Don't Follow Your Heart or Your Dreams- Follow Christ!

I gave this charge this morning to the 6th & 8th grade graduates at Faith Christian Academy in Cheraw, SC:

Graduation speeches are almost always notoriously bad.  They’re either way too long or filled with meaningless, trite sayings.  Here’s one of my all-time favorites—

“I hope your dreams take you... to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.”

Now quotes like that sound nice and make everyone smile, but they don’t actually say very much, do they?

From what I’ve been able to figure out, most graduation advice seems to boil down to this – “follow your heart and you’ll never go wrong” and “you can be anything you want to be, if you just put your heart and soul into it.”

I’d like to start this charge with a bit of advice from a wiser source, from God’s Word.

The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

I have good news for you this morning: You don’t have to follow your heart and you don’t have to rely on your dreams to take you to the corners of your smiles – wherever that is. 

The real benefit of a graduation is that it marks a crossroads and gives you an opportunity- an opportunity to stop and to think and consider your priorities and the direction of your life. 

In America today, people believe one of two competing Gospels.  What is a Gospel?  Gospel simply means “good news” and in this case, these two different, competing Gospels are two different sets of promises offering two different kinds of salvation from two different kinds of Gods. 

One Gospel, offered by the gods of materialism and hedonism, says basically, “Live for yourself.  Grab all that you can from the game of life.”  It has different variations: “He who dies with the most toys wins” or “If it feels good, do it” or “If it makes you happy, then it can’t be that bad” or “Have it your way.” Some variations emphasize money, others pleasure and still others power or fame or success.  The basic message is the same: The path to happiness lies in focusing on yourself.

In my previous job, I was Head of School for a Christian school and, as part of my job, I interviewed prospective parents who wanted to enroll their children in our school.  I would often ask the, “What are your hopes and dreams for your child?”  I could always tell the parents who believed in this first Gospel message, the dominant Gospel of our culture, because they usually said, “I just want my child to be happy and successful.”

God offers us another Gospel.  Jesus said of those who would want to live for themselves, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” And “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

There is a life worth living, a life worth having, promises worth believing and a Gospel worth trusting with all your heart.  It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  In Christ and in Christ alone we can find what we were created to enjoy – eternal life lived in fellowship with God our Creator. 

Now I want to make sure you understand what I’m talking about when I say “The Gospel of Jesus Christ.”  I don’t mean going to church and being a good person.  I’m not advising you to make sure that you keep religion as an important part of your life.  Think about it this way: Some people would say that life is like a plate of food and all of the elements in our lives are like the food on the plate.  The main dish – the fried chicken or the barbecue – is God and religion and being a praying, church-going person.  If you keep this central and most important, then you can add your mac ‘n cheese, your potatoes, your greens, your cornbread, and everything will be in good balance on your plate.

I am not telling you that this morning.  Here’s what I’m saying: There are two different cooks serving up two different plates of food.  One of them is promising you that his food is delicious and free and will make you really happy, but the cook is greasy and slimy looking.  He hasn’t bathed in a week or more, he has some open sores on his face and he spits a lot, probably even into the food he’s serving.  The other is a man who is offering a good plate of food that will truly nourish you.  You have to choose whose plate of food you’re going to eat – the plate of selfishness offered by the world or the true hope of eternal life served to you by Jesus Christ.

But you must bow the knee and confess Jesus as the Lord of your life, all of your life- every waking and sleeping moment.  You cannot live for yourself by the standards of the Gospel of our culture and still embrace the benefits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself said it best – “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will despise the one and be devoted to the other.  You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”  Mammon is just another term for the stuff of this world.  You can only have one master- either you will insist on sitting on the throne of your own life or you will bow before King Jesus. 

Today you stand at a crossroads.  Before you is a wide gate leading to a broad path, a highway, very popular and well travelled, and a narrow gate leading to a narrow path with few travelers.  The thing is, only one of them will lead you to life.  Which will you travel?