Jim Van Gelderen: Live with eternity’s values in view. And I will tell you, there’s only two ways to live. You can live with eternity’s values in view, or you can live with earth’s values in view.

You can live for the unseen, or you can live for the seen. And I hope, young person, these days you’re being stirred to live for that which you cannot see. Hebrews chapter number 11 is going to deal with that particular subject matter.

Go to Hebrews chapter number 11. We’re going to look at verse number 1, and I want to just review a verse of Scripture that I hope will be a help to you. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number 1. I appreciate so much these testimonies, and I want to encourage you young people, I know that one of the things that I think has touched all of our hearts

is the honesty in which these testimonies have been given. And for some of you that has been a help to recognize there are people blazing the trail before you and finding that Jesus is the answer. And we certainly are encouraged about that.

And I recognize that there’s some things happening in some of your hearts. And perhaps some of you, it’s God stirring you to join us here at Baptist College of Ministry because we certainly are on a journey together. And it’s wonderful to see God working in the hearts of our students. I want to remind every senior, if you join us for supper up at the Heritage Center,

just ask any squad leader, they’ll tell you where that is. If you haven’t figured out where that is yet, and we want to meet with you just to share with you a little bit about what God’s doing here at BCM. But just mention that since that’s the next thing on the docket. I also want to mention that as these kind of testimonies are given, I recognize in a room this size that probably most of you

perhaps or many of you understand the testimony because you’ve been there. But there may be some of you who say, Preacher, you know I’ve never done that. I’ve never looked at that.

I’ve never gone there. I’ve never put something in the search or whatever. And I just say this from time to time because I think it’s important to give the other side.

The greatest protection from moral impurity is innocence. Innocence. And I will tell you if anybody ever tries to tempt you to get into moral impurity, whether it’s visual or whatever it might be, recognize your greatest weapon is innocence.

The Bible tells you what to do when somebody tempts you, and here it is. Flee. Flee.

Flee. For all you young men, the most manly thing you can do when somebody shoves junk in your face is to run. I say this from time to time I’d rather have I grew up in Chicago so this is kind of real I’d rather have somebody put a loaded gun in my face any day than a dirty image any day because all that gun can do is put me in heaven early you with me on the deal? but that dirty image can destroy me my marriage

my kids my future grandkids and it’s a price just I don’t want to pay and I’m telling you so you naive in this room stay naive and don’t hang around people who talk dirty because if you talk dirty, the Bible tells us, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Everybody who tells a dirty joke does not have a dirty heart. He has an abundantly dirty heart. His heart is so filthy and so dirty and got so much garbage in it,

he can’t keep it inside, it comes out of his mouth. So you remember when somebody talks dirty, you got a dirty heart, it’s abundantly dirty. Stay away from them.

God’s saying they’re a fool, stay away from them. We talked about that a few nights ago. So I just want to give a word of warning to everybody in this room that perhaps has been protected from this, has a certain amount of innocence.

Perhaps your parents are very controlling in a good way, keeping junk out of your home. Be grateful for it. And I just want to urge you to stay innocent.

And don’t let curiosity kill you because that’s what it will do. And I’m telling you, I had a mother who prayed like nobody’s business. Now, I want you to understand, I went to a school, Chicago Public Schools, and that kind of garbage was everywhere.

You know how I know that? because they talked about it. First graders talked about it.

It’s a miracle I never saw it. The only piece of pornography I’ve ever seen was so mangled there was really nothing provocative about it. It’s the only piece of pornography I have ever seen. Now I’ve seen

pornographic images because we all have because we live in a pornographic society. Just going through billboards, etc. But God protected me from that garbage and I’m going to tell you what I believe it was.

It was my mother’s prayers. It was my mother’s prayers. So I’m telling you, if you’re innocent about this matter, I just feel just a constraint.

Don’t get curious. And I can guarantee you, I can bring every guy and every girl who’s ever looked at filth, and they beg you not to look at it the first time. I guarantee you they would.

Because the first time, friend, is the time you open the door. And I’m telling you, there’s guys in this room that wish you could go back and not look at that stuff you looked at the first time. So I’m just going to say it strongly, because I just want some of you innocent kids to realize you better value your innocence. And you better at all costs protect that innocence

if you’ve got a brain between your ears. And I hope you will. Okay, that was free.

Okay, this one’s the message for the moment. Let’s go to Hebrews chapter number 11. Hebrews chapter number 11.

And we’re going to be looking at verse number 1. Hebrews 11. And we’re going to be looking at verse number 1.

Okay, Hebrews 11 verse number 1. I’ve preached on this to some of the folks that have been around for a while, but I know I haven’t dealt with it in a while. so I’d like to revisit it because it’s a great text of Scripture that I believe will help bring things together for you this week.

Because I want you when you go home to be different. But before I ask this, I want to ask a question, and anybody here from Special Forces, and I’m just curious, how many of you here in the last two years, that would be Pleasantville, Martinsville, and Valley in Edinburgh, how many of you at Special Forces, you made a decision for the Lord Jesus, and you’re still not ashamed of that decision? Would you stand, please?

Would you just stand to your feet? I just want you to be unashamed of the fact you made a decision, and you thank the Lord. We love each one of you.

We’re grateful for what God’s doing. You may be seated. And it certainly has been great to see around, have available fellowship a whole lot. So it certainly is encouraging when young people make decisions, and a year later, or months later, a week later,

they’re not ashamed of it. It doesn’t mean they’ve lived it perfectly. I’m sure each one of them haven’t. But I want us to deal this morning with an important subject matter,

and we’re going to look at the subject matter of what does faith do? Before I do that, I want to ask a question, I believe everybody here will understand this. I’ve asked this question before. But how many, and I’m certainly raising my hand, I hate to admit it, but I’d have to raise my hand

far more than I’d like to admit. But how many have ever made a decision? Maybe at TGYS, maybe at Special Forces, maybe at Camp, maybe at Church, I don’t know. You made a decision, you meant it, you wanted it to last, maybe it did for a while,

but you’d have to admit, man, I went back living like I was before. Okay, none of us live it perfectly, but I’m telling you, you made a directional shift, but it didn’t last. you ended up going back, shifting back to the wrong direction before that decision. If that has ever occurred in your life, as it has in mine, far more than I’d like to admit,

would you with me raise your hand? Okay, raise your hand. Okay, you can put your hands down.

