Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, where Drawing to a conclusion for our time here, teaching at Baptist College of Ministry and ministering at Falls Baptist Church. We’ll be heading out to New Jersey for some time with family. And then after that, I’m very excited about being able to take the month of January and February and travel throughout the East Coast talking about youth movements.

You know, young people, I don’t know if you have noticed, I’m sure you have, but our world is going crazy right now. And it’d be very easy to get discouraged and to feel like it’s the end of everything. But young people, I want you to understand that God is setting us up for something amazing right now. You know, throughout history, there have been ebbs and flows of times of peace and times of great conflict and difficulty. And many times what God is trying to do is God is trying to get His people’s attention on Him and on his mission. You know, when we have everything going our own way, it’s easy to get distracted from our mission. It’s easy to get focused on our entertainment or our recreation or our own things, but ultimately we’re not here to focus on our own things, we’re here to focus on our Master’s mission. And we’ve talked about that on the podcast here before. In fact, what I would like to do is I’d like to take you to the book of Romans chapter one, and I’d like to talk to you for just a minute about a couple of phrases that I was personally greatly stirred by just recently.

In Romans chapter one, Paul is introducing himself to a group of people that he had never met, the Romans. And in introducing himself, he is characterizing and summarizing his own life. And really his characterization is going to set him up for really what he’s after with the letter to the Romans. And yet my point here today is not so much to focus on what he’s after, but to focus on how he characterized his own life. 

I think we all can say that Paul’s life is a life that you and I would like to emulate. The effects of his ministry are effects that I would like to see mirrored in my own life. And so what Paul’s life was characterized by is what my life needs to be characterized by and it’s what your life needs to be characterized by if we’re going to see the world changing results that Paul saw during his lifetime.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 1, the scripture says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. There are three things I want you to see here about how Paul Characterizes himself and how you or I also need to think of ourselves and act in our own lives. 

First off, He said he was a servant of Jesus. You know the word servant is a word that means slave, and I think you all know that a slave is a person that doesn’t have the right to call his own shots. A slave is a person that doesn’t get to set his own schedule that doesn’t get to fulfill his or her own dreams. A slave is completely at the disposal of his master. And the way Paul considered himself, the way he presented himself, is not a person who is the master of his own destiny, but who is a person who is completely at the beck and call of Jesus. His life had no conflicts with his Master’s mission. His life was entirely consumed with serving his Master’s cause.

And young person, can I ask yourself this? If I was to take a look at your life, your schedule, your daily activities, Would your life be characterized by service to Jesus Christ? Would your life be characterized by surrender to your master? Or would you be a rebellious slave? A slave who’s more interested in flirting with the girl, girl slaves nearby. A slave who’s more interested in playing and recreating than in accomplishing his master’s mission.

Paul considered himself a slave and we ought to as well. But secondly, He says not only is he a servant of Jesus Christ, he says he is called to be an apostle. You see, Paul wasn’t just in a general way considering himself as a slave to Jesus. He had a specific calling. Jesus had met Paul on the road to Damascus, and Paul had had an experience with God. And God had given his marching orders. Not his brother’s marching orders, not Peter’s marching orders, not James’ marching orders, but the marching orders that he described later on in his life as his heavenly vision. And this heavenly vision is what dictated what he as a slave of Jesus Christ was supposed to be doing with his days and his minutes and his hours. 

You know what I think sometimes young people, I think a lot of times you young people that are listening to the podcast, you want to be surrendered to Jesus and you want to do what he wants you to do.

You don’t know what he wants you to do. You may know some general principles and things that he wants you to do. You may know that he wants you to give the gospel, and you may know that he wants you to be at church, and you may know that he wants you to pray, but beyond that, you have no greater vision for your life. Can I challenge you, young people? Get one, and don’t just think something up, and then live the rest of your life trying to get it done. You need to get alone with Jesus.

