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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music I ask you to welcome with me and help me to welcome our 2024 graduating class. Let's give them a round of applause. Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Applause Song number 86 Song number 86 In the garden I come to the garden alone Sing it out on the first I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear falling on my ear The Son of God discloses And He walks with me and He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known Lainey go ahead 190 Song number 190 Song number 190 Wonderful wonderful Jesus Song number 190 Let's go ahead and sing it out On the first There is never a day so dreary There is never a night so long But the soul that is trusting Jesus Will somewhere find a song Wonderful wonderful Jesus In the heart He implanted a song A song of deliverance of courage and strength In the heart He implanted a song Madison guide 145 Song number 145 It is well with my soul You all know the rules Ladies sing the first It is well You guys will answer song number 145 on the first When peace like a river Attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say It is well It is well with my soul Sing it out ladies Guys It is well Ladies Guys In my soul Everybody It is well It is well with my soul Let's sing one more song Josiah God 197 This will be the last song for favorite song number 197 Singing I go I'm not too familiar with this You guys know this song Josiah do you have another one? Not too familiar I'm sorry 194 There you go Since Jesus came into my heart Finish song With this song I saw number 194 On the first What a wonderful change In my life has been wrought Since Jesus came into my heart I have lied in my soul For which long I had sought Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul Like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart Amen Amen all right well let's go ahead and take our bulletins We'll look at some announcements just real quickly this evening And if you do not have a bulletin just raise your hand And one of our ushers can get one for you If you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we'll get one for you The verse this week, Colossians 3 23 And whatsoever you do, do it heartily Ask the Lord and not unto men And that's a good verse there We like that if you open up your bulletin you'll see our service times Sunday morning service 10 30 am We had a wonderful service this morning we're glad you're back out tonight For the evening service and of course we invite you to be with us On Wednesday night for the midweek Bible study If you look at our soul winning times Our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 am And then we have additional soul winning times On Thursdays and Sundays at 2 pm And if you're a soul winner don't forget to please Add your salvations on the communication card And make sure that you turn in your maps If you have a map that you finished You can just discard it we'll count it as done But if you have a map that is not finished Clearly Mark what was done was not done And put it in the bin in the foyer so that we can get that Situated and recycled back through And of course if you're running late to one of our soul winning times Please call us or text us at the number there 916-868-9080 Let us know that you're planning on being there But you're running late that way we can make sure That our team captains have a partner and everything that you need If you're a first time guest here tonight We are glad that you're with us We have a special gift for you tonight And as you walk out of the church building this evening As you go out the main foyer You'll see one of these little gift bags Please grab one on your way out As a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have And there's a special documentary that our church made We hope you'll stop by and grab that on your way out And if you are a guest we ask that you please take a moment To fill out the communication card Which is inserted in your bulletin And if you need a pen just raise your hand One of our ushers can bring you by a Verity Baptist church pen We'd love to have a record of your attendance And we would like to actually send you a little gift But we need your information to do that So please take a moment to fill the card out And when we're done singing we're going to receive the offering And as the offering plate goes by you can drop this card In the offering plate We of course are a family integrated church What that means is that children and infants are always welcomed in the service We don't separate children from their parents for any reason We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available For your convenience So make sure that you use those rooms as needed All of the rooms have comfortable seating They have monitors so you can watch the service and listen to it If you look at the announcements and upcoming events Of course tonight is our graduation service We're so glad that you're with us for the service And tonight's not going to be a normal Sunday night service Like we normally have But we're going to have the kindergartners And the high school graduates receive their diploma And we do want to invite you To stick around after the service We're going to have pizza after the service tonight And we're going to actually have Pizza on the front lawn So we've never done this before We've never, I don't think we've ever had pizza Since we moved into this new building We're going to have pizza after the service On the front lawn So thank you so much for joining us out there For a time of fellowship And then of course we've got Father's Day Coming up on Sunday, June 16th At 1030 AM Make sure you make plans to be here for that We'll be giving out the BBC T-shirts To all the men and boys That are in attendance on Father's Day Of course for Mother's Day we gave out The BBC T-shirts to the ladies and the girls So now we'll give the T-shirts to the men and the