Written by Michael S. Beates |
Monday, June 6, 2022
Don’t go looking for the painful stuff – trust me, I know this is true – it will find you sure enough in this broken and fallen world. But remember that God redeems pain, suffering, hardship, loss – and the most precious lessons are learned in the midst of the most difficult circumstance.

Board of Governors, esteemed colleagues on the faculty, parents, students, and most especially, . . . you 22 members of the class of ’22:
I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to address you all today. But I also recognize that much more important things are waiting to happen here and elsewhere and my comments may seem merely to delay the really good stuff.  I get that. Since so many really good people have said so many good things, what could I possibly say that might be memorable, or that you don’t already know, having learned so much from this esteemed faculty? Some commencement addresses are indeed memorable. David McCullough, Jr. became famous 10 years ago when his commencement address entitled “You are Not Special” went viral. Then in 2014, Adm. William McRaven got a lot of attention when he challenged University of Texas grads to start each day by making their bed.
Regardless, when I was sitting where you are, some 48 years ago (yes, . . . I can see you doing the math in your heads right now!), the last thing I wanted to do that day was listen to some old guy I did not know. Well, at least I think you all know this old guy . . . but I get it, you’d rather start celebrating than listen to me, so I’ll keep this brief.
Let me get this out there right off the top: I hope you all know I love you all with a godly affection – we have some history, me and this class of 2022. Yes, admittedly, half of you came to Geneva after the more veteran half had put up with m. . . uh, had attended my classes in 7th and 8th for Old and New Testament Survey. But checking the guest book at my home, I was fondly reminded that almost half of you have been in my home, some of you on multiple occasions. Good times, good memories. I sincerely wish I had more time with those of you “late comers” to Geneva, but you’ve had to make do hearing the stories of classes or backyard BBQ’s with Dr. B. But it’s all good. Love you all!
I had lots of thoughts rumbling around in my head to share with you, and I could not decide . . . I thought maybe some advice from an old Hillbilly might work. Things like:
Keep skunks, bankers, and politicians at a distance.Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.If you don’t take the time to do it right, you’ll find the time to do it twice.Never corner something that’s meaner than you.It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.Don’t be bangin’ your shin on a stool that’s not in the way.Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.The biggest troublemaker you’ll ever have to deal with is that rascal lookin’ backatcha from the mirror every mornin’.Good judgment comes from experience, and most experience comes from badjudgment.If you ever get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’somebody else’s dog around.Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
Not bad, right? But I finally thought I would just collect my “Top Ten” thoughts I hope you will consider and perhaps remember. Don’t worry, they are brief! Some of you may remember some of these from our times together; and perhaps for others, these might be new thoughts. But trust me, I am confident none of this is original with me. I just can’t remember any more where or from whom I first heard most of this. So here we go:
Number 10: Do not love the world or the things in the world – I remember where this one comes from – the Apostle John in 1 John 2:15 – rather love the Lord Jesus Christ. The world sings a siren song; it’s enthralling and it’s attractive. But it’s also death. Yes, as followers of Jesus, we live in the world, but we do not belong to the world – do not let the world own you. And if you come to a place where the world (that is the powers, the cultural influencers, the trends, that big rebellious mindset contrary to what God has created in His world and desires for His people), if this world applauds what you say or do, take a careful, long, honest look in the mirror and ask if you are still following Jesus. Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen (all the signs Jesus performed) and yet believe.” So believe, surrender, trust, and live in Jesus. This is my hope and the hope of every one of my colleagues here for each and every one of you. Believe, surrender and trust, live in Jesus. Do not love the world.
Number 9: Over the past 30 years, the tapestry of Geneva has become more complex, more vibrant colors and textures and depth – but its essence will not, indeed must not, change – Goodness, Truth, and Beauty are always worth pursuing. Geneva is your home and you will always be loved and welcomed here. Take Geneva with you, all that you have learned, all the friends you have made and all the truth you have absorbed. But remember: goodness, truth, and beauty. In that regard, remember also the words from Isaiah 30:21— “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” And the LORD also said through Jeremiah, “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” One of Tolkien’s goals was the recovering “old light in the world” – go out and take the old, well-worn, trusted paths, listen for God’s leading as you take turns in your road ahead. Discover, recover, and exalt the old light, the true light that gives light to everyone. Remember that trends and movements will come and go; but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Number 8: To quote Cinderella (or at least her mother), “Find courage and be kind” – even when this means making people angry. Whether Martin Luther said it or not (it has been attributed to him at least), it’s still true as a maxim: “Peace if possible, but truth at all cost.” Our cultural moment prizes empathy over truth. Be courageous enough to stand for truth in an age beguiled by lies and untruth. But also be kind in your stance as you defend the truth. There is no prize for being a jerk while you defend truth and Good News. Things may become hard if you continue to walk as Jesus calls us to walk. The world may hate you. You may be like Frodo, before embarking on the Quest (no, not like the movie in the mines of Moria, but at Bag End), Frodo said to Gandalf, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf famously replied, “So do I, my dear Frodo, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” So find courage and be kind.