Now here’s what I want us to do. I want us to look at a very important truth, and I’m not here just to sell a book, but if 0100 is really a message that comes along with this, we’ll refer to it briefly, just a book out there. It’s really a book for young people. My burden was to present

sanctification to you on your level. I wanted to call the book Sanctification for Dummies, and then in parentheses put deacons and other people as well. Okay, but anyway, I decided not to do that. Okay, but anyway, so

that’s out there. But I want to deal with a message on what does faith do? We’re going to first of all look at what faith is, but I want to put the balance of the message on what does faith do? Now, obviously you need to understand something

about faith. Faith in itself is no big deal. In other words, the whole issue with faith is the object. Did you know you could have great faith in Buddha

and it wouldn’t do you a whole lot of good? In fact, it wouldn’t do you any good. You can have faith in a whole lot of things that are just absolutely, listen, you can put faith in falsity and it will do you no good. There’s one of the political parties,

if you put faith in, they’ll let you down. In fact, the other one will let you down too, but one will let you down worse. Okay, but anyway, you get the idea. You see, it’s not faith, you can have great faith, but if your faith is in the wrong object,

it’s not gonna work. It won’t work. Okay, so the key is on faith is to put your faith in the proper object. And we all know that really there’s two aspects of the proper object,

and that is the Word of God and the person of God. Okay, in other words, you can trust God as He’s revealed in the Word of God, and you can trust His Word because He’s trustworthy. Okay, so all of us understand that’s an object of faith will do it. In fact, I’m going to be honest with you,

I’m hanging my eternity on the God of the Bible and the Word of God. And if you’re saved, you are too. You know why?

Because we believe that’s a worthy object. In other words, when God says in hope of eternal life that God who cannot lie promised before the world began, I believe God’s going to keep His promise. Do you think God’s going to keep His promise?

Absolutely. If you’re born again you believe, man, I’ve got eternal life. I mean it’s confident expectation. I’ve got

eternal life. And God promised it before the world began. Hallelujah. Okay, so faith’s object is always the kind of faith we’re talking about

is God and His Word. Okay, now let’s look at a little bit about faith. Obviously the Bible tells us in the book of James, and I’m just kind of walking through stuff fast.

It says faith without works is dead. Okay, so if you put your confidence and your dependence in God, His character, and His Word, it will always result in obedience. Okay, so the point is this, I call it God-dependent obedience.

Now there’s some obedience that is self-dependent. You see, a moment ago, many of you raised your hand, oh, I made a decision for Jesus, but it didn’t last. Why because you depended on the wrong thing.

You put your faith in the wrong object. Now you might have said, “Okay, I’m making a decision. I’m believing what the Bible says, but here’s what you did.” You stepped out of the boat, we’re gonna talk about this in a moment, and when you did, you trusted yourself to walk on water. But you know what happens when you trust yourself

to do the impossible? You will fail every single time. And when you try to keep a decision in your own strength, I’m promising you, you are absolutely setting yourself up for failure. And every single time you and I have ever failed,

We know part of the problem was self-dependence. It was self-dependent. We may have meant well.

We may have been sincere. We may have been saying, I’m trying to obey God. I want to do what God wants me to do, all which is good.

But we made the fatal mistake of putting our faith in the wrong object. And I will tell you, can I tell you this? Yourself is always the wrong object.

It’s just the wrong object. Because you’ll let yourself down, and you’ve done it more times than you probably would like to admit, just like I have. Okay, so we get that.

Now, I’ve used the illustration before. some of you have heard it, about getting out of the boat, because it’s a great illustration of the Christian life. Now I’m not going to preach the full message on that, but when Peter got out of the boat, we all know that he obviously could not be depending on human strength. Oh, he moved muscles to get out of the boat, but I guarantee you when he stepped out on that water,

he wasn’t trusting his physical ability to walk on water. You know why? He couldn’t. He was trusting on God to enable him

to do what he knew he could not do. And he began to take steps, And he soon realized God is enabling him to do something that is impossible. Now that’s the Christian life.

I’ve said this in the Zero 100 book and in the message I preached. The Christian life is not hard. The Christian life is not difficult.

It’s impossible. And when you get a hold of that, you’re free. You’re free.

Because you cannot, you cannot through human strength accomplish the impossible. Now sometimes I like to use the illustration. There’s a lot of things that are impossible for a human being, but one of them is flying.

Okay, now I’m talking without any aid or help. How many of you out here are dreamers? I’m talking about at night, you actually dream dreams.

Okay, you dream dreams. For the rest of you, man alive, you’re wasting your night. You ought to dream, okay?

I mean, exciting things happen in dreams. How many of you in your dreams have ever been able to fly? Okay, man, you guys are got it, man.

You got the imaginations. I tell you, I have loved those dreams. It’s so fun flying.

It is just great. And I am always bummed out when I wake up. I’m thinking, oh, I can’t fly after all.

What a bummer. That was so neat. It was so real like I could fly. Okay, you know, truth is, without any aid,

there’s nobody in this room that can fly. Can’t do it. It’s humanly impossible.

So we understand the impossible. We get that, but the Christian life is just that. That’s why some of you don’t get anything from the Bible.

You’ve tried to pray. Nothing happens. I mean ministry.

Can’t do it. Okay, the point is, you’re trying to do something in your human strength that is impossible. Okay, so what faith is, is faith is believing God.

you’ve heard testimonies. It’s believing the promises of God. It’s believing who God is.

It’s getting out of the boat, which is the comfort zone. It’s that which seems to naturally make sense. And getting out of the boat and trusting Jesus to enable you to do the impossible. Listen, I’m talking to every teenager in this room

that Jesus lives in your heart. I’m telling you that Jesus can enable you to do the impossible. And there’s two ways to live the crush of life, in the boat or out of the boat.