boys And we'll have special music that day Red Hot Preaching Conference And if you'd like to help with volunteering Make sure you look at the special communication card There to volunteer with that Choir practice, they're going to start back up Next Sunday, June 9th And of course today was postponed Due to the graduation service And there's other things there for you to look at Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off Or place them on silent during the service So that they're not a distraction to anybody If you look at the back of the bulletin Birthdays and anniversaries for the month of June This week we have Noah Deacon's birthday On June 4th Also Miss Ruby Rolden has a birthday On June 4th Miss JC Barlow has a birthday on June 5th And my niece Miss Rebecca Lunsford has a birthday On June 5th And then my wife and I are also celebrating Our 20 year anniversary on June 5th This week And then later this week we have Avery Rosenberg She has a birthday on June 7th And Miss Michelle Scott has a birthday On June 7th And brother Ryan Gibbs has a birthday on June 7th So happy birthday to all of those And the praise report, money matters All of those things are there for you to look at I do want to just ask real quickly I don't think this is the case But if there's anyone that graduates That is a graduate that would like to be Recognized tonight that did not Fill out a communication card If you filled out a communication card We have your information already But if there's anybody here tonight Who is 6th grade, 8th grade, high school, college And you have not filled out a communication card You can raise your hand so we can grab your information Real quickly, I don't think there should be We just want to make sure with that, okay Alright good, well we're going to go ahead and sing The chorus of the week Which is the insert in your bulletin And we're going to sing that All the earth may know As we prepare to receive the offering this evening And we'll go ahead and sing it through twice Since it's a short one And let's go ahead and sing it out That all the earth may know That all the earth may know With the gospel of Christ we must know That all the earth may know Good, let's sing it out one more time That all the earth may know That all the earth may know Good, sing it out With the gospel of Christ we must know That all the earth may know Amen, alright we'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer Heavenly Father, Lord we do love you We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight Lord we pray that you'd bless the offering, the gift and the giver We pray that you'd bless the graduation aspect of the service tonight We pray that you would bless everything that happens today Lord and the preaching, the fellowship afterwards as well In Jesus' name we pray, amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Alright well at this time we're going to begin the graduation service And the graduation aspect of the service And I would like to take just a few minutes to kind of talk about our graduation service And explain some of these things And the orchestra can be dismissed at this time Our school, our church here has a homeschool group That has about 90 different children in it And of course not all of the children that come to our church are homeschooled But a vast majority of the children that come to our school, our church are homeschooled And we encourage homeschooling here Of course if you aren't homeschooling, if you're not able to homeschool We love you and we're not against that either But it is something we encourage And of course for the kids that are being homeschooled in our church We like to every year have a special graduation service for them Of course we have about 90 kids in our homeschool group So every year we've got children that are graduating from different grades And we like to have a special time to acknowledge them So if you're here tonight and you're a guest and you're not here for the graduation service Just know that this is a very special thing we do once a year to recognize the graduates Now we'd like to begin by recognizing the graduates that are not going to receive a diploma tonight So the kids that are going to receive a diploma tonight are the kids that are graduating kindergarten And then of course also the young people that are graduating from high school However we've got other grades that are graduating as well Sixth grade and eighth grade part of our homeschool group That are not receiving a diploma But we are going to acknowledge them tonight And then we also have other young people in our church Like I said that are not part of our homeschool group But they are maybe part of a different school system And they are graduating and we want to take a moment to recognize them as well So we're going to begin by recognizing the young people that have graduated this year That are not participating, that are not receiving a diploma from us today And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the grade and the school And the name of young people that are graduating from sixth grade And eighth grade, high school and college And I'm going to ask that when you hear your name If you would please stand Stand up nice and high And then we're going to give them all a round of applause at the end I would ask that you please refrain from clapping for each one of the children Otherwise we're going to be here all night And I know you want to clap for your kid and all that And we appreciate that But let's get all the kids to stand up And then after, once they're all standing up Then we'll give them all a big round of applause, alright So we'll begin with the kids we're going to recognize Graduating from sixth grade From home Calista Melanie Gibbs, please stand Alright, graduating sixth grade from home Elizabeth Rose Jimenez, please stand Graduating sixth grade from home Isabel Johnson, please stand Alright, graduating from sixth grade From Rock Creek Elementary Victoria Faith Santos, please stand Alright, now