Convocation with Paul Conn

[Music] the same god that's never late is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] yes i [Music] is [Music] [Music] and i searched the world [Music] treasures and fears then you came along and you took me back together now every [Music] [Music] better than you there's nothing better than you there's nothing and nothing is better [Music] lord i'm not afraid to show you my weakness [Music] lord you've seen me [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] into is [Music] for you give beauty for i said you turned into glory because you're the only [Music] before i share [Music] is [Music] you're the only [Music] [Applause] me [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] [Music] for that tonight father god we believe that god you're the only one that we can put our trust in and our hope in [Music] we've tasted and seen god and we know that there's nothing better than you nothing that brings more satisfaction so god though we wonder god lead us back to you every time thank you for your grace and your mercy it's in jesus holy name we pray amen you can be seated well hello to the thousands of you here in khan center and the millions around the world it's great to see all of you what a wonderful convocation this has been thanks dr hayes for organizing and leading such a wonderful con a convocation and dr moffat and the music has been terrific thank you for being here and being faithful to the promise of this week in our lives together and especially to all of you you know over every service there's been over a thousand people out there with their computers on so you know for every one of us here they're vastly larger audience out there so so to those of you students who are watching on a you know in a dormitory room or on on a cell phone or at a computer somewhere uh thanks for being faithful to this and i know there's a lot of different ways to watch and listen and uh if you've been listening this week you've been hearing a theme that's kept coming around over and over it started actually the first night with president walker when he talked about decisive moments and as i've listened to every speaker there at some point sometimes at more than one point they've talked about that kind of moment of truth a moment on which things turned or a decision on which things turned and you know as i tried to search my heart and and try to talk to the lord about how to close this set of services and i know we have a musical program tomorrow and that'll be very enjoyable and so it's not really officially the last service but i guess i guess i would ask the question well okay no you've heard a lot some of you have felt a lot this week so now what are you going to do about it because in the end the power of the gospel all turns on your choices your decisions your individual moments and in a way church even wonderful preaching and wonderful music can just be a lot of religious entertainment if we don't pivot on that moment and turn it back toward ourselves i want to spend just a few minutes doing that and i realize i'm the last guy in the lineup and i'll try to be concise and if you'll listen hard i'll work hard to do this without wearing you out my problem is that i feel so strongly about it i want to talk about a disease now the disease you'll be happy to hear is not a coronavirus it's not covet 19. i'm not going to not going to speak on that i'll be speaking on that next tuesday morning please be there and we'll just kidding of course i'm not speaking next tuesday morning and you know i'm not talking about that i want to talk about a disease that's a real disease google it when you get home uh not now please it's a real disease it sounds like a phony made-up word but it's really not it's a real honest-to-goodness psychological disorder that was first identified and named about 50 years ago and the disorder is called the cytophobia it's the irrational fear of making faithful decisions the irrational fear of making faithful decisions and in the clinical handbook of uh psychological disorders it adds this kind of this this definition of disidophobia avoiding decisions and their ramifications through procrastination hello through procrastination or vacillation so confronted with an important decision you avoid the decision because you're so fearful of making the wrong decision or so fearful of having to act out the ramifications of the decision you make now i want to talk about spiritual disorder phobia if there was ever a disease of lee university students there it is spiritual issue phobia i've been afflicted with it all my life most people dislike choosing between competing options so we find ways to avoid it we find ways not to choose even animals in the laboratory some of you out there have heard been in my psychology class if you haven't i may see you next semester in my psychology class usually during the course of that introductory site course i'll talk about something called experimental neurosis which is a really weird phenomenon in the rat laboratory and experimental rats in which if rats are trained to make fine distinctions and decide between two things and if they decide right they get food and if they side wrong they get electric shock now what even a an animal as primitive as a lab rat will sometimes be so bummed out by the need to choose the two things that the the the the rat will as as they call it in the psychology lab freeze at the bar that is they will just melt down not choose either you got a 50 50 choices chance of getting it right but the the psychologists who work with rats in the lab have called this phenomenon experimental neurosis it's it's such a desire to avoid a faithful decision that is seen even in primitive animals so what do we do when we're cho when we're faced with decisive moments as as president walker called them in his first sermon and we kind of circled back around to that