Pastor Dave
North
Harford High School Psalm 37
Baccalaureate
Service
“Your Next Quarter”
June
2, 2013
The average life expectancy in America
is around 78 years. Divide that into quarters – every 19 years is a quarter of
your life.
Your graduation from High School
is a great place to mark off your first quarter. Most of you will turn 19
within a few months to a year
That’s if you live to 78…Some of
you in this room will be dead before you reach 30
Some of you will live to 100 or
more. Most of us will live 70 or 80 years.
So every one of the graduates here today
are about to enter their second quarter. The next quarter of your life is about
to begin.
This first quarter of your life
has all been about preparation.
You have been in school for all
but the first 3 or 4 years of your life.
Some of you will go on to
continue your education, preparing for specific careers. All will be entering
adulthood.
Either
willingly or unwillingly… Determined to succeed or determined to drift.
I want to get the bad news out of
the way first: You will not stay young for long.
In
what will seem a few months, you will wake up one morning and 19 more years
will have passed. You will be 38 or 39 years old, on the cusp of 40, and the
last half of your life will be before you.
What you do in the next 19 years
will be crucial to how you finish your life. It will set the stage for the last
half.
And don’t let Hollywood and
popular culture deceive you- the last half, the time when you are NOT young,
energetic and wrinkle-free can be just as exciting, fulfilling and more
meaningful than what you have experienced or will experience in the next 19
years.
In a culture where convenience,
consumption and conceit are virtues and not hindrances to being a good person, MEANING has taken a
backseat to pleasure.
We are obsessed in 21st
Century America with the accumulation of wealth and power with the ultimate
goal of never having to work again.
In light of that pursuit, the
desire to grow as a person, to learn, to find MEANING in our lives has ben
pushed aside in the mad rush to find
“Happiness”.
I don’t want you to find
happiness… its always dependent on your circumstances- and you are going to
have more bad days than good days. Accept that and get over it.
No,
I want you to find JOY. JOY comes from within, is not dependent on what happens
to us, JOY is lasting, and JOY had MEANING.
In
Psalm 37 David the King of Israel gives some great advice for anyone at anytime
in their life
But its advice that is especially
relevant to those who still have 3/4s of their lives ahead of them.
TRUST-
V. 3
80% of you will graduate
Wednesday, and never set foot in a church willingly again.
You will put any thoughts of God
on the back burner- or worse, you will forget about Him completely.
And your life will be filled with
pain, heartache, divorce, bankruptcy, disease.. any myriad of problems, just
like everyone else… but you will have no true place of comfort, no real and
lasting answers to your problems.
Your
friends? They will try to help, but they are just as dumb as you are! And you
will find that more people than you realize do not give advice to help you, but
to advance themselves.
As
Pastor Johnny Hunt says, “We are all just one decision away from plumb stupid!”
YOU
NEED HELP. We all do. And Only by Trusting in the Savior will you not only find
answers, but MEANING.
“Trust in the Lord, and do good”
In the reality TV era, the
prevailing idea about morality seems to be “its right as long as I don’t get
caught.”- unless I can make money off my bad behavior, get a reality show of my
own and them ham it up for the cameras- then everyone will congratulate me on
my bad behavior!
Romans
3:23…For all have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God;
Proverbs
14:12…There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
But God says “Do good”- What is
good?
If I asked you if you were a good
person, would you answer yes?
Have
you ever lied? Stolen something? Lusted? Disobeyed your parents? Hated someone?
Those
are just 5 of the Ten Commandments.- and we have all at some time broken every
one of them. Even murder- Jesus said
Matthew
5:21, 22a…Ye have heard that it was said
by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in
danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:
Is it wrong to be honest? To be
faithful to your spouse? To respect your parents? To love and not hate? To
treat everyone the way you would like to be treated?
David says here, if you will Trust in
the Lord, you will have a home, and you’ll have provision.
With the economy as it is, just
getting by has become a struggle for many of us.
The
promise here is that if we will trust the Lord, act like children of God
instead of Hell raisers, He will take care of us.
SEE: Verses 23-27…
And
if you are here as an unbeliever, someone who scoffs at the Bible and says,
“its full of contradictions, its written by men, it has nothing to offer me”
Let
me ask you this: Have you ever read it?
