Bobby Bosler: Why are you here at the Thee Generation Youth Summit? What are you hoping to get out of this week? I don’t expect you to give me an answer.

I just want you to think about that. Why did some of you travel all the way from Maine to be here? Is it because of the food?

It’s the food, isn’t it? Food’s pretty good. Some of you, maybe you came here because you wanted to make some friends, and that’s not a bad motive necessarily.

You can make some friends and not accomplish the purpose that God brought you here this week. You know, why did you come to the Thee Generation Youth Summit? Why did you come to the Cola Clash Plus?

You know, you may give a variety of different answers, and your answer may be different than why God brought you to the Thee Generation Youth Summit here this week. And I want you to know here today that you are not here to make friends. You are not here to win.

You are not here to eat some good food, and you’re not even necessarily here to hear good preaching, though I trust you will this week. Really one of the reasons why God brought you here is because God wants you to die. You say, I could do that anywhere.

Well, that’s not exactly what I mean.

You know, I want you to understand, as we’re going to be talking this week about the generation, total surrender, total dependence, as we’re going to be talking about how God wants to take your life and use it to turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ, I think sometimes we can get these glittering visions of ourselves in our minds and we can picture ourselves getting all pumped up at a youth conference and improving ourselves and getting to a new plane of betterment to ourselves.

And I want you to know here this week, that is not the generation. That is not total surrender, total dependence, and that is not 0-100. I think sometimes when we think of God using our lives, when we think of making a step forward in our Christian walk, we’ve got it all wrong.

We’ve got it backwards. And you know, I recognize that I’m speaking to young people here today that are at a variety of different points in your journey with Jesus. There are some of you here in this room, doubtless, that have never even met Jesus as your Savior.

There are some young people here in this room that because of your sins, you have earned punishment before Almighty God. God is holy. You are sinful.

And that’s a big problem because God’s holiness demands perfection and you are not perfect. God’s justice demands punishment. And friends, because of your sin, you deserve to be punished by God forever in the lake of fire.

And young people, I want you to know that’s not good news. That’s bad news. But the good news, and this is not the point of my sermon here this morning, But the good news is that Jesus, 2,000 years ago, came.

And he, on the cross of Calvary, his hands were pierced. His feet were pierced. His blood was shed.

And God, his Father, placed all of your crimes and all of your sins on Jesus Christ on the cross. And Jesus paid your fine. He suffered your sentence.

He took your hell. He died having written the check to pay for your sins. And when he rose again, that check cleared, my friends.

And I want you to know that Jesus is able to save any and all who will come unto him and place their dependence on Jesus and Jesus alone to wash their sins away and to give them everlasting life.

You know, I travel all over the country, and one of the things I love is I love to see young people realize their need of being saved, to realize their need that they are condemned and on their way to hell, but Jesus did something so they can be forgiven. Jesus did something so that their record can be wiped clean by the blood of Jesus Christ so they can know for sure they’re on their way to heaven.

Not because they’re trying to improve their life, not because they’re trying to do better at their walk with God, but because Jesus paid the price for their sins on Calvary. I love to see young people come to the counseling room, and I love to see them tell me with confidence, I depended on Jesus and Jesus alone, and God promised that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If I died, I know I’m going to heaven.

Can I say this here at the very beginning? If there are some of you here in this room that don’t know for sure you’re on your way to heaven, please talk to your squad leader here today, because we want to help you get that matter settled. I recognize there are very likely some in this room that that is the case.

but that being said there are others of you here in this room as I’m talking about that your eyes are starting to glaze over because you did that a long time ago and there are some of you here in this room though you’ve taken the provision of everlasting life and though you’ve taken the pardon that’s been provided for you by the blood of Jesus Christ though you know you’re on your way to heaven I’m telling you your goals are very different than God’s goals for

you I’m talking to some young people here in this room.

Your goal for your life is to make money. Your goal for your life is to be a sports star. Your goal for your life is to get a cushy profession.

Your goal for your life is to make friends, to be popular, to be loved. Maybe the goals for your life is to live in comfort. Maybe the goals of your life is pretty much just to please yourself and to do what you want to do.

And can I tell you, young people here today, that’s the wrong purpose that’s the wrong goal and I want you to know God wants to help you correct your purpose here today I do also recognize that there are some young people here in this room you’re here because your spirit resonates with the message of the generation I would imagine probably at least two-thirds of the young people here in this room you’ve made significant decisions in your heart you said I want to live my life

for Jesus Christ I want my life to count I want to do what God wants me to do.

I want my life to turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. And I might not be there yet. And I might not be all that I believe God wants me to be at this point in time of my life.

