United Church of Pittsford

Proverbs 3:5-6

Who knew that six years after a simple invitation to AGAPE during a middle school lunch period, that I'd be up here giving a senior sermon at UCP? I'll tell you who knew, God did. Throughout my time here at AGAPE, God has done some amazing things. He grew AGAPE, brought us a new youth director, helped us start a Contemporary Worship service, and blessed us so we could make it through several Youth Sundays.

During the past few years of my life, it's been very easy for me to see God's influence. There's a piece of scripture in proverbs that says, "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." These verses clearly spell out my time here at UCP.

Trusting the Lord is one of the most important things any Christian can do. It's essential to living a godly life. How can you believe in a God that you can't or won't trust? That doesn't even make any sense. If you couldn't trust traffic lights to show green for you and red for others, you would never go through a light. It's the same way with God, if you don't trust him to take care of you and guide your life, you can't live for him.

I felt this struggle was apparent in my life during the time that Contemporary Worship was in its infancy a few years ago. There were so many questions surrounding it. None of us knew that it would work out once we started or if it would even be able to get off the ground in the first place. This was a time when we had to trust God. We had to trust him and believe that he would take care of CW if he wanted us to work through it. We were very fortunate and blessed for him to allow us to do so. CW was a success and it still is to this day. I hope that after I go off to college, that God will continue to nurture and bless CW, it's been such a great experience to me and I am very grateful that I got to be a part of it during my time here.

Acknowledging God is another essential part of being a Christian. If God blesses you, and there is no doubt that he blesses us all, you should thank him and be grateful for his countless blessings. God does so much for us, and often times we just go on with our lives and don't give him the credit that he deserves. But that's not how it should be. We should all praise him endlessly for what he's done for us.

I'm not going to go on like I am as grateful as I should be, because I'm not. I'm just going to highlight one example that I am so grateful for. Last year, my dad left his job. He did so just when I was applying to colleges. Now as you all know, college is very expensive. As the process went on, my choice was narrowed down to 2 colleges that I liked very much: Cornell University and the University of Delaware.
My mom and I prayed a lot about the whole thing and in my mom's words, we hoped that God would, "open the door wide" and help me make the best decision. Boy did he do that and then some. He more like broke the door down and built a giant sign over the top with neon lights that said "GO TO DELAWARE."

I was extremely fortunate to receive a full scholarship and after a weekend long visit to UD I fell in love with it. Now for the icing on the cake. If this isn't another sign from God I don't know what is: my acceptance package from Cornell was missing the form and envelope to accept their offer of admission. All I can say is "Thank You God".

If you trust and acknowledge God, he will make your path straight. He'll get you where you need to go. I will be attending the University of Delaware in the fall and I will be majoring in Chemical Engineering.

I want to thank everyone at AGAPE and UCP. Most of all I want to thank my parents for supporting me throughout my high school years and I know they will continue to support me as I move forward in the future.

Thank you everyone.