he talked about decisive moments in your life evie west in telling her story and if you for some reason missed that for heaven's sakes go on streaming and watch that it's very short but it's very powerful and worth listening to but you know she came over here and pointed to the place and and i wrote these wrote these words down because i was thinking about this idea and she said talking about when she was at lee she said i came to a pivotal moment a moment of truth a defining moment what dr walker called a decisive moment shepherd i guess it was last night or night before last pointed out the place he said over here and talked about how he wrestled with the lord and trying to get it right and how when he met with the woman elizabeth who was with him and became his wife you remember that he talks about how wild that was the moment that was a decisive defining moment they came up they met one another everything worked out great from their own what do we do when we're faced with two options how do we avoid it well first of all we stalled everybody in this where we going to go to eat going out there with some friends where are we going i don't know going to taco bell i don't know you're going to go to mcdonald's i don't know i or maybe you you eat better than i i do you know maybe you're eating a little higher uh quality food how long can you spend deciding to trying to decide where to go movies go to the movies remember movies that's back when before the pandemic you know when we would go to these big theaters and they would have about maybe like 12 or 15 different rooms and show movies and big mosh pit in there and we all remember that day don't you that wasn't that great whatever happened to that now we sit at home in our own little lonely shelves and watch on tv but anyway you remember when you go to the movies did you ever go to the movies and try to decide which movie to go to i've wasted many an hour trying to decide between two equally attractive or unattractive movies so you stall what do you want to go see i don't know what do you want to go see where do you want to go eat i don't know where do you want to go eat i don't know where you're going want to go to eat or we try to get more information we try to get more information investing is that way you're always trying to get the sure thing get more information do you like go out with this guy or not well i don't know i heard this about him well but i heard this about him you know try to get more information or we try to choose both we try to choose both yeah i'll have this and this i'll have it both ways that's why the channel changer in modern television is so evil you got 225 choices you sit there and click i can go for hours watching television and never watch a show why because i can't quite decide i'll click on this and watch for a while click on that you ever do that get a commercial god forbid that i should watch a commercial all the way through i might be might be persuaded about something i click on that it's just constantly sifting through the options trying to avoid making innocent for heaven's sakes pick a show and watch it would you but no there's this thing in it it's this fear of making these decisions even in those little things or it's the guy back home versus the guy here on campus i can't see you very well because of the lights but i know you i know you i know a lot of you got a guy back home but you know it's kind of hard to choose between you especially if you're midway through the freshman year you kind of like this college thing and a guy back home seems kind of high school but it was nice to be with him at christmas you know you at some point you have to choose we don't like to choose so some of our some of our indecision is trivial whether it's like movies or where to go to eat what to wear i had a faculty member once tell me we have lots of faculty members here who were career military before they came to join our faculty i had one of those guys tell me one time that he had spent you know many years i think in his case 30 years in the air force and and and i said to him what was it like finally come out of the military and come in and teach on a college campus and he said you know the worst thing about it was i had to decide every day what to wear he said when i was in the military they told me what to wear i got a set of orders that told me what to wear that week i come here i got several suits i stand there in front of my closet i can't decide what to wear but there is some disidophobia is a lot more crippling and a lot more faithful than deciding what to wear where to eat or what movie or tv show to watch we live in a spiritual universe and that requires us to make serious spiritual decisions all of us not your mama not your daddy not your pastor not your youth group you all by yourself it's kind of a metaphor isn't the way we're sitting all spread out here that we're all socially distanced from one another you know because that's really a lot more like real life than sitting shoulder to shoulder you know with 17 18 000 people in here here you sit all alone it kind of reminds me of us and god at some point we make decisions that on which our futures absolutely depends and there we are we're we're left to make that decision that fateful decision that can literally define our future so this is a sermon i'll have to give you a text so let me give you a text dr walker started with old testament sunday night let me circle back around to a scripture from the first kings 18 21 you've heard this before elijah talking to the people of god who are standing there virtually paralyzed by their need to make a spiritual decision and he says how long will you waver between two opinions if the lord is god follow him but if baal is god follow him and you know i don't think it i would be being too hard on you if i said to some of you guys that are sitting out there right now watching me