Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 12 Solomon speaking. He said further by these my son be admonished of making many books There is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Let's ask the Lord for his help one more time if we could heavenly father We do come to you in the name that is above every name the precious name of Jesus we ask now that Lord in the few moments that we have or that we not hear from lips of clay, but Lord that The word of truth Lord that your Holy Spirit of truth would be our teacher tonight through the word of the truth and or we pray for some Sweet honey from the rock or that your word would be a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path Lord help these men to be admonished and encouraged and we'll give you our thanks for it in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you can be seated I'd like to congratulate you three gentlemen tonight. You are to be commended. And I have sat through some long and terribly boring commencement messages in my time. So I will try not to do that to you tonight. I'll try to be brief and to the point. And you'll not remember everything that's been said tonight, which is true of any message. We don't remember everything about every message. But hopefully, in messages, in every message, there's at least one or two points that will strike into your heart. And if one or two points are driven home that will help you in your daily life or some fiery trial down the road, which you will see, then you've been helped. And I'd like to just share some things with you that I've learned. I've been in the ministry for 18 years now. And one of the first things I learned in the ministry is to learn from those that go before you. It saves you a lot of heartache. And that's one of the reasons you come to Bible college is to learn from experience, people who have learned by experience. Some things I've learned by experience. Some things I've learned from other men. You know, commencement means that you're closing one chapter of your life and you're about to begin another. You're about to commence or enter your public ministry. Jesus entered His public ministry, began when He was about 30 years of age. And all those years leading up to that, the Bible's very silent on most of those. And you know what's true of His life and yours is you're not just now starting to serve the Lord, you've been serving the Lord most of you most of your life. But it's going to be that time that it's... As you prepared to serve the Lord, but now your life is going to be fully devoted to his service in a greater capacity and in a greater way you have a holy calling and you answer answer to the highest authority by entering the full-time ministry of the work of the gospel and you sat in school classrooms in college classrooms for most of your life right now and One of the things that Solomon the wisest man that ever lived said towards the end of his life. He said He said, there's no end of it. And it's true. For years, you've had parents and pastors. and teachers who have instructed you, and now it's time for you to use the knowledge you've been given, and that's wisdom, applying the knowledge you've been given. But very soon you're going to join the ranks of those who spend typically the first five to ten years of their ministry, whether as assistant pastors or early parts of their ministry, you're going to say these words a lot. They never taught me this in Bible college. Why didn't they tell me about this in Bible college? And the truth is this, is it's impossible to teach you everything you're going to need to know about the ministry in four years. And that's what Solomon was saying at the end of his life. And, well, he wrote the book of Proverbs and, of course, the book of Ecclesiastes, trying to admonish his son. And here he tried to admonish him. He tried to warn him. This is not the end of your education. This is the very, very beginning. And there's no end, Solomon said, to acquiring knowledge and applying wisdom. You've had a good foundation been laid for you, but you must build upon it. And there are a lot of things that cannot be taught you in the classroom. You will be educated in the furnace of fiery affliction that all God's people are put into. That's not just God's pastors and missionaries and full-time servants, that's all His servants. And you will be forged on the anvil of Christian experience. And I just want to admonish you for a few moments, just as Solomon did as you commence a new chapter in your life. And, again, just speak to you from the heart, give you some things, and hopefully something somewhere along the way will be of help to you. Fellows, you're soon to learn, too, that you think that you've spent, you know, kindergarten and twelve years of grade school, high school, four years of Bible college, but I promise you, you're about to enter God's greatest schoolroom. And most of God's servants have to go through the school of the wilderness. Moses spent 40 years after 40 years of Egypt, spent 40 years in the backside of the wilderness. John the Baptist spent 30 years in the wilderness, only had 8 months of public ministry. Again, we almost know nothing, very little of the life of Jesus until His public ministry. And in the Gospel records, over 40% of the Gospel records, it speaks about only the last 8 days of the life of Jesus Christ. Paul spent three years in the desert of Arabia after he was saved. You know, he was perfect in the laws and the customs and the manners of Israel. But it's in the waiting room in the wilderness that you learn patience and perseverance. And you're going to learn what Paul learned in his desert of Arabia, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. You know, one of the things is, fellas, when you've been chomping at the bit and inching to just get out there and get going, and then I'm going to tell you, there's going to