Bobby Bosler: moving forward. Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin.

In fact, one of the reasons why I’m here at this point in time is we are in full gear preparing for our annual Thee Generation Youth Summit, also known as the Cola Clash Plus. And I want to, before I give you my thoughts here for today, I just want to challenge you that if you at all identify with total surrender and total dependence. You need to check this youth summit out.

It’s going to be October 11th, 12th, and 13th, starting in the evening service there on October 11th. That’s a Wednesday in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. And you’ve heard us talk about this on the podcast before.

We’ve basically got two and a half days of exciting competition. This is something you don’t want to miss. Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew all duking it out for first place.

But really, I think the highlight of this conference is that this is a time where we get to sit under concentrated revival preaching. You know, all of us, I believe, if you’re listening to this podcast, have a desire to live a life of total surrender and total dependence.

And this is a time where young people from around the country and even beyond gather together to renew our commitments to the Lord, to learn how can I live a life of total surrender and total dependence. What does that mean? Where is that going to take me?

What can I do to move forward in my own surrender and dependence on the Lord? And there are a number of things we’re going to be doing. In fact, there is a very special brand new resource for thegeneration.org that we’re actually going to be revealing at this youth summit.

On top of that, we’re going to be introducing another special resource, the Thee Generation Christ Walk Journal as well. And we will actually, as we did last year, we’re going to be teaching those who come, if you come, we’ll teach you how to spend an hour with God. Now, I don’t mean just spending an hour trying to think of what to talk about.

I mean, actually how to spend an hour on a regular basis and get things done on your knees. Maybe you’re listening and that’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but you just say, I don’t know how to do it. You feel like you’re looking at your watch at five, ten minutes of prayer.

If you want to grow in your prayer, you need to come to this year’s Cola Clash Plus because we’re going to really help you move forward in your walk with Jesus in that way. Now, that being said, please head to colaclash.org forward slash plus, P-L-U-S, or you can use the symbol plus. They’ll get you the same place either way.

Check out the info and register there. It’s not too late to register, and we’d love to have you join us. Now, regarding what I want to talk to you about here today, if you could please turn in your Bible with me to Philippians chapter 3, and we’re going to be looking at verses 10 and following.

In verse 10 here, the Apostle Paul had just given a little bit of his testimony and basically his desire. He said, listen, I stopped counting on everything else so that I could count on Jesus, so that he could be my righteousness, so that I could win him as my savior, so to speak. And he says in verse 10 that I may know him.

You know, one of the reasons why God saved you is so that you could know Jesus. I don’t know if you realize that. Salvation, yes, is deliverance from the consequences of our sin, but it’s also an entrance into a love relationship with Jesus.

But he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. We like that part, right? I get to know Jesus and I get to know his power.

Well, right along with his power, he says, and that I may know the fellowship of his sufferings. That’s something we don’t really like. He says, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Verse 12, not as though I had already attained. Either were already perfect. Now, this is a perspective I want you to see.

We’re going to look at a couple of these verses. It’s so important in your walk with Christ. He says, listen, I want to know Jesus.

I want to get all that God has for me in my spiritual walk. If I could say it this way, I want to live a life of total surrender and total dependence, but I have not yet arrived. He says, but I follow after.

I follow after. You know, a perspective that you and I need to have is no matter how much we’ve accomplished for Jesus, no matter how far we’ve gone with him, no matter how much we’ve grown in him, We’ve not yet arrived. And we have to have that perspective of ourselves.

But instead of just saying, oh, well, I haven’t arrived. So, you know, it’s okay if I’m struggling with this. That’s not the point.

And that’s not what Paul is saying here at all. He’s not saying, oh, woe is me. I’ve got so much more to grow.

So it’s okay if I’m groveling in this horrible sin. No, what he’s saying is, but I follow after. In other words, he says, no matter how much I’ve grown, no matter how far I’ve gone, No matter how much I’ve done for Jesus, I know I still have more to grow.

I still have more to do. I am not going to let grass grow under my feet and my walk and work for Jesus. He says, but I follow after.

I relentlessly pursue. I chase it down. And here’s his goal.

that I may apprehend or get or to take into his fingers that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. He says, listen, I know Jesus. He got me into his grasp for a specific reason or a specific set of reasons.

And my whole perspective is I want to get everything that Jesus got me for. Do you realize Jesus got you to grow in specific areas? And Paul’s perspective here was, hey, listen, if I haven’t yet grown in these areas Jesus purchased me to grow in, I got to do it.

I got to step forward. I’ve got to move forward in these areas. Verse 13, he says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.

For getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Can I say this? Never get distracted by defeat or placated by success.

I find many times young people, they do something for Jesus and they get really excited and they stop moving forward. they’re placated by their own successes. And other times, young people, they have a horrible bout of defeat in a certain area, and they get distracted by that, and they stop moving forward.

God does not want you to be consumed with your past. He wants you to be consumed with one direction and one direction only, forward. You know, I think it’s true.

The more you grow, the more you need to grow. And the ultimate strength in your walk with Christ is to recognize your need for strength. The ultimate achievement that you can make is to recognize your need for forward-moving achievement.

It’s like this. The day you think I’ve arrived, the day you think this is as good as it’s going to get is the day you’ve stopped moving forward. God has called us not to stand still, not to be satisfied, but to have a holy dissatisfaction with where we’re at and to ever press forward towards God’s goals for our lives.

Verse 15, he says, let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded. I want you to think like that. If you think that you’re mature, if you think that you have really accomplished something for Jesus, I want you to have the perspective that you haven’t yet accomplished everything that Jesus wants you to accomplish.

If you think you’ve grown to the point where you can’t grow anymore, I want you to realize that you can grow more. There’s always more for you to do and there are always more areas for you to grow. And he says, if and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

In other words, if you think you’ve arrived and you haven’t, which none of us have until we die and end up in heaven, he says, God will show you. Verse 16, nevertheless, where to we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing. Young people, I guess if I can just sum this all up. Maybe you came to the Cola Clash Plus in previous years and you feel like you got a good dose.

Maybe you were at one of our Cola Clashes this summer or the war this past year or a War of Special Forces and you made some significant decisions for the Lord Jesus Christ and you look at a youth conference like this and you think, eh, I don’t need that. I’m good. Can I tell you that’s exactly the mindset Paul is preaching against here?

God wants us to recognize we always need to move forward. You know, just this last week, I was assisting, teaching the college students here at Baptist College of Ministry how to go out soul winning. And one of the things I grew in this last week was I grew in the area of asking some key questions.

I realized that, you know, it’s so easy to stand on a doorstep and you’re there to tell people about Jesus and to not tell them about Jesus. And there were some very practical steps the Lord helped me grow in in getting into gospel conversations with people. Here I am.

I’m the guy teaching the class or co-teaching the class. And I’m growing. And, you know, you got to keep growing.

stop moving forward. Because the day you stop moving forward is the day you need to. Thank you so much for listening.

Don’t forget, podcast number 52 is coming up in just two weeks. We’ve got a very special announcement to make there that day. Thank you for listening.

I think you know this by now, the V generation is a generation of young people who are committed to total surrender and total dependence. you