing. Or maybe you heard the trees clap, like Rob Young sung, I mean, like Bob Young sung, Rob, Bob Young sung Rob in the sound bite that we had just a minute. But this is all celebrating Justin Gambino's new song.

And so we got Justin Gambino with us again. And how awesome, Justin. What an amazing song. What an amazing rendition of it.

Oh, thanks, man. I appreciate that. And thanks for having me on the show.

It is so fun. And I, you know, I just started listening to it. And I have to tell you that from the last time you were on my show, you did a song called The Heart of the Father.

Yeah, yeah. And that, that's on my playlist. And I have to listen to that thing about three or four times every day. That's how good that song is. And the more I've listened, I am completely serious. That song is so deep.

Elephants could swim around in that thing, man. It is a masterpiece of, who doesn't want to sing to be in the Father's heart? You know, we always think about him being in our hearts. But how cool is it that we get to be in his heart? And so before we get to Joy of the World, I just have to tell you, man, that song just blesses my socks off.

And again, it's Justin Gambino. Heart of the Father, you can get on Amazon Music or wherever. Like, oh my goodness, add it to your playlist.

It will bless you, bless you, bless you. But now we get to, and you know, it's interesting, Justin. My Christmas shows have always been some of my most popular, because I just love, love Christmas. And the whole idea of preparing him room, you know, comes from this song. And so you had an opportunity to record this. And can you tell us a little bit of the story behind it?

Yeah. So I was actually doing another radio interview last December. And they had asked us to do a Christmas song. And I don't know if you've heard of my song Courage off my last record, but I knew that we were going to be doing Courage. And I was like, you know what, it'd be really cool if we did like Courage and then did like a mashup of Courage and Joy to the World, like an upbeat Joy to the World, same key. We just kind of flow into it and upbeat. And so we got so many great compliments and feedback after we did that live over a radio interview. And my producer was in the room playing the second guitar. And he leaned over to me after the interview was said and done. He was like, we have got to record that version of Joy to the World.

That is too fun. And and so going back in August, we were like, all right, well, let's do it. And so we produced it out. And one thing that I learned that really fired me up, like because I'm the kind of person that doesn't want to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, like I want to, you know, be really focused on, you know, what I'm thankful for, grateful for, spend time with family. And I just feel like, you know, society can kind of shove a a the next the next, you know, holiday season, like right into our faces before it's even time. And so it's like, I really like to be in the moment. And so what really got me fired up to even back in August before Christmas was even here, which is not not my DNA, like I like to, you know, enjoy Labor Day first. And then, you know, I like to I like to enjoy the changing of the season. And so I like to do it in order, you know. And and so back in August, I was I was like, I was getting so fired up to do this because I had learned that Isaac Watts, I don't know if you might have already known this, but Isaac Watts was actually inspired by Psalm 98 to write Joy to the World, which is about Jesus' second coming.

Right. And I was just like, holy smokes, this is perfect for the time that we're in to look forward to his second coming. And so that just really just, you know, added a little fuel to the fire to get it out this Christmas. And so, yeah, that's kind of the story of how of how that song, you know, why we chose Joy to the World and all that stuff. And, you know, it's always been fascinating. Yeah, it's always been fascinating to me that Psalm 98 was the basis, you know, and again, it became a Christmas song, interestingly.

But you're exactly right. It was originally about his second coming. And oh, my goodness, will heaven and nature sing. And all those all those things that happened. But it's kind of cool to think. In fact, I think it's really cool to think that that is worth seeing this. We're holding both his first coming.

Right. But also, you know, looking forward to how amazing will it be when and again, the idea is that the show today for those listening, I'm hoping you'll call in as when did you hear having a nature sing like they're singing all the time. All the time. And when did you become aware of that? And what you didn't hear Justin at the beginning of the show, my co host here, Bob Young, who's been with me for years and years and years, his son did this show with me in 2013. And he had just gotten out of Alpha Acres, it was he was a recovering drug addict. And when he did that show, he told the story, which I have a soundbite of it. And he was quoting Isaiah 55, where it said, he heard trees were clapping and the mountains were singing. And he was talking about it, he was on the side of the road with this car that had blown up and smoke was all over the place, fire engines and all this stuff. And all of a sudden, he's, he's rejoicing because he just came to Christ.

And, and, and he's hearing the trees clap. And all that, he invited me to come to church with a group from rehab. And we went to the church service, and he disappeared for a minute. I'll tell the rest of that story in a moment. Yeah, but unfortunately, on 109 of that 2014, he overdosed again and passed away. And so it's been a remembrance for us of, you know, how God handles things.

