Convocation with Mark Walker

[Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] with [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] wait [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] we want to play [Music] oh [Music] [Music] together [Music] the is to life [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] i believe in you i believe in you [Music] i believe in you i believe in you you're [Music] it may look like i'm surrounded but i'm surrounded by you it may look like i'm surrounded but i'm surrounded by you it may look like i'm surrounded [Music] like i'm surrounded [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] so father open our hearts we love you heaven come in jesus name amen amen thank you lee you worship good evening everybody welcome to convocation it's good to see you tonight braving the elements and being out here with us for those who may be watching online somewhere we welcome you as well how many of you know god does fight your battles there's not a battle there's nothing you face that is too difficult for god and we're going to talk a little bit about that this evening as we kick off our convocation i hope as you uh participate in convocation all throughout this week you're going to come with a sense of anticipation of really wanting to hear from god and engage god so many great things happen in all of our lives when we engage in these worship services together so we are glad you're here if you ever happen to have enough happen to have a bible turn with me to 2nd samuel ii samuel that's in the old testament we're going to dive into the old testament a little bit here this evening 2nd samuel 23 to be exact we're going to look at a few verses there here in just a moment and i want to talk to you this evening about something called i call decisive moments decisive moments as we're going to look at some exploits of what are referred to as david's mighty men and see about decisive moments that they had to make and decisive moments that are in all our lives and i know we just prayed but if you'll indulge me and engage with me please let's pray one more time and ask god to be with us heavenly father as we come to you tonight and we come to your word father i pray that you would open up our hearts i pray that you would help us to get past any type of fatigue get past any type of worry anything that might be on our minds and enable us by your spirit to hear what you would want to be saying to us today we thank you for your presence that's with us that has been with us in this time of worship and now god may we truly see what you want to say with us say to us and what you want to do in us and through us and maybe all for one purpose your praise glory and honor in jesus name amen how many of you had the opportunity of being at disney world in orlando florida ever been in disney world you've been down there so you know that when you pull into the parking lot of disney world it really all just begins i mean it may take you by the time you get into the parking lot and find a parking place to the time you actually get inside the theme park to ride rides and to see shows it may take you an hour and a half to two hours just for that process you got to get out of your car you go stand in line to get on a tram the tram then takes you to the place where you buy the tickets you stand in line to buy the tickets then you buy the tickets then you go stand in line to get on the monorail you get on the monorail it finally takes you to the front entrance where you stand in line to give your ticket and to go in by the time you've done all that it could be an hour and a half to two hours depending on the size of the crowd that is there now many many years ago my wife and i decided we were going to take our young kids at that time justin and ashton they were about 10 and seven at the time very very hot summer day go to disney world we come into the parking lot it's very crowded and it took us a good couple of hours to go through that stand in line get on the tram take the tram buy the ticket stand in line to buy the tickets get on the monorail stand in line to ride the monorail get to the place where you give your tickets to go into the theme park and we're standing in line at the turnstiles to go in and the tickets that they sold at that time were electronic type of tickets where when you got up to the turnstile on the front of the turnstile there was a slot and you would slide the ticket into the slot the slot would go through the turnstile pop up at the top of the turnstile through a slot you would pull the ticket out the arm would turn and you would go in so my wife put her ticket in it pops up the arm turns she goes in my son did it my daughter did it i get up there put the ticket in it pops up the arm doesn't turn i pull the ticket out put it in again ticket pops up the arm doesn't turn i do it a third time and it doesn't work so i call one of the attendants that's back there nice looking young man about 18 19 years old he comes over big disney world smile on and says can i help you sir i said yeah my ticket doesn't work so he takes the ticket he twists it he folds it he bends it he twirls it and then he reaches over and he can't he can't see the slot he's on the other side but he reaches over and he's trying to put the ticket in blindly and he's just smashing the ticket up against the turnstile finally gets it into the slot it pops up doesn't work takes the ticket twists it again spins it turns it bends it and this time while he's doing that somebody that's already come into the park comes up and asks him for direction somewhere so now he's trying to multitask so he's trying to point out directions while trying to put the ticket in he's just smashing the ticket up against the turnstile i'm getting more and more frustrated finally finds the slot pops up nothing happens he takes the ticket now all this time the line is just stacking up behind me he looks at me and says sir you're going to have to get on the monorail and go back to the ticket booth and buy another ticket way wrong answer i said that's not happening i'm not going back