through a computer screen how long are you going to waver between two opinions who are you going to be so if god is god would you please follow him and if baal is god or your fleshly appetites are god or the world is god or your friends are god then go ahead and follow them wow what a bold in-your-face reminder of the need at some point to put your money down and make a decision now you know i speak about grace and love and all the wonderful things god can do in your life my favorite themes i'm kind of brought up short whenever i personally encounter this theme this theme is the one where god is saying okay it's your move yes or no me or not me follow god or follow whatever that thing is out there it was probably put more starkly by joshua in the book of joshua in a scripture that almost everybody who's ever been to church has heard joshua 24 15 where he says to the people of god with whom he is persuading choose this day whom you will serve and i would say to you students of lee university my spiritual sons and daughters whom i love and for whom i will gladly invest everything i have choose today tonight this week quit just listening and massaging all the ideas and considering what all the possible implications might be don't be the rats frozen in the lab who can't move because you're afraid you'll get it wrong there have been many times that if i had had the courage to move decisively away from god when i was a college student and a younger person but thank god i did not have that courage so i stayed in that traction between these two choices until finally by the power of the holy spirit i move decisively toward god would you please do that god wants you to do that he's loving he's long-suffering he will never let you go you can never escape his love but god would say to you i think some of you tonight choose choose me because when you do you so much more fully release and unlock by working your life my blessings in your life you can't really flower and become the person you were made to be until you choose me i've done everything god would say to choose you i've chosen you i've died for you but now for all this to work you've got to choose me it almost sounds like impatience on the part of joshua or elijah saying to these people whom they loved choose how long will you waver between two opinions god's call to us is so basic that it requires an answer god's call to us is so basic that not to answer yes is to answer no you're a fool to think it's a non-answer at a certain point it's not and not answer maybe ends sometime in the absence of yes in response to god becomes functionally no in response to god so in many many ways there are points in our walk with god there are many many points that are gradual of course and incremental but there are also points in our walk with god which are all or none they're yes or no it's like turning on a light switch walk into a room the room is dark you flip the switch the room becomes light go over and turn the switch the room becomes dark the room is either illuminated by that one decision or not it's like taking an exit on the interstate you've all been in there and my wife and i all the time we have this problem we know we're not sure where we're supposed to get off where we where to get off where do we get off the exit is approaching one mile to the exit half a mile to the exit 500 feet to the exit i'm trying to decide whether to take this exit or not darley has got an opinion about whether to take this exit or not we're elaborating on our opinions with one another but we're driving down the road we're driving down the road what's happening is the option is rapidly disappearing and at a certain point not to move is to have moved in the other direction you pass to the exits you're stuck on the interstate you just hope that god you see another exit before you run out of gas i would not be nearly smart enough or righteous enough or bold enough or authoritarian enough to try to tell you when your optimal time to follow god is passing but i will tell you this a scripture is replete with examples in which people given a chance to say yes yes yes kept saying wait wait wait until yes becomes no and i ask you in the name of god don't do that how long will you waver between two opinions okay it's like an option quarterback got to get football in we still got you know one more game to go option quarterback takes the snap he's got three options he can give the ball to the fullback he cannot give the ball to the fullback he can pitch the ball to the running back or he can keep the ball himself and try to turn the edge keeping it himself but you know what the clock is ticking just like that in a matter of two or three seconds the options disappear not to choose in that moment is to choose and the same thing's true in your college life at a christian college where you're marinated in the claims of the gospel it's like the air you breathe the music you hear the preaching you hear you feel like it'll always be here it'll be available forever anytime you can just reach out and grab you some jesus the truth of scripture is that there is a moment to choose i will never know where it is in your life or where where it is in your heart for those of you watching out there i can't even see where you are you might just be doing something else and have this on let me tell you something you know where you are if god by the power of the holy spirit speaks in your heart and says my son my daughter would you please choose me with all your heart then that's the moment the defining moment the decisive moment the pivotal point in your life there are all kinds of defining moments in history i'd like to talk about several of them for maybe six or eight minutes each no i won't do that see this old guy is he up here is the old guy oh no not that old guy there's another even older guy what happens with these images i can see it up here can they see