Senior Sunday 2024

Message Transcription

Today is one of the easiest days of my job. It's full of lots of things, right? So we have class. I get to get up here and do this. We get to celebrate with all the seniors and juniors at lunch later, and we have Third Day today, so there's not like an hour of my day that's not focused on teenagers and parents and honoring people. And so the reason this is one of the easiest days is because I get to celebrate some people who are extremely, extremely important to me. And before I get any further down the road, there's an army of junior families downstairs getting all the lunch preparations ready. So thank you to all the junior families who are doing that. Thank you to everybody along the way in this room, in the ways that you've contributed to making Senior Sunday happen, loving on these kids so that they actually make it to this point right here. I was reminded just this week that Baby Hudson had his baby dedication just a few weeks ago, and I told our students, we don't make that claim here in this auditorium, only to for it to not be fulfilled on a day like today. So this is a really beautiful moment, and I'm glad that you guys are all here to join in this celebration of these seniors and all their hard work. In 2014, Hong Kong was in a little bit of political turmoil, and the government had been considering proposals to change the electoral system of the country.

And so the young adults of Hong Kong were were widely against these reforms, and they're fearful for the future of their country and decided to do something about it. They arranged peaceful protests and sit ins to display the government, that young people did not want these changes to the democratic system because they were fearful of creeping, communistic mindset infiltrating their country. These protests overwhelmed law enforcement. And the number of active protesters reached all the way up to 100,000 people. And the sit ins persisted for 77 days. The protesters purchased yellow umbrellas. This was first used for them to protect against pepper spray that was being used against them by law enforcement, but eventually the umbrellas became a symbol of that movement. And majority of these protesters are in their early 20s. If you go back and look at the pictures, you're going to see ages of all kinds, but you're going to see a lot more young people than you are, um, people of a different generation. And so today, together or together, these young adults and college students in Hong Kong took a stance against something that they thought was going to make their country in a less stable position. It's just one of the many examples of teenagers, young college kids, doing amazing things. You might remember that Facebook was started by somebody in their dorm, as was Snapchat, much to the hate of all the parents and grandparents in the room.

But the teens really love it. So Snapchat started by that. Reddit, Dropbox, some that you guys use on a daily basis. These were all started by college students, young people with big hopes and aspirations for the world. They're actively changing our world today. They're saving democracies, they're starting companies. And as we think about our seniors in this stage of life that they're going through, there's a couple of them who have already walked the stage and a few of them who will be doing it later. So go love on some parents, okay? There's some emotions running through the room today. Make sure you're checking in on them. And as you begin to think about the contribution seniors that you'll make to society, what am I going to build? What am I going to do in the education force? Or what am I going to do in business, advertising, marketing, all of those different things. You might wake up the day after graduation, or even in a few days, or in the months leading up to you going off to school. And you might ask the question, now what? I will ask that same question after I drop Barrett off with my mother in law tomorrow. Now what do I sleep? Do I catch up on laundry? Do we clean the house? We all have these now. What's that we're asking ourselves pretty frequently, but it can kind of feel like it comes full stop that morning after graduation.

Now, what are my parents going to, like, cut me off completely? If I asked for the card to go get gas right now, are they going to freely give that to me? Are they going to make me go get a job? All of these different things are happening, and one of my favorite TV shows is The Office. I'm actually wearing socks from the office. If you want to see them later, I'll show them to you, but I'm not going to do that on the stage. They're my lucky socks. One of the actresses on there, her name is Mindy Kaling. She plays a character named Kelly Kapoor, who's actually one of the writers on the show. You don't see her that often because she is back in the writers room that they call the annex. And so people asked her, stuck a microphone in her face like we do with celebrities all the time. And they said, what advice would you give to young people today? And Mindy's response was was pretty interesting. She said, you know what? Celebrities give a little bit too much advice. Can I get an amen for that? Celebrities give too much advice and people listen to it too often. Our lives are completely different than each other's. I'm writing TV shows and you're an accountant. What exactly do we have in common? And she said, what you should be doing is going to the communities that you live in, your schools, your churches, and asking them for advice.

They've walked the road with you all of this time. So stop listening to people like me just because I'm famous for a TV show. Teenagers don't listen to actresses and actors and sports. People like your life is going to be impacted by these influences here at Broadway, who are going to be able to give you that sound, spirit led advice. And when we think about what it looks like as a young person to follow Jesus, we know that the disciples were of a very young age as well. They were about our high school graduates, college graduates, and they spent three years following the Savior of the world. They watched him die. They watched him be resurrected, all to come back and hang out with them for 40 more days. I'm sure that they were soaking up every single word that Jesus was saying to them, and they watched him ascend into heaven, and they're likely sitting there thinking, well, now what? Should we go get some food? Should we? Play a game of catch with some rocks. I mean, like, this guy's gone. There's probably a little bit of fear. There's probably a little bit of sadness as well. And so the disciples transitioned into life without the training wheels as a model for how we, especially our graduates, can live as we walk into this next season of life. And in acts chapter one, verses nine through 11.