to buy another ticket obviously i bought the ticket i have it this is not my problem this is your problem all you got to do is override the system and let me in he said sir we can't manually override the system you have to go back and get another ticket now this is the decisive moment this is the point of no return this is the moment the turning point i'm either going to go to jail or i'm getting in that park i am not going back to getting done a ticket and i point my finger at this young man literally almost touched his nose and said i'm coming in that park the line behind me parted like the red sea we got a lunatic up here in the front the kid goes back and gets the supervisor the supervisor comes up says what's the problem i said my ticket doesn't work takes the ticket you know what he does he twists it he folds it he twirls it i know where the other kid got his training from from this dude reaches over he can't find the slot he's smashing it finally gets the ticket and it pops up doesn't work you know what he says to me you have got to go get another ticket i said it's not happening it's not my problem i've bought a ticket he said sir we cannot manually override the system honest to god this is what i said this is a multi-billion dollar theme park what kind of a mickey mouse system do you have anyway they let me in we got a lot of free stuff we had a wonderful time but they did put security detail on us for the entire time we were in the park decisive moments the turning points the points of no return they they happen all throughout our lifetime and they can be as small situations like trying to get into disney world or these decisive moments can be in those big moments when we're trying to decide if we're going to hang in there with god or not are we going to be in with where he's trying to call us are we going to hang in there when we don't understand how it is god is operating those decisive moments that can have a significant impact on our lives and i think it ties in great this idea of decisive moments with our theme resilience because the idea of resilient is the idea of bouncing back it's the idea of turning back around it's the it's the idea of when you fall down you get back up and anytime we've got to be resilient decisive moments are involved and in second samuel 23 we're going to see it look at three of david's mighty men they're called his mighty warriors and they have some specific god opportunity a god moment a god dream if you will and in this moment that they have we're going to see some decisive moments they had to make at the same time god gives you and i god opportunities some of us right now are feeling this sense that god is calling us to something or god is nudging us towards something or god is giving us some type of a dream or he's giving us some type of a vision about our lives and it looks larger than what we are or you find yourself in the middle of something like that and it's getting very very difficult and you're wondering do i stay in this we're in a place of decisive moments so let's look at this together ii samuel 23 verses 8 through 12. let's look at what these gentlemen go through these are the names of david's mighty men joseph bashabeth a tokenite was chief of the three he raised his spear against 800 men whom he killed in one encounter next to him was eliezer son of dodi the ihowait as one of the three mighty men he was with david when they taunted the philistines gathered at pass the mim for battle then the men of israel retreated but he stood his ground and struck down the philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword the lord brought about a great victory that day the truth returned to eleazar but only to strip the dead verse 11 next to him was shema son of a ghe the heroite when the philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils israel's troops fled from them but shema took his stand in the middle of the field he defended it and struck the philistines down and the lord brought about a great victory i think it's great that the song that our worship team ended prior to me coming up was was about how to fight our battles that we we feel like we're surrounded we're really surrounded by him which ties in perfectly to these stories we're looking at and then these exploits of these three mighty men there's two decisive moments that i want to talk about that i think we all face in the god opportunities and the god callings that god will have in our life the first decisive moment is this is the decisive moment of action it's the moment of obedient faith this is where we make the decision that we're going after god and what he has for us and the dream he's calling us to and the opportunity he's giving to us that we're going after it even though we don't understand exactly what it's all about for joseph bashabeth the decisive moment of faith for him is when he raises his spear for eleazar it's when he takes his stand for shema it's when he stands his ground those are the moments of action of obedience because these guys had no idea what was going to happen they knew they were outnumbered they knew the army they were facing had greater firepower they had no idea what was going to take place the odds were stacked against them here's all they knew they knew this is where god wanted them this is the place god had for them and even though it looked like there was no way this could work out they were taking that step of obedient faith they were going to raise the spear stand their ground and take their stand you know it's been my experience that when god is calling us to something he only gives us that first step he kind of gives us enough we can take that first step he doesn't give us the rest of the journey he may show us what z is he'll give us enough to go to a and he may give us an idea of what z is going to be what the outcome could be what the end game could be he may give us a glimpse of that but he won't give us b through why he gives us enough to take that first step and trust him for the rest of what that journey is going to look like these guys had no idea whether they were going to live or