If you or someone you love is graduating in this year of uncertainty this is a reminder that God is in control. This graduating class has been birthed into a time of difficulty but God is preparing you for great things for Him.

<p>If you or someone you love is graduating in this year of uncertainty this is a reminder that God is in control. This graduating class has been birthed into a time of difficulty but God is preparing you for great things for Him.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

Graduation 2020


All right, greetings and welcome to the graduation ceremony. I am Dr. Eric Walsh and I've been invited by my cousin Barbara, your superintendent, and I am happy To be with you all for this festive occasion as is obvious these are not normal times and so Even here at the church. I am standing behind a plexiglass protection To give the message But we're gonna we're gonna give the message. Anyway, this is a time of celebration It's a time of reflection And a time for The contemplation of what God is going to do with each 1 of your lives as you move forward after reaching this milestone.

So I want to thank the Southeastern Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, all of the people in our education department, the conference president, and all of the leadership, and each 1 of the parents that have found a way to stick through it with their child and getting them either through elementary school all the way up through university. And so praise God for all of you. I've been asked just to give a few words as a commencement speech, and I will not be long, but I do want to give some words of encouragement. I've graduated many times, high school, college, 3 graduate degrees, so I understand kind of the spirit of what a commencement ceremony is supposed to be like. But I also know that some of the best advice you get is often in these situations because it's an opportunity as you celebrate to really be forward thinking.

So I'm going to ask for you to turn in your Bible to first Corinthians chapter 9 and we're going to read verses 24 through 27. I'm going to give you 4 pearls of wisdom that I've learned in my academic and professional career and then we'll go on with the ceremony. Before I get into the Word of God, let us just pray. Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word. Lord, I thank you for all that you do for us, Lord.

I thank you, Lord, for your patience with us. And I thank you, Lord, that you are better to us than we are to ourselves. I thank you for the graduates, Whether they're graduating from kindergarten fifth grade eighth grade 12th grade college or university. I Thank you Lord that so many young people Are moving up in the educational ladder Lord and have made these accomplishments So father God as we study your word now, I just ask that you speak through me. Let these not be my words, let them be yours.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. So, graduating class of 2020, I tell you, this is probably 1 of the most difficult, maybe the most difficult year to graduate in recent history. This pandemic has set the world upside down. And in many ways, the world won't ever be the same.

I do believe we'll go back to quote unquote normalcy, but many of you are gonna remember this. You'll tell your children and grandchildren about this if the Lord does not come first. And I want you to relish that, that you are sitting in history, not just in terms of the pandemic, but also in terms of the protests and uprising that has happened in the country. You are sitting at a very serious time in history. And 1 of the ways that you must look at it, besides just kind of academically, professionally, or historically, is I want you to also look at this time prophetically.

You are a generation, a class, that is being birthed into new opportunities at a time when we, where we are in the prophetic stream is very significant. And hence the words that I'm going to share with you now. In 1 Corinthians 9, in verse 24, the Bible says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but 1 receives the prize? So run that you may obtain. Verse 25, Paul says, and every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, But we an incorruptible. Paul in verse 26 says, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. So fight I, not as 1 that beats the air. He says in verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. So, if I had to name our message tonight, it would be, the race is just beginning.

When you graduate, sometimes you think you've finished. There are a lot of people who lay down the baton at graduation and never reach the potential that they have in Christ Jesus. Many will stop, rest on their laurels and not finish the race. And that is not just academically, it's spiritually. If you've gone to Adventist schools, there are many young people that when they finish their time at Adventist schools it's almost as if they feel they have been liberated from something and oftentimes run into the world I Want to submit to you tonight That you are in a race that you can't just walk away from at least not in wisdom Paul speaking to the Corinthian church who understood The sports metaphor that paul was using here at the time.

The greeks had already started the Olympics and Paul is using much of the language of the Olympics here some of the events that they had of course was the what we now call Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing, and of course sprinting and and running races And so Paul is referencing some of those sports and using this analogy because at that time, a town, some young man would work their whole lives training in order to get to this Olympics. And when they did, the entire town's pride was on the line. So the town was excited that this young man would be going. And if he won, he and his family would be taken care of basically forever. So it was a big deal.

Great pride would come to the town and to the athlete and to the family. So Paul understands that. And so he begins these analogies that way. And in verse 24 it says, No ye not, that they which run in a race run all, but 1 receives the prize. So run that you may obtain.

Paul says, listen, when you go to run this race, only 1 person in the Olympics can win the race. So that means everyone must run as hard as possible to be the 1 winner. Now the beautiful thing about the Christian race is we can all win, But you still have to run the race as hard as possible and that applies to life as well Paul says so run that you may obtain Obtain what that crown So the first lesson I want to give you is this 1. It's from a great book a book entitled good to great And 1 of the lessons In the book is that good is the enemy of great? What happens to a lot of people is they've done good You know if they can get C's and low B's and and skirt their way through school They've done good and they never press themselves to become great Some of you as we say most of the times at our graduation, some of you graduate magna cum laude, some of you graduate summa cum laude, some of you just graduate thank you laude.

But The reality is God has not called you to be the tail. He's called you to be the head. God has called us to be excellent in what we do, to put together our best efforts in order that we might be the sharpest tool that God can use for his purposes. So good is often the enemy of great. I remember when I was at Oakwood College then, now University, and I was pre-med and I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do.

