Graduation Class of 2024 | Special Event

are you ready John John comes to us from the present but he's back from a time travel

John going all the way back to 2015 watching the Golden State Warriors win four rings in eight years all over again he hates it when people judge a movie before they watch it but after the movie has played just ask him what he would say about Men in Black 2.

He's decided it's the worst movie sequel ever made. Before the night is over be careful that you don't look at the penny as hidden in his gown because you'll forget everything

I just told you. John wants you to experience the amazing and liberating event that occurs when you sneeze with your eyes open.

You can see the look of shock and dismay in the eyes of the people that you didn't know were standing in front of you. While Google, Windows, Firefox, and Gmail may excite interest for him if you want to see

John's face contort and watch him plug his ears just speak Korean to him for a half a second say

Samsung and he won't sing for you. John may hate freestyle drawing but he sure wishes he loved it.

Catch him scribbling, scumbling, and scratching out numbers but you won't see him drawing.

Arla is glad that her pet goat doesn't know how to talk. Surely every secret she had would be out for the world to hear if goats could talk.

In fact if that goat started talking you would know that she likes to sleep on the floor of a school bus.

Pretty comfy down there and not too hot. You know an embarrassing secret that the goat would share would have you check in your own spectacles.

Arla, are your glasses on? They belong on your nose. Just take a look. Look through them.

And if she was stranded on a desert island she would want to be there with her brother Benjamin, a talking dog. Or is it and a talking dog?

But she's not sure which one would talk the most. Before you check to make sure bring a snack with you.

She might be hangry. Eric will never name any of his pet monkeys

Baba Yaga. He thinks it's too funny. Imagine him trying to talk to you while snorting out his nose just after he called his pet monkey.

He sure hopes he never gets trapped in Atlantis because he hates seafood. But if he was stranded on a desert island he would want to be on that island with a dog and John Pranitis.

Not necessarily in that order. Hopefully with a movie that neither one of them had ever seen.

Maybe that island would be in his favorite century 732 AD France. Maybe Simon and he could swim over and drive the

Turks out. Then they would watch reruns of the Golden State Warriors. He hates it when people are lazy and he hates eggs but he doesn't hate lazy people eating eggs.

But he loves to eat breakfast burritos especially the big squishy ones that ooze out the sides when you bite down.

But he likes it even better when he can watch Baba Yaga eat one. She may be anti -disestablishmentarianism but even though Iola doesn't have a fear of long words she thinks they are an unpleasant sounding.

By the way if you've got enough money you could probably pay her to eat a spider if it wasn't too big and too crunchy.

Big spiders don't bother her but if a stink bug was the size of an elephant it would really scare her. I think we understand that.

Now if it could speak that would really be terrifying. Almost as terrifying as waking up to a stink bug on her pillow.

So even though she seems to be able to pronounce gigantic words Iola thinks she doesn't read well.

Coming up on this stage to receive her diploma seems to contradict that. Let's just hope she never struggles with Glauzoarachia Beautyrophobia which is the fear of being on stage with peanut butter stuck in your upper mouth.

But we will soon know if she has Tremor Graduatio which is fear of graduation. Stick Ryan in an elevator with a good classical song and he would be happy for at least a half an hour.

Big animals don't bother him but elephant sized spiders well that's another story. Maybe they would fit into his definition of a terrible sequel

Hobbit number four. What would he call his fear of that horrible elephant side offspring of Shelob and Ungoliant?

Would that be Megapachydermoarachonophobia? Or something like that.

Maybe he doesn't want anything automated in his life. No he's a do -it -yourselfer all the way. He likes to build his own things including computers but he thinks certain things should be easily affordable.

Things like flying machines. Maybe he has never watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because he thinks an affordable flying machine isn't in the works for him.

Give him a computer box, two balls of chopsticks, some decent chewing gum and a broken motherboard and he'll build his own.

Years from now look for him in a big blue house and he means really really blue.

