Jim Van Gelderen: Okay, thank you, men. Let's go to Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11.

And I want to simply preach on have faith in God, have faith in God. Let's go to Mark chapter 11 and I'm going to begin reading if I could please.

I'll give you a setup in verse number 12 of chapter 11 of Mark. And on the morrow when they were come from Bethany he was hungry, talking about the Lord, and seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves he came, if haply he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet.

And Jesus answered and said unto it, the tree obviously, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. Okay, then he goes and cleanses the temple.

We won't deal with that. And then verse number 19, And when evening was come he went out of the city, and in the morning, okay, so this is a day later, 24 hours later, as they passed by they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter called to remembrance saith unto him, Master behold the fig tree which thou cursedest is withered away.

You kind of see a little awe there which is understandable. Things don't usually die that quickly. And Jesus answering saith unto him, Have faith in God.

That's our message title. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe the things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them.

In other words, believe that you've already got them, and ye shall have them. Okay, believe you've already got them, and in the future you will have them. Which is kind of interesting, isn't it?

Believe you've already got them in the past, and you will have them in the future. And let's talk about two different realms.

We But I just want to challenge you about have faith in God. A couple of weeks ago I saw a video, about a 52 minute video, about a man who started a church and it was about his 40 year ministry. Our pastor just celebrated 40 years here at Falls Baptist Church, so I was kind of struck with that 40 thing.

And as I kind of went through the video and saw a lot of miracles in his life and ministry, and of course I believe anybody called of God who follows the call of God in his life is going to see miracles of God. And I was stirred. I was encouraged.

And then he got up after the video and he preached. And as while he was preaching he talked about the fact when he was just a young preacher he would often have older preachers in. And he said he had Pastor Lee Roberson in.

Some of you are familiar with Lee Roberson who pastored the Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee for years. Built at the time the great Tennessee Temple University. The greatest school there ever was.

But anyway it is no longer in existence but it was a great school in its day. And he said that he had him out preach and he was just a young man and said, Dr. Roberson, what advice would you give a young preacher?

And Dr. Roberson looked at him and simply said, young man, have faith in God.

You know that's great advice. You know what I'm saying to you young ladies? Have faith in God.

You know what I'm saying to you young men tonight? Have faith in God. It doesn't matter what you're going to face.

You're going to face some tough days. You're going to probably walk by caskets that you don't want to walk by. You're going to face obstacles you don't want to face.

You're going to have difficulties and trials. But all of those things are not a part of the hindrance of God. They're not stumbling blocks.

They're stepping stones. And the way they become stepping stones is if you will have faith in God. Have faith in God.

Young people, life's not easy. There's times, sometimes I turn to my wife and I'll say, man, life's rough. You know, here's some trial somebody's going through, life's rough.

But you You know, in each of those cases, you know what the answer is? For them to have faith in God. Not to lose hope in God.

Have faith in God. Some of you young people tonight, you know what you need? You need to have faith in God.

Now, we're going to just want to explain the verse, then make some simple application. We'll be done tonight. You're going to hear a lot of preaching in the next couple of days.

Our burden is that you'll let God stir your heart. But there's to me two nuances I get from that phrase, have faith in God. Now, those of you that, how many out here have taken at least one year of Koine Greek?

Okay, I know most of our students, okay, quite a few of our students have taken Koine Greek. And somewhere along the line they study the genitive. And there is sometimes a formation of way the genitive, often how of like the love of God.

Whether you have to ask yourself, is it a subjective genitive or is it an objective genitive? Now, that sounds real complicated, it's really not. Like take the love of God.

Okay, so love kind of has an action word. And the question is, is that love of God talking about loving God, so he's the object of love, or is it talking about God being the subject of the one who's loving? Does he get it?

Either God's loving or someone's loving God. You see it, it's not too hard. The objective genitive and the subjective genitive.

Well, there's a little bit of a debate on this particular verse, how faith in God. Is it an objective genitive or is it a subjective genitive? Now that's what we call interpretational battleground.

The language doesn't tell us. Both interpretations are possible. And there's other things we have to forge to get our interpretation.

But I want you to understand, I'm not trying to be too technical, except to say sometimes I wonder if there's some, in some cases where the context is not clear, if there's a nuance of both.

