Turn in your Bible with me, if you could, to Acts chapter 9. And as you’re turning, I just want to say that this… This meeting is something I’ve been praying about for years. Not that I had a vision of having a Cola Clash Plus with four teams

and hardly any time to sleep or rest or anything like that. But God’s up to big things right now. Here in this room.

Right now. And the big things that God is starting in this room right now aren’t going to end in this room tonight. I fully, firmly believe that what God is doing tonight will, through its ripple effects, change the face of this globe. I’m looking at young men and women that I believe Have a potential that is greater Perhaps than any generation that is past us I’m looking at a group of young people And for the sake of discussion here

I’m going to include myself with you I believe we live in a generation today That God has big plans for Big plans What I’d like to do is I would like to do something a little bit different here this evening. Got a lot of burden. Got a lot that God’s going to be, that has a lot that God has done in my heart.

And I’d just like to share with you here this evening a bit of the vision the Lord has been giving me, what the Lord has been burdening me for, and I want to invite you to join me in it. If you look with me in Acts chapter 9, and I want to read you a little story here about a man who changed the world. So, this man was a mess in many ways, theologically, and in many other ways.

But I don’t know about you and I, we’re messes too. In fact, we come into a conference like this and the conference starts and it seems like all we hear the first day is about the fact that we’re a mess and it needs to change, right? We’ve got sin over here, you know, we’re not surrendering to the Lord over here. and we’re dishonoring our parents over here and we’re looking at stuff we shouldn’t look at over here

and it’s kind of like, whoa, good night. Wow, I’m a bad person. I got issues.

And we deal with those things. And as we deal with those things, we begin to realize, man, I need something a whole lot bigger than myself. And as we see our great, incredible need and as we see how much we have failed, we begin to see how much we need deliverance. And as God begins to accentuate that need for deliverance in our hearts,

we begin to look for a solution. I find many times I travel, and many of you have heard me preach the gospel, many times we’ll talk about the fact that a young person, if they want to get saved, if they want to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior, they’ve got to recognize the fact that they have a problem. It’s like this, you don’t go to the doctor unless you recognize the fact that you have a problem.

problem you may have never heard these different kinds of doctors and who they are and what they do but the moment you have you are diagnosed with a problem that only they can fix you have a sudden newfound interest in finding that doctor who can fix the need you didn’t realize you had and sometimes when you come to a conference like this God will show you you have needs that maybe you didn’t really

think about maybe you knew you had them but you didn’t even know that there was a solution for those things. And God begins to, in our hearts, just build up this sense of need. And you almost feel like it’s more than you can bear and you want to burst.

And then Dr. Jim stands up and preaches a message like he preached this afternoon that shows you there is a solution. And it’s not a 10-step program.

And it’s not a little booklet. It’s Jesus. He lives inside of you. And whatever

your problem is, you depend upon him and you yield to him. And listen, he’ll give you victory in whatever it is you’re struggling with. We begin to realize our need and we begin to look for a solution.

And as we look for a solution, we find the solution is Jesus. And we take Jesus as our personal solution for our mess that we are. But that’s not the end of the progression.

That’s not the end of the story. Because God doesn’t just want to clean us up. He doesn’t just want to deliver us from our messes, ourselves. He doesn’t just want to deliver us so we can say,

Hey, look at me, I’m delivered. Isn’t that great? I don’t feel guilty anymore.

He doesn’t want to just deliver us so that we’re free. He wants to deliver us so we’re free to serve him. I told you I was going to tell you a story here about a man.

This man’s name was Saul. And if you could look with me at the beginning of chapter 9, Acts 9, verse 1, it says, And here we find a man who was messed up. Oh, he looked real good from the outside.

I mean, he was a Pharisee. He was really, really strict. But it’s obvious here he was messed up because he was trying to extinguish Christianity from off the face of the earth.

He had all the wrong priorities. He had the wrong belief system. He was thinking wrong in just about every single area of his life, and it was obviously affecting his life and the lives of many other people around him.

