Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast.

I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

As of the time of my recording, it is Friday evening and tomorrow morning, Saturday, I’m loading up my truck and trailer, my minivan with my family and another minivan with the team.

And we’re hitting the road for a summer of cola clashes all across the country.

I would really appreciate your prayers for us as we head to several states, everywhere from Wisconsin to eastern Pennsylvania and down to Tennessee.

Pray that God will give us safety.

Pray that God will use us and pray that God will lead us.

In fact, I want to mention, I want to actually go through and mention the different cities that we’re in, because I’ll bet that some of you all, as you’re listening to the sound of my voice right now, you might be within driving distance of one of these cola clashes.

So this coming week, we’re going to be in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

That’s outside of Flint, Michigan.

The week after that, we’re going to be in northern Indiana, specifically South Bend.

The week after that, we’re going to be in Kenosha, Wisconsin, southeast Wisconsin.

Then we’ve got an open week, by the way, that was a cancellation, the week of ending in June 28th.

By the way, if you’re anywhere between Kenosha, Wisconsin and eastern Pennsylvania, we would love to fill that meeting.

But after that, in the beginning of July, we’re going to be in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

That is in southeastern Pennsylvania.

And then we’re possibly going to be filling another meeting, another cancellation in that general region as well.

Then we’re going to be in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

That’s northeastern Pennsylvania.

Then we’ll be in Fairmont, West Virginia.

And honestly, I’m not sure where that is.

I shouldn’t admit that.

Then the next week, we’re going to be in Indianapolis, Indiana, the northwest side of the city.

Then we’ll be in Pendleton, Indiana, which is just a little bit northeast of Indianapolis.

And then we’ll be finishing out the summer in Cookville, Tennessee.

And I would encourage you to go to colaclash.org.

Go to the bottom.

You can see those cities and the dates of the actual Cola Clash nights, but I would love to get to meet some of you.

And in fact, let me take it a step further.

If you are within driving distance of those meetings, each one of those weeks, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. is going to actually be the nights of the Cola Clash.

And so come and join us.

We’ve got a great team here this summer.

I’m actually really excited about this team.

If you go to colaclash.org, you can see their pictures.

But we’ve got Ben Steckman is going to be leading Pepsi.

Charlie Lacey is going to be leading Coke and assisting them.

Maggie Henderson is the co-captain of Pepsi.

And Chloe Sikma is the co-captain of Coca-Cola.

And so we would love to get to see you.

Let us know if you’re going to stop by.

You don’t have to let us know.

You can just show up if you’d like to.

But we’re excited about the summer.

Pray that God will use us.

We’ve got a younger team here, and pray that God will enable them and that God will help them in recruiting and will help us as the young people come to be prayed up and following the voice of the Spirit of God.

And I do want to mention one other thing.

I kind of want to feel the waters with something.

I had somebody reach out to me not too long ago asking kind of what the general age range was for the Thee Generation youth.

Summit, which is, by the way, coming up this October in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin.

And the person said the reason they were asking is because they are post-college age and they were wondering if they were too old to come to the Thee Generation Youth Summit.

And, you know, maybe they might be a little bit too old for that.

But, you know, this has got me thinking about something.

I’ll bet you that we have people all across the country, again, with this podcast having been going on now for, eight years, seven, eight years.

We started in 2016.

It’s 2024.

Wow, that’s crazy.

But we probably have young people who were teenagers when they started listening to the Thee Generation podcast.

And maybe you came to some of the youth summits.

Maybe you just have been listening from afar.

Maybe you went to Bible college, whether at BCM or at another good Bible college across the country or across the world.

And maybe you’re done with Bible college and you’re am I still like the thee Generation candidate and I would say absolutely you are now that being said we I’ve got some things that I’m pretty passionate about when it comes to the geners that are post college college age or after the college age and I want you to know you could still be blessed by the podcast.

In fact, this is why I’m bringing this up.

An idea occurred to me when I got that email.

We’ve got to do something for post-college V-Genners.

If that’s something that you’re interested in, I am tossing around an idea, kind of like people do like a book tour or something like that, of having some sort of a meetup or maybe not necessarily like a highly structured retreat, but just some opportunity somewhere.