So the question in this is, is God the object of the faith, or is God the one believing? Well, it would seem that God would be the object of the faith, have faith in God. He's the object.

We're the ones believing and having faith in God. But Hudson Taylor floated the possibility, well, maybe this is a subjective genitive, and God's the subject, and it's really the emphasis of the verb is, have the faith of God. In other words, believe just like God believes.

Now, why would Hudson Taylor say that? Well, because of context. Who was the one believing in this particular context?

And the answer is, well, Jesus is. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, did he have faith that it would be cursed? And the answer is, well, sure he did.

Did you notice that when Peter comes along here, you can see this, of course, in verse number 21, and Peter calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree, which thou cursedest is withered away. And he's kind of shocked. But do you notice that Jesus isn't shocked?

When Jesus spoke, he fully expected the fig tree to be cursed, to wither away. Why? Because he had faith.

In a certain sense, we could say God had faith. When God spoke the worlds into existence, he believed that what he said would happen, right? Let there be light.

And what does the next part of the verse say? And there was light. You know, there was no shock from God.

Oh, look what just happened. No, we don't even want to think it too much because it's kind of irreverent, isn't it? No, when God said, let there be light, he spoke words, and he had faith, and it was.

So there's two emphases I see here. Have faith in God. The emphasis there is on the person of God.

I tell you, friends, there are times, there are certain times when you're not exactly sure what to do, not sure exactly how to not sure how to move forward, no way seems to be clear, the only thing you can do is hang on to the character of God. You can have faith in the person of God as revealed in the Word of God.

Now, if you put it the other way, have the faith of God. Okay, notice what was the key. What did Jesus do that showed us he had faith?

And the answer is he spoke words. He cursed the fig tree. What did he say?

If you go back there to verse number 14, no man eat fruit of thee forever, talking to the tree.

And he spoke to the tree. But he used words. So could we say this?

When Jesus spoke those words, he believed they would be true. He had faith in the words that he spoke in. Now the reason I think Hudson Taylor's interpretation is legitimate is because of what follows in verse 23.

Notice the importance of words. Can I tell you, young people, your words are really important. Do you know your words many times are either words of faith or they are words of unbelief.

[Unclear.] Many times our words are either coming to union with his word or our words are coming into union with the enemy's words.

Now, I don't know about you. I think all of us have a fleshly propensity to get frustrated or to get into unbelief when difficult things happen. You know, I've seen over the years many difficult things happen on the road.

Just a few days ago, and Austin over here can tell you that we're going through the desert, over 100 degrees, and there the Suburban, the 2012 Suburban, starts to overheat. And so I had to drive 20-some miles and get some antifreeze and bring it back to them. We almost missed the church service.

And I'll be honest with you, moments like that, I know myself, I have a tendency to say, this is awful, this is terrible, we're going to miss the service, et cetera. And if we're not careful, guess what we start uttering? Words of unbelief.

You ever been there? Why, that stinks, that rots, why that makes me so mad. You ever said things like that?

Your words are important because what you say usually is what is. That rots, guess what? It does.

If that stinks, it does. And the funny thing is, the very things we don't like, and again, you may have different words than I do. I know mine are dated 40 years old.

But anyway, your words may be different. But the point is, those words, friends, often mean the things that God wants to work together for good we're saying aren't good.

How many things work together for good? All things. Now, I'll be honest with you.

I don't always see it. You probably don't either. Our words are important.

It's important, I think, after saying words of unbelief to correct them with words of belief. This is going to work together for good. I don't know how.

It looks kind of bad to me. But God, it isn't good. It's bad.

I mean, it isn't bad. It's good. And correct our, why?

Because God's telling us words are important. Now, these words, so here's the emphasis, I believe, when he says, have the faith of God. When God said, let there be light, he had full confidence there would be light.

Obviously, he's God, I understand that. But he had faith in what he said would be, and there was light. And when Jesus cursed the fig tree, he fully expected it to be cursed.

Now, friends, don't miss this. Now, what I'm trying to emphasize is simply this. Come into union with the words.

You know, when God wrote this book, he had faith that it's all true. And you know what he's saying? Have faith just like I do.

I believe it's true. You believe it's true. And when you believe it's true, you will see the effect.

You will see what I said will happen. To let there be light, there will be light. So the point I'm making is this.

There's two, there's two emphasis. Number one, faith in the person of God, his character, who he is. Number two, faith in what he says.