He's hoping if it's the same color as the sky maybe the spiders won't find him. I think

I'll welcome you all here tonight. Thank you for coming to the graduation. Thanks for being here to support these young men and women.

We're gonna sing a couple of songs here to get us started for the night. Would you please stand as we sing together great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness

O God my father there is no shadow of turning with thee.

Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not.

As thou has been thou forever will be.

Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning new mercies

I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.

Summer and winter at springtime and harvest.

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above.

Joined with all nature in manifold witness.

To thy great faithfulness mercy and love.

Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning new mercies

I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.

For sin and a peace that endureth.

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.

Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning new mercies

I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.

Let's sing Amazing Grace. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now

I'm found. Was blind but now

I see. T 'was grace that taught my heart to fear.

And grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour

I first believed. The Lord has promised good to me.

His word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come. His grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

When we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun.

We've no less days to sing

God's praise than when we first begun.

You may be seated. All right, well thank you so much

Josh and worship team. We appreciate you guys helping out tonight. Lots of volunteer work put in went into the night and I'm thankful for the guys in the back here and everybody else as well.

So I'm encouraged to see you all here tonight because I know that as I stand up here and deliver a charge to these young men and women.

That I'm merely representative of a whole bunch of family and friends and church family that are wishing similar things for them encouraging them.

Looking back to the day that you experienced that if you've been through that process. And then for some of you looking forward to that day when you're going to be graduating from high school.

We're here tonight as a believers in Christ Jesus with the desire to encourage you guys.

And strengthen you as you continue that transition into independent adulthood.

A transition that doesn't start tonight. It started a long time ago. Many of you have been behaving, acting, being regarded as adults and that's a good thing.

So what we're doing here tonight is not doing anything special other than adding our encouragement and strengthening to that process.

Every parent reaches this stage of the process with some combination of three things.

Either we're looking back with some nostalgia on our own similar experience of graduating from high school.

That's mostly a mixture of joy and sadness. Some of us are really looking forward in anticipation to seeing you all reach the same stage that I'm here at tonight.

Where you can look at your first or all of your children graduating. So we're looking forward to the grandkids stage with eyes of faith.

And the third mixture in there is we're looking at today. And we're looking at it with a resolution to make sure, to ensure that we do our part in helping you to move in the right direction from this point forward.

I'm reminded of several passages of scripture which I'll just read to you and give you a little brief context on.

Think back to 1 Kings chapter 2 where David transitions the kingdom to Solomon.

And he says to him, I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong therefore and show yourself a man.

Keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways. To keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances and his testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses.

That you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn. Now I won't claim that I'm going the way of all the earth because hopefully that's not true tonight.

But there is a sober reality that when you get to the stage of life that I am and later that you recognize that you can't go back.

You can't relive the high school, college, young adult years that you've already been through.

But you do get the chance to encourage those who are coming after you. And that's what

David did to Solomon. And he encouraged him multiple times with the same reminder.

So John, if I've said the same thing to you multiple times, it's not because I don't think you understand or you don't listen.

You need to be reminded, right? So when David encouraged Solomon, be strong. He knew that Solomon needed strength for the task at hand.

Think about Psalm 127 verse 3 -5. A passage many parents cherish and love as I do.

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.

How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

And all of you parents in the room can say a hearty amen to that. These children are a blessing.

All five of you are a blessing to not just your parents, but to our family, our church family.

And we are excited to see you, like arrows, go out away from our homes. Now that process comes with a little bit of bumpiness, right?

Not every parent loves the moment the kid leaves the home. But we're fully supportive and we're looking forward to that day when we can see you launch your own quiver full of arrows.

And the last passage here to just briefly read to you is 3 John chapter 4, or verse 4, excuse me.

I have no greater joy than this to hear of my children walking in the truth. Speaking in context of spiritual children, but applying directly to the reality that we are praying that you will walk in the truth.

Now, I graduated high school 27 years ago in the year 1997 at the tender age of 10.

