Graduation Sermon Notes

Here's the best advice I can give all of us. When you make a bad decision, run to God, not from God. Welcome to church today. Would you help me welcome in the rest of the campuses? I'm glad to have you here. And just to give you the old Jesus juke from the video, do you not know that there's a race? All the runners drive or run, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize. We pray today that as we talk to graduating seniors that you will run the race that God has set before you. whether you are graduating and going to college, going to trade school, starting your job, going to the military, that you would run the race God has in front of you. In fact, church here across the campuses, can we celebrate our graduating seniors? We're glad you're with us. You did it. You passed all your tests. Hopefully you're almost done with all the craziness of high school. And as we applaud our seniors, allow me to take a personal privilege and let me just wish my daughter, my only daughter, a happy 15th birthday today. Will you help me thank and celebrate my daughter? I love you, Liz. Happy birthday. And Mallory, if you're here, thank you. She was our waitress at the Cheesecake Factory where my daughter wanted to go, and she hooked us up with someone at Cheesecake. Praise the Lord. So, Mallory, we love you. Thank you for serving us so well. Now, today we finish a six week conversation in this book of Daniel. And if you've missed any of the weekends or missed all of it, and you're a guest today, first of all, we're glad you're here if you're a guest, but man, catch up because so much of this is predicated, is built on what we've built over the last five weeks. But today is going to be very unique, very different. And we as a church believe that God's called us to invest in the next generation. And that's not just something we say from stages. We put our effort and our energy and our vision and our resources into pouring into the next generation. And today's. is really a day where we're leaning into our graduating seniors and talking to them. Now, you look around and go, well, this day is not for me. No, it's for all of us. God has something for all of us. And I think God's going to speak through our graduating seniors to all of us. And in fact, this past week, we invited them to actually text in questions. Like, you've sat the last five weeks. What are the questions you have about what it looks like to live for Jesus? in Babylon, in a world that doesn't follow the truth of Jesus, how do we live? And we're going to allow their questions to shape where we're headed today. And if you need a recap of where we've been, this is sort of the overview of the last five weeks. I can't do all of it. But the concept of the book of Daniel is this, that Daniel and his friends were born in Jerusalem, that they were discipled in Jerusalem. They were rooted in Jerusalem, and then they were exiled to Babylon. And they realized when they got there that Babylon had its own ideas of what truth is and tried to shape the identity of these four boys into the ways of Babylon and eventually tried to get them to bow to the idols of Babylon. And this series has been something of a dive into how in the world do you live for Jesus in Babylon? Where do you relax? And Daniel was sort of in the education system of Babylon, and he could just go relax. I know what truth really is. And then he was at the king's table, and the king was like, just eat my food. And for him, it was an identity issue because he's a Hebrew boy, a Jewish boy, and they couldn't eat the same food. God had rules for that back then, and he had to politely refuse. And then eventually they said, bow. to the idol in the middle of the town square and say, this is God. And they said, I have to remove myself for that and accept the consequences for it. And we've been unpacking through this how we live for Jesus in a world that doesn't share our values. And today, let me use a word that is almost a cuss word for our seniors. But let me say it. This today invites us into our final exam. Hmm. Y'all grown. I felt it. Your final exam actually isn't going to happen in the room today. It actually starts tomorrow morning. So how will we actually live out the things that God's taught us to the book of Daniel? And it's not just about learning more, hearing another message. It's about God. What would you speak to me and say, I want you to put this into practice. And you might need to look back over your notes of the last five weeks or sit in this moment today. And you might sit in the teaching and God might say, I want to give you one thing to put into practice. So look for your one thing as we talk through the day, because I'm going to allow the questions our students ask. And by the way, I got to see all the questions. You would be so proud of your students. The questions I would have asked at 17 and 18 years old, the questions they asked were like, they actually want to live out their faith. They don't want to go into the next season of life and walk away from God. They're asking great questions. And so we're going to invite you into about four of the questions and let them guide our teaching. Here's the first question, and this one's from Joel. Joel said this. How do we live responsibly as we gain more and more independence? That's a good question. Isn't it? And that's a question that's not just for graduating seniors, just for all of us. How in the world do we live wisely as we get more and more independence? And here's the thought you have to realize that now you have a freedom and freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. The more freedom you get, the more responsibility you have, meaning this. The decisions you make have consequences. When you're a child, you make decisions and your parents let you experience a portion of the consequences. Then you become an adult and you make decisions and you experience the full weight of the consequences, good or bad, by the way. In fact, here's how scripture talks about it. In Galatians, Paul says it this way. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary and doing good for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we don't give up. There's a connection between what you plant with your life and what you get from your life. Secondly, it says this. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. But later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Meaning the decisions you have to begin to make with your life don't always feel pleasant. You don't always want to wake up and work out. I don't always want to eat vegetables, but eventually it'll have a harvest in your life that there's decisions you make, and there's consequences that come from them. By the way, this is not Karma. This is not put out good vibes and you'll get good vibes back. This is a wisdom of God that yes, there's a full grace of God to forgive even the worst decision, but it doesn't remove all the consequences of those decisions. That makes sense. And so as I talk to graduating seniors, wink, really all of us, there are consequences for decisions. So allow me to give us a filter for how to see decisions. And I was at my wife's small groups like husband dinner party thing we do at the end of the semester back in January February. And one of the guys at the table gave me a thought that I've not been able to forget. Like, it's haunted me since he said it. And it turns out I found it's from an author named James Clear. And he gives us a picture for the three types of decisions you'll make with your life. Here they are. There are decisions that are like hats. They're like haircuts. And they're like tattoos. And I think it's intuitive. But in case it's not, allow me to just give you a thought. There are some decisions that are like hats. You can put them on and take them off. There are some decisions that are like haircuts. You can get a haircut, not like it, but you have to live with it for a while. And then third, there's decisions that are like tattoos that when you get it, you sort of live with it for a long time. It's hard to get past those decisions. The consequences from them are weighty and they carry weight. So let me just walk through them. I want us to see it clearly. See, most decisions in life are like hats. You try one on. If you don't like it, put it back, try another. And the cost of the mistake is low. And those type of decisions you can move in and out of and make pretty quickly. And you don't have to overthink and obsess. It's like if you go to college, like what class you enroll in, like, try a class, try something new. Like, if you start a new hobby, you meet a new friend, you go to a go to a new club and check things out. If you don't like it, move on. It's okay. Then secondly, some decisions are like haircuts. that you can fix a bad haircut, but it might not be quick, and you might feel foolish for a while. Be honest. Any of y'all got a haircut that you were a little embarrassed of? My son Lincoln is begging me to cut a mullet in his head this summer, and I'm going to be honest. As soon as they finish the school, I'm going to try it. My wife, she's not in the service, so she doesn't know this fully yet. We're going to try it and we're going to give it the three months of summer, because if it doesn't look good, it'll do what? Grow out. But he'll have to live with it for a minute. In fact, when Luke, this is like 2013, when my youngest son, Luke, my wife went to small group, I had him at home and I wanted to give him his first haircut. And it turns out that the guards on a beard trimmer are not the same as the guards on a haircut. And this is what we ended up getting right here. My wife walked in from small group and she just started crying. My baby, he had this beautiful head of hair. So he had to live with that for a minute. And then over time it grew back. And now he's got the hair that all the students have where it's like that one right where it like curls up. Anyway, it's fine now, but he had to live with it for a minute. Then there's decisions that are like tattoos. And there's very few of them, but they exist and they carry gravity. Once you make that decision, you have to live with it. Some of those mistakes are irreversible. Sometimes even years later, you still leave a mark of that decision in your life. Things like this, like who you marry is a tattoo decision. In fact, I have a tattoo on my ring finger. Like, if it's till death do its part, might as well throw it on there because what am I going to do? Cut my finger off? No, like this is for life. It's a tattoo decision for good or for bad. Who you marry is a tattoo. The sexual and emotional boundaries you draw and how you date. It's like you can wake up the next morning and go, My goodness