Cover to cover the Bible. So when God says have faith in God, that's what he's, I believe he's helping us understand. Have faith in his words.

Have faith in his character. You're going to hit times when that's all you have. You know, I think to certain times in the Bible, Think about Joshua and the children of Israel going around Jericho those 13 times.

Do you know there was absolutely nothing in the atmosphere to give them any hope or indication that those walls were going to fall down? You know there was no earth tremors. There were no cracks in the walls.

There was nothing going on in the atmosphere, nothing going on in the circumstances that would give them any idea that those walls are about to fall. You say, well preacher, what did they have? They had only one thing.

They had the words. They had the words of the captain of hosts, and they came into [unclear]. They had the faith of God.

They believe if God believes the words are true, we're going to believe the words are true. And the walls came down. It may have been one of Israel's finest moments, don't you think?

They shouted with nothing in the atmosphere giving indication that those walls were going to fall, but they shouted and praised God anyway. And down they came. Young person, let me encourage you, have faith in God.

When you lose hope, have faith in God. When everything's going wrong, have faith in God. I say to you adults in this room, when your marriage is in trouble, have faith in God.

When your kids are struggling, have faith in God. When you're in darkness, have faith in God.

Now, understanding context, the faith here, I believe, is encouraging us about the character of God and the words of God, and much more could be said there. Let's just give some mountains in life. I believe I'm preaching to some young people that one day will have mountains.

Maybe right now you have some mountains. And what you need to become convinced of is you can come in union with the words. Believe in the heart.

God says if you believe in your heart, the mountain will be cast into the sea. It's a great verse of Scripture. You know, young person, it's not a matter of God does this for old people, He'll do it for you too.

He's just waiting for a 14-year-old to believe God. You know 14-year-olds can have answers to prayer. Did you know that?

15-year-olds can have answers. And by the way, if you're 14, you better start seeing answers to prayer.

You need to learn to believe God. Have faith in God. Learn to say in your heart what God says and say, God, I agree with you about that.

There'll be times in your life when you're going to be tenancy to worry. And God says, be careful for nothing, but in everything. By prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God with thanksgiving and the peace of God.

The point is, friends, you've got to come into union with the words. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt anxious? You were full of cares?

God has a prescription. Come into union with the words. Have the faith of God.

Just like God has faith, you have faith in His Word. And the same effect will happen. Obviously, it's going to happen.

Trust God, His character when you're in those moments where you need deliverance. Now, just three mountains. I don't like tonight spending a whole lot of time, but I just want to talk to you about three mountains.

Number one, some of you need to be able to look into your heart this week, say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea. Talking to the mountain. Shall believe in his heart that those things which he says shall come to pass and he shall have whatsoever he says.

Okay, what's one of the mountains that you need removed? Number one, I think one of the big mountains young people really face that needs to be removed out of their life is themselves.

You know, you can go different ways, but I find today a lot of young people go out the window as, I can't do this. I can't do anything right. Yeah, I'm worthless.

I got problems. And I'm not diminishing that you don't have problems. You probably do have problems.

But I'm just telling you that God is telling you tonight that if you can come into union with the words and believe in your heart, say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in your heart, but believe that those things which you say shall come to pass, you'll have whatsoever you say. You've got to believe the words.

Now, the point is that I want to just say about young people today, many times for a variety of reasons, They become to realize I got issues, I got problems, I can't do anything right, I'm worthless, whatever. And I've talked about some of those things extensively. I'm not going to do it fully.

But I want to tell you this, young person, in one sense, you can't do anything in your own strength.

See, sometimes people have to get rid of the mountain of self. It's self-confidence. There have been generations, their issue was self-confidence.

I can do this, I got this, I can do anything. And the point is, Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. Sometimes you need to get rid of the mountain of self-confidence.

Or you think you've got this. You can do it. I mean, God has a wonderful gift in you.

You know what I'm talking about? In other words, some people have a big M on their chest. You know what I mean by an M on your chest?

You've got a Messiah complex. You think you're God's gift to mankind. And that's the self-confident.

And by the way, self-confident people are in trouble because the Bible says they're setting themselves up for a fall. You know what the Bible says about the strange woman? That's the loose woman, the immoral woman, the seductress, the one who tries to pull men away from purity.

