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.
You can only do that with a lot of starting…, and re-starting.
To learn from the mistakes of others.
To learn from your mistakes
And as I have always taught my own two boys.
Don’t make the same mistakes I have made
make some new ones…, make so new mistakes.
But keep going on.
So, What should I do next?
Last week I was in Cancun Mexico on my honey moon.
Cancun has the bluest water beach I have ever seen.
It was a beautiful week.
We stayed at one of the five Royal Resorts.
You could use the beach…, the pool…, and had access to all the amenities of all five resorts.
I learned something about the culture while I was there.
The first couple of times when we ate
After the meal we waited and waited to get the ticket.
Here when you finish your meal the waiter or waitress brings the ticket over to the table.
In Mexico you have to ask for the ticket.
I spoke to a couple of people at restaurants outside the resort also about it.
That is just part of the culture.
They don’t get in any hurry.
They enjoy the meal.
They relax…, and they unwind.
Here it is not easy to slow down.
We are always in a rush.
We are in a hurry.
Eighty percent of college students change their major before they graduate.
According to the National Center For Education Statistics
some change their major 3 or more times.
If you have a double major you might be in for a double surprise???
Even after graduation the new normal is 4 job changes by the time you are 30.
I know some of you are thinking
I have spent the past four years getting ready for my college major.
I know what I want to study.
I know what I want to become.
But have you asked God what God wants you to do next?
Some of you may be thinking to yourself…., “I…, don’t…, even…, believe in God”
Well, that’s o.k.
Even if you don’t believe in God…, God…, believes…, in you.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I (God) know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "
plans to prosper you
and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.
You can live without a lot of things, but you won’t live well without hope.
Hope is what gets us through a life that is not fair.
Life is just not fair.
Some people work their entire lives and barely make a living.
Somebody else buys one ticket and wins the lottery.
Some people live a healthy life, exercise and eat healthy but still wind up with cancer.
Others smoke.., drink…, abuse their bodies and still manage to live a long time.
Life is not always fair.
When things fail to turn out the way they should
You can get bitter or you can get better.
I am going to choose hope…, and faith…, and love.
Here is a thought to consider today:
if your friends don't point you toward God's goal for your life,
then they're not very good friends.
You want to be around dream-builders, NOT dream-crashers!
I want to be around dream builders.
What Should I do next?
Set out to fulfill your dreams.
Surround yourself with the right people and you can fulfill the dreams you have for the future.
Surround yourself with positive attitudes.
Look for the opportunity and the good in life.
When I am sad I will cry but I will go on with my life.
When I am tired I will rest but I will go on with my life.
I give myself permission to heal…,
I give myself permission to hope and live so that I can reach the dreams God has given me.
And Finally: When I Look Back What Will I See?
This week the County Music Charts top artist are:
Sam Hunt “Body Like a Back Road”
Brett Young “In Case You Didn’t Know”
Luke Combs “Hurricane”
When I looked back on this week in the year I graduated high school the top artist were:
Ray Charles and Willie Nelson “Seven Spanish Angels”---go ahead and laugh….
George Strait “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind”
Conway Twitty “Ain’t She Something Else”
That is why I was more an AC/DC, Metallic and ZZTop guy in high school.
Recently on Family Feud…, Steve Harvey said, they surveyed 100 people
Name the most memorable milestone of your life.
Graduation was one of the top six answers on the board.
Not that you will remember who spoke at your high school graduation.
Gallup just did a poll that said, less than 8 percent
could remember who spoke at the college graduation.
Images of today will forever be etched into your memory.
You will forget other things that you thought were so important.
What will I see when I look back?
Popularity?
Social status?
All this will change by the time you have your five and ten year class reunions.
Geeks and Goths and those who were the clumsiest
Will rise to become successful entrepreneurs…, doctors…, lawyers…, Engineers.
I will never forget shortly after I graduated college going back to my home town.
As I pulled up to the drive through window at McDonalds there was Liddia
She was the most popular cheerleader in high school. 4.0 average.
Working the drive up window.
I learned this lesson: The most likely to succeed don’t always succeed.
And the least likely to make it sometimes make it.
It is not about what is handed to you in life.
It is about what you do with what you have in life that makes the difference.
I am going to leave you today with a challenge.
Last week Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking
said that humans need to colonize a new planet soon —
and now he's arguing that we need to start within 100 years or risk extinction.
With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population…
We need to find a new planet.
For some people here today either our parents or grandparents laughed
when Wright brothers flew the first plane at Kitty Hawk.
They made jokes when NASA started the project to send a manned space flight to the moon.
We marveled at the first TCP/IP and dreamed about the world wide web. (486x) DOS HTML)
So who knows.
Maybe those Syfy fans and Algebra/Physics Geeks
Will someday think outside the box and lead the race to colonize a new planet.
But in the mean time let me challenge you to take better care of the one we have now.
I’m not just talking about green energy, Eco watch or save the earth.
I mean more like whatever corner of earth you live in do your best to make it better.
I am convinced we are going to have to do a lot better job of taking care of what we have
and the people we live around in the here and now
before we will ever be united enough to travel light years to another planet.
And even if we do find another planet.
Do you really want to duplicate the messes we have right here, right now on this one?
I hope when people look back on my life and try to summarize or eulogize who I am
They will say he left things better than when he first came here.
I hope they will say, we are better because we knew him.
Will they be able to say that about you?
Student got a graduation card from his grandma:
that said, you were born broke…, crying…, complaining…, whining,
and school hasn’t changed you one bit.
I hope this $100 dollar bill will help. Happy Graduation.
There are three questions left on the next test: After all:
1. Why was I born?
2. What should I do next?
3. When I look back what will I see?
God, I know You have my best in mind and in Your plans.
Thank You for placing a dream in my heart
and for giving me people to help lead me towards that dream.
I want my relationships and my life to honor You.