gracious, I thought that was a hat decision, and that's going to stick with me. See, the way that you engage your college or years in your early years of working and the things that you choose to consume and the substances, your relationship to them. These can be tattooed. You can make mistakes that you live with for life. Now, listen, there is Grace. Praise Jesus for second chances, somebody. But there are consequences. And the more clearly, the better that you can identify what is a hat, what's a haircut and what's a tattoo. It helps you make better decisions. And I see two extremes, and I'm going to talk to students, but I'm talking to all of us. See, there are people who, whether you know it or not, you think every decision is a tattoo decision. And so you look at every decision and you feel paralyzed in fear, anxiety, anxiousness. Like, I don't know what to do. What do I do? Go left, go right. What do I do? Just go try something. Go start a hobby. It's okay. It's not all tattoo decisions. But when you see everything is tattoo, you get paralyzed and anxious and stuck and you can't make decisions. And a lot of our culture feels this way. Like I can't make a single little tiny bad decision when in fact, maybe it's just a hat and you try it and go. I don't like that. Take it off. Relax. Equally, there's people on this side that sort of act as if every decision is a hat decision. like, hey, I'll just do what I want. I'll just try it on. If you don't like it, take the hat off, set it down. And I think this is the predominant lie of Babylon in our day, that when you start your life in your 20s, man, they're from making mistakes and sowing your wild oats and partying. Because, man, when you turn 30, that's all behind you now. Then you just take that hat off like there's no scars, no tattoos, no mess. Just take it off and put on the hat, get married, start a family, and everything's great now. When in fact, there are things that you can lean into and decisions you can make that you can convince yourself it's a hat. Then wake up and go, where did all these tattoos come from? And I'm saying it early for our graduating seniors, because my goodness, there's a God who he doesn't give us rules because he wants to control us. He gives us his ways and his truth and his values because they don't leave bad tattoos. And what if God would spare you from some of the tattoos that the adults in this room, myself included, have received not real tattoos. You get the metaphor, right? I can say tattoo. You get it. I would have God would help us do that because listen, you're about to step into seasons of your life where you got more freedom. You've ever had. And let me just be really, really clear. This is a helpful insight. Where you go on a Friday night, that's a hat. Go enjoy. Go bowling. Go to a party. Go to a frat. Do whatever you want. Where you go, it's sort of a hat. But what you do on a Friday night can become a haircut or a tattoo. I just want to just, I'm putting a sobriety into the air. Because you're about to have a freedom you've never experienced. And you're about to make decisions you've never had to make yourself. And there's a complexity that it's hard to tell the difference in the moment sometimes. And the Holy Spirit that lives within you wants to give you wisdom and discernment for how you make decisions. And if you were all my kids, graduating seniors, I would tell you, man, would you just before you make the big decisions, would you consult God and his word? because there's decisions that God can forgive you from, but not relieve the consequences from. And that gets us to our next question, because this is just a helpful progression. Because Ty asked this. He said, how do I set good routines like Daniel did to stay rooted in God in a new place? Great question. I thank you. See, here's the beauty. Like your rhythms, your habits, your routines help you ensure that you stay rooted in Christ. And there's a power in something that I want us to see that you can actually pre-decide. the irreducible rhythms of your life that will create stability in vulnerable seasons. I'm giving a caution. Graduating seniors, whether you're stepping in the military, college, trade school, your first job, your first apartment, you're stepping into your life. It's a vulnerable season because you were rooted in Jerusalem in your church or your family or both. And when you move to a new season, you uproot for a minute. And before you have a chance to reroute yourself in things where you move to, you're in a vulnerable season. A plant is never more vulnerable than when it's uprooted and right before it's planted again. And when you have an ability to pre decide the irreducible rhythms, meaning the things that no matter how hectic or stressful or overwhelming or busy you get, you will not drop beneath the bar of the irreducible rhythms you've established. It's a beautifully helpful thing. Daniel and Daniel 1 8. Here's what he did. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food. When he got to the table, he pre decided before the delicious food is in front of him. I'm going to resolve that. I'm not going to eat that food before he gets to the heat of the moment. And this is a word for all of us. What if we would pre decide the irreducible rhythms, the things that no matter what happens, I'm not dropping beneath this. I got busy. This is my floor. I won't go any lower. I won't remove anything else from my life. Let me give you a couple of lanes that might just be helpful for us, like a spiritual lane. As you step into this next season of life, a spiritual lane like Daniel, he prayed every day in his window facing Jerusalem. Remember the story? Even when the king made a decree, you can't do it. He did it because it was an irreducible rhythm in his life that kept him rooted in the right things. So if I could just speak into your life like a spiritual dad for a minute, what if you had an irreducible rhythm that every day you spend time with God? 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes and that wherever you have it, but you set the time and you get in God's word, you get in worship and you stay rooted in that. And then every week you gather with the church. And that's online is a great band aid for a season. But wherever you're going to college or job, or if you're still here, stay rooted here. But every seven days you're in the church saying, God, I'm with God's people. And then what if there's some health and physical sort of irreducible rhythms you should think about? Like, you should eat smart. And you're like, this is the least spiritual thing I've ever heard in my life. This is not a dietitian. Obviously, I'm not. But here's the thing. God created this as one being soul and spirit and mind and body. And it's super hard to tell the difference between I'm in a spiritual desert and I've eaten like junk and not gotten sleep. Anybody? And you can start to feel like God so far away. No, you're just tired and unhealthy. Let me give you practical. Eat smart daily. Pick a cheap meal, but you're about to have a smorgasbord in front of you at the cafeteria in college, or you're about to have DoorDash anytime you want, and your mom's not making you broccoli anymore. You're about to eat. Have you ever heard of the freshman 15? Come on, somebody. I was the freshman 22. I'm always an overachiever. Man, pre decide. I'm going to actually eat smart. I'm going to stay active. Sedentary is costly. Actually set a bedtime and a wake up time for yourself. Pre decide that and say, listen, I know that I need my eight hours. If I don't, I'm going to get unhealthy. True story. My sophomore year college. I moved into my suite with six other guys that were my friends. I made freshman year and we got in there is like September. We're starting our software your college. They always stay up to one or two in the morning and I'm like, I have FOMO. I don't like to miss out. So I'm trying to hang with my boys one o'clock two o'clock in the morning. Then I'm waking up at 7 a.m. For a 755 class. I am just dog tired. And I go two, three, four days, and I'm thinking, how are these guys doing this? They're superheroes. Then I found out two weeks into the semester, I was the only one with a morning class. They didn't have to wake up. And listen, if you don't pre decide these things, you're going to wake up and realize I'm exhausted. See relational irreducible rhythms. You need one close friend, at least one close friend who's chasing after Jesus. And you need someone next to you that knows your faith and knows your values and knows who God is to walk with you. And I will talk more about that one in a second. And then you need one older person who can speak into your life. Listen, when you find a church, go find someone that's older than you and say, can we get coffee once a month? And they might not look cool. They might not know all the cool terms you use, and they might not know what's happening with whoever the cool social media Tiktok stars are. But can I tell you something? Old people have some wisdom for you. Go ask him questions, process things. Financial. You might need to really think about this. 10, 1080. Pre decide where your money is going. It's called a budget. First, 10% goes to God. Second, 10% saved. You live on 80%. For those of you who are getting your first job, you're about to get a paycheck, and you're going to see it and think, I have so much money. You do not. You have taxes. You have rent. You have utilities. You have a pantry that you have to stock now. You're going to realize for the first time it wasn't magically restocked. Your mom or dad paid for that. And you can wake up leaving college with not just school debt with consumer debt, and you'll dig out of that for that. That's a tattoo mistake. Educational things or work things. Man work first and place second. Pre decide that. Set aside a time and a place to say, I'm going to study or I'm going to work. When you go to college, if you're going to college. You don't go to college to pick up a hobby and enjoy four years of extended adolescence. You go to college to train a career to get good at something. If you're starting your first job, your boss isn't going to give you six months of like, just grace because you're young. You have to actually work. Three decide those rhythms now so you don't wake up with at the very best case scenario, a haircut issues that you're going to have to sit with for a while. See, and then Raylan asked the next question to help shape our conversation. How do I keep following God through the hardships of college or career? See part of the beauty of a nuclear family. If you have a remotely healthy family is they help to shoulder some of the hardship. They give you an escape to come back to. And now you're sitting in seasons where things could potentially get complicated and difficult. And how do you continue through whatever might be in front of you in these next few years? Here's the good news. In Daniel three, Daniel and his friends faced a hardship. The King said bow, and they said no, and they found themselves in the fiery furnace. The best news. One of my favorite points in that story is that When you looked in the fire, three guys went in. But when you look, there's a fourth. It was a Christophany was Jesus showing up in the fire. Here's what you have to hear. Students, you are not going into your next season of life alone. Just because Daniel was removed from Jerusalem and God who lived there at the time, sort of like just because Daniel left Jerusalem didn't mean Daniel's God left Daniel. And just because you leave your family or even your church family, maybe you're going away for college or work, just because you're moving away doesn't mean that God is distant from you. God is with you. You need to hear the students. God is with you. When you face things, God is with you. When your faith is tested, God is with you. The God of the universe sees you, knows you, loves you, and is with you. And then Daniel, the fiery furnace was a real obvious big deal one. But the more realistic one is Daniel hit a complex season and did not have answers for what he was facing. The king had a dream and he had to interpret. He has no ability to interpret. And here's how Daniel describes how God showed up in this moment. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. God literally gave him the answer to the problem he had no solution to. because God was still with Daniel, even though he wasn't in Jerusalem. And then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said, praise be to the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are his. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness. You, God, have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked of you, what we asked of you. If you will seek God, God will speak to you. And that sounds weird and kind of creepy and supernatural. Oh, my goodness. What does that mean? God will just there's nothing more powerful and beautiful than you hit something and go, God, I don't know what to do. And the spirit of God just whispering something to your soul. And you go, oh, God, thank you for the wisdom. When you hit moments and you will where you feel over your head, God will give you wisdom and power. If you will ask. Students, you are not going out into this world as yourself, by yourself, on your own. The God of the universe is with you. As you follow Christ, he is in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. Do not forget that. And we need God and equally we need God's people. You weren't designed to do it by yourself. God's with you, and he has God's people and leads us to our next question. Channing asked this. How do I make the right friends in my next season? It's a great question. Hopefully your friends were baked in, man. You were in student ministry. You had your people, you had your small group, and then you go to the next season of life and you go, man. I have to start over in some ways. And here's what Proverbs says. It's just it matters who you choose because the righteous choose their friends carefully the way the wicked leads them astray. See, the righteous choose their friends carefully because the people that are closest to you are the greatest influence on your life. So who do we look for? What kind of friends we look for? Here's what scripture says. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up. This is the type of friends you're looking for. If I could go super practical in 30 seconds, here's how I'd say it. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood and did not bow. everyone in the country bowed and they were standing. If you go to college or your new career, your next season, you're like, how do I find the right friends that are going to be the right influence? When everyone around you is bowing and you're standing, look around. They're easy to spot. And you go, that guy's standing. I need to know that guy's name. That girl's standing. I need to go meet her. It's this simple. When everyone else is at the party just getting absolutely wasted, and you're the only one who's not look around at who else is not. That's somebody you might want to meet when everyone else is violating God's values and principles, and you're standing while everyone else is bowing. Look around. That's a person you should be. If you're trying to figure out who do I how do I decide who I date? Who else is standing while everyone else bows and go meet that person? That's the kind of friend you're looking for. See, God says you can't do this by yourself. You need people around you. And when everyone else is bowing, you stand because we need God and we need God's people. Ecclesiastes 4 9 and 10. Here's what it says. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. See when you fall and you will and we all have. God puts his people around us to help pull us up. So here's what we're going to do. This is going to be a unique thing. We don't do this very often, but I wanted to invite up a couple of our graduating seniors. I want you to hear their story, get to know them a little bit and see all that God's doing inside of our student ministry. We're going to have two students come up. We're going to just have a quick conversation. I think there's things that just nuggets that God's going to speak into your soul. But the first conversation is with Austin, and it's really about how important it was that he had the right people around him. Now Austin is about to come up and I want to just give us a word of caution. Most people's greatest fear is not death. It's public speaking. You know that most people would rather die than speak on a stage. So we're going to invite two students up one at a time, and you're going to actually clap and celebrate because this takes a lot of courage. Am I right? Can you help me welcome up Austin? Come on up, my friend. Austin, you can see my friend. I think your mic sitting right there. We're going to jump into a story. And like I said, we're going to talk about the relationships. But full disclosure, this is not the first time we met. Somehow you got pulled in at camp this past summer to being a part of the object lesson. And you got to wear a muscle suit. You look good, man. I know. I don't know what happened. You skipped leg day, but you'll get there, man. You'll get there looking real good. It's okay. So, Austin, you've been at the church for 12 years. You've been around your weeks. So you know, you're familiar every time I go to a winter retreat or a camp. You're one of the guys bringing the energy, bringing the height. But let's go back five, six years ago. Seventh grade. You lost two of your uncles passed away. One of your spiritual mentors moved away, and you found yourself in this season where you're like, deconstructing, pulling away. You left church. You left God. Help catch us up inside of, like, what was happening in your life at that point? Yeah, so I completely lost our relationship with people in the church. I lost relationship with God. And then, you know, the church at whole. I was just became, well, it's cliche, but a religion, you know? Not a relationship. And I asked the question that I think a lot of us ask. Why do bad things happen to good people? Like... I was just a student. I was not your normal student. I wasn't disrespectful. I was the most respectful kid, you know, and it was like, why me? So I walked away. I was like, there's no reason, you know, there's nothing to do here. You know, you didn't help me like you said you would. And I walked away from the church, the people, but they kept pursuing me. that's the turn because you're obviously here now. You've got a call in your life to ministry. You're going to college to worship pastor. That's awesome. But what happened in seventh grade to now, how in the world did you get back to this moment and get back to a relationship with God? and I think your small group leader, Damien, had a lot to do with that. Yeah, so back then, middle school, M12 was on Tuesdays. So every Monday night, my small group leader would text me. For a year and two months, he would text me every day. Hey, man, hope to see you there tomorrow. And then he would text me every Tuesday night, like, hey, I missed you. I can't wait to see you next week. I wasn't going to come back. I knew it. You can laugh. I wasn't coming back. Every week for 14 months? Every week. Never missed a week. Not once. Not once. That's not a pastor. That's a volunteer. That's a smuggler. The volunteer, he has his own life. He has his own kid, everything. And he chased you down. Yeah. Let me just do this. And because of that, you were running from God. God was chasing you and God sent his people to chase you. They pulled you back in and back to school bash, I think, is what got your foot back in the door, right? Yeah, I came back to back to school bash. It was the one week I did come back. And I rededicated my life that night. It was, you know, for me and him. I told Dame, I was like, hey, I was like, you know, I did it. And then that year we went to winter retreat and it was over for me. I was like, yeah. I'm back. I'm here. And our small group grew so close together that winter retreat. Like, I mean, I came on a high. My mom can attest. She was like, dude, calm down. Like, you are on a hundred right now. You should be tired. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, no. But no, the Holy Spirit was moving in that winter retreat. And yeah. Help me, like, put words to this. What's the impact that your small group leader and your small group had on your life? Because you've been in the same group for seven years. yeah same leaders same dudes seven years of life together yep how has that had an impact in your life back then and still to this day number one thing is this accountability they hold me accountable to decisions that i make good or bad you know uh they pour into me um there's someone that i can go to that will give me uh advice um biblical advice um and most importantly like they help me walk the line of being Christ-like, you know? Archibald Margaret Weir always says, you know, you may be the only Bible that someone may read, you know? You may be the only person that someone meets that's a Christian. So act like that, be like that, live that way. Can we celebrate what God's done? Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you. I just give you a thought. God's people sometimes protect things that feel like haircuts from becoming tattoos. You walk right from God, walk right from the church, isolated. Satan loves when you're isolated because you're vulnerable. God's people went, No, we're going to chase you down. We're going to circle up with you, and we're going to have your back. And what could have very easily become a life altering. It's done tattoo thing. God brought you back, called the ministry following Jesus. Can we just celebrate all that God's doing in that? I want to have a heavier conversation. There's heaviness, but there's beauty in this. There's weight and there's hope. And I want you to help me welcome up Hannah. Will you come up, Hannah? We'll celebrate you. Thank you for being here. Hannah, I've known you. You make me feel old. I've known you for 13 years. Before all the gray hair. Before all. Thank you for that, Hannah. Turns out that's all I needed from you. Thank you. You can shut up. Just kidding. JK. Your dad was in one of my small groups back in the day. Your mom and my wife have been friends and in small groups together over the years. You literally came in as like a four-year-old, which is crazy young. And your story is a little bit unique. You were raised by really great parents. Oh, yeah. Your mom and dad, Eric and Sarah, loved Jesus. They brought you to church. They did devotions. They discipled you. They did all the things right. All the boxes that parents were like, I got to do all the things. They did them all right. They did all of it. Yep. And equally, it didn't spare your life from a season of darkness. Yeah. I'll say it fast so we can get to the stuff that's really meaningful. Started getting wrapped up a little bit. Your identity and friendships around you relationship broke up, and that was an identity sort of crushing thing. And you found yourself in a really dark season. You were diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and then you made multiple attempts to take your life. And the third time, I believe your parents actually found out about it Sunday morning, and they found out later that week. Will you just like, pick us up from that moment? Like, all the things that were private, all those battles that no one knew about. Finally, your mom and dad found out. Get us to that moment and the week or two that followed. Yeah. So it was the third and final. Obviously time I attempted. It was on a Sunday morning. What? Four or five years ago. 2022, 2021, three years ago. It was on a Sunday morning is when I attempted. My parents didn't find out until that Wednesday. And third time was not a charm because it didn't work. And thank God. But, um. But yeah, my mom immediately drove me to the ER and I was like, you suck. But thank goodness she did. We got there. And then at that point, the state took over. I was hospitalized for nine nights in a mental health facility. And by yourself alone. And you were not happy that your mom didn't. Isn't that just a picture of parenting? Thanks, mom. The stuff that you need. Your kids hate you for it. And you know you have to do it. And thank God she did. Yeah. and I'd love to say that you came out of those nine days and you just had a little revival in your in your room and everything was great and perfect but it wasn't you came back out and now you probably had some of the little bit of shame from it and the pretending like now other people knew like we got the text we were praying for you and now people know and it got weird and you had to like figure out how you were going to move forward but your mom had a conversation that probably to her felt like a just in passing breeze of a conversation. And for you, you brought it up every time we've talked about your story. Get us into that conversation with your mom. Yeah, so me and my mom were kind of in passing one day. I think crap had just hit the fan again. And those are great 10-minute conversations. But it was so weird. She kind of just like really quickly handed me something that no pastor, no therapist, and I've seen a lot of therapists. no friend, no one had ever said to me. And she kind of just explained to me that like, I was finding all of my identity, wrapping all of my life around this mental illness that I had, this diagnosis. And she helped me realize that like, yes, while my mental illness was and still is part of me, that's not who I am. Like I wasn't made to be defined by this mental illness. And I had never had that realization before. So, and that says you come on now. I don't preach. And that started you down a path of like all the foundation and truth your parents poured into your life. It was sort of like you knew God intellectually, but never known him personally. And that's saying you down a path. Why don't you just sort of share that piece? Yeah. So, I mean, I've grown up in a Christian school, gone to church my whole life. My parents did everything right. But at that point, that was when it really started coming into play. Like I finally like I knew I could lean on God all these years. And that was when I finally did it. Like I just knew I could in the back of my mind. And. So yeah, after that conversation, almost immediately, I just kind of like got on my knees, begged God to change me. He did, like from the inside out. It wasn't some like complete change I did. Yeah, thanks. It was nothing I did. He just changed me. Like I can't even, there's no other way to say it. That's what he does. He's pretty good at that. That's what he do. But then I started going back on Wednesday nights to age 12. I got plugged into this awesome small group of like older girls. They welcomed me like a sister. It was incredible. And then fast forward to February now, winter retreat's coming up. I had this ski trip planned. I was like, I'm not going to winter retreat. But. They made me go and thank goodness because I rededicated my life that year. I didn't tell anyone. It was very private, me and God. And then that June, somehow my youth pastor let me go on a mission trip to New Orleans and that was when the idea of purpose was first introduced into my life. God gave you a purpose bigger than your problems. Yeah. And now I'll celebrate this because you wouldn't. But you have a call on your life and you are gifted and you are capable. And God's called you not just out of the mess and into freedom, but God's called you into service and ministry. And we actually this Wednesday picked a graduating senior at every campus to actually speak to the whole youth group. And you were a picture of you. You were picked to speak to your campus. And you hate that picture so much, but we love it because it's evidence of what God's done in your life. Isn't that beautiful? Awesome. So I want to ask you two questions and then we'll wrap. What would you say, Hina, to the parents of a student who's going through a dark season like you were years ago? It feels hopeless at times, lonely at times, shameful at times. What would you say to a parent of a student that's going through something like that? Yeah, big thing is it's not your fault. Like you could do everything right. My parents did everything right. They're not perfect, but like, come on. I was in a private Christian school. My mom's a pastor. Like, come on. Like I said it before, the devil don't care. Like he's still going to go after you. He went after me. And yeah, it's just, it's not your fault. So don't put it on you. Don't put that on you. It's not your kid's fault either. But more importantly, you're not responsible for the devil's actions. That'll work. And then lastly, what did you learn about the character, the nature of God through your sort of dark seasons of time when it felt like, man, it's over. It's all lost. What did you learn personally about who God is to you? Yeah, biggest thing is that he was always waiting. It's like the prodigal son story. Like God was always on the other side of that door. I just had to walk through it. And the beautiful part is that, like, he didn't ask me to change to come to him. He came to me and helped me change. I guess that makes sense. Yeah. We thank Hannah for sharing. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you so much. So here's what I want to say. first of all, God's moving to the next generation. He's not waiting until they turn 18. He's talking to them. He's helping them find freedom and redemption and forgiveness. But here's the big one. It feels like the longer you live, the more like tattoo decisions you picked up. And it's like at some point you feel like, man, there's no hope. I looked at the story in John four where Jesus is at the well and he meets the woman who's at the well in the heat of the day because she carried all the tattoos and shame from her life. She didn't want to see anybody else because she know how it felt because everyone knew who she was in town and she slept around and all the things and the mess and Jesus met her at the well and he said, I see you. I love you. And he forgave her and she was restored in a moment. So if you sit here today and feel like, man, I wish I heard that tattooed hats haircut thing 20 years ago. It's too late for me. There's a God who has forgiveness and restoration and he wants to make you. hold again in fact in limitations here's here's how it describes god because of the lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness god it's not too late and what could have been a truly tattooed moment life-ending moment for hannah god met her in the moment and spared her life and drew her back and although her parents weren't perfect, they were pretty good. And here's the beauty. What they did is they poured a foundation for her so that when everything else around her failed and fell apart, she knew where to go. Here's the best advice I can give all of us. When you make a bad decision, run to God, not from God. Students, you are going to make mistakes in the years to come. The goal is not for you to be perfect. The goal is that when you are imperfect, you run to the one who is the perfecter of your faith and the one that can forgive and restore and redeem. So when you mess up, don't let shame keep you from God. Let your humility run back and say, God, forgive me again, and he will. It's new every morning. So you can celebrate that. That's your God, Eric. So I'm going to invite the pastors to come up here in a second here across the campuses, and we just want to seal this. for our graduating seniors. Like, man, I hope you've been here your whole life. I hope you've been in student ministry seven, eight years. I hope all the times we've poured in, all the moments of winter retreat and different things in camp. But I would just say this. We want to pray this over you because your church loves you. You're proud of you. We have unbelievable hope for your future. God has a plan and purpose for your life. And would he give you his wisdom and his power to match? So pastors, would you pray this over our graduating seniors?