not they didn't know all they know was this this is where god had them and they were going to raise the spear and stand their ground and take their stand see here's the deal i think we need to get a hold of this god does not measure success by winning and losing like we do god measures success by our obedience he doesn't measure success like we do he measures it by are we willing to obey are we willing to take the step mark batterson some of you may know that name he's an author he's a speaker he's a pastor of a church up in the dc area i ran across some definitions he gave about faith and here's some of them i like these he said first faith is taking the first step before god real reveals the second step what we were talking about he'll give us enough to take a but we have no idea what b is but we're willing to take a because we trust him here's a second definition if doubt is putting your circumstances between you and god then faith is putting god between you and your circumstances now here's a third one from batterson this is the one i really like he says this faith is climbing out on a limb cutting it off and watching the tree fall down some of us need to take that step and watch the tree fall down it's time to take that step of obedient faith even if we don't really know what it is god is doing but i'm saying i'm going to trust him have you ever noticed this in scripture or maybe in your own life when when god is calling us to something or moving us towards something and he's laying out what can possibly happen it's not until we take the step of faith that we really see god begin to manifest himself he calls us and says this is what can happen but until we take that step it's like we're not going to see god really move he's waiting for us to take that obedient step of faith a great story of that is the story we all know about jesus walking on the water right everybody knows that story jesus with his disciples on the shore of galilee all day teaching it's getting towards night time he sends the disciples across the sea of galilee in a boat he stands back on the sea on the seashore and prays he's done praying it's late at night he doesn't have a boat so he decides to walk across the water and he catches up with the disciples out in the boat in the sea of galilee and they see him they're scared they finally realize it's the lord and simon peter sitting in the boat says to jesus lord if it's you tell me to come to you and jesus says come on walk on the water come on now the only way peter is going to know the power and manifestation of god is not sitting in the boat he's got a step he's got to get out of it the lord has set at the table he's set the table he's he's set the whole stage ready but he's not going to know the power until he steps it's the same with you and i i said this is where i want you to go this is what i want you to do this is where i'm asking you to move forward this is what i want to do but we're not going to see that until we do this and what was it that the lord said to simon peter and maybe this is what you and i have got to hear tonight matthew 14 verses 27 matthew 14 is where we see this story he says this to simon peter when simon peter is in that boat he's afraid he says take courage it is i don't be afraid take courage it is i don't be afraid say that with me take courage it is i don't be afraid some of you need to hear that tonight some of you watching need to hear that tonight you've been sitting in a boat and the lord said i am i am i am calling you out take make the decisive moment count step raise the spear take your stand stand your ground see what god will do that first decisive moment is a moment of action it's that obedient faith but then the second decisive moment is at the moment a decisive moment of reaction which i talk about in terms of faithful perseverance the first decisive moments that moment of action that step of faith the second decisive moment is the moment of reaction that faithful perseverance it's it's how are we going to react when we take that step of faith and we face adversity opposition comes against us how are we going to respond because here's the deal listen to me closely students whenever you want to do anything with god or for god anytime he's calling you out moving you towards something giving you an opportunity putting a dream in your heart that you know is from him and you begin to follow him and you take that step of faith you can rest assured you are going to get adversity you are going to get opposition there are forces that do not want god to bring about what he wants to bring about in your life and the question is when those winds of adversity blow how are you going to react that's the next decisive moment are you going to stay in the dream eliezer one of the three mighty men in the story we just read there he was with the with the israeli army and the philistine army steps out and what did it say all of the israeli army tucked tail and ran and there eleazar is all by himself facing this entire philistine army he had taken the step of faith he had stood his ground what he didn't expect to happen is to be standing there all alone what's he going to do how's he going to react is he going to be like everybody else and run and just leave the dream behind is he just going to start blaming everybody feel sorry for himself and just curl up in a ball and give up is he going to get angry at god and say look you brought me out here i'm following what you wanted and now i'm all alone and is he just going to turn his back on god and go do his own thing what is he going to do in this moment what does it say eliezer did it said he stood his drown and he struck down the philistine army with his sword and his hand got so tired it froze to the handle of the sword it's as though he was saying you're gonna have to pry this god dream this god opportunity this god call you're gonna have to pry it out of my dead hand i am frozen to this dream that god's given me i am frozen to this calling you are not going to get me to let go of this you're either going to die or i'm going to die but i am not letting this dream