To the 2023 Graduates of America

After speaking to so many students of my alma mater, I realized that there is a larger group that needs to hear this message. This generation of young people is under assault by the enemy, but I believe God is calling up this generation in a way we've never seen. I believe this is the generation that rejects the lies that are deep and pervasive.

So in a break from the norm, my Substack this week is a letter to the Class of 2023 and future generations.

God Bless,

Sean

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From the day you were born, your parents, grandparents, and loved ones have looked forward to this moment. This is a joyous occasion, and it marks a great accomplishment in your lives.

In fact, this accomplishment is all the more impressive because of what you’ve had to go through to get here. Three years ago, the entire country shut down because of COVID. Your schools closed. Your classes moved online. You were separated from your friends. The propaganda of fear spread all around you leading to brutal lockdowns that empowered power-drunk politicians. Depression skyrocketed. Drug and alcohol use exploded. Suicides rose sharply among your very own age group.

But you kept going.

You did not quit.

You did the work.

You stayed the course.

And now, you’ve finished the job.

And that is why we celebrate today.

There are different words that we tend to use for this celebration. Sometimes we call it graduation, which originates from a Latin word that means ”to take a degree.” Other times, we call it commencement, which is really a better word for it because in a very real sense today does not mark the end of something, but rather a beginning. And that’s what I want to reflect on with you for the next few moments. Not the end of a journey, but the beginning of another one.

For today, as soon as this ceremony is over, the experience of high school will get further and further in the rear view mirror of your lives. Every ten years or so, many of you will get together and talk about the days you shared in grade school and high school. But for the most part, you will not look back on the past twelve or so years and see it as the high point in your life.

In fact, I hope you don’t even think that today is THE high point, though it is certainly A high point. Rather, the next chapters you write in your life are the ones that are going to shape your future. Many of you will get married.

You’ll start your own families.

You’ll go to college.

You’ll begin your career.

You’ll move out and buy your own home.

You’ll travel places.

You’ll make mistakes.

You’ll have your heart broken.

You’ll face disappointments.

You’ll summit mountains.

You’ll change the world.

But as I stand here and look at you, I am filled with hope about the future ahead.

In a world that is increasingly dark, in a nation that is increasingly hostile to people of faith, in a season that is fraught with conflict – social, political, and cultural --

you have the opportunity to make a difference.

And to make a difference, you actually have to BE different. Which is way harder than it sounds or seems.

Because I’m not talking about being different in the way many young people try to distinguish themselves. I’m not talking about tattoos, or piercings, or the clothes you wear, social media followers or viral Tik Tok videos. I’m not talking about the music you listen to, or the car you drive, or even the group of friends you hang with.

I’m talking about a far more profound difference. I’m talking about the kind of difference that people really take note of. The kind of difference that makes the world a little nervous, a little unsettled.

Because I’m talking about the difference that you can make if you commit in your heart and mind today that you aren’t going to go down the path of popularity. You aren’t going to let yourselves be sidelined by doubt or insecurity.

You aren’t going to worry about getting ”canceled” or “censored.” You aren’t going to be silent in a world that desperately needs to hear the unique voice God has given you. No, if you will determine today that you will be a VOICE for what is good, what is right, and what is true, you will make a difference.

I’m reminded of that odd character in the New Testament whom we call “John the Baptist.” Now THAT was a different sort of dude.

He wore camel’s hair clothing. He ate bugs and honey. He lived out in the desert. And EVERYONE from all over knew about him and many of them journeyed out to see him. Like they might go see something in a freak show at a circus. He was odd, and he made people nervous.

But John the Baptist was different NOT because of his clothes or beard or food. The Bible says he was different because he was a VOICE.

Specifically, he was a VOICE in the wilderness. One translation says he was the ”THUNDER in the desert.” And that thunderous VOICE had a very crucial and timely message for the pagan world around him. What was that message?

“Make straight the path of the Lord.”

That is, John the Baptist looked at all the crookedness around him. All the corruption. All the perversion. All the evil and twisted ways that the culture was turning their backs on God and breaking his laws, and he said,

”NO. No crooked paths. No confused messages. No two-faced, double-tongued, backwards life.”

He said, “Cut a straight path in the wilderness. Forge a road without twists and turns.

Don’t take detours. Don’t get distracted. Know where you are going and walk a godly path to get there.”

And people didn’t like that. The political leaders didn’t like it.

The religious leaders didn’t like it.

The hypocrites didn’t like it.

In fact, John the Baptist didn’t care who liked it. His aim was never to please culture, gain followers on his IG or have his posts go viral.

He was a man who told the truth. He lived the truth. He pointed others to the truth.

He did not bow to the fear of Man. He carried the fear of the Lord. He lived for an audience of One.

That is my charge to you as you commence the next steps along the path God has planned for you.