And in my late junior or early senior year from Washington, D.C., representatives from the National Fire Department, where the National Forest Fire people from the U.S. Forestry came to recruit. And they offered a salary and benefits at the time that seemed like a fortune I was tired of going to school. I was sick of classes. I was done I you know I'd studied so hard and Worked so hard in school trying and all the other things I was doing in school, and I did not wanna go anymore to school.

And here I was, now at the point where I was gonna have to apply to medical school and add 4 more years, even more difficult years, than the years I had just completed at Oakwood. When they said they would pay me the salary they said, and I can tell you the salary at the time was $70, 000 a year, which at the time was not a bad salary. And I said, you know, maybe I should take that salary Maybe I should go and work in the u.s. Forestry Take the money take federal benefits and call this 1 a day. That would be good But if I'd have taken the good The good would have been the enemy of great and can you imagine it has put me in a forest in the middle of nowhere?

And when the bears and all kind of animals came for me, I'd be out there by myself, would not have been a good thing. Far more beneficial to take the road less traveled, to take the rough side of the mountain and keep climbing. I want to emphasize to each of you tonight, especially those coming out of high school or college, do not be afraid of continuing on the road. The beautiful thing about graduation is, it's like finishing the regular season in the NBA or the NFL If you can get into the postseason if you can get into the playoffs Even if you just get in by the skin of your teeth, you get a brand new season a brand new start Graduation is like the blood of Jesus. It washes away all of the weakness of your past efforts if you weren't in the top 10% or 20% of your class.

Here you have an opportunity now to search and chase for greatness. Do not blow this opportunity because good is the enemy of great. God has not called you to simply be okay and mediocre. We live in a mediocre society where people are just happy getting by, I challenge you. For the glory of Almighty God, you'll be great.

Great like Daniel was great. Great like Isaiah, The prince of the prophets was great. Great like Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, was great. Great like Moses, educated in the schools of Egypt, and then in the fields of the wilderness of the Midianites. Greatness came to Moses.

And I want to challenge you not to just accept anything The second verse says no, and every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. It says that those that are seeking greatness are tempered in all things. I want to say to you that the next thing number 2 is you need to take your life Seriously the spirit of prophecy 1 of my favorite quotes Ellen White gives is to young people and 1 of the things she says is that once you have passed over the The time of your youth you cannot return back to it What right now seems like something you have an infinite amount of, you may even feel as if you are indestructible, Like you're invincible. Let me tell you something, all of that will fade and 1 day, instead of being 17 or 18, you will be 35 or 40. What will you do with that time?

Take life seriously. Because Paul says he beats down his body, and he brings it under into submission. Why? Because Paul understands the seriousness of the time. And as an Adventist Christian, that means something for you in 2 ways.

Number 1, it means that you don't have a long time to live on this earth to accomplish what God has for you, the plans, as Jeremiah says, that he has for you. But the second thing is you don't have a lot of time before Christ returns. Paul says, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. He takes it seriously. So fight I, not as 1 that beateth the air.

Take life seriously. You're not shadow boxing. You're not playing around. This is not practice. This is the real thing when you graduate, especially those you leave in your parents' house or already out of the house.

I take life seriously. The last 2 lessons are in verse 27. The first 1 is, Paul says, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection And I want you to understand that the lesson number 3 is your body will conspire to kill you Your body will conspire to kill you when you get out into the real world Some of you young people that are now gonna go off to college or finish college or even some of you going into high school The world is gonna try and make you think you need things like alcohol marijuana Even in in the in the realm of romance and intimacy. You're gonna think you need these things. And let me tell you something, if you allow it, your body will conspire to kill you.

There's many a young man and young woman who never finished their educational course because they got caught up in a love affair. They fell in love, they got romantically involved, they got so caught up in being in a relationship or with someone that it actually dashed their hopes and dreams. Your body will tell you, you need this person or you need this to have fun, you need to drink and go to the clubs. Let me warn you, your body will conspire to kill you. So Paul says, I beat down my body and I bring it into subjection.

If you're going to make good, not be the enemy of your great. You're going to have to learn temperance and self-control. The last thing is this. Paul says, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. The word castaway there in the Greek is the word adakemos.

Adakemos. And the word adakemos means disqualified. Paul says, I don't want to preach to everybody else and then I'm disqualified. Some of you coming out of Adventist school, you've been in Sabbath school and pathfinders and choirs. Let me tell you something.

Do not take that spiritual heritage that your parents gave you and squander it. Do not be a daquemos. Do not be disqualified. As you go into the world to do great and big things, don't be disqualified. In fact, the last lesson is this 1.

Make your first profession your profession of faith. Make Christ the center of who you are and what you do. When I was in medical school, 1 of the guiding light principles that kept me going when I was tired of studying Even when I was doing my doctorate in public health what kept me going is I wanted God to be able to use me I wanted to be the best tool he would have I wanted to be able to reach the sick, and I can tell you story after story after story of people who have been downtrodden, depressed, anxious, that I've been able to reach with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the love of the true physician who sits on a throne in heaven, and I was able to introduce them to the answer to their problem, I would never have had that opportunity if I didn't have the lonely nights studying, the disappointments of not getting the grade I wanted, or the challenge of rising up and doing better the next time. Your first profession must be a profession of faith. So class of 2020, You've already shown resilience.

You've already survived a pandemic, economic collapse. You're in the middle of the throes of a revolution against injustice. But let me tell you something, it's all just beginning. And I want to challenge you that what God has for you is greater in front of you than whatever you leave behind. Remember, good is the enemy of great.

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Graduation 2020

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