Here's the best advice I can give all of us. When you make a bad decision, run to God, not from God. Welcome to church today. Would you help me welcome in the rest of the campuses?

I'm glad to have you here. And just to give you the old Jesus juke from the video, do you not know that there's a race? All the runners drive or run, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize.

We pray today that as we talk to graduating seniors that you will run the race that God has set before you. whether you are graduating and going to college, going to trade school, starting your job, going to the military, that you would run the race God has in front of you. In fact, church here across the campuses, can we celebrate our graduating seniors?

We're glad you're with us. You did it. You passed all your tests.

Hopefully you're almost done with all the craziness of high school. And as we applaud our seniors, allow me to take a personal privilege and let me just wish my daughter, my only daughter, a happy 15th birthday today. Will you help me thank and celebrate my daughter? I love you, Liz.

Happy birthday. And Mallory, if you're here, thank you. She was our waitress at the Cheesecake Factory where my daughter wanted to go, and she hooked us up with someone at Cheesecake. Praise the Lord. So, Mallory, we love you.

Thank you for serving us so well. Now, today we finish a six week conversation in this book of Daniel. And if you've missed any of the weekends or missed all of it, and you're a guest today, first of all, we're glad you're here if you're a guest, but man, catch up because so much of this is predicated, is built on what we've built over the last five weeks.

But today is going to be very unique, very different. And we as a church believe that God's called us to invest in the next generation. And that's not just something we say from stages.

We put our effort and our energy and our vision and our resources into pouring into the next generation. And today's. is really a day where we're leaning into our graduating seniors and talking to them. Now, you look around and go, well, this day is not for me.

No, it's for all of us. God has something for all of us. And I think God's going to speak through our graduating seniors to all of us.

And in fact, this past week, we invited them to actually text in questions. Like, you've sat the last five weeks. What are the questions you have about what it looks like to live for Jesus?

in Babylon, in a world that doesn't follow the truth of Jesus, how do we live? And we're going to allow their questions to shape where we're headed today. And if you need a recap of where we've been, this is sort of the overview of the last five weeks.

I can't do all of it. But the concept of the book of Daniel is this, that Daniel and his friends were born in Jerusalem, that they were discipled in Jerusalem. They were rooted in Jerusalem, and then they were exiled to Babylon.

And they realized when they got there that Babylon had its own ideas of what truth is and tried to shape the identity of these four boys into the ways of Babylon and eventually tried to get them to bow to the idols of Babylon. And this series has been something of a dive into how in the world do you live for Jesus in Babylon? Where do you relax? And Daniel was sort of in the education system of Babylon, and he could just go relax. I know what truth really is.

And then he was at the king's table, and the king was like, just eat my food. And for him, it was an identity issue because he's a Hebrew boy, a Jewish boy, and they couldn't eat the same food. God had rules for that back then, and he had to politely refuse. And then eventually they said, bow.

to the idol in the middle of the town square and say, this is God. And they said, I have to remove myself for that and accept the consequences for it. And we've been unpacking through this how we live for Jesus in a world that doesn't share our values.

And today, let me use a word that is almost a cuss word for our seniors. But let me say it. This today invites us into our final exam. Hmm. Y'all grown.

I felt it. Your final exam actually isn't going to happen in the room today. It actually starts tomorrow morning. So how will we actually live out the things that God's taught us to the book of Daniel?

And it's not just about learning more, hearing another message. It's about God. What would you speak to me and say, I want you to put this into practice.

And you might need to look back over your notes of the last five weeks or sit in this moment today. And you might sit in the teaching and God might say, I want to give you one thing to put into practice. So look for your one thing as we talk through the day, because I'm going to allow the questions our students ask. And by the way, I got to see all the questions. You would be so proud of your students.

The questions I would have asked at 17 and 18 years old, the questions they asked were like, they actually want to live out their faith. They don't want to go into the next season of life and walk away from God. They're asking great questions. And so we're going to invite you into about four of the questions and let them guide our teaching. Here's the first question, and this one's from Joel.

Joel said this. How do we live responsibly as we gain more and more independence? That's a good question. Isn't it? And that's a question that's not just for graduating seniors, just for all of us.

How in the world do we live wisely as we get more and more independence? And here's the thought you have to realize that now you have a freedom and freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. The more freedom you get, the more responsibility you have, meaning this.

The decisions you make have consequences. When you're a child, you make decisions and your parents let you experience a portion of the consequences. Then you become an adult and you make decisions and you experience the full weight of the consequences, good or bad, by the way. In fact, here's how scripture talks about it.

In Galatians, Paul says it this way. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary and doing good for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we don't give up.

There's a connection between what you plant with your life and what you get from your life. Secondly, it says this. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. But later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Meaning the decisions you have to begin to make with your life don't always feel pleasant. You don't always want to wake up and work out. I don't always want to eat vegetables, but eventually it'll have a harvest in your life that there's decisions you make, and there's consequences that come from them. By the way, this is not Karma.

This is not put out good vibes and you'll get good vibes back. This is a wisdom of God that yes, there's a full grace of God to forgive even the worst decision, but it doesn't remove all the consequences of those decisions. That makes sense.

And so as I talk to graduating seniors, wink, really all of us, there are consequences for decisions. So allow me to give us a filter for how to see decisions. And I was at my wife's small groups like husband dinner party thing we do at the end of the semester back in January February.

And one of the guys at the table gave me a thought that I've not been able to forget. Like, it's haunted me since he said it. And it turns out I found it's from an author named James Clear. And he gives us a picture for the three types of decisions you'll make with your life.

Here they are. There are decisions that are like hats. They're like haircuts.

And they're like tattoos. And I think it's intuitive. But in case it's not, allow me to just give you a thought. There are some decisions that are like hats. You can put them on and take them off.

There are some decisions that are like haircuts. You can get a haircut, not like it, but you have to live with it for a while. And then third, there's decisions that are like tattoos that when you get it, you sort of live with it for a long time.

It's hard to get past those decisions. The consequences from them are weighty and they carry weight. So let me just walk through them. I want us to see it clearly.

See, most decisions in life are like hats. You try one on. If you don't like it, put it back, try another. And the cost of the mistake is low.

And those type of decisions you can move in and out of and make pretty quickly. And you don't have to overthink and obsess. It's like if you go to college, like what class you enroll in, like, try a class, try something new. Like, if you start a new hobby, you meet a new friend, you go to a go to a new club and check things out.

If you don't like it, move on. It's okay. Then secondly, some decisions are like haircuts. that you can fix a bad haircut, but it might not be quick, and you might feel foolish for a while.

Be honest. Any of y'all got a haircut that you were a little embarrassed of? My son Lincoln is begging me to cut a mullet in his head this summer, and I'm going to be honest.

As soon as they finish the school, I'm going to try it. My wife, she's not in the service, so she doesn't know this fully yet. We're going to try it and we're going to give it the three months of summer, because if it doesn't look good, it'll do what?

Grow out. But he'll have to live with it for a minute. In fact, when Luke, this is like 2013, when my youngest son, Luke, my wife went to small group, I had him at home and I wanted to give him his first haircut.

And it turns out that the guards on a beard trimmer are not the same as the guards on a haircut. And this is what we ended up getting right here. My wife walked in from small group and she just started crying.

My baby, he had this beautiful head of hair. So he had to live with that for a minute. And then over time it grew back. And now he's got the hair that all the students have where it's like that one right where it like curls up.

Anyway, it's fine now, but he had to live with it for a minute. Then there's decisions that are like tattoos. And there's very few of them, but they exist and they carry gravity. Once you make that decision, you have to live with it. Some of those mistakes are irreversible.

Sometimes even years later, you still leave a mark of that decision in your life. Things like this, like who you marry is a tattoo decision. In fact, I have a tattoo on my ring finger. Like, if it's till death do its part, might as well throw it on there because what am I going to do? Cut my finger off?

No, like this is for life. It's a tattoo decision for good or for bad. Who you marry is a tattoo. The sexual and emotional boundaries you draw and how you date. It's like you can wake up the next morning and go, My goodness gracious, I thought that was a hat decision, and that's going to stick with me.

See, the way that you engage your college or years in your early years of working and the things that you choose to consume and the substances, your relationship to them. These can be tattooed. You can make mistakes that you live with for life. Now, listen, there is Grace. Praise Jesus for second chances, somebody.

