Speaker 1: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast, an audio resource dedicated to a generation of young people who are committed to total surrender to God and total dependence on His power to reach the world with the gospel of Christ. This podcast is designed to strengthen and encourage through a series of Bible-based practical talks.

Is God waiting for you to make a decision? Though your life is full of decisions, it may surprise you how much impact this one decision can have. In today’s podcast, Bobby Bosler focuses on one simple choice that makes all the difference.

Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. And I’ve got a lot on my heart right now, a lot that I’m burdened to say here for this podcast. Put on your seatbelts because I think God has something for us here today.

But before I get to that, young people, I just want to make you aware that there is a conference coming up this coming March, March 4 to the 7th, the Victory Conference. Specifically this year, the theme is the manifest presence of God.

You may or may not be aware of the Victory Conference, but it’s like the D-Generation Youth Summit, but with a broader audience. We don’t have the competitions, but we do have concentrated revival preaching. And it’s a very special time where we get to just open up the Bible.

We really get a chance to focus our hearts together in seeking the face of God, hearing from heaven. And God has done an incredible work. And there’s a whole lot more that I could say, but I want to direct your attention to the website, victoryconf.org. And there you can get all the information about the Victory Conference.

If you’re able to come and join us, I know your heart would be blessed. It’s the same heart of Thee Generation, just geared towards, like I said, a broader audience. We just finished up on Monday night, a very exciting week. We were in Pensacola, Florida.

I had asked you to pray about that last week, and we were thrilled with the young people that trusted Christ. But you know, even more than that, I was thrilled at what God was doing in the lives of the young people that got saved and the young people of the youth group.

Just briefly, I want you to know that on the final night, on Monday night, we had Pastor Bailey share his testimony, and he shared a story about how he came to Christ. And then in addition to that, he also shared a story of how he came to surrender.

The way the Lord led in that entire night was just a very sacred, special time. I preached the gospel, but on my heart, I really was burdened to not only preach the gospel, but to bring the young people to that second decision of surrender. And I gave the invitation for the gospel and three young ladies responded.

We had several trust Christ that night, but they were just young ladies. And because of that, I didn’t need to be back in the counseling room. And I thought, well, here’s my shot. And so I told the young people to look up at me and to listen up because I wasn’t done.

And I said, you know what, young people, many of you have trusted Christ this week. Many of you have trusted Christ in years past. But just as pastor said, the decision to find salvation through Jesus Christ is not the last major decision you’re going to make. Some of you need to surrender your life to Jesus.

I begin to mention that some of these young people were a part of the ROTC at Pensacola High School. It’s a good group of guys. Many of them had trusted Christ that week.

And I asked them, I said, fellas, you’ve got young people in your ROTC that don’t know about Jesus and what he’s done for them on the cross, don’t you? Who’s going to tell them? And several of them said right out loud, we are, sir.

And, you know, honestly, from that moment, it was as if God showed up and began to ask other questions similar to that.

And I began to just explain what surrender is, what it’s going to mean, what it’s going to mean about their lifestyle, what it’s going to mean when God points his finger on things he doesn’t like and what it’s going to mean regarding perhaps even their future occupation and service for him.

And I asked the young people, if you’re willing to surrender right now, without any heads bowed, without any eyes closed, stand up. And you know, young people, I was blown away. 30 to 40 young people stood at their feet and essentially said, I’m willing to totally surrender my life to Jesus.

And you know, I was shocked, to be honest with you. Okay, me of unbelief, me of little faith. I knew God was working, and yet I don’t know exactly what I expected. We talked a little bit about Thee Generation, pointed many of them to the website, gave out some Thee Generation cards.

And, you know, what I came out of that night impacted with was first just that God is moving in some pretty exciting ways. A young person doesn’t need to be saved for years in order to surrender their life to Jesus.

They don’t have to grow up in a Christian home, go to a Christian school, or even necessarily go to a good church to surrender their life to Jesus. It’s a decision. It’s a simple choice. And one that I believe many young people want to make and would make if they were challenged to do it.

And, you know, as I’ve been thinking about that and as I’ve been thinking about the podcast this week and a lot of other things that are on my heart, I’ve just been encouraged with the power of a simple choice to surrender to Jesus.

And as I’ve been thinking about this, some of you’ve heard me preach a message out of this story, but I want to bring you back to it because I’ve just been stirred by the story anew and afresh again. In Acts chapter 9, you know the story. It’s about Saul, Saul of Tarsus.

He was a man who at this point in time was not saved. He was on his way to do the next thing that he thought he wanted to do, and that was to destroy Christianity in Damascus. And on the way, God showed up. God confronted his error, and he trusted Christ as his Savior.

And you’ve heard me talk about this, and you’ve heard me talk about the question that he asked that all of us need to ask of God. And that question was a simple question. And to it, he had a simple answer. And as a result of that, he made a simple choice. I just want you to see this.

In Acts chapter 9, in verse 6, it says, And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? You know, it was as if the surrender had been made already. There’s a sense in which here on the road to Damascus, he realized Jesus was his only hope.

Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. No one was to come unto the Father but by him. And his cry was, I want to know what you want me to do. And Jesus answered him. He said in that same verse, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

And verse 7 goes on. It tells us what happened. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth. And when his eyes were open, he saw no men, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

and he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink. And what we find here is that Saul made a simple choice to surrender. His surrender was at the question that he asked was to an unknown will. He didn’t know what God wanted him to do, but he wanted to do it.

Maybe you find yourself in a situation like that. And he didn’t just have this general sentiment that, you know, hey, I kind of want to do something. No, he made the choice to ask. He made the choice to say, God, what do you want me to do? And when God spoke, he obeyed.

You know, it’s a simple choice to surrender to Jesus, but sometimes surrender is to something that you don’t know exactly what it is. Sometimes you do, but sometimes it’s a surrender to a concept of the will of God. And I find many times young people, they make that kind of a decision.

But you know, when God reveals his will, they’ve got to obey. You know, maybe you’ve been at a youth summit or maybe listening to a podcast, you’ve surrendered to the will of God. But a question for you, has he told you what to do?

And when he has, even in the small things, I’m not talking about necessarily, I want you to be a preacher one day, though we definitely need to yield to that.

But I’m talking about, okay, Yesterday, when you were at school, did he tell you to say something to speak up when conversations were being had in the locker room or when somebody said something that you knew you had to speak up and say something about? Did you obey? Because that’s the test of your surrender.

The test of your surrender is not in the revival meeting. It’s not at the V Generation Youth Summit. It’s not while you’re listening to the podcast. it’s not even necessarily while you’re having your devotions and God is talking to you in the morning.

The real test of surrender is when God tells you what to do, do you do it? And, you know, again, I think many times we look at the decisions that God is calling us to make and the things that he’s telling us to do, and we can tend to think, ah, there’s no way I can do that.

We think that’s impossible, that’s uncomfortable, that’s difficult, that’s hard.

there’s no way and we we choose to obey based on whether or not we think we can do it and that’s not surrender either surrender isn’t surrendering to what you think you can do is surrendering as to what God says you should do whether or not you think you can do it and you When God makes his will clear and you step out in dependence, he will enable you to do this.

And I know this is something we’ve talked about a lot on the podcast. I know you get this, but I want you to see this back into the story. In verse 9 there it says, And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

In fact, if you scroll down a little bit later, you’ll see that when Jesus was speaking to Ananias, which is the man that God was going to send into his life to help him, at the end of verse 11 it says, one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. And you know what Saul was doing?

If you compare Saul’s various accounts, on the road to Damascus, Jesus actually didn’t just tell him to go into the city. Jesus also did give him a bigger vision for his life. And as he did obey and take the first step, he knew what God was calling him to do.

He knew that God was calling him to be a light to the Gentiles. He knew that God was calling him to really pioneer Gentile missions and to reach the Gentiles with the gospel, the non-Jews with the gospel. That’s a big task. And you know what happened? He got there into the city, and here he is. He’s blind.

He’s blind. He can’t see anything. And God’s calling him to go reach the Gentiles. So you know what he was doing? He got alone with God. He got desperate. And I’m sure he probably said, God, you want me to reach the Gentiles? I can’t even see. God, I can’t do this. But you can.

God, I don’t know how this is going to happen. But if you call me to do it, you’ll enable me to do it. God, I need your strength. I don’t need food as much as I need your divine enablement. God, I need you. He was a man who was willing to obey. He was truly surrendered.

He was a man who knew how much he needed God. And he didn’t just say how much he needed God. He got alone with God. And he depended on him in prayer for the power of God to do God’s will.

you know all of these things are summaries of some simple choices that some choice servants of God have made you know I’m thrilled for the 30 to 40 young people last week that said they wanted to surrender I trust they’ll follow through with their decision and as Jesus speaks they’ll obey but as Jesus speaks he’s going to call them to do some things they just don’t feel like they can do and what they need to do is in spite of their weaknesses in spite of their handicaps, in spite of their lack of skill, strength, power, wisdom, know-how, whatever it might be they feel they lack, they need to get alone with God.

And they need to get desperate and dependent upon Him. And as they yield to God and as they get dependent upon Him, God’s going to use them. And you know, the same for you young people. A simple choice of surrender. A simple choice to obey when God speaks.

and a simple choice to get desperate before the Lord to do what you could never, ever do in the strength of your flesh. This is really core to who we are as a generation of young people. You know this.

And it’s something that I strive to do, something I strive to lead my team to do, something I pray God will help me lead my family to do. And it’s something I believe God wants to use me to inspire you to do. And you know, young people, I just want you to know I’m for you.

God is for you. God wants to use your life. It doesn’t matter how big a task he calls you to do. Our God is bigger. It doesn’t matter how difficult of a thing God calls you to do. Surrender to him. Be willing to obey. Don’t just be willing. Do it. Independence upon God.

And you know that simple choice to step out of the boat, to move forward, to trust, and to go is a choice, a simple choice that God Almighty in heaven is going to bless. So young people this week, totally surrender to the will of God, won’t you?

And let’s depend on his power to step out and to do some amazing things in the power of the Spirit of God inside of us. Thanks for listening.