So, I want you to think about this. When those disciples, the 11 disciples stayed in the boat. Can you imagine the next day they go home to their families and you say, you’re not going to believe what happened last night. We were in a boat and we stayed on top of the water

all night long. Isn’t that neat? And you know what people would say?

Well that’s what boats are supposed to do. You know what I’m talking about? Like nothing strange about that.

Okay, what about Peter? I don’t know about you, I’d like to have been around Peter that day. You’re not going to believe what happened last night.

You know what happened? I got out of the boat and I walked on water. People say, you’re crazy.

No, I did. Ask the other 11. You know, I want to ask you a question.

would you rather stay in the boat or get another boat and do the impossible? Because I’m telling you right now, Jesus wants to enable every one of you to do what is humanly impossible. And I’m telling you, friends, sometimes I wish we could do this. Wish you could go back and see Brother Basler

in high school. And you know what you’d probably say? Man, man alive.

What’s God doing in his life is a miracle. See, I didn’t know him in high school. I did know him in high school. Yeah, I could tell you a little bit

about him. I preached at a youth retreat where he was a teenager at the time. I don’t remember much about him except the shirt he wore.

That was it. Okay, but anyway, the point is you look back at people God is using and you know what happens many times? You realize that that’s a miracle because it is. And yet God wants to do the very same thing in every one of

your lives. Okay, so what is faith? Faith is getting out of the boat when Jesus commands us and it’s trusting Jesus to enable us to do what we could never do unless He enabled us to do it.

Now when you do that, what happens? That’s the message. What does faith do? Well, you’ve heard testimonies,

but I want us to look at the text of Scripture. We’re going to exposit the text, illustrate it, and we’ll be done. And here it is. The Bible says in Hebrews 11, 1, now faith is the

substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now the word substance, we’re going to look at it. There are two phrases here that I believe are an apposition. How many

know what apposition means. Okay, you need to start listening in English class, friends. Okay, but anyway, because I’m going to give you a little bit of, it’s going to say fatherly advice, but I probably ought to say grandfatherly advice, though I’m not really there yet. Okay, but here

it is, gives you some fatherly advice, and that is this. If you want to do well in college, guess what? English.

Yep, that’s it. Grammar, composition, critical thinking. That’s what you’ll learn in English, and that’ll get you ready for college. And all the English teachers said,

Okay, there it is. No English teachers in the room. Okay, but anyway.

So, apposition. I believe these two phrases are in apposition. Okay, in other words, they’re kind of synonymous. Okay, so the first one is,

faith is the substance of things hoped for. Let’s take that little phrase, things hoped for. Now, in the Bible, God uses hope a whole lot different than we do.

Now, we kind of got the idea. In fact, some of you just a few days ago were saying this, man, I hope the brewers are going to win tonight. Boy, was that a pipe dream?

But anyway, you know what I’m talking about? Your hopes were unsubstantiated, okay, because they were put in a team that can’t hit baseballs. But anyway, they can sure pitch, man.

They’re a great pitching team, but they couldn’t hit, at least in the playoffs. Okay, so here it is. You can have great faith or great hope about something, but if it’s human, well, it might, it might not be.

You might say, I’m going to hope I’m going to be President of the United States. I hate to tell you this about you and 250,000 other people your age. Somebody’s going to be disappointed.

What do you think? You see, some hopes are unrealistic. Some of you out here say, man, I hope I’m going to be an NBA basketball player.

I’m telling you, I watched you on the field. It’s a pipe dream. It ain’t going to happen.

Okay. You know what I’m talking about? I mean, some just are just totally unrealistic.

Let’s just be honest about some people’s hopes. But when the Bible talks about hopes, it’s not talking about unrealistic hopes. It is talking about that which you can go to the bank because it’s a done deal.

The word literally means confident expectation. Now, let me give you a Bible hope. How about this one?

1 Thessalonians 5, 24. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Now, I’m going to promise you something.

If God calls you, he will do it. He will do it. Now, when I was 16 years old and surrendered to the call to preach, do you know what 1 Thessalonians 5, 24 was to me?

Theory. Theory. Now, it was the Word of God, don’t get me wrong, but I hadn’t proven it.

It was just, it was the Bible truth. Okay, God says he’s faithful. If you’ll respond to his call, he’ll do it. Now can I tell you 37 years later, of being in full-time ministry for 37 years,

1 Thessalonians 5.24 is not theory, it’s reality. Because every week of my life, and every preacher out here knows what I’m talking about, I see God do what I know I cannot do. And I realize, you come to me and say, I don’t believe 1 Thessalonians 5.24.

You know what I’d do? I’d look you in the face and say, Brother, you have no clue. Because I’ve every week of my life, from a call to preach on, I have watched God do what I know is impossible for me to do.

Hallelujah. You see, that’s what faith does. When you believe God enough to obey Him, depending on His strength, not yours, He will substantiate your hopes.

That’s the word substance. We’ll talk about that in a moment. He’ll substantiate Bible hopes.

So Bible hopes will become substance. Okay, the word substance is an interesting word. It literally has the idea of it’s hupostasis is the word.

Hupo is a preposition. Stasis is the noun. It literally means that which stands under. In a certain sense, every single one of you out here

is sitting on a hupostasis. You know what I’m talking about? It’s standing under your weight.

It’s holding you up. In fact, I was preaching in Fredericksburg, Virginia a few years ago, and I was talking about that which stands there, and I said, each one of you out here is sitting on a bench. It was an old auditorium with a bunch of old pews, and I said, each one of you sitting on these benches, and these benches are your hupostasis. I don’t see any of you worried

that the bench is about to collapse. And they all laughed. I said, why are you laughing?

He said, three weeks ago, one collapsed. Okay, but anyway, okay, bad illustration. But the point is, a substance is that which stands under.

So it’s like this, young person. When you and I believe God enough to obey Him, in dependence on His strength, not yours, we get out of the boat and begin to follow Jesus to enable us to do the impossible, He substantiates Bible hopes. And that’s where theory becomes reality.

