Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you right now from Troy, Alabama. But our guest today is speaking to you from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. Our speaker here for the podcast this weekend is Ryan Swanson. And many of you have heard his voice. If you’ve listened to the podcast for any length of time, and you’ve heard some of the things that God used him to do over in Australia and what God is doing over there. And I want you to know that didn’t begin in Australia. Ryan’s going to be sharing a little bit of his story. and I trust that his story will be an encouragement and a motivation to you to work now where God has put you. Ryan, why don’t you share your story here today?

All right, well, it’s good to be back on the Thee Generation Podcast here. It’s been a while. I think the last one that I did was in Australia and just recounting some of the things God was doing there and things he was teaching me. There’s so much more that could be said there and God continued to do great things, souls saved every week and so many lessons that he taught me. But I want to actually go back to an earlier time in my life as a teenager where the Lord taught me something that’s been very key and very special. And I want to share that with you, something I hope will be extremely helpful for you, as it was to me. I surrendered to preach when I was 14 years old, and that’s a whole other story. It was a long time before that of just rejecting God and didn’t want anything to do with His will for me. But when I finally surrendered to that at 14 years old, the Lord gave me an excitement that really never went away. I never looked back and surrendered to preach and surrendered at that time to be an evangelist. The Lord made that very clear right away that that’s what he had for me. So I was excited about someday being that evangelist and someday being able to give that gospel unashamedly and boldly and to be leading scores of people to Christ. And that was just a future vision of mine. It was nothing for the present. I thought I’d have time. It’d be another two to three years before I went to Bible college. And I thought, you know, this time is kind of a transition. It’s a time when I’m surrendered, but I’m in school, but I’m a kid, I’m a teenager. The time to be an evangelist will come later. Now, I was prepared to give the gospel if the opportunity arose. I had tracts with me at times just in case someone brought it up to me, or just in case I was going through the line with the cashier there. Why not give her a tract? It’s awkward enough just to be waiting there in silence as your payment’s going through. So why not just break the silence by giving her a track? That’s easy, right? And I was content with that, just giving the gospel on my own schedule in times when it worked out. But I want to challenge your thinking on what God actually wants to do with you while you were a teenager. Like, is there something special that God wants you to be a part of during your teenage years right now? Something that you couldn’t be a part of later? Something where the opportunity is only where you’re at right now. I think that’s the case for every one of you. I know it was for me. I want to tell you about that. When I was 16, I began working at a distribution center for a grocery store chain, Hy-Vee. You may have heard of that grocery store chain in the Midwest. There’s stores in, I think, 8 or 10 states. It was growing pretty quickly at the time. I worked at that because the distribution center for that large chain was only 25 minutes from my house. It worked out very well. There were three warehouses at that location, and each of them was a quarter of a mile long. This was a very large company in a large location. There was probably 200 to 300 employees working just on my shift on a nightly basis. My shift was 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., to 2 in the morning. That worked out with school. It was a little interesting at times, but it really was a great job, and I enjoyed it. Because of those hours that worked well with the school year, there was actually a large percentage of the employees there that were young people that were teenagers. And I had a lot of opportunities where I could give the gospel. But I’m sorry to say in the six months I’ve been working, in my first six months there, I hadn’t once given the gospel to anyone. Now, once again, I was prepared to. I had tracts. I was ready to if the opportunity arose, if it worked into my schedule. But I wasn’t going out of my way to tell anyone about Christ. Finally, when I’d been working there for six months, I took some time off, and my family was going up to the Victory Conference here at Falls Baptist, where I’m attending right now at Baptist College of Ministry and Theological Seminary. And we attended the conference, and then that Friday was the college day. And Dr. Jim Van Gelderen, who we all know here at The Generation, was preaching a message entitled