Jim Van Gelderen: Well, it’s good to have you back to the podcast. Here we are at the beginning of 2017. Many years ago, I would assume in the early 1980s, I was sitting in a hallway at the Christian college I attended, and a young man stood up to give a testimony.

He said this: “It’s January 15th. One twenty-fourth of whatever year it was is gone. What have you done for Jesus Christ?”

I remember thinking about that. I thought it was a very interesting way of looking at it. The question I would have here is, now that we’re getting well into January, how are you doing spiritually?

Some of you made some perhaps New Year’s resolutions or even spiritual decisions, and you might say, “Well, it’s not going so great.” Sometimes young people don’t make decisions because they figure, “Well, I know I’m not going to keep it, so I’m not going to make it.”

Let me just encourage you with something, young person. Somebody has well said this, and I love this statement: “If you shoot for nothing, you will hit it every single time.”

You know why we make decisions when God deals with us? Because God wants us to.

But you know what a decision does? It ought to be a directional change.

Do you know why we have a pledge for Thee Generation? We want it to be something that’s a reminder to a young person.

Somebody might look at the pledge and say, “Well, I’m not sure I can live that.” Well, we wrote the pledge to simply be what biblical living is. If a teenager said, “I want to do everything God wants me to do,” what would that pledge look like?

That’s what we wrote for Thee Generation. It’s for a young person who wants to follow God, wants to do it God’s way as He wrote it down in His Word.

Perhaps you signed the pledge and you say, “You know, I haven’t done a very good job of following the pledge.” Or maybe you’ve made other decisions in your life and said, “You know, I haven’t done a real good job of keeping that decision.” Well, let me just say something, young person, about a pledge or a decision.

It really is intended not to be a decision for perfection, though that’s certainly what we want. It’s really a directional change. It’s a paradigm shift.

In other words, it’s like this: When I was 16 years old, I yielded to the call to preach. Now, I’m going to be honest with you: Since that time, I certainly have not always followed the call to preach with as much passion and burden as I ought to have had.

But I will tell you, friends, when I was 16 years old and made that decision, it was a directional shift. In other words, from that point to this, I have pursued God’s call on my life, which is to preach.

Again, although it’s certainly not been a perfect pursuit of a call, it was a directional shift that has been life-altering. If I had not made that decision, I wouldn’t be at the microphone right now. There probably would be no War of Special Forces or Minuteman Ministries, because I would not have followed the Lord.

So decisions are critical. When you make a decision at War of Special Forces or a revival meeting, maybe you get discouraged because you’re not keeping it like you ought to keep it. The point, friend, is again not that you keep it perfectly, but that when you fail, you say, “You know, I’m going to get back up through the grace of God, trusting Him, and I’m going to pursue what God has called me to do.”

I remember a little later in my life when God really dealt with me about the verse that if you seek God, you’ll find Him. I made a decision that the rest of my life I wanted to seek God with all my heart.

Now, I’m going to be honest with you: I have not always sought God with all my heart, but that was a directional shift. It made a huge difference in my life because it was a change. In other words, that was a decision I made: I want to seek God, and you come back to that.

I remember a young man giving a testimony about the fact that when he was in high school, although he was saved, two things became more important than being right with God. Number one, his music. Number two, his friends.

In other words, he cared more about listening to the music he wanted to listen to and having the friends he wanted than being right with God.

He talked about being at summer camp after his sophomore year, hearing a message, and God just shredding him with Holy Spirit conviction. In that invitation, he walked in front of five friends, walked down an aisle, and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. He was saying goodbye to his will and saying yes to Jesus’ will.

He testified later that although for one year he struggled to have complete victory in music, it was different. Now he wanted victory. In his senior year he came to real victory over his music, and now he’s a pastor of a church in the state of Georgia.

My point is that this was a critical decision in his life. He even admitted he didn’t keep it perfectly, but he wanted to. Friends, that’s the difference.

I trust as you sign the pledge for Thee Generation or make other decisions in your life, when you fail, you don’t just give up on the decision. No, you get back up and say, “This is what I want. I want to follow God.

I want to keep His Word. I want to do what the pledge says, because that’s just simple Bible living. I want to follow God’s call on my life, whatever that may be.”

So recognize that decisions are important. Pledges are important, especially when they’re biblical or Spirit-led.

And I will say, friends, if you do fail, remember there’s a reason you failed. We talked about this in a previous podcast, but I’ll simply remind you that it usually means we just got back to self-dependence.

So the idea, friend, is just get back to dependence.

In other words, say, “You know, Lord, I can’t do this. I can’t follow You in my own strength. I need You.”

Get back to trusting Him to cleanse you, to restore you, and to give you victory where you’ve been defeated.

But I want to just encourage you: Decisions are important. Don’t bemoan the fact that you’ve made decisions in the past, even if you’ve failed to keep them.

Get back up and, like that young man, make a directional shift. Say, “Now I want things to be different,” and continue to pursue what God has been doing in your heart.

So, young people, I trust that you’re encouraged in the Lord. Remember, you’re a part of Thee Generation.

All that means is a young person who believes with all of his heart that God’s will is best, and so he surrenders to that will and depends upon God’s grace to keep it. So remember the battle cry: Total surrender, total dependence.