Well, I have enjoyed knowing Brother Alton for these many years and I have never had any question about his spiritual walk with the Lord or his talents and abilities to sing and to preach. He's always been a blessing to us in the church and to me to get to hear him. However, I do have a member of the church who has some photographs of a young group that traveled with Ambassador Baptist College. I believe it included Matthew Hanke and Brother Alton Beal and Brother Dwight Smith in their early days when they were students. And they do look a little different. And if I ever get mad at them, I might put that on the wall with the graduates' pictures or something down here to let you in on it. Joshua chapter 3 in your Bibles tonight. It's an honor to be here. We rejoice with you that are graduating and we pray for you that will continue to endure to get to that point. It is a little jealous to sit back as an undergrad and watch these folks who finish get to leave and go off into the ministries and return to their homelands. Families have invested much in you coming to this point. They have raised you. They have spent money on you. Many of them encouraged you to come here to school. And I know it's a blessing to them to see the product that you have become. There is nothing greater that we could want for our children than that they are servants of the Lord. faithful in the house of God and faithful to walk with God and to serve the Lord. Irregardless of what their occupation becomes, it's far more important that they're faithful in serving God than it is becoming the head of a corporation or anything of that nature. No greater achievement than being an ambassador for Christ. And you've learned that well here, to make disciples for the Lord. I often tell our teachers and workers in our church that the most important work they may ever do will be to teach the class of boys or girls in Sunday school that they work with and only God knows the preachers or teachers or missionaries that might come out of that class because of their influence in teaching them from the Bible and sharing their testimonies with them. went to a Bible college that had 2,500 students. And there were three professors there that all came from the same home church. And the two of the professors were younger, were students in the other professor's Sunday school class of young married couples. And he and his wife were the teachers for the young married couples class, college and career age. Eventually all three of them became professors at Baptist Bible College in Springfield back in those days when I went there. And the influence that Brother Larry had on those men and on those couples and the knowledge to teach them the Bible and to commit to serve God and be dedicated and committed and what it takes in the ministry that your professors here and your pastors in these local churches have instilled in your life. to serve God and commit yourself and give your all and be dedicated to the task, nothing can replace what you learn in that kind of commitment and dedication. I first learned that kind of commitment and dedication in the Marine Corps. When I graduated high school as a 17-year-old, I went straight into the Marines. And they will make you produce. They will teach you and train you. And I went through boot camp at Parris Island, and infantry training at Camp Lejeune, and weapons training at Camp Lejeune, and raider training in California, and then jungle warfare training in California, and then straight on to Vietnam. And I learned that there was a reason for what I was learning. All those hardships of boot camp paid off when you strap on a 70 pound pack on your back and go 18 hours in 100 and something degree heat in the jungles. and have to fight your way through while you're doing it. And you've been sitting at the feet of these professors and you don't always see the end result of why you're having to learn what you're learning, why you have to study so hard and do so many papers and read so many books and put in so many hours that it takes to get through college. But the time will come where you'll wish you could come back and take a refresher course or something when you're teaching and preaching and people are pulling out of you what you've obtained during these four years. And you will find that most pastors, if they're honest, will admit to their congregations that they're just about two weeks ahead of the average person sitting in the pew. It takes studying and preparing to prepare sermons and lessons, and then when you give that out, you give out everything that's within you in the time allotted that you have. And Brother Scoville told me, I believe I had two hours tonight to speak is what he told me, so I believe I'm okay. I think I'll finish before that, so I'll be good. You give out everything you have. You've got to go back and get filled up again. You've got to go back and study more and learn. And if you don't keep that study going, you'll wind up on hobby horses and saying the same thing over and over, and you won't be feeding people and helping them be disciples for Christ. In Joshua chapter 3 and verse 1 through 5, the Scripture says, And Joshua rose early in the morning. They were moved from Shittim and came to Jordan. And he and all the children of Israel were lodged there before they passed over. It came to pass after three days the officers went through the host and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priest and the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near unto it that you may know the way by which you must go. For you have not passed this way heretofore. Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Let's pray. Fathers, we look into the Word. I ask that you'll help me to be a help and a blessing to your people. Feed us through the Word tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As you invest yourselves in the lives of other people when you leave the school or when you serve in the church that you're in here in town or if you go home for the summer, You will use the scriptures and you'll use what you've been taught and you'll use the motivation of what you've learned here at the school and what you've been motivated to put into practice in your life in visitation and your daily devotional studies and all those things will have a key part of what you do in helping other people learn and grow. Joshua and the nation of Israel were about to cross Jordan. They were about to go somewhere they'd never been before. Only Joshua and Caleb had crossed over as spies and had come back with a good report. And for 40 years the generation wandered in the wilderness until they died off. And now these new leaders have stepped up to do something that the previous generation failed to do. And understand something, young people, no one will be more excited for God than these professors and this president and your pastors and your family to see you do more for God than they've ever been able to accomplish, than what they will rejoice in seeing what takes place in your lives as you serve the Lord. There are some fears and anxiety. They're about to cross Jordan. They have to take the land. There's going to be battles to fight. And I can tell you from experience, on those wee hours of the morning when you get up before daylight to launch into an objective of attacking the enemy, there's a lot of thoughts that go through your mind. There's a lot of fears and anxieties that you'll face. But as a Christian, we must conquer our fears by believing in God, by faith, by trusting that He will do what He has promised to do. When we serve Him, He will protect us. When we serve Him, He will provide for us. When we serve Him, He will make a way for us to do what He has asked of us to do. They are about to cross over Jordan and go away. They have never gone before. They have got new leadership. Moses is a cherished person to the nation of Israel. And Moses has been their leader, but now they have new leadership. It's time for Joshua to step up. Some of you who are graduating might be going out to become an assistant pastor or a pastor of a church, and you may be replacing someone who's been there previously. And you'll be the new leader. You'll be the new person people will be looking to for advice and help and counsel and all those things. The Bible says here in verse number... In verse number 2, that it would be in three days that the officers pass through. In verse 11 it says, Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all earth passeth over before you into Jordan. They were facing something that was about to happen immediately. You graduates just have a week to go until graduation and then you're finished for now, unless you come back for graduate school I believe I heard one that's graduating with a one-year degree and he's coming back, and there may be some of you coming back for school. I hear football players often interviewed about their seasons, when they're having a winning season. And they start talking about what are you going to do when you face this team and that team, and they've got this record. And almost by majority, they will say, we're just concentrating on practice this week, getting better, overcoming where we made mistakes, and playing the next game. We're not worried about the rest of the season right now. That's too much for us to take upon ourselves. And I mimic what Brother Alton said, you don't necessarily have to know what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life. What you do need to know is that you're going to be obedient to walk with God day by day and step by step and event by event. And as God moves, you move. As your leaders move, you follow them. And just like Joshua and Israel crossing over, you'll go to the place that God would have you to be. You've been preparing for this day, some of you, for four to six years. I think Alton said some of you eight. I believe that was in jest. I had a fellow graduate the same year I did, 1979, who went to college for 11 years to get a four-year degree. He just kept quitting school or bombing out midway in the semester or something, but he kept coming back, and he finally did graduate. Whole school knew him by name. Every one of the professors, everybody knew him, you know. But you've been able to sit at the feet of some of the finest professors that you'll ever meet. You've been in a fine school. You've had the proper training. But you're still going to have to take a step of faith with the major moves that lie ahead of you. It's going to require of you to maybe not have all the answers and to take a step of faith to do what God would have you to do. First of all, when the ark moved, they were to move. When the presence of God would move, then they were to follow. And we follow God as He leads. He leads us through His Word, and He leads us by His Spirit, and He leads us through the influence of godly people. And all these things help us in making the decisions that we need to make as we involve ourselves in the work of the ministry. You get to a place where you see God at work and become involved in it. The knowledge you have of the Word of God gives you discernment that you will need to know right from wrong and the good from the bad. And you've been well taught the Word here so that you'll have discernment to know those things. When you obey God, He'll magnify you in the eyes of the people. As He said to Joshua, I'm about to magnify you in the eyes of the people. They're going to say, I'm going to be with you like I was with Moses. They're going to believe in your leadership just like they did in Moses' leadership. And as you serve God faithfully, God will magnify you in the eyes of the people. I had the privilege of hearing old Dr. Jack Hudson preach numerous times who pastored the Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and built that church up from a handful of people to a couple of thousand and pastored it all of his life. And Dr. Hudson used to say to young preachers in preachers' meetings, he'd say, men, make much of God and He'll make much of you. Make much of God. Exalt Christ and Christ will exalt you. If you make much of the Lord, people who believe in God and will love God will help you. They'll want to follow you. They'll want to serve with you. They'll want you to be a leader to them. because they know you're doing what God would have you to do. You don't always have all the answers, but you're equipped to make the decisions by faith. You've been given a wealth of knowledge through this school and your professors. You have the Word of God that you can read and study and the Spirit of God that can enlighten you to make the right choices and decisions. You have wisdom that comes in answer to prayer and seeking the wisdom of God. You have the work that you are doing, just continuing in doing that. You find yourself a church and you get busy doing that, and God will make a place of service for you. I know most of you probably don't know what it's like to milk a cow. I had to do that when I was a kid. We had a milk cow. Have to do that in the mornings, you know, milk the cow. And when you milk a two-gallon bucket full or a five-gallon bucket full, they'd give about four gallons in the morning, four gallons at night, it's usually about what they'd give a big Holstein cow. The cream would float to the top. And they skim the cream off, that's the most valuable part. And I've found in churches people who sit for years and years and find no place of service, and I've found other people come to that same church and become a member, and in just a matter of weeks or months, they're already involved in places of service in the ministry in that church. Because like cream, they've risen to the top. They've made themselves a ready servant. They've made themselves a good vessel unto God. They've made themselves a willing and obedient worker for the Lord, committed to do something for God. When I went back to Springfield, Missouri ten years after I graduated for a big missions emphasis, I visited the church that I attended when I was there. And there were numerous families that were members when I came there that were still members there after I'd gone that had been to Bible college with me. Ten years they were still there in the church. They'd never left. Some of them may have found places of service there. But I think many were afraid to take the step of faith. to make a move, to find a way to get involved somewhere, to be used of God with the ministry training that they had received. They were like Israel, they'd come to the edge of Jordan, they were afraid to cross over because of unbelief. Now Joshua is about to lead the next generation over. Secondly, now a new generation is about to do what the previous generation failed to do. And you're about to do some things as a new generation of young people going out into the ministry. Or staying here at school being prepared for that day to come in your life. As Jesus said to His disciples, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. It wasn't normally how they fished in that day. Normally by using nets, they would go to the shallows, and they would cast the net between the boat and the shore, and they would sort of hem the fish between the boat and the shore and cast the nets. And you'll remember how they fished all night and caught nothing, and Jesus said, let down your net on the other side of the boat, on the right side, where the deep water is. Well, you can't hem the fish up in deep water with a small net. But you see, Christ always knows where the fish are. And so they caught a net full, and they knew that it was of the Lord. They said, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. And you're launching out into the deep by faith, doing what God has called upon you to do and enabled you to do and prepared you to do, but it's still going to take that step of faith for you to make the moves that are necessary to be involved in the work of the ministry. I commend you for the milestone of graduating. My wife and I were in our mid-twenties when we went to Bible college. We'd only been saved one year. I didn't know the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament and an Apostle and an Epistle and all those things. I had no idea. I'd been learning all I could in that time period while I was in church. Worked 40 hours a week as a welder. I had a trade, so I earned a pretty good living. And we didn't have a financial struggle, but we had a struggle that we were married and had a child. And I had to work 40 hours a week and go to school full time and carry 18 semester hours and graduated with a 3.89 GPA. And I promise you, Matthew Hanke can testify, I am not a brilliant person. I did not receive the Greek Scholar Award as he did when he graduated from school here. It was by the skin of my teeth and the grace of God to get it done, to graduate. I don't consider myself a brilliant person, but what I'm saying to you is if somebody like me can do it, you can do it. If it's able for some of us to do, then it's probably able for the majority of us to do, if you'll make the commitment. Thirdly, as you go, never forget who you represent when you go. They represented the Lord God of heaven as they stepped across Jordan. And Israel forgot that a lot of times along the way. And you must not forget who you represent. You represent the Lord, you represent your family that have helped you to get through school and sent you here, who love you and pray for you and all those things. You represent this school. The professors of this school have taught you. And they pray for you. They want to see you exceed and excel, not fail. And you represent them. Be an example that will bring respect and admiration to this school as a graduate of this school. Those of you that get into ministry and have the ability to do so, I hope you will become a financial supporter of the college and that you will recommend students to come to the college here. and that you'll be a vital part of the continuing of this ministry that you've been able to tap into and enjoy growing in during your years here. You follow your leaders as you follow God, but you take a step of faith. God will lead you. It may have to be day by day. My senior year, there were other guys that said, oh, I'm going to this place and I'm going to do this, and I'd think, oh Lord, I don't know what I'm going to do. I thought I was going to work with my pastor for a couple of years and then try to go out and start a mission church somewhere. But the pastor that was there when I got saved, he'd already left the church before I graduated from Bible college. The church was not as large then as it was in the days when I left there to go to school and so they weren't able to take on another staff member even if they'd known me. And so that desire changed. But where God closes a door, God opens a door. And it took a step of faith to start a church in a town of Fort Mill. When I went there, there was not an independent Baptist church in the town of Fort Mill. It was a town of 4,000 people in the city limits. It has about 15,000 now. And it takes a long time when you start a church. I tell folks it's like pushing a train up a hill. And you thank God for everybody that steps along beside you and helps you push. And we could not still be going today if it weren't for all those people through the years that have continued to help push the train for the glory of God. Everything good that's been accomplished is by the grace of God. Every failure and obstacle and problem, we have to take credit for ourselves. So it's usually our cause. Well, you're about to cross Jordan, young folks, and get involved in the ministry somewhere. Be found faithful as you have been here. God will bless you. God will open the doors. God will give you assurance and peace that you've taken the right steps for Him. Father, we thank you for this opportunity and we offer you our praise in Jesus' name. Amen.