it there you go general drydeas and everybody know who he was he was president united states but before he was president of the united states he was the commander of the allied forces during the second world war who had to decide whether or not to send the allied troops to the coast of france to invade france to try to stop the second world war that day was so big that decision was so big that we call that day d-day and some of the most gripping reading about the second world war is the days leading up to that day when dwight eisenhower could say go or no go and depending on the weather and depending on what the germans knew about where they were coming on ashore and depending on all that literally the fate of the world might be at stake he was going to send hundreds of thousands of soldiers over the period of the next few weeks into that theater of war you talk about a defining moment a decisive moment there was a moment in american history more recently a young woman by the name of rosa parks who was a seamstress in montgomery alabama who at a time when african-americans were not allowed to use the public transportation that is the bus system of montgomery unless they sat in the back of the bus rosa parks was not some kind of agitator she wasn't some kind of social activist she was just a tired woman who paid for her bus ticket and decided she wasn't going to take it anymore and she bought her ticket and she sat in the front of the bus and she was arrested there was such an uproar over martin luther king jr led the forces that protested for day after day and there was a strike against the montgomery bus system and it triggered what we now know as the civil rights movement it changed the american culture over a long period of time permanently and decisively but there was that moment it's just one woman just wants to sit down at the nearest available seat and ride the bus home that's all small moments remember how scott shepard was talking about these small steps but you got to keep stepping those small steps become big steps big steps big steps rosa parks became such an iconic figure in american sociopolitical life that when she died just a few years ago she lay in state under the united states capital rotunda dome because she was seen as this one brave principled woman who ignited a national fire of activism to bring full citizenship to african-americans in our country you talk about a a decisive moment i don't have any idea what's next if you'll change the slide i'll talk about it billy graham oh yeah billy graham let's see if that's how it works they change the slide i talk about it you know if they put the devil up there i'd try to find something to say about the devil i guarantee you'd be bad are you the same one that hollers in every service oh okay well no it's fine it's cool as a matter of fact guys like me like it i'm hey i'm up here hollering right well so so anybody out there wants to holler that's fine billy graham you know what the decisive moment came a decisive decision a decision that set billy graham's destiny you know when it came right here on this campus now i better listen carefully or you go out of here saying you know dr khan said billy graham went to lee college no he didn't this campus before it was lee college was owned by another school and he went to that school you know where he lived midland hall third floor midland hall third floor listen guys when you walk down the third floor hallway at midland if you pass a certain room that has a little bit of a shekinah you know kind of coming out then you have found billy graham's room we don't know which room it was fortunately we'd probably make some kind of a little shrine out of it of course we would charge admission as a matter of fact billy graham we asked billy graham before he was while he was still alive of course we asked billy graham can you tell us what your room number we i tried to go back to the record to find out what was billy graham's room number in midland hall because i wanted to no and um we could find no records because they didn't keep records it wasn't our school so we got in touch with billy graham and said can you tell us the room number of the room you lived in and he said to his nephew who was in touch with him for us he said no but we i tell you what it was on the left about halfway down the hall on the third floor of what is now medlin hall but you read billy graham's autobiography and he talks about how he came to this feeling that the christian gospel is not about rules and regulations he came from a deeply legalistic background and he was going to a deeply legalistic school where they they had rules for everything and billy graham came there to prepare for the gospel and he felt convicted in his spirit that this was not god's way but he had to take his stand on this campus walking around on these grounds going back to his room every night over there in third floor meddling he had to decide that he went back home to his parents in north carolina and said i'm called to ministry and i want to follow god's will and i respect what they're doing over there but it's just all about rules and legalism and i just don't think it's what god has for me and i want to transfer out to another christian college that's what he did and became arguably the most influential christian ministry of the 20th century but there was that moment he wasn't the great billy graham he wasn't 75 years old and full of wisdom and experience he was a college boy just determined to follow god and you will have those decisive moments in your life and one of them might be tonight where you know we can't have an altar call and we can't call you down here but you know we also know that the great decisions are made in your heart and i i could tell you so many stories about these students who sitting right here in these red seats have in their hearts risen to meet god and their lives changed