See, it’s one thing to know God answers prayer. It’s another thing to see him do it every day of your life. Theory becomes reality.

That’s what faith does. Okay, now let’s go to the second little picture to help us. The evidence of things not seen.

The word evidence there is the idea of evidence that drives somebody to a conviction. And it’s evidence of things you can’t see. Now, I lived in Greenville, South Carolina for 16 years. And don’t ask me why, but multiple times in Greenville, I was called to the courthouse

to be a part of a jury pool. Now, probably some of you haven’t, that’s never happened to you, you’re too young, but one day it’s going to happen. And down in Greenville, the way they did it, you’d go in on Monday, they’d have this jury pool, and the defense of the prosecution would pick up jury, and then you’d have to stay the rest of the week to do the trial.

So my goal on Monday was to not get picked. That was my goal. And I had a perfect way to do that, because I learned their system. The very first thing they do is they say, they had the defense here and the prosecution,

and they say, tell us what you do for a living. And all I had to do was say, I’m an independent Baptist evangelist. That’s all I had to say. And they look at each other and think,

oh, he’s one of those. Okay, whatever that means. I never got picked.

I never did. The closest I ever came, I was in a jury pool, and the judge was up there, and he was a real mean-looking guy. I think judges practice. But anyway, he was a real mean-looking guy,

kind of like high school principals. But anyway, and so he was up, he up there, and he said to me, he said to the jury pool, he said, how many of you have a conviction against the consumption of alcohol? Now, this is Greenville, South Carolina.

This is not Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is Greenville, South Carolina. And I’m thinking, man, half the people are gonna raise their hand.

I mean, I just go like this. And I’m looking around the jury pool, and there’s just me and one other. He said, sir, could you come to the bench?

Now, I’m just gonna be honest. No offense, I just don’t like hanging around judges. You with me on this?

But anyway, I get called up there. I mean, the guy was really intimidating. And he said, sir, do you believe you can set your convictions aside and judge this case on the merits of United States law?

And I shouldn’t have done it, but I laughed. And I said, I can try, but I don’t promise anything. They didn’t pick me.

Okay, so anyway, I never got picked in the jury pool. You say, why is that such a big deal? How would you like to make a decision about something you didn’t see that’s going to affect people’s lives?

You know what happens in a jury trial? The defense and the prosecution parades evidence that is designed to draw you to a conviction about something you didn’t see. So we understand what the word means.

And the Bible says here’s what faith does. Faith is far more convincing. Faith brings evidence into your life to drive you to conviction about things you can’t see. Now, if you think that sounds spooky, it’s really not,

because you do it all the time. We did it today. When we were out there playing big ball bowling, guess what we all said?

It’s windy today. Now, how many of us saw the wind? And the answer is, none of us did.

All we saw and felt was the effects of wind. We saw leaves blowing this way. We felt something cold on our skin.

We saw the big ball go up and blow one certain direction. The Marines know that. And you know what I’m talking about?

And we saw the effects of the wind. Well, we didn’t see the wind. But the evidence drove all of us to a conviction.

that there’s wind today. Now, I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but I don’t know why. Of course, I know people in Florida.

There’s people here from Florida. And generally, when a hurricane’s approaching, I track that hurricane. Now, for several reasons. Sometimes it could inland affect our meetings,

or if we’re in Florida, it could affect our meetings. I’ve only had to flee one time a hurricane. And growing up in the Midwest, hurricanes are kind of freaky to me because I’m just not used to freaky.

I mean, hurricanes, tornadoes are no big deal. But anyway, and so sometimes I’ll track that hurricane and it’ll have landfall, and you get on some weather.com or some weather thing, and they have some rookie reporter out on the shore as the hurricane’s hitting landfall. You ever seen that?

He’s usually about 22 years old. He’s just graduated from weather.com University. You know what I’m talking about?

And it’s the last time you see him. You know what I’m talking about? Like, what happened to the poor guy?

Okay. You know, he’s out there. Waves are crashing in. You know, you see palm trees like a ewe, and you see fish flying by, and he’s saying,

yeah, the hurricane, we’re up to 80 miles an hour. You know what I’m talking about. And you look at that thing, and I’m telling you, every time I look at that, I see the surf, and I see the trees bowed over, and you can just see all this stuff, and you say, whoa, that’s windy.

You know, you’re not seeing the wind. I’m not seeing the wind. What we’re seeing is the evidence that drives us to a conviction about something you and I cannot see.

See, that’s what faith does. You sit in this room, some of you in this room, you have really not met with God much. I’m not saying you’re lost, I’m just saying you don’t have a relationship with God.

God’s not very real to you. See the reason is, you really haven’t exercised faith. Because when you believe God enough to obey Him, depending on His strength not yours, and you begin to nurture a relationship with God, and you spend time with God, and you begin to get to know God, and begin to get confidence in His Word, and His person, His character, and you spend time reveling in the reality of His presence in your life, and your faith begins to grow,

and you’re taking those steps of faith, what happens is, God brings evidence into your life that brings you to conviction about things you can’t see. Many of you have heard many testimonies, and I really don’t even hardly need to say much here because you’ve seen testimonies this week of young people who are telling you about evidence that has brought them to a conviction about something they cannot see, but they know it’s real. See, that’s what faith does.

Some of you in this room do not know God very well. You know you’re saved, but you don’t really have a relationship with God, but you could. See, that’s what faith does. I’m hoping in the hour with God and some of the other things that were brought your way, I’m hoping like crazy that you will recognize, wow, here’s a pathway to spend time with God

and see my faith nurtured. See, faith has to be nurtured, and there’s two things that nurture, basically nurture faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And the second thing that nurtures faith

is the person of God, spending time with God. Boy, this nurtures faith. And that faith, when you take the steps, get out of the boat, trust God to enable you to do things you never thought you could do, then they’ll have evidence that will come into your life to drive you to conviction about things you can’t see. Okay, now let me just stop for a moment and use a human illustration, one that’s obviously not biblical, but a

human illustration to kind of get this faith thing down so we can make some analogy or some application quickly and move to the next thing. How many of you out here, when it’s true, you like roller coasters? Can I see your hands blaze?