But I’m telling you, that’s what I want. There are some of you here in this room, your life is already making a huge difference. I know there’s a number of young people here in this room, specifically because some of you got a vision for what God could do for you in your school.

There’s some of you here in this room, you’ve led people to Jesus Christ because you’ve lived total surrender and total dependence. You’ve tried to make, you’ve tried to do what God has called you to do, not in your own strength, but in the strength of Jesus Christ. And I want you to know, regardless of where you’re at here this morning, I trust this message will help you take the next step forward.

In fact, really what I like to do here in these morning times is I want to I want to set our direction for where we’re going. I want to give us a little bit of a preview of where we’re heading so as we hit the various pit stops along the road, as we hit the various checkpoints, we can see how that fits into the overall context of what God wants to do in all of our hearts and in all of our lives here this week.

I’m telling you, young people, what God wants from you this week is by the end of the week, He wants you to not only understand, but he wants you to live zero 100. Last night you heard Dr. Jim define that, that zero percent my will, 100 percent God’s, zero percent dependence on my strength, 100 percent dependence on God’s strength.

Now that being said, just saying those things doesn’t necessarily get you there. What we’re going to be doing here today particularly is we’re going to be focusing on the issues that hinder, The reasons why at times we don’t even want God’s will. The reasons why at times, though maybe if we do want God’s will, we don’t end up doing God’s will.

The things in the soil of your heart, as I podcasted about earlier this week, that make the seed of the word of God not take deep root. And young people, I want you to know my goal this morning and my goal for the rest of the preachers here today is to get you to the point where the soil of your heart can fully receive and benefit from and live 0-100. If you can view it this way, today is a day of preparation for tomorrow.

That being said, I ask you to turn to John chapter 12. We’re going to be looking at verses 23 through 27 here today. Here Jesus is speaking.

It’s not too long before the time when he will be taken to the cross to suffer the consequences of our sin. And here Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says in verse 23, And Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And can I tell you this?

Jesus had his sights set on what God wanted to do through his life. Jesus, the Son of God, he saw the end of the conference, so to speak. He saw the end of the road and he knew God wanted to lift him up and God wanted to do something through him that would literally change the whole world.

I think that’s what some of you want out of this conference this week. You want God to do something in your life that will make it possible for you to change the world. That’s what I want you to get out of this week as well.

But if you look in verse 24, we see that on the pathway of 0100, on the pathway of becoming a world changer, on the pathway of doing something that will change the entire world, there are some decisions that we probably aren’t going to like. You look at verse 24 here. Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.

It abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it.

And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also my servant be.

If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.

There’s a number of things going on here in this passage, but I’ll just put it this way. Jesus was face to face with the decision of death. Jesus had the end goal in mind.

And Jesus here gave an analogy of a corn of wheat, a grain of wheat. This grain of wheat in and of itself isn’t worth a whole lot. But when this grain of wheat is planted and buried under the ground, the husk of that wheat can break forth, and the potential that’s inside of that wheat can break forth, and that grain of wheat over time can multiply to feed entire nations.

And Jesus here said, but here’s the thing, the fruit will never multiply until first the grain of wheat is buried and dies.

Jesus made it clear he wasn’t just talking about himself and the mission that he was accomplishing he in essence said listen this is something I want every single one of you to replicate in your life every day of your life and if I could put it this way to summarize what I’m going to be talking about here the pursuit of total surrender to God is a pursuit of constant death that results in supernatural life.

Young people, the message I’m going to be speaking to you about here this morning is very simply entitled, Decisions of Death. Or Jesus, I do ask that during this time that you would attend this meeting, I’m weak, and God, I’ve called upon you here this morning. I do not have what it takes to explain this text, to preach and apply this text as you want it preached and applied.

So God, I just simply present myself to you. I die to my expectations, and I want to embrace yours. God, I die to my own reputation, and God, I want your reputation to be lifted up.

God, I take here and now the anointing and an unction to deliver this as you would have it to be delivered. In Jesus’ name, amen. I’ve heard it said by a preacher, before you really live, first you’ve got to die.

And you know, you might be sitting here thinking, this is not why I came to the Thee Generation Youth Summit. I did not come to the Thee Generation Youth Summit to die. I came to the Thee Generation Youth Summit in some way, shape, or form to live.

And I want you to know we want you to live too. In fact, we want your life to be so effective for God, so fulfilling before God, so satisfied that you are living like you’ve never lived before. But what happens is before you live, first you’ve got to die.

And here over this next 24 hours, we are going to be talking about a number of different things. That to be frank with you, if you’re going to benefit from all that God has for you this week, there are some things that are going to have to die. The first thing that’s going to have to die here this week is you’re going to have to put your sins to death.