The Fear of Man. And I couldn’t tell you every verse he used or every point in his outline, but I can tell you the Lord was all over me about one thing. And that is that the simple reason I was not giving the gospel is that I was ashamed. Now, I had so many reasons up to that point. I had said, well, I’ve got to build a relationship with these people before they’ll trust me. So giving the gospel right off is not going to be helpful. It’s not going to work. I was thinking, you know, eventually they’ll just see my testimony. I’ll just live good Christian morals in front of them. And eventually they’ll want that so badly that they’ll ask me what the difference is. And then I’ll be able to give them the gospel. But in six months, neither of those had worked. Nothing was happening. And I realized it was because I was ashamed. Paul said in Romans 1 verse 16, he said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. I wasn’t willing to be known as the church kid or the Jesus guy. I wanted people to know me for sports or for hunting or fishing stories or even for a good work ethic there and getting a lot done and doing well in production. I want them to know me for those things. and not to be known as the religious kid or the Jesus guy. And I realized at that point I wasn’t totally surrendered. Sure, I had said that I’d be willing to be an evangelist, but that was totally future. And I was not totally surrendered at that point to being an evangelist where God had put me. And I realized a simple principle that I want to share with you. As I already mentioned, I was totally willing and prepared to give the gospel if it worked out in my schedule or if anyone else approached me. and in a sense, I was willing to give the gospel on accident. Like if it just happened, if it just worked out, then sure, I’d be willing to give the gospel by accident, but never on purpose. I never planned it. I never planned an opportunity to give someone the gospel. And you know, and I think you could see this in your own life. If you’re not willing to give the gospel on purpose, you’re not going to give it on accident. It’s just not going to happen. And that’s what was going on in those six months. Not once had I given the gospel on purpose or on accident, because I wasn’t willing. I wasn’t surrendered. And that was on a Friday when Dr. Jim was preaching on this, and I decided I was going to go back that night. I’d be at work, and whatever it took, I was going to give the gospel. Now, I didn’t know how that would work, because we’re on a clock the entire time we’re there at the warehouse, and they’re watching our production very closely, and I knew it wouldn’t be right for me to take the time that I’m being paid for and use that to give someone the gospel. So the only other time would be when I get off work, and that’s at 2 a.m., 2 in the morning. Who’s going to want to listen to this preacher kid tell about how they can get to heaven? I didn’t know how this was going to work out, but I knew God wanted me to give the gospel on purpose that night. So I went to work at 6 p.m. that night, and just a couple hours in, something happened that had never happened before. My job at that warehouse was to load up food on pallets and move them into refrigerated trailers where they’d then be shipped off to the different stores. But that night, this company ran out of those refrigerated trailers. They were all in a different location or something. I don’t know what happened. It was very odd. It had never happened before, and I don’t think it ever happened since in the time that I worked there. But we ran out of those trailers. So all the employees are just standing around with nothing to do but talk and wait for further instructions from the managers. And the Lord just clearly told me, All right, Ryan, I’ve set this up for you. Now it’s your turn. Go ahead. So I took my pile of tracks that I’d come with that night and just began walking around, just handing tracks to employees and telling them that this could tell them how they were 100% sure that they’re on the way to heaven. One of the guys I gave it to was a guy named Tim Price. And he was one that in weeks past had already been mocking and making fun because he found out I went to church. And he would be cracking inappropriate jokes in front of me and things like that. But he took this track and he actually came to me later that night and he thanked me for giving it to him. And it totally took me off guard, but he said he was going to read it. The next time I saw Tim Price the following week, he came to me and he said, I read that track you gave me. And he said, I memorized the prayer on the back. And I laughed, and it was obvious that he didn’t quite understand everything on the first read-through. But I said, look, if you want me to explain that and tell you how you can know, you’re 100% sure you’re on the way to heaven to meet me after work tonight. So at 2 a.m. was my first time meeting with someone after work to take him through