And quite a bit has changed since 1997. So as you look back at that change with me,

I'm going to try to help you get something that I needed at the age you guys are at. And I couldn't have,

I couldn't get it without help. And that's perspective. You need perspective. Now, the reason

I want you to have perspective is I don't want you to just look back with me 27 years. I want you to look forward with me 25 years or so from now to the point where your kids will be up on this stage graduating from their high school and you'll be giving a similar set of wisdom and encouragement to them.

Okay, so change happens. Let's just do a couple quick and easy ones here. In 1997, cell phones had been available to the public for about five years.

But it was going to be another five years before I got my first one. I actually had the first color screen cell phones in 1997.

I don't have to tell you that you live in a different world, but imagine how much different it's going to be 25 years from now.

Email in 1997 was used by about 10 million people worldwide. I got my first email address in 1997 when

I left for college. You guys might not even use email 25 years from now.

Hopefully. I hate email. College tuition at Hillsdale College where I went to college, private school, was $16 ,000 a year, right?

$64 ,000 for four years. Today, same school, same building, same campus, mostly same professors, $32 ,000 a year, right?

And you can say, all right, well, that's not bad. It only doubled in 27 years. That's pretty good cost control.

Still $132 ,000 that you've got to come up with somehow, and that's obviously not going to some of the higher -priced schools.

The median income for a U .S. household in 1997 was $37 ,000 a year.

Today, $59 ,384. An increase of 59%, so you can make 60 % more money today than I did in 1997 or when

I graduated. Here's the bad news. The median home price in 1997 was $114 ,000.

Today, it's $427 ,000, an increase of 375%.

So you're making 59 % more, but you've got to afford something 375 % more.

You do the math. Okay, here's the real bad news.

I'm going to get to some good news here, but there's bad news ahead. The national debt in 1997 was $5 .4 trillion, an incomprehensible sum at the time, $20 ,570 per citizen of the

United States. Today, checked it live, $34 .8

trillion, 644 % more than it was 27 years ago, and the amount per citizen is $103 ,278, or an increase of 502%.

Now, if that was just a straight line going up, you guys might stand a chance in 25 years, but it's not a straight line.

So simple encouragement to you, buy some Bitcoin now. Okay? Now, here's some good news.

This is not all bad news. When I graduated high school in 1997, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, and there was no horizon of hope that that was going to be overturned.

So we stand here today, praise God, with that law cast down and states providing some wisdom in that.

I encourage you to look for light. Look for hope. Don't look for all bad news, right?

Find the good news and be a part of that too. Unfortunately, in 1997, homosexuality was an increasing moral blight in our world, but it paled in comparison to the moral chaos and immorality that's around us today.

So what's my point? Why do I make all of these comparisons for you guys?

To give you perspective, the world you're entering is drastically different than the one that I enter, and yet my parents felt the same way that you will feel about your kids someday as you prepare them for the next steps.

So I'm going to give you some critical truths from the book of Ecclesiastes that I would like to see you embrace and pass on to your kids.

And here's how we'll really know if you did it, if your kids pass it on to theirs. That's the test.

I will know if my parenting handoff to him and to my other four kids was successful the day that they see their kids pass it off.

It's a long waiting period, but I'm willing to wait. Okay? So here's some critical truths that I want you to think about with me.

The first is from Ecclesiastes 12, verses 13 and 14, which if you were here in November 26, 2017, you heard

Jim preach. I wasn't, except for I listened to it today. But for those of you who weren't here, the book of Ecclesiastes finishes with the summary.

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is fear God and keep his commandments.

That's a TLDL, too long, didn't listen. Right? Fear God, keep his commandments.

That's the simplest thing I can tell you. And if you don't know him, if you are here tonight and you do not know

God, then you are incapable of living in his world with right attitudes, right actions, right motivations.

Fear God and keep his commandments because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

If you are here, saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have the basics down, you have the foundation for everything that comes beyond.

