Baccalaureate

Baccalaureate

Intro: Thank you Board members, Superintendent, Teachers, Family, Friends and guests

And honored Class.

If you could ask God three questions…,

and he would answer them…, in a clear…, and audible voice…

so that you could hear and know the answer,

what three questions would you ask?

I think they can all be summarized into a category of the following three questions.

1. Why was I born?

2. What should I do next?

3. When I look back what will I see?

I want you to think about those three questions

because I will be coming back to them throughout this sermon.

This is a sermon.

Not that I among going to be preachy.

And it is not like a typical sermon I would preach on Sunday morning

so don’t start squirming in your seat.

But there is a difference in giving a lecture or motivation speech or congratulatory speech.

I think those are good but I have worked with teens and college students all my life.

Something I have learned:

Right now you do not need motivating by a lecture.

You are probably the most excited about the future

you have ever been up until this point in your life.

You already have every reason to believe that anything that you want to do is possible.

This is a gift of being young…, your possibilities are endless

Dreams and goals are within your reach.

The world is at your finger tips.

You have been congratulated a hundred times today…,

and you will be congratulated a lot more this evening.

But a sermon has the unique ability

to remind us of some basic truths

about choosing a moral and productive path to good citizenship

in whatever community that is ahead in the path of your journey.

Whether that is a college community in your future.

Or vocational training in your future

Or whatever career choice or life path you choose to take ahead of you.

Whatever pathway you choose,

choose the one that is going to make life better for your children

choose the one that is going to make life better for others who will follow in your footsteps.

I grew up in poverty.

I am the youngest of 12 children in my family.

I am the only one to go to college and earn a Bachelor Degree

and to go on graduate school and earn a Masters.

I broke the cycle of poverty.

I broke the cycle of ignorance.

I overcame the hardest obstacles.

If I did it so can you.

I have devoted my whole life to helping people see different pathways

to breaking generational poverty,

crime, and lack of education.

The hardest thing to teach people is you don’t break those type of cycle by just throwing money at a problem…, or giving away free food…, or handing out free stuff.

You are not creating dignity when you do that.

Real dignity comes through building relationships with people.

Spending time with them.

Getting to know them.

My junior year of college I moved out of the dorm room

And into a parsonage where I started as a pastor of three churches.

I am an Ordained Deacon

I am an Ordained Elder in full Connection and have been a pastor for 30 years.

It wasn’t easy for me.

I am an introvert.

Getting to know other people takes real work for me.

Showing people my real self and getting to know other people takes hard work for me.

I don’t have a photographic memory.

I had to force myself to study harder than everyone else.

I had to memorize things that most people could comprehend after just one reading.

When others stayed out late all night (well at least most of the time) I came in…,

I got up early

I ate a good breakfast

I went to class

When others quit

I kept going.

Because I wanted better for my children and better for the next generation than what I had.

I wanted to give back to my community more than what I had taken.

So If I could ask God why was I born.

I believe he would say you already have the answer.

I believe you are somewhere in my story also.

You were born to give back more than you receive.

You were born to contribute more to society than you take.

You were born to overcome the odds.

To prove the critics wrong.

To defeat the naysayers

You were born to give more love than hate

To listening more than talk.

To spread hope instead of drama

You were born to forge a pathway that makes a better life

for others who follow in your footsteps.

You can’t do that by living someone else’s dream.

You can’t do that without hard work.