You’re going to have to put your sins to death. Did you know that there are some things in your life that if you don’t kill them will kill you? Did you know that?

I’m talking to some young people here in this room. There are issues in your life that have happened even the last 24 hours. And you know these issues are absolutely killing your walk with God.

I’m talking to some young people here in this room because as we talked about last year, you ignored the law of God. You are ignoring the Lord. And you are as far from God as you’ve ever been.

I’m talking to some young people here in this room. Even though God says that you shouldn’t look at a woman with lust, and even though you made decisions about that in years past, I’m telling you, you just go back to it. I’m sure there are reasons why that is the case.

I’m sure there are reasons why you continue to resort back to the glow of your phone when the lights are out in your bedroom, and look at those garbage images on the Internet. And I want you to know, and I’m sure you’re aware of this already, it kills your walk with God.

I’m talking to some of you young people here in this room you’ve got a major problem with lying you’ve got a major problem with lying you lie to your parents all the time you lie to them about places you’ve been, things that you’ve done you lie to your friends so they’ll think better of you, you think that if you can just kind of craft your own reputation and craft your own image then maybe then maybe people will like you like you feel like you want

them to like you maybe, just maybe that peer group will accept you.

Maybe, just maybe, if I can so craft my image, then I’ll be satisfied and then I’ll be accepted. But young people, I want you to know lying is never the answer. Lying to mom and dad is never the answer.

Lying to your teacher is never the answer. Lying to your friends is never the answer. And for some of you, you’ve gotten into a habit of lying.

Oh, it doesn’t seem that consequential to start. You know what I’m saying? It’s just a little thing.

And in fact, I find many times it starts like this. You misspeak. Like genuinely, you didn’t intend to lie, but you just kind of misspeak about something and then you catch it.

But then you think, well, I mean, I misspoke and you don’t go back and correct it. And then you start creating this narrative about yourself that isn’t true. And instead of humbling yourself and admitting that you didn’t speak the truth, you didn’t give a right impression.

Instead, you kind of lie some more to add to that. And you lie some more to make sure they don’t find out that that wasn’t really true, what you just said right there. And lies can compound very quickly.

I’m talking to some young people here in this room. You’ve been experiencing the compounding nature of deceit. And I think you would agree with me, if you’re honest, it’s killing you.

it’s absolutely killing you. I’m talking to some young people here in this room. You’ve taken things that don’t belong to you.

You’ve taken stuff. Maybe it’s from your school. Maybe it’s something, a piece of equipment from the sports locker room, something that wasn’t yours, and nobody was looking around.

It’s something you feel like, ah, nobody even uses that really. Nobody’s really going to miss it, so you take it, and you think, I have a use for it, so you take it. You don’t ask anybody.

Just take it home and use it for yourself. Maybe it’s not a piece of sports equipment. Maybe it’s some money.

maybe it wasn’t some money maybe it was uh somebody’s old electronic device that they just don’t use anyway right and you take it as your own and can i tell you you’re a thief and as long as you cover that up i’m telling you it’s going to kill your walk with god it is killing your walk with god there have been many times in my life when i wanted to do right I wanted my life to make a difference, but because of the garbage in

my heart and in my life, I felt shackled.

And I couldn’t step forward. I couldn’t move. I remember as a young person in high school, I was schooled at home for a few years during some difficult periods of time in my family’s life.

My mom passed away. Some of you know this when I was 12. And I was schooled at home just because kind of that was all we could do.

And during that time, I was a huge gamer. And one of the things I would do is in one room, I’d be playing my games while my videos were playing in the other room. And I figure I can kind of hear it, you know.

I got to beat this level, though, you know. I can kind of hear the videos, and I might pop my head in every once in a while. Okay, they’re talking U.S.

history now. Yeah, U.S. history.

The United States is here. Good to go, all right. But I’d be in my other room playing games.

And because of that, you know, I still had to turn in my tests. I still had to take the tests and turn in homework assignments and stuff like that. I would just go into the drawer, the cabinet, where all the keys were.

I knew where that was. And because my mom was gone, I was home alone doing this all by myself. And I’d go into the cabinet, and I pulled out the answer key.

And I would take the answer key on one side and the test on the other side. and I’ll write, you know, A, B, B, A, A, B, B, A, F, E, D, F. I don’t want to look too smart, so I’ll just put C and D, and I’ll change a few answers, you know, just so they don’t think all of a sudden I’ve been glorified and I’m perfect, all right, just to cover my tracks.