And Cameron, thank you for reading so much. I just had to set the story before, because then I would have had to go back and do all that legwork. So thank you for doing all of the heavy lifting of the back story for me. So after saying this, Jesus is taken up into a cloud and watching and they can no longer see him. Their eyes strained to see him. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men, dressed in white robes stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go. And so Scripture paints this picture of the disciples actually watching Jesus go up into heaven. It's different than previous recorded experiences in Scripture. You might think Jesus being Jesus, that something insane is going to happen, like being taken up in a whirlwind like Elijah. But no, Jesus just kind of floats away. It's like you're a little kid and you see a helium balloon raise your hand. If you loved letting helium balloons go as a kid, you would come home from a party and different things, and you would lift it up into the sky, and you would see it and see it, and you would convince yourself that you're still looking at the green balloon, that you just let go.

And you're like, I can still see mine. Ha ha. Me and my brothers did this all the time. It was a competition of who could see the furthest. And I have glasses and they don't, so they won pretty frequently. This is how I picture the disciples in this moment. They're watching Jesus just a little bit past where they can actually see him, and it's probably dead silent. There's probably some anxious looks around of, well, who's in charge? Who's going to be the first person to tell us what we actually need to do as we go out together, as they're catching this very last glimpse of Jesus here on earth. And in acts chapter one, verse 11, Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking into heaven? He's going to return in the same way that you saw the angels are kind of like. And we have some track people in this room. I've been to some track meets recently. I don't run and that's okay. I tell the teams, y'all, y'all say y'all do all the running and do enough for me. But if you watch as the track meet starts, everybody gets into their blocks, everybody gets ready for the race. And what happens? There's a gun that goes off and you have to assure everybody around there were no bullets in the gun, right? There's no no one needs to be afraid. But it signals the start of this race. This is the closest thing that the disciples have to a graduation of a big transition that's going on in their life.

They don't walk across the stage and get a diploma and move their tassel over. But this is the beginning of a new chapter for three years. And some of you that are graduating, you've been doing high school for four years. Pretty similar time. The disciples as well. They have to take everything that they've learned and apply it now to what they're going to go out and do on their own. And our graduates are in the exact same spot. Every bit of education that you got along the way from teachers that were really awesome, from youth ministers that were me. So hope you got something out of that. Influences. Here at Broadway, you've got all the knowledge and now it's time to put it into action. You're an adult. You're not a kid any longer. The decisions that you make, you begin to become responsible for yourself. So now what? We learn a lot of things about the disciples. The first being that Jesus has empowered you to proclaim him wherever you are. So whether you're attending Texas Tech or South Plains. Or else you go shops or you decide. You know what? School's not for me. I'm going to enter the workforce. I'm going to go work for a construction company, or I'm going to go work at a bank. Jesus has put you right there to proclaim him wherever you are, because in acts one eight he says, you'll receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

It will come upon you. You'll be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. So it's not just that the gospel can sit on your block. My block needs the gospel. Everybody drives a little bit too fast. It makes me think that they want to kill people. But the gospel can't just exist on your block. In fact, it can't just exist in your one neighborhood. He's saying it's not enough for you to do it in close proximity with each other. You have to go to every inch of the world in order to proclaim this gospel. And we know that the disciples followed this to a T because all but one of them have a recorded most brutal death. One of them was trampled by an elephant, and it only gets worse from there. We know that they took this good news and ran with it, that they took it to every neighborhood that there was in the world. And teens. You can really start to think about this in this transition of your life. It's a fresh season. If there was ever a time that you wanted to wipe the slate clean and do something new, now is the time. Especially if you're moving to Nashville. Hallie. It's going to be there, and there's only a handful of people that know her. You get you could become that person who's known for sharing their faith everywhere that they go, even on a Christian campus right there, you can be known as the person who is being the image bearer, being the light of the world.

Everywhere that they go, whether you're in the dorm, whether you're in the gym, whether you're at a Texas Tech football game, which I know that you guys are excited for that to come back, whether you're at Jones, AT&T or you're at Dan Law or you're in line at Soda Shack when they're taking really long and your kid just wants some popcorn and a sugar cookie. That was us just the other day, and the disciples lived this way. They took Jesus's command in acts chapter one seriously, and one of the theologians that I love to follow, his name is Charles Spurgeon. He has this quote. Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Um, everybody's humbled a little bit this morning. I read that, researched it, and I was like, do I put that in there? And I was like, let's put that in there. Let's see how that hits, because you're about it or you're not. This phrases in the Bible. If you're lukewarm, I'm going to spit you out. So every Christian is a missionary or an imposter. And my prayer is that I live a life like the disciples that I spent all of my time trying to help people come into a relationship with Jesus. They would know the love that he has for them, that they would go to all walks of the earth to proclaim that.

