Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. Our team just finished up with a very fruitful and exciting summer on the road. There are lots of stories I would love to tell you sometime. But for the time being, I just have to report, I’m glad to report, that after 11 weeks of cola clashes, 160 young people came to Jesus Christ who wouldn’t have otherwise. Many heard the gospel. Many surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, and God certainly stirred our faith with what he’s able to do as we present ourselves to him and as we labor independence upon his power. And so I’m very excited. I’m excited to be back in my home church and to dig into the ministry here for the next little bit, and excited about what God’s going to do coming up here at the Thee Generation Youth Summit, which, by the way, I want to say a word about that before I dive into my content really for this episode. We’re less than six weeks away as of the time of this recording, and we’ve got some very, very exciting new things planned for our annual Youth Summit in Menomonee Falls. For more information about that, please go to thegeneration.org slash youthsummit, or just go to the homepage and click on Youth Summit in the menu at the top. But suffice it to say, we’re changing themes this year. Now, don’t get me wrong, every year is a TGYS, as we affectionately call it. But really, up until this point, it’s been all Cola Clash Plus. Well, this year, we’re burdened. We’ve actually been burdened for a couple years, and we’d like to vary it up a little bit. And so, obviously, Cola Clash Plus is a variation on Cola Clash, which is our evangelistic ministry with Miniman Ministries. And we have several other evangelistic ministries as well that are slightly different themed. And so this year we’re going to be theming it based off of the war and the title is the war max. And really we’re just trying to take the concept of the war and drive it to the max. It’ll still be four team competition, Army versus Navy versus Marine versus for the first time ever in Minutemen history, Air Force. And we’re going to be having some exciting new variations on some of the four-way competitions. If you’ve been to the Youth Summit that you know and love, we’re going to be varying up big ball, volleyball in a way we call bomber ball. We’re going to be varying up spoke tackle in something we call, I’m still not sure if this is officially the title, but tentatively Duck, Duck, Boom. And there’s a lot of mystique, and I’ve had a lot of people ask me, what in the world is Duck, Duck, Boom? You have to come and find out. Of course, we’ll have preachers, including even more of our own here this year. For those of you that don’t know or haven’t been to the Youth Summits in the past, the first night of Youth Summit has typically been a segue between the Falls Baptist Church Missions Conference and the Youth Summit. This year, it is going to be exclusively Youth Summit. And so we’re having some of our own young men be some of the main speakers, including myself, Dr. Jim, Pastor Van Geldren, Mark Gilmore, Matt Weber. But also this year, we’re going to be having Joe Mueller. He’s spoken on the podcast a few times, be one of our primary speakers for this event. And we’re just so excited with what the Lord is going to do. And I do want to mention just that you have an opportunity to save $10 on the registration fee. If you will register here in the next week or two, there’s an official cutoff date for that discount. And again, it’s probably not the end of the world if you miss it. It’s just an additional $10 per registrant. And so there is At this point, still dormitory lodging available, but there are plenty of other options for lodging as well. But I just say all of that to say that if you want to come, go ahead and register soon. Registrations have been coming in steadily since we announced through email that this was happening. But just we would love for you to join us. I saw a number of new registrants. I get all the registrations that come in. I get a chance to see them. And it’s exciting to see some longtime podcast listeners finally being able to come. And if you’re hearing that and that’s you, you can go ahead and give a big old smile because I’m glad you all are coming. And I would love to see more of our listeners join us here. It could be that maybe you’re in a Christian school and maybe your school is coming or maybe it’s not coming. But if it’s not coming, I would encourage you, try to find a way to come. Maybe you’re homeschooled and you’re at a church and you just don’t know how it might work. Talk to your parents. Figure out a way to get out here. Maybe you go to a public school. I have to say I would love for you to come and join us. If you’re a public school student listening to the podcast and in tune with what we’re trying to do with The Generation, reach out to us. If you need to get a letter of intent for coming to the Youth Summit, we’d be more than happy to help you figure out a way to get absence from your schooling there to come to this Youth Summit. And again, the dates for the Youth Summit are October 13, 14, and 15. Registration starts, I think, at 3 or 4 p.m. on the 13th. That’s a Wednesday. And the evening service is the kickoff service. And then it’s all day on Thursday and Friday, most people leaving on Saturday. So just to give you a little bit of a frame of reference, our burden really is to wage the spiritual battle for souls, to wage the battle against sin, to wage the battle against the devil and win. And kind of in keeping with the idea of the war, we want to learn how to fight that war and how to win that war, which will ultimately lead to souls coming to Jesus Christ, to God getting glory and to victory in our own lives. And so with that being said, I do want to challenge you with something here in this podcast in Romans chapter 8, where I’ve been studying here recently. There’s a couple of verses that I found to be very encouraging to myself, and I know that if they’re encouraging to me, they’ll be encouraging to you. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 31, Paul says this, What shall we then say to these things? Now, it’s important to understand what he’s talking about when he’s talking about to these things. He just got done with an exhaustive treatment on how, though mankind is guilty and condemned because of their sin, Jesus paid the price for our sins, not just so that we could be justified in the sense of declared to be righteous or not guilty in God’s courtroom, but also so that he could provide for victory in our lives through a new way that’s not just trying hard to obey what’s expected, but a way of spiritual life through the Holy Spirit, through union with Jesus Christ, and walking and pursuing the will of the Spirit of God and dependence upon the Spirit of God. And he says, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And I just want to make this statement here, young people, and I want you to hear this and hear this well. God is for you. God is on your side. And I don’t just mean that God is in heaven cheering you on, waving little pom-poms and a pendant because he’s rooting for your team. It’s so much more than that. You see, yes, while it’s true, God is on the sidelines watching you play the game, so to speak, and he is totally on your side. He is your biggest fan, but it goes further than that, young people. God is not just for you in the sense that he loves you and that he’s cheering for you and that he wants you to succeed. God has also made it possible for you to succeed. In fact, he says, if God before us, who can be against us? You know, when you understand that God is unequivocally, unconditionally on your side and he is for you, I’m telling you what, it can give you stability in your horizontal relationships in life. I think we all recognize the fact that sometimes people don’t like us. I think we all recognize the fact that sometimes people might look askance at us. They may misunderstand us. You may not always get the impression that some of these people are for you. Maybe your parents, you struggle with believing that they love you. Maybe your friends, your siblings, your teachers, other people in your lives, your boss or some other individuals in your life, maybe sometimes you struggle with wondering whether they really like you or whether they’re really on your side. Maybe you struggle with that insecurity. And let me just tell you the greatest cure for your insecurity, I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again, is to know that God loves you. To know that God is on your side. He’s cheering for you, if God is for you, who cares if anyone else is or not? Because God’s the only one that really matters. And we can go throughout life and we can pursue success. We can pursue other people’s approval. We can pursue just trying to get people to like us. But young people, can I just say this? that is bondage. It is bondage to live in just the constant shadow of what other people think about you. And if you’ll recognize that you don’t have to earn favor with God, you don’t have to labor all day, every day to get God to like you and to be on your side. When you recognize that God already is for you, I’m telling you that is freeing. It is liberating. But he goes on, and he doesn’t just say God’s for you. He says in verse 32, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And here he makes a statement. It’s an if-then statement. If this is true, well, then this is true. And the if is if God gave us his son. If you think about it, it’s the greatest act that God ever did to rescue sinful, rebellious, contrary mankind and sending his son. God moved not only all of his creation, not only did he shape and reshape history so Jesus could come and die on the cross for our sins. If you think about it, he shook up heaven. He took his eternal son, the one who had eternally existed with him in a relationship with him in heaven. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was also in the beginning with God. And God took Jesus, the one who had always been with him, and he shook up heaven so much so that Jesus forever became a human being. And I want you to know that was a sacrifice. It was a sacrifice. God gave up something in a certain sense to gain you and me. If that doesn’t prove that God’s for us, I don’t know what else would. But that’s not so much the point, just that God is for us. In verse 32, he says, He that spared not his son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him along with the sacrifice that he made to give Jesus for us? How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? You know, from chapter 5 through chapter 8, chapter 5, one of the points is to give us hope. And really, I believe chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, the point is to give you hope. You got hope for the future. There’s going to come a day when sin and all of the pull and downward pull of sin is going to be completely absent when God glorifies us. But right now, while the pull of sin is still there and still in us, it’s so easy to get discouraged by our failures. It’s so easy to get insecure about our insufficiencies. But young people, you don’t have to be insecure about those things. Because if God shook up earth and heaven to send Jesus, don’t you think God’s going to give you what you need to succeed right now? I want you to think about the next couple of weeks. Many of you are starting school. Maybe you’ve been doing school for a couple weeks, and maybe the class load is really starting to hit you. Maybe you’re starting to feel a little bit tired, a little bit discouraged, a little bit