He wanted to kill Christians. He wanted to put them in jail. He wanted what he perceived to be a threat to the worship of Jehovah. He wanted to put this thing to rest

and let it be done with. But fortunately for him and for us, God stepped in. Verse 3, and as he journeyed, he came near Damascus.

And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth. And he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. This isn’t the main point of my message here,

but Saul was thinking all wrong about Jesus. He really thought Jesus was just some sham who’d walked onto the scene and gotten a following and taught a bunch of things that may have sounded good, but really, he wasn’t who he said he was, and because he wasn’t who he said he was, he was a big liar, and because he was a liar, nobody should follow him. This is what he was thinking. Sure, he’d heard about the fact that he knew

died. He knew he was buried and he knew some people made up some story or so he thought that he had risen from the dead, but he didn’t believe a word of that last part. He believed Jesus was dead, rotting in the ground somewhere. And so here at this point in time, he sees a supernatural

light from heaven. God shows up on the scene and said, Saul, what are you doing? What are you doing?

And he says, wait a minute, who are you? And the voice from heaven says, I’m Jesus, The one you’ve been persecuting. Can you imagine how that would have totally like thrown him for a loop?

Hold a second. I thought Jesus was dead and in the ground somewhere. But here he is speaking to me out of heaven.

And here Saul was confronted with his wrong thinking. And as he was confronted with his wrong thinking, I believe it was at that moment when he realized that Jesus was who he said he was. And therefore he was God.

And if he was God, that meant that everything that he said was true. And if everything Jesus said was true, then he was a sinner on his way to hell. And his only hope was this one who’s now talking to him, who once died on a cross, shed his blood, was buried and rose again victorious over sin, death and hell.

And he realized he was his only hope. He was the only one that could rescue him from the consequences of his sin. He was the only one who could deliver him from everything that was wrong in his life.

And I believe it was at that moment that he trusted Jesus Christ as a savior and his sins were washed away. and he became a born-again Christian. He hopped onto the way that he was trying to destroy. And it’s interesting, the very next words out of his mouth, verse 6, in trembling and astonished, he said,

Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Isn’t that the question of the hour? And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

And we’ll summarize a bit here. He got his friends. They went into the city, found a place to stay.

He was blind as a bat. He couldn’t see a thing. And he sat in that home of this individual just waiting for further direction from God.

But he did obey. He took that step. He took one step in the direction of God after he had trusted Christ as a Savior.

He stepped one step towards what God’s will was. And here he is waiting for further direction from the Lord. And then it seems like it all of a sudden, it seems disjointed.

it all of a sudden goes to another person. In verse 10, And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.

And he said, Behold, I’m here, Lord. Here I am. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias,

coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. And so here Jesus speaks to Ananias, this individual that we really weren’t introduced to very much. All of a sudden, boom, here’s Ananias.

He’s sitting alone in his room having his devotions. And God speaks to him and says, hey, Ananias, I’ve got a job for you. Yes, Lord, here I am.

What do you need for me to do? He says, yeah, I need you to go down to Straight Street down there. And there you’re going to find a house of so-and-so.

And inside that house, there’s a man named Saul of Tarsus. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Yeah, maybe you’ve heard of him.

He knows you’re coming. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have been very comforted by that. Saul of Tarsus, the guy who wants to kill Christians, he’s there and he’s waiting for me.

Not comforting words. And it’s pretty clear that Ananias is a bit bothered by what Jesus is asking him to do. In verse 13, then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints of Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests

to bind all that call on thy name. It’s like Ananias is saying, yeah, I’ve heard of him. And he’s not the kind of guy I want to hang about.

He could throw me in jail, Lord. Are you sure you got the right Ananias? There’s another Ananias a little bit earlier in the book of Acts.

Are you sure you don’t want him to go? But look at what the Lord says to him. And this is what I really want to focus on. But the Lord said unto him,

go thy way. for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

Ananias, he went to that house. He did what God had told him to do, even though it was uncomfortable. And this man Saul began to assemble together with the believers there in that place. This man, Saul, began immediately to share his story and to preach about Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, that the messes that people have made of their own lives, Jesus is the one who can fix those messes,

who can further not just fix the messes, but can send those who are willing to go and their lives can make an impact on others. And Saul began to travel and preach. He began to travel and share the good news all over everywhere he went.

And people got saved. And churches got started. And whole regions and cities were shaken by this one man.

But the beginning of the story was an absolute backward mess. He wrote most of the New Testament. By the time his life was done, thousands were impacted by this one man’s life.

He became one of the most influential men in all of Christianity other than Jesus Christ himself, its founder. I guess as I look at this story, I can’t help but think of me. Not that I’m the most influential man in Christianity.

But I’ve been a mess. And you know what, I think it would be fair for all of us here to think of ourselves just a little bit there. And Saul not only became a chosen vessel, but Saul endeavored to reach a chosen generation who would reach the world. And what I’d like to speak to you about here this evening

is a chosen vessel, a chosen generation. Let’s open with prayer. God in heaven, I do ask that during this time, Lord, you know what I’ve asked you for.

And Lord God, I pray that you do it now. Lord, start the work now. Lord I pray Father that that for which you have apprehended me that I apprehend it tonight or that for which you saved me and called me and sent me to do Lord I pray that here tonight you would allow those things to be accomplished in every heart here in this room God I’m weak I am so aware of my weakness right now but I thank you that you are strong

and Lord that this is not up to me here tonight. This is your gig. Lord, this is your thing here tonight and I’m just asking God in heaven Lord, that you come down into this room, into this place and that you would do something big.

Lord, we love you. Lord, I pray that you begin to move across the hearts of the teenagers in this room and across the hearts of the teens of this country and beyond. And Lord, raise up a chosen generation who will serve you with all of their hearts in Jesus’ name.

Amen. I mentioned I was a mess. Believe it or not, my mess began before I was ever born.

How is that possible? Best I could put the pieces together, a number of, it was in 1984, there was a young lady who had been addicted to drugs as a teenager who had been a runaway. And this young lady, apparently at some point along the way, had gotten right with the Lord and went off to Bible college.

She attended a year of Bible college. And after that, that, that year was done, she went and she ministered again. Again, as I put the pieces together, I think she ministered at a Christian camp. And at this Christian camp, somewhere along the way during that summer, she ended up, she ended up in a, in pure relationship

with a young man there at that Christian camp. Best I can figure it was been sometime in August when I was conceived. In fact, let me read it to you in her own words. To my beloved son,

I have so much I want to say to you that I don’t know where to begin. The most important thing is that I love you very, very much, more than you could ever understand. That is the reason why, from the moment I knew you were there inside of me, I knew I must give you life.

But even more than that, I knew I must give you up. Let me tell you why everything turned out the way it did First of all, I was only 18 years old when you were conceived and 19 when you were born I was not ready to start a family Your father and I did not know each other at all before we made you and I never saw him again afterward

That means there was no way that you could be born into a family with both a mother and a father And I believe that it is very important for a child to grow up having both Also, I know that I could never handle bringing up a child alone I just couldn’t give you the time and attention that every child needs I would have had no place to live because it would not have been fair to even ask my parents to live with them

I’d already put them through enough trials through my earlier teenage years when I had been involved in drugs and was a runaway It was time for me to learn to take responsibility for my actions rather than relying on my parents to bail me out I also had no job or money to be able to buy any of your basic needs such as food and clothing Let alone the things you’d want while growing up like toys

So you can see the only reason I would keep you after carrying you for nine months Feel you move inside of me finally seeing you come out of me and then holding you there in the nursery of the hospital I felt as though something that was actually all mine As I went home from the hospital alone leaving you there. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had had to do I had to do it though

Because I love you so much that I wanted to be sure that you would have everything you need And I wanted you to be brought up in a home with a complete family that would love you just as much as I do. And would be able to take care of you better than I could. The next thing I would like to tell you is that the family you are with now is your family.

