A Message for Graduates and Everyone

Introduction
Graduation.  To be 18-19 years old.  To be poised on the precipice of starting your own life.  Your life, where you make your own choices, live out your own values, and decide who you want to be.  I’m so glad I get to share a message for graduates today. 

I’m 48 years old.  Is that old?  I don’t know.  It’s a lot older than our graduates, but it’s still a lot younger than many people!  In many regards, I do feel old.  Why do my feet hurt in the morning when I stand up for the first time?  How can they hurt?  I haven't done anything yet.  I've only been sleeping!  I guess they just hurt because I've been walking on them for 48 years.

But in many ways, I feel like I am still the young man sitting out among the graduates poised to begin my adult life.  I will forever be linked to my senior year of high school, because it was the year I began dating the woman who became my wife.  So much of the man I am today was shaped by that decision and the dreams we had together--dreams we worked so hard to realize.  1992 was the year that I began the journey of who I am today.

My words today are for the graduates, but they are really for all of us.  We all need to remember what it is to be young and charting the direction of our lives.  We also need, at times, to recalibrate our lives to get back on the path of righteousness.

Luke 12:13-21
¹³ Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” ¹⁵ Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

¹⁶ Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. ¹⁷ He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. ¹⁹ And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’

²¹ “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Don't Be A Fool
The best advice I can give to graduates, to anyone really, if have a rich relationship with God.  Graduates often start with very little money.  If they have a job, they usually aren't earning much.  Their parents probably paid most or all of their expenses.  Then, suddenly, they are out learning to pay for groceries and clothing and laundry detergent and other things.  They may just barely scrape by for a few years and they may long for the day when their finances aren't so tight.

So here's an important word for you.  You're not doing this all by yourself.  Even when you think you are all on your own, you parents, your family, your church are still pulling for you.  And even if no one else is there, God is surely with you.

But don't be a fool like the man in Jesus’ parable.  He was a fool because he was greedy and selfish. He didn’t think of others.  I do feel some sympathy for him, because farming can be a tough business.  Most years, farmers are just scraping by.  Insects and plant diseases and drought often eat up your produce and you may barely have enough or maybe even come up short.  There are many lean years.  I'm sure there were people who helped the farmer in Jesus' story during his lean years.  But when he finally had a good year with a surplus, all he thought of was himself.  Instead of turning to help others who may not have been so fortunate, he thought only of himself and how he could enjoy the pleasure in this world.  He planned to take it easy saying, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come” but didn’t realize he was about to die and lose it all.

None of us knows how many days we have.  and when this life is over, the things of this world will belong to others.  We can't take them with us.  Therefore, we should think of others instead of clinging to what we have.  And we should value our relationship with God above any worldly goods because they are only temporary.

Be Generous
Be a generous person.  Proverbs 11:25 says, “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”
Always remember, God is taking care of you, and therefore, you can be a generous person who does what God calls you to do.  

You don't have to live out a scarcity mentality.  When you live for a long time barely making it or not having enough, you can get in the habit of clinging to what you do have.  You always have this mentality that you've got to hoard up every little bit you do have because tomorrow you may be without.  Some people get into this way of thinking so strongly that even when they have extra, they still feel as though they must hoard what they have.

That's why I'd like to challenge you today to tithe.  A tithing is giving 10% of your income to God through His Church.  I'd like to clear up some confusion about the tithe, because even a lot of older people misunderstand this term.  I hear people from my church say things like, "I just stopped by to drop of my tithe."  But they weren't really giving a tithe, they were giving and offering because their donation was not 10%.  And I'm not saying I don't appreciate the offering; that's not my point.  I just want to be sure we use precise language.  A tithe is a very specific offering--it is 10% of your income.  If you are giving an offering, great!  But call it an offering and reserve the term tithe for when you give 10% of your income.

The minimum standard for giving in the Bible started with the tithe--giving 10% of a person income to God through His Church.  For graduates, I challenge you to start tithing now while you don't have a lot.  You may think, "That's just not possible.  I hardly have anything to start with."  That's OK.  If you hardly have anything, your see, your tithe won't be much.  10% of $10 is on $1.  However, if you start tithing now, you will develop the habit while it's easy and then later when you do have a lot, it will already be a way of life for you.  If you wait to start tithing until you are wealthy and making 6 figures, your tithe will be very large and harder with which to part.

And the Church needs your financial support.  Our bills and our staff need to be paid, and this is only possible when people give generously.  The Church can only function to the degree it is funded.  That's just the way it works. So we need people to give and the tithe is the biblical standard of giving.