And I cheated on almost a whole year’s worth of tests. I want you to know during that time, God was trying to do a work in my heart, but because of the sin that I wasn’t willing to deal with, it killed me. I could sit here and I could apply for a while, but I want you to know from the Bible, there’s another man, his sin killed him.

His name was Achan. You know this man. I preached about this man in the youth before, and I’m not going to preach my sermon, but to remind you of the story, here is a man who at a certain point in his life, he’s doing the will of God, and all of a sudden a temptation comes up to take something that didn’t belong to him that really belonged to God.

which by the way 10% of your income belongs to God just saying well here he was there was this particular these three items that were devoted to destruction and he took them he took them to himself he brought them to his tent he buried them under his tent and he had deception he was covering this issue up there came an opportunity to get right Joshua sent messengers throughout the camp and basically said listen, you know those 36 men died because someone in this camp took

of the accursed thing, and God is going to diagnose who did it?

And essentially what he was saying is, you’ve got the night to come and come clean and get right. But Achan, as you know, he didn’t do it. He risked detection instead of dealing with the sin.

You know, Achan very well could have, I believe, come to Joshua, and I very well believe that if he would have come, And if he would have let his sin die, and if he would have gotten honest, and if he would have gotten open and transparent about what had happened, I think there would have been consequences, but I don’t think he would have ended up dying. I don’t think that at all. But because he refused to kill his sin.

Oh, his sin was found out. It came to the surface. God has a way of bringing your sin to the surface.

And let me tell you, you might make it through this youth summit without dealing with your sin. But God is on your case, and God is going to bring it to light. I’m talking to some academy students from this place right here.

You got some major issues, my friends, things you’re hiding from mom and dad. And I’m telling you what, you know as well as anybody else in this room, we can tell just by looking at you, it’s killing your walk with God. Listen, some of you here in this room, you come from a Christian school, and you just wonder why people don’t think you’re walking with God.

and you think, you know, hey, I’m giving a good impression. You know, I’m trying to look spiritual. I’m trying to talk spiritual.

But I’m telling you, there’s a deadness in the eyes that everyone around you can tell. There is death in this young person, and there’s something killing them. And while we adults might not be able to put our finger on it, it’s evident to everyone.

You know, like in the case of Achan, what you need to do is you need to side with Joshua. instead of with Achan. In other words, you need to be willing to stand against your sin.

You need to be willing to, instead of standing with Achan and defending it, instead of standing with Achan and just hoping that it goes away, instead of standing with Achan and justifying it in your mind and saying, well, it’s not that big of a deal. Surely he must be preaching this message because of somebody else in the room. Surely it’s not me.

Instead of siding with Achan and making excuses and justifying your sin, Instead, you need to side with Joshua and point your finger at that sin and say, listen, you’re the problem. This is the problem and it needs to go. It’s time to kill it.

It’s time to put it to death. It’s time to get this thing out of the camp of my heart. It’s time for this thing to go.

Listen, before you live, first you got to die. You’ve got to make some decisions of death. And the first thing you’ve got to decide is going to die is your sin.

it’s got to die secondly here though not only do you need here this week to put your sins to death i’m going to explain what i mean by this in a moment you also need to put your sons to death you say i don’t have any sons well just hold on let me explain this i think y’all are familiar with the man abraham right abraham was a man who was on a journey of faith he was at a particular geographic location the city of ur

and god called him and said hey listen i’ve got a plan for your life and you know what he started to follow God and even when people close to him checked out on the journey his dad stopped partway to where God wanted them to go Abraham continued to follow God he outpaced his peers and he ended up getting to the region where God wanted him to be in his life there were so many checkpoints of faith and it seemed like in every checkpoint he did

what was right and it was an encouraging thing it’s encouraging to me to read the story of Abraham and how God was working in his life and taking him from a life of paganism a life of godlessness and and God was bringing him out of idolatry not only to trust the coming Messiah as his savior but to do God’s will with his life in fact if you know God’s vision statement for this man his vision statement for the man Abraham was that through him the

entire earth would be blessed.

Can I say Abraham was an early member of the generation? His life was supposed to turn the world upside down for God. But you know there came a very crucial point in Abraham’s life.

He and his wife had sought God. God had promised to him a son. God had promised to him that he would have a seed to carry on his name, that his descendants would be multiplied like the stars of the sky.

God had given him a promise, and God had even done a miracle, a genuine bonafide miracle, in allowing his wife in her 90s to get pregnant. That’s amazing. And God gave him this son, Isaac.

You know the story. You know where I’m going with this story, too. God had given something, something that he treasured, something that was very special to him, something that he very likely protected, something that he valued, something that was so dear to him, he probably couldn’t even imagine giving it up.

