Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and right now I am speaking to you from Covington, Georgia, where we’ve had the privilege of having a couple days with Pastor Billy Ingram, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church. We had a wonderful set of services just this past Sunday. God really met with us as we talked about Thee Generation. And I know Pastor Ingram. I’ve known him for a long time. God has used him in my life and in many ways. And I’m just thrilled to have him here today.

So, Pastor, without any further ado, could you share your heart with the young

Billy Ingram: people here, what God’s put in your heart? Hello, this is Billy Ingram, and I am glad to be able to take part in Thee Generation Podcast. And it has been a great day for us today on Monday, as we are still thanking the Lord for what he did yesterday in our services with evangelist Bobby Bosler. And I’m thankful for the response that we had to the challenge of being totally surrendered, totally dependent upon the Lord. And I’m looking forward to the results of folks experiencing the presence of the Lord in their lives.

And then we accepted the challenge of 21 days of engaging with people about their soul. And I’ve already gotten updates and texts and reports of just the the great open doors that they’ve had in witnessing to folks. And one of the things that I think is important when a person makes a decision to be totally surrendered, totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus, is something that God has provided to be a help to us in this area. And it is the institution called the local church.

And I say local church, and I sometimes feel like that that’s a redundant statement because that’s the only kind of church that there is, as far as the Bible is concerned, that I see. It’s kind of like saying wet water. That’s the only kind of water that I know is wet. And so to have a church that is anything but local is not the kind of church that God describes. For the church that we find described in the Bible is a place that we have designated and set aside where God’s people meet and where God meets with us in a corporate setting.

The church has the scriptural authority to baptize and to observe the Lord’s Supper according to Matthew chapter 28 and 1 Corinthians 11. It is the pillar and ground of the truth according to 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15. It is the storehouse for God’s money, the tithe, 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 2. It is God’s evangelistic agency, Mark 16 verse 15 and Acts chapter 1 and verse 4. The local church has the keys of the kingdom, God’s soul winning agency, Matthew 16, 19.

And for somebody to try to be totally surrendered and totally dependent upon the Lord, yet do this kind of end run around the church to try to serve the Lord the best that you can, but not be properly related to and connected to the authority and the accountability that comes with a church membership is going to only stunt one’s growth and undermine that process of the Christian life. And so I want to encourage young people to make sure that you’re not just attending a church, but you are involved.

You’re committed to the church. You’re not just showing up faithfully and regularly, but you’re embracing it the way God designed for it to be embraced. You’re living under the accountability of a pastor or the youth pastor and the accountability of a church family. I tell people often that I meet that there are three things I believe that the Bible describes that everybody needs. And number one, and first and foremost, is they need the Lord as their personal Savior. And then number two, they need a church family.

And then number three, they need what comes with the church family is they need a pastor. They need the under shepherd. They need somebody who will watch for and care for their soul. And that makes one and gives one a great framework to really grow and experience the protection because there’s great deception that is out there. There are satanic deception, but there’s also self-deception. and having that one who is not just your parents at home or a godly friend, but also having one that God designed and that has been prepared and placed in your life to watch and care for your soul.

What a blessing that is. Even as an evangelist when I traveled, I struggled for a period of time trying to figure out which church am I going to base out of. I think that’s a phrase that many missionaries would use, evangelists may use. And it was a period of time, many years, struggling and even praying, what church do I base out of? Then the Lord helped me, and I believe it really truly was help from the Lord to open my eyes to the fact that I did not need to base out of a church.

I needed to belong to a church. I needed a pastor in my life. I needed a church family. And that is something that is so special. And that is the great blessing that God has provided. And to do an end run around the local church, to strive to give your heart to God and be loyal to some other kind of an institution, whether it be a school or a camp or another kind of a ministry, but neglect the greatest institution that God has provided to help us outside of a family, the local church is going to really undermine and hinder one’s relationship with the Lord.

The Bible describes the church as a body. Christ is the head. And so to fall in love with the head but neglect the body doesn’t make sense. And I encourage a young person, whatever you may be facing, whatever stage you may be in at this time in your life, whatever step you may be on in your Christian growth, understand the church is not something extra, but it is essential and vital to our everyday life. To be a Christian and not be identified with a church is not Bible Christianity.

I am to find my life and walk with God through my church. And I’m identified in my Christianity through my church. What a blessing. I hope that’ll be a help and at least maybe get you to think and challenge your thinking and help keep you on the right road of total surrender and total dependence. Lord bless you.

Bobby Bosler: Amen, Pastor Ingram. Thank you for that. You know, young people, it is so easy to just look at ourselves and our own lives and our own personal victory and even sometimes our own service for Him and forget the fact that you are to be a part of the church. And, you know, I can just say from personal experience that when I was trying to serve the Lord as a rogue, just on my own and not under the authority of the church that God had put me in.

I was spinning my wheels and very much operating on my own. But when you get involved in the will of God, God will bless and he will guide you and he will even propel you forward into his will. And that’s our heart. Our heart is to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you can’t do it alone. and as much as you have Jesus inside of you and Jesus is everything you need Jesus is the one who said that he would build his church right and so part of surrender to him is to surrender to his will and his method and so thank you very much Pastor Ingram and young people don’t forget the will of God for you is to be totally surrendered to him and totally dependent on his power to turn the world upside down the gospel of Jesus Christ thanks for listening