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I have no idea.
That song too. I don't know. I'm not gonna guess.
But I thought I heard it over there when I was talking to Jim and Justin. I thought I heard some garbage and I thought is that our sound or is it the song?
Is that the like technical sound?
Garbage? No, that's just my whatever it is. You can use it. Feel free. I would like to use it. Go for it. I'm going to. Okay. Are you gonna be rude about it? No, not at all. You've met Jim haven't you?
I have met him.
Good to see you.
No, I didn't.
Good to see you guys. I'm old. I have a right.
I have a right to do that.
You do.
Well, hopefully nobody comes back here. That's kind of the goal.
I'm going to just announce everybody to be seated.
Okay.
That doesn't mean start the music.
I'll give you. I'll wait for your call.
I'll be back here.
Okay. Sweatshirts.
This young man invented the sport.
Barefoot.
The man. The legend. The cereal mill. She's that person that loves the sand from the bowl. The left behind mill.
I'm serious about the left behind.
I just mean what's in the bowl. She savors it by the spoon full. Which is not right. Cereal mill.
Cereal mill.
From the bowl.
This graduate makes her own way in life. So long as her own way is not blocked by spiders. Fighting for a career as a preschool teacher. Welcome the young lady. Her parents refer to her as princess.
Please.
You're about to meet a graduate. His mom calls tall child.
I don't know.
I think it's because he's tall.
And he's a child.
Perhaps the most interesting thing to know about this young man.
Is his greatest fear.
He has a fear of sleeping through a zombie apocalypse. That's right. He's not afraid of the zombie apocalypse. He's afraid of missing the zombie apocalypse. Apparently a zombie apocalypse can be so sudden and yet so silent that one can actually sleep through it.
His future plans are set. He's joining our United States Air Force in September as a network intelligence analyst. We can't tell you anything more about it without having to kill you.
So don't ask.
Unless you're a zombie.
And he's asleep.
Welcome Brandon Barnett.
And now.
We have the graduate known for her sweetness. With nicknames like Baby Ruth.
And Beanie.
She requires six hugs a day. Six hugs a day. Isn't that so sweet? She loves her family. They have even made a seven part YouTube series starring all her siblings. But under that layer of sweetness meets the heart of a warrior.
If you are an aggressive chicken here tonight, be warned. An overzealous user once tore her favorite jeans. Within a minute, the chicken was expertly dispatched and stewing upon the stove. After graduation, she plans on becoming more involved in her parents' business as she pursues her cooking and homemaking.
Don't make any sudden moves. Here comes.
Lyndon Mitchell.
Last.
And probably not least, the man who likes what you're doing with your face. He is half Mexican, which he gets from his father who is completely.
Mexican.
He has a few strange propulsions, one of which is that he can't stand to have a sentence or song cut off before it's. His optimism has led to his other nickname of Mexican, also related to the fact that his father is completely.
He recently learned of his passion for the musical stylings of the great musician.
Justin Bieber.
Or hopefully still has a bright future.
Somehow.
Finding learning to create an engineering career is Mr. Spiritual Bryce Bryce O 'Rourke. Everybody welcome your 2018 high school graduates. Hello everybody. We're the graduates this year and we want to ask you to stand up and worship with us.
And so all of these.
Are in your booklet.
If you have one, next time just let us know and we'll start with you. Hold on tight.
Just when you think that you have a handle on what life is throwing at you then you're going to start to physically, mentally and emotionally deteriorate. And that will present to you an entirely new group of difficulties and challenges and frustrations and discouragements.
As you decline physically to the point where you are sometimes even unwilling to live. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes,. That was my O .G. Bryce.
Because you asked for it.
Typically it is at this point that a commencement.
Speaker would offer you.
Some worldly advice. At least a commencement speaker not inside the church where God is to be honored and his word is to be proclaimed. And you would hear a number of different encouraging notes that would be intended to sort of ready you and steel you for the life that is ahead and for the challenges that you would face.