Do you know what the Bible says? For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

You know, we talk about the wounded. That's kind of obvious. She gets the wounded.

Boy, there's a whole message in that. I could preach a whole message on that. But sometimes we miss the other one, yea, many strong men who are slain by her.

Do you know who she gets? The overconfident. I'll never look at that stuff.

I'll never do that. I'll never break my marriage vows. I'll never, you see, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Every one of us in this room needs to be recognizing, but by the grace of God there's not a sin on planet earth that we're not capable of. We need God every moment of every day. Why?

Because our flesh is as bad as the next guy's flesh. We all have really bad flesh. And I got really bad news for you.

Your flesh is irredeemable. The Bible says it's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be.

So the overconfidence in trouble. Some of you may need to get rid of the overconfident mountain. Saying to this mountain, be thou removed, get out of my life.

I need Jesus every moment of every day. I can't do anything without him. I want to live a God-dependent life.

I'm well-meaning young people. I saw this at college. Some of the ones that were most gifted had the silver tongues.

You thought, man, these guys are going to be greatly used of God. They didn't make it.

The ones that kind of struggled and weren't the greatest speakers and didn't get in the preacher's contest and you know, whatever, some of them, they made it. You know why? Because they knew they needed God.

And the sooner you come to the realization, I can't do this Christian life stuff without God, I need God. The better off you'll be. Some of you need to get rid of the mountain of self-confidence tonight.

But some need to get rid of the mountain of lack of confidence in God.

I can't serve God. He's got the wrong guy. You know, sometimes young men run from the call to preach, and I'm going to tell you why they run from the call to preach.

I can't do that. Can I tell you about all preachers who have ever, and every preacher in this room will admit, who of us thought we could?

When God called me to preach, I thought, God, you've got the wrong guy. I can't do this. I fought it for one reason.

I was not an I hate God, get out of my life, rebel. I wasn't. But I didn't think I could do it.

And you know what I found? When you surrender the call of God on your life, He gifts you to do what you didn't think you could do. And then you actually love what you didn't think you could do.

And you actually find the greatest fulfillment of your life in doing what God called you to do, the very thing you didn't think you could do. Did you get it?

And I'll promise you that if you'll follow God's call in your life, you'll be doing it 43 years later.

Why? Because you want to. You just can't, you just got to do it.

It's life to you. And all of us in this room, find what God's called you to do, and you'll find yourself doing it 40 years from now.

And you'll want to do it the rest of your life. See, so the point is, all of us in this room, we can't do what God's called us to do. It's faithful as he that calleth you who also will do it.

He's the one that does it. Every person called of God needs divine intervention every moment of every day to accomplish anything for God. We need God.

He's the one that gets the glory, not us. Some of you need to get rid of that mountain of no confidence. It really is no confidence in God.

Sounds like you're being humble. Ah, you know, I'm worthless. I can't do anything right.

But really it's a lack of faith that God can use even you. Get rid of that, friend.

I'm talking to a young man in this room. You come from some tough circumstances. We'll talk about that in a moment.

You maybe have some needs in your life. And God, deep down in your heart, you know you were made for something greater than what's going on right now in your life. And God, this conference may be calling you to take a step of faith and say, okay, God, I'm not very much, but I'm gonna give you every part of me.

The key is give it all to him and he will enable you to do it.

Which brings me to a second mountain here tonight. It's first the mountain of ourselves. Sometimes we got the overconfident mountain we got to get rid of.

But I'd say more it's the no confident mountain we got to get rid of. God couldn't use me, whatever. And we don't trust that God can enable us, change us, and gift us.

But the second mountain is the mountain of your circumstances. Some of you do come from difficult circumstances. Can I say that?

If your dad walked out of the home, God can use you. If you're raised by a single mother, God can use you.

Yeah, if you've got parents who have no regard for God, God can use you.

Yeah, God can use you. You see, sometimes your circumstances, you think, well, all those kids from good Christian homes, God can use them, but he can't use me. I just come from really tough circumstances.

Hey, if you're an orphan, God can use you. Yeah, if you're a shoe salesman, God can use you. Just ask D.L.

Moody. Yeah, if you're an English teacher, God can use you. Just ask John R.

Rice. See, it doesn't matter what you find your circumstances. If God calls you, he wants to use you.