DELIGHT-
V. 4
The whole point of faith in
Christ is not just “fire insurance” – its not all about escaping judgment. Yes,
we need the Blood of Christ to cleanse us from our sins, we need forgiveness,
we are all guilty of breaking God’s Commandments, no one is a truly good
person.
But Jesus said He did not come
JUST to save, JUST to give us Eternity. He also came for the here and now…
John
10:9, 10…I am the door: by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The
thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
God is not all about keeping you
from having fun!
The reason you think that is
cause CHURCH MEMBERS haven’t learned this yet!
He wants you to DELIGHT in Him,
find in His Word, in Fellowship with His saints in the local church, in prayer,
He wants you to find JOY.
1
Peter 1:8…Whom having not seen, ye love;
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory:
Ps
30:4, 5…Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger
endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
If you do not seek Him in this
next quarter of your life, I guarantee you will spend the REST of your life
trying to get “Stuff” to make you happy.
You
will fall into the trap of thinking, “this new car, that bigger house, this
sports equipment, these shoes, THAT TV, A swimming pool, a Caribbean vacation…
THEN I’ll be happy!”
But
you won’t. Stuff doesn’t last. Cars rust, homes drop in value, shoes go out of
style, TV’s need repairs, Vacations end. Focus on stuff above people, focus on
yourself above family, friends and God, and the results are going to be
certain…
Galatians
5:19-21… Now the works
of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral
impurity,promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts
of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and
anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you
before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
What
lasts? The Joy of the Lord. The stuff He gives you lasts!
Galatians
5:22, 23… But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
READ:
Vs. 7-11…
Matthew 6:33…But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
COMMIT-
V. 5
Commitment is a rare thing today.
Friends will leave you and hate you forever because they misread sarcasm for
reality on your Facebook.
Families
disintegrate because its every man for himself. “If you’re not making me happy, I’m outta here!”
Job
security is a thing of the past. Customer loyalty only means I can charge you
more than a new customer because statistically you are less likely to switch
insurance, cable, phone companies after a year or two!
But Commitment still works. It
has rewards.
I want to give you some fatherly,
pastoral advice… Quit thinking of Love just in terms of feelings. Love is a
commitment. You commit to spend the rest of your life pursuing the well being
of another. Its not about getting pleasure or having someone else meet your
needs. Its about giving pleasure and meeting the needs of another. LOVE IS
COMMITMENT.
Stay committed to the people in
your life, you will be a better person, people will love you, flock to you.
People will want to help you!
Commit to the Lord. Read His
word, talk to Him in prayer, hang out with other believers in a local church,
He promises you that your commitment to Him will bring about a security,
protection, contentment, and provision nothing else will bring.
READ: Verses 23-27
Commitment to the Lord brings a
peace you can never explain. It brings a security in finances, family, and
friendships.
In this next quarter of your life, from
now until you are about 36, 37 years old, you will set the stage for your
legacy. How you will be remembered.
“Live your life in such a way
that the preacher doesn’t have to lie at your funeral!”
I want to encourage you to be
different. Life a life of integrity
o Integrity
is being the same person when your alone that you are when people are around
you. No secret lives. No skeletons in the closet. Because you have decided to
follow the teachings of Jesus and live your life to help others, to serve the
Lord, to make a difference in this world.
2
Corinthians 7:1…Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
BECAUSE… the Second half of your
life is just 19 years away…
And you are not the greatest
thing in the world. There are billions of other people you can learn from.
And there is a God in Heaven Who
wants to be involved in your life. He wants to bless you. He wants to help you
with the tough decisions. He loves you so much He sent His Son Jesus Christ to
die on a Cross to pay for your sins and mine.
Commit your life to Him. Trust
Him. Delight in Him.
John
14:1-6…Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and
the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest;
and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John
5:24…Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John
11:25, 26…Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this?
Don’t leave High School this week and
make the mistake of denying yourself the greatest help, the greatest power you
can have in this life. The Ability to have God Himself help you and bless you throughout the
remaining 3 quarters of your life.
Read
Verses. 34-40…
1 comment:
Saw you do it live, a room of high school kids held in thrall. Well said. Great message.
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