And you would hear things like this. You are the best generation that this world has ever seen. And you laugh at that because all of us here know that that is not true.
You will be.
Known as the Tide Pod generation.
You are not.
The best generation that this world has ever seen. I was told that when I graduated from high school that my generation was the best generation that this world had ever seen. And I knew that was a lie.
When I graduated from high school, your generation is not the best, my generation is not the best, my parents' generation is not the best, my grandparents' generation may be top.
Ten. But.
This generation is not the best generation the world has ever seen. Or you might be encouraged to hear somebody saying that the future belongs to you and rests in your hands. And no it doesn't. The future rests in God's hands.
He is the one who has written all of human history before anything was even spoken into existence. Or somebody trying to encourage you and say you should believe in yourself because you can do anything.
And that's a lie.
You can't do anything.
Madison will never be a probable linebacker for the CLC. It will never happen. For the Cincinnati Bengals or the Cleveland Browns maybe.
Or somebody.
Will say that you should follow your heart and chase after your dreams. That is stupid advice because your heart is desperately wicked, deceitful of all things and you can't trust it. You should never trust your emotions or live your life based upon your emotions or determine what is true because of how you feel and because of what your heart is inclined to do.
Don't trust your heart. Or somebody will say to you that you can change the world. And you can't. You can't change the world. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes,.
A generation comes and a generation.
Goes and the world lies forever. And there is nothing new under the sun. And you, individually, you, corporately, your entire generation, is not going to make a big of a difference in where the world is going or what is going to happen in the world.
And when you pass away from.
This scene,.
It will be just as like when I pass away from this scene. We will be quickly forgotten and all of our achievements will be buried in the sands of time. That is what Scripture promises. So that's what the world would have to offer you.
And I hope that just by stripping all of that hair, you can see how foolish and stupid that kind of advice is. I want to offer you something different. And it is from 1 Timothy chapter 4. This is Paul's advice to a young man named Timothy.
And I'll give you something of a context. I'm going to be focusing in on verse 6 of chapter 4. In verse 6, Paul writes this. Pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.
And in that passage, the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy on certain things that he was to do as a young minister of the gospel. And the church in Ephesus where Paul had left him. And he had given him quite a task.
The church in Ephesus had fallen into disrepair. They had unqualified elders. They had false teachers in the church and false prophets in the church. And they needed to excite church discipline. And Paul left Timothy there and then wrote in 1 Timothy chapter the entire book of 1 Timothy to show Timothy how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.
And in that book, Paul gives Timothy certain instructions on what he was to do in the church and what he was to do for the church. And chapter 4 is filled with what I think is a description of a good servant of Christ Jesus.
Paul lists in that passage, 1 Timothy chapter 4 a number of items of advice. He says, for instance, in verse 7, have nothing to do with worldly faiths. In verse 8, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
Bodily discipline is a good prophethood. Godliness is profitable, not only for this world but also in the world to come. In chapter 4 verse 10, he says, fix your hope in the living God. Verse 11, love, prescribe, and teach these things.
Verse 12, show yourself an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. In verse 14, do not neglect the spiritual gift of any. In verse 15, take pains with these things. In verse 16, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.
That is good, solid advice for young men and women going into any field, any occupation, or even into any ministry. And so in that passage, Paul's describing what a good servant of Christ Jesus is. And he gives two elements of it, he is constantly nourished on the words of the faith, and he is constantly nourished on the sound doctrine that he has been following.
Those are the two Ps. Constantly nourished on the words of the faith and on the sound doctrine that he has been following. Now the words of the faith are the words of Scripture, the words that communicate the context, the theology, the belief, the practice of the Christian faith.
Timothy has been reared on this. Paul, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, says to Timothy, you have known the Holy Scriptures from your childhood, which his mother and his grandmother, who were believing Jews, had taught young Timothy, so he knew the Scriptures.