They wanted you very much and they love you very much. They are the people whom you will share everything with. Happy times, sad times, tears and laughter.

I want you to be content with them. They will be for you everything I never could have been. Last of all, I want you to learn about Jesus Christ.

And accept his salvation and grow in him. He is very special to me. Because he saved me from a life that was a mess.

And he gave me a brand new one. He will be your friend. And will help you through everything.

He supplied me with the strength. To make it through my pregnancy. And to stick to my decision.

I would have never made it through without him. I will pray for you every day. I love you and will love you always.

Goodbye dear son. Your birth mother. my mother my birth mother gave me up as an act of sacrificial surrender to the lord um the best i can understand and just reading between the lines the lord used my presence in her life to show her she needed to get right with god from what what had happened there that summer and uh there’s a certain sense from which before i was ever born i was an instrument of revival, I guess.

I don’t know. But I was a mess. My adopted parents loved me. They

loved me as their own. I love them as my own. They are my parents.

And they raised me. Unbeknownst to me, when I was just a baby, both my parents dedicated me to be an evangelist. They never told me this, but they dedicated me to be an evangelist, to preach the gospel. Well, as I grew up further,

My adopted mother, her name is Denise, she had had all kinds of sicknesses all growing up. She had diabetes and Addison’s disease and a number of other things. And my adopted mother, my mom, Denise, when I was 12 years old, she went in for a transplant that was supposed to solve a big part of her physical problems. And she went in and just a week or two after the surgery, actually the surgery was a great success,

but just a week or two later, due to other complications, she died. Here I found myself in a one-parent home again. Just to be honest with you, I got very angry at God.

I got very bitter at God for ruining, as I thought, my life. But again, all the time, I didn’t realize God was actually doing a great, great, great thing. My years from 12 to 16 were very, very dark years.

I was addicted to pornography, addicted to rock and roll music, all kinds of music, actually. I was a video game junkie to an extreme. Really, my life was all about escaping from the hurt. It was all about escaping from reality into my own little world where I was in control,

where I could call the shots and where I could do what I wanted to do really is what the case was. And as a result of that, I hated my life. Just to be honest with you, I hated the hurt that was inside whenever I left, my eyes left the screen, whenever I began to think about what was actually going on in my life.

And those years were very dark. Years full of rebellion, years full of so many different things I wish I could go back and change. When I was 16 years old, God began to do a work in my heart and in my life.

And at 16, I was fed up with how wicked my life was. I honestly, I knew nothing about the spirit-filled life or depending on Christ for victory. I never heard any of that stuff growing up.

Really, honestly, in my mind, I thought if I just bucked up and did it, I would have done what I was supposed to do. And it was frustrating. And it was profitless.

And it was counterproductive in so many different ways. And because of that, there were times even as God was working in my heart and impressing on me how wicked my life was. And I knew that I needed to get right with the Lord.

And yet, I kind of make a little step here. And I try to fix something over here. And I try to delete the MP3 files off my computer.

Or I try to do something to help with these things. And it just didn’t work. And I was just honestly getting fed up.

And because of wrong theology, I was convinced I was actually lost. even though I trusted Christ as a four-year-old. And I was wrestling with all kinds of things, wondering, am I saved?

Am I not? How do I do this Christian life thing? It just seems pointless, hopeless.

And I just have nowhere to turn. And I remember one night I was in my bedroom as a 16-year-old, kneeling by the side of my bed at the end of my rope at the bottom, rock bottom. I remember there, I looked up at the ceiling and I said, God, if this person right here is going to be delivered.

Honestly, I was just throwing up my hands like it wasn’t even possible. I said, if this guy right here is going to be delivered, you’re going to have to be the one who does it. Because I can do this.

Yeah, I can. It was the strangest thing. I had no Bible teaching on it.

I had no theological framework for any of this. But you know, it’s funny. It worked.

