I thoroughly enjoyed, appreciated, and was inspired by Dr. Sam Barfell’s High School Chapel message on Thursday, May 4, 2023. In fact, Dr. Barfell is one of my favorite speakers and expositors of Scripture. If you would like to read my summary of his chapel message, please read on. . .
High School Chapel
Southside Christian School
Simpsonville, South Carolina
Thursday, May 4, 2023
9:40-10:20 a.m.
Fine Arts Center
Nathan Forrest, Campus Pastor and Director of Discipleship
Pastor Nathan welcomed the high school students to chapel.
He congratulated the seniors on their final chapel of their time at SCS.
He thanked Gary Grodecki for assisting with sound and other chapel logistics throughout the year.
He thanked the Student Chaplains for their work this year.
He acknowledged the issues and stressors in the lives of the students. He asked that the students concentrate only on this 35 minutes of chapel.
He prayed for the chapel.
Dr. Sam Barfell, Superintendent, Southside Christian School
I am really thrilled to speak today. I am honored.
Today, I feel led to ask you to consider the most important thing you will ever consider in your life. Please sit straight and engage today.
I am finishing my 8th year at Southside Christian. The seniors were in the fifth grade when I came to this school. I’ve had the pleasure and honor to watch you grow up as the young adults you are today. I love Southside Christian School, and I love all of you. I am grateful that God has placed you at this school in this time and in this room right now.
I am proud of our athletic teams here. Go, Sabres.
I prayed about this chapel. The Lord laid two things on my heart that He wanted me to share. As I considered the message, I narrowed to one thing, the most important thing in your life.
Before I get there, I’d like to say that the last time I spoke, in September, I spoke about my cancer. The cancerous growth was removed, and the pathology report indicated that there was no cancer. After another six-month wait and check-up, I was declared cancer-free! [Students offered genuine and hearty applause.] I was grateful for the notes of encouragement and prayers. I wanted to share my thanks to you personally.
Thank you for praying for my son, his wife, and children. They are full-time missionaries in Central Asia with a team, and I am so impressed by Richard and Emily’s obedience to the Lord. They sold their furniture, cars, and just about everything. They have been radically obedient to this calling. As a parent, that moves me.
My prayer for every Southside Christian student to be open to God’s working and calling in your life. All of the staff at SCS offer that same prayer.
This year, I chose this verse as the theme verse for our school. On Fridays, I have the privilege of leading devotions about this passage with all of the employees of SCS:
1 Corinthians 3:11 (ESV)
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Remember, last year in the spring, all of the students and staff signed Bibles. Those Bibles were placed in protective sleeves, and they are encased on the concrete foundation of the new building. Our school is built on the foundation of the Word of God. Jesus is the living Word.
The foundation had to be positioned by GPS in the exact location. Steel was erected on that foundation. Concrete floors were laid on the first and second floors.
A sign for The Walt and Libby Handford Building was recently installed on the building. Tomorrow, I get to take Mrs. Handford through that building. We want to honor Mrs. Handford , because she was the one who had the vision for a Christian school in the 1960s. God used the Handfords to start this school. And here we are today.
No one can lay a foundation other than Jesus Christ. Jesus is the foundation. It’s a great analogy for own lives.
Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
There it is again. Foundation. These people were called to share the Good News at that time. Jesus is the Cornerstone. Jesus is the foundation for the cornerstone, which holds the whole body of Christ and the Gospel together.
Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. That’s the foundation of our faith. I want to challenge everyone in this room today. Ask yourself the question, “Is Jesus the foundation of my life?”
I’m going to tell my story. Jesus is my foundation. My life and eternal hope are anchored in Jesus. I grew up in a Christian home. I had that privilege and the privilege of attending church every week. I remember this strange attraction to the truth of the Gospel. I was drawn to Jesus. I remember that vividly. I heard about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I sat down with my Dad. Here’s the passage he showed me:
Romans 10:9-10
. . .9if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
It’s a simple passage. I am saved from an eternity of separation from God. It’s that simple. At 8 years of age, I understood. Dad led me in a prayer. I believed the truth of that passage.
As a high school student, I was at a Christian school, Elkhart Christian in Indiana. My youth group decided to attend a camp, The Wilds. The Lord’s Spirit began to do something else in me. At 8, I believed he truth of the Gospel, but I was living a duplicitous life in high school. I was living as I wanted to live. I was involved with things that no Christian should be involved in. It was that summer that I made the decision at 17 that I wanted Jesus to be my Lord. At 8, He was my Savior. Now, at 17, I wanted Him to be my Lord. That’s my story.
Maybe my story resonates with you. Do you identify with my story? Maybe you have professed the truth of the Gospel. Life happens. Relationships happen. Perhaps you, too, are living a life of duplicity. I urge you not to do that. Tell Jesus that you want Jesus to be your Lord.
Perhaps there are people who have not yet made that profession of Jesus as Savior and Lord. I want to challenge you to make that decision. Are you drawn to the truth of the Gospel? Do you want to make that decision?
I just spoke in Middle School Chapel. During a basketball game, Kamari Williams, KWill, had a life-threatening heart episode. Our own Chris Young did CPR on him for 7 or 8 minutes. KWill was revived! He survived! He had surgery to implant a device to regulate his heart.
What is really exciting is that he placed his faith in Jesus, and, last Sunday, he was baptized as public declaration of his faith in Christ!
Would you consider the truth of Jesus being the way, the truth, the life, with no person coming to the Father except through Him? All of us will be called to account for what we do with those words. Not deciding is not believing.
The Father will ask you, “What did you do with My Son, Jesus?” Your answer determines eternity for you.
Close your eyes. Bow your heads. Ask yourself this question, “What have I done with Jesus? Have I confessed Him as Savior? Am I one of God’s family members? Is Jesus now my Lord?”
If the Spirit is moving you to the truth of the Gospel, would you please tell God that right now?!
This is a private moment between just you and the Father.
If you did that today, would you raise your hands? [Several hands went up.]
Thank you so much.
If you are not walking with him, living a duplicitous life, would you pray that Jesus is both Savior AND LORD?
If you prayed that prayer, let me see your hands. [Several hands were raised across the room.]
Dr. Barfell closed the chapel in prayer.
Thank you, everybody. It was an honor to speak to you today.
Pastor Nathan reminded everyone that, at the end of the year, we must resist the enemy’s strategy of stressing us out. We need to find someone we trust. We need to go to them. We need to talk to them. He said, “We love you. We’re for you.”
The students were dismissed.
drbobinc 