And then Paul tells him, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, that he was to preach that word, he was to stand in that word, and to love that word, and to teach that word, and to rightly study and divide the word of truth so that he could be a good servant of Christ Jesus.
So the one thing that you will need, the first thing that you will need, is a good servant of Christ Jesus, which I hope is your aspiration.
And your goal. And whatever it is.
That you're going into, is to be somebody who is constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine of truth of God. The words of the faith, again, are the words of Scripture. It is the truth of the word of God.
And the fact that Paul uses the analogy of being nourished by it is significant because all the way through Scripture, the word of God is likened to food. 2 Peter chapter 2.
Describes being hungry.
For the pure milk of the word. Hebrews chapter 6 describes the meat of the word. In the Old Testament, the prophets said, eat thy words and love them, they were like honey to me. Job likened the word of God to his daily sustenance and his daily food.
David continually talked about the word of God as something sustained and something that he was nourished by. And the word of God in the Old Testament is likened to bread. The man was a picture of that provision of God.
So all the way through Scripture, the word of God is likened to something we eat or something we drink that nourishes us. And if you neglect the word of God in your life, in your ministry, and in your family, in your marriage, you will find that over the course of time, you will get to the point where you hunger for the word of God, but you don't know where you can get it.
And you hunger for the word of God, but then you feel distant from it. Pretty soon, you will recognize that you no longer hunger for the word of God and you wonder why. And then you will get to the point where you don't even remember hungering for the word of God.
You'll be that far away from God's truth. Be constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine that you have been following. That's the second sound doctrine that we have been following.
Sound doctrine flows from the right teaching of Scripture. Sound doctrine is right belief about God, right belief about Christ, right belief about eternal life, eternity, all things spiritual, all things in this world.
That is sound doctrine. Sound doctrine relates to sound practice. Sound doctrine comes from the words of life, the words of truth in the Scripture themselves. So, the word rightly taught will produce sound doctrine.
Sound doctrine, rightly understood in practice, will result in sound practice or right practice, a godly lifestyle. And so you need to be constantly nourished on the words of the faith and then of sound doctrine.
Here would be my appeal to you. You will.
All five of you.
Have been in this church for quite some time. Not necessarily in this building, you've only been here for an hour. But you've been in this church for quite some time. This part of the squad. You have been taught the word of God from your youth, from your earliest days, from those who have taught you Sunday school, from Mr. Dave who has taught you through dean class.
You have heard it in student ministries and you have heard it every time the word is preached from this building. If you turn from that, you will not be a good servant of Christ Jesus. If you are not nourished by it and love the truth and sound doctrine, you will not be a good servant of Christ Jesus.
In fact, you will find yourself to be quite useless after a period of time. If, when you leave here, you are going to try and find a solid church wherever God plans you or puts you. And I would beg of you this, you're not tolerated for one instance, for one moment, a church that does not honor the word of God in all their ways.
It does not have a high rule of God. You're not put up there for one moment, silliness or false doctrine. You don't matter. You have no excuse. And I will chase you.
Down.
And make you hate life.
The age in which.
You young men and women go, you are not the greatest generation that this world has ever seen. Are we clear on that? The generation of time in which you are living, I think, is going to be the most difficult generation of time that any generation in this country has ever faced.
If the trend line continues, you guys, your generation,.
Responsible for leaving the church in the most difficult time it has ever seen in the United States of America. Your generation, you, will be responsible to hold to the truth, to love to the truth, to defend the truth, and to never compromise the false doctrine, the false teachers, the false prophets, the false ideologies, the falsists.
That's what rests in your hands. Your task ahead, if the trend line continues, your task ahead is more difficult than it was for me, and for the next generation who's older than I am. You guys have to work it out.
The only way you will be able to do that is if you are a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrines that follow. What's most important for you is not whether you are an engineer, or whether you're in the military, a housewife, or a teacher, or a firefighter, or whatever you look like.
