Providence ChurchHomeschool Graduation 2022: Commencement Address

Several Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States once had a rite of passage into adulthood in which a young person had to go out into the desert with no food or water for four days and four nights and survive. We have something similar today. Our rite of passage is that in order to graduate from high school you have to come to a graduation ceremony and survive sitting through a long, dry, boring speech. And I want to let you know that I'm very thankful that you have given me the privilege and honor of being the one to put you through this rite of passage. So, I’m going to try not to let you down.

It is a genuine privilege to be addressing you here at the end of your high school career. I’ve been a teacher in some capacity for 16 years now, and I’ve seen countless students come up through the ranks and graduate high school. But this is a little different, because I’ve known most of you your entire lives. I’ve seen you grow up and mature into faithful Christian men and women. I’ve gotten to teach most of you multiple times, at Friday School and at Bibloids. And here you all are closing one door behind you and looking ahead to all that God’s Providence might hold in store for you in the future.

As I was thinking about what to say, numerous possibilities presented themselves. I could talk about the importance of understanding God’s word, of being a lifelong, about the importance of having gumption, seizing opportunities and being practical, or about the importance of hard work and dedication to the tasks set before you. I could have read to you from Rudyard Kipling's poem If, or from that other great poet Dr. Seuss’s Oh the Places You'll Go. Those are always big hits at graduations. But I asked myself, “What is the one thing that I would like to communicate to all of our graduates that will be most important for their lives? It doesn't have to be new, it doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn't have to be deep and esoteric, it doesn't have to be clever; it only has to be true.” And I thought of the words of Winston Churchill who said, “If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time, a tremendous whack.”

So that's what I intend to do with this little bit of time I have with you. And that one simple point, the one thing with I believe is most important for each one of you wherever you go and whatever you do throughout your life, is seen in the book of Isaiah chapter 7 verse 9, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” Let me say it again, “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” So, there’s the first hit of the pile driver.

This portion of Isaiah’s prophecy was delivered to king Ahaz at a time when the nation of Judah was in a precarious state. The empire of Assyria was becoming more and more powerful. It ruled all of Mesopotamia, all the kingdoms and cities there, and it was pressing farther and farther westward toward the Mediterranean Sea. So the king of Syria and the king of the northern Kingdom Israel formed an alliance against the Assyrians, and they wanted to bully Judah, the southern nation over which Ahaz was king, to join them in their alliance.

So, think about the situation we have here. We have Judah which, in name at least, remains God’s faithful people. and we have a nation of pagans and a nation of idolaters to the north who are trying to plausibly convince Judah that the wise and smart thing to do would be to join up with them for mutual protection. And what does the prophet Isaiah tell king Ahaz? He tells him: Don't worry about these godless nations. Don't find your hope and security in them. Trust the Lord Yahweh, the covenant God who made promises to your ancestors and to you. Because if you do not believe then surely you will not be established. Ahaz, if you don't put your faith in God and in his promises to you, your reign as king will not be established. Nation of Judah, if you don't put your trust in the promises of the Lord you will not be established as a nation.

What does that have to do with you as graduates? Absolutely everything. You may be going off to college to further your formal education, you may be taking time off to get a job to work hard and to save money, you may be serving your family and preparing yourself for whatever God has for your future. In order to do these things, understanding, gumption, and hard work are all necessary. But they are not sufficient. Because if you do not hold fast your profession of faith without wavering, knowing that God who promised is faithful, if you don't remain close to Jesus, reading your Bible, praying, going to church, loving your fellow believers, then all of those other things, necessary as they may be, are more than useless. And that's the one point above all other things that I want to drive home to you tonight.

Now I don't see any of you walking away from the faith tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. In fact, knowing you all, I have better hopes for you, that you will remain faithful to Christ all your days. You are all members of a solid Bible-teaching church. You all come from godly Christian families. And I know the ones of you who are leaving here to go somewhere else to college are going to be part of a faithful, godly Christian community and church there as well. But the exhortation here still stands, because people can apostatize at Providence Church, and people can apostatize at new St. Andrews College.

No one is going to come to you, and say, “Hey, you know what, let's abandon the Lord.” But the desire for security, certainty in life, and the acceptance of others can cause you to put your trust in things other than the Lord. That was the temptation before Ahaz, a newly crowned king with no experience. Is he to trust the Lord, or is he to trust Israel and Syria, their powerful armies, and their experienced leadership?

As you grow in your education, you're going to be tempted to rely more on your own intellectual abilities and achievements than on God. You’re going to especially want to have others recognize those abilities. The same thing is true in the workforce. You’ll be tempted by the desire for job security. That desire for security and acceptance among the people who hold the reins of power in in various fields of study, sectors of industry, offices, and job sites, can lead to the erosion of your all-encompassing trust in God and in His Word. This is how schools and colleges go liberal; this is how denominations of churches go liberal. This is why, in many industries and workplaces and in local politics, Bible-believing Christians choose to be quiet and keep their heads down.

