Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Fairmont, West Virginia, where, well, we are frozen solid here. I don’t know how many of you all throughout the country got hit with that last storm.

I know some of our friends up in Wisconsin, they’ve got all kinds of storms, storm after storm after storm. of this last big one last weekend kind of missed them. But I think for most of the rest of us in this country, we either got a bunch of snow or we got a bunch of ice.

Or in our case, we got a bunch of snow and then we got a bunch of ice and then we got a bunch of snow. So it’s definitely been the winter season. And I will not say that I look back with longing at our time on the road where we got to hightail it down to Florida or South Texas or whatever this time of year.

But it has definitely changed things. It’s been a challenge here this week in many ways. Our church, I’m very excited about some of the things we’ve got planned here.

Shifting into the equipping role of my gifting has been just a thrill. In fact, as of the time of my recording this morning, we just had a time of equipping for our Sunday school teachers, our children’s workers to help make them effective in the ministries that they are engaging in. We trained a bunch of new teachers in preparation for some things.

That was exciting. Also, one thing we’re starting in about a week is personal evangelism training using the Netcasters Personal Evangelism course put out by Revival Focus.

I highly recommend that personal evangelism course, but we’re bringing our adults and our teenagers in, And our goal is by time the weather gets warm for our folks to have not only a framework for understanding the gospel itself, but also the perspective of faith and personal revival applied to soul winning so that we can reach this community with the gospel.

On top of all of that, we’re starting some training for our leaders, some of our kind of top-level leaders, I suppose you could say, for discipleship, working through the Continue book by the folks out at Lancaster Baptist Church. I had the privilege of taking a man from our church through that who just recently got saved, and it’s a very good resource. And so we’re trying to get mobilized, equipped, prepared, and ready.

As I’ve said on this podcast a number of times before, sometimes in life, you need to set your sails. You need to set the sails of your faith because you’re expecting the wind of God to blow. And I’ll tell you, it’s cold here in West Virginia, but I believe the wind of God is going to blow.

He has blown. He will blow upon our community. And I want our church to be ready to receive.

And frankly, the reason for this podcast here today is I want you to be ready to receive it. not lost sight of you young people whatsoever. You’re still close to my heart.

And it’s my burden here today to warn you, to warn you about something that really can choke the possibilities and potential of all God wants to do in and through your life. I’m in the book of Luke, chapter 8, and this is in the middle of Jesus teaching some folks using parables.

In fact, in verse 4, it says, and when much people were gathered together and were come to him, that is to Jesus, out of every city, he spake by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit and hundredfold.

And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. You know, obviously here Jesus is telling a parable. He’s giving a, you could say, a verbal illustration of truth.

And again, I think most of you understand these are all different responses to the Word of God in a variety of different capacities for a variety of different purposes. And yet the illustration by itself may not necessarily totally connect, which is why his disciples in the next verse ask him about it. It says, and his disciples asked him, saying, what might this parable be?

And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear.

Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root. which for a while believe and in times of temptation fall away.

Verse 14. This is really what I want to focus here today. And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.

You know, young people, obviously these three different responses, of course, there’s a fourth response. That’s the one we want. That’s the good ground, honest and good heart.

They bring forth fruit with patience and so on. But obviously the first one, there’s a variety of different ways that you can look at it. Here in this particular instance, he says that the word, the seed is taken away, lest they should believe and be saved.

There’s clearly an application to the gospel. You could perhaps argue there is an application to sanctification, salvation for the Christian, so to speak. The second one is the idea of somebody who just doesn’t have any depth.

There is no sustenance. There’s no nourishing. It says specifically they have no root.

In fact, I think in the actual parable, he said he didn’t have any moisture. So there is nothing to feed their faith. They’re shallow.

They’ve taken a bit, but they haven’t deepened in that which they’ve believed God for. This is most likely not talking about salvation. I don’t really think that’s the kind of falling away that we’re talking about here.

I think this is a Christian who hears the word of God and seeks to step out and obey it, but never seeks to establish and undergird and deepen his belief. He heard something and on a whim he went for it, but he never cultivated it. That’s not what I’m burdened to talk about primarily here today, though if the shoe fits, wear it.