And sometimes our circumstances seem like a huge mountain. Like, how could God use me?

I will tell you, when my mother was just a little nine-year-old girl—some of you have heard me talk about this before—when she was just a nine-year-old little girl, her mother, they were fairly well off farmers. I mean, for farmers, they were doing pretty well at that time.

And my grandfather's, I understand it, was ahead of his time, and he was developing hybrid corn. And his crops were well known all over central Illinois. And, and my mother remembered that, remembered little Gerber baby jars all around the house with little stalks of corn in them, hybrid corn, and just ahead of his time.

As a result, they had decent means for a farmer. My grandmother went out to milk the cow one morning, and she fell over with a brain aneurysm. There was a neighbor boy, a teenage boy, who picked her up and took her to the house, laid her on a couch.

Funny part is, decades later, I was in Maroa, where my mother grew up, and we met that man. He was an old man. He said, I'm the guy that carried your grandmother into the house.

Thought it was quite interesting. I'm sure he's gone now. Later on the couch there, and I think she lingered for three days and died.

Nine years old, my mother didn't have a mother. You know, that doesn't sound very optimum, does it?

Raised by her father, which was more like a grandfather because he was 59. My grandfather was 59 when my mother was born.

My grandfather, not great grandfather, grandfather was born in 1865. So when Civil War was going on my grandfather, not great, my grandfather was born in 1865 during the end of the Civil War.

And he was more like a grandfather than he was a father. And when she was 14 he died of old age.

14 years old, no parents. That doesn't seem like very good circumstances. Don't you think God would have passed over somebody like that?

Well, a lot of trauma, a lot of difficulty, a lot of hardship in her little heart, a lot of things she had to bear all alone.

One thing she despised all of her life was the love of money because all the relatives were like vultures circling around trying to get a piece of the real estate and the money and it was just an awful thing.

But anyway, that's not optimum circumstances. So, but you know, it was a little girl. She decided not to get bitter.

She decided to believe God. You know what she decided to do? Have faith in God.

Just a little 14-year-old girl said, God, I don't understand this. Just going to have faith in God. You know God can take care of 14-year-old little orphans?

Do you know God can do that? Sure He can. As she went off to a teacher's college, she had nothing in the bank account from her parents that she could go any college she wanted to.

And she went down to a teacher's college, MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. Some of you may know where that is. She was there one year, came home, and some dear cousins of hers, which were more like an aunt and uncle because they were, you know, her father was 59 when she was born, so they were more like aunt and uncle than cousins.

Some cousins of hers says, you know, to my mother's name was Tirrell—Terry, they nicknamed her and say, Terry, you ought to go up to a Christian college there in Illinois, northern Illinois. And she did. She went up to Christian College.

It's not what it was, but it was a great school in the day. Wheaton College was a great school in the day. It's certainly not that anymore, but it was.

And she went up there to Wheaton. And God did a great work in her heart.

If you study revival history at all, that campus had several moves of God and just some remarkable things. I've done a little bit of work on it. And there were moves of God that occurred that I know were right around my mother's time there.

And I'm sure it touched her. And she became friends, some of you know this, with Brother Himes' aunts that were there at Wheaton College, the Rice Sisters. And she was often in the home of John R.

Rice in Wheaton, Illinois. And she began to be touched by his ministry. My mother could not talk about John R.

Rice without weeping because his ministry so touched her heart. You know, I'm sure she thought, what can a little orphan girl from central Illinois do for God?

You know what I would say? I don't think it happened. She had faith in God.

You know friends, some of you have faith in God. You may not see it all in your generation. But you will see it one day from heaven.

The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, some die in faith. They don't see it. They see it far off.

But they don't get to see it on planet earth. And I will tell you friends, I don't know about you, if I'm going to be a stepping stone for the next generation to see the move of God, so be it. But let's pray that the move of God will happen.

Some of you in this room, have faith in God. You may be the generation. Yeah, just like D-Day, they had to climb over the dead bodies of the marines that forged the way.

Those marines didn't want to die in vain. They wanted somebody to come over them and get the victory. Some of us old guys in the room tonight, we want you to come over us.

We want you to see the victory. We want you to see it all the way through. But it's never going to happen if you don't have faith in God.

You're going to have to have faith in God that he can take care of the circumstances in your life. It doesn't matter if you're just a single parent home. It doesn't matter if your dad walked.