We'll be right back with more We Need Your Stories. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Joy to the world today on The Christian Car Guys Show with Justin Gambino.

That's his new release. How amazing is that? And my good friend, Bob Young, the Christian junkyard guy who's been with us for years and years. But anyway, the idea today is I love in that song where it says in heaven and nature saying, of course, we're going to prepare him room. I love that idea. But as we prepare him room this season, and obviously, since we know that now that Justin explained that, you know, this is for a second coming, we need to prepare him room.

There's a whole lot of room. And so when did you hear heaven or nature sing? Like maybe you heard, you know, the hills were alive with the sound of music.

Or maybe you heard trees clapping their hands. And whatever that was, I'm hoping that something we've talked about today will hit a nerve and you will call us. The number to call and share and believe me, I want to hear it. 866-348-7884.

866-348-7884. And again, Justin, so grateful that the Lord put it on your heart to release that. And it's been well received. I see. I love the lyric video that's on YouTube. It's awesome. Oh, thanks, man.

Thanks. Yeah, we really wanted to incorporate, you know, once I learned it was about Christ's second coming, you know, whenever Isaac Watts wrote that, I was like, man, I really want to incorporate some clouds and some trumpets and really, really put a visual to that. You know, it might spark someone's curiosity or just, you know, might allow room for the Holy Spirit to work in someone's heart while watching that video.

It definitely does because those lyrics come right at you. And by the way, I posted it at ChristianCarguy.com today. You can see that exact same video that we're talking about.

You don't even have to find it on YouTube or you can, however you want to get it. It's all there at ChristianCarguy.com. But when we left, our hero, Bob, was telling the rest of this story about his son, Rob. Well, I don't really remember where I got to with that story, but excuse me, he he went to Alpha Acres.

It's coming back to me now. And I got to go to church. They called me. He said, Dad, what are you doing this Sunday? He says, they say you can come see us at church. And so I went to church and I got there and we were there and he looked so good. He was just the recovery process was working so very well for me.

Looked good. And then all of a sudden I'm sitting there and I wasn't paying attention. And I look beside him and he's gone.

And if you've ever been around the attic, you always expect the worst of them. And I was just sure I'm checking my pockets for my keys because I thought he had got my keys somehow. And he took my truck and he was gone. And I look up and there's my son standing in the baptism pool. And I felt like inch high private eye.

I felt so small for thinking of that. And I confess that to him on the way taking him. They let us give him a ride back to the to the farm afterwards. And I was telling him that he said, Dad, don't worry about it. He said, I did that to you. I conditioned you to expect the worst of me.

And and this too will pass. And I was just so elated that he didn't hate me because I thought he had, you know, cut and run and everything, but to be expecting him to be somewhere else and to see him standing in the baptism pool. But it was just an awesome thing to get to experience the last months of his life, right?

Yes. He was. I know, because, I mean, when he did that show with me, I mean, it just could not have been more alive.

He could not have been more in love with Christ or, you know, those things that we were witnessing. He started seeking help on Independence Day, the Fourth of July. We took him to.

Oh, it's over on a rehab Arca Arca, the rehab facility over Union Cross. And he went there for two weeks and then it had a really good start going on at Alpha Acres. And it was really, really coming along.

And there it went. But I imagine, Justin, you've had friends, too, that they gave their heart to Christ, but then something got them and it's hard. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've personally been there myself. And I've seen even family, close family and friends that come to Christ. And then, I mean, that's, you know, when we first come to Christ and the Lord blames us, man, that's whenever the enemy is really paying attention and he wants to get after us as much as possible. You know, for me personally, I, you know, became saved at a young age and then, you know, left the Lord. You know, I was a prodigal. We talked about this on the last time I was a prodigal. I left home and, you know, and now I have a different perspective of like, man, what an honor to be in the crosshairs of the enemy because I'm a threat to him.

That's kind of how I look at it now. If there's opposition in my life, if there's spiritual warfare, which is always going on, you know, behind the scenes, it just depends on whether we are paying attention to that or not. And, but I've recently been saying, man, what an honor to be in the crosshairs of my enemy because I'm a threat to him.

He wants to take me out. But man, with God on my side, I will continue to sing his praises. Darrell Bock They're coming to find, it's a beautiful thing.

