Sermon - Graduation of a Christian
- In this Pandemic a lot has changed, & a lot has been forgotten/overlooked.
- I realized, I have not brought a message geared towards graduation.
- Life is full of milestones, changes, & growing up.
- Each day of our lives we become a little bit different, each day.
- The change isn’t always one that is visible, or even one that we notice, but we
still change.
- Here’s a milestone we notice, graduation.
- Graduation is always welcomed with a new beginning. All the time, effort, & work has
finally come to an end. You are ready to use what you have learned.
- In the journey, or let’s say pilgrimage, of being a Christian. It seems like there isn’t
any milestones, or graduations, we achieve on our way to the promised land, or
eternity.
- This is what we’re going to think about for our graduation Sunday.
- I have come to love the book of Colossians. Maybe it’s the wisdom we receive from
Paul’s closeness with Christ. I don’t know, but as we read we understand who Christ
is.
- Once we come to know Him. Then, we begin to grow in Him.
Q- Kind of sounds like graduation, doesn’t it?
- We come to the moment everything changes, & now we will go out & live in it.
- Before we jump into my main scripture, found in Colossians 3:12-17. Let me
back up.
- We enter school, & are enriched with the knowledge we need to have a
productive & balanced life.
- Welcome now to the greatest class you will ever be in, the Study of the Bible.
Psalm 119:11
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:105
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- These two verses reveal a great truth to our character.
- We can often joke that I don’t know why I went to school, I never use any of that stuff
anyways.
- In reality, reading, arithmetic, & writing are all skills we achieved through
schooling.
- The psalmist says, my life began on your Word. It is my foundation, & I will not
turn from it.
- Now Let’s turn to Colossians 3:12-17. We have graduated, by God’s Word, into a new
life & hope. We will live this life with this great foundation, & not turn from it.
Colossians 3:12-17
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
(Pause there for a moment, He says you are God’s Chosen, set apart, & loved like God’s only begotten Son Jesus)
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
- Let The Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom!
- Soak it in. From the moment we declare Christ is my Savior, our life has changed.
Prayer
- Peter gives to us the graduate speech. Listen,
1 Peter 2:2
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
- You’re saved by the grace of God.
- You are graduated from an old life that had no future. To one that has no end.
- You are no longer on a dead end street, but you are growing.
- So, Just as Paul penned it to the Church of Corinth last week Paul gives almost the
same traits to the Church of Colossi.
- They are traits of growth, & signs of your graduation into life.
- We have,
1. bowels of mercies,
2. kindness,
3. humbleness of mind,
4. meekness,
5. longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another,
6. love.
- As Christians, We are to be known for our mercy.
Q- Now, where does that expectation come from?
- As Jesus hung on the cross, between two thieves. One of them recognized Him as
Christ.
- At the words, remember me when you enter Your kingdom, were spoken. Jesus
didn’t question who the man was, nor did He throw up a formal questioning of
what all this man has done. No, Jesus said, this day you will be with Me in
paradise.
- Mercy is given. At the word of, I’m sorry, All is forgiven, the slate is clean.
Q- Can you imagine what that looks like?
- That’s the picture of the church.
- When you come through the doors of the church, or join in on Facebook, or
YouTube you’re there for a reason.
- That reason is, Christ is drawing you to Himself.
- It doesn’t matter if you are the biggest drunkard in the town, & stink to high
heaven. You are welcome here
- Or let me put it this way, You Should Be Welcome Here!
- When we see the massive protests happening around the world. We have to realize
there isn’t very many bowels of mercies being handed out.
- Nor is There the second trait of kindness.
- We have graduated from thinking of ourselves, to now we think of others.
Q- What can I do for them?
Q- How would this affect them?
- Going out into the work force. That’s a trait I know employers would love to see!
Q- Do you notice how you grow from one trait to the other?
- Well, If you’re kind, I know you’re not going to belittle someone because you think
you’re better than them.
- That’s your third trait, humbleness of mind
- Next is meekness.
- I know the world loves to see those forceful, & powerful, making it to the top.
- That’s not what we’re called to be doing.
- You see the powerful companies making headlines, but now we see the workers
that build, & move the companies.
- God will use the meek, because we know in whom we serve.
- Now think about the list so far. They are geared towards the idea of, You put others
first.
- Jesus is that model, & example for us. He died for us!
- What a model to have when you’re looking for a job. Instead of looking at what
the job could do for you. You look at it with the mind of what you could do for
the job.
- No, I don’t mean with the mindset of, your business would be pathetic
without me. Look what I would do for your business.
- No, that’s not meek at all.
- So now, the list turns into a word that has two parts, Longsuffering.
- We forbear one another & forgive one another.
- Let me sum it up. We get along with others!
- Hey welcome to a family.
Q- How many of you had brothers or sisters pick on you growing up?
Q- They’re still your family, aren’t they?
Q- You still love them, don’t you?
- Graduation From High School, & Graduation From college is a lot like becoming a
Christian.
- They’re both life changing moments.
- Then the choices you make are going to dictate how much joy you have.
- They’re not going to change the fact that you graduated. That happened, but
the effects of it happening won’t be felt as well. If you don’t use what you’ve
learned well.
- So The last trait on the list is Love.
- This isn’t the corrupted world view of what they think is love.
- Love is the trait that fuses all the other traits together.
- We have mercy, because we have Love.
- We have kindness, because we have Love.
- We have humbleness of mind, because we have Love.
- We have meekness, because we have Love.
- We are long suffering, because we have Love.
- Each trait is a seal from our graduation, a diploma from our graduation.
- For a Christian, our graduation is receiving Christ. Receiving the Love of God.
- Listen now to my last scripture.
1 John 4:16-18
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
- The diploma, the badge of our salvation, is the Love of God.
- It is with this love that our worries, & fears are silenced, because they are not
greater than our God who saved us.
- Greatest of all, in this diploma we now have the assurance, the will power, to
press on in this life. We have a reason to live
- As we mark this day as graduation Sunday. Remember what it stands for. It’s a
turning point for your life, & all of us have those moments. Whether we get a piece of
paper or not.
- So What really matters is,
Q- How are you going to use what you have just received?
- It’s all for the glory of God!
Prayer