be times, it may be sooner, it may be later, but at some point, you're going to feel like God has set you on a shelf. And waiting years are not wasted years. God is working His will in your life, sometimes as you wait to work His will. Even in those years, you are serving God, but there are going to be times in your life that you're just going to feel like God's put you on a shelf. I know there was a time in my life where I had been, and I was a kid that I had grown up in church all my life, my dad had pastored, and I'll be honest, I knew I was called to preach since I was about eight years of age, and knew it as clearly as I knew anything else in my life. I can still tell you the very moment. You know, there are some people that volunteer, and God takes men that desire the office of the bishop, and there are those that He certainly calls, and I'll tell you, when God called me, He drug me kicking and screaming. And I grew up in a preacher's home, And then there was a time when I went into the ministry, and the place where we served, the church went through some very heavy heartaches. And at a very young age, I interim pastored that church for a few months. And it wasn't God's will for me to pastor. I knew that. The church knew that. I was just there for a time. And then I spent a year, basically, what I thought, sitting on a shelf. And I did not understand why God And honestly for me, I surrendered. One thing about surrender is that's something you do all throughout your life. And there's going to be a lot of Sundays you're going to quit and you're going to have to surrender again on Monday mornings. But I didn't understand why God would then put me on a shelf after I finally did surrender and allow me to go through those things. But I'll tell you what, it's in those waiting years. Waiting years are not wasted years. God is doing some of His greatest work. in your life. Honestly, some of the greatest work He has to do in your life is open your heart. Let it be wounded and touched a little bit so that you'll be tender for people that you're going to serve throughout your life. And God only lights the path one step at a time. That's why the Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. He doesn't show you 20 years what's down the road. If he did, you'd probably quit today. But he does tell you one day at a time. And you know, Dr. Bob Jones Sr. used to say, you can borrow brains, but you can't borrow character. And fellows, be sure to borrow the brains. You ought to have a cabinet of wise men of God who have traveled the road before you. Jeremiah, as a young prophet, said, I will get me to the great men who have known the way of the Lord. They can't save you from every heartache, but they can save you from some. And remember this, fellas, you cannot borrow character. And, you know, everybody has spiritual gifts and everybody has some talent and ability that God gives every one of us, but if you want the truth, you're talent, quite frankly, talent is a mark of the flesh and character is spiritual. And don't depend on your talents. If you depend on your talents, you're doing like Samson. Samson was spiritually gifted, but he wasn't very spiritual. And he could have been a lot more fruitful if he would have been more spiritual than he was talented. Be diligent to develop and exercise godly character. Your reputation is what men perceive you to be. Your character is what God knows you to be. And if you don't have the character to lead yourself, you have no business in having oversight over the flock of God or any of his servants. And get up at an appointed time every day. Walk with God. Labor in the daily appointed tasks. Serve Him with all your heart. And go to bed at an appointed time. And I know you've been taught that here. And there's a lot of people that do not get up at an appointed time and go to bed at an appointed time. They tend to just float through life and to be people of no direction, no purpose. And remember that the greatest men of God have all been first great men. One of my preachers used to tell me, before you can be a man of God, first you have to be a man. And if you look at the lives of the Bible characters, Moses, David, Elijah, and a thousand others, they'll bear witness to this fact. And be a man and be God's man. And I'll tell you what, this world and its devil hates God-fearing men. There's nothing they fear more. Because men are men of resolve and men of principle. And a man without principles has no true direction or purpose in life. Inconsistency is hypocrisy. And the Bible tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You're going to be dealing with people, and you're going to be compassionate to a lot of their heartaches. But you never change your principles out of sympathy for somebody's problems. Pity is an emotion, and principle is conviction. And you have to be tender to the needs of others, but you don't let emotions lead you down a path of compromise. There are no exceptions to God rules. If you make an exception, you've made a new rule. Jesus was the most compassionate individual in the history of the world, and he was also the most uncompromising. If you keep him as your model in both those areas, you'll do well. And there are some situations in life that you'll come to, and quite frankly, there's pass-fail. There is no second chance at. There are many situations in life. And let me tell you something, as a pastor, people are going to come to you And they're going to want an answer immediately. Or even as an assistant pastor, people will go around the pastor and come to an assistant. And they're going to want an immediate decision from you. And fellows, good counsel is this, if you have to have an answer today, the answer is always no or wait. because typically those people have made a series of conscious and or foolish decisions that have led them to some crisis or calamity and they want you to fix