FSM Farewell Message

Introduction

I didn’t quite realize how difficult it would be to write a final message to you guys. I’ve been teaching in this room for the last 9 years, and I’ve been able to teach you all for varying lengths of time. Boy have I loved my time here. We have made so many memories together. This room holds so many memories for me, several from before any of you were even in junior high. I’ve had the privilege to welcome all of you into this room, whether as fresh 7th graders or as the new kid to FSM after the fact. So there will always be a special relationship between us.

So what’s the best way to give some departing words? What’s the last message I want to give to you? Honestly, there are so many different things. I couldn’t really land on one specific thing, or one specific passage.

You guys know that I usually prefer to teach through a passage of Scripture rather than on a theme. But I’m going to make an exception to the rule tonight, because this is my last message to you guys. What I would like to do is just share a few lessons I’ve learned from Scripture that have been incredibly important for my own personal walk with Jesus. And I hope you’ll find one or two of them to be helpful. Does that sound alright?

Lesson 1: Scripture is Sufficient

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I used to think of these two verses as the main one’s to defend the fact that Scripture was from God. And they definitely are good ones for that! But I often forgot to focus on the fact that these verses were a description of Scripture with a purpose statement.

Description

God breathed, useful for teaching, useful for rebuking when wrong, useful for improvement/correction, useful for training us in righteousness.

Purpose

That we may be complete. That we may be fully equipped for all that God has called us to do and to be.

Application

We don’t need anything else to find the truth. In Scripture, God has given us all that we need to know in order to be saved, in order to obey him perfectly, and in order to trust him perfectly. We ought to rejoice in this! He hasn’t held back anything from us! He isn’t secretly holding any information that we need to know. He’s revealed it all in his Word!

Here’s why this has been super important to me. For my whole life as a believer I’ve wanted to please God. I wanted to do what he requires of me. But I wasn’t reading His word a lot. And then I would agonize over wanting to know His will and wanting to know what he wanted me to do!

It wasn’t until my 20s that I realized that I was ignoring the words God had already given me in Scripture. I kept seeking an extra word, and extra sign, extra guidance, all while neglecting Scripture. But God has revealed everything we need in the Bible! He’s so good that way! So take advantage of it! Read the Word passionately, every day, meditate on it. He’s given it to you to make you complete and equipped for everything.

Lesson 2: We Must Check All Things According to Scripture

Acts 17:10–11 ESV

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

The Berean Jews here are a model of how to rightly handle anything you hear. You search the Scriptures to see if these things are true.

Anything about life, God, Jesus, salvation, how to live as a Christian, the spiritual realm, things to do, spiritual practices, etc.

Paul was a Pharisee, a Jewish leader. But the Bereans didn’t just accept what he said because he was a leader. They looked into Scripture themselves.

Don’t take what I’ve taught you at face value. Examine it for yourselves. See if Scripture shows you that thing too.

Don’t take anything else you hear or read or see on social media, or from friends at school, or even other authority figures at face value. Subject it to Scripture. Does the Bible agree with that? Does the Bible say something different? Spend time digging an evaluating. Even if it sounds good and spiritual, actually look to see if the Bible says that thing.

There are going to be people who make claims about what is true, even as a Christian. Be on guard and read Scripture for yourself. Don’t just believe what someone says because they’re compelling.

Lesson 3: Christ is Sufficient for Everything You Need

As we read this passage, notice how all of these good things are given to us “In Him”

Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

In Christ alone are all the spiritual blessings of this life and the life to come.

There are no other benefits to be found outside of Christ.

No salvation apart from Jesus.

No eternal life apart from Jesus.

No freedom from sin apart from Jesus.

No genuine life change apart from Jesus.

No truly repaired relationships apart from Jesus.

No reconciliation with God apart from Jesus.

Because he is the source of all these things, he MUST be the focus of our lives. He is worthy of it because he is God. He is worthy of it because of his life, death and resurrection on our behalf. He is worthy of all our devotion and all our affection.

Not only is He worthy of it, but it is to our benefit to fix our eyes and our lives on him. In him we get all these benefits. You will not find those benefits anywhere else.