It's really, really is amazing. The closer you get to the target, the more flack, right? Darrell Bock Well, you were the one that told me, Robby, Robby told me years ago, he says, you'll have a bullseye on your back. And after my son came and did the show, I did not remind him of that, you know, to beware because you just hung a bullseye on your back and the enemy will come after you harder than ever. And I wished I'd have shared that with him.

But he's doing great now. Darrell Bock So we've got L.W. is in Lexington.

I'm excited, actually, L.W., to hear your story. Lexington, North Carolina. Robby I've got a friend. His name is Tom Wall. He's actually a cardiologist down in Montgomery County, but he has some property south of Denton, North Carolina, where he has a sanctuary built. It's called Whispering Pines. And this is what impressed me about nature singing there. So they dug up all these thousands upon thousands of rocks that were laying out there on this property. And they built a baptismal pool there, which, you know, churches have used already to baptize folks. And they've got this long cascading waterfall that leads down to the baptismal pool. And when you stand there and listen and watch the water flow across all these rocks and it sings as it passes and throws over these stones that have just been laying in the ground waiting for eons to praise God. Darrell Bock Wow.

Robby That's what I hear. That's what I see when the water flows across those rocks and then God's children are down at the bottom being baptized. It's just a wonderful, it's a moving spiritual experience just to be there for a baptism.

But that is what I've seen and that's what I've talked to some of the guys in my discipleship. Darrell Bock I'm writing it down, Whispering Pines. And the second you said that, actually, L.W., I was like, yeah, pines do whisper when the winds come through them. And when you think about it, man, you couldn't have painted a better picture of that water cascading down those waterfalls. Robby Oh, it should be.

Yeah. Darrell Bock And the whole idea of that, and just to go a little Hebrew on everybody because they expect that out of me anyway, you know, the idea of joy starts with the letter Mem and the letter Mem means water. And for a lot of reasons, you know, the water of the, you know, it's living water. And in his presence, like it says in the 16th Psalm, right, in his presence is fullness of joy. In his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

So you get the idea that, like, that water is huge. It's just like, man, L.W., I knew somebody would call and light up my world, and you did. Robby And my brother Tom gave us that experience, and God, through the Holy Spirit, gave it to him, made him build the sanctuary down there. So yeah, look at that, Whispering Pines Sanctuary, beautiful place.

They gave a walking trail, a lot of places to sit with scriptures, rode out, and just a place to reflect, and they've got a big sanctuary built down there. Yeah, beautiful place. Darrell Bock Wow. Wow. Thank you, L.W., you made my day as well as Justin. Like, I just can't tell you how excited I am about this whole concept. I'm going to try to hone in on it more.

God bless you. You have an amazing weekend, my friend, and we've got a lot more coming up with Justin, but we need your call, right? You heard something. I want to hear it.

866-348-7884. Maybe you saw it. Darrell Bock Joy to the World today on The Christian Car Guy Show, featuring Justin Gambino. His song, he released Joy to the World, which is a spectacular thing.

You can, again, listen to it on Christian Car Guy or go listen to it on Amazon Music or wherever you want to get it. So, Justin, are you doing a whole Christmas album, we hope, at some point? Justin Gambino You know, ever since I released Joy to the World, I've been getting that question more and more, and sadly, I'm not working on a Christmas album. One thing that we've been really focused on, that was kind of like a spur of the moment kind of thing, like, let's at least put out a Christmas single. So I won't say that it'll never happen, but right now the focus has been a few things, working on the third album, actually writing an original worship project as well, and then also writing my story, writing my book. Darrell Bock Oh, yeah.

Cool. Well, one thing I know about you, Justin- Justin Gambino Something that the Lord put on my heart. Darrell Bock Yeah, from listening to your music, you're clearly Spirit-led, and so if the Spirit is leading you to do those things, there's no doubt in my mind that you're right on target, and I- Justin Gambino Except on God's will for your life.

Darrell Bock Yeah, there you go. I mean, you have to- the more I listen to your music, yes, you have an amazingly gifted voice, all those things, but oh my goodness, your heart for the Lord is really, really, it's touching, and I can't tell you how much I am thankful for your music, and you know, this whole idea of the show today, so I'm grateful for it so much. Well, we got Tracy in Utah. I'm dying to hear what Tracy may have, and what a beautiful place to live to hear Heaven and Nature sing. We got Tracy, how are you doing this morning? Tracy Good morning.

Hi, I'm well, thank you, and how are you? Darrell Bock You're off? I am absolutely off, even more so that you called, and you're going to tell us how you heard Heaven or Nature sing. Tracy Well, it's more that I got to witness Heaven sing.