Listen, I’m convinced that there are young people that are going to end up in the wrong college this fall because they don’t have a vision for their life and they’re just going where they want to go. I’m convinced, young people, that a lot of you are going to make some pretty foolish and terrible decisions because your life has no divine purpose to it. 

You know, when I was in high school, God called me to be a preacher. It wasn’t my daddy that called me to be a preacher. It wasn’t my pastor that called me to be a preacher. In fact, neither of them said anything about that. I was sitting in my auditorium in my church in Pensacca, New Jersey and God had been doing a few things in my heart and I’ll never forget that day I had my own heavenly vision. I wasn’t blinded or anything like that. I didn’t see anything with my physical eyes but I knew that God was telling me that he wanted me to give my life to preach the word of God and I told him that I would. And you know what young people, that has affected the decisions that I’ve made ever since. That’s affected where I went to college. That affected how I worked and what I did even as far as employment is concerned. My entire life got a direction because I got direction from God. 

So are you a slave young person? Are you at Jesus’ beck and call? Are you willing to do whatever he wants you to do? 

Second, have you heard what he wants you to do? Have you been called to be whatever he wants you to be and to do whatever he wants you to do? Please don’t float through life without figuring out his call.

But thirdly, this last point here is a very important one. It says, separated unto the gospel of God. That word ‘separated’ simply has the idea of being set apart for something. And Paul is saying, listen, not only have I enslaved my life to Jesus, not only have I surrendered completely to whatever God wants in general, God told me what he wanted and I’ve been called to this sense of apostleship. But furthermore, my life has been separated, I have been set apart from everything else that I could do onto the primary task and goal of my life which is the gospel. That’s a shorthand way of saying to preach the gospel. Now I’m not just talking in a general way here because every believer is supposed to preach the gospel. You don’t need a unique call to spread the gospel. But what he’s talking about is, listen, God called me to be an apostle and specifically what he meant by that is he called me to be a pioneer preacher of the gospel to the Gentile world in the Roman Empire. And as a result of that, what my calling is going to dictate that I do is that I preach the gospel. I’ve been separated, set apart from everything else I could be doing to this one thing. You know, when you say yes to Jesus, you’re going to have to say no to some other things, young people. I don’t know if you’ve realized that. To say yes to God’s dream for your life is going to mean you have to say no, you’re going to have to be set apart from your own dream. That means that there are some things that are going to need to be gutted out of your life. There are going to be some things you have to say no to in order to say yes to God’s call. 

You know, It’s one thing to be servant-hearted; you need to have the heart of a servant and a slave. It’s one thing to have a call and a direction for your life, but it’s another thing entirely to say no to that, which would distract you from God’s call for your life. 

So young people, again, there’s a lot I could say more about this, but our lives need to be honed and directed very specifically towards God’s vision and purposes for you. And let me ask you this young people, what have you been distracted by? What areas of your life have you spent time and money on that aren’t contributing towards your calling? Those very things are the things that need to be separated from your life so that you can be holy and completely devoted and dedicated to God’s mission. Are you holding on to a particular avenue of employment? Is that avenue of employment going to further God’s call for your life? Are you hanging on to a particular app or game on your phone? Is that app or game going to contribute towards God’s calling on your life? Are you holding on to a particular television series? A particular song on Apple Music or Spotify? Are those items going to contribute towards God’s calling for your life or are they distracting you? 

We need to remove all distractions. I’m not just talking about the weights and the sins that beset us. I’m talking about those good pursuits, even noble pursuits that just aren’t a part of God’s calling. We need to set those things aside and set our sights exclusively on God’s mission for you and for me. 

You know, young people during this holiday season, don’t get distracted. Get surrendered. Get dedicated. Get directly involved in any way you can with God’s mission for your life. I pray that during this holiday season, my life and yours would be characterized by being a slave to Jesus, having a calling from God and being willing to settle for nothing less and nothing other than God’s call.