Baccalaureate 2011
Graduation is an exciting time. It’s a time that you have looked forward to for years. How many times have you said, “I can’t wait until I graduate because then I will be able to do…” Guess what? That time is now and it’s here. It’s taken you 18 years to get here which means:
• You have been in school now for 2,160 days.
• You have spent 12,960 hours in classes.
• That translates into 777,600 minutes.
• You’ve been around 216 months.
• You have been breathing 936 weeks.
• You’ve been here 157,248 hours.
• You’ve been taking up space 9,434,880 minutes.
• You’ve slept 52,500 hours.
• You’ve watched T.V. 12,173 hours.
• You’ve spent 7,488 hours eating. (Mostly pizza!)
• If you live the average life span of 70 years, or as the
Bible says 3 score and 10, you’ll...
• SLEEP ............24 YEARS
• WORK ............14 YEARS
• PLAY ............ 8 YEARS
• EAT ............ 6 YEARS
• DRIVE .............5 YEARS
• TALK .............4 YEARS
• GO TO SCHOOL.. ....3 YEARS
• SICK .............3 YEARS
• STUDY & READ.......3 YEARS
• MOST OF YOU WERE BORN in the early 90’s YOU WERE WRINKLED, RED, BALD, TOOTHLESS, COULDN’T HARDLY SEE, CRYING, COMPLAINING, AND HAD NO CLOTHES ON.
Well student’s, you’ve come a long way, you’ve reached a milestone. You’ve made it through thirteen years of school, which has involved facing some very real challenges. And, as we can all testify, making it through life will include continuous encounters with challenges that we must meet. But the wonderful thing about confronting these numerous challenges is that you can face them with some victories already under your belt.
Just think, graduates, of the encounters you have already experienced with success. You graduated from the womb and successfully adjusted to life on the outside. You graduated from infancy and successfully began that first day of kindergarten. You graduated from preadolescence and successfully navigated those teen years. Now you are graduating from high school and you must travel the road of adulthood. In other words, this is not the end…it’s really just the beginning! You’ve come to the end of a chapter in your book called life, but by the end of this week, when you a graduate, a new chapter begins and what you’ll learn as you begin to enter into this big world is that you have the same dream that everyone else has which is to make it in this world. To be successful!
However, some people will go to great lengths to reach success. Athletes will take steroids or cork a bat to be the best. People will try and gain insider trading news to make an extra buck. People will try and lie on their resume to get a better job. And the whole reason people do this is because they are hoping to make it in this world. They are hoping to be a success. However, what I have learned in my 36 years is that this stuff will not help you and I make it in this world. So that leaves us asking “How do we make it in this world? Well, I believe that the Bible gives us the answer to that question. I believe the Bible gives us some guidelines that will enable us to make it in this world.
I. FACE YOUR FEARS. (2 TIMOTHY 1:7)
We are all afraid from time to time. Some people are afraid of storms, some are afraid of birds or animals; some have this fear of not being accepted or liked or failing. We all have fears and it is not wrong to have fears. What is wrong is when we let those fears begin to control us. It becomes wrong when we become consumed by fear. When we begin to live in a constant state of fear or when we don’t do stuff because of fear.
There was a test conducted by a university where 10 students were placed in a room. Three lines of varying length were drawn on a card. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. But 9 of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. One student was the stooge. The usual reaction of the stooge was to put his hand up, look around, and realizing he was all alone, pull it back down. This happened 75% of the time, with students from grade school through high school. This 1 person would go along with what everyone else would say. Why? Out of fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of not being accepted
So, how do we overcome this fear? Read 2 Timothy 1:7. The Bible is full of “fear-nots.” But I like this verse because Paul was writing to a young man who was perhaps a little bit older than you graduates. At this time Timothy was a young pastor at the church of Ephesus, and the Apostle Paul was his mentor. Paul had already encouraged Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 to not let others intimidate him or look down on him because he was young. Now what we know about Timothy is that he was afraid of being inadequate as a young pastor. He lacked self-confidence. In this verse written to Timothy, Paul reminds Timothy that any fear in his life did not come from God. “For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Paul makes it clear that we can have confidence to face those fears and that confidence comes from God. When an individual trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, God, through the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our life and from that point on God begins to provide this continuous comfort that we need to eliminate our fears. With God in control we can face our fears. With God in control, He gives us the ability to do what life demands, to love when others hate, and to be under control when others throw restraint to the winds. Max Lucado says, “Fear doesn’t want you to make the journey to the mountain. If he can rattle you enough, fear will persuade you to take your eyes off the peaks and settle for a dull existence in the flatlands.”
Seniors, living far away from home can be fearful at times. Going in for a job interview can be traumatic. Going off to a college that you don’t know anyone and thinking to yourself that you’re not going to have any friends who will care about you can be devastating. But God has not given you seniors a “spirit of fear.” It is God’s will to move you from fear to confidence. You are called to live courageously and to trust the enablement of God’s Spirit to get you pass those fears. God can and will use your life, but you must be willing to face your fears.
As you have probably already learned fears will be with you all your life, but Paul challenges us to not run from our fears, but to FACE them. In other words, for the sake of Jesus, be willing to stand up against someone. Be willing to try something new. Be willing to say to one of your professors, that scripturally you are Wrong! Be willing to say to society that is not right, because it does not line up with the Word of God. Be willing to admit that there is absolute right and absolute wrong. Be willing to make ethical decisions at work and on test. Be willing to be the one in the class who doesn’t cheat. You serve a God who did not give you a spirit of fear, but rather He gave you the spirit of power of love and of self-discipline! SO USE IT!
Now as we move on fear is one of Satan’s favorite tools, but it’s not the only tool that Satan likes to use, another of his favorite tools to use is the memory of past failures; and again we draw our insight from Paul who encourages us to…
II. FORGET YOUR FAILURES (PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14)
I wish we had a better understanding of failure. When we hear the word failure it immediately has a very negative connotation attached to it. As a society we hate failure. We see many people who dwell constantly on their failures. “Ohh I don’t want to do that because I tried it before and failed.” Seniors, I want to let you in on a little secret. Everyone will fail at one point in their life, but let me let you in on another secret. Failures are not the end of the world, but rather they are the beginning of success
What does this mean for our lives? Listen to what Paul wrote in Phil. 3:13-14. Paul is in prison, chained to a Roman guard, under what were probably very poor conditions when he wrote Phil. 3:13-14. Pretty much Paul says, Forget what is behind you and press forward. Paul stated 2 things: 1. He refused to allow failures to destroy his life, which is a good thing because Paul made a bunch of mistakes, including persecuting Christians. 2. He refused to allow his failures to keep him from his goal. In other words, he wasn’t going to allow his failures to control him. So, what was his secret?
He put his past behind him and determined to have a positive attitude in life. Graduates, you will fail. None of us are perfect and my philosophy has always been that the only ones who never do anything wrong are the ones who never do anything. So, it’s not a matter of “if” you fail, but “when.” And when we fail, we must learn from it and then put it behind us. We must never allow failure to make us quit trying.
Illustration of when I was at OBU in Family Therapy. I still have this book in my office to remind me to never give up, to never quit, and to not focus on my failures or allow my failures to keep me from my goals. Graduates, if you sit there and dwell on your failures you will never get anywhere. You will never succeed, and you will be afraid to do anything. If you try something and you do good, great. If you try something and you fail, then move on don’t dwell on it because you will have other opportunities in life.
In the midst of World War II, Oxford University asked then Prime Minister Churchill to address its commencement exercises. Dressed in his finest suit, he arrived at the auditorium where the service was to be held with his usual props, a cigar, a cane and a top hat. As Churchill approached the podium, the crowd rose in appreciative applause. Standing there looking very dignified, he settled the crowd down and asked them to be seated. Standing confidently before this crowd of great admirers, he removed his cigar and placed his top hat on the podium. Then Churchill gazed at his waiting audience that included some of the most noted scholars in the world. With an authoritative tone in his voice he began with three words: “Never give up!” Several seconds passed without him saying another word. Finally he repeated those same three words again, “Never give up!” There was a deafening silence as Churchill reached for his hat, steadied himself with his cane and left the platform. His commencement address was finished. When you fail, forget about the failure and try again! NEVER GIVE UP!
III. FOLLOW YOUR FAITH. (HEBREWS 12:1-3)
Read Hebrews 12:1-3. The Hebrew writer establishes that all runners need a reference point in running a race. People in a spiritual race or on this spiritual journey also need a reference point. If you’re in the middle of nowhere and have no idea where you are, the first thing you must always do, when trying to find your direction in some unknown territory, is identify which direction is north. Once you know where true north is, you can navigate from there. NASA illustrates this need for a reference point.
On day six of the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts needed to make a critical course correction. If they failed, they might never return to Earth. To conserve power, they shut down the onboard computer that steered the craft. Yet the astronauts needed to conduct a thirty-nine-second burn of the main engines. How to steer? Astronaut Jim Lovell determined that if they could keep a fixed point in space in view through their tiny window, they could steer the craft manually. That focal point turned out to be their destination--Earth. As shown in 1995’s hit movie, Apollo 13, for thirty-nine agonizing seconds, Lovell focused on keeping the earth in view. By not losing sight of that reference point, the three astronauts avoided disaster. Scripture reminds us that to finish your life mission successfully, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Heb. 12:2).
For Christians our reference point is Jesus Christ. You can be flexible on many things in life, and you should be. But when it comes to Jesus Christ and His teachings we are not to budge. It’s so easy to become distracted, especially that first year away from home. Focus. Remove obstacles. Tie into a local church or campus ministry that will help you navigate life. Your greatest challenge will be to follow your faith, and to stay focused on Jesus all the way. To finish the race you need to continue to follow your faith. Continue to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus because any other reference point will fail.
So, even though your time in High School is coming to an end, your time as a student is not, you will be a student for the rest of your life. Let me explain. In this life there are two kinds of courses that we all take, one is required and one is elective. The required courses are Life and Death, these you have no option in taking, you have no say as to where you’re born, when you’re born, who you’re parents are, nor do you have any control over the fact that one day you will die. We also have the elective courses and these elective courses deal with how you live your life, you have the choice to either be “spiritual” or “carnal.” You have the choice to be either “scriptural” or “logical.” You have the choice to be safe in “God’s Will,” or “Struggling in your own.” And most importantly of all you have the choice, to be either “Saved,” or “Lost.” God formed us, sin deformed us, school informed us, but only Christ can transform us! Think about it!
In closing let me say that I want each and everyone one of you graduates to make it in this world. I want all of you to be successful. But, in order for that to happen you have to face Your Fears, forget your failures, and follow your Faith. Please understand this is not a simple you can make $100,000 year from your home working 2 hrs a week plan. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Tonight is to show you the reality of the world. It’s to show you that life is sometimes going to be tough and hard. And God never said life would be fair. However, there is a way around it and the way around it is God. God is stronger then your fears. God will help you overcome your failures. God will guide you along the course of life. Graduates that is how you’re going to make it in this world!