It doesn't matter if your parents had a lot of issues that brought a lot of issues to you. God's big enough. He's big enough to heal you.

He's big enough to equip you. And the very difficulties you've been through, he will use in your ministry to touch lives in a way that couldn't have happened if that didn't happen.

You know, I've seen young men, young ladies travel on my team from divorced homes. They are very effective at helping kids from divorced homes. And that's funny how that works.

I've had a couple men travel with me whose fathers were in prison while they traveled with me. You know, amazing how many young people they came across whose fathers were in prison. Isn't it amazing how God takes it all?

Yeah, it doesn't matter what you're going through, friends. I'm not saying it's not easy. I'm not all minimizing the hurt.

I'm not minimizing the difficulty and sometimes the trauma that comes with it. But I'm just telling you this, have faith in God.

Although my mother didn't get to see everything, I'm telling you she wanted to see it. She was all about what God was doing. But I'm telling you, I don't know what she knows up in heaven, but one day she'll know it all.

Yeah, I'm telling you, friends, some of you that don't know my mother, that are grandchildren, I'm just telling you right now, her prayers, I'm sure, are following you.

See, the point is, don't let the mountain of circumstances. Listen, some of you don't come from Christian homes. You go home, and who needs TV?

Every kind of garbage language, you hear it at home. Some of you go to public schools. You hear God's name taken in vain.

You hear cesspool language. Garbage talked about in the locker room. I'm going to just tell you, God's big enough to take the mountain of circumstance out of your life.

That doesn't have to limit what God, God will use it. It. You know what?

God will use it. You'll be able to minister to those kind of people. You'll understand.

You'll know how to preach to them. I remember one time years ago I was with a pastor and I knew a guy that was in prison that wasn't saved and I wanted to witness to him. He's a guy from back in my early years there in the Downers Grove area.

And I remember we went to the jail to witness to him and they put him on the other side of the glass. We were on one side of the glass. And you know what I found out?

The pastor before he got saved was in jail. Used his circumstances to be able to lead inmate to the Lord Jesus Christ. God will take your bad circumstances.

All the junk and garbage you've been through, it's not for naught. God does really work all things together for good, but you've got to get rid of the mountain of circumstances and stop blaming all the stuff you're going through as why you struggle and why you have the problems you do. And realize God's bigger than that.

Have faith in God, young person. He can overcome. Now that brings me to these kind of all tie together, but first the mountain of yourself, the discouragement with yourself or perhaps the overconfidence in yourself.

Either way, get rid of that mountain. Get into total dependence upon God. Say to that mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea.

Believe in thy heart, God can do that. Number two, the mountain of circumstances. All the excuses you've used, why God can't use your life, why your life is not going to measure up.

All those excuses just be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea. One last mountain I want mountain, that's the mountain of your future. Kind of ties together.

Friends, do you believe that God has a will for your life? Do you believe that God has not only a will for your life, He is going to, as I mentioned a moment ago, equip you to enable you to be able to do it. Now, I just want to warn you ahead of time for all of us in this room, God has a will for our life, but the will is impossible.

In other words, you and I in human strength and with human abilities cannot do the will of God. We need again divine intervention. We need God to show up.

I will tell you when 19 year old C.H. Spurgeon walked into the village of Waterbeach, he was not known as the Prince of Preachers. He was 19 years old, had only been saved a couple of years.

Walked into a profligate village, they say there was drunkenness and all the vices that went with drunkenness. You read this testimony of C.H. Spurgeon, he will tell you.

Where there was once cursing, there became singing. And where there was once vile, coarse language, there was now fathers leading their households in devotion and [unclear] devotions. And God came across that little village of Waterbeach, a 19-year-old young man preacher.

Two years later he was called to what we call the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He had his lifelong ministry there. But often people overlook Waterbeach, 19 to 21.

Whole village transformed by a young man 19 years old. Hey, have faith in God. God can use you.

What's your Waterbeach? What do you need to see as a teenager or as a young person? How would you like God to use you remarkably at 19?

He wants to use you. The limitation is the mountain, your future. Looks dark, looks scary.

Sometimes looks like I can't do it, or I don't want to do it, or I'm not equipped to do it. And what do we do? We fall in unbelief.

You know what God's saying? Saying to that mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea. Don't doubt in your heart.