Number 7: You will learn NOTHING of any lasting value from pleasure and comfort – though too often this is the goal of the autonomous modern self. Let not pleasure and comfort be your goal. About 25 years ago I heard John Piper say “Move away from comfort toward need” – still true. Do the hard thing. The most beautiful gems are found only after digging deep with lots of sweat, pain, personal sacrifice, and loss. If pleasure and happiness are your goal, like a butterfly they will always be just beyond your reach, or profoundly fragile and unsatisfying if caught by your hands.
Don’t go looking for the painful stuff – trust me, I know this is true – it will find you sure enough in this broken and fallen world. But remember that God redeems pain, suffering, hardship, loss – and the most precious lessons are learned in the midst of the most difficult circumstance.
Number 6: Getting radical now. Follow God’s first commands: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over it” – but get married first. Too many people try to be god over their own world, not marrying, not having children. Find that love for life, have children, lots of ‘em if God so blesses you, and change the world. The richest rewards in life come from the simplest tasks – marry, be faithful, have children. Again from Tolkien, remember Thorin Oakenshield’s final words to Bilbo: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song [and I would add marriage, children, and family] above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
Number 5: When you get old like me, plant an oak tree under whose shade you know you’ll never sit. Cultivate optimism for the future. You are my oak trees. My optimism says that there are people yet to be born decades from now whom some of you will teach when you are old like me, and those people will be leaders in and change the world 100 years from now in the 22nd century. Play the long game!
Number 4: Have a humble perspective. on life and your calling because God will probably break you before He really uses you – I wish it weren’t that way, but there it is. J.I. Packer’s final brief, little book, written as he was going blind and failing in health, was entitled Weakness is the Way (I recommend it!). So cultivate humility. It will serve you well. And remember that the wounds God gives you are meant for your good and so He gets the glory.
Number 3: God hardly ever does things the way we expect, and He often uses people you’d least expect – you may be sitting close to someone who will change the world! So treat people with godly respect. Expect God to surprise you. Remember that God opposes the proud, but He exalts the humble. So be like David, remembering his words from Psalm 31: “I trust in you, O LORD, I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands.” God is sovereign, you are not.
Number 2: Remember what McCullough said ten years ago: you are not special! Unique? Yes! Made in God’s image and known by name by the Creator of the Universe? Absolutely! But special? Not so much – despite what the self-absorbed culture of the world wants you to think. In light of this, go out and serve the One who is special. The world is selling you the idea that you are number one. But Jesus says be “number last” and give yourself away for the sake of others. Do not think of yourself first, but be like Jesus: deny yourself, serve the needs of others before yourself. The world says “Self-care” but Jesus says “self-denial.” Be contra mundum! Remember Dr. Vande Brake’s reciting to us the words of Jesus: “The greatest among you will be servant of all.”  So . . . go be great as you fly off to whatever new adventures God has in store for you. But remember you are not special. Love others with a basin and a towel. Be a servant.
Finally, Number 1: Proverbs chapter 3 says (in part):
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;bind them around your neck;write them on the tablet of your heart.So you will find favor and good successin the sight of God and man.Trust in the LORD with all your heart,and do not lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make straight your paths.Be not wise in your own eyes;fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.It will be healing to your fleshand refreshment to your bones (Prov. 3:3-8).
What can one add to such wisdom of the ages? But I urge you – each of you – take those verses, write them on a card, keep them with you, put them on your desk at college or wherever the Lord takes you from here. Follow those admonitions, and you will do well. Put hesed and emet – steadfast love and faithfulness – onto the tablet of your heart – interesting thought that when we memorize something, we know it “by heart” not by mind. Bind steadfast love and faithfulness around your heart – these are two qualities God uses most often to describe himself; but importantly, they are also attributes He shares with us so that we can demonstrate love and faithfulness to the watching and desperate world.
Be people characterized by steadfast love and faithfulness. Draw from and cling to the steadfast love of Christ, and remember always that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is faithful.
Class of ’22 – you have left your mark on The Geneva School. Well done! Now cling to Jesus so that He may use you further to stamp His mark on the world and to build His kingdom through your faithful service.
God bless you all.  Amen.
Mike Beates is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, a member of Central Florida Presbytery, and lives in Winter Park, Fla.
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It should be clear that oaths and vows play an important role in societies of all kind (and in society in-general). They build trust. They teach people to tell the truth and to fulfill promises. Yet what we have today is the breakdown of such trust. And this is tied with the weakening of oaths. Brothers and sisters, God is the foundation for oath-keeping. Those who do not fear God (or believe in Him) will not take their oaths seriously, for they do not believe God will judge them for such violations. Yet God has promised to punish all who break their oaths. We need to restore the importance of oaths and vows if we are going to have a healthy society of any kind. And this must start in the church of Christ.