we've got a couple of eighth grade graduates Graduating eighth grade from Natomas Middle School Isaac Manuel Aguilar Gonzalez, please stand And graduating eighth grade from home Abby Urquiza, please stand Alright, thank you And then we have a high school graduate Graduating twelfth grade from Roseville High School Daniel Timothy Santos, please stand And then we also have a college graduate tonight Graduating college with an associate's degree From Sierra College Ms. Andrea Eunice Santos, please stand Alright, let's give all these graduates a round of applause And praise the Lord, you young people may be seated Praise the Lord for that Alright, well now we're going to begin with the graduating Giving of the diplomas and the graduating service For our kindergarten class Alright, and for these young people you can go ahead And clap for them when they receive their diploma We've got nine different kindergartners That are graduating this year So we'll go through all of these And we'll begin tonight with On behalf of Mr. and Mrs. R.J. and Taylor Marron The VBC homeschool group presents Two young people who are graduating Mr. and Mrs. R.J. and Taylor Marron The VBC homeschool group presents to Riley Pendleton Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Alright, and on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. David And Victoria Nelotescu, the VBC homeschool group Presents to Joanna Nelotescu, her diploma For successfully completing Kindergarten at home Okay, on behalf of Pastor and Mrs. Roger and Joanne Jimenez The VBC homeschool group presents to Hannah Grace Jimenez Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Okay, on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Montel and Lindsay Johnson The VBC homeschool group presents to Jeremiah Johnson His diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Alright He's well trained On behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Matt and Rizel Lee Wilson The VBC homeschool group presents to Sophia Balloonsa Lee Wilson Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Okay, on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Aiden and Ruby Rolden The VBC homeschool group presents to Khaleesi Rolden Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Okay, on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Keith and Katie Rosenberg The VBC homeschool group presents to Noelle Rosenberg Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Alright, on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Joel and Courtney Usher The VBC homeschool group presents to Everly Jane Usher Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home On behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Jose and Michelle Cruz The VBC homeschool group presents to Hezekiah Cruz His diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Alright, and on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Luke and Angel Vincent The VBC homeschool group presents to Delia Mae Vincent Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Mr. and Mrs. Luke and Angel Vincent The VBC homeschool group presents to Delia Mae Vincent Her diploma for successfully completing Kindergarten at home Okay, I'm going to get a group picture with the graduates here I'm going to stand right behind you here guys That's okay Okay, everybody look, look Everybody look at Brother Oliver Look at Brother Oliver, say cheese Alright, let's give them all a round of applause Alright, well now we've got three high school graduates And we're going to go ahead and give them their diplomas And I think something that we did not practice If you can get your tassel in front of you So that I can turn it over for you, I would appreciate that Thank you very much Just let me go ahead and move that over for you Okay, and we're going to begin with On behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Adam and Kimi Gessler The VBC homeschool group presents to Miss Emily Irene Gessler Her diploma for successfully completing high school at home Sorry, let me open that, there you go You got that, and go ahead and close that Alright, God bless you On behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Adam and Kimi Gessler The VBC homeschool group presents to Miss Julia Rae Gessler Her diploma for successfully completing high school at home Alright, there you go Okay, congratulations, God bless you And on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. David and Victoria Nelotescu The VBC homeschool group presents to Mr. Daniel Nelotescu His diploma for successfully completing high school at home Alright, there you go, let me grab this for you There you go, God bless you Okay, I'm going to get a group picture with the graduates here Alright, well let's give them all a round of applause Praise the Lord for that That concludes our graduation, the graduation aspect of the service And at this time we're going to have the reading of the text Please open up to numbers 34 Numbers chapter 34, if you need a Bible please raise your hand And Nelotescu can bring you a Bible Numbers chapter 34 Just keep your hand up and she'll come by Numbers 34, we'll read the entire chapter as our custom Numbers 34 beginning in verse 1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying Command the children of Israel, and say unto them When ye come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall unto you For an inheritance, even the land of Canaan, with the coast thereof In your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin, along by the coast of Edom In your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward In your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akribim And pass on to Zin And the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshburnia And shall go on to Hazor Adar And pass on to Asmon And the border shall fetch a compass from Asmon Unto the river of Egypt And the goings out of it shall be at the sea And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border And this shall be your west border And this