Oh yeah, I got that.
What's most important is not what you are planning to do, necessarily. What is most important is that you do each one of those as a good servant of Christ Jesus. And all of this presupposes that you understand what the gospel is, and that you have embraced it.
And I want to explain what that is for any who are here who have not understood what the gospel is, and have not embraced it. The gospel is the good news about what Jesus Christ has done for sinners, and what God has done in his son for a lost.
Humanity.
Every individual in here is guilty of sin before the throne of God. Every individual who has ever lived has heaped up for themselves a rap sheet of crimes against a merciful, benevolent, good, and holy, and righteous God that deserves the justice of God.
And we know that we are sinners. Scripture says that we are sinners. Our conscience bears witness to the fact that we are sinners. We can know that we are sinners because of the deeds that we do. Scripture tells us we are sinners because we have violated God's law.
We have lied, we have stolen, we have lusted, we have coveted, we have dishonored our parents, we have not kept the Sabbath, we have not honored God with all of our hearts, our soul, our mind, and our strength from the moment that we were born until this day.
And if God were to give us justice on the last day, we would get exactly what guilty rebels deserve. We would get eternal hell. That would be the just, and the right, and the good they forgot to do. And if God would have cast all of Adam's project, all of Adam's race into eternal hell, he would have done nothing that was not good.
He would have done nothing evil. In fact, he would have done no injustice to us whatsoever if he had done that. Because that's what we would have heard. That's what we deserve. And if God had damned all of us, it would still be good.
And we've done a good thing for God to do. But God also is good and wants to show his love, and his grace, and his mercy, and to display his loving kindness, and to display his redeeming nature, and his good nature.
And so that's where Jesus Christ comes in. God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, stepped into human history and took upon himself a human body. He was made a man. While maintaining his deity, he was the perfect God man.
And being perfect and infinitely righteous, he could die on a cross and pay an infinite price, an infinite and eternal price that our sin deserves. And he laid down his life and died in the stead of all who would trust him.
And he promises you this day that you have never repented of your sin and been deep upon Christ. He promises you this day that you will come to him, that you will turn from your sin, your pride, your adultery, your adultery, your fornication, your lying, your feeding, your blasphemies.
You'll turn from all of that and embrace Jesus Christ and believe upon him that the sacrifice that he made in your stead is sufficiently to pay the price that you owe to the Holy God. He promises you that he will give you eternal life, he will forgive your sin, and he will give you the righteousness of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ lived the perfect life. He died a substitutionary death. He was buried in the grave on the third day and rose again. And God will give you eternal life and all of you will turn in repentance and faith to him this day.
If you do not embrace that offer, and you die a rebel before the Holy God, you will get rebels against a sovereign king of the desert. You'll be punished. This is my warning to you. The church is facing some difficult times.
The gospel will endure through all of you. The gospel is the good news of what God has done for sinners in Jesus Christ. If you've never trusted Christ, I would beg of you this day to turn from your sin and believe upon him so that you may be a good servant of Christ Jesus.
If you're not a believer, if you've never trusted Christ, you cannot be a good servant of Christ Jesus because you don't, in fact, belong to Christ Jesus. You belong to the world. You are not going to change the world, but you can stand against the onslaught of the world if you're a good servant of Christ Jesus, the Father.
Father, we love you and we thank you for what you have done for us in the person of Christ. It is my prayer and desire that many who are here who have never trusted Christ for salvation, they see their need forgiven and bow to me in repentance and faith toward you, that they may have eternal life, have their sins forgiven, and know that they have an eternity in heaven awaiting them when they die.
And may we do this for your glory and the sake of your son and that we rejoice in that salvation again. Be pleased to draw your sheep to you, and you may be honored by Christ as he received the reward for his suffering.