Every communing member in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) takes membership vows. While officers (elders and deacons) take vows to uphold the Westminster Standards and Book of Church Order, church members take vows acknowledging their sin (vow 1), affirming their trust in Christ’s salvation (vow 2) and promising to live as Christians, support the church, and submit to its government (vow 3–5).
Although the church member is not required to affirm the entire Westminster Confession and Catechisms, his vows are no less serious than those of the minister. In fact, the very reason vows are required is because church membership is a serious thing. In taking membership vows, a person makes “declarations and promises” by which he or she “enter[s] into a solemn covenant with God and His Church” (BCO 57-5). The member takes such vows before the elders, and usually also before the entire congregation. But they are also vows before God Himself, as God is witness to such promises.
PCA Membership Vows
The PCA’s five membership vows are as follows:

Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?
Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?
Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?
Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace? (BCO 57-5)

Sadly, it is all too common for church members to break these vows. The last two vows are particularly difficult – we might even say, “counter-cultural” – in our day and age, as they require respecting and honoring church leadership. Members vow to “support” the church and “submit” to its “government and discipline.” This means members promise to live godly lives in accordance with the Bible and Westminster Standards (“discipline”), as well as yield to the Session when it makes a decision that the member disagrees with (“support the Church” and “study its purity and peace”). Submission requires humility, but that is what God requires of us. Consider the following clear precepts from Scripture:
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5, ESV)
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. (Hebrew 13:17)
Breaking Membership Vows
There are many ways to break these membership vows, including promoting false teaching or factions in the church. Transferring membership to another church for insufficient reasons is also a violation of these vows. However, it is too frequently the case that members of PCA churches break their vows by leaving the church and not transferring to another church. When a member stops attending church for a long period of time or requests to be “removed from the rolls” – and does not transfer to another gospel-preaching church – then he has broken his membership vows.
In this case, he has not endeavored to live as a follower of Christ (vow 3), since a Christian attends corporate worship (Heb. 10:25). He has not supported the church in its worship and work (vow 4). He has not submitted himself to the government and discipline of the church or studied its purity and peace (vow 5). Because he “has made it known that he has no intention of fulfilling the church vows,” the Session is to “erase” his name from the membership rolls as a form of “pastoral discipline without process” (BCO 38-4). Yet the Session has a duty to remind the member of the “declarations and promises by which he entered into a solemn covenant with God and His Church… and warn him that, if he persists, his name shall be erased from the roll.”
Such violation of vows and erasure from membership rolls is not to be taken lightly. It is “discipline without process,” meaning there is no formal discipline process of excommunication. Yet the person erased from membership is no longer a member of Christ’s visible church, and thus he is no longer welcome to partake of the Lord’s Supper in a PCA church (until there is reconciliation and restoration to church membership).
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We find a nearness of Christ in the midst of agony. It is as though we can flip the infinitely famous passage in Hebrews 4:15 around on itself, and find comfort in suffering. That in our weakness, we sympathize with our perfect high priest, who has endured every aspect of our human experience, and yet he did it without sin. And when we suffer with him and like him, though always tainted with sin, we understand what he has endured on our behalf, just a little bit more.

“Enough is enough!”
There are times this is the very cry of our hearts. Oh sure, we believe the truths that God’s grace is sufficient for each day. We believe we need not worry—that God cares for us. We believe he always provides the means to bear up underneath the present burdens (1 Cor 10:13). But doesn’t our experience often seem to disagree with these things we know to be true? We think, “I can’t take one more thing, Lord!” Or, “now this feels like the single straw that breaks…not the camel’s back…but my back!”
I’m sure this has been your experience. It may be your experience at this very moment, thinking you might not be able to keep going. Hebrews 12:3-4 is a close friend in times like these. Of the Lord Jesus, the author says:
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
That latter sentence may feel like a heavy word. It may strike you as, “You think your present difficulties are rough, it isn’t near as rough as it could be!” I have seen many disheartened by interpreting this passage in such a way. As though God were saying “suck it up, it’s not as bad as you think”—like the uncaring parent who flippantly says to the injured child “walk it off” or “brush it off.”
But that is actually the farthest thing from the Lord’s encouragement here. It is just the opposite. The first sentence (vs 4) grounds us in how we should be interpreting the second sentence (vs 5). The author is actually calling us to look upon Christ who did endure to the furthest extent. He alone is the person who bore the full brunt of suffering this life has to throw at us, and he overcame!
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