I’m speaking to you today from Winchester, Ohio. And before I get to our guest, I just want to make a little bit of an announcement In case you haven’t caught the blurb in the emails, registration is now open for the 2019 The Generation Youth Summit. This fall in Menominee Falls, October 16 to 18, we are going to be gathering TheGeners from all across the country. And we’re going to be gathering in Menominee Falls for two and a half days of intense competition and inspiring preaching. And so I want to encourage you young people, if you’ve not yet attended a The Generation Youth Summit, head on over to the Youth Summit page on thegeneration.org and check it out. If you have attended before, please plan on joining us again. We’re very excited about what we’ve got planned here for this fall. We know it’s going to be a blessing to many. And we just want to encourage you in your walk with Christ and in your pursuing of His will. Now, our guest here today is a very special guest. He’s not been on the podcast before, but if you’ve come to any of our youth summits, you’ve heard him very likely in one of the workshop sessions. Pastor Stephen Zimple. He’s the college administrator of Baptist College of Ministry and one of the assistant pastors at Falls Baptist Church. And one of the things that I appreciate about Brother Zimple is every time he speaks, I know God is going to speak to me. He’s always got something profound to say. He’s always got a very helpful insight from the word of God or from his experience with the Lord. And so without any further ado, Brother Zempel, why don’t you please share what God has put on your heart here today?

Thank you, Bob. It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to your audience today. It is the early summer for us, and you know what that means, right? It means we are right in between graduation season and wedding season. So we’ve wrapped up the school year, and I have the privilege of teaching in the high school. I’m the administrator at Baptist College of Ministry. We’ve gotten all of our graduates sent off. We’ve congratulated them. And already we’ve had a couple of weddings of graduates and former students and more to come throughout this summer. And it just makes me think a lot of young people I know, young adults, are at a transition point in their lives. Not just this particular year, but they’re thinking about what are the next steps. I see this with my high school students. we’ve graduated some of the students that I taught in high school they’ve graduated now and they’re thinking about what’s next where do I go what do I do obviously seeking the Lord’s will in that I see this with college graduates as well we graduated some some excellent students this year and they’re seeking God’s will what’s next it’s it’s a different time of life but still they’re young adults they’re thinking about what are the next steps I actually I get to see it on both ends of the college experience. I see our college graduates that we’ve worked with for several years, and they’re going on and doing things for the Lord after they’ve graduated from college, but I get to talk to incoming students as well. During the summer months, we have quite a few students apply, and they want to enroll in Baptist College of Ministry, and so I’ve just been talking to some of those as well throughout the process of their enrollment, and they’ve finished up their high school career, and now they’re thinking, where do I go? What’s next? Baptist College of Ministry, is this God’s will for my life? So I just want to talk quickly about one principle that I heard someone explain to me when I was younger that was a big help to me in the decision-making process, transition times of life, when we’re asking the question, what is next, and what does God have for me next? These next steps are really dramatic, especially for young adults. that time period between maybe 18 years of age to about 22, people tend to make decisions at that time of life that have a dramatic impact on the rest of their adulthood. And these are big decisions that need to be made. It’s kind of ironic. It almost seems unfair that we’re expected to make these huge life decisions at a time of life when we don’t have a whole lot of experience of adulthood. and you can’t put it off until you’re 50 and you can’t just wait and then go back and redo. There’s no control Z for life. That’s the keyboard shortcut for undo. You can’t do that in life. You can’t just try a couple of things and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just, we’ll hit control Z and we’ll go back and undo it. And here we are as young adults and we have to make these big decisions. For example, let me just tell you what I’m talking about. A few decisions that I remember thinking back that were big, really dramatic in the impact that they had in the rest of my adulthood. For example, the first time you have to make a decision where you’re going to live or where you’re going to work long term. That’s a decision some people have to make several times throughout their lives. But I remember graduating college and for the first time in my life, I was free to choose. Where am I going to move to? Where am I going to live? Where am I going to work? And thinking back, it was a big decision, having now the advantage of several years to look back and just reflect how dramatically different the rest of my life would have been had I made a different choice at that time. And other people’s lives as well. Other people would have been affected if I had made a different choice at that time. Another decision, I’m thinking about whom to marry. And many people make a decision about that. Should I marry? Whom should I marry? at the young adult age. And that’s a big deal. I think it goes without saying it dramatically impacts your life, who you are, and what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. Another one, if I should attend college and where I should attend college. That’s a big deal. A lot of