shall be your north border From the great sea ye shall point out for you Mount Hore For Mount Hore ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath And the goings forth of the border shall be to Zidat And the border shall go on to Ziphram And the goings out of it shall be at Hazorinan This shall be your north border And ye shall point out your east border from Hazorinan to Shifam And the coast shall go down from Shifam to Ribla on the east side of Ayn And the border shall descend and reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward And the border shall go down to Jordan And the goings of it shall be at the salt sea This shall be your land with the coast thereof round about And Moses commanded the children of Israel saying This is a land which ye shall inherit by lot Which the Lord commanded to give unto the nine tribes and to the half tribe For the tribe of the children of Reuben according to the house of their fathers The tribe of the children of Gad according to the house of their fathers Have received their inheritance And half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan Near Jericho eastward toward the sun rising And the Lord is speaking to Moses saying These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you And these are the priests and Joshua the son of Men He shall take one prince of every tribe to divide the land by inheritance The names of the men are these Of the tribe of Judah Caleb the son of Jephunneh Of the tribe of the children of Simeon Shemuel the son of Amahud Of the tribe of Benjamin Eliada the son of Kishlan And the prince of the tribe of the children of Dan Buki the son of Jogli The prince of the children of Joseph For the tribe of the children of Manasseh Haniel the son of Ephod The prince of the tribe of the children of Ephraim Kimel the son of Shiptan The prince of the tribe of the children of Zebulun Eli 99 the son of Parnek And the prince of the tribe of the children of Issachar Paltiel the son of Azan And the prince of the tribe of the children of Asher Ahaijud the son of Sholomite And the prince of the tribe of the children of Nabaintel Pedahail the son of Amahud These are they whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance Unto their children of Israel in the land of Canaan Lets pray Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word and for our church and for this special evening, God. As you're pleased to be their pastor tonight, please strengthen him and fill him with the spirit. We love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we're there in Numbers chapter number 34. And, of course, tonight is our special service with the graduation service. And normally on Sunday nights, I've been preaching through the Book of Numbers. We've been in a series in the Book of Numbers. We've been going chapter by chapter through the Book of Numbers together. And normally for our graduation service, I will take a break from whatever sermon series we happen to be in on a Sunday night. And I'll usually preach a special sermon just for the graduates or with regards to graduation. However, this night or this week when I was looking over this chapter and beginning to study it out, I realized that there is actually some application in this chapter for our graduates. In fact, this is a relatively short chapter in comparison to some of the chapters that we've seen in the Book of Numbers, only 29 verses. But there's really not a lot. There's a lot there in regards to listings, but there's really just two major themes. And I was kind of interested in the fact that these themes are actually something that I think is applicable to the graduates this evening. So I'd like to preach to the graduates tonight from Numbers chapter 34. And, of course, I'm preaching to everybody, but specifically gear it towards the young people that are graduating tonight. I'd like you to notice there in Numbers 34 and verse 1, the Bible says this, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coast thereof. And let me just say this. It's 6.40 p.m. right now. I think we've got like 38 large pizzas or something that are supposed to be here in about 20 minutes. So I don't plan on preaching very long tonight. In fact, I'd like to preach just right until the pizza gets here. But I'd like to quickly just go over this chapter and give you some applications, and specifically for the young people, because what we see with the children of Israel, and if you've been with us as we've been studying the book of Numbers, you know this, that we've been studying the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. The children of Israel have been wandering in the wilderness, and they've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. When we come to the end of the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 34, 35, and then 36 will be done with Numbers, we are at the end of that 40-year wilderness wandering, and the children of Israel are getting ready to enter into the promised land. And what they're getting ready to do is to enter into a new phase of what we might call life for the nation of the children of Israel. They've been in the wilderness for 40 years, and now they're getting ready to enter into a new phase of history for their nation. And like our graduates, they're going to enter into this new phase. The young people that graduated tonight, they are entering into a new phase of their life as well. They are going into a new phase that is different from that which they have came out of. And what's interesting to me is that here God, in Numbers 34, is preparing the children of Israel for this new phase. And in that preparation, He basically gives them two things. He reminds them of two things that they need to do, two principles that the children of Israel need to do for their new phase of history, of nation, of the things that they'll be doing. And I think they're highly applicable for the young people tonight, because in the same way that the children of Israel are entering into a new phase, these young