Graduation speech (Michael Lundy – Youth Pastor)

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2018.  You have completed a chapter in your lives that hopefully has prepared you in some ways to becoming contributing members of society. As a Church, hopefully we have to some degree, prepared you for the real world.  In all reality, this will be the first real steps for you, from childhood to adulthood.  If I can give you a quick spoiler alert—adulating is far more difficult than being a kid. Being independent, dealing with failure, and probably one of the most difficult aspects, dealing with the boring day to day areas of life. Let me give you a quick example of this. Yesterday I went to Starbucks, while there, I ordered a very easy drink—a green tea lemonade with no sugar. It’s one part green tea, one part lemonade, one part ice and to make it easier that’s it, no need to add the sugar. I drive through the line, grab my drink, pay and leave.  On my way home, I decide to take a sip.  To my surprise, no lemonade.  So I swing back around and tell them my dilemma with how my drink is not made properly. The barista working the window tells me to bring it around and that they will make my drink properly.  As I head up to the window, the barista proceeds to hand me a drink that has strawberries floating in it.  I explained to her that I ordered a green tea lemonade with no added sugar.  She looks frantically to the person making the drink and tells her what needs to be made. As she proceeds to hand me my “new, freshly made” green tea lemonade, I notice it is a pinkish brown color.  I had a choice, do I create more panic and stress with their day?  Do I ask them how difficult is it to make a drink that consists of only three ingredients and one of those ingredients is ice?  Do I get upset and allow myself to walk in an area that would not be God honoring nor Christ centered?  To a certain degree, I would feel completely justified in doing so any of these. Instead, I thank them for their time and take my drink.  I sip it and notice it is some sort of a concoction of green tea, possibly lemonade, possibly passion tea and the possibility of strawberries.  It was not a very tasty, nor satisfying drink to be consumed. But, ultimately, I must be able to cope with these sorts of things.  As the Church, as your youth pastor, I hope that I have and we have trained you up enough to make godly decisions in your day to day life.

Since that is more of the goal we (your youth leaders, church leaders and pastors) have been tasked to train you in, that is where I will lead the remainder of this talk.  I hope, pray and exhort you to take these words and put them into practice.  I will use an acronym to hopefully help you remember in times of reflection.

L-Love—understand this is not the world’s definition of love that I use, it is a biblical one.  The world says, if you love me, you want what I want.  Or I love you so much, that I want what is best for you.  This is not Biblical love.  Biblical love is wanting God’s best for someone. Our hearts are naturally evil.  If we follow our heart and our understanding of love, we will ultimately end up hurt and broken.  Instead, we need to go to the author and originator of love to understand love. I hope that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.

That most importantly God is the focal point in all your decisions. That you follow the example Jesus has given you and that you show this to your parents, if you get married your spouse, your brothers and sisters in Christ and to others.  Jesus says, there is no greater love than this that one shall give their lives for another.  John writes in 1 John — This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  So, love the Lord, abide in Jesus and allow the overflowing of true love to be shown through your thoughts and actions.

I- integrity—you need to be a group that lives with integrity.  Doing the right thing when no one is looking. Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing.  Set an example to the believers in speech, love, conduct and purity.  Have integrity in all aspects of your life.  Show that you are a Christian through your actions. Working for your employer—follow Col 3:23-stating- whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for man.

G- gathering together—it is paramount that we meet together as believers. The Church is the living body of Christ. We are commanded to meet together and come together.  You cannot love Jesus and hate the Church.  Is the church messy? Yes.  Do we have disagreements? Yes.  Is it perfect? No.  We are sinful people and when sinful people get together it’s not always pretty. Coming together as the Body of Christ as the family of believers as the bride of Christ we can further support each other and fulfill the will of God.  We, together, have a common denominator that is greater than anything in this world. Greater than blood, greater than color or race, greater than going to the same school or being an alumni in your case from the same school.  We have Jesus as our Lord and savior.  We are called to be one as there is one father.  Paul writes in Ephesians 4:  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

You will go through tough times, you will feel lonely, you will struggle with sin-failure-depression-anxiety-loss.  And the Church is the greatest community, where we as followers, we as brothers and sisters are there to support one another and come together and love one another.  Don’t stop coming to the Church, because you need the Church.  You need the body of Christ, where Christ is the head to support you, love you and be there for you.  Don’t stop gathering.