You like roller coasters. Wow, got some people out here like roller coasters. Now, I don’t know.

I think I may have ridden my last roller coaster. I’m not sure. Probably some of the tame ones I can still handle.

But I don’t know about you. I’ve reached the point in my life where I do not like blood on just one side of my body. You know what I’m talking?

Kind of like it on both sides. But anyway, some of those roller coasters are unbelievable. But let’s just imagine you’re one of those guys that’s into physics, and you start studying the physics of roller coasters, which you could do, and you could study the G.

You know what I’m talking about, G-force. I think the negative Gs is when you feel like you weigh 500 pounds, And the positive G’s when you feel like you’re going to be thrown on the roller coaster to your death. Okay, you know what I’m talking about? And you study the G’s and you study the speed and the length of the track and the drops

and all this kind of stuff. And pretty soon you come to a conclusion, this roller coaster over here is, pardon the expression, the funnest roller coaster in North America. Now, let’s imagine through your study, you come to a conclusion, this has got to be the greatest roller coaster. Now, you still, what do you have to do, could I say this, to substantiate your hope that

that’s a great roller coaster? What do you have to do to bring evidence that will drive you to a conviction that that roller coaster is fun? What are you going to do?

And the answer is, you’ve got to ride it. Well, actually, there’s something you do before you ride it that is an essential part of the situation, and that is you have to get in line. Now, the line is a part of it, and normally you get in line with somebody else.

Very, very few people ride a roller coaster alone. And so when you get in the roller coaster line, guess what you do? Normally, I don’t know about you, but especially when I was your age, I got in line to ride a roller coaster.

I was kind of nervous about it. You know what I’m talking about? But I always act like I wasn’t.

You know what I’m talking about? And it’d be kind of like, oh, this thing ain’t nothing. And while I’m planning my funeral, you know what I’m talking about?

Planning my funeral. And you’re trying to get this thing. Especially if you’ve got a younger sister in there.

I had an older sister. My sister, Joy, she’s now with the Lord. But I’m telling you, she never met a roller coaster she didn’t love. My sister, four years older than I, I’m telling you,

Every roller coaster she ever rode, she never screamed. She’d laugh from the start to the finish. She thought it was funny.

We’re about to die, and she’s laughing. Okay, but anyway, you know how it is. And so here we are.

You’re in line, and you’re trying to act like, hey, this ain’t nothing, man. I’ve ridden stuff like this before. You know how it is.

You don’t talk about acting cool, liking like you got it down while you’re scared half to death. Okay, so if you notice this, if you’ve ever ridden roller coasters, they try to freak you out before they get on the roller coaster. Have you seen that?

Warning, if you have a heart condition, do not ride this ride. I don’t know about you, I’m thinking I’m getting one, you know what I’m talking about? And I may not have one, but I think I’m getting one.

And you go a little farther. Warning, if you have skeletal problems, do not ride this ride. And you’re thinking, man I don’s now, but I think I’m going to get, you know, I think I’m going to be maimed, okay?

And then you go a little farther. Warning, if you have ingrown toenails, you know what I’m talking about. I mean just every angle. And it’s just like you’re signing your

life away. And then you get up, and you’re giving second thoughts about it. You know as you get closer to the ride, your minds start playing games with you, you know what I’m talking bout. You’re pretty sure you’re hearing people scream

all the way to their drop to their death. You know what I’m talking about? You’re pretty sure you’re hearing medevac helicopters coming in, taking out the dead and wounded. I mean, your mind is just playing tricks with you, and you get right up there trying to act cool,

get right up there, and there it is. There it is, the chicken exit. You ever seen it?

The chicken exit. You say, Preacher, I’ve been on a lot of roller coasters. I’ve never seen the chicken exit.

Well, yeah, it’s there. It has a little wheelchair on it. All you gotta do is go out the wheelchair route backwards, okay, and you’re out. The other way is you get on like you’re going to ride the roller coaster

and you just keep going like you just rode it. You know what I’m talking about? And you go right through the thing and you exit.

Okay, so those are the two ways to chicken exit if you have never done that. And so you’re sitting here and you know how it is. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you. You’re sitting there and thinking, if I leave this thing,

my younger sister will mock me to the day I die. You know there are some things that are worse than death. Did you know that?

And so you know how it is. You get on that roller coaster kind of regretting that you’re doing it. And every time I’ve ever gotten a roller coaster, I don’t think there’s an exception.

You know, that thing comes down on you. You know what I’m talking about? It comes down and click.

Every time I hear the click, my next thought is, you are an idiot. That is always my next thought. Like, why are you on this thing?

Now I can’t get out. You know what I’m talking about? But you’re still acting brave, still acting like you’re not scared.

And you know how it is. You’re probably hanging on your sister’s knee and her leg is turning blue all the way down, you know. And you’re sitting there, you know, and trying to act cool.

And all of a sudden, your prayer life improves. I’m talking about and pulls out of the station man hits that little dip and then hits that oh click click click click click click click I had the first hill I hate the first fail I mean you’re going click click click you’re praying I mean youre getting fervent you sing Lord I’ll fast you’re a couple of weeks okay I mean you’re making promises click click click click you start singing LordI’m coming home okay click click

seconds of sheer blur. You know what I’m talking about? You scream, but it won’t come out.

And you know how it is. You’re just hanging on for dear life, you know. And all of a sudden, man, there is a bar right there.

It’s neck level. You’re going to be decapitated on a terrible thing. You duck. The thing goes

down. You feel like an idiot. Okay, but anyway, you know how it goes. Man,

120 seconds later, you pull into the station. And I’ll tell you exactly what you do because I did it. Man, you get off that roller coaster. You look at your friends and you say,

man, that was great. Let’s do it again. Now, what happened, young person?

I’m going to tell you what happened. You substantiated your hope. That thing was a blast. You have evidence that drove you to conviction about things you couldn’t see, you didn’t know

beforehand. See, that’s what faith does. Can I call the roller coaster the roller coaster of truth?

