Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, And I’m speaking to you still from Killeen, Texas. I say still because we’ve been here for a while. And actually, last weekend, we tried to leave. And then our brakes went out on our truck. And so we’ve been here waiting for a repair to get completed on that. But Lord willing, in just a few days, we should be packing up and heading towards Wisconsin again, staying for a little bit of time in Missouri. But anyway, the reason why I wanted to talk to you here today and the purpose of this episode is I wanted to make you aware of a couple of things that God is doing. And I’m going to need your participation in some more ways. Now, I just want to say this. I really appreciate all of you who have given of yourself and given time and sent in those videos. And I appreciate all of you who, for our Let’s Go Viral campaign, who have been sharing our first of five videos via whatever means you are able to. And I want to continue to encourage you in that. In fact, I just released a video this morning on TG Talk on YouTube, and the number there is already outdated. I said in the video we had 4,600 views, but currently, actually, as I’ve been looking at it, we’re a good bit over 5,000 views. And so people are sharing it. People are spreading it. People are being impacted by it. But, you know, as I mentioned in the TG alert, you may have gotten if you are subscribed to our podcast feed, which, by the way, I think some of you maybe don’t realize that if you’ll go on to Google Podcasts or Spotify or Apple Podcasts or I think we’re even on Stitcher and maybe a couple of other places, pretty much most of your podcast feeds or podcast apps, you can subscribe to the Thee Generation Podcast. And that way, whenever we get a new episode released, it’ll show up in your feed and you can set it up so you can get a notification. We’re not always able to get the emails out exactly the way we’d want to get them out. And the posts don’t always come out right away on thegeneration.org. Sometimes I’ve got to do a little bit of work to get that up and running. But if you want to be some of the first people to hear the podcast, please subscribe using your podcast player of choice. But that being said, with all that we’ve got going, there’s a lot of things that are happening. There are people who are sharing this video. There are people that are viewing this video. I’ve actually got a Facebook ad in there right now. And there are people from all over, United States, Canada, and Australia. Those are the three countries that I targeted who are being exposed to this video. But I don’t know about you, at this point in time, I feel pretty powerless as to what to do with it. I mean, I can share it, but I can’t do a whole lot more than that. Or at least that’s the way it would seem. I feel sometimes like even though I’ve done everything that I can, it’s still not enough to achieve the intended goal. From just the standpoint of views, right? And again, I trust you understand our burden for this Let’s Go Viral campaign is even though we’re confined, there are still things that we can do to get the gospel out. And those are the marching orders for the generation, but not just for the generation, for Christians. Jesus wanted us to preach the gospel to every creature. He wanted us to preach the word be instant in season when it’s convenient or out of season when it’s the last thing from the farthest thing from convenient. And so our responsibility doesn’t change, but the methods have changed. And so, again, I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page as far as the burden here. Our burden is for us to verbally give the gospel to really to get it before the eyes of over a million people. And so as I’m looking at the views, I’m thinking, hmm, 5,000 views in basically two and a half days. Okay, that’s going to take a long time to get to a million views. Now I recognize that once we get video number two out and number three out, number four and five out, things can multiply there during that time. However, honestly, I believe the Lord led to the number one million because that is so far out of reach. God is going to have to be the one who does it. Now, on the one hand, we can’t be passive and just sit back and just kind of hope that God does it or hope somebody else is on praying ground or hope somebody else shares it. We’ve got to do our part. In fact, I believe we need to pray and we need to ask God, how would you have me share this with other people? I’ve sent this link out to unsaved family members. I’ve sent this link out on high profile YouTube channels minutes after a new video is released that gets, you know, 40 million views and with the hopes that somebody will see it. But even there, I can’t get these videos before the eyes of those who really need to see them. I can’t get them before them at the right time. I can’t get the videos before them and have them have what they need. Their souls need to be touched by the message of the video. The Holy Spirit needs to grab the attention of those who are watching the video. And I feel like someone who has lots of people who have great need, and yet I don’t have what it takes. And that brings me to the text that I want to look at here briefly today. In Luke 11, and I know you’ve probably heard this passage before. I know Dr. Jim has preached on this passage before. But just as I was thinking about my burden and the podcast here this weekend, I thought, you know, I think this is the text. Luke 11 and verse 5, Jesus is speaking. He just gave an abbreviated version here of the Lord’s Prayer. And in verse 5, so he’s talking about prayer. And it says, And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend? And shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. So here’s a man who, he’s got two friends, actually. One friend is the friend who’s come to visit him. He’s on a journey. And the friend came and apparently was going to stay with him either for a short period of time or overnight, maybe a couple days. and the culture there was, well, I need to feed this guy. This guy, he needs bread. He’s coming here. I’m providing shelter. But in addition to that, I also need to provide this man bread. But here’s the thing. The guy didn’t have the bread that he needed to give to the guy. Can you imagine having someone literally show up on your doorstep who needs something desperately and you don’t have it. Do you see why I set things up the way I set them up here? We’ve got these videos, and honestly, there’s a certain sense in which we don’t have what it takes to feed the multitudes, if I can put it that way. And well, yet he has a second friend, right? And the second friend, this guy, apparently is someone who has