I don’t even know what it would look like, but to meet up somewhere in kind of a central location, grab a bite, talk a bit, encourage one another, fellowship a bit.

And again, not with all the big competitions or anything like that, but I’m just, again, I just wanted to float this out there.

If that’s something that you think, man, I would love to do something like that, to meet other V-Genners.

Again, kind of the target would be college and post-college age.

So I would say, you know, early 20s to mid-20s, maybe even late 20s.

If that’s something that would be interest to you, send an email to me, bobby at thegeneration.org.

And if there’s enough interest out there, in fact, tell me that not only if you’re interested, but kind of what general region you’re in, that would let me know kind of where some of the interest lies.

And if there’s enough interest, I would love to do it, try to figure out a way to meet up, somehow and be an encouragement to you all and get to meet you face to face.

I was in Knoxville, Tennessee a few weeks ago going out for lunch with a pastor and he knew somebody who was in the lobby while we were waiting and maybe you’re hearing this but there was a young lady, the pastor introduced me to the group and she was like, I know you, I listen to your podcast all the time.

It’s such an encouragement.

It’s changed my life.

And it was just kind of a neat thing.

I had no idea where she was from.

I don’t know the church.

And it’s just encouraging just to see that there are many of you out there I don’t have any connection to other than the podcast and you listening to the podcast.

And so if there’s a way that I could get to meet you all and somehow be a blessing, I would love to do that.

So anyway, to the topic at hand here, I’ve got a burden on my heart here today.

Something that I trust will be a help to you to navigate unhelpful counsel.

What do I mean by that?

You know, I don’t know if you realize this, but all of us, in our pursuit of the will of God and our desire to surrender ourselves to God’s will and to depend upon his power to reach the world with the gospel, I don’t know if this has occurred to you, But we don’t all think the same.

We’re not wired the same way.

We are all unique individuals created by God to bring him glory, not only through our common surrender and our common dependence upon him to fulfill a common mission, but in the pursuit of that mission, we are all different.

Again, I could take you sometime to 1 Corinthians 12 and look at that concept of within a local church, there are different body parts, members of that local church.

Some of them are like the eyes.

Some of them are like the lips.

Some of them are like the ears, the knees, the toes.

Who’s a toe?

I don’t know.

But anyway, the purpose of that analogy that Paul gives is to show us, while we’re all a part of the same body in a local church, we fulfill different roles.

And one of the ways that I’ve discovered that over the years is just in how we think, how we process information, how we view the world.

All of us have a different perspective.

And because of those different perspectives, all of us have, and I’m talking naturally here, I’m not necessarily even talking spiritual gifts here, all of us have natural strengths.

All of us have natural weaknesses.

And here’s where I get to that, this concept of bad counsel.

Okay, I’ll tell you a little bit about me.

I am an introvert, believe it or not.

I get great energy from sitting around processing things.

I really do enjoy working things over in my mind.

It’s a strength.

And in other ways, it can be a little bit of a weakness.

I can simulate things ahead of time in my mind and get so scared stiff about something that could happen that you don’t actually do what needs to happen.

And that being said, one of the things that I’m discovering even recently is that if I am going to do what God wants me to do, I can’t sit around processing or thinking about things, I’ve actually got to step out of my comfort zone and go do something.

I’ve got to get out into the real world and go for it.

Now, that being said, some of you are wired differently than me.

Some of you, you’re flitting from thing to thing.

Some of you that are listening, you are the extrovert kind of person that is trying everything.

And you go from trying one thing to trying another thing.

And you want to see if this works.

And what if we did this?

And what if we did that?

And you’re constantly flitting around from idea to idea to idea.

You know what?

My counsel, the counsel that would work to me, for me to stop thinking about it and go do something, that might not be the right counsel for you.

For you, the right counsel might perhaps be, hey, quit trying everything.

And you maybe need to sit down and think about it a little bit and be more intentional about how you go about these opportunities, right?

There are some people, they major in the thinking.

Other people, they major in the feeling.

There are other people, they see possibilities everywhere.

They’re entrepreneurs in spirit.

There are other people, they’re amazing in organization.

Other people are awesome at like executive action.

Other people are idea men.

Other people, man, they can just see how everything fits together.