people go through that process. They think that through after high school as a young person, maybe 18 years old. They have to work that through. And these are big decisions that really will shape the rest of your adulthood. Here’s the one principle that somebody told me when I was younger, when I was about 18 years of age, and no doubt you’ve heard people say this before. I’m sure I’ve heard several different people say this in different ways, but here it is. When you have a big decision to make and you’re not quite sure exactly what to do, be sure to give God the benefit of the doubt. Somebody said that to me when I was graduating high school, and I had a decision to make. Where should I go to college? Should I attend college? And I was working that through in my life, and somebody said to me, give God the benefit of the doubt. At that time in my life, I had in the back of my mind, I had an idea that God had called me to ministry. And I had that impression ever since I was a young person. But as time went on through my teenage years, I questioned that, I doubted that, I had other ideas. I had other plans, things I thought maybe would be more advantageous to me than ministry, other things I might enjoy doing more than going into ministry. Then I graduated high school and decisions weren’t being made for me. It was up to me to make the decision. Where are you going to go to college or are you going to go to college? And that advice helped me greatly. Give God the benefit of the doubt. So I decided at that time, by God’s grace, I was going to go to Bible college. I decided to attend a college that to me, at that time in my life, I thought of as the most conservative, the most rigorous, the most traditional Bible college that I could choose. And I went there. I made that choice. I made a decision to major in pastoral studies and minor in ministry. And I never changed that decision. I never decided it was the wrong decision. I heard at that time that about 50% of the students in that Bible college throughout their college career, they would change their major or their minor at some point. I never did. And looking back, the point I’m trying to make is looking back now with the advantage of 20 plus years, probably about 23 years since I made that one decision, I realized, first of all, it was a huge decision. And second, I’m able to see now it was the right decision. I didn’t decide to do what I thought would be comfortable or what I thought would be advantageous, something that I would be really good at. In the back of my mind, there was that impression, the Holy Spirit was reminding me, you need to serve God, you need to be involved in ministry, I’ve called you to preach, and I gave God the benefit of the doubt. Just by way of illustration, it’s easy enough to say something like, give God the benefit of the doubt. It’s so, I don’t know, it almost sounds trite to say that, almost cliche. What does that really mean? I think it means put God’s preferences above your own. What does God want instead of what I want? By way of illustration, just imagine I’m out with my wife one day, we’re driving, and she says, where do you want to stop for lunch? And I say, well, I don’t know. What would you like to do? Where would you want to stop for lunch? And she says, well, you make the decision. Whatever you want is fine with me. And, of course, it’s just being nice to say something like that. You choose. You decide. Whatever you want. So my wife says that to me, and, of course, I could take that literally, I suppose, and just choose whatever greasy burger joint is most appealing to me. But I know that my wife has preferences. Even though she’s saying whatever you want is fine, I know she prefers this. She does not prefer that, her choices of restaurants. We’ve lived together long enough. And in the same way, in a similar way, I know that God has desires. He has preferences. He himself wants certain things from me and the choices that I make in life. And even though God allows us to choose what we’re going to do, we need to make his priorities our priorities. And his preferences should be our preferences. His desires should be our desires. So instead of saying, okay, my wife told me whatever I want, so I’ll just stop at this place that I like and she doesn’t, I make a decision to put her priorities ahead of mine and her preferences ahead of mine. And we stop at a place that she can enjoy and we can both enjoy. And that’s giving my wife the benefit of the doubt in a decision like that. Well, I think it’s very similar in a life decision, a big decision you might have to make. To give God the benefit of the doubt means to put his will above your own. essentially it’s a decision of surrender you say God what you want is more important to me than what I want of course you know the story Jesus Christ was praying hours before his crucifixion and he prayed to God the Father he said I really don’t want to go through with this it’s not my preference it wouldn’t be my desire personally to go through with this crucifixion experience but he said God whatever you want is what I want Not my will, but thine be done. So big decisions are never going to leave us. But you know what? The good news is God never leaves us either. And I just want to encourage you, whatever that decision might be, give God the benefit of the doubt.

Amen. That is a wonderful challenge. Thank you so much for that. Young people, as you face these decisions, as you face the decision about what you’re going to do after this year, maybe you’re a recent graduate from high school, Don’t just do what you assume you should do. Don’t just go out and get a job. Don’t just do whatever the default is. Seek God for his will. Get his mind and give him the benefit of the doubt. Praise the Lord. Don’t forget the Youth Summit registration is now open for our 2019 Thee Generation Youth Summit in Menominee Falls, October 16 to 18. Check it out on the Youth Summit page on the website. And thank you so much for listening.