CBA Graduation 2024: “What does the LORD Your God Require of you?”

Intro: Question, Experience, Story

Graduates, you did it!! (Parents/guardians, teachers)

Red Carpet experience, we are all dressed up, people are taking pictures… “who gets to walk the red carpet?”

what are the requirements/expectations

The red carpet is a culmination event, meaning it comes at the end of something. It is a celebration of time, effort, and money.

Even though the carpet is not red in here, although it used to be orange, we are celebrating time, effort, and investment.

Passages of Scripture:

Colossians 1:28–29 “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

Worship, Grow, and Serve

Renew the Mind

Engage the Heart

Equip the Student

Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Expectations: “What does the LORD your God require of You”

Summary/Point:

Illustration: requirements…expectations, you have just completed the requirements or expectations to graduate from Central Baptist Acadamy. You are about to enter into a different season of life that will have different requirements:

you will not have to walk down the halls with a finger in front of your mouth

You will not have to have a different set of indoor shoes

Some of you will not be required to wear uniforms to shool

Some of you will not be required to read the bible or have conversations about what it says in a school setting

So, what requirements should you live by?

Expectations: “What Does the LORD your God Require of You?” (vs. )

Deuteronomy 10:12 ““And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

Fear Him (vs.)

Fear- to reverence, to value, to be concerned about, His oppinion of you matters most, etc.

in a culture of social media where people are free to express their opionions and preferences it can be really easy to care more about what seeming influencers think than the influence of God.

God’s opinion of you matters most!

Walk with Him (vs.)

Walk- when I first met my wife Jessi, when I was much older than all of you… you know what we did a lot? Walked.

in ALL His ways- over the year or years here at CBA you have learned the ways or paths that God desires you to walk in. But remember, it is not about being forced in bonds to walk a path you do not want to. it is about walking with the one you love or rather, who loves you.

Walk with Jesus everyday because life is a marathon not a sprint. Walking with Jesus is not just about your time here at CBA, it is a life long pursuit.

Love Him (vs.)

Love-

Him- relationships are a part of life! Don’t forget about the relationships that started here. Sometimes relationships end. People will come and go in your life, but that doesn’t mean that relationships are not important. A relationship with Jesus is the one relationship that will carry you through this life.

Learn to love Him because of how He loves you.

Serve Him with everything in everything

Serve the Lord your God

with all your heart

Are you familiar with the phrase, “their heart was not in it”?

and will all your soul

Application/Implications:

Engage the Heart (humility vs. pride):

I learned a new term this morning, a “soul fracture” it means that in some way you are mis-aligned or that there is a “gap” with what you know and who you are. Which brings us back to the “Red Carpet” analogy. Those who walk the carpet are often vary different in front of the cameras than they are in real life. They are expected to play a part that is quite different that who they are. It is my prayer that you will not be graduating with a “soul fracture” or that you are just playing the part.

As you are acknowledge for your work in the classroom, I pray that it will be an accurate depiction of your soul’s desire

Enlist the Body (Words, actions, emotions):

Summary/Point:

Illustration:

Prayer: in closing we would like for you to be able to pray with your graduate! If you would like to come up, stand next to, and pray for one of the graduates please start making your way up now. I will start off in prayer and then allow a few moments for you to pray out loud or quietly. Musci will play. Then I will close our time of prayer.