bread. He has something that his friend needs. And so the guy who’s without the bread, who doesn’t have what he needs to meet the need of his friend number one. He goes to friend number two’s house and he basically has a conversation with him. It says, shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. Verse seven, and he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. And so the second friend, friend number two, is saying, listen, dude, I’m in bed. Do you know how hard it was to get the kids to sleep? I don’t, I’m not coming to give you bread. Listen, you’ll have to find some other place to get some bread because it’s not a good time. It is not a good time. But when you get to verse eight, you find that friend number two eventually relents and gives him what he needs. I say unto you, verse eight, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. You know, the role of a friend will only take you so far. It says, but yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. In other words, the guy who had the need, you know, friend number one showed up on the journey. I don’t have it. I need to give this guy some bread. This would be a bad deal if I don’t give him bread. Friend number two says, go home and go to sleep. Don’t you know my kids are in bed? But the fellow who has the need doesn’t give up. He keeps on knocking. He keeps on seeking. He keeps on asking. And it says here, because of his importunity, because he kept asking, friend number two, it says, will rise and give him as many as he needeth. Now, the story is not about a friend who doesn’t want to give him bread. That’s not the point of the story. Jesus was talking about prayer. And in fact, as he gives this story, he’s still talking about prayer. And he’s saying, listen, he’s not going to give it to you just because he’s friend, your friend. He’s going to give it to you because you keep on asking, because you keep on knocking, because you keep on seeking. And he says in verse nine, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Now here, he’s not talking about asking from your friend anymore. He’s not talking about the guy who’s inconvenienced at your asking. He’s talking about God in heaven. And he makes it clear in verse 10, For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Now, at this point in time, it might be tempting to think, oh, okay, God just needs us to beat down his door a little bit because God doesn’t want to give us what we need to meet the needs of others. But that is not the idea of this. And Jesus clarifies in verses 11, 12, and 13 with another analogy. He says, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for fish, or instead of a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Well, the answer to all three of those questions is obviously no. Any father who loves his child, if his child asks for something that he needs, he’s going to give it to him. And so in verse 13, he says, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now, I just want you to remember how I’ve framed this talk, and really, more importantly, how Jesus has framed this talk. And that particular statement, if you ask God, be who’s a good father, he’ll give you the Holy Spirit here’s the idea the friend didn’t need something for himself he needed something for friend number one and young people I want you to know that if we will come to God if we will ask if we will seek if we will knock God will give us not just what we need but what our friends need and by that I mean this we’re embarking on an outreach campaign here that honestly we come far short to fully qualify for and to fully meet the need we can share and we can text and we can post but at the end of the day we don’t have what it takes to reach these people with the gospel but God does and God is not going to be inconvenienced by us asking. This is a genuine need, not for us, but for our friends out there. And if we will ask, God will give us the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? You say, I thought I already had the Holy Spirit. Well, you do. The day you got saved, you got the Holy Spirit. You got all the Holy Spirit you’re ever going to get. But remember, the way Jesus framed this is this isn’t bread for you. This is bread for your friend. And what we need is we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the convicting, drawing power of the Spirit of God to take people and convince them of their need of the gospel. And so I suppose the reason why I’ve gone through this passage is because I want to give a call to prayer to the generation. Just like I gave a call to prayer, a call to video yourself, a few weeks ago, this is a call that now is the time where we need to get on our faces before God. And we need to spend time not just individually in prayer, but we need to get together with other people and pray. Just the other night, I was on the phone with Ryan Swanson. He’s on staff with The Generation. And we just spent some time on the phone praying for God to take this campaign and to use it to bring people to Christ. And, you know, I just want to challenge you. Get together with your siblings and pray. Get together with your family and spend some time seeking God, God who is not going to hold back. God’s a good father. If we ask for conviction for these people, is he going to leave us in a lurch? No, this is his will. This is what he wants to do. It’s his desire. This is the will of God. We’re not twisting God’s arm, and yet we do need to be diligent. And so, young people, I just want to challenge you. Let’s get before God’s throne and let’s ask him for what we need. Let’s seek him and let’s knock. And if we do that, we will receive, we will find, and the door of people’s hearts will be opened. And so, young people, again, this has been a little bit of a longer challenge here today. But if you would like to participate in a corporate prayer meeting, I’m planning on hopefully sometime within this next week on having a Zoom prayer meeting using the technology Zoom there. If you are interested in having a prayer meeting like that with some of us, please send me an email to viral at thegeneration.org and we’ll try to coordinate a time when we can have this prayer meeting. Talk to your parents, make sure it’s okay with them. But I do want to try to coordinate a prayer meeting time. And so, young people, honestly, the end of the day, we need to surrender to the will of God, right? And we need to depend on his power. And our dependence is expressed through prayer. And as we surrender to God and as we depend on his power, listen, I believe, as I know you do, that we will turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hey, thanks so much for listening.

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