people that graduated are entering into a new phase, and they need these lessons as well. Now, let me just go ahead and say this in case you're here tonight and you're like, well, I'm not graduating and I don't think the sermon's for me. You know, the truth of the matter is this, that the Christian life is a series of new beginnings. And we are constantly beginning anew in the Christian life, and we enter into different phases of life. And not just physically, obviously, as we get older, relationally with your family, you go from having little children to older children to maybe being an empty nester, and life is constantly changing. And the Christian life is a series of new beginnings. We're constantly beginning. In fact, even one day when we die, oftentimes people look at death as the end, but really death, if you're saved, is just a new beginning. It is a beginning of a new phase of life. So I'd like to speak to you for just a couple minutes tonight on this subject, things you'll need in your new phase of life, things you'll need in your new phase of life. And specifically, of course, for all of us, we know that the Christian life is a series of new beginnings, so this applies to us wherever you find yourself. But specifically, I want to speak to these young people that have graduated tonight because they're getting ready to enter into this phase of life. Now, what we see here in Numbers 34, in this chapter, what we see is two different things that God is telling the children of Israel to do. The first is found in verses 1 through 15. We've already read the first two verses, but I'd like you to notice it there in verse number 3. The Bible says this, Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and, and I want you to notice what he says here, your south border. And if you see this phrase here, your south border, in fact, if you don't, if you like to underline your Bible or write things down in your Bible, maybe you can just underline that little phrase, your south border, because this is what he's going to be talking about here for the next 15 verses. He says your south border shall be from the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward, look at verse 4, and I just want you to see the theme. Your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Acraebim, and pass on to Zin, and the going forth thereof shall be from the south of Kadesh Barnea, and shall go unto Hazar Adah, and pass on to Asmon, look at verse 5, and, just notice the theme, the border shall fetch a compass from Asmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea, and as for, notice here in verse 6, the western border. So, in verse 3 we saw your southern border, then in verse 6, and then in verses 4 and 5, he described the southern border, in verse 6 he begins to describe the western border, and as for the western border, and if you'd like to underline that, maybe you can underline that little phrase there, the western border, ye shall even have to the great sea for a border, notice the theme, for a border, this shall be your west border, verse 7, and this shall be, notice here, your north border, so now we've had the south border, the west border, now he's talking about the north border, and if you want to outline it, then you can underline that phrase, your north border, from the great sea, ye shall point out for your mount Hor, from mount Hor, ye shall point out, notice the theme, your border, unto the entrance of Hamath, and the goings forth of the border shall be Zedad, and the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be Hazernia, this shall be your north border, then notice there in verse 10, and ye shall point out, here's the last border, your east border, so he's described the south border, the west border, the north border, now he's describing the east border, from Hazor, Enon, and Shaphan, the coast shall go down from Shaphan and Riblah on the east side of Aon, and the border shall descend and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Kinnareth eastward, and the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea, this shall be your land with the coast thereof round about. Now again, it would be easy for us to read this and just kind of read over it, but I want you to understand the context here. The children of Israel up to this time have never had to worry about borders, because as they've traveled and they've journeyed in the wilderness, and as they've traveled and wandered in the wilderness, they have been led, the Bible tells us, through the wilderness, by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They have literally, supernaturally, been led by the Lord throughout the wilderness, and in some ways we might say that God has held their hand through the wilderness. We know that of course God is our Father, and in this instance, and I mean no disrespect, but we could almost say that God has been this helicopter dad that has literally been with the children of Israel in the form of a pillar, in the form of a fire for the 40 years that they've traveled, anywhere they've gone. If you remember, if you were with us last Sunday night as we were studying the previous chapter, we got that list from Moses of all the different places they went to. Everywhere they went, we know that God was with them. Many of those places, we don't know where they're at, we don't even know what they did there, but we know this, that God was with them, because the pillar led them there, the fire led them there. But now, as they're getting ready to enter into the promised land, the children of Israel are going to enter into a new phase where God is not going to be with them in that sort of physical, tangible way. There will be no physical cloud that is leading them in the sky. There will be no physical fire that is keeping them warm and keeping them safe at night. When they enter into the promised land, they're entering into this new phase where the children of Israel are going to be a nation that we could say is on their own. And for the first time in