1. Graduation is an exciting time of the year. Milestones are reached, plans are made, and the journey continues. The reason for calling it “Commencement.”
2. Educators have an almost impossible challenge before them. Too many students do not want to learn:
Physics Teacher: "Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head and he discovered gravity. Isn’t that wonderful?"
Student: "Yes sir, but if he had been sitting in class looking at books like us, he wouldn’t have discovered anything."
3. While there are many things to learn of this world, we realize foundational to all of it are the things of God.
4. 2 Timothy 3.10-17
I. Seek the LORD, He is Seeking You
A. We are Taught to Seek God in Scripture
Seek the Kingdom First (Matthew 6.33)
A rabbi was instructing his students one day and took out a large jar. He placed some sizable stones inside, all the way to the top of the jar. He asked, “Is the jar full?” The students responded, “Yes.” He then poured gravel into the jar and repeated the question. The students began to get quiet, a bit afraid to answer. Then, he poured fine sand into the jar and asked, “And now?” The students understood his lesson.
There are important things in life, seen in the large stones, and lesser things, though good, which may be seen in the gravel and sand. If we put the lesser things into our lives first, there will be no room for the more important things.
Therefore, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6.33).
Psalm 119.1-2
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
B. Why do we seek God? Because He is seeking us
1. Even from our Beginnings – Psalm 139.13-16
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
2. Out of His Steadfast Love and Compassion
John 4.23 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
2 Chronicles 16.9a 9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. Luke 19.10 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
John 17.24 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
3. With Grand Plans for Us – Jeremiah 29.11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
C. What do we do When We Find Him?
Jeremiah 29.13-14 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
D. Don’t Quit Seeking
Seek and Find
Once there was a great scholar and teach, who was observing the children playing hide-and-seek. One child covered his eyes and counted while the other children scattered and hid. Then he went and began to find the children, one after another. As he found them the others join the search.
After watching the children play for a while, the scholar returned to his books. Time passed, and the voices of the children faded away. He was eventually disturbed from his studies by the sound of a lone child’s voice crying in the schoolyard. He went out to see what had happened, thinking perhaps the child might be hurt. He asked the child, “Son, what is it? Why all this weeping?” The boy explained, “We were all playing hide-and-seek. I was hiding, and they didn’t find me. They quit looking for me, and they all went home.” He began to sob. The scholar realized that this child’s sorrow was like God’s sorrow. God wants us to look for Him; but how must he feel if no one is looking for Him?
II. Go with the LORD, He Is Going with You Matthew 28.18-20
A. There are Some Places not To Go – Psalm 1.1-3
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
B. Places We Should Go – Wherever God Leads – Psalm 23
1. Problems come when we do not consult the LORD (Ai in Joshua 7-8)
2. Problems come when we do not listen to the LORD (David)
C. Promise in Going
Joshua 1.8
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
III. Continue Your Education in the LORD, He Continues to Teach You
Mark Twain said: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Whether we are talking about our occupations or our spiritual understanding, if we are serious, we do not stop learning and growing.
A. We Are in a Process in Our Spiritual Development – 1 Peter 2.2
1. Newborn/Salvation/Entry Level
2. Some estimate that 80% of Christians remain at this level
B. We Process from Milk to Meat – Hebrews 5.11-12
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
• Graduation may mean the end of our time in the Youth Group but,
• Graduation does not mean an end to knowing God
• Graduation does not mean an end to learning his word
1. Dr. Howard A. Kelly was a world-renowned physician in the early 1900’s. On the night of his graduation from medical school he wrote in his diary, “I dedicate myself, my time, my capabilities, my ambition, everything to Him. Blessed LORD, sanctify me to Thy uses. Give me no worldly success which may not lead me near thee. Go with me Lord, my Savior!”
2. Continue your walk with Jesus! 2 Timothy 3.14-15
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