However, the tithe isn’t just about what the church needs.  It’s also about what you need.  Tithing helps you remember life isn’t all about you.  It helps you guard against greed.  It’s also something to help you practice your faith in God’s providence—that He is going to take care of you.  Tithing is an exercise of faith that strengthens your trust in God, helping you build a rich relationship with Him while building His Kingdom.  The tithe is a win, win, win--a win for the church, a win for God's Kingdom, and a win for your spiritual life.

Trust God
Trusting God and maintaining a strong relationship with Him is something young adults really, really need.  The ten years after high school graduation are the most formative of your whole life.  Thin about it.  From the ages of 18 to 28, people are leaving their parents home, maybe going to college or joining the military or starting a career.  They may be choosing a spouse and who will be the most influential person in their life of the rest of their life.  They may be having kids of who be a minimum 18 year responsibility.  If ever there is a time in life when people need God's guidance, grace,  and help, it is those young adult years.  

Sadly, these are also the years when most people drift away from church.  I know it can be difficult to stay connected in that time of life, but it is so worth it and so needed.  I challenge graduates to not drift away but to delve into their relationship with God through the Church.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”  Us older people also must continue to trust God.  And sometimes we struggle.  The last 2 years have been a huge exercise in trusting God because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.  As church, we struggled.  I remember vividly our church leaders concerns in the March of 2020 when we learned we had to shut down in-person worship for an undetermined period of time.  "How will we pay our bills if people aren't attending church and putting offerings in the offering plate?"  We knew we could survive for a few weeks, maybe a few months, but how long without continued giving?

What we found is that God was faithful and people continued to give faithfully.  And as the days and weeks and months wore on, people continued to give.  We actually saw an increase in giving.  We were cautiously optimistic, but we thought, "Well, we don't know how long this is going to keep going on and how this pandemic is going to affect the economy and trickle down to our supporter's personal finances."  However, by the end of 2020, I found that the church ended the year with a surplus--something that hadn't happened in the last 10 years I'd pastored the church.  

And it was in that moment I sensed the Lord leading me to the parable we read today of the rich man who built bigger barns.  I sensed God asking me, "What is your church going to do with this extra?  Are you going to build bigger barns to store it all away? Or are you going to trust Me and help people?"

So I shared this with the finance committee and said, "I think we need to help people in our community, because a lot of people struggling right now."  And Finance was wise and cautious.  They said, "Well, we still don't know what the future holds.  Let's wait a little while longer and see if giving continues to provide a surplus."  So we waited a few more months into 2021.  When giving continued to be generous, finance recommended and the elected Church Council approved a new charitable program called Operation Mercy Drops.  With Operation Mercy Drops (OMD), church members identify and sponsor people in our community who have a special need to receive a $1,000 grant.  (Click here to read about Operation Mercy Drops.)  We made a commitment to give a $1,000 grant each month for at least 12 months.  So many people have been blessed by this so far.  God has been good to the givers and the receivers because we chose to give instead of building bigger barns.

You can't even imagine how much good can be accomplished when people trust God, are faithful, and give generously.  Lives are changed when we choose to think of others instead of hoarded our extra in bigger barns.

Recalibration
A few weeks ago, a member of my church gave me a book titled One Man's Wilderness.  It's the story of Richard Proenneke, who in the 1970s moved to the Alaskan wilderness to build a log cabin and live off the land.  It's a fascinating story; I love that kind of thing.  Well, since Richard was cut off from civilization, a man named Babe would fly in some supplies every so many months.  After about 10 months of isolation, Richard asked Babe what time it was.  He found his watch had drifted off by about 15 minutes.  He had to recalibrate his watch to get back on the right time with the rest of the world.

We all need a recalibration from time to time.  Do you remember being a graduate, with your whole life ahead and you had your great goals and ideals you wanted to realize?  Or maybe it was at another time in your life, when you had a clear vision for the kind of future for which you wanted to strive.  How are you doing?  Are you still on the right path? 

We all drift off course from time to time.  It may not even be by much, but over time a little drift can make you miss the target by a lot.  So, it is good for us to stop every now and then and think about it and commit to do the things we need to do to get back on the right path.

What do you need to do today to get back on the right path?
Or if you are just starting out, what do you need to do to help you become the person you need to be?
I invite you to pray to God about it and ask Him for help.
And if you've never don it before, I invite you today to accept Jesus invitation to come follow Him.