forever doesn't have to be showy it doesn't have to be dramatic it doesn't have to be something that i see or dr walker sees or dr hayes sees or rob phil sees it has to be something deep yes in your heart to god you got to say to god i hear you knocking and you can't come in there are defining moments throughout the bible i don't have time to talk about them i could tell you about defining moments in the lives of least students i can tell you about a young man named stan who is on the lead golf team who while nobody was watching in a very important golf match touched his club to the ground and the ball moved and by the rules this supposed to cost him two strokes nobody saw it stand stood there over that ball as he later described it and said i gotta go turn myself in i gotta report this he did they gave him a two-stroke penalty it was very decisive for the league golf team you know what for that young man stan that was a decisive moment he had to choose between the expedient and the true and he chose the true i could tell you about a young man named emil who was from the islands who was here as a freshman from a big family went back home to an ill father his father died he's transferring planes changing planes back into miami airport trying to get back to school having missed school for a couple of days heartbreaking with the death of his father there's a big storm down in south florida you know he finds himself with his flights all messed up he doesn't have any money he's sitting there in the airport he's homesick and wants to go back home but he knows he belongs here at least you know somewhere in that 24 hours emel had a defining decision my place is at lee i'm going back to lee and he came back and he had a wonderful student career here and went on and has had a wonderful life and family all shaped around his decision not to quit to keep stepping as scott shepard's heads you've heard me talk about odessa i don't know if i've talked about her this year i think maybe i have destin nelson from a little town in the coast of washington who squim washington out by seattle didn't know anybody at lee picked lee out of the computer somewhere two suitcases got off the plane in the january semester like some of you did came in january knew nobody got here her suitcase had been lost she had no clothes she knew nobody she was a long way from home she told later that she went outside on the ped mall that morning nobody else was out there and she said somehow there was a piece that came over her where god was saying to her yes you are in the right place yes you did make the right decision yes you are where i put you defining moments and i've had many divining moments like this in my my life and i want you to know that for you in 2021 there will be defining moments and the way you respond to the call of god in your life will always be one the moment when you make a decision to push back against the temptation that has snared you in the past the moment when you make the decision to worship to pray not just to come and be a spectator at chapel but to engage not just to pray over meals and before a class but to in the counseling of your own heart when it's just you to dare to talk to god dare to believe he hears you that he loves your vernacular that he accepts your vocabulary the decision to believe in spite of your doubts in spite of the unanswered questions walking right through those things that you just can't sort out in theology or faith or doctrine or the inconsistency of other people to say nevertheless i believe lord that's one of those defining moments and after you make a decision to move toward god god will move so emphatically toward you he's available he's there he's put himself in your presence and now he wants you to choose him if i could do it for you i would do it for you you better be glad i'm not god because i would just knock you down and put a god chip in your head and god says here i am if you believe in baal follow baal whoa god don't say that to me yeah that's what god says to you but if you believe in god follow him amen that's all i got let's bow for prayer please deep in our hearts oh god we want you deep in our hearts we want to choose you not just one day but every day not just in part of our lives but in all of our lives and i pray now for these men and women that they will choose you so that you can totally inhabit their lives and give them the desires of their heart in your name and by your spirit and according to your word in christ's name i pray amen wow thank you chancellor khan i can't think of a a greater message to close out this convocation on resilient than the whole idea of of the power and the importance of our choices of making that decision maybe that's the key to the entire resilient life in the lord is the choices and decisions that we make concerning him and the promises that he gives to us thank you chancellor khan for that great word and i want to echo the words that he shared with you thank you for engaging in convocation uh this week it's been nasty weather but you've chosen to come out thank you for those that have watched all week online i pray that it has been a benefit and blessing to you that you made the decision to engage in convocation it wraps up tomorrow morning in chapel todd tillman will be with us in a special worship concert you don't want to be uh miss that so be here with us at chapel the code that you need to enter will be on the screens be sure to do that so you get the credit that you need let's say the college benediction together may the words of my mouth the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight o lord my strength and my redeemer god bless you as the ushers come to dismiss you have a great rest of the evening you

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

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Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021