But there are consequences. And the more clearly, the better that you can identify what is a hat, what's a haircut and what's a tattoo. It helps you make better decisions. And I see two extremes, and I'm going to talk to students, but I'm talking to all of us. See, there are people who, whether you know it or not, you think every decision is a tattoo decision.

And so you look at every decision and you feel paralyzed in fear, anxiety, anxiousness. Like, I don't know what to do. What do I do? Go left, go right. What do I do?

Just go try something. Go start a hobby. It's okay.

It's not all tattoo decisions. But when you see everything is tattoo, you get paralyzed and anxious and stuck and you can't make decisions. And a lot of our culture feels this way.

Like I can't make a single little tiny bad decision when in fact, maybe it's just a hat and you try it and go. I don't like that. Take it off.

Relax. Equally, there's people on this side that sort of act as if every decision is a hat decision. like, hey, I'll just do what I want.

I'll just try it on. If you don't like it, take the hat off, set it down. And I think this is the predominant lie of Babylon in our day, that when you start your life in your 20s, man, they're from making mistakes and sowing your wild oats and partying. Because, man, when you turn 30, that's all behind you now. Then you just take that hat off like there's no scars, no tattoos, no mess.

Just take it off and put on the hat, get married, start a family, and everything's great now. When in fact, there are things that you can lean into and decisions you can make that you can convince yourself it's a hat. Then wake up and go, where did all these tattoos come from? And I'm saying it early for our graduating seniors, because my goodness, there's a God who he doesn't give us rules because he wants to control us. He gives us his ways and his truth and his values because they don't leave bad tattoos.

And what if God would spare you from some of the tattoos that the adults in this room, myself included, have received not real tattoos. You get the metaphor, right? I can say tattoo.

You get it. I would have God would help us do that because listen, you're about to step into seasons of your life where you got more freedom. You've ever had. And let me just be really, really clear.

This is a helpful insight. Where you go on a Friday night, that's a hat. Go enjoy. Go bowling. Go to a party.

Go to a frat. Do whatever you want. Where you go, it's sort of a hat. But what you do on a Friday night can become a haircut or a tattoo. I just want to just, I'm putting a sobriety into the air.

Because you're about to have a freedom you've never experienced. And you're about to make decisions you've never had to make yourself. And there's a complexity that it's hard to tell the difference in the moment sometimes. And the Holy Spirit that lives within you wants to give you wisdom and discernment for how you make decisions. And if you were all my kids, graduating seniors, I would tell you, man, would you just before you make the big decisions, would you consult God and his word?

because there's decisions that God can forgive you from, but not relieve the consequences from. And that gets us to our next question, because this is just a helpful progression. Because Ty asked this.

He said, how do I set good routines like Daniel did to stay rooted in God in a new place? Great question. I thank you.

See, here's the beauty. Like your rhythms, your habits, your routines help you ensure that you stay rooted in Christ. And there's a power in something that I want us to see that you can actually pre-decide.

the irreducible rhythms of your life that will create stability in vulnerable seasons. I'm giving a caution. Graduating seniors, whether you're stepping in the military, college, trade school, your first job, your first apartment, you're stepping into your life.

It's a vulnerable season because you were rooted in Jerusalem in your church or your family or both. And when you move to a new season, you uproot for a minute. And before you have a chance to reroute yourself in things where you move to, you're in a vulnerable season.

A plant is never more vulnerable than when it's uprooted and right before it's planted again. And when you have an ability to pre decide the irreducible rhythms, meaning the things that no matter how hectic or stressful or overwhelming or busy you get, you will not drop beneath the bar of the irreducible rhythms you've established. It's a beautifully helpful thing.

Daniel and Daniel 1 8. Here's what he did. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food. When he got to the table, he pre decided before the delicious food is in front of him.

I'm going to resolve that. I'm not going to eat that food before he gets to the heat of the moment. And this is a word for all of us.

What if we would pre decide the irreducible rhythms, the things that no matter what happens, I'm not dropping beneath this. I got busy. This is my floor. I won't go any lower. I won't remove anything else from my life.

Let me give you a couple of lanes that might just be helpful for us, like a spiritual lane. As you step into this next season of life, a spiritual lane like Daniel, he prayed every day in his window facing Jerusalem. Remember the story?

Even when the king made a decree, you can't do it. He did it because it was an irreducible rhythm in his life that kept him rooted in the right things. So if I could just speak into your life like a spiritual dad for a minute, what if you had an irreducible rhythm that every day you spend time with God? 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes and that wherever you have it, but you set the time and you get in God's word, you get in worship and you stay rooted in that.

And then every week you gather with the church. And that's online is a great band aid for a season. But wherever you're going to college or job, or if you're still here, stay rooted here.

But every seven days you're in the church saying, God, I'm with God's people. And then what if there's some health and physical sort of irreducible rhythms you should think about? Like, you should eat smart.

And you're like, this is the least spiritual thing I've ever heard in my life. This is not a dietitian. Obviously, I'm not. But here's the thing.

God created this as one being soul and spirit and mind and body. And it's super hard to tell the difference between I'm in a spiritual desert and I've eaten like junk and not gotten sleep. Anybody?

And you can start to feel like God so far away. No, you're just tired and unhealthy. Let me give you practical.

Eat smart daily. Pick a cheap meal, but you're about to have a smorgasbord in front of you at the cafeteria in college, or you're about to have DoorDash anytime you want, and your mom's not making you broccoli anymore. You're about to eat. Have you ever heard of the freshman 15?

Come on, somebody. I was the freshman 22. I'm always an overachiever. Man, pre decide. I'm going to actually eat smart.

I'm going to stay active. Sedentary is costly. Actually set a bedtime and a wake up time for yourself.

Pre decide that and say, listen, I know that I need my eight hours. If I don't, I'm going to get unhealthy. True story. My sophomore year college. I moved into my suite with six other guys that were my friends.

I made freshman year and we got in there is like September. We're starting our software your college. They always stay up to one or two in the morning and I'm like, I have FOMO. I don't like to miss out.

So I'm trying to hang with my boys one o'clock two o'clock in the morning. Then I'm waking up at 7 a.m. For a 755 class. I am just dog tired. And I go two, three, four days, and I'm thinking, how are these guys doing this?

They're superheroes. Then I found out two weeks into the semester, I was the only one with a morning class. They didn't have to wake up.

And listen, if you don't pre decide these things, you're going to wake up and realize I'm exhausted. See relational irreducible rhythms. You need one close friend, at least one close friend who's chasing after Jesus. And you need someone next to you that knows your faith and knows your values and knows who God is to walk with you. And I will talk more about that one in a second.

And then you need one older person who can speak into your life. Listen, when you find a church, go find someone that's older than you and say, can we get coffee once a month? And they might not look cool.

They might not know all the cool terms you use, and they might not know what's happening with whoever the cool social media Tiktok stars are. But can I tell you something? Old people have some wisdom for you.

Go ask him questions, process things. Financial. You might need to really think about this. 10, 1080. Pre decide where your money is going.

It's called a budget. First, 10% goes to God. Second, 10% saved. You live on 80%.

For those of you who are getting your first job, you're about to get a paycheck, and you're going to see it and think, I have so much money. You do not. You have taxes. You have rent. You have utilities.

You have a pantry that you have to stock now. You're going to realize for the first time it wasn't magically restocked. Your mom or dad paid for that.

And you can wake up leaving college with not just school debt with consumer debt, and you'll dig out of that for that. That's a tattoo mistake. Educational things or work things. Man work first and place second. Pre decide that.

Set aside a time and a place to say, I'm going to study or I'm going to work. When you go to college, if you're going to college. You don't go to college to pick up a hobby and enjoy four years of extended adolescence.

You go to college to train a career to get good at something. If you're starting your first job, your boss isn't going to give you six months of like, just grace because you're young. You have to actually work.

Three decide those rhythms now so you don't wake up with at the very best case scenario, a haircut issues that you're going to have to sit with for a while. See, and then Raylan asked the next question to help shape our conversation. How do I keep following God through the hardships of college or career? See part of the beauty of a nuclear family.

If you have a remotely healthy family is they help to shoulder some of the hardship. They give you an escape to come back to. And now you're sitting in seasons where things could potentially get complicated and difficult.