You know what I’m going to tell you right now? You’re going to come home from TGYS and some of you are going to say, man, I’m going to this guy, God’s dealt with me here, I want to see a change here, God I want to get a hold of, etc., etc., and you’re going to get all the way home, and maybe you’re going to say, you know what, I’ve got to get clean, I’ve got to talk to my

parents about the junk I’ve been hiding, I’ve got some things I need to do, I’ve got a teacher I’ve got to get right about cheating, whatever. And you know what Satan’s going to do? He’s going to lie to you, warning. If you tell your

parents, you will be grounded for life, warning. If you tell your teacher, you’re going to get shipped, warning. And he lies to you. And I’ve seen it

at times it’s always grieved me. Somebody come right up to the roller coaster of truth and they hit the chicken exit. But I’m telling you what faith does. Faith gets on the roller coaster

of truth. It gets out of the boat and it trusts Jesus to enable you to do what you never thought you could do. And when you do that, I’ll tell you what faith does. It brings,

it substantiates your Bible hopes. It brings evidence into your life about things you’ve never seen. And when you get off the roller coaster of truth, you say, man, that’s great. Let’s

it again. And I want to tell you something, friends. I’m going to just be honest with you.

I live for God moments. I live for God moments. I just love God to show up.

And it’s so exciting. And I believe God’s showing up this week. And I believe in the next few hours God’s going to show up in some of your lives.

It’s going to be remarkable. You know why? Because that’s what faith does. That’s what faith

does. And for some of you in this room, God’s bringing you to a faith step. I’m talking to a young man.

God’s telling you, I want you to preach my word. You’ve got every excuse in the book why you can’t preach. But I’m telling you something, friends.

If God’s calling you to preach, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. God does not call the gifted, hallelujah. He gifts the called.

He gifts the called. If you’d have known it me at 16, you’d have probably tried to talk me out of it. It’s just like my poor dad walked down the aisle at 14 years old, grabbed his pastor’s hand and said, Pastor, I believe God’s called me to preach.

And do you know what his pastor said? Now son, not everybody has to preach. How would you like to be greeted with that?

You say, preacher, are you kidding me? Absolutely. But you know that pastor misunderstood something. If God calls a young man who can stutter like my dad did,

then God will enable him to preach. See, that’s the point, friends. I don’t know what your excuses are, but there’s some young man out here, God is calling you to preach.

God is calling you to full-time ministry. May be calling you to BCM. And I’m telling you, young man, here’s what you ought to do, is get out of the boat, get in line, and when Satan tries to scare you with those warnings, say, I’m not hitting the chicken exit, I’m getting on the roller coaster of truth, and I promise you this, I’m telling you, it’s just like this, every Friday night, my team will tell you, and I think all of us will tell you,

we look at each other, we may not say it in these words, but you know what we’re saying? Man, that’s great, let’s do it again. Let’s do it again. And I want to tell you something, friends, that’s what ministry’s all about, that’s what the Christian life’s all about,

And I’m telling you, that’s what faith’s all about. It’s believing God enough to obey Him. I’m now stepping out of the boat to that which is impossible, trusting God to enable you to do what you cannot do.

And I will tell you, God will substantiate your hopes. He’ll bring evidence into your life that will drive you to conviction about things you can’t see. Well, hallelujah.

I’m talking young men being called to preach. I’m talking to some young ladies. God’s dealing in your life about something I don’t know. It may be being willing to be in full-time Christian work

if God so leads. You may be battling the same battle. It’s the same truth. I don’t know what your issue is, friends, but I’m just simply telling you, as you’re here in this particular point, God may be dealing with you about going home,

getting some things right. He may be dealing with you about getting with a pastor or a youth pastor and saying, hey, listen, I’ve got some issues in my life. I’ve got to see victory. It may be saying, you know,

I’ve got to start meeting with God. I don’t know what the issue is. It may be confessing sin with your parents, stuff you’ve been hiding. And I’m just encouraging you when you get in line,

don’t hit the chicken exit. Some of you God’s dealing with you about talking to your next door neighbor about Jesus. Some of you God’s stirring you about being an evangelist.

I’m not talking about like an evangelist like me. I’m talking about somebody who just tells people how to get saved. All of us God’s told us to give the gospel, to be evangelists, maybe is a better way to put it.

People who herald the good news that Jesus died, shed His blood, rose again, and you trust Him, He’ll save you. And I’m telling you friends, you say, well preacher, I don’t know if I can tell anybody about Jesus. I just don’t have very good personality, and I don’t have very good tongue, and I’m not very good at talking to people.

I’m telling you this, Jesus can enable you to do whatever He calls you. you to do. And we know this, He’s commanded us all to go into the world and preach the gospel, as you heard just probably here just a few moments ago from Pastor Gilmore.

And so I want you to get all this. See, for some of you, God’s working in your heart. We’re just at this very important point. And all I’m simply saying, many of you right now are

heading right at the point where you’re either going to get on the roller coaster of truth or you’re going to hit the chicken exit. And if you hit the chicken exit, I hate to tell you, it’s going to be like the 11 who stayed in the boat for the entire night. Like, what a big deal was that? It was a whole lot different than Peter who got out of the boat and got on the rollercoaster

of truth. And I’m telling you at least what Peter got a hold of was man there’s nothing like God substantiating Bible hopes. There’s nothing like God bringing evidence that brings us to conviction about things we cannot see.

I’m talking to some in a moment. I don’t know if we’ll have testimonies tonight but I’m talking to some of you. God may touch your heart tonight to give a testimony. Maybe

to go home and say Pastor God worked in my heart. I’d like to give a testimony if you’d let me do church some night. I don’t know what God will touch your heart to do, but the point is God’s going to be touching your heart.

And I’ll tell you, many a day of your life God’s going to touch your heart. Talk to this person, give them the gospel, hand a track, invite your next door neighbor to church. Hey, deal with some of your friends about some of the language and deal with some of the stuff going on in your Christian school and whatever it might be.