But you know, God showed up in his life and wanted to take him to the next level. And so what he did is he said, hey, you know your son, the one I gave to you in answer to prayer? Hey, you know this thing that you treasure, this one that you hold dear, this one thing that’s more important to you than anything else in all the world?

I want you to put it to death. I want you to put him to death. You see, young people, there are some things in your life that God asks you to kill that don’t make a whole lot of sense at the moment.

You see, it’s like this. What God wants is God wants for you to put your sons to death, the things that are most precious. God wants you to be willing to give them up to him.

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I went to Westchester Christian School in Westchester, Pennsylvania. And while I was there, that was a very key year for me. God began to do a lot of significant things in my life.

I’d gotten some good friends that were godly, that wanted to serve God. And I remember there that year, early on in the year, I enrolled in two classes in our Christian school. I wasn’t supposed to enroll in both, but they let me do it, I guess.

It was Computer 1 and Computer 2. Computer 1 is kind of the foundation. Computer 2 is built on top of that.

So, Computer 1 was kind of, you know, the Microsoft Office programs, and Computer 2, this will date me, they had us using Microsoft front page and building websites, okay? And I really enjoyed that kind of thing. In fact, shortly into the semester, I remember I had built an amazing website called Bobby’s World of Weirdness.

In my banner header, I had actually crafted with Macromedia Flash at the time, this really fancy looking header, Bobby’s World of Weirdness, and I had a snowman that came up on a snowboard and did a 360 and out the other side, okay? That was kind of characteristic of the kind of website that I built there. But here’s the thing, I loved doing it.

I felt fulfilled doing it. This, to me, was quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do. It dominated my thinking.

It was what I did all the time, and in fact, I was good at it there at that point in my life. And the reason where I started realizing, the time when I started realizing that I actually had a knack for this kind of thing was when I came down during my lunch break, and I saw the entire computer lab filled with junior hires. And every single junior hire, every single computer screen, was on Bobby’s World of Weirdness during the lunch hour.

I had these little Flash games on there that they could play, and I looked around, and they’re all playing my games in the computer lab. And I thought, you know, I kind of like this. You know, I think I can do this.

Hey, maybe I could make a life out of this, like an occupation out of this. But you know, around that time in my life, God also began dealing with my heart that he had a vision that was so much bigger for me. There was a weekend camp where Dr.

Jim came and he preached. And there at Camp Calvary, I think it was, and he preached to a group of young people from the school there. And it was like a school camp kind of a thing, intro to the school year.

And I remember as he preached, all I know, I couldn’t have explained it to you in this way, but God was showing up in my heart. I couldn’t even have told you about all the specific things that God was dealing with. But I just know this.

I had never sensed the presence of God like that in my entire life. And I knew God wanted to do something with me. I remember one of my friends, his name is Colin Mesche.

He’s now a youth pastor in Bucksport Bible Church up in Maine somewhere, New England somewhere. And he gave a devotional. And to be honest with you, it was the first time I’d ever heard somebody my own age communicate the word of God.

And through what God did through the preaching and just the fact that a young person my own age was communicating the word of God, God began to talk to me and say, maybe you could communicate the word of God. And that following Sunday, I was sitting in a service. And in that service, God put his finger on my heart and he said, I don’t want you to give your life to build websites.

I want you to give your life to communicate the word of God. I want you to be a preacher. I’ll be honest with you there at that time, it wasn’t that hard of a decision.

Yes, I loved building websites. It was something I felt like I was good at. But I gave it to God, and I put it to death.

Honestly, for a span of probably about three or four years, I never touched another website again. I never did another. I never even, I completely got out of the loop.

I had no idea what was going on in kind of that whole realm. You know, when I was in it, I kind of really had my finger on the pulse of what was happening in that industry. But once I surrendered my life to God, as far as I was concerned, it was completely dead.

It was gone. It was done. Not for me.

There came a time later when God decided to raise that talent from the dead. Dr. Jim asked me to start doing the graphic design and websites for Minute Men Ministries.

And I began to realize, OK, OK, that’s why God gave me that talent. He didn’t give me that talent so I could use it for myself. He gave it to me so I could use it for him.

But before he could ever use it, first I had to put it to death. Some of you here in this room, you’ve got stuff you’re hanging on to, stuff that you just don’t want to give up because maybe you’re good at it. Maybe it’s something you could really see yourself doing for your life.

Maybe it’s something you really like. You just get joy and fulfillment out of it. Maybe there’s something here.

It’s just an item, an activity. Again, it could be anything from a game to a movie to a phone. There’s something in your life that is a son to you, if I can put it that way.

Something that you hold dear. Something that you treasure. Something that you just don’t want to let go of.