And the next thing that we see in this story of the disciples is that prayer is critical to what's, uh, to discovering what's next. I did not accept this position at Broadway without praying about it. You would not leave your job or move out of Lubbock without praying about it. I really hope that you wouldn't. I hope you would pray, and I hope that you would find people who are important in your life. Say, I'm thinking about doing something. Thinking about changing my job. We're thinking about having another kid. We might want a bigger house. We'll pray about it. Prayer is critical to what's discovering next. The disciples return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of about a half a mile. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the upper room of the house where they were staying. They met together and were constantly united in prayer. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and several other women were with them. And so in the ten days between the ascension until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, there's about 120 people gathered together in the upper room. Raise your hand if you're claustrophobic. I have not been claustrophobic in my life up until the last few years. I don't love people being smushed together like sardines. It's one of my least favorite things, because sometimes people don't smell very good or their breath isn't very good.

Or maybe they're loud. It could be any number of things, but these 120 people dedicated many days to praying of discerning what was next. Because Jesus tells them the Holy Spirit is going to come on you and you're going to be able to go from there. And that's when they begin to do every go, all the different places that they're going to go. They didn't know what their next move should be, so they got together in the context of their spiritual community and prayed about it until God told them where exactly they need to go. And my hope is that you don't just make a decision and say, God, I'm doing this decision. I need you to bless it really well, because that happens all too much that we try and say, God, I need you to get fit inside of this decision. And if you could just get along and on board with it, that'd be great. Because what we know is that most of the time, God tries to poke a bunch of holes in that right and say, but have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? My way is ultimately the best way for you, and we try and get God to get on board with us in Isaiah 51. The Lord will guide you continually. He'll give you water when you're, uh. I've got the better one right here. The Lord will guide you always.

He'll satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land, and he will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose water would never fail. The disciples trust that God is going to guide them into the what's next when their head, uh. When they wake up every morning, the what's next is answered by the Holy Spirit living inside of each of them. In Matthew we're challenged by these words of Jesus. And I've got both of these up here. So I don't know if you're a message person, but I wouldn't look this one up in the message, and it was pretty good. So whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Jesus's encouragement to his disciples. This road that we're about to walk is a pretty treacherous one. And then the message says, if your first concern is to look at yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look at look at me. That being Jesus, you'll find both yourself and me. Graduates, if you decide to seek Jesus every single morning when your feet hit the ground and say, what can I do? Being a Holy Spirit filled person to advance the Kingdom of God, to live into the purpose that he's created me for? You will find yourself if you continue to look for it in people, you're never going to find it. I've shared countless stories about the times that I tried to find my identity with people, with groups, with these teenagers, and I hope some of it has stuck along the way because I find a lot more purpose being here with this church family, to be loved by you guys, to be prayed over by you guys, and for me to in turn do that for you as well.

Jesus will remain on the path that he has for us. This journey might not be pretty, might not be Instagram worthy, might not be something you want to post every single day with your perfect hair and your perfect makeup, or your cowboy boots looking tough by the tractor so that the girl will fall in love with you. And I put those pictures in there. I hope that nobody like, you know, falls in love with these boys by the tractor and everything like that. But not every day is worth posting that Instagram about. Like some days are going to be brutally hard. It's going to be tough for you to even feel like you have the strength to get up. And part of the disciples strength came from each other, from the community of believers of the first century church. And that last thing I want you to walk away with today is that you need a community of believers. That's a non-negotiable. There's a reason that our mission statement is we want to pursue God. We want to pursue him in Scripture.

We want to pursue him in prayer. Well, all the different avenues that we can connect and, uh, be in relationship with our creator. We want those. The second is build community, right? If you want to go further or if you want to go quicker, go alone. You want to go further? Go with a group. I want to see some really beautiful things in this lifetime. I'm never going to get there my own. I can't fly a plane. I'd have to get Andrew for that. That's a perfect example of why I need a community, or I need Gary Backus to do that. Or any of you other people who are learning to fly. The Babcock's all just nodded and said, Gary Backus, so don't let Andrew fly you anywhere. Apparently you need this first. You need this church community. And if you'll flash acts chapter two up there, we see a lot of what the believers began to devote themselves to as very small writing. But it's all good. The believers, they devote themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer. And it all comes over them. And the disciples begin to perform miraculous miracles, and they begin giving of everything that they've got, giving it to people who don't have as much the shirt off their back. I've watched people at Broadway give things that. I'm just like, you're giving that away to that person right now, in this exact moment.