in a moment something with the wave of a magic wand that they have honestly taken a long time to make a wreck out of. And they had time to make decisions. And there are certain situations you need time to be prayerful, to get counsel, and to make a decision that's been bathed in prayer and based on biblical principles. And fellows, hold the standard high. Hold the standard high. And by the way, Jesus is the standard for everything that we do. Make the Bible, keep it as the sole authority of faith and practice. Keep the high standard and hold that standard up as Jesus Christ. Character is modeled, it's not mandated. You can't tell people. We tell people how they're supposed to live, but they're looking at how we live first. And leadership charts the course. And you have to live at a standard that's higher than the people you serve, you expect them to be at. They're always going to be a step or two behind you. And you're going to have to go beyond the mark if you want them to reach the mark. And don't expect people to do anything that you are not willing to do yourself. They expect only about half. If you expect them to read the Bible through once a year, you need to read the Bible through twice a year. If you want them to pray for an hour, you have to pray two. And be yourself. Be real. Don't be a cookie cutter. Don't be a parrot. One of our problems in our churches today is that a lot of our leaders are just parrots. They're repeating what they've been told. And the Bereans were more noble than the men of Athens and Thessalonica because they searched the scriptures. They lived, they took what they heard and they made sure it was biblical and let that take root in their heart. And every man has to carry his own burden and you're going to have to bear yours. And you don't run from a burden, you bear up underneath of it. And, you know, there are times that God does move people in the ministry, changes pastors and churches and missionaries and mission fields. God truly does move people at a point in time. But I'm going to tell you what, fellows, most of the time, there's been a lot of fellows that have changed ministries just to get away from the burden. And changing ministries, changing geography will not change your problems. You're going to find people are the same everywhere you go. One of you is about to go as a missionary to Africa. I've been to Africa twice. I know your pastor's been to Africa. And I'm going to tell you something. I've been in nearly 20 different foreign nations on almost every continent in the world. And I can go to any country and point the people out in my church. Culture and language and customs might be different, but the people are the same. And you'll find that changing geography will not change the problems. And if you create a mess, have the character and the integrity to stay put and go through it. And don't be afraid to fail. The Bible says a just man falleth seven times, but riseth up again. And success is just getting up one more time than you've been knocked down. And it's better to fail doing something than to succeed at doing nothing. And when you go out in the ministry, remember this. This is one of the things that people are concerned about today. And look, Jesus preached to multitudes, and we want to get the gospel to every creature and see every soul saved that we can. But the purpose of building a church is to build pure before it is to build big. And you never build big and then build pure. You always build pure first. You know, the early church was not concerned about building big churches in big cities as much as they were concerned about spreading the gospel and making true disciples of Jesus Christ. There were literally tens of thousands of people that followed Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh. But when He was gone and the bread was gone and the miracles were done, there was only 120 that were faithful disciples that were willing to wait in prayer and serve Him with all their hearts following the resurrection. And be a servant leader. You're a servant of the people. The people are not there to serve you. The church has seen enough egos trying to build their own empires. When the empire falls, they typically blame the people for not having enough faith when a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times, a pastor was trying to build his own empire and was full of pride. Be a servant to your people. And be a shepherd. And I listen to them, give attendance to reading. The pastor told the college before the service to add more books to their shelf this summer. And one of the first things I do when I go into a pastor's office, I always look at the books on his shelf. The first thing I did four years ago, and again tonight, I look at the books on your pastor's shelf. And honestly, if you was to walk into my office, our libraries are almost twins. of the things that are on our shelves. But I was taught that when a man ceases to learn, he ceases to lead. Leaders are readers. So be a reader. And read your Bible first and foremost. Diligently read it in personal devotion and in study. Those are separate things. And make sure that the pastor's office is first the pastor's study. And there are times when you have to be protected and uninterrupted, but there also has to be times when that door is open and people know that you're available. And make a schedule, live by it. There's going to be necessary interruptions that you're going to have to adapt to, but there's going to be things that have to be done that no one else can do for you, whether it's as an assistant pastor or a pastor. Sermons have to be prepared and preached no matter how many interruptions you have in your week. And there's no excuses and you're going to have to organize your chaos and the schedule is the best way. And you're going to have to crucify the flesh with the affections and the loss thereof. One of the