Verse 14, they which fell among thorns, they which when they have heard, when they heard the word of God, they go forth. I don’t know, when I see that phrase, they go forth, I think of you all young people. I know many of you, your desire is you hear the possibilities.

Again, our tagline on this podcast has been for over 10 years, total surrender to God and total dependence on his power to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in order to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you’ve got to go forth, right? You’ve got to step out of your comfort zone.

You’ve got to yield to the Lord in the direction that he is sending you. He wants to send you out into the harvest fields. He wants to send you forth as laborers into his harvest.

The fields are white unto harvest. Lift up your eyes and see. And God doesn’t just want you to go forth.

God wants you to bear fruit. But notice this particular person, the end of verse 14, it says, and bring no fruit to perfection or to maturity. So here you’ve got an individual or individuals who, based on their response, really based on the circumstances that they find themselves in, they do here.

There’s a sense in which they do surrender. They do go forth, but something chokes the fruit. I’ve seen so many young people and frankly, college students and adults over the years who have moments where they respond to the Lord and they really do want their life to make a difference.

They really do want to bring forth much fruit. They want to serve the Lord. They want to yield to him.

They want their life to count and they go forth. They start taking steps, Maybe that step is they start going to church and are faithful to church. Maybe that step’s a bit more, even more significant than that.

They go off to Bible college, right? Maybe that step is after Bible college, they say, you know what? I’m going to go serve the Lord on the mission field.

Or, you know what? We’re going to go to such and such a field. Or we’re going to step into evangelism.

Or we’re going to, and you fill in the blank, whatever way they feel led to serve God, they’re endeavoring to go forth. but it doesn’t happen. Somehow the burden, the vision, the passion, the steps never end up in the outcome, the actual outcome of much fruit.

It never gets to maturity where it actually happens. Well, there are many reasons why that could be the case, but Jesus gives one of them. It says when they have heard, they go forth and are choked.

They’re choked. That word choke, I was looking at the word here before I clicked record. It says to check the growth or well-being of something by pressure.

It says the choke of plants whose food and light is cut off by weeds that crowd together and choke. I like that word pressure. This is pressure that holds them back from the outcome.

These folks are squeezed, you could say. They’re crowded in a pond. They are surrounded.

They are overwhelmed. And because they’re choked, pressured, surrounded, overwhelmed, and cut off, they don’t end up bringing forth the fruit that God intended for them to bring forth. What are they choked by?

He tells us. He gives three things. They’re choked with cares.

They’re choked with riches. They’re choked with pleasures of this life. Let’s talk about those here for a second.

Because these are, you could say, I don’t know why this comes to mind. These are the chicken nuggets that can choke you. That’s probably not the best way to say it.

Maybe I’ll cut that out later. These are the things you can choke on when it comes to going forth and bringing forth much fruit. I don’t just mean, by the way, going out soul winning every now and then.

I mean the big picture perspective. the big life dream that God has for your life. What can choke that dream out?

First is cares. Cares. The word care is the idea of anxieties.

This is worries. These are the things that dominate your mind, that cause that matter of care. There is a reality of life, the heaviness, the weightiness of stuff that just pressures you, that crowds out God’s dreams and God’s plans for you.

I’ll tell you, young people, adulting is hard. Because you know what? Once you get out of college, once you get out of the house, out of college, life starts to crowd in and you’ve got to think about so many different things.

I still remember back in college I was engaged to uh to Abby my wife and um we were talking about an apartment like getting an apartment I mean this is stupid but I just remember getting like overwhelmed I gotta find an apartment and I gotta sign a lease oh that’s so scary I think even said something to Abby and I did not impress her with that did not instill confidence in her at that moment in my leadership.

That’s honestly now looking back, that’s cakewalk. When you start talking health insurance, when you start talking car insurance, buying a car, selling a car, when you start talking about employment, occupation, all the W forms you got to do for taxes, when you start talking tricky medical things, when you start talking mortgage, loans, credit cards, when you start talking, just some of those basic things that are involved in adult life, those things can pretty quickly compound.

If you’re not wise and following the Lord, a little bit of debt turns into a lot of it a debt, and you can find yourself saddled with more debt than you can handle, and it is that very debt that keeps you from going forth and bringing forth fruit to perfection. Again, I’m not preaching against getting a house. Please don’t get me wrong.

