Baccaloreate 2025
Notes
Transcript
Baccalaureate June 1st, 2025
Good evening, class of 2025. In a few short days you guys will wrap up an important chapter of your life. For the last 13 years, 180 days each year minus those PA snow days you guys have gone to school. All the time spent doing homework, and tests and listening to lectures has all been to prepare you for the chapters yet to come. I’ll be honest, I can’t tell you much about algebra, or membean, or osmosis. I hope you guys have learned about that stuff already. But I can share with you all something that every graduate needs to hear.
Only a few short years ago, I was here at my senior baccalaureate ceremony. Since then, a lot has happened, most of which I was unprepared for. Not to be depressing, but the next few years of your life will almost certainly have unexpected things happen. That’s one certainty of life, it’s that unexpected things will happen. If you guys want, I could sit up here for the next 8 hours and walk through the Biblical answers for some of the various things you might deal with after graduating. This would be useful and, honestly, a lot of fun. However, I don’t think anyone wants to be here until 2 am. Instead, allow me to share a key Biblical truth that can help you in any and all areas of your life. This is an absolute truth that can help you no matter what happens.
If you have a Bible, open with me to the book of Joshua. If you don’t have a Bible with you can pull one from the back of the pew in front of you. I want everyone to be looking at what I’m about to read so we don’t miss it. While you’re turning there, allow me to provide some context. I’m going to summarize what has happened in the time leading up to what we will read here in Joshua. Bear with me because we are going to go all the wy back to the beginning.
We see that in the beginning God created everything. He created the heavens, the earth, and everything on it. The Bible says that God made man in his own image and that it was very good. Man was able to be in a direct relationship with the Lord who created everything. However then we saw that Adam sinned by listening to Eve and eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of this sin entered the world, Adam, Eve and all their descendants including you and I inherited sin.
Because of this sin man is no longer able to be in the presence of the Lord because God is wholly and just. And sin is against His nature. Following the fall of man, humans began to fill the earth. However, mankind grew more and more sinful and eventually God decided to wipe the slate clean. However, he spared one man named Noah and his children, along with two of every kind of animals. It was only Noah, his family, and the animals that were on the ark and that survived the flood. Eventually the waters died down and Noah and his family began to again fill the earth. However sin was still a problem. I’m sure you guys have heard this but I promise I’m getting to my point.
Eventually, the decedents of Noah filled the earth, but they were still sinful. God chose a man name Abram, who would later be called Abraham, to be the father of his people. We see that God promises Abraham his descendants will outnumber the stars in the sky. Abraham, through his son Issac, and then his son and then his son, and so on, make up the people of Israel. These are God’s people.
God’s people the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians, (yeah those guys who built the pyramids) and eventually things got so bad that the Israelites cried out to the LORD. The Lord heard their cries and raised up moses to lead them out of Egypt. After many miraculous Plagues faced the Egyptians eventually Pharoh allowed Moses and the Israelites to leave to go to the Land God promised to give them for their people.
While on the way to the promise land from Egypt the people kept losing faith in the Lord and sinning. Because of their sin God punished them by causing them to wonder in the desert for 40 years. Along with this Moses also sinned and was therefore not allowed to enter the promise land. Before the death of Moses God appointed a new leader for Isreal and that’s where our story comes in. The new leader was Joshua.
At this point God’s people the Israelites are sitting on the edge of the promise land and all that’s separating them is the Jordan river. Here’s what the Lord says to Joshua,
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 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. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
I bring this passage up because we can find many similarities between the Isrealites and you all as graduates. They are both turning to a new chapter. The Isrealites are entering the promise land. A land that is filled with a bunch of people who don’t want them to have it. A bunch of people who don’t serve the Lord and who don’t want to loose the land. But notice what God says to Joshua. In verse 5 he says that he will not leave nor forsake Joshua. In verse 6 he tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Then in verse 7 God says again, be strong and very courageous. And finally in verse 9 God says it again, He says Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Multiple times God reminds Joshua that he is with him. He reminds him that he is on his side. And that he must be courageous. Obviously none of you are Joshua in this room. And God wasn’t talking to you and me. But let’s look at what the Bible says in a whole. The reason I went into so much detail about what the Bible talked about before this point in Joshua was because it explains the state of us as humans. Listen, everyone in this room has sinned and has fallen short of the Glory of God. We all have sinned and the punishment for that sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life. The Bible gives the answer to our sin problem it is Jesus.
The Bible tells us that Jesus took on flesh, he went down into this earth and lived a perfect and sinless life. And then he died an undeserved death on the cross. He did it all so that he could have a relationship with us. When he died he paid the price for the sins of his children. He paid the price for our sin. The Bible says that in order to receive this free gift all we have to do is confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts. If you do this or have already done this then you can be freely in the presence of the Lord. You can serve him and he will be there at all points in your life. No matter what happens after you graduate, you can find courage knowing the Lord is with you wherever you go. So in closing I want everyone to close their eyes and bowel their heads.
There are two types of people here tonight. There’s those of you who have given your life to Christ and there’s those who haven’t. First I want to address those who have, if you have given your life to Christ then I just want to encourage you to have faith. Remember that the Lord is with you wherever you go. He is there on highest of mountain tops and in the lowest of valleys. I don’t know what your future may hold but I do know who holds your future. No matter what happens in your future you don’t need to worry because nothing is a surprise to God. He will never leave nor forsake you. Find your hope in him and allow his presence to give you peace. Prov 3:6 says, In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Through the ups and the downs remember God. Seek him and remember that he is with you wherever you go. He is there for you. He cares for you. Do not be afraid.
For those of you who haven’t turned your life over to Jesus know this, the Bible makes it very clear. If you want to have a relationship with the Lord and to spend eternity with him in heaven than you must repent and believe. You must turn away from your sins and instead seek the Lord. This doesn’t mean that you don’t sin, but it does mean that you acknowledge your sin and allow God to change your heart from the inside out. That’s what it means to repent. Along with repenting you must believe. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he lived a perfect life, died and paid the price of our sins. And that he rose again after three days. You have to believe that when you do mess up and sin, which you will that Jesus has already paid the price of that sin. That’s what it means to repent and believe. That’s how you become a follower of God.
So if you’re here and you feel a tugging on your heart give into that. If you feel like you want to become a follower of Jesus than give into that. Allow God to do the work in you. Simply Repent and believe. If you need to come talk to me after this message. I would love to help you process the things you’re feeling.
Remember that the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Let us close in prayer.
[Pray acknowledging God is with us wherever we go]
[Pray for the graduates and their future plans]
