Gtcotr/ws051122
Congratulations to each graduate and to the parents, families, and friends of those who have reached this milestone in life. You have achieved your goal and have now arrived at the next departure point from which you will launch out into deeper waters for yet another adventure.
As far as you are concerned, it does not matter what I say tonight. It only matters what you will take with you. As far as you are concerned it does not matter what your teachers have said during your time at school … it only matters what you will take with you.
Without regard as to how many words you hear me speak this evening, the only ones that will impact your life are the ones you choose to remember. I will have taught you nothing unless you can repeat what you have learned. There is a great and lasting difference between being told and being taught.
There is as much difference between telling and teaching as there is between listening and learning. You may be polite and listen to me because that’s what you’re supposed to do. However, instead of just listening, I challenge you to learn.
Believe and accept what I say or prove me wrong … don’t just listen … determine to learn.
Tonight I will share an account that’s recorded in the book of Numbers. It concerns 12 leaders who were sent ahead to see the promised land and bring back a report to their families and friends. All 12 spies saw the same things. The fruit of the land was abundant and amazing, the cities were large and fortified, the enemies were like giants and very well-trained in the art of war.
Although all 12 spies saw the very same things, not all 12 gave the same report. 10 of the 12 believed they had no chance of winning against the enemies, while 2 of the spies believed just the opposite.
Numbers 13 NKJV
30 Then Caleb quieted the
people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for
we are well able to overcome it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
Able … not able? Which was it?
There will always be divided opinions and different perspectives, even when people are looking at the same things. Do not mistake opinion, even educated opinion, for truth.
Don’t fall prey to the opinions and the propaganda of this world. The world wants you to believe that your faith in God and His will does not matter. They want you to imagine the Church is insignificant and irrelevant in the 21st century. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Refuse to believe the lies of the devil or the educated opinions of those who leave God out of the equation.
The fact is: The Church of today is bigger and better, more powerful, and more productive, going farther and growing faster, better equipped and more accepted, kinder, and more inclusive, feeding more people, meeting more needs, and seeing more souls saved than ever before in history.
Refuse to believe what the world says about God, Christians, the Church, about you, and especially about themselves … they are all lies of the devil.
In order to know the truth, we must always figure God into the equation. Joshua and Caleb saw something the others did not see. Joshua and Caleb saw the will and the plan of God as greater than the strength and the strategy of their enemies, and they weren’t ashamed to say it.
Numbers 14 NKJV
8 “If the LORD delights in
us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows
with milk and honey.’
9 “Only do not rebel against
the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their
protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear
them.”