their history, they're going to need some well-defined borders, some well-defined boundaries. God is telling them, you're going to have to know where to go, where to stay. And in the same way, I want to say to our graduates tonight, as you enter into this new phase of life, just like the children of Israel, you have crossed a milestone tonight by graduating high school, and graduating high school does not necessarily make you an adult, but it's definitely a milestone in that direction towards becoming an adult. And you know, what you're going to need in your new phase of life is the same thing that the children of Israel needed in their phase of life, and it is well-defined boundaries. As you enter into adulthood, you say, what is the purpose of adulthood? The purpose of adulthood, or the major difference of adulthood, is that you're not going to have mom and dad, the cloudy pillar by day and the fire by night, watching over you, directing you, and guiding you. As you enter into adulthood, you're going to have liberty and freedom to make decisions, liberty and freedom to decide where you're going to go and decide what you're going to do. But you know, as an adult, you need to realize that really the main difference between a well-balanced adult and a reckless adult is that an adult that is well-balanced, that is a mature, that is spiritual, they understand that even if I don't have mom and dad to say, don't go there, don't do that, stay within this boundary, stay within this border, a well-balanced adult gives themselves boundaries, a well-balanced adult parents themselves. They realize that there are some things that you shouldn't do. They realize that there are some places you shouldn't go. They realize that there are some things that you should not participate in. They realize that there are not some things that you're going to need. And what God is telling the children of Israel here is He's telling them as you enter into this new phase of life, you're going to have to set up some boundaries. I say to you graduates tonight, not just you graduates, but all the young people as they begin to walk towards adulthood, you're going to have to lay down some well-defined borders and boundaries for yourself. Because maybe as you grow into adulthood, mom and dad won't be there to say, you should go to church. Mom and dad won't be there to say, you should read your Bible. Mom and dad won't be there to say, don't drink that. Mom and dad won't be there to say, don't watch that. Mom and dad won't be there to say, if you make that decision, if you hang out with those people, if you go down that road, you're going to hurt yourself. Mom and dad aren't going to be there to say those things, but you need to have some boundaries that you've given yourself to say, there's just some things I'm not going to do. Even if I have the freedom to do it, even if I have the ability to do it, even if I have the liberty to do it, as a well-adjusted, spiritual adult, I'm going to set up some well-defined boundaries. And I want to encourage every young person here tonight, you need to start developing your own boundaries. You need to start deciding what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what is right, what is wrong. And of course, you should get these things from the Word of God. But the children of Israel were getting ready to enter into this new phase, and God was telling them, you need to have some well-defined boundaries. And I say to every young person, as you enter into adulthood, you need to have some well-defined boundaries. You need to decide what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what will hurt me and what will be productive, what will be good for me and what will not be good for me. And you ought to make those decisions on your own through the leading of the Holy Ghost. Notice there in verse number 13, the Bible says this, And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which ye shall inherit by law, which the Lord commanded to give unto the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe, for the tribe of the children of Reuben, according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad, according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance. And half of the tribes of Manasseh have received their inheritance. The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance. On this side, Jordan, near Jericho, eastward toward the sunrise. And of course, we've talked about that in recent days, how two and a half tribes stayed on the other side of Jordan. And that's what's being explained here, that the boundaries are for the nine and a half tribes going into one land because there's already two and a half tribes that have stayed on the other side. Verse 16, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Now in verse 16, we find the second phase of instructions. The first application, or the first instruction, given to the children of Israel is that they need to establish boundaries. As they enter into their new phase, they need to establish borders. And what I would say to the young people here tonight is you need to establish some well-defined boundaries to keep you safe as you enter into adulthood. I want you to notice, secondly, not only do we see that God establishes for the children of Israel as they enter into the Promised Land boundaries, I want you to notice that God establishes for the children of Israel as they enter into the Promised Land leadership. Notice verse 17, These are the names of them which shall divide the land unto you, Eliezer the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. Ye shall take one prince of every tribe to divide the land by inheritance. Look at verse 19, And the names of the men are these. And then he begins to list the names. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephuneth. Of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel, the son of Amahud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Eliad, the son of Chislon. Of the prince of the tribe of the children of Dan, Bukhi, the son of Golli. Of the prince of the children of Joseph, For the tribe of the children of Manasseh, Haniel, the son of Ephod. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel, the son of Shiptan. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan, the son of Parnak. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel, the son of Azen. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahaihud, the son of Shalomai. Of the prince of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Perahil, for the son of Amahud. These are they, notice verse 29, Whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. I want you to notice that what God does for the children of Israel, Is He tells them, we need to make sure you've got some boundaries. Here's your south border, here's your west border, here's your north border, here's your east border. You need some boundaries to keep you safe and to keep you where you're supposed to go. And I would say to the graduates tonight, you need to define some boundaries. But then what God also says to the children of Israel, As they begin to enter this new phase of their history, Is not only do you need some well defined boundaries, He says you need some well defined leadership. You need some well defined leadership. Because things were going to change for them. The person, the man that had been leading them up to this point, Moses, is gone. The other man that had been leading them up to this point, Aaron, is also gone. And now there's new leadership coming along, Joshua and Eliezer, we've got of course Caleb and we've got the men that have been listed here. And what God is telling them is that even though you're entering into the promised land, And even though you're entering into this new phase of history, a new phase of life, He said you still have to submit yourself under leadership. And He's telling them, make sure you choose the right leadership. And what I would say tonight to the young people that are graduating, And not just the three that are graduating, but all the young people that are here, As you journey into adulthood and you cross that Jordan River, And enter into adulthood in your life, you need to realize this, That once you leave your parents home, that doesn't mean, oh, no more leadership. No, you will always have people that are leading you. Because leadership is influence. John Maxwell famously said, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And anybody who you allow to influence you is a leader. Now, they may be a good leader, they may be a bad leader, You may not even realize they are a leader. They may just be someone that you follow and someone that you like. But anybody that influences you is a leader. And what you need to do in adulthood, as you cross into this new phase of life, Is decide who's going to lead me. You say, well, I'm not under the authority of my mom and dad anymore. All right? But you know, mom and dad are still smart and wise, and they still have your best interests at heart. It might be wise for you to listen to them. Not that you need to obey them, but to get counsel from them. You should still have a pastor in your life that is providing leadership. You should still have a pastor's wife in your life that is providing leadership. As you go to the workforce for young men, the boss you pick is going to be your leader. As you choose a church, the pastor you pick is going to be your leader. As you choose a husband, the husband you choose is going to be your leader. In all sorts of areas of life, you're going to find yourself submitting under leadership. And you need to make sure, look, as an adult, no adult here, whether they like it or not, doesn't have somebody over them. And in fact, the adults who think that they've got nobody over them are the ones that end up with the most people all over them. Some prison warden somewhere locked up in a prison. Because the truth of the matter is that even adulthood must be a life of self-discipline, must be a life of boundaries, must be a life of self-contained boundaries. And look, you have the freedom to contain yourself or you'll be contained by others. And you have the freedom to choose the leadership and choose the people that will lead you and that will influence you. And that may be in a very specific way someone who holds a position of leadership in your life or it just may be someone that you allow to influence you, someone that you allow to have some sort of influence over your life. In either case, you need to decide who am I going to give the opportunity to influence me. Who am I going to allow to do that in my life? So the children of Israel, they have to pick not only well-defined boundaries, but well-defined leadership. And young people, as they enter into adulthood, must do the same thing. You've got to set up some boundaries for yourself. You've got to decide what do I believe and what are my standards and what am I going to do in my life? Look, you've grown up in a Christian home. Your parents have had some standards for you. Your parents have had some convictions. Your parents have made some decisions. They've been the pillar by day and the fire by night. They've led you along the way, but now you're going to have to start making some decisions for yourself, setting some boundaries up, appointing some leaders, and saying, I want to be influenced by these types of people. These are the types of people that I'm going to allow to have an influence in my life that I want to follow. And I hope you'll pick, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I hope you'll pick others who are following the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the Apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. What we see here is that in this new phase of life, you will need leaders that are looking out for your best interests. And being an adult doesn't mean that you live with no leadership. It means that you say, what is the difference between being an adult and being a child? The difference