God says it'll be cast into the sea. God has a great future for you young people, but it starts with believing God. Have faith in God.

But you remember this, when it comes to having faith in God, you have to have faith in God enough to obey Him. Faith always births obedience. Now, you can have obedience without faith.

And obedience without faith doesn't work. It has no power. You say, preacher, do you think if I obey God without depending on him that he's pleased with that?

And the answer is no. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It didn't say without obedience.

It didn't say without works. It said without faith. You say, why would God put such an emphasis on faith?

Because if you're believing God, it will always result in obedience to God. Always. But you can obey God without depending on Him.

That's called self-dependent obedience. And you know what that always leads to? Failure.

Because it's not divinely enabled. I don't know, how many times, you ever heard the word camp decisions, camp decisions? How many people have ever heard, would you mind raising your hand, camp decisions?

Okay, you've heard it. Is that a positive term, or is that a negative term? How many of you think it's a negative term?

Would you raise your hands again? Yeah, almost everybody. We've all heard, oh, that's a camp decision.

Now, I feel bad for camp because they're going to get a bum rap on that. You know, like decisions made at camp are just, you know, they're never going to last. Why does a camp decision not last?

I'm going to tell you, there's only one reason, self-dependence. Yeah, they went home thinking, I can do this. Or I've even had kids say, okay, God, you got to help me.

I'll try. I'll do my part. You do your part.

No, that doesn't work either. That's partial dependence. You know what you need?

God, I can't do this, but you can, and I'm going to obey you and trust you to enable me. That'll work.

Because you're trusting God for divine enabling. Who gets the glory when there's victory? And the answer is Jesus does, because you already admitted I can't do it.

I'm trusting you to enable me to do everything I can't do. Then Jesus gets the victory, friends.

Now your future. I encourage you, friends, get rid of that lack of faith, and that unbelief and that foreboding and that pessimism and that discouragement about your future. You say, well, Pritchard, I've made some poor choices in life.

I've already done some things to mess up my life. Can I say this? I realize you can do things that would disqualify you from certain parts of the Lord's work.

I get that. But nothing disqualifies you from being a fruitful Christian. Doesn't matter what you've done, God has a place for you in his vineyard.

He wants to use your life. And even your failure, he will turn it around and use it for good if you'll trust him.

You know, it's just amazing to me what God does. I put it this way. I try to encourage men particularly who are struggling in the moral arena.

Maybe you've gotten into the viewing issue and all that stuff that we've talked about. And I will tell you, many times I have to say, listen, you know what God wants to do? He likes to take patients and turn them into doctors.

That's what God loves to do, young people. You may be struggling with junk on the internet. You may have other areas of defeat in your life.

You may be harboring bitterness this evening. You may be having some other areas in your life. Maybe you're just a chronic cheater and you've never gotten it right.

You've got all kinds of hidden sin in your life. You are actually way closer to victory than you think you are. Satan wants you to think you're so far away, don't even try.

But I'll tell you what you're, the only thing that keeps you from God is what we might call a step of faith. Believing God enough to do it the way he says do it. You say, well, what does that mean?

If you cover your sin, you won't prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. That's the formula. Believe it, come into union with the words.

When you do, have the faith of God. Confess and forsake and watch God give mercy. One of the things I love about our ministry is hearing the testimony.

Just a few days ago, I heard testimonies. One young lady gets up, I'm a cheater. I've already talked to the principal.

I've got this right, I've got this right. And the thing I love about those testimonies that it's hard to convey in a verbal testimony is the joy on their face.

Man, I got it all right. Last week we saw two PlayStations destroyed. You say, well, preacher, there's nothing wrong with PlayStations.

Well, evidently for those two they thought there was because they said it's hurting my walk with God. It's out of my life. All things are lawful in me, but all things are not expedient.

Some things may not be wrong in and of themselves, but they're not helping you. You know what the word expedient means? It doesn't give you home field advantage.

You lose a little bit of the edge in the ball game, so to speak, or in the battle.

So some things, man, I'm telling you, you know those two guys that destroyed their PlayStations? They were like glad they did it.

You know why? Because they were looking and saying, you know, I need God, I want God. I don't need to be, I don't need to fritter away my life.

Young person, you don't need to play video games the rest of your life. Can I say this? Grow up.

