Sermon Tone Analysis

2018 graduation Sunday

Advice

I have heard quite a few graduation speeches this year and I believe they all had something wrong with them

Law speech, danced around the fact about an absolute truth, high school - danced around the fact that God created them

most of us have attended some graduations, and if you are like me you dread the speech, because it is the same every year

they like to give advice

When we think of advice we often think of the great sayings

What we don’t do is turn to the bible because one we don’t know what we are doing looking through the bible or 2 we don’t think there would be advice for me in todays world

However we are going to look to the bible for todays advice for graduations, and to our graduates

That is it, rather then give you something fun to say or something you and I would forget I want to leave you with this

Jesus is telling the disciples that they are to seek the Lord and not worry about anything because they are seeking the Lord

Not sure you heard that, but you and I are to seek the Lord and when we seek the Lord, then we have nothing to worry about because we are seeking him

When you and I seek the Lord then we don’t have to worry about wether we will have enough food to eat, now hear me it doesn't me that we are to just never give it another thought, no we are to be good stewards of our finances to provide food and clothing for us

But it is true that when we are seeking the Lord things fall into place, and it is not by chance that things happen but God ordination of those things

graduates face a lot of different questions,

like where to go to school, what to major in, what job to get, what do I do now, what do I pack for lunch, what shoes to wear, what clothes to buy,

wether you graduated pre school to high school, to college, to post graduate work, or maybe you have graduated into a new season of life,

This is advice for all of us

so on the day we are celebrating graduation lets dive into the advice found in scripture

Mathew 6:33

What does this look like

We did a sermon a while ago about love God with your entire being, and as we celebrate graduates we want to remind everyone that we are to love God with our entire being that is what seeking the Lord means

to seek the Lord means that our entire being is after God

all your heart

everything you desire, all your desires, give your desires to the Lord

I guess the first think we would need to ask is does Jesus have your heart, and if he doesn’t then where is your heart

is your heart in your job, is it in your family, or is it in your money, I would encourage you to find out where you heart is

as we celebrate graduation or moving into a new season, we are to love the Lord with out entire heart,

all your soul

Jesus wants your soul your passion, your entirety, an honest question to ask yourself is who has your soul

you life to Jesus, your eternity to Jesus

all your might

Jesus wants your energy and time

I mean he did die on the cross to save your soul for eternity

but the verse says that you and I are to love Jesus with our entire might, all of our energy and all of our time

I think we like to give the excuse of this is me time, or someone else in the church will cover that

When we start to think about seeking God this particular verse is just the beginning of that, these are questions that you and I can begin to self check ourselves, who does have my heart, who has my soul, and am I loving Jesus with my time and energy

when we start to put those things together we understand that our life when we come to Jesus is no longer our own, so to put feet to seeking the Lord

you and I must die to ourselves

It is no longer about what you and I want, it is no longer about what you and I desire, rather when we are seeking the Lord it is all about Him

We have said love the lord your God with your entire being,

die to yourself

this is just the beginning of seek the Lord

again this is more things to just talk about, and maybe you are here today and that is where you are, maybe you are here today and you are struggling and at your point in your walk with Christ or you do now have a walk at all with Christ, you simple need to here those things and take that home and begin to dewell on these things.

but maybe you are willing to go deeper

So I wanted to give you some practical advice

The first thing you can do to seek the Lord is to pray

Just Pray

It does not get any simpler than that, you are to pray

Prayer is just communicating with God, there is nothing special about it or secret about, there are no right words, just communicating with God at its core

My grandmother and my mother are prayer warriors

I want to encourage you to spend time in prayer daily, taking our request to the Lord help us not carry them around

those of use who are in a new season of life or have graduated

to help us stay focused on Jesus we need to spend sometime in prayer

in the words of my mom

Just pray about it

A practical way to seek the Lord is to spend time in prayer!

Part of seeking the lord is to know him, a way to know him is to read his letter to us

Be in the Word daily

you and I cannot know God if we are willing to not be in the Word

that is a fact, think of your relationships, you cannot and will not grow in those relationships if you do not spend time with them

Make being in the word a priority over the social media junk

make being in the word a priority over the junk on the TV

are minds are sensitive, if we put junk in then all we will get is junk, the Bible is not junk it is premium fuel

part of reading it is memorizing it and meditating on it, then studying it

The verse is Psalms is saying that we should be hiding Gods word in our hearts, to do that we must be students of the Word, read it, memorize it, and study it

To put is simply, you and I must be reading the word of God

the last part of advice for graduates, and people in new seasons of life

is simple to be involved with the Body

no matter what you think you cannot grow in Christ, and you cannot continue to seek the Lord without being involved with the local body

you cannot grow in Christ apart from the Body of Christ which is the local church

that means you are to pray to the Lord and ask Him about joining the church and then when God tells you to join you are to join the church, that does not mean that you join and not do anything, but there are openings that need to be filled by people who God has called

Be involved in the local church

Closing

the band to come forward

invitation

Deuteronomyu 4:29