And God began to give me victory in areas I didn’t even think I could have victory. I didn’t even think it was possible to have victory in. And I’m telling you, it was a personal awakening.

And after a couple of weeks, I thought, man, I’ve really got this thing figured out. I think I’ve got this thing solved. And then, boom, flat on my face again.

And honestly, there was another period of defeat. But I had tasted of something. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Honestly, I didn’t know what happened. I almost wonder if I’d gotten saved, just to be honest with you. But I had touched on something.

Well, my senior year of high school, God began to do a lot of things in my life. And again, I don’t have time to go into all of it. But part of what God did is I went to a Christian school.

I went to Westchester Christian School. Some of you probably are familiar with the school. And they had a weekend camp.

And at that weekend camp, Dr. Jim came and preached. It was the first time I’d ever seen him, first time I’d ever heard him.

but I remember he preached a message called 10 death sentences for disrespecting teens or something like that. I cried from the start to the finish, just about. I had never heard somebody shuck the corn like that in my life.

I never heard somebody be so direct about these issues. And I remember, oh, God was all over me that week. Another thing that happened there that week is, I think it was just overnight.

I don’t remember if it was a Friday night or exactly what it was. But one of my classmates, I was a senior in high school. One of my classmates in the dorm room that night, he gave devotions.

He was my peer. He was my classmate. And this may not sound like a big deal to you, but I had never heard anybody who was my peer ever communicate the word of God, ever.

Never preach a message. Never give a devotional. Never do anything like that. And as I was in the midst of dealing through and plowing deep with sin in my heart and my life,

I saw this friend of mine who was communicating the word of God to me. And I thought, man, that was good. And this little thought came in the back of my mind.

I wonder if I could do that. With that seed thought in the back of my mind, I came home. I dealt with stuff with my parents. And just shortly after that, probably but a week or two, during a morning service in my church, I was sitting in the back,

right back there where that guy in the red shirt is, right there, okay? Sitting in the back in our church. And as I’m sitting in my chair, the service was done.

Everything was finished. I think the pianist didn’t even stop playing the postlude. And I’m just sitting back there.

And I’m just thinking about stuff. And I’m thinking, you know what? And it was almost like all of a sudden, God spoke out of the sky and said, hey, Bobby.

I want you to be a preacher. And I said, me? Lord, I’ve got nothing.

I don’t have anything. You sure? Me?

Yes, you. okay there was no invitation there was no anything like that it was just okay well I got in the car later on that day on the way home going home that afternoon and I remember sitting in the bench seat behind my parents who were in the front and I remember saying hey mom and dad after the service here this morning I think God called me to what did I get myself into? And it hit me.

That means I’m going to have to stand up in front of people and talk. And I said, mom and dad, I think God called me to preach. And I told him I do it, but, but I can’t do that.

What in the world? What did I do? My mom turned and she looked at me and I’ll never forget what she said. She said, by the way, my dad had gotten remarried at this point to

a lady who was a missionary to Africa for 15 years. And part of the reason why God was working in my life like he was was because she began praying the devil out of me, like seriously. And she turned to me and she said, what God calls you to do, he’ll help you do.

And I thought, all right, that’s good. Not too long after this, we were sitting in a youth group on Sunday morning and Jerry Holloway, that’s Brian Holloway’s dad, for some of you who know, He was the youth teacher. And he was given the lesson.

And afterwards, he was making some announcements. And he said, hey, youth group, we’re going to be in just a couple weeks. We’re going to be going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

And so make sure you are going to be there this time and so on. And I don’t know what got in me. I raised my hand and I said, is anybody giving a devotional?

And he said, well, Bob, would you like to give a devotional? Actually, I would. I’m thinking, what am I doing?

What in the world is getting into me? This is nuts. Well, all I know is God was putting a burning in my heart for something.

And I want to be honest with you. This afternoon, I found my outline. I actually told the evangelist, guys, I didn’t have a scripture reference to it.

But I did, actually. Like, three. I didn’t really have a text, but I had an illustration. I’m really not joking we’re going to be going to Little Round Top and I guess I had known a little bit about what had happened there let me just read you my outline here if I could point number one, Little Round Top letter A initially number one looked bad

Encouraged. Letter three, was brother against brother. That’s not even parallel.

Letter B. Okay, so point A was initially. Point B was turning point.

Number one. I don’t know why I outlined an illustration, but I did. Okay.

Number one. Men charged with unconcern as to what the enemy would do to them. Number two.

Turned the whole war around. That was point one Little round top Point number two Us as a youth group Letter A Now Point number one Looks bad I had Galatians 5, 20 and 21 Which is actually the middle of the list of the works of the flesh is my reference. Number two, this is my first message ever, okay?

Point number two, we are discouraged. And point number three, we might have to face our own friends, okay? Letter B, turning point. Number one, we should charge for God’s will

without concern for the things of this world. God will not forsake us. We will be victorious.

Number two, we could start something big here. Revivals begin in the young people. That was the end of my message. I had in another sheet here,

Little Round Top, as compared to taking the first step, did not look promising. It was brother against brother, friend against friend. Let this place, I think I scripted part of this here, Let this place, this place where our country was turned around, be the starting place where we, as Christians, will turn our lives around.

Do what God wants. And again, this is not the greatest outline as far as structure and all kinds of other things. But you know, it was just interesting to me here today as I was looking at this to see that from the beginning of when God called me to preach, my burden and passion has been to see young people, teenagers, jump over that fence and run down that little round top and charge to turn the war for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I was honestly still a mess. Just because preachers preach doesn’t mean they’re not messes from time to time. We need the Lord just as much as anybody else does.

But the Lord began to do a deep work in my heart. He called me to Baptist College of Ministry. With that, that’s a whole story in and of itself. I came to BCM, and as Pastor mentioned the other day, I literally walked in looking like a skater dude, okay,

with bottles of Mountain Dew. Whoa. Yeah, bottles of Mountain Dew under my arm.

I don’t know if that had anything to do with this week or not. I doubt it. But with bottles of Mountain Dew under my arm, I remember I’d actually changed my hair to be a certain way so it could still be what I wanted.

But what I, well, anyway, I’ll leave that one alone. But I came here and I knew I didn’t really have much of anything, but I knew God had called me to preach. I knew God wanted to do something with my life.

I didn’t know what. And honestly, I just wanted to do what the Lord wanted me to do. Coming here, this is Wisconsin.

There’s a long way away from New Jersey where I grew up from. Where I grew up. But the Lord called me to come here.

And I knew he called me to come here. Like, I’m not saying this was like the best out of five options. It wasn’t even like it was the best out of two options.

It’s just where God told me he wanted me to go. And I wrestled with it for a while. But finally I said, you know what, Lord?

Not my will, but thine be done. Not what I want, not where my friends are going. I want to go where you want me to go.

If you call me to preach, I should probably do what you want me to do. And so I came to BCM. And I remember I sat in the interview over in that little conference room right over there.

And Helmut Steckman is with the Lord now. He looked across the table and said, how do you plan on paying for your school bill? That was like the hardest question he asked the whole time.

And I honestly didn’t know. I said, well, I got $2,000 in the bank account. and I’m going to work, but ultimately God’s going to have to be the one to provide.

And again, it was miracle after miracle. It was a miracle that got me here. It was miracle after miracles that kept me here. And as I was here, I’m telling you what, I was not,

I wouldn’t consider myself to have been the star BCM student. I mean, I had all kinds of issues in and out of dean’s offices, especially early on, and I was getting in trouble for stuff, and there was quite a learning curve from my standpoint. I was messed up, but I’ve come to learn all fresh.

are messed up. It’s just the way we get them. It’s okay.

There’s nothing new there. I just had a firsthand account of it. But God began to do such a deep work in my life and he began to show me what happened when I was a 16 year old.

He began to show me the theology behind it. And he began to show me that, you know what, whatever I call you to do, whether it be go and get right with mom and dad, whether it be pitch the worldly music collection that you’ve got, whether it be go out and give somebody the gospel, whether it be go travel in a Minutemen team with Dr. Jim and go out recruiting and talk to teenagers that you’ve never seen in your entire life,

whether it be pray and ask God for big things, all of those things, I couldn’t do it, but that is not an excuse. That was an opportunity to see what God in heaven could do in and through my life. And God began to just show me, listen, you are nothing.

You are a mess. That’s never going to change, but I live in you and I can do big things in and through your life as you depend on me. and as you surrender to me every step of the way. Well, as I was here in BCM, God began to, as I shared with the evangelist guys,

confirm my calling to be an evangelist. I remember talking to mom and dad about it initially. Man, we had done this reader’s theater called Bridge of Blood.

Matt Forrester would remember that. Man, God used that thing about Jim Elliot and the Aka Indians just to give me a passion for missions. And I said, man, I’m going to go to the mission field and I’m going to be an evangelist to missionary churches and I’m going to go itinerantly from missionary church to missionary church.

And I’m going to preach for revival and God’s going to use my life. Man, that’d be great. And then later on, God showed me that was your idea.

Here’s my idea. I want you to reach the next generation of missionaries. I want you to go and preach the gospel to teens.

And I honestly didn’t see the connection initially. The Lord began to do a work in my heart. And the Lord opened up the opportunity for me to not only travel with Dr. Jim, but to become a part of Minutemen Ministries and designing websites and graphics,

and eventually to take over the war. And as the Lord was doing this work in my heart, remember me the mess, the one who really, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t be doing anything for the Lord, I became an evangelist, traveling, preaching the gospel to teenagers, Seeing 20, 30, 40, 50 teenagers saved every week were on the road. And I remember that first night standing out in Missouri City, Texas, seeing the hoops were, only two hoops, two hoops were set up,

and Michael Laredo, I’m sure, is in here, Joseph Kane, were my team captains. And I remember thinking, well, it’s all leading to this, huh? And I remember that night, a number of kids got saved, and God just kept working and kept working.

And here we are, five years into it. And seen 1,600 plus young people come to Jesus Christ and trust Christ as their Savior. I remember that first summer we traveled.

Dave Raines, the youth pastor, announcement guy. And summer, they traveled. They were actually supposed to lead the team.

And then we kind of hijacked it and we co-led it together. It was interesting. But we were on the road together as well as a number of other individuals.

And I remember that summer, the Lord, I remember some of those prayer meetings. Where we were on our face. And we were pleading God.

To take some of the young people that were going to get saved. And that God would send them forth as laborers into the harvest fields. We prayed for this meeting.

Then. I’m thinking of. I think this is the auditorium.

I remember praying in Indianapolis. And I remember just asking God. To send forth laborers into his harvest field.

That God would take the teens of this country. That the Spirit of God would move across this entire nation. In the heart of every single teen lost or saved alike.

And he would move them in the direction of the Lord. That God would take lost young people. Bring them across somebody who’d preach the gospel to them.

That they’d get saved. And then they’d get hooked up with somebody who can lead them forward in their walk with God. And that God would take some of these young people and give them a vision for their lives.

That God could take them, even though they’ve just been saved for a few months or days or weeks or whatever. And that God could use them. That God would raise up an army of young men and women from this country.

Who would give their lives unreservedly, unashamedly to the Lord Jesus. And that God would take them. They would learn how to depend on Christ.

And that God would send them forth all over this globe to reach the masses for Jesus Christ. And I remember so many times with my teams, this was a theme. This was something God was burdening our hearts.

That God would do this. And I remember so many times in those prayer meetings, I know God heard us. And I knew God was answering that prayer.

That God was moving across the face of this planet, of this country particularly. That God was stirring hearts. That God was preparing a massive teen movement of teens who would unreservedly surrender the Lord for Him to send them wherever He would.