the gospel. He stood there and for, I don’t know, probably 45 minutes went through the gospel with him, and he prayed and accepted Christ that night. Tim began coming to church and was faithful. He said every Sunday, he said, that’s the Lord’s day. He said, I’m not going to work. I’m not going to do anything else. I’m completely giving that to the Lord. And he did. It was so exciting to see him grow. But what we found out was that was just the first of all that God wanted to do. After that, it was Dominic Jaspers, Chase McDonald, a guy named Cole Graves after that. Now, Cole was known in the warehouse and really in the community for being the partying kid, an underage drinker, that he would invite guys of all ages come over his house, and they’d just party all night. Even sometimes after work, they’d go over there, and a bunch of guys would show up at his house, and he and his older brother would be drinking along with the rest of them. Both of them were underage, but they didn’t care. They were known for that. It was kind of the joke of the warehouse. And I went to Cole that night, and the Lord had clearly told me that he was the one that needed the gospel. And so I told him that. I said, you know, Cole, I’m pretty sure that God wants me to give you the gospel tonight until you can know for sure that you’re on your way to heaven. And he said, no, man, I don’t get time for that. I need to get home and whatever. I’m tired. And he wouldn’t listen at all. But a bunch of his friends were standing around, Dominic and Chase, another guy, Lane Blue, guys that had been saved there at the warehouse. And they were telling him, you need to listen to this guy. You need to get this. You need to hear this gospel, this good news. And he said, no, I don’t have time. I just need to get home. And he went to Lane Blue, one of the Christian guys, And he said, okay, you said you’d give me a ride home, so let’s go. And he said, no, I’m not giving you a ride home. He said, you’re going to ride home with Ryan. He’s going to take you home, and he’s going to tell you this on the way home. Finally, Cole agreed, but he turned to me and he said, look, Ryan, I’ll go home with you, but you’ve got to drive the speed limit. You’ve got to go the way I tell you, and you can’t stop anywhere else. You’ve got to go straight to my house. It’s going to take five minutes. He said, if you want to talk to me in those five minutes, that’s fine, but that’s all the time you got. He got in my car, and we started off towards his house. Right away, as I pulled onto the road, a pickup truck, zoomed past me, pulled back over into our lane, and slowed down to five miles an hour. There was no passing zone all the way to his house, so there’s nothing I could do about it. Turns out that the guy in the pickup was Lane Blue, one of those Christian guys, and he thought that his friend could use a little more than five minutes to hear the gospel. So I had 15 to 20 minutes in that drive to give Cole the gospel, and by the time we got to his house, he wouldn’t let me stop. He said, you’ve got to finish. You’ve got to tell me this. I’ve never heard this before. Long story short, he accepted Christ that night. After cold, there was other guys, Tyler Goddard, Ed Timofeo, Pavel Garbazov, a couple of Russian guys that accepted Christ. It came to the point where I would just walk into the parking lot after work, and I knew the Lord would have someone there for me. It was incredible, and it was just as much of the Lord and just as much a miracle every time. All I had to do was just be ready, be surrendered, and plan. to give the gospel to someone, and the Lord would do the rest. He would do the work. He would work it out. Well, one night I went out there, and there was a guy named Jake who was walking across the parking lot. And I knew God wanted me to give the gospel that night, but I was kind of confused right off because Jake was a guy who I never would have picked out of a crowd to give the gospel to. He wouldn’t give me the time of day in the warehouse, and he didn’t care for me at all. He was older. He was a college-age kid at the time and a rough guy. I thought, there’s no way, there’s no way that this guy’s going to listen. But I knew, he’s the only one in the parking lot. And I knew the Lord wanted me to give the gospel that night. So I thought, this is it. He’s the guy. So I ran across the parking lot, called him down and said, Hey, look, Jake, I know this is going to sound odd, but I’m pretty sure God wants me to give you the gospel. And I tell you how you can know 100% sure you’re on the way to heaven. And he said, no, man, I don’t get time for that. He just mumbles it and keeps walking. He didn’t even look at me. So I kept following him because I was confident. I knew God wanted me to talk to him. I said, look, man, this isn’t me. This is God. He’s telling you, you need to listen to this. And he just keeps walking. He lights up a cigarette, ignoring me completely until he gets to his car. And