Jim Van Gelderen: Today, I’m very excited to have you hear the testimony of a good friend of mine, Marty Moon. Marty used to be a youth pastor. Now he’s the assistant pastor of Gospel Baptist Church in Bonita Springs, Florida, a church that has a heart for souls.

We’ve been there several times. We’ve loved working with Brother Marty. But many years ago, in 1989, I remember as a young preacher, I was asked to speak at a very exciting event in Greenville, South Carolina, or outside Greenville.

There were going to literally be hundreds, and if I could remember the exact number, it might have been even a couple of thousand, but it was a lot of teenagers that were going to be there. I was going to have the privilege of preaching three times. Well, I’ll never forget that day when rain came in and rained it out and they canceled it.

And I don’t know when, but somewhere during that day, a young man who had traveled with my ministry a year or so before called me up and said, “Brother Van Gelderen, I hear that that event has been canceled. I’m having a youth activity tonight.

Would you come and preach?” I remember going over and preaching a simple gospel message to about thirty teenagers, and that night there was a young man there by the name of Marty Moon, who is now an assistant pastor, and he’s going to tell his story. I want you to listen because it’s a great story. It has some good application.

If you’re here and don’t know one hundred percent sure you’re on your way to heaven, make sure you listen to this story. And if you do know the Lord, you’ll listen because there’s something that I think you’ll be touched and encouraged by.

Marty Moon: I think one of the most important things about a Christian, of course, is his testimony. I’m always thankful to be able to look back and see how the Lord saved me. I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, which many people believe is the buckle on the Bible Belt.

A lot of Christian heritage in that area. I grew up going to church. I grew up having my parents take me to church until I was about seven years of age, and then my parents pretty much quit going to church.

From that point, the only time I ever really darkened the door of a church was when a friend would invite me to go. During my teen years, I would get invited to go to an activity or to a church because of a friend from school. I didn’t really want to go.

I just went because a friend asked me to go. But even during the times that I did go to church, I was always uncomfortable. I did make some decisions for the Lord.

I walked forward, I remember at least one time going forward and praying a prayer. I remember after that time getting baptized, but really nothing stuck from that, really took hold from those decisions that I made as a young man, and I was just lost in my sin. I tried to fill the God-shaped void in my heart by just sin and doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.

I was given a nickname back then at high school, “Party Hearty Marty Moon.” That was kind of my name, and unfortunately I lived up to that name. On Christmas Eve 1988, my sister, unknowingly to me, took my car. She and her boyfriend took my car and wrecked it, put it in a ditch, and I got home from work and my car wasn’t there, which I was going to use that night.

My sister came in a little bit later and, sadly, she told me that my car was in a ditch. My dad and I got out, found the car, and he went to get a wrecker. I stayed there with the car waiting on him to come back.

While I was standing there, a young lady in the yard where the car was in the ditch came out and said, “Who are you?” She started asking me a bunch of questions, and she kept asking me questions and asking me questions. I was glad to talk to someone. She got my telephone number and found out where I lived.

Actually, for the next four months, she invited me to church. On April 15, 1989, after being asked and asked and asked to come to church, I finally decided one day to go. I showed up in church, got out of my car, and the girl who had invited me actually ran away, and I started to leave.

But a youth pastor there at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Taylors, South Carolina, invited me to stay. So I did. I stayed and had a great time at a youth activity.

Then I came back from that youth activity, and I heard from the youth director that there was going to be a preacher. I didn’t really want to stay. I kind of just wanted to go.

But they offered some ice cream, so I decided to go ahead and stay. I’m so glad I did. After the ice cream, there was a man that I met there.

The preacher evangelist was named Jim Van Gelderen. I stayed and heard him preach. He preached on the White Throne Judgment, about how every person who does not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior would be at that judgment and ultimately be cast into the lake of fire.

Sitting there in my chair with about twenty or thirty other teenagers at seventeen years of age, I remember thinking to myself, if I was to die tonight, I would go to that place called the lake of fire. I can remember imagining in my mind getting in my car and heading home, which was only about ten or fifteen minutes away in Taylors, and actually dying and going to hell if somehow I died that night.

I remember a question that Dr. Van Gelderen asked us teenagers. He said, “Are you one hundred percent sure if you were to die tonight that you would go to heaven?” I thought to myself, maybe fifty or sixty or seventy percent, but I was not one hundred percent.

During the invitation, I walked back to the back of the room, and a man by the name of Chuck Culpepper, who was assistant pastor at that time of Colonial Hills Baptist Church, took me upstairs and from the Word of God showed me how I could place my faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone as my personal Savior. That was the greatest day of my life: April 15, 1989. What a great day that was.

Really, the challenge I have for teenagers today is, number one, to know for sure, if you were to die today, that you’d be in heaven. As Brother Van Gelderen said, are you one hundred percent sure if you were to die today that you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? My second challenge would be to the Christian young man or young lady to simply invite.

I praise the Lord. I’ve been in the ministry now for over twenty years and am saved, by the grace of God, simply because a young lady invited me to come to a youth activity. Praise the Lord for what he’s done, and I’m thankful for this opportunity.

May God bless you all.

Jim Van Gelderen: What a blessing to hear that testimony. I hope you’re encouraged by it. And young person, if you’re saved, on your way to heaven, and part of the Thee Generation, remember: total surrender, total dependence.

There are young people just like Brother Marty that need someone to give them the gospel, to invite them to church. And if we’re surrendered to the Lord Jesus, he will lead us as we depend upon him to invite and to give the gospel. May the grace of God be with you as you open your mouth for Jesus Christ.