I knew God was doing it. then I was told we were going to do some kind of a youth conference here the Cold Clash Plus we were going to call it the V Generation Youth Summit and the byline was total dependence total surrender and I thought this is it this is it God’s going to do something at this conference God’s going to do something definite at this conference to move upon the hearts of these young people.

God is going to take these young people and he’s going to give them a vision that even though there might be messes right now, there is hope in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ can not only fix the messes, not only can enable them to have victory, but God can take them and God can use them in great ways all over this globe. There’s a verse that’s been special to me, Jeremiah chapter 1. It says,

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations. And as I look at that passage, I think, you know what? Me, an accident from a human standpoint.

Before I was ever born, God had my plan mapped out. You know, it’s interesting. At the best I can tell, a youth camp, a horrible act of sin took place.

And a youth evangelist that God was planning to use to start a youth movement was brought into being. And you know, God works all things together for good. And this movement that I’m speaking of, God is doing.

I’ve only, even just this week, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been thinking, you know what? This isn’t something that anybody is starting.

God’s already doing it. This doesn’t have anything to do with just a church. It doesn’t have anything to do with any individual men.

What it has to do with is that God Almighty in heaven has something big he’s up to. In fact, there are college students all over this room that I think would already consider themselves a part of the V generation. There’s a whole generation of young people.

Listen, they don’t want to do their own thing. They don’t want to get their own will done. That’s not why they’re here.

That’s not why they’re on this earth. That’s not why Jesus saved them. They know that.

They’re here because God has a plan for their lives. They know they can’t do it. They know they don’t have what it takes.

What God’s calling them to do is not just hard. It’s impossible. And yet, they’re not backing down.

They’re not saying it’s too hard. They’re not saying we’re going to have to figure out some other way to get it done. No, they’re saying, listen, God, you want us to give our lives through you and spread this entire globe with the message of Jesus Christ.

By God’s strength and power, and by the Lord Jesus living inside of us, we’re going to do it. God’s already raising up the V generation. And so really here today, the question isn’t, are we going to start a movement?

The question is, who’s going to join it? Listen, I would claim to be a part of it. I don’t want to live my life for myself.

I don’t want to live a humanly explainable life. I don’t want to just go out and make money. I don’t want to just do my thing.

I want my life to please the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to stand before Jesus one day. And I want to tell him, Jesus, I did everything I could by your strength and power.

I presented myself as a living sacrifice unto you. I gave you my life, every part of it, and you did all the work. You did the work in hearts.

You did the work in my heart. And so here today, again, this is not a normal message. This wouldn’t be considered homiletically anything.

This is just my heart to yours here this evening. my question to you here tonight is are you willing to join the Thee Generation? Here’s what I want to do. Everyone could please stand to their feet

if we could have somebody come to the piano. I want to do a different kind of an invitation here this evening. If you teenager here in this room are serious about joining this movement that the Holy Spirit of God is orchestrating here in this country, here’s what I want you to do. In just a moment, when the piano plays, I’m going to invite you to go to the back and in the lobby, there are several tables

set up with several sign-up sheets. And this is not, I mean, we do want to connect with you regarding the V generation as far as the website and those things, but this is bigger than a website. This is bigger than a podcast. This is you and your life

and this is the Lord and His great plan. And if you here today would say, Brother Bosler, I am willing. And by you going back and putting your name on that sheet in that lobby, you are saying, my life is not about me anymore.

It’s not about my will. It’s not about my future. It’s not about my plans.

It’s not about me at all. it’s about his will his plan I am going to surrender absolutely to the Lord that’s on the one hand and also by you putting your name on that you’re saying you know what no longer will I depend upon the arm of the flesh no longer will I depend upon myself no longer will I depend on pragmatism no longer will I depend on me to accomplish God’s will I am going to from this day forward

depend on the Christ, the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the personal EMT who lives within me for everything that he brings my way. To sign up for the generation is to say, listen, total surrender, total dependence. If you are willing for that, if we could have every head bowed and every eye closed as the piano plays, you go out into the lobby and you put your name.