And can I tell you, before you live, first, it’s got to die. You’ve got to put your sons to death. You know, I’ve recently been very moved by somebody in my life that did that kind of a thing for me.

I think some of you, if you listen to the podcast, you heard that I met a woman that was very special to me this past December. Her name is Ruth, and Ruth made some very bad choices in her life. Ruth ended up at a bar.

She was a Christian young lady, completed a year of Bible college, but she ended up at a bar with a rock band and one of her friends invited the rock band to come over to her house and one thing led to another and she ended up sleeping with the lead singer of the rock band and she got pregnant went back to Bible college didn’t know she was pregnant shortly into the semester something was going wrong with her body she didn’t know exactly what it was

she got a pregnancy test and realized she indeed was expecting that baby was me at this point in time she had a lot going on with her life she was in college you know would have been real easy for her to terminate the pregnancy would have been real easy for her to make selfish decisions would have been easy for her on the one hand to terminate the pregnancy that would go against god’s law that’s not what god would want it would be easy on the

other hand to just give up pursuing god’s vision for her life and to just keep me for herself you know to have a little baby that she could cuddle and you know spend time with and all of that, and she knew that the greatest thing she could ever do for this child was to give this child up.

In fact, she gave me up to the Bethany Christian Services to be adopted, and again, I apologize for those of you that are somewhat familiar with my story. She had selected a home that I would go to. This was a closed adoption, so basically, in giving me up, she basically gave up any guarantee of ever seeing me ever again.

She gave me up not because she didn’t want to deal with it. She gave me up because she loved me and she wanted me to have a two-parent home. She wanted me to have all the things that she would want me to have.

And it was an incredible sacrifice for her to give me up there at that point. She gave a letter to me in which she said, I gave you up because I loved you and I wanted the best for you. And I knew I couldn’t provide that for you.

Well, I just want, and again, I’ve always thought about this over the years from my perspective. And I’m thankful that she gave me up. But as I’ve gotten to know her and I met her this past December, as I began to think more about from her side, she didn’t know what was going on with me.

She let me go completely and all she could do was pray. She didn’t know if I was saved. She didn’t know if I was alive at all.

In fact, there was a point in time when she thought she’d found me on the Internet. It wasn’t me. And she said, I was a little bit disappointed by where you were at in your walk with God.

Because apparently this guy wasn’t even saved and, you know, whatever. She said, we tried to reach out to who we thought was you. And he never replied.

It was kind of discouraging. Both she and my sister, they were both searching for me. But I’m telling you what.

Her sacrifice did not go unnoticed before God. See, from her perspective, she gave me up and she died to me. She planted me in the soil.

She couldn’t see me there anymore. She didn’t know what was happening below the soil. But because of her decision of death, God did a miracle in this life.

God got a hold of my heart. God gave me a vision. God protected me from a lot that I could have gotten into as a teenager.

And God has transformed my life, and I’ve been able to see many young people saved through the ministry, and I hope I’m being a help to you here this week and otherwise. But you know, never would have happened if she hadn’t made that decision of death. Never would have happened.

Now there’s one more decision of death that I want to focus on here. You need to put your sin to death. Some of you are wrestling with things.

There’s garbage in your life, and God’s going to be dealing with you about that here today. I want to encourage you, recognize that it might seem like you’re going to die at the moment if you deal with your sin, but God is going to do a miracle on the other side. God’s going to call you to put your sons to death, so to speak.

Things in your life that you hold dear, that are precious to you. Things that you’re good at. Things you could never imagine your life without.

And God’s putting his finger on it saying, give it up. Give it up. Give it to me.

I want to do something to it. But as long as it’s in your hands, you’re going to mess it all up. Let go.

let me do it there’s one more decision and really this is the main focus of this passage here and that’s this you need to put yourself to death see the greatest thing that God wants to die is you now we’re not talking suicide here obviously I think we all understand that you see God knows the amazing potential inside of you but the husk of self is keeping it bottled up God wants you to let that husk be broken so the life of Jesus in you

can bring forth much fruit.

It’s like this. In a meeting like this, I think sometimes we’re willing for God to say, that sin needs to die. You know what I’m saying?

That’s not you. Right? I think sometimes we’re willing, even when there’s something we really like, right?

And God’s saying, okay, that needs to die. Okay, I mean, sure, I mean, I want to follow God, you know, and I’m willing to let that go. But there comes a point in the journey when God has pointed at this and that and this and that, and God points his finger right at you.

He says, this is what needs to die next. This is what needs to die next. There’s something inside of you that’s amazing.

