Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and today I am podcasting—or broadcasting, whichever you say—from Pleasantville, Iowa. We are right now in the middle of the War of Special Forces.
Last night was our first night, and we had about thirty-five young people here. I think about four stepped out for salvation. One may have been assurance, but there were several good decisions last night.
We were encouraged by that, and we’re glad to be here. Next week we’ll be heading way out west, and this tour will have some meetings out west and some in the Midwest. I won’t go into all the reasons why, but obviously these are unusual times and they have affected our itinerary.
We are looking to God to lead us in a special way. As a result of being just a couple of weeks ago in Terre Haute, Indiana, we came across a wonderful church there, Bible Baptist Church, pastored by Kevin Sugar. A little sidelight: I had never met Brother Sugar before, but I did know his father years ago, decades ago.
He was about my age as a teenager, then into college. We kind of knew each other then. His mother went to a Christian school that I went to, so it was neat to see his heart for God and to see God work with him there in the Christian school and the local church.
Certainly, God’s doing something at Bible Baptist Church. We were thrilled to be there. While there, we met the youth director, Brother Avery Barney, and he was a delight to work with.
He had a heart for God. Today I wanted you to hear from Brother Avery and hear his testimony—someone who is a big guy, and you can see it when you talk to him. He was a football player, but he’s got a story of how God got hold of his heart.
I want you to hear that today, and I know it’ll be an encouragement to you and stir you that God is still working and calling, working in young people’s hearts. He may be doing it in yours. Maybe this testimony will touch your heart.
I trust it will be a blessing to you. Brother Avery, we look forward to hearing from you.
Avery Barney: Thank you for having me on the podcast today. We had our War of Special Forces here at our church, and it was the first time that we’ve ever had it, but it was amazing. God really worked through it.
We saw a lot of teens that have been coming to our Christian school. I think we had a couple of them get saved. We had a lot of them surrender their lives.
I think that was the commonality this week at the War of Special Forces: surrendering. That’s something that I always struggled with as a teenager. I got saved when I was almost sixteen years old, and I was playing football at the time.
Even into my junior year of high school, I was playing football, and I had made a deal with God. I told Him, “If You let me play football now, and let me go to college and play football in college”—I had started talking to some scouts about scholarship opportunities and furthering my education—“I will live my life for You later.” But I knew that God wanted me to go to Bible college, and I knew that God wanted me to preach.
That’s not what God wanted. God wanted me to be in the ministry; God wanted me to preach. It wasn’t very long later that I was out playing football.
I was playing linebacker at the time, and I blitzed the three gap, which is where the running back was coming through, and I hit him. But my teammate, who was running from the side of the field, also tried to hit him, and he sandwiched my helmet between the other player’s helmet. It gave me a concussion.
When I hit the ground, I couldn’t move my legs. It was a very scary experience for me. As I was laying there on the ground, my coaches ran out and held me on the ground because I was kind of freaking out.
My mom came out on the field—she’s a nurse—and secured my head and everything. I honestly believe that my lack of surrender was the reason that this happened. As I got off the field, they took me away in an ambulance.
When I got to the hospital, I remember thinking to myself, “God, why are You doing this? Why are You taking this away from me?” But the reality was, it was my lack of surrender. I made it through that and decided, “I’m still going to play football.” I regained the feeling in my legs, and then, in the course of that year, I had two more concussions from playing football.
The sports doctor that I was going to told me, “Avery, you’re never playing football again.” So God took that away. I deal with some long-term consequences because I had a lack of surrender, because I didn’t do what God wanted me to do. Sometimes my hands and feet go numb.
Sometimes my head hurts, or sometimes I get migraines. I guess I say all that to say this: I saw a commonality this week in surrendering and surrendering your life to God. Sometimes there are things that we have to face that are extra when we don’t just surrender to God’s will.
God loves you. God doesn’t have any ill will for you. He’s not thinking to Himself, “I want to send this person to Africa so they can be miserable.” He’s not thinking, “I want this person to be a youth pastor so they’ll go crazy.” He loves you, and He wants to put you somewhere where you can be effective for Him.
When you surrender to Him, I promise you, you’re going to be much happier surrendering than you would ever be doing your own will. There are a lot of dreams in my life, but it’s amazing when we get this thing down of surrender—how all of a sudden our will becomes God’s will, or God’s will becomes our will, more or less. I never thought that I was going to be in Terre Haute, Indiana, being a youth pastor.
I never thought I was going to be at a War of Special Forces or anything like that. But God worked that out, and God used it. I’m so thankful that I listened to God.
I’m so thankful that I didn’t just say, “Nope, I’m going to keep doing what I feel like I want to do,” because my life has been amazing. Surrendering to God let me find my wife. Surrender to God, and now I have three children, and God’s just done wonderful things in my life.
The teenagers I’ve been able to see saved—God has just done wonderful things in my life because I surrendered to Him. My friend, as I sit here this morning, I make you the promise that if you surrender to God, your life will have meaning. What, in reality, was football going to get me?
It might get me through college, but does that give me meaning in my life? Does that give fulfillment? What we do for eternity is what brings that fulfillment.
So let me encourage you, young people. You might be struggling, thinking, “I’ve got a lot of desires. I’ve got a lot of dreams for myself.
I’ve got a lot of things that I want to do.” Just make sure that lines up with what God wants you to do, because you’ll be a lot happier doing what God wants you to do than doing what you want to do and not having a relationship with Christ.
Jim Van Gelderen: Young person, if you’re listening to this, you may be struggling with your own desires and dreams. Make sure that your life lines up with what God wants you to do. You’ll be a lot happier doing what God wants you to do than doing what you want to do without a relationship with Christ.