If you don't, you need to make that your foundation tonight. Second section of Ecclesiastes is chapter 11, kind of working my way back in the book.

It says in verse 9, Rejoice, young man and young woman, during your childhood and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood and follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes.

Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. So remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say,

I have no delight in them. I believe that God is speaking to you young men and young women and saying, enjoy the reality that for this period of your life,

God has given you a capacity for great energy, great action, great motivation, and you should enjoy it.

The days are pleasant. Don't miss it. Follow the impulses and the desires of your heart and eyes.

Follow them when God leads you, obviously, but know that He handles our actions and our attitudes according to His righteous standards.

But He still allows you the joy of being young before you get to the days where, like some of us, we don't delight in them as much as we used to.

Okay? Working my way back, Ecclesiastes 9 .10 says, My application?

Work hard. Work for the glory of God. Whether you're working in an outside profession or inside the home, whether you're in school or whether you're earning money, it doesn't matter.

It's work. And when you do it for God's glory, He blesses it. He placed us in the garden with a creation mandate, so do and have dominion over the earth.

And every day, including Sundays, you are working. Make sure you rest, but work heartily for the

Lord. Ecclesiastes 9 .7 -9 says, Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun. For this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.

Application? Get married, have kids, and enjoy your family.

Eat bread, drink wine, celebrate, feast. It's God -designed.

He wants us to glorify Him by doing so within His parameters.

And finally, here in Ecclesiastes 5 .18 -20, it says, Here is what I have seen, to be good and fitting, to eat, to drink, and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which

God has given him. For this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom

God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor.

This is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

God intends for you to work, eat, drink, labor, serve, make money, give it away generously, serve

Him with it. Use what God has given you to glorify Him and enjoy it.

But remember, as you go out, your life is a living testimony to the legacy of your parents, your grandparents, and your extended family.

Carry your legacy forward with honor. Represent the body of Christ and your family in all that you do.

And know that we are depending upon you to stand firm for Christ. This world needs people like you to be salt, light, and an aroma of life to life and death to death, to use the words of the

Apostle Paul. Carry and pass that baton to your children and teach them how to pass it to your grandchildren.

Stand for truth. Trust God. Love Jesus Christ.

Love your family and love your neighbor as yourself. And may God bless you, encourage you, and strengthen you in these next couple of years as you encounter the joys and the difficulties of young adulthood.

Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful that we can be here tonight to enjoy these graduation ceremonies, to know that much of the work as parents is behind, and the transition to friendship and encouragement has begun.

We pray for each of these young men and women that they would indeed rejoice in the days of their youth, that they would walk in right relationship with you through the

Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, through your word, that they would seek out and establish good careers for themselves that will enable them to provide for their families.

And we pray that you would bless the work of their hands. And may we see the fruit of our labor as parents and grandparents in the lives of their kids and grandchildren.

We thank you, Lord Jesus, for protecting and preserving us in the midst of a lost and dying world. We pray that you will continue to do so until you come to take us to be with yourself.

In your name, amen. Let's pray. Ryan, as you probably know by now, your mom loves to plan and make lists and prepare ahead for things, and dad loves to be much more spontaneous in life.

So when I was expecting you, I wanted to choose a name early so that in the first few minutes that I held you in my arms,

I'd be able to know and bond with you by name. But true to his nature, dad wanted to wait until after he met you to choose your name.

So I did my best to speed up the process. I went through the name book in the weeks before your birth and wrote down my top three choices.

And after you were born, dad finally looked at those names, and we decided that of those three names,

Ryan was our favorite choice. But dad still needed to be sure. So he spent the next four days reading through the entire name book, cover to cover.

Meanwhile, relatives kept asking if we had a name for our baby yet. And finally, one aunt got so impatient, she faxed dad a paper with two words on it.

I'm not coordinated enough for this. Got name. Got name. So finally, dad decided after perusing every other name that yes,

Ryan was the name he liked best for you. So as you grew, you were a very active little boy and kept us on our toes.