I never go ask them about it, because I know that they believe this right here, that somebody has a greater need than me. I don't need this 40 bucks, but you need it for transportation around town this week. You need a car. I've got a car for you. You're just going to give somebody your car. Your brand new car? Well, absolutely. Someone has a need in our community and I'm here to fill it. The majority of this group of believers were extremely young in their faith. They didn't know as much as they would have liked to know about Jesus. They got three years of learning from him, and we still know that they're running around like they're chicken, with their head cut off. Through a lot of their ministry, they're looking for a source like Jesus. They're passionate about living lives that would honor him, that would ultimately be changed for his name. They spent time with one another. They studied and prayed. They took communion and worshiped together the disciples that day that Jesus ascends, it feels like a completely different world. And for a few minutes there it might have felt a little bit darker as they watched Jesus go up there. But yet they had those two angels right there to say, Men of Galilee, why are you standing here? So, church, why are you standing here? Let's be goers and doers of the word, people who spur one another on towards living lives that are a reflection of Jesus.

We all have to belong to a strong community of believers. Hebrews ten tells us, let us think of ways to motivate one another towards acts of love and good works. Let us not neglect meeting together which some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. And we're reminded that every time that we step into this auditorium right here in Matthew 18, for where 2 or 3 are gathered, I'm there among them. And so if you're a parent of a graduate today, you might really be clinging to Jesus in this moment. There might be a lot of sadness, anxiety, fear. Jesus is here with you, my friends. If there's an empty seat around you, look around. He's sitting there. There's a group of people that I meet with that we leave a seat for Jesus that when things start to get really tough. Look at the chair right there. He's right there. He's in this room with us. And this community that you create has to be a face to face one. I understand that you're all going off and doing all these great things, and you might have great text message groups or Instagram groups that you send memes and stuff in. I'm 27 and I still have that group of people on my phone, but nothing replaces going to coffee with somebody who deeply cares about you and says, how's your walk with Jesus? How's your grades going? How can I pray over you? Do you need to come to my house for dinner this week? What need can I help you meet? So, graduates, you have to be a part of a community of believers that is not just simply an online community.

It has to be face to face, person to person. The early church. This might surprise you guys. They didn't have smartphones. They weren't able to share selfies in Samaria of preaching the good word while people were running after them. That's not the world that they lived in. They might have been able to utilize it had it been around there, but we don't. We know that they actually lived together because it's written and recorded that they never traveled alone, that they wrote letters to each other to encourage them along the way. And so your goals as you, as you leave here. I boiled them down to three things. It's a lot more than three things. The Bible is really big and I can't narrow it down for you all in 20 to 30 minutes. Your goal is to share Jesus with others in word and deed. The way that you talk, the way that you interact with the world around you, the way that you respond to criticism, the way that you respond to coaching is going to be a reflection of Jesus's call on your life. You have to pray for God's direction, or else you're going to find yourself in some pretty tight places.

I once knew of a family member who walked away from all of us, and I was walking into my grandma's house one day and they said, hey, we're getting your uncle a plane ticket. And I said, where from? He's in North Dakota. And I was like, what's he doing in North Dakota? It was a longer story than I have time for today, but it brought him back into relationship with all of our family. We prayed for direction that God would actually lead us to him. We didn't actually know where he was, and we found him, prayed for God's direction so that somebody could be brought back into relationship with him and just into his family as well. And you have to invest in a community of believers. And it's not just good advice for graduates, it's a good formula for how each of us can strengthen and encourage our walk with Jesus. So if you're not involved in a small group at this church, my prayer is that you would come up to me or anybody wearing a lanyard. I only see like three people wearing their lanyards. We did them for Friends Day in Easter, but come up to somebody in leadership of this church so that we can get you plugged in to a small group. If there's ever a time where you want to come and exercise your gift of scripture reading or clicking things in the back, or being up there on the camera like Reese is right now, we want you to do that.

We want you to have a sense of belonging that Jesus has called you into relationship with him and into the life of all of these believers that we have here. So, father, as we as we begin to wrap up our time together, I'm excited. Um, I'm sad as well to to look out in this crowd and see teenagers that I've loved so dearly over the last three years, um, to grow up and be who they are today. God, I'm so proud to get to know them. I'm proud that I've been called to be a part of their community, to be a part of their tribe, to love like your son did. And so as we leave this place, God, would you surround each of these graduates with that spiritual community? We get to do that here in just a little bit with lunch. But my prayer is that as these teens are walking out, if people aren't going to lunch with us, that you would bring people from this auditorium to go speak blessing and truth over them. God, we are so thankful that we have this example that your disciples have left for us of what it looks like to actively live in this world, to be proclaiming the good News of Jesus everywhere we go. Father, we love you. We're thankful for your son, Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.