We love you and thank you in Christ's name. In this verse, Paul gently reminds the Ephesians that he has paid a considerable price, a personal price. The walk refers to the daily conduct and worthy has the idea of living to match one's position in Christ.
Also, Paul urges his readers to do everything the Lord desires and empowers them. For the first three chapters, Ephesians tells us who we are in Christ. And in the beginning verse, in the fourth chapter, it says, walk worthy.
Our desire for you, Noah, though it may be costly and that you may walk in a manner that is worthy and do everything the Lord desires and empowers you to be.
Thank you guys for making me have to come out. I remember when I was younger.
And I was in eighth,.
Ninth grade, I needed help with school almost every day, just for a certain thing, whether math or English. And every day, I would go over to Grandpa and Grandma's apartment that they had and Grandma would sit down and help me every day whenever I needed help with.
My Grandpa would take me back and forth wherever I needed to go. There's a story behind that if you want to say.
So,.
Thank you guys for coming out.
I want to say thank you, Joel. Thank you for.
Just being my coach, my friend, my brother, and when people ask sometimes, your son.
At the restaurant.
That I work at, at the restaurant, people think I'm Joel Sparrow and that he's the owner, so they'll walk up and be like,.
Sure.
So, at this point now,.
I'll just be Joel Sparrow for some time.
So, thank you and I want to say thank you to my parents. Thank you for always being there for me, for everything, everything you do. It was kind of a rough transition, moving to Idaho a couple years ago, switching curriculums, but we got through it.
We did good and we're good.
Now we're graduates.
I love you guys. Thank you guys for coming.
I'm super, super impressed, especially with French 3. But hey, he's the only boy in the class, so, smart kid. Physics, great job. So, your senior year, you were a mentor at school and you told me that you made it a point to know every kid's name in every.
Class that you had.
And I can tell you that knowing a person's name and telling them about their name makes a person feel very special. And it's something that you guys find amazing that your mom used to do that in life.
I thought the first day he played, I cried for that. But it's something.
I'm very proud. And I think of it.
This way, you're just losing one dictatorship.
To another.
You actually dug in to think for yourself. And although I was happy when I had it, I was so happy to see you be strong and courageous. Do not fear, be dismayed, for the Lord is always with you wherever you go.
And that is my word to you. I do not have a diploma for you, but you do.
Manufacture the truth. Worldly wisdom cannot be impartial. Your kids are always trying to please, like God's wisdom, without hypocrisy. Read and pray to the word of God continually. You will find that your life is pretty.
And as you leave here, keep God first.
But I got something.
First of all, I want to thank everyone that showed up today. There's a lot of people, a lot more people than I thought. And I just want to thank every single one of you for coming here to watch us view the world of school and food that's paid for us, and in the world of bills.
And student debt.
So, there's a lot of thank you.
For that. And I'd like to do a special.
Thanks to my mom for her worship, to Jessie for giving me reason and logic when I.
Needed it, to God for everything, for all of that and more.
And so just I'd like to ask everyone to.
Enjoy today.
You know, this is a great, happy event, you know. Enjoy the moist.
Cake, the fruit punch,.
And.
If you don't want.
Bills or debt, money or divorce,.
Mention me, because I got a promotion.
So, that's all.
Well, I want to say also thank you all for coming, family and friends.
It's quite an honor to be here.
I love you and I'm proud of you. And I want you to come in Christ.
Jesus.
The introduction was fantastic, by the way. I never came up with that. It was awesome. The story about the rooster is actually true.
Except that.
The rooster didn't really pop in a couple hours.
Okay, so.
Monica is going to read something here. She's going to try. But she had a hard time talking about talking about reading.
So I don't know how long.
But I can try to take over for her if need be. So I'll show you a little bit of the military family. We moved around a lot and what's really interesting about Lindy is that she never complained about it.
She was always content and she was always like,.
What's the next adventure? Where are we going now? You know, where's that?