You're going to be a dad one day. You're going to be a mom one day. You're going to have a ministry one day.

Grow up. I'm not saying all video games are wrong. I'm just saying they're addictive and may become wrong when they're addictive.

All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought into the power of any. Nothing should control you in your life but the Holy Spirit. And if something controls you that is not the Holy Spirit, then for you it's wrong.

I don't care if you can argue, well, there's nothing wrong with the content, whatever. I'm just, you know, whatever. Okay, you may be able to argue for the neutrality of morality of your video game, but I'm telling you, if you're spending time on it, when you ought to be spending time doing something else, I'm telling you, it has power over you.

And God says it's not law for you. Anything that controls you, you lose the ability to. Hey, can you control your YouTube scrolling?

How many of you set a timer and scroll YouTube for, you know, 30 seconds?

Most of you YouTube scrollers will spend, how do I say this, sometimes hours and you have no idea that you've just numbed your mind for hours. Can I say this again? Man, the world's dying, lost, going to hell, and God wants to use you to reach Him.

Don't spend the rest of your life, you know, exercising your thumb. Just rolling through that YouTube stuff, mindlessly wasting time. God's got bigger things for you.

Now how would you like in your tombstone yeah this man spent you know uh so many years months and days you know exercising some scrolling youtube wow what a wonderful life he lived don't you want to be known for well you say preacher I don't look at bad videos that's not my point can I say friends get rid of that mountain about the future in other words that's this future is God.

I mean, this future of pessimism, this future that's all about me, this future that I've got planned out, no, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea. I want to do what God's called me to do. God has something big for you to do.

And I want to just challenge you with this. I don't want you to miss it. I think it would be tragic for a young person sitting in this room to be in a place like the Thee Generation Youth Summit, go out and live your life for yourself, do what you want to do and miss the will of God.

And here's what I would say to you. I wonder how many thousands, maybe even more people will go to hell.

Personally, I really believe that God has a plan in every generation for the whole world to hear the gospel.

Have you ever wondered why it doesn't happen? Because not everybody cooperates. Yeah, I want to ask you a question.

If Livingston didn't go to Africa, would those same natives have gotten saved? And the answer is, probably not.

If Taylor didn't go to China with those millions of Chinese that can trace their lineage back to Hudson Taylor have gotten saved, and the answer is, well, probably not.

I don't know what God's will is for you, but I will tell you this. God's will for your life is way bigger than you think. It affects more than you think.

You say, preacher, I'm just going to be a Christian housewife. Yeah, but you're going to raise kids, and what will those kids do for God?

You have no idea? The mothers that God has used to raise men and women who have gone out and served the Lord across. You have no idea.

But it's not going to happen as long as you've got the mountain of your future, hey, this is what I want to do, or the pessimism, God can't use me, or whatever it might be. No, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea.

And I've said this before, but I want to challenge every young person. The greatest thing about the will of God, and it really is the greatest thing, the greatest thing about the will of God, The greatest thing about the will of God is that it's the greatest thing.

I feel sorry for every young person in this room that will miss the will of God.

Because you will miss out not only on God's best, you will miss out on what's best for you.

I'm not saying every one of you is called to full-time Christian ministry, but every one of you is called to be a full-time Christian. Did you know that?

Some of you may win scores in the doctor's office. Some of you may win them in other arenas of life, but here's the point. It's not about you.

See, the greatest thing about the will of God is the greatest thing. And we honestly often think, boy, this is the greatest thing. I feel sorry for everybody else that's got to do something else.

I feel sorry for all of you. You guys don't get to travel. I feel sorry for you, you know.

It's what God called me to do. I love it. But you miss out of it when you don't do what God wants you to do.

The greatest thing, I just saved several years ago now, I'll conclude with this. I was over in the Baptist College of Ministry graduation night, the little reception there after the service.

Man walked up to me, I'm guessing probably late 50s. I've known him for years. He's a layman, good man.

And he had tears in his eyes. He said, Dr. Jim, he said, I've wasted my life.

I've wasted my life. Young person, don't wake up in late 50s and have to say I wasted my life. He's now with the Lord.

It all starts right now. I'm going to surrender my life to the Lord. I'm going to have faith in God.

God can use me. God's got a plan for my life. God loves me.

He'll never abandon me. God can do great things in and through me. Have faith in God.