And how do you continue through whatever might be in front of you in these next few years? Here's the good news. In Daniel three, Daniel and his friends faced a hardship.

The King said bow, and they said no, and they found themselves in the fiery furnace. The best news. One of my favorite points in that story is that When you looked in the fire, three guys went in.

But when you look, there's a fourth. It was a Christophany was Jesus showing up in the fire. Here's what you have to hear.

Students, you are not going into your next season of life alone. Just because Daniel was removed from Jerusalem and God who lived there at the time, sort of like just because Daniel left Jerusalem didn't mean Daniel's God left Daniel. And just because you leave your family or even your church family, maybe you're going away for college or work, just because you're moving away doesn't mean that God is distant from you.

God is with you. You need to hear the students. God is with you.

When you face things, God is with you. When your faith is tested, God is with you. The God of the universe sees you, knows you, loves you, and is with you. And then Daniel, the fiery furnace was a real obvious big deal one. But the more realistic one is Daniel hit a complex season and did not have answers for what he was facing.

The king had a dream and he had to interpret. He has no ability to interpret. And here's how Daniel describes how God showed up in this moment.

During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. God literally gave him the answer to the problem he had no solution to. because God was still with Daniel, even though he wasn't in Jerusalem. And then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said, praise be to the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are his.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness.

You, God, have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked of you, what we asked of you. If you will seek God, God will speak to you.

And that sounds weird and kind of creepy and supernatural. Oh, my goodness. What does that mean? God will just there's nothing more powerful and beautiful than you hit something and go, God, I don't know what to do.

And the spirit of God just whispering something to your soul. And you go, oh, God, thank you for the wisdom. When you hit moments and you will where you feel over your head, God will give you wisdom and power.

If you will ask. Students, you are not going out into this world as yourself, by yourself, on your own. The God of the universe is with you. As you follow Christ, he is in you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do not forget that. And we need God and equally we need God's people. You weren't designed to do it by yourself. God's with you, and he has God's people and leads us to our next question. Channing asked this.

How do I make the right friends in my next season? It's a great question. Hopefully your friends were baked in, man. You were in student ministry. You had your people, you had your small group, and then you go to the next season of life and you go, man.

I have to start over in some ways. And here's what Proverbs says. It's just it matters who you choose because the righteous choose their friends carefully the way the wicked leads them astray. See, the righteous choose their friends carefully because the people that are closest to you are the greatest influence on your life. So who do we look for?

What kind of friends we look for? Here's what scripture says. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up. This is the type of friends you're looking for. If I could go super practical in 30 seconds, here's how I'd say it.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood and did not bow. everyone in the country bowed and they were standing. If you go to college or your new career, your next season, you're like, how do I find the right friends that are going to be the right influence? When everyone around you is bowing and you're standing, look around. They're easy to spot.

And you go, that guy's standing. I need to know that guy's name. That girl's standing.

I need to go meet her. It's this simple. When everyone else is at the party just getting absolutely wasted, and you're the only one who's not look around at who else is not.

That's somebody you might want to meet when everyone else is violating God's values and principles, and you're standing while everyone else is bowing. Look around. That's a person you should be.

If you're trying to figure out who do I how do I decide who I date? Who else is standing while everyone else bows and go meet that person? That's the kind of friend you're looking for. See, God says you can't do this by yourself.

You need people around you. And when everyone else is bowing, you stand because we need God and we need God's people. Ecclesiastes 4 9 and 10. Here's what it says.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. See when you fall and you will and we all have. God puts his people around us to help pull us up.

So here's what we're going to do. This is going to be a unique thing. We don't do this very often, but I wanted to invite up a couple of our graduating seniors. I want you to hear their story, get to know them a little bit and see all that God's doing inside of our student ministry. We're going to have two students come up.

We're going to just have a quick conversation. I think there's things that just nuggets that God's going to speak into your soul. But the first conversation is with Austin, and it's really about how important it was that he had the right people around him.

Now Austin is about to come up and I want to just give us a word of caution. Most people's greatest fear is not death. It's public speaking. You know that most people would rather die than speak on a stage. So we're going to invite two students up one at a time, and you're going to actually clap and celebrate because this takes a lot of courage.

Am I right? Can you help me welcome up Austin? Come on up, my friend.

Austin, you can see my friend. I think your mic sitting right there. We're going to jump into a story.

And like I said, we're going to talk about the relationships. But full disclosure, this is not the first time we met. Somehow you got pulled in at camp this past summer to being a part of the object lesson.

And you got to wear a muscle suit. You look good, man. I know. I don't know what happened.

You skipped leg day, but you'll get there, man. You'll get there looking real good. It's okay.

So, Austin, you've been at the church for 12 years. You've been around your weeks. So you know, you're familiar every time I go to a winter retreat or a camp. You're one of the guys bringing the energy, bringing the height.

But let's go back five, six years ago. Seventh grade. You lost two of your uncles passed away. One of your spiritual mentors moved away, and you found yourself in this season where you're like, deconstructing, pulling away.

You left church. You left God. Help catch us up inside of, like, what was happening in your life at that point?

Yeah, so I completely lost our relationship with people in the church. I lost relationship with God. And then, you know, the church at whole.

I was just became, well, it's cliche, but a religion, you know? Not a relationship. And I asked the question that I think a lot of us ask.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Like... I was just a student.

I was not your normal student. I wasn't disrespectful. I was the most respectful kid, you know, and it was like, why me?

So I walked away. I was like, there's no reason, you know, there's nothing to do here. You know, you didn't help me like you said you would. And I walked away from the church, the people, but they kept pursuing me. that's the turn because you're obviously here now. You've got a call in your life to ministry.

You're going to college to worship pastor. That's awesome. But what happened in seventh grade to now, how in the world did you get back to this moment and get back to a relationship with God? and I think your small group leader, Damien, had a lot to do with that. Yeah, so back then, middle school, M12 was on Tuesdays.

So every Monday night, my small group leader would text me. For a year and two months, he would text me every day. Hey, man, hope to see you there tomorrow. And then he would text me every Tuesday night, like, hey, I missed you. I can't wait to see you next week.

I wasn't going to come back. I knew it. You can laugh. I wasn't coming back. Every week for 14 months?

Every week. Never missed a week. Not once.

Not once. That's not a pastor. That's a volunteer. That's a smuggler.

The volunteer, he has his own life. He has his own kid, everything. And he chased you down.

Yeah. Let me just do this. And because of that, you were running from God. God was chasing you and God sent his people to chase you. They pulled you back in and back to school bash, I think, is what got your foot back in the door, right?

Yeah, I came back to back to school bash. It was the one week I did come back. And I rededicated my life that night.

It was, you know, for me and him. I told Dame, I was like, hey, I was like, you know, I did it. And then that year we went to winter retreat and it was over for me.

I was like, yeah. I'm back. I'm here. And our small group grew so close together that winter retreat. Like, I mean, I came on a high.

My mom can attest. She was like, dude, calm down. Like, you are on a hundred right now.

You should be tired. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, no. But no, the Holy Spirit was moving in that winter retreat. And yeah.

Help me, like, put words to this. What's the impact that your small group leader and your small group had on your life? Because you've been in the same group for seven years.

yeah same leaders same dudes seven years of life together yep how has that had an impact in your life back then and still to this day number one thing is this accountability they hold me accountable to decisions that i make good or bad you know uh they pour into me um there's someone that i can go to that will give me uh advice um biblical advice um and most importantly like they help me walk the line of being Christ-like, you know? Archibald Margaret Weir always says, you know, you may be the only Bible that someone may read, you know? You may be the only person that someone meets that's a Christian. So act like that, be like that, live that way.

Can we celebrate what God's done? Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you.

I just give you a thought. God's people sometimes protect things that feel like haircuts from becoming tattoos. You walk right from God, walk right from the church, isolated.

Satan loves when you're isolated because you're vulnerable. God's people went, No, we're going to chase you down. We're going to circle up with you, and we're going to have your back. And what could have very easily become a life altering. It's done tattoo thing.

God brought you back, called the ministry following Jesus. Can we just celebrate all that God's doing in that? I want to have a heavier conversation. There's heaviness, but there's beauty in this.