But what happens is you start having a bunch of kids and you get a house. And if you don’t have your direction clearly set, I’ve seen this, the house and the kids, they become that which chokes the vision and plan that God has or had for their lives. Now, again, please, I know some of you might have just gotten angry at me for saying that kids are not bad.

Houses are not bad. I’m not talking about you necessarily. I’m just saying these are a part of the cares of this life.

You know what? I got four kids and they take a lot of time. You know, one day this kid’s sick.

The other day, that kid, we have to take him to the doctor for this. And that kid over there, he nearly breaks his arm on this. And that kid over there, we got to, and, and just things start compound, music lessons, homeschooling, before all of that, diapers.

They always try to kill themselves. Half of a parent’s job, three quarters, 90% of a parent’s job is just keep your kid alive and just children. Listen, I might be talking to some moms right now.

You’ve got little children and you’re in that phase of life right now where it is entirely overwhelming and you feel like care, anxiety, worry, you raise your hand and you say, that’s me. Okay, listen, cast all your care upon him for he careth for you. Care comes into life.

And yet God does not expect us to carry that care. God expects us to roll that onto him, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you.

But when we let the cares of this life dominate, when we don’t learn to handle that stress and that pressure and that tension, the struggle, when we don’t learn to roll it off onto the Lord and soar above those cares in the stratosphere, above the storms, when we don’t learn how to rest in the Lord, like what’s that book, Heinz Feet on High Places, when we don’t learn that, those cares will choke your calling.

They will choke God’s dreams for you because what will start to happen is you’ll just start to find yourself just going one day at a time. One crisis from another. And listen, this happens.

I get this. I’m not trying to make anybody feel bad if you find yourself in the middle of a really difficult time where you feel like this is you. What I’m saying is this, listen, God has a dream for your life and you have to learn how to manage anxiety.

You have to learn how to cast that on the Lord. Young people start when it’s small, smart, start when it’s something tiny, like a college bill. Okay.

Start when it’s something tiny, like homework and that research paper, start learning instead of folding and crumbling and your walk with God getting choked because you’re overwhelmed with stuff, start learning how to cast it on the Lord and how to rest and how to trust in those times. Otherwise, the cares of this life will choke out your potential. He doesn’t just say cares.

He also says enriches. One other thing that I’ve seen so many times that chokes out what God is doing in people’s lives, the dreams that God has is money. It’s money.

It’s not just the difficulties and all of the multiplied challenges of adult life in the 21st century. It can also be either a lack of money or the pursuit of money. Sometimes folks, they don’t manage their money well and they find themselves constantly in incredible need.

And I don’t mean that like just, what I mean is it’s, it’s, it is a deprivation of their own making. It is a trial from their own hand. Okay.

Um, they find themselves, they squander money on stupid stuff that just doesn’t really matter. And they find them put themselves in a crisis, which puts themselves in a position where, well, they’re choked. Other folks, they get choked by the desire for riches.

In their life, I’m going to get my bank account to this level before I start doing what God wants me to do. Listen, I recognize, can I say this? I bet you there’s probably some fathers who are listening here.

I recognize you want to make sure your daughter’s well taken care of, but can I challenge you for just a moment? Yes, the young man needs to be prepared in a certain sense, but don’t be unreasonable in that. If you expect those potential to, and by the way, I’m not saying this based on any people that I’ve talked to.

So I’m literally shooting in the dark here. Okay. So if you think I’m talking about your situation, I don’t have that in mind, but the spirit of God might.

So you better listen. Okay. Don’t you tell that young man, no, because he’s walking by faith.

Because he doesn’t have the amazing 15 years of savings plunked away in the bank because he doesn’t have a house that’s completely owned at this point. That may not be the kind of life that God’s called them to. And, you know, it could be that your idolatry of money, oh boy, might be choking out the dreams of your children.

Listen, I’m not saying that you need to give your daughter away to a bum who doesn’t know how to handle his money, but it’s important for you to discern the difference between someone who lacks because he squanders and somebody who lacks because he’s following God and sacrificing and obeying the Lord. Can I say this young people? If you say I have to have a house before I obey the Lord, you’re going to get choked.