As Sheep Among Wolves, part 1 - Fools vs. Wise

Intro Series
            I need more wisdom.  Don't you?  The place to go for wisdom in the Bible is the book of Proverbs.  I've been studying Proverbs since last summer and it has really helped me.  I started by reading a chapter a day (which is quite convenient because Proverbs has 31 chapters and you can read it in one month at a chapter a day).  After finishing, I got so much out of it I decided to keep studying it.  Each morning, I read a few verses and really try to understand their meaning.  I even look at the original Hebrew words for deeper insight.  Then, I paraphrase the verses in my own words, trying to capture the meaning the best I can.  (You can read some of my paraphrases here in my past blogs or follow me on Facebook where I usually post a paraphrased verse each morning.)
            My study has lead to some insights I want to share with you in this blog series, "As Sheep Among Wolves".  I hope you will follow along and find it helpful.  You can subscribe or signup to receive an email each week with the tools in left margin of my blog page.  Our guiding scripture throughout this series will be Matthew 10:16-20 where Jesus told his disciples of the great need for wisdom among believers.

Matthew 10:16-20
¹⁶ “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. ¹⁸ You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.^{[a] 19} When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. ²⁰ For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Why Did Jesus Say This?
            The key verse for us is verse 16.  Jesus said, "Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves..."  The early Christians lived in a time when they were a tiny minority in the communities around them.  Their ideas were very new and radically different.  Today, we might describe religious groups who are very new and radically different as "cults".  We see a cult and are wary of their ideas because they may seem dangerous, fanatic, and very different.  Well, that's how people in the first century saw the new Christians living among them--they were like a cult.  Even though they were full of love and as harmless as sheep, their radical new ideas ideas were threatening to some and Christians were completely committed to their beliefs--even willing to die for them.
            Non-believers often persecuted the Christians they feared.  They seized Christian's property, arrested them, tortured them, and even killed them.  So Jesus wanted his followers to have wisdom to stay safe among the "wolves" living around them.  He said, "you should be as shrewd [i.e. wise] as snakes..."
            It's not normally a compliment to be called a snake.  Most people don't like snakes, but snakes have to be cunning.  I mean, they don't even have hands and feet.  I would be in a pickle if I didn't have hands and feet, but a snake get's by just fine by sneaking around, staying out of sight, and stalking it's prey.  It has to be wise because that's the only way it can survive. 
            Thankfully, we don't live in the first century when everyone was trying to kill Christianity.  However, our world can still be a dangerous place.  Though most people in America claim to be Christian (or at least espouse tolerance of the Christian faith), it can be really hard to see who is a true believer (a sheep) and who is really a wolf in disguise.  There is evil in our world and it sometimes comes from the very people we consider safe.  One week people are proposing teachers should be given guns to protect our schools from people like the teenager who gun down 17 students in Lakeland, FL.  The next week, it is a teacher in Dalton (where I live) who brings a gun to school and barricades himself in a classroom and fires the weapon through the window.  You begin to wonder who you can trust and if you can really trust anyone.

            And so Jesus also said, we should be "as harmless [i.e. innocent] as doves."  We must resist the urge to be paranoid and cynical.  We must continue to see the best in people and have hope that God's goodness will win out.  And this all takes great wisdom because the stakes are very high.
            So let's go to Proverbs and see what God's word has to offer about the difference between a wise person and a fool.

Proverbs 10:14 (Pastor Chris’ Paraphrase) – A wise person soaks up all the knowledge they can, but a babbling fools is too busy talking to learn anything and might walk right off a cliff.

 

A Wise Person

            Someone once told me:  “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”  There are many different Hebrew words used for wisdom in Proverbs; they all have slightly different meanings.  Wisdom can mean:  being lead by God’s Holy Spirit, well-informed, making wise decisions, someone who is careful, or someone who knows the way things really are.

            In Proverbs 10:14 the word for wisdom is ḥâḵâm (חָכָם).  Hakam describes someone who is  smart because they know how to do things skillfully and artfully.  In other words, they don’t just do stuff; they do stuff right.   Someone with hakam wisdom is careful.   They take care as they accomplish projects.  They don’t make mistakes that cause other problems.  You know, it's not just about getting things done.  If you get things done but ruin other projects or relationships in the process, what have you really accomplished.  Wisdom is getting things done while building everyone and everything up.  Hakam also carries the idea of being cunning and subtle (like a snake).  Someone with hakam wisdom doesn't draw attention to themselves. They accomplish things without people even knowing what happened.

            Bishop Bevel Jones was one of my seminary professors after he retired from being a bishop of the United Methodist Church.  I really enjoyed his class.  I saw him coming out of a busy conference center one day as I was going in and I decided to shake his hand and tell him how much I appreciated his teaching.  Bishop Jones eagerly grasped my hand and pulled me along with him as we talked.  He was very gracious as I expressed my gratitude.  He seemed genuinely pleased to speak with me for a few moments and I felt glad to have had a chance to talk with him.  When we broke off our short conversation I realized, I had spent the last couple minutes walking away from my destination and towards the Bishop's.  I hadn't even realized what he'd done, but he had redirected me to walk with him and I had been glad to do it!  So I had to walk back to my destination while the bishop hadn't missed a stride the whole time.  Now that, my friends, was the a bishop's subtle wisdom!