he just jumps in and slams the door and drives off in his nice Pontiac Sunbird. And there I am left in the parking lot, just confused, didn’t know what to do. I knew God wanted me to talk to him. And I just didn’t know what to think of him leaving it like that. Well, I got in my car and went home. Well, the following night, I was back at work. and to my surprise Jake walks up to me and he had a different look on his face so I wasn’t sure what to expect but he says Ryan he said I need to talk to you he said as soon as I left you last night after you were trying to talk to me about God he said I got this really bad feeling he said I knew I had said no to God until something bad was going to happen he said I knew I was going to get in an accident I knew I was going to get in a wreck and he said I even knew that it was going to be the night that I hit a deer. And sure enough, as he’s driving down the road, he said the biggest buck he’s ever seen jumps out in front of him. He hit it so hard it rolled up over the hood onto the windshield, broke through the windshield. The head of the deer whipped around from the impact and the antlers actually came through the driver’s side door at him. And he was afraid for his life, he said. And here’s this rough guy who never would have talked about God before. And he’s saying to me, whatever you’re going to tell me last night about God, I need to hear this. So I said, all right, meet me after work. So sure enough, in that parking lot, again, at 2 a.m., we’re talking. I give him the gospel, and he accepts Christ. He prays right there and accepts Christ. Over and over, this was happening. And everyone, like I said, it was all God, and he would do a different miracle every time. I remember another night when I’m out in the parking lot giving the gospel to a couple of guys. My brother was there giving the gospel to another guy. They had just gotten saved at 3 a.m. when the manager of the entire place walks out of the warehouse. It was really rare to see him. Normally he’s just in the office. But I knew at that point the Lord wanted me to give him the gospel. So here I am, 16-year-old kid, running across the parking lot, waving him down. He had just gotten into his car ready to close the door when I walked up and just simply offered to tell him how he could know 100% sure he was on his way to heaven. He said, yeah, I need that. And so I knelt down right there as he’s sitting in his car with the door open and showed him through scripture how he could be saved. And about half an hour later, he bowed his head and he accepts Christ. This was happening over and over. And by the end of just two years working at that warehouse, before I went to college, there were 26 co-workers who had accepted Christ. Now that’s something I never could have dreamed as a teenager. When I first surrendered to preach, I never thought that would happen. But I tell you, that made a big difference. That made a huge difference in my life. Going on to the next stage, going on to college, I knew God could use me because He already had. That Hy-Vee Distribution Center became known as the Hy-Vee Revival Center. But I can tell you none of that was because of me. And if you think it’s because of some special person or special gifting that I have, then you probably don’t know me. Because this is something I’m constantly surrendering back to the Lord. And it’s a decision we need to make on a day-to-day basis. Are you willing to give the gospel on purpose? Are you willing to plan it? Are you willing to change your schedule to give someone the gospel? Don’t waste your teenage years and just see it as a limbo period before God can actually start using you. No, it’s very possible that some of the biggest ways that God wants to use you is right now in your teenage years. I mean the biggest. I mean some of the greatest things you will ever do for Christ could be happening right now. If you’ll just surrender to Him. Total surrender. Doesn’t matter what people think. You’re all in for the gospel. That’s who you are. That’s who you live for. Get together with your church to give the gospel. Get together with your friends to go out and knock doors and give the gospel. Go into public places, young people. Give the gospel on purpose. God will give you a passion for it. You’re going to see God use you in ways you never thought possible, and he wants to do it right now.

Amen. Thank you for that, Ryan. Young people, God wants to use you now. Not one day. Not when you go off to Bible college. Not when you get married or get a position or a title or a ministry to work in. God wants to use you now. Thank you, Ryan, so much for that. Young people, as you yield to the Lord, as you surrender to him, not just for the future but for now, and as you depend upon him to step out of your comfort zone and take those opportunities and make those opportunities, I trust that God will use your life to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for listening.

Ryan Swanson: you