If you say I have to have a certain job with a certain level, number of salary before I serve the Lord, you’re going to get choked. In fact, I bet you’re already choking. You’re probably already turning blue, spiritually speaking, right now.

Listen, riches can choke you. Oh, listen, you might come out of Bible college and say, yes, I’m going to go forth and I’m going to serve the Lord. I’m not saying that we can’t be well-prepared.

I’m not saying that we can’t be wise, and I’m not saying that we can’t have good strategies and do things well and work hard. That is not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is the love of money is the root of all evil.

There’s a difference between trying to be careful, wise, prudent, and just wanting a lot of money. So they’re choked by cares, the anxieties, the circumstances of life. They’re choked by riches.

Thirdly, choked by pleasures. Some folks, they have, I think, this idea, this romantic, idealized idea of what it’s going to be to be in the ministry. I’ll admit it, we may have had a little bit of that kind of a romanticized idea of evangelism early on.

And I’m sure my wife even, she jokes sometimes, she says, I just remember evangelists would come and they’d have this really nice trailer and this really nice truck.

And the wife would open up to the door of their trailer and step down the steps looking picture perfect not a hair out of place not a wrinkle in her dress skirt blouse whatever and she just thought wow um if you follow this podcast enough and you followed our journey uh as we have traveled you probably know that’s probably not the way evangelism goes they don’t see the difficulty and somebody might start thinking this is going to be great.

This is going to be fun. This is going to be exciting. Don’t go into ministry because You want an exciting life.

Oh, boy. Be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you ask for.

Don’t go into the ministry because you want an exciting life. Don’t go into the ministry because you think it will be fun. Go into the ministry because God calls you.

Go forth at his direction.

But folks, they literally step into something because they think, oh, it could be fun to lead the cola clash or a minute men team oh that would be fun to pastor a church oh that would be fun to travel in a truck and trailer oh that would be fun to go on a mission field you have no idea if the purpose of your life if that which you are aiming for is pleasure even in the ministry.

I say this carefully in people, but listen, I think that when you are doing the will of God, it’s the greatest thing, as Dr. Jim has said. I do believe that when you are in the middle of God’s will, you’re going to love it. But there are hard times.

There is difficulty. There are seasons, and there is a genuine friction and challenge about doing the will of God, That if you’re in it and think it’s all going to be tiptoeing through the tulips, exciting, you know, fun, fun, fun. When the difficult times come, you’ll get choked.

You’re going to choke on it. It’s going to be that piece of chicken that gets lodged in your throat. And you aren’t going to bring forth fruit to perfection.

Oh, listen, I’ve had so much fun in my years on the road. and I’ve had so much fun since I’ve come here to this church. Some of my favorite times are coming home from a discipleship appointment, seeing God work in this life and laying line upon line, letting him learn and to watch folks in church get stirred by the word of God, to see pieces fall together, to see people grow, to see people excited.

It is exciting, and yes, it is fun, but I’m not here for fun. I’m here to follow the Lord. listen young people don’t let pleasure drive your life it will cause again i’ve preached messages on this it’ll cause conflict it’ll drive you away from the lord it’ll cause disappointment it’s going to cause you ultimately to be disloyal to the lord um but at the same time i want to encourage you.

I want to urge you. Pleasure’s not the point. Pleasure’s not the point.

You might get satisfaction out of a job well done, and that’s good. You might get a thrill out of excellence, numbers, success, a good program, a good performance, a good sermon, a good event. You might get a certain sense of pleasure out of that, but if pleasure becomes what drives you, it’s going to be a game of one-upsmanship with yourself every year.

And you’re going to find yourself choking on it. Listen, he says, they which fell among thorns, or they which when they have heard go forth, that’s good, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life. That’s not so good.

And bring no fruit to perfection. Don’t be one of those people that you see on Instagram 10 years from now, who’s done nothing for God. Don’t choke on cares, riches, or pleasures.

Instead, follow the Lord, pursue him with everything you have for the rest of your life. That’s total surrender to God, total dependence upon his power to keep you going and to bring forth fruit. Thank you so much for listening.

God bless.