overwhelmed. Can I just say this? If God sent you Jesus, don’t you think he’s going to give you everything you need to get everything done he wants you to do this fall? Maybe you’re looking at the evangelistic opportunities like I was last night in our service here at Falls Baptist Church. I’m looking ahead, and I’m thinking, man, I want to win souls for Jesus Christ. My heart burned within me. I was thinking, wow, I’ve got an opportunity here where I can go back to the kids that got saved here at the Cola Clash we did at my home church. And I can go back and I can visit them. And when I think through all of the possibilities of things that could be done, that should be done, that must be done this fall, just to be perfectly honest with you young people, I was a little bit overwhelmed earlier today. I was just thinking of all of the things that needed to be done, things that needed to be planned, things that needed to be accomplished, things that needed to be fixed in the trailer, people that I needed to spend time with. Oh, it was just overwhelming. And I found myself just a little bit feeling like I don’t even know if I have the time, energy or spiritual energy to get all of these things done. And I counsel you like I counseled myself. If God sent Jesus, don’t you think he’s going to give me everything I need to do everything he wants me to do here this fall? And it’s interesting, he also says this, how shall he not with him? Listen, Jesus is the ultimate provision. Let me just say that, young people. Jesus is everything you need to succeed in your own walk with God, in your service for him, and in the variety of tasks and things that need to be accomplished in your life. But he says, shall we not also with him also freely give us all things? Let me just say this. Jesus is enough, but God gives you even more. God gives you his divine enablement. God can give you stability in your heart. God can give you ideas where you just don’t feel creative. God can give you energy when you just feel absolutely trashed. God can give you a clear mind where your head feels foggy. and it says that he wants to freely give us all things. You know, so often we can look at the things that need to be accomplished or we can even look at God’s provisions, if I can say it that way, the enablement that he wants to give, and we can get in mind that somehow, someway, we’ve got to earn it. We feel like maybe, well, you know, I’ve got to do my devotions for 10 days in a row and then God can use me, or you know what, I’ve got to keep myself clean from this sin for two weeks to three weeks, and then maybe God can use me. You know what, friends? That is not how God operates. It says God wants to freely give you all things. I just ask you this question. How many good deeds did you do that caused God to send Jesus to die on the cross for your sins? Think about it. Did God send Jesus because you were so good? No, if anything, he sent Jesus because you and me were so bad. And see, it was God’s love that was first. God saw us and he loved us. He was for us. So he sent Jesus as the provision for our sins so we could be saved. And the provisions, the overflowing, unmerited, undeserved provisions don’t stop when you get saved. They just get started. And young people, I’m trying to, listen to the pep talk, all right? This is what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to encourage you, regardless of how much of a failure you feel, God still wants to give you his provisions. No matter how much you may have failed and even rebelled and at times faltered and allowed yourself to buckle under the weight of the expectations or the opportunities or just the busy schedule or under the weight of your own discouragement or self-expectations, let me tell you, God is for you. And if God sent Jesus, well, we didn’t deserve it and weren’t even looking for it, let me tell you, God will freely, no strings attached, give you everything you need to succeed in the Christian life. God wants to give you victory over sin, areas you thought were impossible to have victory over. God wants to give you success in your human relationships in life with people you feel like you could never get along with. God wants to give you love, kindness, joy, peace, harmony with those people. God wants to give you victory in your attitude towards your parents. He wants to help you excel in your schoolwork. He wants your life to make a difference in your neighborhood, in your community, in your home. And all of those things are available to you and to me freely. Young people get this. Do not ever forget it. God is for us. And if God is for us. Who cares whether people around us are for us or not? Because God, the only one who really matters is for us. And his being for us doesn’t just mean that he’s our biggest fan, but God’s actually out there with us on the field, so to speak, giving us everything we need, not because we earn it, not because we deserve it, but because he loves us. So young people, I want you to be encouraged here because God loves you. Listen, we don’t surrender to God to get him to love us. We don’t surrender to God to get him to be for us. We surrender to God because he loves us. We surrender to God because he is for us. We depend upon him because his provision for us is unlimited. His power that he wants to manifest on our behalf is unparalleled, inexhaustible, and it is available, young people. Listen, I don’t know about you, but that’s why I want to live a life of total surrender to God. That’s why I want to live a life of total dependence on his power, to reach the world with the amazing message that God is for us. And if that’s the case, who can be against us? Thanks for listening.

and ultimately to find victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. To view the Battle Plan, please visit thegeneration.org slash victory.