go oh my goodness how fast do you let go of what god is calling you to how fast do we run away from the the god dream to god call because of some adversity because of some challenges he was reacting by basically saying you guys may outnumber me you have more firepower than i do i don't understand why god would want me out here all by myself but here's what i know i'm not giving up i'm not giving up i'm hanging in what god is wanting me to be and wanting me to do it's faithful perseverance will smith he's considered one of the more talented entertainers in hollywood i think everybody knows who will smith is he's a singer he's a dancer he's an actor he's a comedian he was talking about some of his success i came across this he said i'm not afraid to die on the treadmill he's given an illustration of his own life he says i will not be outworked you may be more talented than me you might be smarter than me you may be better looking than me but if we get on a treadmill together you're going to get off first or i'm going to die you're going to have to pry it out of my dead hand do this for me take take one of your hands and just close it in the fist like you're holding on to something that's the most prized thing in your life that literally somebody would have to kill you to take it away from you does that thing you're holding have anything to do with the call of god on your life does it have anything to do with what god is wanting to do in and through you what you know he is birthing in your life some of you may feel like dr walker you don't know how long i've been swinging this sword even at my young age dr walker you don't know how tired i am ever since i've been a little bitty girl or guy i've come out of a difficult home life i've come at of difficult circumstances man i'm trying to hold what god and i am my arm is so tired i don't know dr walker if i can hold this sword much longer can i encourage you raise it one more time raise it one more time what did we just see i may be surrounded right but i know i'm surrounded by you raise it one more time see what god will do raise that spear one more time take that stand one more time move towards him one more time see if you quit now you're not gonna see the big victory god has for you praise it one more time see see what god will do it's a decisive moment the decisive moment of action obedient faith the decisive moment of reaction the persevering faithfulness to the call that god has for you let me close with this there's a man by the name of j.w tucker he was an assembly of god a missionary to the congo back in the 1960s and even though the congo wasn't civil war he really felt called of god to take a team of people including his wife and three young children down to the congo to preach jesus christ to these people one of his very close friends said to him jw you can't go down there if you go you'll never come out and jw said to him oh my friend god has not told me that i would come out he has only told me that i must go in see that's that obedient faith that's that decisive moment of action in november of 1961 jw and 60 of his christian colleagues were captured by the congolese rebels and they were brutally beaten with broken bottles and they were thrown in the beaumaconde river and they were torn to shreds by crocodiles they were martyred the belgium air force flew in and rescued jw's wife and their three little children and air vac them out of the congo and as the plane is lifting off the dirt runway and they're soaring above the land of the congo mrs tucker the widow looks out the plane window and she prays a prayer and this prayer she records in a book that she wrote about her husband called he is in heaven now hear the prayer that she prays oh father we do thank thee for thy goodness and love and many blessings we love thee and praise thee for thy care and through these many difficult days thou hast watched over us and kept us and now thou has truly delivered us out of the lion's den we praise thee and thank thee for it and we ask that you take jw's life which has been laid down and use it in death for thine honor and glory see this is the decisive moment of reaction this is the faithful perseverance because think about this prayer a moment this woman has just watched her husband be brutally murdered she is now a widow she's got to raise three children on her own they were doing god's work she's now lonely she now has lost everything that she knows in her life right now in terms of what her livelihood would be she should be bitter she should be angry at god no what does she do god i praise you god i thank you that you're delivering me and my kids father do not let my husband's life die in vain we had a dream you gave to us for the gospel to be preached into the congo let it happen see that that's that's that's that's the sword frozen to her hand 33 years passed in 1994 down around the bombokande river there was a tribe's people called the mangbetu the mangbetu tribe they had no idea who jesus christ was and civil war broke out now listen close to this story civil war broke out and the main battle tribe appealed to the government for help and they sent someone down there that they simply called the brigadier now the brigadier was a police officer 30 years prior in the congo who came to know jesus christ through the preaching of j.w tucker the missionary and j.w tucker led into christ two weeks before he was martyred the brigadier sent down to this main battle tribe in the congo he went down to protect them but to also preach jesus to him to carry the dream of j.w tucker but they won't listen to him they'll have nothing to do with this thing called jesus christ he gets frustrated and he's about to leave but then he finds out that the ming bettu tribe had a tradition that they were to listen to the message of any man who had spilled his blood in the bomokhande river so the brigadier gathers the main bettu many of them of the main bettu tribe together and he tells them this some time ago a man was killed and his body was thrown into your bomokhande river the crocodiles in the river ate him his blood flowed in your