It was pretty amazing. So that's a really wonderful thing. Also, what's tougher is when we saw the pictures of Bonnie's mom who passed away a few years ago and how.
Lindy was literally terrified.
In a manner that was.
Really kind of unusual for.
10-year-olds or 11-year-olds at the time. So that was very compelling to watch.
We're extremely.
Pleased.
Of the results. So I think that Monica, are you ready to do it?
Alright.
I'm going to talk to Lindy and I'm going to stare down so that I don't cry when I'm not ready to cry again. Lindy, you've always been our great joy. As a child, you always loved hairpins.
And you went everywhere.
In a dress. Dress-up shoes and fur and a scarf on. When we didn't walk, you literally danced and leaped everywhere, looking behind you to make sure your skirts and cape were actually flying. As you grew, you carried that.
Spirit into a more matured man.
And we could always count on you to have a smile on your face and a cheery word of encouragement.
For everyone.
You have a heart of service for the Lord and a compassion for others. You always are looking for ways to step in and help wherever it's needed, even if it's dirty and hard. You never allow the hardships in your life to make you bitter, but instead, you chose to see those as challenges in ways that the Lord is refining you to be more like him.
And that's been pretty amazing. We were just talking about that.
A couple weeks ago.
At home, you're my right-hand gal, and honestly, I couldn't live without you, so please don't leave too soon. You're a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen, but that's not all. You're active outside and you willingly tend to the chickens, gather eggs, garden, and care for lambs who have been rejected by their mom.
And you're willing to get your hands dirty. And last year, you helped process over a thousand chickens, and that's pretty impressive. Never once did you complain or have a bad attitude, and all you expected was root beer and pizza.
Root beer, clove, and pizza. Happy with them. We're blessed to have you as our daughter, but even more so that you are a follower of Christ, and that shines in your everyday life. You are our joy, and we're so proud of what you've accomplished, and we know that you will continue to grow and learn as the Lord leads you in the direction that he has planned for you.
I'm going to be a little bit more intense than I was anticipating.
But, well, I just want to thank everybody for coming, and also I just want to say a special thanks to mom and dad for educating me my entire life.
Like,.
My mom, academics, and taking up my nature lots, paired with my dad, coaching our sports team, and teaching us how to ride motorcycles, and teaching us how to shoot, doing my arts best, and teaching us self-defense.
Thank you for a very full education, and very happy childhood, and I'm very grateful for that.
That is all.
Oh, no.
You can take a beaver.
Too, right?
This is Spanish tofu, isn't it?
It's not Spanish.
Welcome to life, kids. Did you ever grow up?
Thank you.
Thank you guys for that.
My teachers, my coaches, my friends.
Moist, wet,.
And cake, so.
A prayer for our graduates, and then we pray that it's the evidence of their dedication and commitment to Christ, to your religion, and revealed by your holy scriptures. I pray that we would see the wisdom of God from your word.
Lord, I pray that they would create a pure spiritual milk of the Lord.
We pray that they would.
Believe the gospel, and have lives that are consistent. We pray that they would seek to understand the gospel. We pray that they would share.
The gospel with lost people.
We pray that they would contemplate the gospel. We pray, Lord, that they would die in the gospel, that they would die in Christ, and they would live forever, because that's our prayer for these people.
We'd love for them to achieve.
Things, and Lord,.
We, in the service.
Of all of that, is just to glorify you. That's what we pray for. That's what we work for them. That's what the parents have worked for them, is that they might glorify you, and so that's what we pray for.
I'd like to present to you.
The 2018 graduating class of Community Church.
He's going to go through another graduation.
He's not going to do the ceremonial turning of the tassel, but the.
Others may turn their tassels.
Good job, team. Oh, my God.
Josh.
Comstock gave him a challenge word. Josh Comstock gave him a challenge word. Challenged him to work the word moist into any presentation that they got. I see.
But only two of them did.
I know. Only two of the guys did.