I was younger, I haven't quite come to Christ, and this actually works around the car. My husband at the time, we had just put a 351 Windsor into a 1978 hatchback Mustang, which did not go very well, because the engine was quite larger than the car, as you know, and so with the transmission that we had in it, it became very, it was quite a fast car, which he wanted, and stuff, but during this period of time, my sister had been murdered, and because of the, we had just repaired the car to get, like, just, I guess, motion, you know, get to the point of being drivable, we still had an issue with the battery, so we were, at the time, charging the battery, so we could take the car up to the area where we were going to see her body for, before the burial, and stuff like that, and as we were waiting for the battery to get charged, we were kind of like, I guess in a sense, daydreaming outside, watching the clouds and everything, and Jesus just showed me he was so real. We saw a man, and both my husband and I, I could swear that, you know, it was a man, and it was like he was leading on, like, a donkey or something, a woman, and it was so precious to me, because my sister had just been passed for three days, and as we were just watching this, it just seemed so, so real, and my husband went to check the battery, and as he was checking the battery, it just looked like what was a honeycomb of something coming down, and it literally came down so far, almost as like, to touch me, and as it dispersed, it was like a thousand angels into, like, you know, what would seem like a Roman Colosseum area, and I think at that time, it just made me realize how close heaven and earth are, to be able to, you know, for him to comfort me in such a way to know that my sister was with him in heaven. And so, when the angels dispersed, I love, I mean, this is amazing, Tracey, and I'm so sorry about your loss. No, it's, I'm so thankful she's with him. It was, you know, she... Did you hear anything? It was just, it was more just the, you know, praising, the praising, like, it was the disbursement of just, like, the, you know, when, like, it was, yeah, it was a praise, because it just showed how heaven, yeah, it was a praise, but it was just, I didn't physically hear anything, I just witnessed the praising of it, I guess, and in your heart, you know?

Right, yeah, like, like, usually the way... It was just the praise in the heart of what had happened, so that's my story. It's pretty amazing when you get that blessed assurance of where somebody really is, and we sing that song all our life, blessed assurance, blessed assurance, but when it happens in an impactful way like this, with somebody really close to you, it takes, the blessed assurance takes a whole new meaning, and I am so glad you got to experience that about your system.

Oh, me too, yeah. And thank you for your show, it's a blessing. Thank you so much for letting me share. Oh, Tracey, thank you for calling again. God bless you, you have a wonderful weekend. You too, and Merry Christmas, everyone. Thank you, yeah, to you too, Tracey, God bless. Merry Christmas.

Bye-bye. So, Justin, now you've got a little impetus to do blessed assurance, I guess, I don't know. Man, if that's not a message from the Lord himself. You know, that's part of the reason why I absolutely love, I just have to pinch myself sometimes, I get to do this show, because so many amazing callers over the years, Bob, and you know what I'm saying.

Absolutely. The stories that we hear and the things that we see, you know, the Lord just brings that message, and as I was listening to you do this song, you know, I never even, you know, I don't know how many times I've sang this song, but I never thought about having the nature of singing, but the way that it just, you know, I guess the Spirit hit me with it, as I was thinking, man, this would be a great, you know, because I knew, you know, that Rob had said that, and I never really, you know, had seen that, but when you mentioned the rainbows, Bob, that you saw that time, which by the way, I misspoke, the word joy begins with a shin and then a mem, so the mem's in there, but the shin has to do with actually the oxidization of that water, which is why we get joy, in other words, when we begin to experience it, when we experience that water, that's where the joy comes from. There's water in that rainbow too, brother.

I know. I know there's water in that rainbow, and you know, the wind through the trees whispering I'm just, I am so excited, but I didn't ask you, Justin, have you ever heard heaven or nature sing? You know, I didn't really start to pay attention to that, or I guess the, you know, for me, it was, I have a lot of pine trees on my property, big pine trees, and during COVID, when everything shut down and everything just allowed me to be still and know, I started paying more attention to the trees on my property and the wind blowing through those pines, it was making me think of that when you are talking about whispering pine. Yeah, that's beautiful, that's beautiful. It was about four years ago, it was about four years ago, whenever I started really paying attention to that heaven and nature sing. Thank you, man. Thank you so much for being on with us today, and remember, slow down, Jesus walked everywhere he went and got it all done, like, be still, that's the idea, got it all done in 33 years, thank you so much for listening, everybody, God bless, have a, Merry Christmas!