There's weight and there's hope. And I want you to help me welcome up Hannah. Will you come up, Hannah?

We'll celebrate you. Thank you for being here. Hannah, I've known you.

You make me feel old. I've known you for 13 years. Before all the gray hair.

Before all. Thank you for that, Hannah. Turns out that's all I needed from you. Thank you. You can shut up.

Just kidding. JK. Your dad was in one of my small groups back in the day.

Your mom and my wife have been friends and in small groups together over the years. You literally came in as like a four-year-old, which is crazy young. And your story is a little bit unique. You were raised by really great parents.

Oh, yeah. Your mom and dad, Eric and Sarah, loved Jesus. They brought you to church. They did devotions. They discipled you.

They did all the things right. All the boxes that parents were like, I got to do all the things. They did them all right.

They did all of it. Yep. And equally, it didn't spare your life from a season of darkness.

Yeah. I'll say it fast so we can get to the stuff that's really meaningful. Started getting wrapped up a little bit.

Your identity and friendships around you relationship broke up, and that was an identity sort of crushing thing. And you found yourself in a really dark season. You were diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and then you made multiple attempts to take your life.

And the third time, I believe your parents actually found out about it Sunday morning, and they found out later that week. Will you just like, pick us up from that moment? Like, all the things that were private, all those battles that no one knew about.

Finally, your mom and dad found out. Get us to that moment and the week or two that followed. Yeah. So it was the third and final.

Obviously time I attempted. It was on a Sunday morning. What? Four or five years ago. 2022, 2021, three years ago.

It was on a Sunday morning is when I attempted. My parents didn't find out until that Wednesday. And third time was not a charm because it didn't work. And thank God.

But, um. But yeah, my mom immediately drove me to the ER and I was like, you suck. But thank goodness she did.

We got there. And then at that point, the state took over. I was hospitalized for nine nights in a mental health facility. And by yourself alone.

And you were not happy that your mom didn't. Isn't that just a picture of parenting? Thanks, mom.

The stuff that you need. Your kids hate you for it. And you know you have to do it. And thank God she did. Yeah.

and I'd love to say that you came out of those nine days and you just had a little revival in your in your room and everything was great and perfect but it wasn't you came back out and now you probably had some of the little bit of shame from it and the pretending like now other people knew like we got the text we were praying for you and now people know and it got weird and you had to like figure out how you were going to move forward but your mom had a conversation that probably to her felt like a just in passing breeze of a conversation. And for you, you brought it up every time we've talked about your story. Get us into that conversation with your mom.

Yeah, so me and my mom were kind of in passing one day. I think crap had just hit the fan again. And those are great 10-minute conversations.

But it was so weird. She kind of just like really quickly handed me something that no pastor, no therapist, and I've seen a lot of therapists. no friend, no one had ever said to me.

And she kind of just explained to me that like, I was finding all of my identity, wrapping all of my life around this mental illness that I had, this diagnosis. And she helped me realize that like, yes, while my mental illness was and still is part of me, that's not who I am. Like I wasn't made to be defined by this mental illness. And I had never had that realization before. So, and that says you come on now.

I don't preach. And that started you down a path of like all the foundation and truth your parents poured into your life. It was sort of like you knew God intellectually, but never known him personally.

And that's saying you down a path. Why don't you just sort of share that piece? Yeah. So, I mean, I've grown up in a Christian school, gone to church my whole life. My parents did everything right.

But at that point, that was when it really started coming into play. Like I finally like I knew I could lean on God all these years. And that was when I finally did it.

Like I just knew I could in the back of my mind. And. So yeah, after that conversation, almost immediately, I just kind of like got on my knees, begged God to change me.

He did, like from the inside out. It wasn't some like complete change I did. Yeah, thanks.

It was nothing I did. He just changed me. Like I can't even, there's no other way to say it. That's what he does.

He's pretty good at that. That's what he do. But then I started going back on Wednesday nights to age 12. I got plugged into this awesome small group of like older girls.

They welcomed me like a sister. It was incredible. And then fast forward to February now, winter retreat's coming up. I had this ski trip planned.

I was like, I'm not going to winter retreat. But. They made me go and thank goodness because I rededicated my life that year. I didn't tell anyone.

It was very private, me and God. And then that June, somehow my youth pastor let me go on a mission trip to New Orleans and that was when the idea of purpose was first introduced into my life. God gave you a purpose bigger than your problems.

Yeah. And now I'll celebrate this because you wouldn't. But you have a call on your life and you are gifted and you are capable. And God's called you not just out of the mess and into freedom, but God's called you into service and ministry.

And we actually this Wednesday picked a graduating senior at every campus to actually speak to the whole youth group. And you were a picture of you. You were picked to speak to your campus. And you hate that picture so much, but we love it because it's evidence of what God's done in your life.

Isn't that beautiful? Awesome. So I want to ask you two questions and then we'll wrap.

What would you say, Hina, to the parents of a student who's going through a dark season like you were years ago? It feels hopeless at times, lonely at times, shameful at times. What would you say to a parent of a student that's going through something like that? Yeah, big thing is it's not your fault. Like you could do everything right.

My parents did everything right. They're not perfect, but like, come on. I was in a private Christian school.

My mom's a pastor. Like, come on. Like I said it before, the devil don't care. Like he's still going to go after you. He went after me.

And yeah, it's just, it's not your fault. So don't put it on you. Don't put that on you. It's not your kid's fault either. But more importantly, you're not responsible for the devil's actions.

That'll work. And then lastly, what did you learn about the character, the nature of God through your sort of dark seasons of time when it felt like, man, it's over. It's all lost. What did you learn personally about who God is to you? Yeah, biggest thing is that he was always waiting.

It's like the prodigal son story. Like God was always on the other side of that door. I just had to walk through it.

And the beautiful part is that, like, he didn't ask me to change to come to him. He came to me and helped me change. I guess that makes sense.

Yeah. We thank Hannah for sharing. Thank you so much.

Awesome. Thank you so much. So here's what I want to say. first of all, God's moving to the next generation. He's not waiting until they turn 18. He's talking to them.

He's helping them find freedom and redemption and forgiveness. But here's the big one. It feels like the longer you live, the more like tattoo decisions you picked up.

And it's like at some point you feel like, man, there's no hope. I looked at the story in John four where Jesus is at the well and he meets the woman who's at the well in the heat of the day because she carried all the tattoos and shame from her life. She didn't want to see anybody else because she know how it felt because everyone knew who she was in town and she slept around and all the things and the mess and Jesus met her at the well and he said, I see you.

I love you. And he forgave her and she was restored in a moment. So if you sit here today and feel like, man, I wish I heard that tattooed hats haircut thing 20 years ago. It's too late for me. There's a God who has forgiveness and restoration and he wants to make you.

hold again in fact in limitations here's here's how it describes god because of the lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness god it's not too late and what could have been a truly tattooed moment life-ending moment for hannah god met her in the moment and spared her life and drew her back and although her parents weren't perfect, they were pretty good. And here's the beauty. What they did is they poured a foundation for her so that when everything else around her failed and fell apart, she knew where to go.

Here's the best advice I can give all of us. When you make a bad decision, run to God, not from God. Students, you are going to make mistakes in the years to come. The goal is not for you to be perfect. The goal is that when you are imperfect, you run to the one who is the perfecter of your faith and the one that can forgive and restore and redeem.

So when you mess up, don't let shame keep you from God. Let your humility run back and say, God, forgive me again, and he will. It's new every morning.

So you can celebrate that. That's your God, Eric. So I'm going to invite the pastors to come up here in a second here across the campuses, and we just want to seal this.

for our graduating seniors. Like, man, I hope you've been here your whole life. I hope you've been in student ministry seven, eight years.

I hope all the times we've poured in, all the moments of winter retreat and different things in camp. But I would just say this. We want to pray this over you because your church loves you. You're proud of you.

We have unbelievable hope for your future. God has a plan and purpose for your life. And would he give you his wisdom and his power to match?

So pastors, would you pray this over our graduating seniors?

Transcript for:Graduation Sermon Notes

Transcript for:
Graduation Sermon Notes