Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Have you all been blessed?

Are you blessed to be in the House of the Lord?

Have you been blessed by the music?

Blessed by our graduates being here.

We want to welcome each and every one of you.

I want to give a special thanks to principal Thrower and her TA faculty and staff for their dedication to our students and the support they've provided to bring our students to this point, Amen.

I want to thank you as parents.

No more do you have to drive early in the morning?

To drop them off at school.

Some of some of the students I got the chance to be with them last week for their seniors dinner and I said don't be afraid if you're if you think your parents are going to forget this moment.

There's always college loans.

That will remind them that you graduated, but thank God there's no more high school loans.

Normal high school tuition, what a blessing and.

2016 class graduating class at 2016.

How y'all doing?

Just good, how are you all doing?

I pray that you feel blessed to be here.

There's some of you graduating with honors.

There's some of you just honored to be graduating, Amen.

God is good all the time.

And you're just glad that you're in this moment and we're happy for you.

We're so glad that you've made it to this occasion.

It's been a privilege to get to know you the past 12 months.

I had an opportunity to do a week of prayer at TA with you in the first semester, and we did a week of prayer on worth it.

How there are some things in life that are worth pursuing and you have reached this point and it's been worth it?

Amen, all that hard work, all that effort has been worth it.

One of the.

Things that I've also enjoyed doing with you is playing basketball and.

You've beaten me sometimes and I've also won sometimes these old legs can still play.

And I've just enjoyed spending time playing basketball with several of you, and it's been a great opportunity to do that.

Most of all I want to thank you and thank God for bringing you to this point and this meaningful accomplishment.

God is not only the author, but he's also the finisher of our faith, Amen.

And what he has started in your life he will finish in your life, and he's finished this chapter in your life, and we pray that God will continue to open up his meaningful purpose and plans for your life, that you will get to discover everything that God has.

Planned as you start this next journey in your life.

May you bow your heads with me one more time in prayer as we enter the Lord's word, let's pray, Father, God, we want to thank you for this graduating class of 2016.

We want to thank you for each of the families they represent, Lord, as we come to you now.

Nothing to the cross.

We bring only to the cross we clean.

As we read your word, may it also read our hearts before we ask it in Jesus name Amen.

Going to school.

I never wanted to get a wall.

Do you know what a wall stands for?

An absence without leave.

Absence without leave was a serious.

Thing to partake at my school, I don't know if it's the same at your school, but I've read the handbook.

A principal thrower, I've read the handbook and.

As we look at AWOL and being absent without leave, there's multiple ways to be absent without leave number one.

Students who leave campus without checking out, absent without leave students who arrive late to campus without checking in.

Absent, without leave, students who begin absent being absent from school without their parents permission.

Absent without leave in the handbook of Takoma Academy page 21.

This is the consequence of being absent without leave students may not exceed 6 absences per term in any course in order to?

Receive credit for their course.

I guess y'all haven't been absent more than six times, Amen.

Thea takes absence seriously.

But I wonder.

If us as adults.

Have allowed you to be absent without leave without even knowing it.

I wonder if we've allowed you to be absent from the assignment that God has given you.

As we read in John, Chapter 17.

The Bible says.

This that Jesus wants us to be in the.

World, but not of the world.

My challenge for us this morning is have we, as a church, unintentionally allowed you to be absent without leave?

There's multiple ways we can have done that.

One way is we might have promoted a Jesus that had pristine white robes with clean hands and feet and not told you of a Jesus from Palestine that walked the dusty streets.

Not told you over Jesus that went.

And bent down and.

Washed the disciples dirty feet, not told you.

Of a Jesus that hung out with lepers and had a meal with prostitutes and tax collectors.

If we've done that, we've allowed you to be absent without leave.

Maybe we've allowed you to be absent without leave.

Whenever we've been more concerned about how much money you'll earn when you graduate than how many people you will help.

Right?

Whenever we've done that we've allowed you to be absent without leave.

Maybe we've done it by being more concerned about our buildings and institutions than being more concerned about your spiritual health.

Whenever we've done that, we've allowed you to be absent without leave.

Maybe we've allowed you to be absent without leave by being blind to the problems and injustices of the world.

Maybe we've allowed you to be absent without leave by demonizing our enemies and those against us.

Maybe we've allowed you to be absent without leave by being more concerned about good grades than proclaiming God's grace.

If we've done that, we've allowed you to be absent without leave.

But there's something about absence and that's the fact that you can have a permission slip.

And this morning, Jesus Christ wants to give you each a permission slip.

He wants you to give you a permission slip to be in the.

World, but not of the world.

He wants you to have a permission slip to go into the world.

Permission to go into the world and not run from it.

Permission to engage the world like those three Hebrew boys did when they were in Babylon.

Engage the world make a difference in the world.

Permission to not be conformed by the world, but to transform the world by God, power of justice and mercy.

Permission to turn the world upside down.

As he did with unqualified disciples.

They did it by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So this morning I've entitled my message.

If you haven't guessed already, permission slip.

Permission slip.

Turn your Bibles with me to John Chapter 17 and here as we look at the words of John, Chapter 17.

If you have a red letter Bible, you will notice that although most of these words are in red letters, this is a prayer of Jesus.

In fact, this is the longest recorded.

Prayer of Jesus.