is this, that you didn't choose your parents. You didn't choose the God-given authority that God placed you under. But as an adult, you get to choose who you marry. You get to choose what church you submit yourself under, the authority of a pastor that you submit yourself under. You get to choose who your boss is going to be and where you're going to work. You get to make those decisions. So it's not that you don't have leadership. It's that you get to decide who your leadership will be. So set some boundaries. Find some leaders. Find some people, maybe that are ahead of you, that are doing living life and living properly and living appropriately ahead of you that you want to allow to influence you and have an influence on your life. And make sure that as you enter into this new phase of life, you set some well-defined boundaries and you establish some good leaders. Because this is what the children of Israel needed as they entered into their new phase of life, and this is what every young person needs as they're walking towards adulthood. Because the truth of the matter is this, and I've often said this, we are not raising children. I tell the parents here at Verity Baptist Church, we're not raising children. We're raising children, but we're raising children to be adults. And what we're raising is adults. What we're trying to do is to raise these young people in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that when our time is up, when it's time for us to kind of give that up and put our hands off of that on a very practical and applicable and day-by-day level, that they'll submit themselves to the true Father, the Heavenly Father, and walk with God all on their own. And young people, it's up to you. It's up to you. Well-defined boundaries, well-defined leadership. It's what the children of Israel needed in their new phase of life, and it's what you need in your phase of life as well. Let's bow our heads and have a little prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you, and we thank you for the young people that have graduated today. Not just these three, we're thankful for these three, but we thank you for all the young people in our church and these kids that are growing up here and in the part of the homeschool group. Lord, we pray that you would bless them. And Lord, I do pray a blessing on every young person that's growing up at Verity Baptist Church and help their parents and help me and my wife as we lead this church to help teach these young people not just the boundaries we have and the rules we have, but that they would develop some convictions of their own, that they would develop some beliefs of their own, that they would develop some structure of their own, and as they enter into the phases of adulthood, that they would set some well-defined boundaries and that they would choose some godly leaders to influence them in their lives. Lord, we love you, and we thank you for the young people here and the great blessing they are to all of us. In the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Alright, well God bless you. Thank you for being here tonight. We're going to have Brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song. And I just want to remind you that everybody is invited for pizza after the service. I don't know if the pizza is the pizza here. Alright, so we're going to go ahead and sing, and I think they've got it all set up and ready to go. So we're going to sing, and then I'm going to ask Brother RJ to pray and pray a blessing for the meal, and we're going to head back. We've never done this here before, so we might have to have a little bit of a learning curve, but we're going to have pizza on the front lawn. Can you find out, is there a separate table for the kids? We've done that in the old building. Can you find that out and just let me know real quickly? I think what we're going to do is we have a table that the ladies are going to set up. No, we're not doing that. Okay, alright, well never mind. Watch your kids, alright? Make sure they've got some well-defined boundaries when it comes to how many pizzas to get. Anyway, why Brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song? Amen. Let's grab a song. We can turn to page number 165. Song number 165. We'll worship the king. Song number 165. Can you go ahead and sing it out? On the first. Oh, worship the king, oh glorious above, and gratefully sing his wonderful love. Our shield and defender, the ancient of days, a billion in splendor and good with praise. Song number 165, on the second. Oh, tell of his might and sing of his grace, whose robe is a light, who can it please space his chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds form and dark is his path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue can reside, it breathes in the air, it shines in the light, it streams from the hills it deems and to the plain and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Sing it out on the last. Frail children of and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies out and up, how firm to thee and our maker defend the redeemer and friends. Amen. Great singing. Before we dismiss, if anyone here has questions about salvation, baptism, or church membership, I just want to say that pastor will be at the door and he would love to talk to you, direct you to someone who's trained to do that as well. Let's bow our heads and pray for the food. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for a great day that you've given us. Lord, we thank you for the sermon that we heard and we just ask, Lord, for a blessing for the graduates, Lord, especially the young people that graduated. We pray that you bless them, help them with their new journey and we just pray for the evening that you'd bless it. Bless the food, bless the fellowship, and bless everything. We just ask, Lord, that everything that be said and done this evening would only bring glory and honor to you. We love you in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. .