Be a VOICE that the world cannot silence. Because mark my words. They WILL try to silence you. I know that firsthand.

When the government told us we could not gather with other Christians because of COVID lockdowns, that we couldn’t go to church, that we couldn’t worship or sing without a mask covering our faces, many of us said ‘NO.’ NO, we answer to a higher power. We answer to God.

As a result, I became the #1 Covid violator in 29 states. Many of you have seen our film “Superspreader” and watched the entire story unfold.

I faced death threats, attacks from AnTifa, attacks from Satanists pouring blood over us, our sound gear and instruments destroyed, mayors and governors fining us tens of thousands of dollars, the media slandering our names in virtually every major liberal news publication in America.

Just google my name and Covid if you don't believe me : ).

However, I will never bow to the government over God.

And when God has told you what to do, no man, no threat and no force of hell itself can tell you not to do it.

The world we live in today does not want Christians to be the VOICES God has called us to be. They want us to shut up, sit in the corner, comply and even affirm the ways of the world.

They tell us we can’t use our voices, platforms or influence to call out sin. That we can’t say that abortion is murder. That we can’t say that sexual immorality is perversion.

That we can’t say that there are ONLY two genders, male and female.

That we can’t say it’s IMPOSSIBLE to change your God-given gender.

That we can’t say right is right and wrong is wrong.

And as many of you prepare to go to college, know this: The pressure on you to conform, to be silent, to not make waves, will be intense.

Others of you will go right to work. And many of your employers will tell you that you cannot be OUTSPOKEN about your faith. That you make other people uncomfortable when you tell them you serve God above everyone and everything else.

But if you’ll make your mind up here and now that your VOICE will NOT be silenced, you will make a difference for good and for God.

Now, I don’t want to mislead you. The pressure to conform will be very strong, and the penalty for refusing to conform will be painful. Just think of John the Baptist.

What was his earthly reward for being a VOICE in the wilderness telling people to reject the crooked path? He had his head chopped off at a pagan dinner party and served on a silver platter.

Of course, it’s unlikely THAT is going to happen to you. But you don’t have to read very much online to find out there are places in the world – places I’ve been to like North Korea, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq -- where they are still cutting the heads off of Christians to this day.

But here in the U.S., they probably won’t cut your head off. And they probably won’t cut your tongue out. But they WILL try every possible way to silence you if you are speaking out for God.

You’ll lose people you thought were your friends. You’ll have people say all kinds of awful things about you. They’ll invent lies about you. They’ll invent lies about your family. They’ll do everything they can to neutralize the influence you are making for God.

But if you determine that your VOICE – the VOICE God gave you – will not be silenced, then you can be assured that good will come.

That’s what God promises. His word ALWAYS does the thing he intended it to do.

I’m reminded of a story I once heard. It’s a short story that was written by a Christian author named Gertrude von Le Fort.

She was a German writer who lived nearly 100 years and died just a few years before I was born. The story she wrote is called ”The Song at the Scaffold,” and I encourage you to read it some time.

The story is about a group of Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution. The Revolutionaries were anti-Christian, anti-God, and anti-Church. They passed all sorts of laws banning Christian worship and various Christian ministries, including monasteries and convents.

But this little group of nuns refused to obey those wicked laws, and they kept on singing, praying, working with the poor, and telling others about Christ and his cross.

Eventually, the revolutionaries decided that since they couldn’t silence the nuns and keep them from serving God, they would just kill them.

So they rounded up 16 of the nuns in a horse-drawn wagon and drove them right into the center of town so they could be hanged from the scaffold one-by-one.

The city streets were packed with people coming to see the execution of those frail little nuns. They spat at them. They hurled rotten food at them. They threw stones at them. They cursed them all the way through town and into the city square where the hangman was waiting.

But all along the way, the little nuns sang hymns of faith. All sixteen voices were singing together as they made their way to their deaths.

One by one, they were hanged. But as one was hanged, the others kept singing.

Until, at last, there was one nun left. She had the rope put around her neck, and she was lifted to the spot where she would be dropped. All the while, she kept singing. One lone voice. And then, at last, the hangman dropped the block an the rope snapped her neck and all of a sudden the air was totally quiet.

The crowd just stood there, in the silence, struck at last with the horror of what they’d just done. The sound of nuns singing echoed in their ears. And in the end, what those 16 little nuns couldn’t do in life, they did in death. They stopped the persecution of Christians in that village that day. Nobody ever wanted to see it happen again. They made a difference. One voice at a time.

So today, I’m asking you. No — I’m pleading with you.

Be THAT voice in your generation!

Make the paths ahead of you STRAIGHT.

Prepare the way of the Lord in your generation!

And as you commence walking that straight and narrow path, remember this:

God will never EVER leave you nor forsake you. And He has plenty of fun surprises in store along the way.

“No eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

Thank you and God Bless!