There’s a potential inside of you that can literally bring forth fruit and turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. But there’s too much you. There’s too much you in the picture.

There’s too much self. I remember early on in my preaching ministry, caught wind of this here recently. One of the things I guess that people would say is there’s too much Bobby.

I hope that’s not the case. I’m sure it probably still is to some sense. There’s too much Bobby in this message.

There’s too much Bobby in this. You know, and I’ll be honest with you, there is too much Bobby in this man right here. And see, here’s the thing.

God, even in these last weeks, God has been putting his finger at my heart. And he’s been talking to me and saying, Bobby, you think way too much of yourself. Bobby, you think way too much about what you think you can do and the things that you want to do.

Bobby, there’s way too much of you. And I’ll be honest with you, even last night coming into this morning, God has been putting his finger in my chest and saying, Bobby, you’re the one that needs to die.

I’ll be honest with you young people I want to come into a youth summit and I want to have a message that’s amazing I want to have a message that’s well prepared and well thought out and just one of those wigs whiz bang knock your socks off kind of messages and God hasn’t let me have one of those and last night I was lying in the bed and I was talking to my wife saying I’m toast I gotta preach tomorrow and I don’t know how

this is supposed to come out and I’m talking to my wife and I’m like, I think I’m going to go here.

And she’s like, no, that stinks. I’m like, thanks for being honest with me. She’s like, she doesn’t write my messages, but I do check some of them by her.

She’s got an awesome mind for that kind of thing, and she’ll be totally embarrassed that I said any of this. So just don’t mention it to her, please. But I was working through this.

I was up at, you know, 10, 1030, and I’m looking at the passage I was planning on doing, and I’m thinking, well, maybe I could go this way, and it’s like, I just didn’t sense life in it. Maybe I could go this way, and I just didn’t sense life with it. And I’ll be honest with you, I was starting to panic.

Just to be honest with you, I want to be well prepared. I want to have everything to be what it’s supposed to be. I want to have my whole thing written out, and I want to be, I just want this to be a blessing.

But last night, it’s like God saying, it’s not about the message, it’s about you. And you need to die to your reputation. You need to die to your self-concept of who you think you are as a preacher.

And you just need to present yourself to me. And I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that.

Because I thought, you know, I just want to be prepared. Surely that’s okay. And God’s saying the greatest preparation that can happen is for you to die.

And young people, can I tell you the greatest thing that could ever happen in your heart and in your life here? this week is if you would die to yourself. Die to your own reputation.

Die to your own image of what you’re trying to maintain. Die to your will. Die to your plans.

Die to you. See, God doesn’t just want to shed the clothes of the world, so to speak.

God doesn’t just want to shed the outer shell, his claws dig in deep see we are the problem self is the problem and here in this verse here he says he that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal it’s like this see we need to what do i mean by dying to self here’s what i mean really simply. It’s death, number one, death to self-preference.

It’S death It shouldn’t have anything to do with whether you get pleasure out of this. It should have everything to do with, is this what Jesus wants for me? Okay, just personal testimony here.

You all know what Duolingo is? Okay, little green owl, right? I love languages.

I really do. And for about the last month or so, I’ve been working on modern Hebrew. Some of you in my classes, you know that.

And I’ve been working on that. I thought, you know, hey, this is a spiritual language, right? It’s a language we’ll speak in heaven.

I’m just getting a head start. And, you know, I’m learning modern Hebrew. And I’ll be honest with you, in my heart, I was thinking, why?

It was almost like God was putting his finger on my chest and saying, you know, there’s nothing wrong with this, but I don’t want you to do this. And I’ll be honest with you, I did it anyway. I had a 34-day streak go until a couple days ago.

And, you know, I was working my way up the charts. I was in the Amethyst League, if you know anything about it, all right. You know, I really racking up the points there.

And I don’t know, maybe my old video game, me, was coming out on that a little bit. But I justified it in my mind, thinking, this is language learning. This is good.

This will help me understand my Bible better, right? Maybe if I ever go to Israel and be a missionary. But honestly, it was just self.

And really for the last week, God has been putting his finger. And again, for some of you, this sounds stupid. Because you don’t understand what it is for Jesus to talk to you and to say, I don’t want you to do that.

And this sounds crazy. This sounds stupid to you. And I’m telling you, if this sounds dumb to you, you need to get a hold of the voice of God.

You need to learn what it means to be surrendered to God. I recognize this is a nuanced thing. But here’s the long and the short of it.

God didn’t want me to do that. I’m not saying he will never let me do it in the future, but I do know God was putting his finger and saying no. Well, a few days ago, I deleted the app off on my phone, and I said, God, you know what?