I don’t know what it will be, but God will make it clear. But how many times in our day Satan scares us and we hit the chicken exit? Oh, I’m telling you, what does faith few. You know what happens, can I put it simply, when you and I simply get out of the boat and trust Jesus and believe God, trust His character, here’s what happens, you have God

moments. God moments. And I’m telling you God moments are when you’re seeing God work, people’s lives touched, people get saved, people getting right with God, God doing miracles, and you’re thinking, wow, that’s God.

And some of you will probably see very little of that in your life. Do you know why? Because you’re really good at hitting the chicken exit. You’re really good at

staying in the boat while Peter gets out. You’ll encourage somebody else to get out, but I’m not getting out. And you will miss out on God moments. And I’m telling you, friends, I don’t know how you live a life that doesn’t have God moments,

because it’s got to be pretty boring. I’m just urging every young person in this room to believe God, whatever God’s got for you. I told this to our opening to students, all you BCM students remember me telling you this. The Bible says that God does exceedingly abundantly

above all that we ask or think. And I’m going to tell you, most of us don’t make it very hard on God. You know why?

Because we’re not thinking very big. I’m telling you, friend, think big. God wants to use your life.

Think big. Why? Because God wants you to. I’m telling you, friends, God can do more than you and I can ask

or think. Wow. And He wants to do it in your life.

He wants to do it in the life of your spouse. And He wants to do it in the life of your children. And He wants to do it in the life of your You’re a part of it. I don’t know what God’s going to do with these generations,

but I’m wondering, man, if God’s going to do something big. I’m just telling you, think big, friends, because God wants us to, because faith is stepping under the boat, trusting God to enable us to do what we know we cannot do. We’re talking about God, hallelujah, we’re not talking about you.

If we were talking about you, we’d get a little depressed, wouldn’t we? If we were talking about me, we’d get depressed, but we’re not talking about us, we’re talking about God. I remember several years ago, I was in 1994, I don’t have time to tell the first story, but when War of Special Forces was launched, it was a miracle. It has the fingerprints of God all over it,

but I don’t have time to tell the full story. But I will tell you this part of the story. It was the spring of 1994.

Does that sound like a long time ago to you? Because it doesn’t to me. But anyway, 1994, we were in the spring of the year.

We had a couple of guys traveling. We were doing the war, Army versus Navy. It was just my wife and I and these two guys.

And Stephanie had not been born yet. It was just about a year and a half before she was born. and I was, I remember we were heading to church in Pennsylvania and I called the pastor up, he’s now with the Lord, but was just a good man, just loved the Lord. And I called him up and I was an older man at the time and I said to him, I was a young preacher, younger I should say, I called him up and said

we’re looking forward to being there for the war. He said, now Brother Van Gelderen, he said, I am not bringing you in to do the war. He said, now we hope kids will get saved, you’ll go out recruit, do all that.

He said, what I’m bringing you in for is my Christian school. He said, my Christian school is in trouble. We got problems.

And I remember saying, Pastor, I said, I cannot believe you’re saying this. God has been deeply burdening in my heart to develop a new program for Christian schools. I said, could we use you as a gint pig?

I’ll never forget. I use those words. And he said, absolutely.

He said, you tell us what you want us to do. We will do anything you ask. He said, we’re desperate.

We arrived on a Wednesday. The war program is different. Special Forces is now.

We arrived on a Wednesday. Of course, did the Wednesday night service. All we had was Thursday, Friday, then two weekends, and Monday.

It wasn’t very much time, three days. It was not long after I got there. Of course, we were there Wednesday night, presented the ministry to the church, got up the next morning, had chapel the next morning. I’m telling you, I’ve been to literally, I’m telling you,

I’ve been to hundreds of Christian schools. I would put this one in the top five worst ones I’ve ever been in. God has a sense of humor. I mean, we’d sit down with the kids at lunch,

and they would act like you’re not there. They would just act like you’re not there. I mean, they were literally, you could sense the opposition to the team being there.

I’m thinking, man, they do have problems. Then, I mean, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve done this now for 20 plus years. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this happen

like it happened there. We’d go out and start playing the games. High school juniors, see, I’m talking very athletic kids.

We’d be playing big ball volleyball. The ball would be coming toward them. They’d step out of the way and let the ball hit the ground, and they’d just kind of sneer at the team captain, like, I ain’t playing your games.

It was unbelievable. I had two very competitive team captains. I thought they were going to kill somebody.

I’m going to be honest with you. I finally had to pull them in. I said, don’t you see what they’re doing?

They’re provoking you. Don’t play their game. Man, we were in a battle.

I don’t know how to explain it. We were in a battle. Thursday, nothing.

Friday, nothing. Saturday, well, we don’t have school. We just have our evening rally of the war.

We’d been out recruiting. but I’m thinking to myself, these kids aren’t coming. Found out later they actually were encouraging kids not to come.

I’m thinking these kids aren’t coming. And sure enough, most of them didn’t come. I mean all that came pretty much was youth group kids and it was not many youth group kids and a few junior high kids that weren’t a part of the high school peer pressure.

And I mean we had about 60 kids. The student body was about 60. We had about 60 kids because a bunch of unsafe kids came from the neighborhood.

So we just kind of shift gears. And we did our night, don’t remember much about it. Then Sunday night we had our second night. And I knew on Sunday night,

because I know enough about Christian school. How many are Christian school kids out here? Can I see your hands?

I love Christian school kids, absolutely love them. Okay, I’ve given my life to work with Christian school kids. But anyway, I kind of knew with Christian school kids that those that could would probably come on Sunday night because they’d rather go to the war than go to church.

I’m just being honest with you. And that’s exactly what happened. Kind of broke a little bit of the opposition.

And one kid was a junior. He was one of the big rebel leaders. And he and I had a bunch of siblings. and they went to their dad and said,

Dad, can we go to the war instead of church? And his dad said, sure. So he came and dropped them off.

And this kid’s name was John. And he was one of those kids in the thick of the peer pressure. He knew all the junk going on.

He was part of it. Okay, so John comes. I didn’t know that.