river but before he died he left a message this message concerns god's son the lord jesus christ who came to this world to save people who were sinners he died for the sins of the world he died for my sins the brigadier says i received his message and it changed my life and at that moment several of the main better tribe knelt down and receive jesus christ now since that time thousands of men better tribes people have come to christ many in that region have come to christ and dozens of churches now line the bomo kande river right at the very place j.w tucker was martyred see listen to me decisions you're making right now about what god wants to do in your life where god wants to take you it isn't just about right now it's about for generations from now see this is a thing that followers of jesus christ seem to forget we don't live for the temporary we live for the eternal one of the great wonderful things about being a follower of christ is he wants to work through us in such ways we have eternal impact the decisions we're making isn't just about now j.w tucker never saw the dream happen but it happened because of the decisions he made and the decisions his wife made take the stand stand your ground raise the spear keep swinging the sword watch what god will do i'm invited by your heads and and close your eyes a moment and this may this this may feel so kind of old-school churchy and forgive me but i i we're talking about decisive action we're talking about moments of obedience i think it would just not make any sense to not just give you an opportunity to just if god is saying something to you out of this message about a moment of action you need to be taken or a moment of reaction you need to be taking you say dr walker boy the lord used some things and what he had to say through you to really speak to my heart and i want you just to pray for me would you raise your hand in this room as a moment of either reaction or action of faith god bless you many many hands thank you so much i i know that's kind of old school but i think there's something about when we when we make that kind of response something something happens i can't fully explain that so let me do that right now heavenly father i just thank you for those that took that moment took that moment those in the room that are there they're tired they've been swinging that sword and they're tired and they're worn and they're weary lord i pray right now in jesus name by your spirit you're just speaking life to them you're speaking strength to them reaffirm the call reaffirm the opportunity before reaffirm that you they're exactly where you want them to be father for those in the room that know they've got to step out of the boat they've got to take that moment they got they got to raise that spear they got they got to take that decisive moment of action they they know they've been holding back but but you have really spoken deeply or very affirmingly to them this is what you want them to do god i pray you give them the courage right now to take that step and when they leave this auditorium they're going to do what they know you want them to do and father those that are in the fight those that have been walking this thing you've been calling them to but man adversities come up challenges have come up they don't know if they're in the right place or not i pray in jesus name you speak clearly to them father i thank you and i praise you and i glorify you that decisions we make have impact for all eternity thank you for the privilege we have to be a part of eternal things lift up our eyes to see beyond us and to you what you have to do in and through our lives i thank you for these students i pray blessings over them in jesus name amen amen god bless everybody see you tomorrow night [Applause] i thank you so much dr walker for um kicking off convocation uh tonight with a call to obedience and faithfulness and just a great reminder for us of the power and the strength that we have when we respond to christ in in that kind of way and it really is an opportunity for us as a body not only as a body of believers but as a body uh here at lee university and as an institution to respond in this moment in our culture in the season that we're all kind of trekking through and trying to understand in so many different ways that we have a unique place a unique call and a unique purpose for such a time as this and it is our responsibility to respond in obedience and respond in faithfulness in such a ways that god can use our lives to bring him honor and to bring him glory and i thank so much uh this is this needs to be the echo of our of our churches and the echo certainly of our institution so we're grateful uh that convocation has started off it's such a powerful note as dr walker mentioned we're going to be right back here tomorrow night again to continue in convocation and we're looking forward to having with us uh carlton byrd and he's going to bring a powerful word he's a great friend of the university and we're excited about having him with us and then of course throughout the rest of the week we have some amazing opportunities for worship for uh hearing from some great leaders some within our own community and then dr khan is going to be wrapping that up on the last night we're excited to have dr khan uh kind of close out convocation for us this year so uh thank you so much the code is is on the screen so make sure that you enter that before you depart but before we kind of get out of here tonight i certainly want to take time for us to pray our college benediction together so if you wouldn't mind will you pray this with me now let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight o lord my strength and my redeemer amen god bless you guys the ushers will release you thank you we'll see you tomorrow night you

Channel: Lee University

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Keywords: lee university, paul conn, college, university, christian, liberal arts, cleveland tn

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Length: 55min 37sec (3337 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021