This isn’t a sinful thing, but in dying to self, listen, more than I want to know Hebrew, I want your hand in my life. More than I want something to do when there’s a little bit of downtime, I want you to use me. I want to be in step with you.

I want to be close to you. And see, if I was to choose to love my life, the life as I envisioned it, the things that I envisioned that I want to do in my life, I’m telling you, I’m going to lose what I really want. And I didn’t want to lose what God wanted to do in me.

Listen, even preachers sometimes wrestle with this matter of dying to our preferences. is. See, it’s death to self-preference.

Honestly, if you think about it, if God says no and I say I want it anyway, what I’m doing is I’m worshiping my own will and it’s idolatry. See, and the point is not that you give up any and everything in your life that’s fun. That’s not what I’m talking about.

The point is, is that you defer to the preference of Jesus. That’s the point. Second thing the death to self means is it’s death to self-guidance.

He talks about this here in verse 26. He says, if any man serve me, let him follow me. That where I am, there shall also my servant be.

In other words, what he’s saying here is, listen, it’s not about where you’re deciding to go with your life. It’s not about what you’re deciding to do. See, death to self is death to your own right to guide and control and direct your life.

in other words it’s saying you know hey where am I going to be five years down the road you know I meet people all the time you know they’re like here’s my five year plan okay you know my five year plan is to go to this school to get this degree right and to end up in this field of work in this occupation making this amount of money my first year which never happens that way at least that last part right and they’ve got their

whole life mapped out but here’s the only problem.

They’re not following Jesus. They’re following their own roadmap. And see, death to self not only dies to your preferences, it also dies to your own right to guide and direct your life.

Can I tell you where you are five years down the road? Should have nothing to do with what you like or what you want. It should have everything to do with what God likes and what God wants.

See, that’s death to self. It’s death to self-preference, death to self-guidance, and thirdly, death to self-preservation. If you see in verse 27 here, Jesus was speaking, and this is actually a very sacred moment here as we realize what was going on in the heart of Jesus.

Remember, Jesus is saying, I have a decision of death in front of me. I know what God’s going to do through it. I know deep down inside that if I go to the cross, God’s going to use my death to literally change the world.

I know that, but yet he says, now is my soul troubled. He says, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?

In essence, don’t miss this. What he’s saying here is he’s saying, you know, I’m facing down a decision of death, and I know it’s going to hurt. I know it’s going to be hard.

I know it’s going to be difficult. And everything inside of me, and again, how this all jives together with Christology and all that. I don’t know.

That’s Jim Mueller’s semester, all right? But I do know this. There’s a wrestling match in his soul.

And he’s saying, should I ask God to deliver me from this death? Should I ask God to not let me die? I think that’s where a lot of us are at.

We’re in that moment of self-preservation. You know, if you get somebody backed into a corner, sometimes they can go a little crazy. You know what I’m saying?

You can do some crazy, I’m thinking of some stories that I’m just not going to bring up for this summer, but anyway.

We can do some pretty dumb things when we’re backed into a corner, and there’s a sense in which that self-preservation, you know, wild look in your eye can strike you in, and you can just kind of, you know, just fly off the handle and fling your arms around and swing your fist if you’re backed into a corner, and you feel like somebody’s going to kill you, and there’s just this crazed look in your eye.

And, you know, watch out when you see that crazed look in somebody’s eye, because they could do some serious damage. And it’s like this. God’s got some of you backed into a corner, and he wants you to die to self, but you don’t want to.

There’s that self-preservation instinct that can kick in. Listen, I have seen and heard young people give some of the dumbest excuses for not doing God’s will. And sometimes it seems like their eyes have rolled back in their head and they’re just kind of flailing, grasping at anything to get away from the death that God is calling them to.

Jesus says, should I ask for God to deliver me from this death? No. This is why I’m here.

It’s why I’m here. This is God’s plan. This is God’s program.

This is what God’s trying to do to reach the entire world. This is what God is trying to do. Listen, if this corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, that is not the end of the story.

There is so much more after that moment. The potential inside will break forth. You’ll live like you never thought you could ever live before.

You’ll live in ways that are miraculous. Honestly, the germination of a seed is a miracle every time it happens. We build entire industries.

The entire world depends on seeds falling into the ground and dying. If that didn’t happen, the entire world would die of starvation. Can I tell you, the entire world depends upon you falling into the ground and dying.

Listen, you’ve got to put your sins to death. You’ve got to put your sons, those things that are precious to you, to death. And you’ve got to put yourself to death.

Death to your self-preferences. Death to your self-guidance and death to that self-preservation. It’s why God has brought you here to this conference.

Young people, if you want to live, you’re going to have to die.