H- humility—in your mind the world has revolved around you. Graduation day was about you, today is about you, much of your life places you in the middle.  But understand that you are not the center of the universe. Instead, as James the author of James put’s it—you are a vapor.  You are here for such a small time that you will be gone and forgotten.  My goal is not to discourage you, but for you to understand that you were called to walk in humility.  Jesus, the greatest figure in history, who is also our Lord, has shown by example what humility looks like.  He was born in a manger, to a poor family, and one of the last examples he leaves his disciples is by getting on his hands and knees (as a servant) and washing their feet.  Imagine, the Savior of humanity, the one who deserves praise and worship, comes as a weak baby and dies a criminals death.  Jesus, by examples, shows us to be humble.  Shows us to be weak.  Why? So that He may be strong.  If you go through life understanding that God’s will is more important than your will, that God’s ways are better than your ways, that you live for Him and not for yourself, you will have a life with meaning, fulfillment and purpose. If you are the point of everything, you will ultimately burn out and let yourself down.  You are not as strong as you think you are and that is okay. Jesus tells Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

T- trust—Life is tough, I’m not here to lie to you.  The Christian life might even be tougher at times. Jesus never promises that life will be easy.  He never promises that after you follow him, everything will be unicorns and rainbows. Life hits hard.  It would be foolish to think that you guys haven’t tasted glimpses of how difficult life can be.  But we always see God is in control.  From Joseph being sold into slavery and in the end God utilizing these events for the nation of Israel to thrive.  From the Exodus into the desert and God provides water and mana.  All throughout the entire Bible and throughout history we see that God is sovereign.  We must trust him in all aspects of life.  We are called to allegiance to our Lord Jesus.  In James, we are told to look at trials with joy, knowing that it will produce perseverance.  Why? So that you may be mature, complete and not lacking anything. We are not asked to understand everything that God does, but to trust Him in what he does.

L-I-G-H-T–What does that spell?  I hope that your education has at least taught you how to spell “light”.

We are called to be light to a dark world.  To lead a world that is troubled and headed for destruction to light. To be a beacon that sets the example. To be a city on a hill.  What does a light house do?  It shines it’s light on the banks of cliffs to shout to the ships, don’t come—you can die if you get too close, be careful.  We too are sent to warn.  Through these things- Love-integrity-gathering together-humility and trust.

Jesus says in Matthew 5

14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that^b they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So, as you are now moving into adulthood, shine your light.  Set an example to a world that is dark, show them what it looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul strength.  Remember, life is tough, but God is greater than any trial, any circumstance, anything.  Congratulations, what an amazing accomplishment you have achieved, but don’t stop, allow your momentum to continue to propel you into your future. We, as a Church are here for you, proud of you and love you, now make our Lord proud in your future.  God bless

Addressing the Graduates (PH)

Do you have a mission bigger than yourself?

That phrase, “A mission bigger than yourself’ has been dancing around in my head now for a few weeks. It is synonymous with “calling.” Do you know your calling? Do you live to accomplish a mission bigger than yourself?

If you don’t, then you, like everyone else, are just living for yourself. You exist to get the most out of this world. Everyone else and everything else is there for you to use. They revolve around you. Even God exists for you since you believe on Him only because He fits your mission of pleasing yourself. Harsh, I know. But it’s true. If you don’t have a mission beyond yourself, then your own pleasure becomes that mission.

It is your mission that will determine where you will live.

It is your mission that will determine when you will move.

It is your mission that will determine your standard of living.

It is your mission that will determine whom you will marry.

It is your mission that will determine whom you will associate with.

My mission is to enlarge the vision of Christ in people through my words and deeds. This mission made me choose my vocation as a pastor. This mission made me remain in Tacoma now for 19 years. This mission made me marry Janet. This mission made me take a pay cut. This mission enabled me to associate with people in our church that I would never dream of associating! (I’m an introvert)

Are you mission driven? Or comfort driven?

Are you living for yourself? Or are you living for God?

How do you make major decisions? (pros and cons, or what God is calling you to?)

If you do not have a mission, ask God to show it to you. It will change your life!