There's a joke I like that goes like this. What did the fundamentalist say to the liberal? Answer: I'll call you a Christian if you call me a scholar. The reason this joke works is because it's true. If you're going to be all-in on God's word, if you're going to believe and keep the faith, then it doesn't matter how hard you work and it doesn't matter how smart you are, you’re going to be ridiculed and rejected by unbelievers. And this will tempt you to compromise here and not say what you actually believe or say the opposite of what you actually believe for a little bit of safety. Think about the sermon at church last week about Peter in the courtyard of the high priest. Why would Peter, who just a few hours before said “I'll die for you, Jesus,” now, in this courtyard, when he's in no danger and no one is trying to kill him, deny that he knows Jesus? He's doing it because of pressure: social pressure, embarrassment, and a desire to be thought well of. Do not underestimate how powerful those forces are. Don't think you are immune to them.

Now I know what you some of you are thinking. “I’m going to be a wife and a mom. I have no desire to reach the pinnacle of an academic field or to make it in the business world. So, I’m safe from this danger.” No, you are not. Because the world targets you in all sorts of subtle and dangerous ways. Because life isn't easy. Life involves suffering. And God tells us that this is from Him to discipline us, to cause us to trust in Him more deeply. But when you enter those hard times, the world is waiting to embrace you and to give you security in a plan, in a system, in some surefire guaranteed way to overcome all your problems, to understand all your emotions, to guarantee the health and safety of all your children through systems of thought that have no reference to God's Word. And there are many stay-at-home, homeschool moms who have been led astray by godless psychology. Not that there aren't any insights to be found in psychology per se. The natural sciences are always going to provide us some insight into the way God's world works. But the world today wants you to see psychology’s materialistic explanations of all things going on in your head and in your children's heads as ultimate, when we know as Christians that souls and sins are all involved. So, I say that many homeschool moms have been led astray by a psychologized mindset or worldview, as well as by the poison of feminism and egalitarianism which arise because women don't find security in the way God has ordered marriage and families in creation. Instead they want to find their security and some sort of godless utopian scheme that denies the world the way God created it.

So you graduates, men and women, people who intend to pursue academics, or business, or a trade, or to be wives and mothers, you all stand in this danger of finding security somewhere other than in the promises of God, and of attempting to understand and navigate the world from a perspective other than the one provided by God's Word. In reality, God has told us that things work the opposite way. Saint Augustine wrote, “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”

There’s the second hit with the piledriver. How are we doing?

What was King Ahaz’s response to the prophecy of Isaiah? Did he believe the Lord so that he would be established? Isaiah told him that trusting in Syria and Israel would not save him from the mighty power of the Assyrian king, but rather that he should trust in the Lord. But rather than trusting in the Lord, the message that Ahaz took from the prophecy was that he needed the support of the biggest bully on the block. So, he sent a letter to and paid tribute to the king of Assyria and asked the Assyrian king to protect him against Syria and Israel. How did it end for him? The Assyrian king did come and conquer Syria and Israel, and when Ahaz went up to Damascus to pay tribute to the Assyrian king, he saw an altar to a false God there, and he sent back instructions to the High Priest in Jerusalem to build an altar just like it in the Temple. There had been four God-approved kings in Judah prior to this: Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. Because king Ahaz tried to find his safety and security in in the power of an unbelieving king rather than in the Lord God, he brought an end to that tradition of godly rule. He made images of Baal, he initiated infant sacrifice, and he worshipped Canaanite gods. He weakened his nation and left behind him a legacy of unfaithfulness and defeat.

For each of you tonight and in the future as you look forward to the adult life ahead of you, think about Ahaz. Think about the godly heritage that each one of you has received from your parents. Think of the many blessings you've had in your education, in your church community, and in your family. Will you be led to forsake your trust in the Lord for intellectual respectability, for advancements in your career, for an illusion of security and safety for your family? Or will you stand fast knowing that without faith it is impossible to please God for those that come to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him? Do you know that understanding God's world depends first on believing His promises and His words? And do you know that unless you believe it doesn't matter what other good qualities of intelligence, hard work, or initiative that you have, unless you believe you will not be established.

That's the third whack, and I think Winston Churchill would be pleased, so I’ll wrap up.  Congratulations to all of you for making it through this rite of passage. And congratulations on making it this far in your education and in the process of maturity. As you're ready to pass out the world of childhood and into the world of adulthood, remember the God promises that all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Rest in that promise all your days.  Stay close to Jesus wherever you are, love the Lord you God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and He will direct your paths and establish you in faithfulness.