great truths about purity that's often not mentioned is that we think that if we just get pure to a marriage altar that purity ends there. Purity is a way you have to live all your life. And that's something you have to live beyond your marriage altar. You will still have to strive for purity and crucifying the flesh. And keep your body in subjection. Paul said, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Don't let your flesh be unrestrained. And I'll be honest with you, gluttony is the drug of choice amongst most Christian people. It is the silent besetting sin. It's the Christian's antidepressant of choice. And in a lot of Christianity, and amongst preachers, it is the alcohol addiction of the flesh that's not restrained. Fellows, be filled with the Spirit of God. You know what? When you have a problem, you know, we get on people for turning to alcohol and drugs and other things. But I'm going to tell you what. I've seen a lot of Christians and Christian leaders take out their frustrations in this way. And I'm going to tell you one of the best things you can do is to be empty so you can be filled with the Spirit and get along with God. Stay clean, stay empty, and when you're struggling with your flesh, you keep yourself in the Word of God. And I've never known a great servant of Jesus Christ who's not had a great suffering in some form or another. Great sufferings are great benchmarks of great servants. You're going to have dark days and sleepless nights. And you need to learn, like Paul, to sing in the prison cell. When you've been beaten and you're bleeding and you're sitting on a cold, dark floor, there's no light and you're bound in fetters. And you may not physically be in that same situation, but I guarantee you this, if you stay faithful to Jesus Christ, you're certainly going to have days where you feel like that. and harassed from the world and chained hand and foot, you're going to have to learn to encourage yourself in the Lord like David. There was a day in the life of Moses when he had not circumcised his son, where his wife hated him and his God wanted to kill him. And you're going to have days that nobody understands, but you and the Lord, and you're going to have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. And Job did very good in his first testing. The first time God opened the hedge, God touched Job and he touched his stuff. And he did kill his children. And there's always a personal touch any time there's a satanic attack. But for the most part, Job was touched. God allowed Satan to touch his stuff, his possessions. And Job passed that test very well. Most people do when it's our possessions. He said the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. But when God opened up the hedge a second time and opened it a little wider and God allowed Job to be touched personally, and to be touched in his own body, in his own health, and nearly destroyed him. Job said, Cursed be the day that I was born. God's going to open up the hedge. He's going to allow your possessions to be touched. He's going to allow you to be touched personally. And you're going to have to remember, Job at one point said, I looked for God on my left hand, and He wasn't there. I looked on my right hand, He wasn't there. He said, I looked before me, behind me, and above me. And he said, I never saw him. But he did say just a couple verses later, Job 23, 10, but he knoweth the way that I take. And when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. You just have to have faith in God when you feel like God's not there. And remember that you're his servant. Paul said that, he said, if I should seek to please men, I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ. And remember this, Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Never forget that. There is not a method, talent, or gimmick that can replace the power of prayer and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You're to work as if it all depends on you and pray as if it all depends on God. And you can't do it all, but you're going to do all you can. And remember, there's no crown for quitters. Paul said in Ephesians 6.10, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. And you're going to have to stay in the battle after you've been wounded. You're going to have to run that you may obtain and never quit on God. Solomon finished with these words. He said let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil and That pretty much sums it up The whole conclusion is that you will prove your fear of the Lord because there is a day of coming judgment if you'll keep His commandments. And Jesus summed those commandments up into two, that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our might, our mind, and our strength. And He said, the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. If you live for God and you live for others, when God brings every secret work into judgment, whether it be good or evil, you'll find more good than evil. I'd like to just have our heads bowed and our eyes closed right now, and I'm going to pray and turn it back over to the pastor. I don't know if he's going to give an invitation or not, or how he's going to handle that. If he does give an invitation, I would encourage those of you that are here, that are here tonight to honor these young men. I'd encourage you to come and pray for them as they begin. Again, they've been serving the Lord probably for most of their lives right now, but they're going to embark on a new chapter of their life. Something new is about to commence for them. And, you know, the devil's going to be after them more now than he ever has been before in their lives. And I'd ask you to come and pray that God would protect them and hedge them, and pray that the Lord would use them mightily, pray that the Holy Spirit would fill them and be on them, and bless them in the work that they go forth to do.