Other people are amazing with people, right?

They’re really good at getting along with other people.

Other people, they hold these values deep in their soul.

And, you know, for each one of us, as God has wired us as unique individuals, have differences in how we observe the world, differences in how we decide what’s important right now and what I’m going to do here today.

I could give a dozen different counseling advice to each one of those different kinds of people.

But you know what?

What works for me might not work for you, and what works for you might not work for me.

It might not work for the other kid in your youth group who thinks totally different than you do.

Here’s why I’m saying that.

Many times it is not one size fits all. in other words um I can sit here on the podcast and I can give you advice that would be good for me and you could have people friends that you respect they say oh you should try this this really helped me or oh you should do this and so on but can I say this um when you really want to do what is best for you can I give you a piece of advice Out of Galatians 5, verse 18, the scripture says this, But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

There’s a lot that I could say.

I know I’ve been kind of referencing this chapter a lot recently.

It’s just been burning on my heart.

God’s been teaching me so much through it.

And I wish I could say I live it consistently all day, every day.

That’s my goal.

But here he’s saying, listen, okay, I could tell you a whole bunch of different things on you should do this, you should do that, you should do this, you should do that.

But ultimately, the only balanced position, the only balanced, the greatest, if I could say, I don’t want to say the only, but the greatest counsel I can give you is listen to the voice of the Spirit and do what he tells you to do. obey him um again there are plenty of commands in the bible that are universally applicable right um this is the will of god even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication young person it’s god’s will for you to avoid uh immoral activity it’s god’s will for you to keep your brain clean and it for you uh it’s god’s will for you not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed.

But what that looks like in each individual, how that actually pans itself out might be different on a case by case basis.

Again, we get all kinds of counsel, the Satisfied Podcast.

I love the way Ryan deals with us.

You know, again, there are clear commands in scripture.

Don’t even go near the house of the strange woman, right?

But can I tell you, We all have our own unique things that trip us up.

And a set of fences for one person might be perfect for them.

But God may need to set up a different set of fences for you.

Okay, I’ll tell you one of my fences.

This is going to sound like it has nothing to do with moral impurity or whatever. but I’ll tell you what one of my fences is that God set up for me.

The Spirit of God told me, this is what you must do, Bobby Bosler.

For me, it was no video games on any of my devices.

You say, what does that have to do with anything, Brother Bosler?

Video games, what does that have to do?

I’ll tell you what it has to do with it.

For me and the way I’m wired, I can get into accomplishment and self-indulgence just pleasing myself by getting those dopamine shots in my mind of succeeding in something that’s fake.

And that’s what video games are.

Again, I’m not preaching against them here.

There, I’m sure, is a place for it in some folks’ lives.

I’m just talking about me as a teenager.

That was my life.

I played games all day long, every day.

I got so good at them, man.

I could run circles around you.

In fact, if I ever do pick up a video game controller in a store or like over somebody else’s house, which I can do that.

I can smoke my kids in just about any game.

But I can’t have them on my devices because here’s what will happen.

It’ll start to control me.

And I’ll get into a perspective of pleasing myself through this accomplishment.

And here’s what it becomes.

It becomes a portal of doing what I want to do that if I let it go on can lead me right into the arms of the strange woman on the Internet.

And I’m telling you, I’m not going there.

I haven’t gone there in a very long time, and I don’t plan on going back.

But here’s the thing.

I can’t tell you that, oh, I mean, I could.

I could say, hey, if you want to avoid porn, if you want to keep your mind clean, don’t play video games.

But you know what?

That might not be the standard that’s supposed to be set up in your life.

Maybe it is.

I can’t tell you what it is.

I was at a church.

I won’t mention where.

But there was a fellow who was talking to me about this.

He was newly married, I think had a younger child.

And he asked me about video games.

He asked me my testimony.

And I told him kind of my testimony.

And then the standard that God had set up for me.

And I told that guy.

I said, listen, this may not be the standard that you should have in your life.

This is what God led me to because God knows me.

He knows how I am wired.

He knows what I need.

And as I’ve been listening to his voice, as I’ve been led by his spirit, this is what he said.

Don’t do that.

And it’s been huge for me in my life.

But I told him, I said, don’t you dare adopt that standard just because I said so.

You get alone with God.

You talk with the Holy Spirit.

You have a conversation and let him lead you.

If he leads you to this standard, more power to you.

Go for it.

But if he doesn’t lead you to it, don’t sweat it.

I don’t expect everybody else to do that.

You know what?

There are other things.

There are other people that have standards for them that the Spirit of God has led them to and things that they just can’t do.

And they might look at me and be like, why is it that you do that?

Well, God hasn’t led me to it.

Listen, you can get really selfish and you can get really off base with this and just go around and say, well, God hasn’t led me to and a bunch of things your parents told you you’re supposed to do.

Guess what?

The Bible says, children, obey your parents.

So guess what?

The black and white command of Scripture is do what mom and dad tell you to do.

I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about in other areas, gray areas, areas where you are actually the one who is responsible to make this decision, where you are not being commanded to do these particular things, but you have an open canvas, an opportunity to hear God.

And you need to hear from him.

I find sometimes when people have been in perhaps a highly structured environment where all of the boxes have been checked for them and they have been told what they’re supposed to do, what they’re allowed to do, what they’re not allowed to do, and then when they get out from that structured environment, I’m going to do everything I haven’t been allowed to do for years.

And you know what almost always happens?

Train wreck.

And I think that’s because they’ve just been bouncing from the counsel of one person to another person to another person to another person.

And they never actually talk to God.

They never actually got from him.

They just took these one size fits all things, did them while they were forced to. and then maybe they tried him for a little while and realized it wasn’t the…

Here’s the thing.

You’ve got to interface with God.

It’s a novel thing, right, to say walk with God.

Listen, the whole point of this chapter here in Galatians 5 is God does have an expectation.

He does have things he intends to happen in your life.

And again, I’ve talked about this in previous podcasts.

Love fulfills the law.

In verse 14, all the laws fulfilled in this one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

He says, walk in the spirit and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He says, verse 18, if you be led of the spirit, you’re not under the law.

He talks about the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such is no law.

He says, if we live in the spirit, listen, If we are alive because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, let us also walk in the Spirit.

That is, keep in step with the Spirit.

Picture men marching in synchronization with each other like they do in the military.

You see how their feet hit the ground all at exactly the same time.

There is a tempo.

The group is walking in.

There is a direction that group is walking in.

And no one in that group should get out of sync.

Right?

That’s what it means the second time when it says, let us also walk in the Spirit.

It’s keep in step with the Spirit.

Don’t go AWOL on him.

But here’s the thing.

Many of us, we don’t go AWOL on him because we never hear from him.

We just bounce from one-size-fit-all counsel to one-size-fit-all counsel to one-size-fit-all counsel.

Listen, when the Bible says it, one-size-fits-all, okay?

But when we’re getting opinions and advice and the ideas of other people, I’m not saying you should ignore them.

You should really take it to heart, consider it.

But the only counsel that will perfectly fit you is when you’re led by the Spirit.

I hope this makes sense.

Again, I don’t want you to go out the wrong window on this, young people.

Listen, obey your parents.

Take seriously the things that you’ve been counseled to do in your life, And yet at the same time, you need to get alone with God and say, God, this is how you want me to live my life.

God, are there things that I’m doing that you want to go?

Are there safety precautions that you want me to adopt to keep me from sin?

Is there something that I’m not doing right now that I ought to be doing?

Is there some deficiency in my character and the way that I’m wired?

Is there some aspect where I’m not living up to my full potential?

God, I want to follow you.

Get alone with him.

As you open your Bible, ask him to speak to you out of the word and let him give you his customized counsel.

It’s only applicable to you.

I’m not talking extra revelation.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m just talking about the will of God and his voice.

I’m talking about what Galatians 5 is talking about.

Listen, young people, it’s not one size fits all.

That’s why God has given us his spirit to lead us from the inside into his will and to provide his strength, his power, his life, his love, to meet every unique needs of our hearts.

And that’s really, again, this is core to who we are, total surrender, to God, to his voice, to his customized plan for me and total dependence on his power in order to do what he’s called us to do.

Hope this has been a blessing, young person.

Listen to God.

He will never lead you astray.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast.

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