John comes, his sibling comes, a few other kids come. And that night we had, I think we maybe had a few more. And I remember that night, got up to preach, preached a simple gospel message and came to the invitation. And I said, if you’re a hell-bound sinner and need Jesus,

stand to your feet and head on out. And old John stood to his feet, sobbing. He was sobbing. He left

the room, and when he left the room, I could hear him sobbing. I was the farthest from him. The whole room could hear him crying.

He went back there. I wonder, oh, I wonder what’s going on. And we finished the meeting.

Kids were being dealt with. Most everybody dispersed. John came out. I don’t

know, 15, 20, 25 minutes later. I don’t remember. He came out, and he was still crying. By this time,

almost everybody was gone. Just he and his siblings waiting for their dad to come because obviously church, he had to wait until church was over and come and his dad pick him up. Finally, I just, John was crying for about 10 minutes. I walk up to John, I don’t know,

10, 15 minutes, whatever it was, I walk up to John. I said, okay, John, level with me. What in the world is going on? He said, Brother Van Gelderen, and he said, tonight when you were preaching, he said, God told me,

if you don’t get saved tonight, you will go to hell. And he just sobbed. He just wept. He basically really felt if he had gotten out and saved that night,

he would have gone to hell. And he just sobbed. He was so grateful for God’s mercy.

I didn’t know what to think of it. I thought, wow, God’s doing something. The next morning was Monday morning.

All you Christian school kids know what I’m talking about. Word got out. You hear about John?

You hear about John? Yeah, what did he say? You know, they were all worried.

John knew too much. You know what I’m talking about? because if John started talking, they were in trouble.

Now John hadn’t said a word. You know what John had done? He’d gotten right with God about himself.

We didn’t ask about anybody else. He’d just gotten saved, gotten things right. And so the next morning we’re doing chapel and you could have cut it with a knife. Now if you don’t know anything about Christian schools,

you’re not going to get this. Christian school kids do. Man, you could sense it.

Everybody’s on edge. Like what did John say? What did John say?

You know, that kind of thing. Did he implicate me? You know, that kind of stuff.

It’s going on. And you could just sense it. And so we come into the chapel, and just a lot of tension.

We tried to do some of the competition stuff. They weren’t interested. You could just sense it.

They were all distracted, which was good. And so I finally, I’m ready to get up to preach. And before I get up, while I’m getting up to preach, John stands to his feet.

He said, Brother Van Gelderen, could I say something? Now, you don’t say everything you think, but you know what I’m thinking? Yeah, sure, John, I’ve been preaching.

They’re not listening to me. Give it a shot. I didn’t say that, but that’s what I felt like saying.

John comes walking up. He has a cardboard box. in the cardboard box are cassette tapes.

Now I know most of you have no clue what I’m talking about. Find your great grandfather, they’ll be glad to tell you what a cassette tape is. But anyway, he had cassette tapes and he had taken the magnetic tape and he had pulled the magnetic tape out of all the cassette tapes.

So you couldn’t even see the plastic parts. It was just magnetic tape, just all in there. And it was a box full of magnetic tape. And I’ll never forget, John comes up, just calmly comes up and he sets it

on about a two foot platform like right about here. and he looks at the student body and he gives his testimony, what God did. And this is fresh testimony, folks.

This is like 12 hours old. And then he says, you know what? Now that I’m a Christian, I don’t need that junk music anymore.

He said, some of you got junk in your life too. He said, I know all about it. He said, you put it in that box. He said, I’ll tell you what,

we’re gonna burn it tonight. You could have heard of that. John goes back, sits down.

I mean, kids are in. I started preaching a message on rebellion. I got about halfway through that message, and the Holy Spirit of God said to me, you need to stop preaching.

Right? Now, I’m going to be honest with you, friends, that has never happened quite that way. I’ve had the Holy Spirit tell me other dramatic things, like one, don’t preach. But this is the first time and only time

in the middle of a message. You say, how do you know? I’m just telling you I just knew. When I finished that message,

I mean, I just crash landed the message. I gave an invitation, and all I can tell you, it was like a spiritual neutron bomb went off. I’m telling our team for about two hours is doing what I would call spiritual triage.

There was collateral damage all across that campus. I remember walking down a hallway about an hour after we were doing personal work, and there was a kid, sophomore, sitting on a bench weeping. I sat down next to him and said, okay, bud, what’s going on?

He said, man, I’m going straight to hell. Open the Bible, let him to Jesus. It was just like that, one right after the other.

Kids getting right with God. And I’m going to tell you something, friend. The assistant pastor of that church, he’s now a pastor in the state of Pennsylvania, good friend of mine, he has told me on several occasions, he said, Brother Van Gelderen, and he said, that revival that day changed our Christian school. With that generation of students,

it changed our Christian school. And here’s my point. It all started with a young man named John, 16 years old, saved 12 hours, who believed God enough to obey him, to get out of the boat and trust God to enable him to do what he knew he could never do, unless God enabled him to do it. Would it shock you if I told you John was an assistant pastor

a large church in the state of Indiana at this very moment. That was 1994. That’s a long time ago. And I’m telling you friends

that’s exactly what God wants to do in some of your lives. You know what your point is? You’re still in the boat. I’m talking to some of you who need to go back to your Christian school and

say I’ve listened to your dirty jokes too long. I’m done. Don’t tell them around me anymore.

You say preacher I can’t do that. Well that’s what I mean. You can’t walk on water either.

But Jesus can enable you to do it. And some of you just need to stand up and say, I’m sick of this junk. Don’t talk dirty around me.

I don’t want to hear that filth. I’m telling you, friends, God’s just looking. Listen, the Bible says you get God on your side, you’ll chase 1,000, and two of you will chase 10,000.

I don’t know many Christian schools that got 10,000 in them. You know what I’m talking about? God’s just looking for somebody to get on the deal, and I’m going to start walking with Jesus, and I’m telling you, get out of the boat and trust in God to enable you to do what you could never do unless He enabled you to do it.

You see what faith does, friends? do you see what faith does? I ask every head bowed please and every eye clung.