You walked at ten months. When you were about four, I wasn't able to just simply say, sit still on your chair.

I usually also had to remind you, your head goes up and your feet go down.

You have challenged my growth as a mother and teacher maybe more than any of my other children, but I'm grateful for that.

You have individual interests and bents and ways of processing things and learning. By your nature, you have reminded me of the blessing of the uniquely personal gifts and skills that God has given to each of us.

Because you often do best working things through and solving problems on your own,

I have grown in my ability to slow down and allow you to learn in your own way. And then

I get the gratification of seeing you grow and overcome challenges and succeed. You are a deep thinker who takes time to process things until you understand them thoroughly, and both your dad and I respect that in you.

When we were choosing your favorite verse for tonight's printed programs, one passage you mentioned, but we didn't choose because of its length, was

Philippians 2, 3 -8. So I want to leave you with those verses tonight. Doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another is more important than yourselves.

Not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this way of thinking in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Your name, that we finally decided on, Ryan, means little king. Our desire for you is for you to rule as a good king over yourself and the tasks and people

God gives you responsibility for, but as a little king, we pray that you will be a servant leader, giving of yourself to those you lead, and most importantly, yielding your life to the high king,

Jesus, and submitting to him in all you do. We already see you living this out. So we're so proud of you, and pleased to present this diploma to you in recognition of the completion of your high school studies.

Thought you were done with me, huh? All right, well, John, I am excited to hear, to see this day arrive, and to know that you are standing on the precipice of great things.

Your mom and I are extremely proud of the man that you have become. We were talking as we were on our daily walk today about how

God has been faithful to you. We look at the evidence of spiritual life within you, and we see it flourishing.

Even just a couple years ago, to see you step out and start reading scripture on your own, challenging yourself to read more and more of it than I would ask of you as part of our family, and then encouraging the young men around you to join with you, that was so encouraging to my heart.

To continue to see you lead and teach others, and begin to exercise the spiritual muscles that God has given you, and to do so in a way that's preparatory for becoming a husband and a father just delights my heart.

And we are looking back with thankfulness at the 17 years of life that we've had with you.

I could have started 17 years ago, and I never would have had the beard you have now, but God makes everybody different.

And we are delighted to see you continuing to carry the Parnassus name forward, and looking forward to what

God has for you in the future. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Covered that pretty well today Keeping reptiles indoor did come to an end when your mom found the garter snake that had gone missing a couple of days earlier while she was vacuuming

She didn't even know that you had it Yes School started out to be fun, but then it got a little more challenging and wasn't as much fun anymore

But you never complained and you were steady reliable and working through your assignments with a good attitude

Today is probably your favorite part of school Being done that part is finished now, but you're learning will never end will continue

Your mom and I are so grateful for you, and we have enjoyed the years We've been able to spend together being part of your training

We are the most thrilled that you confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and your

Savior We want to encourage you to focus your life around going closer to him each day that he gives to you

It's a gift each and every day And then I just wanted to we enjoyed reading through the Psalms and Proverbs And so I just wanted to read the first verse first 13 verses of Proverbs chapter 4

Says here you children the instruction of the father and attend to no understanding where I give you good doctrine

Forsake ye not my law For I was my father's son tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother

He taught me also and said unto me that thine heart retain my words keep my commandments and live

Get wisdom get understanding Forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth

Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Wisdom is the principal thing

Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding Exalt her and she's to promote thee.

She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her She shall give thee she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace and a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee

Here O my son and receive my sayings and the years of thy life shall be many I Have taught thee in the way of wisdom.

I have led thee in right paths when thou goest thy steps shall not be straightened and When thou runnest thou shall not stumble take fast hold of instruction, let her not go keep her for she is thy life and without Just want to see

Is As usual I'm here and I'm not very prepared for this so Your mom asked me to talk because she doesn't think that she can without crying so And I'm trying to not do the same after watching some of those photos quick by but Arla You know how very proud we are of you

And I thank God every day for the vision that he gave you years and years ago for the career that you've chosen. I Know without a doubt that he's led and guided you to this day

He's still pray every day for strength because I'm reminded all the time of It's a little while ago now, but I remember when you told me you asked me

Daddy, why do you call me baby all the time? And I said because you're always you're my baby and you said but daddy.

