Bobby Bosler: Welcome to Thee Generation podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. This is the first normal podcast in a little while. We’ve been posting all of the sermons and workshops from Thee Generation Youth Summit back in the middle of October. And here, what we wanted to do is follow up a little bit with the 0/100 Challenge. One of the leaders in the Youth Summit had approached me, Jonathan Gilmore. He was a Soda Squad leader at Baptist College of Ministry, and he said that he had a burden for the young people who had come to the Youth Summit. He asked if he could speak here on the podcast, and I’m more than happy to give that opportunity. So, Jonathan’s here with me right now, and he’s got a burden on his heart from the Lord for you young people. So listen closely and let his challenge be an encouragement to you to step out of the boat.

Jonathan Gillmore: Well, thanks, Mr. Bosler. I’m so privileged to be here on this podcast. In the past, I’ve been blessed by episodes, and I pray that God of this episode in your life. The thoughts here that I’ll be sharing will dovetail with Mr. Bosler’s message that he preached during The Generation Youth Summit on Friday morning. I believe the title of that message is “The Strength of Weakness,” so there should be a link at the bottom of this episode, and you’ll be able to check that out. I strongly encourage you to do that, and I think you’ll be greatly blessed by both these thoughts here today.

So as we are a few weeks removed from the Youth Summit, I want us all to think about the decisions God led us to make, specifically the steps of the 0/100 Challenge that we wrote out on the decision card that Friday afternoon. I want to ask a question. How’s it going? Did it start well and now you’re losing hope a little bit? Maybe you’ve fallen back into something that you were initially believing God for at the Youth Summit and now you’re a bit disheartened, maybe even a bit disillusioned? Maybe you weren’t able to be with us at the Youth Summit, and you’re not quite sure what I’m talking about. And if you’re not quite sure what we’re talking about when we say 0/100, well, I’d strongly encourage you to listen to Dr. Jim’s 0/100 message. Even get a hold of his book, which he just recently published as well. But basically, any step of faith God has led you to take, but either you’ve fallen back on it or you’ve never even took it in the first place. Really that’s what we’re talking about here today, but my question for us all today is what are we waiting for?

You see the children of Israel were in the same boat. In Numbers 13 the children of Israel had a decision to make. Would they believe God and enter into the promised land or would they not believe God and suffer the consequences? You know, they had seen God do some absolutely amazing things in their lives, like deliver them from the Egyptians and all the miracles that happened there. They had seen God part an entire body of water and keep it there so they could walk across on dry ground. They basically had just been to a Thee Generation Youth Summit, and they saw God teach them so much. They witnessed God’s power in Exodus, and then they learned what to do and what not to do in Leviticus.

So here they are. They’re ready to act upon what they had been learning and what do they do? Well, let’s find out. Numbers 13, Moses sends 12 men, 12 spies into the land of Canaan to check out what’s happening. And now they’re coming back. In verse 27 of chapter 13 says, they told him and said, “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.” And then they go on, verse 31, it says, but the men that went up with him said, “we be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to search, it is the land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

 They had these unbelieving words. They were not seeing the amazing opportunity they had, with this evil report. What a letdown. I mean, think of it, back in Exodus they had just witnessed a complete humiliation of the most powerful nation on earth at that time. Egypt was a complete wasteland left in utter ruin. Wouldn’t you think that they would have loved to keep watching God use them to knock his enemies silly? It makes absolutely no sense. Especially when you take a look at the perspective that the enemies of God had of the people of God.

So first, we see the children of Israel, their perspective of what’s happening here, but then we take a look over in Joshua chapter 2 of what the enemies of God were thinking about the people of God. Now, the children of Israel didn’t find out the perspective of the enemies of God directly until 40 years after this moment of unbelief. And what they found out is absolutely stunning. So upon being ready to go into the promised land, the spies go and they check out the land and they land up in Rahab’s house. And I believe her testimony is representative of the perspective of the enemies of God during these entire 40 years of wilderness wanderings by the people of God. 

Joshua 2, 8-11 is a record of Rahab’s testimony. It says this, “And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us. And that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when ye came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man.”

Now what’s super interesting to me is this phrase, “as soon as we had heard these things.” You know, I had to stop and ask myself the question, when had the enemies of God heard these things? You know, it’s my belief that they heard of these things just shortly after they happened, probably within a few years of the crossing of the Red Sea, they heard about that. And these victories of Og and Sihon are detailed just a few chapters in Numbers 21 after Israel had this amazing opportunity. So, the enemies of God were literally quaking in their boots when they heard what the people of God were doing. And, you know, these victories of Og and Sihon, if you look in Numbers 21, it’s really just an accidental victory that happened a few times in the wilderness. The people of God weren’t even looking to really see much happen and they just stumbled upon a few victories. And the enemies of God heard about these things. They heard about the amazing things God had done in Egypt and about these sporadic wilderness victories. And they were literally quaking. They were so afraid. They felt as nothing. While the people of God thought they were grasshoppers in their sight, the enemies of God thought they were completely nothing in their sight. And they were literally planning on getting wiped out by the people of God. They didn’t know what to do. 

And we look at this, and we think, “Wow, this is unbelievable. What an opportunity missed by the people of God.” Yet we find ourselves in the same position of opportunity or defeat. Really, we find ourselves in that position every day. You see, it’s now time to see complete victory over the flesh and the devil in your life. Today is the day. You don’t need to wait. The question once again is what are we waiting for? What’s holding us back from seeing complete wholesale victory over the enemies of God, the fleshly living, the devil working in and around our lives? What’s holding us back from seeing amazing things happen? You see, we don’t need to wait. We don’t need to wait 40 years to step into the land and see God do amazing things. We don’t need to wait 40 days to see a decision followed through. We don’t need to wait a few hours. We don’t need to wait a few moments. We can decide right now that now is the time to see complete victory over the flesh and the devil in our life. 

So I hope these few thoughts have been an encouragement to you just like they’ve been to me. And listen, friends, we can go forward right now in complete victory. 

Bobby: Amen. Thank you so much for that challenge, Jonathan. And young person, as you’ve heard this challenge, really the only thing left to do is to obey God. God has worked in your heart. Perhaps at the Youth Summit, and there are things that are still undone. Can I challenge you? What are you waiting for? Get out of the boat.

Maybe you’re listening and you weren’t at the Youth Summit, but God has been talking to you about some things He wants you to do in your life. Don’t let “I can’t do it” be an excuse. What are you waiting for? Depend upon God, surrender to Him, step out of that boat, and let’s go conquer the land.