Graduation Sunday
May 17, 2009
A Word to the Wise
Proverbs 1:1-10
Sermon Objective: A graduation sermon for the High School graduates of in the congregation
1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight;
3 for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just
and fair;
4 for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young-
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get
guidance-
6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and discipline.
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's
teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
INTRO:
Watch the graduation video
My, oh my! How time flies. The next big item on your calendar is one that, just a couple of years ago, you probably thought would never arrive. You are actually going to graduate from High School!
You have spent 12 years in school and now the day is almost here when you will be turned out.
Twelve years. Most of you began 1st grade in 1997. I am sure you remember what happened that year but let me remind you of a few memorable events that took place the year you started school. See if any of them seem current to you (or your parents) or seem to have happened “only yesterday.”
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 8,000 for the first time ever.
• The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North
Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing US$ 2 billion in damage.
• NASA's Pathfinder space probe landed on the surface of Mars.
• Mother Theresa of Calcutta died.
• Diana, Princess of Wales died and her funeral was watched by over 2 billion
people worldwide.
• One million men gathered for Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gap"
event in Washington, DC.
• Stock markets around the world crashed because of a global economic crisis
scare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets. The New York
Stock Exchange invoked the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading.
• Sony released its Play Station Video Console.
• The top video games were: Star Wars Jedi Knight, Quake, and Fallout.
• John Demjanjuk makes request to be a U.S. citizen (restored citizenship) after
being deported and tried for war crimes in England.
• Hong Kong began to kill all the chickens within its territory to stop the
spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
That was 12 years ago. It sounds like it was this year doesn’t it? Even this week! There’s a lesson in that and I hope you’ll take some time to ponder it.
Twelve years you spent in school. All of it designed to make you into effective and productive citizens of the planet. And as I look at each of you, I am sure they have succeeded.
A few years before that (about the time you were born) a man named Robert Fulghum was reflecting over his education and he discovered that: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN". Listen:
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:
• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing
and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick
together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots
go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are
all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam
cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned -
the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Fulghum hit a nerve with his list. He brings us back to sanity and reminds us that life was meant to be lived in relationships and mutual support … love. What he gives is some “folksy, witty, wisdom” that deserves to be heard.
I tried to think of some witty wisdom of my own to give you this morning but it was to no avail. I wish I could simply offer you wisdom that could fit manageably inside a fortune cookie … but I can’t.
The Great American critic Will Rogers had lots of proverbial one-liners though. He told us, “Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.” Or this “The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.” Or this “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
But I’m not so witty.
Wisdom, on the other hand, is something anyone of any age can begin to accumulate. It is not knowledge; but it does include the proper application of knowledge.
And when the dust all settles it will be the wise amongst us who deserve to be followed and heard and modeled.
Doug Larson said, “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.”
There are no less than 30 references to “hearing” or “learning” in the Book of Proverbs. Listening and learning are essential to wisdom and success.
The fool, on the other hand, has no use for instruction and learns nothing from others. The fool rejects knowledge. He simply won’t learn. Not because he can’t, but because he isn’t interested.
There are two kinds of fools:
1. Those who haven’t learned and won’t.
2. Those that started to learn and stopped.
You have no doubt caught on that I am far more concerned about challenging you to be wise than I am challenging you to be educated. Wisdom, by default, assumes you are learning but wisdom and education are miles apart.
Paul says that “knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 13). Knowledge can lead to arrogance, pride, and even foolishness; but learning to use that knowledge correctly, well that is an indication that wisdom is present.
So how will you know if you are using knowledge correctly? How can one know the difference in an educated fool and person of skill and wisdom?
The Scriptures help us with that.
As I said, I have no witty one-liners for you this morning but there are some things I can assure you and I would like to leave you with those if I may.
[1] LIFE WILL TURN OUT DIFFERENT THAN YOU EXPECT (SOME BETTER AND SOME WORSE). BUT A LIFE WELL LIVED WILL BE AN ADVENTURE WORTH PURSUING.
Unexpected things happen in life and being a believer does not make one immune. Jesus said it rains on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)
Bad stuff happens to good people.
• Money evaporates.
• Health deteriorates.
• People die.
• Families dissolve.
• Heart ache comes.
But I can assure you that having God’s presence to guide, comfort, strengthen and encourage does make huge difference in how one navigates the unexpected that life brings. Never under-estimate the role that knowing God and having God’s wisdom provides.
Proverbs 3: 5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
THINGS I CAN ASSURE YOU:
[1] LIFE WILL TURN OUT DIFFERENT THAN YOU EXPECT (SOME BETTER AND SOME WORSE). BUT A LIFE WELL LIVED WILL BE AN ADVENTURE WORTH PURSUING.
[2] MANY WILL TRY AND KEEP YOU FROM REACHING YOUR GOALS AND POTENTIAL (PROVERBS 1:10-19)
Listen to some more from Proverbs 1.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.
11 If they say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood,
let's waylay some harmless soul;
12 let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down
to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"-
15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves!
19 Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives
of those who get it.
There will always be people who want to influence your life but are not good for you. They will come in many different disguises, makes, and sizes; wise in the person who limits their impact.
To think you can somehow override their influence and maybe influence them is idealistic but not realistic.
1 Corinthians 15:33 says: Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
Please believe me when I tell you your future is in many ways determined by
the company you keep.
Greg Griffin tells a story that he learned from his dad while growing up on
the North Carolina beach. One day he was walking along the Beach with his father.
Greg was about eight years old. He noticed a man with a bucket of crabs. The
crab bucket did not have a top on it. I asked my father why the crabs were not
able to escape.
His father said, “If there was only one crab in the bucket it would certainly escape. However, when there is more than one crab in the bucket, if one tries to crawl out, the other crabs would grab hold and pull it back down.”
This is true with people. If one person attempts to better himself, there will always be someone (s) who will attempt to drag him back down to a common fate. YOU MUST IGNORE THE CRABS IF YOU WANT TO BE A SUCCESS IN LIFE!
John 10:10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Your potential is a threat to some. Do not let them be a threat to your potential!
But there is one who sticks closer than a brother; who always has your best interests at heart. His name is Jesus and you would you be wise to walk with him!
WRAP-UP
THINGS I CAN ASSURE YOU:
[1] LIFE WILL TURN OUT DIFFERENT THAN YOU EXPECT (SOME BETTER AND SOME
WORSE). BUT A LIFE WELL LIVED WILL BE AN ADVENTURE WORTH PURSUING.
[2] MANY WILL TRY AND KEEP YOU FROM REACHING YOUR GOALS AND POTENTIAL
[3] THERE IS ONE WHO CAN GIVE YOUR LIFE MEANING BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION.
Graduation means doors are openings and dreams is bursting forth! The possibilities are indeed endless and you have good reason to be excited. And this is an important time to begin seeking wisdom like never before.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 says:
1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before
the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find
no pleasure in them"-
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the
clouds return after the rain;
You ARE going to give your life to something. You just are. By all means, give your life to something worthwhile … give your life to the ONE who can give it meaning and purpose.
Matthew 16: 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
You may not know this, but school was never meant to teach you everything you need to know. It merely equips you. An education is meant to give you all the mental tools you need to dig out the deep treasures of life. Still, you must do the digging.
That’s why they call graduation “commencement.” Commence means begin. The only
thing you finished getting were the basic tools. In fact, many of you will do
some specialized “tool shopping” in college. Even then, the richness of life
itself can only be found by those who put the tools to work.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and discipline.
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's
teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR
LET HIM HEAR
This Sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org