I'm not a baby anymore and I tried to remind you as sternly as I could you'll always be my baby and You're not my baby anymore but you've grown to be a beautiful young woman and Your mom and I are just so very very proud of you

I really don't have the words for that And we look so forward to seeing what you're gonna do in the next a couple of years

Hopefully three and get done with college, right? and then come home wherever that may be and start your career and be able to help people the way that you do with the kind heart that God's given you and the brain and Just everything that makes you who you are and I know that we've learned a lot along the way

I know your mom and I certainly have because we are a mess basically, right? but we love you so very much and we're so very proud of you and Again, we just thank

God for you every day and you'll always be in our prayers and we'll always be here to support you And we just can't wait to see your success

So congratulations and all your hard work coming together We love you This is an exciting time you're a blessed man because they gave me a mic in five minutes

And I'm gonna stick to the script 18 years of hard work and fun good memories and labor.

You really put your shoulder to the plow and Come through and so we got you a piece of paper.

We bought on the Internet For for all of that, but We get to see how you're gonna take what's been given to you in your education

For the furthering of the kingdom of God in yourself and in our community You know to whom you belong and for what purpose you exist

It's a big advantage in a world full of people that have no meaning or direction You might not feel very wealthy we talked about Simon pointed out interest rates and Trillions of dollars of debt and all that but you've been given great gifts and you stand on the shoulders of many fathers and mothers prophets warriors poets composers philosophers authors builders preachers slaves pagans and saints

Most of them are already dead, but some are alive and here today with us sitting in here with us people such as Moses David Paul Plutarch Augustine Charles Martel Aquinas Godfrey Luther Knox Sobieski one of your favorites

Jonathan Edwards CS Lewis one of my favorites of Skanderbeg Dick Winters Tolkien Thomas soul and many many others have contributed to shaping your life

Giving study toil blood and even their lives in pursuit of the good true and beautiful of Western tradition

Built on God's law, which is revealed in nature and more specifically in the Bible These are not yours to waste or to spend on yourself as many others do around us today

Instead they are gifts given to you to be cared for Given to those around you and passed on to your own children and grandchildren someday for the glory of God You are part of the great story of God's rule and redemption through history made possible by the good news of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and his righteousness that becomes ours to faith

You may not end up winning battles or Writing the Magna Carta or bringing good news to a jungle tribe but your faithfulness can and will be measured in small everyday things that will demonstrate whether you are guarding and Sharing this treasure given to you or squandering it your mom and I are very proud of you and I see you

I'm like that's that's my son and So it's a lot. We've put a lot into it and you have to and we're really proud of you

We've seen great evidence of your faithfulness already and we're both very confident that God's gonna accomplish it The Apostle Paul has encouraged his son

Timothy in the scripture to guard the deposit entrusted to you And I want to charge you and the other guys sitting down as well to do the same our prayer for you is that of Paul's charge for Timothy as For you.

Oh man of God pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness

Fight the good fight of the faith take hold of the eternal life to which you were called About what you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses

Congratulations Tassel -toss time

Right to left Right to left. Okay, let's pray and then we'll toss the tassels

Lord thanks for this day and for these young adults that you have given to us thank you for the community that you have given these people to for the parents and brothers and sisters grandparents and Everybody that's involved in and raising a child to an adult.

That's a huge investment and We ask that you would empower them to finish the work that you have started and We know that you are faithful Because all of your promises are kept we ask that you would empower them to be faithful as well to the best of their ability thank you for the special time of celebration and We love you very much.

Thank you for Jesus and what he has done on our behalf in his name. We pray. Amen right to left

Right to left