Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. Well, I’ve been closely monitoring what’s been happening with the Thee Generation Evangelism Challenge for these last couple of weeks, and I’m just excited.

I’ve got some things to report to you here today. Not only would I like to report to you some statistics, but I want to give you a couple of testimonies that we’ve actually gotten from those who took the pledge. For those of you maybe that aren’t aware, three weeks ago today, at least as of the time of the recording, we had the final night of our Thee Generation Youth Summit in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

We put out a challenge for young people to commit, not just to talk about total surrender and total dependence, but we challenged them to actually verbally communicate the gospel for 21 days to people all in their community. And it’s been thrilling to me. We had a button that they clicked on that basically says, hey, I tried to verbally engage somebody with a gospel.

And we had, over the last three weeks, 422 gospel conversations initiated. That’s a thrill to me. You know, I recognize that not everybody was able to do all 21 days of the challenge.

But I’m thrilled that conversations were had that wouldn’t have been had otherwise. In fact, these button clicks came from 19 different states. And in fact, this was a surprise to me, four foreign countries.

I think we had Japan, Peru, Hungary, and Canada. So that was thrilling to see there. But you know what was even more thrilling was to hear some of these testimonies.

I want you to listen up here. This is one testimony from a young lady named Samantha. She said, It’s been just an amazing encouragement to see that when I choose to obey the Lord and talk to someone he tells me to talk to, he always enables me and reminds me that it’s not me that is speaking to them, it’s him.

And the more I obey, the easier it gets to obey. When I stop trusting my feelings and choose to trust in Christ’s promises, he always comes through. Praise the Lord for that, Samantha.

Here’s another testimony from a young lady named Christly. She said, a couple days ago, I got the chance to witness to someone in the outlets. I was walking around the stores wearing my 0-100 shirt, and someone asked me what it meant.

And I told them, 0% me, 100% God. At that moment, I felt in my heart to ask if they knew about God, and they said no. I started walking with them, encouraging them, and explaining the plan of salvation.

And all she did was stop and gave me a hug and asked me what she needed to do. I explained to her that she needs to trust in the Lord, confess she’s a sinner, and pray a prayer with me. She then asked if that was it.

I said, yes, that’s it. And she’s like, can I do it right now? Hearing those words got me filled with joy, and I said, yes.

We found a spot to sit down and pray. After we finished, she had a big smile on her face and gave me a hug and said, I can tell God sent you to me because I really needed someone, and he brought you to me. I was completely honored, but the glory was God’s, and all I could say was that God was working on my heart to tell the gospel of someone that was willing to hear about his word.

And so happens to be a woman in the outlets. Another testimony was from Will. Will says, I went out to invite a contact to a special service held at our church.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find where he lived. I drove around for a while and finally gave up looking for him. On the corner, I saw some men working doing landscape.

I walked up to them and began to share the gospel. The leader of the group, a man named Sam, had amazingly been to our church three weeks before. He was wide open.

As I shared the gospel, tears filled his eyes and he bowed his head to accept Christ. It was an amazing moment. So thankful to be used by God.

Here’s another one from someone named Stephen. He says, I was able to lead a 12-year-old boy to the Lord. on Friday, using the heaven tract.

It was a situation in which I normally would have let him walk by, but the Lord impressed me to stop and talk with him after giving the tract. And he accepted the Lord. Awesome to see God work through simple obedience.

I’ve got one more here that was sent in. This is from Abigail. I was sitting in church a few Sundays ago, thinking about how I was going to pass out my tract for the day.

I was racking my brains, trying to think of a way. Then it was like the Holy Spirit just poked me and said, you need to ask the person sitting next to you. I’d been sitting between two bus girls.

The invitation came, and I asked her if she knew where she would go if she died. She said no, and I was able to show her how she could know for sure, and she got saved. It made my week.

Boy, it made my week too, Abigail. You know, it’s thrilling to me to hear these few testimonies because I know these testimonies are only a part of what God did through the Thee Generation Challenge. But you know, this has really got me thinking, okay, now what?

We’ve issued the 21-day challenge. Some of you have taken us up for it. Some of you, I’ll bet, did all 21 days.

Some of you missed a few. Some of you didn’t do any. So how do we move forward from here?

In fact, when it comes to setting goals, when it comes to completing goals, or when it comes to failing at completing goals, how do you handle that? Well, I’ve honestly been thinking about this all week in preparation for the podcast today. And there was one passage I couldn’t get out of my mind.

In Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul was talking about goals of sorts when he said in verse 12, Now there’s a whole lot that I could say. In fact, I have a message that I’ve preached out of this passage. But what he’s simply saying is this.

Listen, the goals that God has for me, I have not met them yet. But you know what I’m doing? I am relentlessly pursuing the goals that Jesus has set for me.