A Fool – wîyl (אֱוִיל)
            The opposite of a wise person is a fool.  How would you describe a fool?  Someone who’s dumb?  Someone who’s always clowning around?  Someone who just doesn’t get it?  There are many kinds of fools.  Technically, you could describe a two-year-old as a fool.  That’s not a bad thing, they’re just not old enough to know any better yet.
            The word Proverbs 10:14 uses for fool is wîyl (אֱוִיל).  A wîyl fool is someone who is immature (in the sense they haven’t grown up yet).  It’s one thing for a two-year-old to be immature; that’s normal.  But a wîyl fool is old enough to know better, yet they deliberately refuse to grow up.  A wiyl fool despises wisdom.  They are actually proud of their childish ways.  They may even boast "I'm just a simple man.  I ain't like those ivory tower college boys!"  A wiyl fool often uses jokes and sarcasm to avoid learning from their mistakes.  They will laugh and make fun of people who try to hold them accountable.  These kinds of fools are arrogant and argue when you try to teach or correct them. “Ain’t nobody can’t learn me nothin’!”  And because of their attitude, wiyl fools make bad decisions and get into all kinds of trouble, repeating the same mistakes again and again.  Meanwhile, they're always blabbering about how everyone else is wrong and how they're the ones who really know--as they're walking off a cliff right in front of them.

Practical Application

            Remember, we are like sheep among wolves.  So we need to be as wise as snakes.  The stakes are high.  It’s dangerous out there so don’t be a fool!  Pray for wisdom.  Study God’s Word!  Learn all you can.  You need wisdom to survive!  I need wisdom too.  That's why I’ve been studying Proverbs.  There’s so much good stuff in there.  Let me share some of what I’ve learned about wisdom so far.

The first and biggest part of wisdom is revering the Lord.  Proverbs 1:7 (Pastor Chris' Paraphrase) says, “Knowing the way things really are all starts with deep awe for the Lord.”  Some versions say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that's an unfortunate translation.  No one wants to be afraid and that's not really the sense of the proverb.  There is an element of fear, but it's more like the fear you may feel as you stand at the precipice of the Grand Canyon.  It is an awe inspiring sight as you see the majesty of that breath taking view.  And yes, there is a healthy fear (especially if you are afraid of heights) because one wrong step and you could fall to your death.  And that is the sense in which we have a reverent, awe-inspiring fear of the Lord that leads us to wisdom.  You see, wisdom all starts with your relationship with God.  True wisdom comes from God.  Books and education can help, but without God you will always be a fool (maybe a really intelligent fool, but still just a fool.)

Second, to learn wisdom, you must be willing to listen and learn.  It’s hard to learn while you’re talking.  (That’s why God gave you two ears and only one mouth.)  You have to realize you don’t know it all and you don’t have to pretend you do for others to respect you.  “A wise person speaks because they have something to say.  A fool speaks because they have to say something.” (Plato)  You don't have to say something.  You can choose to stay silent.  Talking too much can get you in all kinds of trouble.  And even someone who hasn't got a clue seems intelligent if they just keep quiet.  On the other hand, people who try to prove how smart they are by always talking about it, usually prove just the opposite. 

Third, it is wise to learn to control yourself and your impulses.  Don’t let emotions be the primary driving force of your actions  Emotions have their place as one of the tools in your personality, but they're not meant to be the primary way you make decisions.  People who "follow their heart" often walk right off a cliff.  Your heart is not as smart as your brain.  So let your heart inform your brain, but let your brain make the decisions.  And of course, remember wisdom all begins with an awe-inspired relationship with God.  So let God’s Holy Spirit guide you to use the reason and wisdom God gives you.  And please, be careful!  Don’t mistake your personal emotions for the Holy Spirit.  Just because you heard a song and it gave you goose bumps doesn't mean it was the Holy Spirit telling you to do something.  Maybe it was just a really good song.  So test what you think the Spirit is saying.  Check the Scriptures.  Ask a really good Christian friend what they think--someone you know will tell you the truth even if it's not what you want to hear.

 

We need wisdom.  What can you do to get more?  Pray and ask God to give you wisdom.  Spend time with Him everyday.  Maybe you would like to read through Proverbs.  That's a great way to learn wisdom from God.  Perhaps you'd like to join me here on my blog each week as we contemplate wisdom from Proverbs.  I hope you will.