In this time permitted by the Lord, we are all inspired and come to God with thanks. This is no regular ceremony, this is the greatest time we can offer God. This is the best deed we can offer Him because He permits us this Graduation Service. This has been decided by God. As I have spoken previously – from the very beginning – before God created the universe, God prepared this event. This has all been prepared so we can live for God. However we lived in the past, we put this aside. We have met with the Lord and we must live according to His will from now on. In terms of God’s will, we put ourselves to death and control ourselves.

We do not use our own efforts and our own strength. We must walk according to God’s will. We should walk in this will decided by God. God decided His law. We do not choose to walk by our own strength and way. We do not use our own strength and efforts to come to God. In the past, we tried to live by our own strength, exertion and efforts. We tried to seek our own opportunities and earn God’s acceptance. This was the way of the past. The moment we received God’s grace, we died with Jesus. We are born again with Jesus and experience Him. We experienced the same things, like death on the cross and resurrection. Now we live a public life with Jesus. We do not live the way we did in the past and we must continue to teach these to each other.

This time and generation is the most precious thing we can offer God. Everything else is like rubbish. Therefore, we have fellowship with God in this time and path. We meet with God and live with Him. We do what we need to do. We confess what we need to confess. We do all these on this path chosen by God. This is how God can continually nourish us. We received so many things from God through Berea Academy. Though we are so lacking in the eyes of the world, we desire the Lord to use us all the more. We prepare ourselves for the Lord. We prepare for the future and for the path we must walk. God does not prepare us by our own way, strength, or effort, but by the knowledge of God. We are given the knowledge of God for our spirits’ sake. We essentially did not have a future, but we are given this precious time. We must regard it as precious.

If we receive it, we must take responsibility. We must feel the responsibility and take caution. We can see it in this passage found in 1 Corinthians 14. We are all in the same position and we learn the word of Berea. We should be ruled by God. We should live according to His plan. We should stay in His schedule. These are amazing things to behold. You must not think with your heart or mind. Instead, you should be full of God’s joy and blessing. Consider what is found in 2 Timothy 1. We always read this passage. It is very important. God does not give us a heart of fear, but gives us a great heart. It is a very broad and wide heart. It is a heart of power, love and discipline. We are so full of joy. God does not give us a heart of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline.

He gives us all of this. These are not according to our own plan. Though they were prepared for us since the beginning of time, they are now revealed to us in the revealing of Jesus Christ. He destroyed death and brought us to immortality. He calls us on this day. He calls us to serve and to preach. He calls us to various duties. Though we are so lacking in the eyes of the world, God gives us these duties according to His plan. Now we belong to the Lord. He gives us everything we need. He gives us every furnishing. He gives us His faith according to His timing. We know these things and rely on Him. When the Lord removes His hand, we fall and there is nothing left. This is because we rely on our own righteousness. Do we fully rely on the Lord or not? Do we completely devote ourselves to Him or not? Do we dwell with the Lord until the end or not? Apostle Paul tells us about this. I also tell you these things because if you keep them, you do well.

These are all for us to decide: whether we rely on the Lord or not, whether we do as we please or not, whether we take responsibility or not, whether we stay in His schedule or stay out of it. Paul said that everyone in the province of Asia had deserted him. They were not in line with Paul’s direction. They wanted their own ideas, plans, and values. They thought they were taken disadvantage of. They did not agree with Paul’s direction.

In a similar way, the ways of the world do not conform with God’s way. There was at least one person who was different. He was Onesiphorus. Paul prayed the Lord would show him mercy because he was concerned about Paul’s chains. When Paul was in prison, Onesiphorus kept trying to find him. Paul writes, “You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.” This is what Paul says.

In truth, we have no qualifications before God. If even the same words are spoken, one is spoken by God’s inspiration and the other by their own ideas. The one who is inspired speaks the secrets of heaven. While we are in the flesh, we must hear the one chosen by God. We met Jesus and are born again. We have great responsibility ahead of us. This is our joy and responsibility. This is the great responsibly given to us and we are so joyful.

We have diligently studied Berea Academy until now. We not only have the regular graduates, but those who have retaken the course. Whether God used us or not, whether we participated in Berea Academy or not – we should be dutiful to even the smallest duties. No matter how small our duties are, we should get ready for the Church and for the Bereans. This is so God can fulfill what He wills until the end and so we can work together with humility. I exhort this to you in the name of Jesus.

In the past, many people tried to promote themselves and make themselves big. Those who are big outwardly are not big in reality. People so far have all tried to make themselves big. We need to suffer, we need to be insulted, we need to be grieved, we need to be sad. We need to bury this pain and suffering and keep them in our hearts. If possible, even our families should do this. Whoever can take the burden – whoever can take the burden of our children, of our mothers and fathers and of our church – they should do it.

There must be someone to bear the Bereans’ burdens and take responsibility for them. We do not seek our own promotion. We sincerely and truthfully seek the glory of heaven. Everyone should trust in the Lord to the point that they collapse if He takes away His hand: this is how we prepare ourselves for heaven’s glory.

God does not promise all things to be fulfilled in the middle of the timeline, but at the very end. This is how we must entrust ourselves to the Lord. We should all labor for the Bereans to come into the future. This is so we all become true Bereans. We do what He honorably asks of us so we can become more admirable, noble, and acceptable before the Lord. I exhort you in the name of Jesus that you be greater and usable vessels for God.

We should completely rely on the Lord until the Last Day to achieve new life. This is how we will drink up streams of life again and again, full of hope and full of life. We should do this until the Last Day so we will gain a glory so great it cannot be expressed. Hallelujah!