Paul was not satisfied with merely partially completing his goals, even though he recognized he had not yet completed those goals. He wanted to get that for which he had been gotten by Jesus. And in verse 13, he underscores it even more.

He says, brethren, I come not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, and this is really what I want you to focus on. Listen, you may be thinking, man, I haven’t apprehended.

Or maybe you’re thinking, man, I’ve done pretty well with this whole Thee Generation challenge. He says, I count, I do not consider myself to have apprehended, to have completed these goals. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

A couple thoughts I want to give you here. What he said is this. Here’s how I view these goals.

I forget about the past. I forget about the past. Maybe you’re here and maybe you’ve done a great job at keeping your commitment.

Maybe you’ve gotten to lead one, maybe two. maybe several people to Jesus Christ as a result of the Thee Generation Challenge. Maybe you weren’t at the youth summit.

You didn’t get a chance to hear the challenge, but you’ve been stirred by hearing the testimonies. Maybe you took the challenge and didn’t do it at all. How do you handle moving forward from here?

Well, what he says here in this passage is, forgetting those things which are behind. You know, if you’re anything like me, when I fail at something, I don’t really want to try it again. In fact, it’s so easy, I think, for all of us.

When we set a goal, when we don’t meet the goal, it’s so easy for us to get distracted by our own defeat and to never make an attempt at that goal or any other similar goals ever again. Well, that’s not how Paul viewed this. You know, when Paul was defeated, Paul got back up again and depended on Jesus to enable him to do what he didn’t do.

And, you know, I want you, young person, I want you to think about this. Maybe you completely, abysmally, royally failed. Guess what?

Forget about it and move forward from here. Maybe you’re on the other side and maybe you think, I’ve done a pretty good job. Maybe you fulfilled all 21 days of the challenge.

Maybe you led some people to Jesus Christ. Well, you know what? You know what Paul’s saying here?

Forget about it. Now, I’m not saying that you should stop rejoicing in what God has done. I’m not saying that you should pretend like you didn’t fulfill your commitment.

But what he’s saying is, listen, don’t let yourself get distracted by defeat or placated by success. It is so easy. Listen, this is something I feel is a constant pressure for me.

You see God use you, and you know what it’s real tempting to do? right after you see God use you, check out for a week. You know, it’s so easy when you realize, oh, wow, God did something in my life.

He did something through me. Well, it looks like I’ve met my quota for the next couple weeks. I can just relax and do nothing.

Well, Paul’s saying, listen, you need to forget not only the defeats of the past, but the victories of the past as well, because the fact of the matter is whether you failed or whether you succeeded. He says, there are still marks to strive towards in front of me. There are still opportunities all around you every day.

In fact, you know what, young person, one of the reasons I issued this challenge is because I wanted for you to see and even just reshape your thinking that there are people all around you every day, every week that you could engage with the gospel. And you know what? I don’t want you to stop.

Now, I’m not saying that you have to do this every single day, but you ought to be thinking differently as a result of this challenge. I want you to be looking around in the church services like Abigail did. I want you to be looking around when you get lost trying to go out and visit somebody like Will did.

I want you to have conversations with people you would have normally passed up like Stephen did. I want you, even when you’re out shopping, even when you’re out and about like Christly did, to engage people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. independence on the Lord Jesus Christ to do the work in hearts.

You know, young people, I am so encouraged with what God is doing in you and what God is doing through you. And I’ll be honest with you, I think this is just the beginning. I think we’re just scratching the surface on what God can do in and through our generation.

I don’t know how many people got saved as a result of this challenge. I’ve heard of at least, I think six or seven saved, but I’m sure there are probably more. But you know what?

Just imagine if we would give our lives to this. Just imagine if we would let this 21-day challenge spill over in the rest of our year. Just imagine, young people, if you’d let this spill over into your study halls at your school, if you’d let this spill over into your workplace, just imagine if you just decided I was going to take up a challenge to engage somebody with the gospel every day of my life.

You know, I just think that you and I might turn the world upside down with the gospel. I just think you just might start leading people to the Lord left and right. I just think that God could begin a movement in our country.

Now I know what you might be thinking. That’s impossible. There’s no way.

Yeah, you’re right. Welcome to the club. We’ve talked about this.

This is nothing new. Impossible is not an excuse. It’s an opportunity to yield to Jesus, to depend on him, to do the impossible in and through our lives.

I don’t want to ramble here tonight, but I just want to say this, young people. God is using you. God is using your generation, and I don’t want this 21-day challenge to be the end of it.

I want it to be the beginning of it. And I think you and I both well know that this cannot happen unless you and I totally surrender to the will of God. It won’t happen unless you and I depend, totally depend on the Lord Jesus Christ to do through us what we could never do in the strength of our flesh, to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ.