So, I don’t know much, but I do know that you graduates are maybe racking your heads about what the next chapter of your life is going to bring, what it’s going to look it! There is excitement, a scared feeling: “I’ve got to find a job now!” What’s God’s will, can I endure this next step? You can interpret the title page a few different ways when you see the picture. Let’s take a pop quiz based on the picture of the guy on the mountain top. a. If I take the wrong step it can end in disaster for my life! b. I need to take a leap of faith! c. I’ve made it to the top, now what? d. all of the above!
J
The short answer is to engage in a vocation in which you’ll fulfill God’s will! Love God and Love others! Sure God has given you a passion for something, a knack or talent that pushes you! Pursue it, but may it be for God’s glory and not yours! He’s given you that ability! If you can be good at one thing, be great at making disciples wherever God sends you! Ok, that’s done, let’s eat! You know the key to life! Just joking! Let’s see a situation in which Peter and John had to take the next step. What can we learn from it that would apply to your new journey as well as to everyone here at Oak Hill who will set another step outside these doors to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ? Let’s look at Acts 4:1-20
J
Take a step that is right, even if it’s not regarded vv.1-4
J
Why were they being taken to prison? Chapter 3 shares that they, through God’s power, healed a lame man. They had compassion and believed in what was right! We are not called to be lightning rods, and they weren’t! They were just following the Holy Spirit! We are called to be a quiet winsome people, yet at the same time we must stand up for what is right! Human trafficking, wrong, let’s stand up! Miss treatment of the poor, wrong, let’s stand up! No religious freedom, wrong, let’s stand up! The list goes on and on! If we’re not careful, we’ll be sucked in and taken captive by what society says is right and respected! God’s Word determines what is right! Paul warns us in Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
J
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” Aaron Tippin
Stand for Christ!
J
Listen to what John Piper says concerning this very thing:
“If America stays free—which, by the way, is not the main goal of the church but, I pray, a happy byproduct—if America stays free, it will not be because Christian right-wingers push through a prayer amendment, or because Christian left-wingers push through bigger government subsidies for housing and health and jobs. It will be because the salt of the earth and the light of the world have exerted such a profound spiritual effect on the heart and soul of the nation that men and women feel pangs of conscience when contracts are broken, and refugees are gouged, and prices are inflated, and workmanship is shabby, and babies are intentionally aborted. Constraining civil laws are necessary in a fallen world. But if violations of love are not treated at the spiritual spring, then the river of evil that flows out of man’s heart will break through every legal dam and sweep the world away with injustice. One group on earth has this potential and this mission—the Church of Jesus Christ. If we are not wholeheartedly engaged in this indispensable spiritual work, no one else will do it, for no one else has the message of redemption. And justice will most assuredly, then, not be established in the gate. And then, who will stand when the Lord roars from Zion?” ~John Piper
J
Take a stand that is bold, even if it’s not blissful vv.5-12
J
Society is painting a target on you if you take a bold stand for Christ! In fact taking a bold stand may cost you your job one day! There will be a time when living for Christ no longer looks like living as a normal citizen. Your Biblical life will look radical to the outside world! That’s happening now, in America!
But you better believe Jesus is worth it!
J
You better believe that eternity is better than a fleeting moment at the office because your co-workers think you’re cool. Being a real Christian, “not a name only Christian” will cost you!
J
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
J
2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”
J
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
J
Take a seat that is dependent upon God’s power, and not determined by man’s praise vv.13-20
J
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
J
“7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,” 2 Timothy 1:7-8
J
Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;”