Not it relationships

Not in a future career

Not in popularity

Not in money

Not in sports

Not in the numbing through scrolling on your phone or playing video games

Not in any other things.

Only in him. He is sufficient for all you needs. Don’t look anywhere else.

Lesson 4: God Loves You Because of Who He Is, Not What You Do

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

God loved us even when we were dead in our sins.

This is something I’ve had to learn through lots of struggle. For the longest time, and even now occasionally, I would believe the lie that God loved me more when I obeyed him and followed his rules. Don’t believe this lie. Remind yourself over and over again, like I have to, that God loves you not because of what you do, but because he is rich in mercy and love.

I have a mentor who loves to repeat this quote

There’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more, and there’s nothing you can do to make God love you any less.

Don’t get caught in the lie that God’s love will ebb and flow. His love is unchanging. Our flawed human ways of loving change over time, but God’s does not. Because he is unchanging, his love is unchanging.

And that’s a sweet comfort, to know that you have the fullness of God’s love, without having to earn it. Tt’s freely given.

Lesson 5: Good Works are Important, But Christ is the Focus

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Remember that God doesn’t give us salvation because of our good works. He saves us as a gift. And he makes us new creations.

As new creations, we are created for good works. He wants us to walk in these good works to glorify him.

Later in Ephesians Paul writes this Ephesians 4:1

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

But good works are not the end of it. We can sometimes get things flipped around as though good works like Bible reading, prayer, serving other people, sharing the Gospel, etc. are the goal. Good works are not the end God. Glorifying and enjoying God is the end goal.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So when you do the things you know you are called to do as a Christian, don’t do it just to check of a box… do it to enjoy God. Do it to worship God because he’s worthy. Do it out of the gratefulness in your heart for all Christ has done for you.

Lesson 6: We Need to Wrestle with the Horror of Sin to Grasp the Abundant Grace of God

Romans 7:15–8:4 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

In this passage we see Paul wrestling with sin! Maybe you feel this way too, frustrated at the sin you face. I know I feel this frustration all the time.

See how Paul talks about himself in verse 24? “Wretched man that I am”

He knows the depths of his sin and it burdens him greatly.

You guys, I grew up hearing the Gospel all the time. My parents were leaders in the church for all of my childhood. I heard about Jesus dying for my sins over and over again. And it just became old and routine to me. It didn’t deeply affect me.

It was only after spending time reflecting on what sin actually is, how offensive it is to God, and realizing how sinful I am, how broken I am, and especially in light of the gospel that I believe, how awful it is that I would sin against my savior.

I read this quote from a book by John Owen and it captured well what I see Paul doing in this passage

Bring thy lust to the gospel,—not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt; look on Him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, “What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace?

Owen, John. The Mortification of Sin (p. 79). (Function). Kindle Edition.

This isn’t just to be a beatdown… this is to highlight the abundant mercy of God. When we see how sinful and wretched we are, we appreciate the abundant mercy and love of God all the more. We know there’s nothing good in us but everything good in him! And we can rejoice all the more! After realizing the gravity of my sin, I came to realize how incredible God’s love is. Not just in my head, but now it affected my heart.

Closing Farewell

So I hope and I pray that one or a few of those lessons might be grasped by y’all earlier in life than I did. My whole mission here has been to point you to Jesus in ways that I needed to be shown myself.

If I could leave you with a couple challenges:

In this season of change, realize that YOU shape the culture. You are not just an attender at FSM, you are FSM. FSM is not just a program, it’s a family! And each of you are important, integral members. Spend time with each other, create the changes you wish to see in FSM, lock-in and make FSM even better than it was before.

Pray for Blake and Yazi. We should always be praying for our leaders. They’re your new leaders now, and they need you supporting them in prayer!

Fix your eyes on Jesus. So much in this world is fighting for your attention. But Jesus is truly worthy of all our attention! The more time you spend pursuing him in his Word, in prayer, and in the gatherings of his people, the more your heart will be full of his joy!

It’s been an honor to be your youth pastor. I’m really sad to leave you guys, but the good news is, because of the unity we have in Christ, it’s never truly goodbye.