Go Through the Door the Right Way: DeVon Franklin on Faith Leadership

good afternoon oh boy have you all eaten already oh man not yet oh that's why okay blood Sugar's a little low y'all are hungry alright I know I know what I'm up for and as a pastor you know my pastor would say I'm not gonna be before you very long now you know what happens after that oh man it is an honor a pleasure and a privilege to be here with you today for this very very important graduation as many of you heard in my bio I went to USC so you know fight on there is a strong anointing that flows for those that are Trojans and any Bruins in the house you can get some to just you know touch the hem of one of our garments it's alright amen amen but but there are warm memories being here on campus and this was a campus where it was literally an incubator for my faith many you know people may not know I'm from the Oakland California Bay Area and amen right on yay-yay area in the house and you know growing up as a Christian in someone who was very very passionate about faith and really understood and was taught the gospel at a very early age I'm growing up in a Christian home in a Christian environment I had this dream that maybe one day I could go to Hollywood and and work in entertainment now that was not a very faith friendly dream because Hollywood still is today by many people viewed as Sodom and Gomorrah as the devil's playground many people say well if you want you know to live out your faith Devon don't go to Hollywood don't do it you're going to lose your faith it's it's going to corrupt you there's no way you can be about God and be in that industry and so here I was as a young person having a dream a vision a call from God but having the conflict that those that around me don't see the call the way that I see it so I had a choice do I stay within the lane that they have ordained or do I have enough faith to go after the lane that God had ordained and that was a leap and that was a challenge and that was a conflict that I think all of us face because we are here as leaders of faith trying to identify how do we live out what we believe in a way that is dynamic that is three-dimensional and that transforms the lives of whatever we may do but sometimes we're given a word from God to do it in a different way that does not align with our budget oh I'm talking to somebody right now uh-huh yes I am amen amen I see you doesn't align with your budget doesn't align with the grants that you've been given doesn't align with the scholarship doesn't align with your financial aid but you have a word that God is calling you to do something that you have no physical means to do well I want to welcome you to faith leadership that's what being a faith leader is all about faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen so to be a faith leader you must lead in the substance of things that we hope for but you also have to be proficient in the evidence of things that are not seen and so when you have this idea of what God is calling you to do but you're faced with conflict I would ask you to look at that conflict as confirmation that you should do what he called you to do because anything that we try to do that's going to affect people especially for the kingdom is going to be met with conflict so don't run from the conflict embrace the conflict and say okay this must be a sign that God's call on my life is real because anything that's going to touch people is going to have conflict anything that's not people gonna say let's go ahead and do that be very cautious when things are a little too easy when somebody gives you money a little too easy you say well what's the catch I don't have to fill out a grant what's wrong here yes there are no free lunches in this life I need you to know everything cost something including our faith so there I was having to make a decision am I going to go to Hollywood am I going to try to live out my faith but still be adherent to what believed as a Christian and I had to challenge those that came at me and they said I said you know if you don't actually have experience with Hollywood if you haven't actually worked a day in Hollywood so you mean to tell me you're using your perception of what you think it is based upon a secondhand knowledge of it not a first-hand experience and then you're trying to dictate the destiny on my life based upon what you haven't experienced yourself I appreciate that you love me but love me enough to teach me how to use my faith in the most treacherous waters don't love me so much where you want to keep me close to the shore because I don't care where you live the shore gets the waves of life too so teach me how to use my faith when life gets rough so I had to go I had to see I had to explore could I go to this forbidden land called Hollywood and still be a strong on fire Christian man is that possible I had to put God to the test and that test began right here on this campus at the age of 18 years old I got into USC I got denied rejected from the film program I applied to general mission and I applied to the cinema television school that's what it was called then I think it's called the cinematic arts but anyway he was saying cinema television to me still is I applied there for my freshman year they rejected me but I did get accepted in general missions so I decided to go ahead and come here anyway because at first I really didn't want to go to USC until I visited the campus and I felt like God was telling me this is where I want you to be very important to listen to what God is telling you about where he wants you to be graduates I know you have ideas of what you want to do and where you want to go but please check that with what God has told you in your spirit about where he wants you to be because maybe he wants you to be in an environment maybe he wants you to be in a play that defies your current plans do you have enough faith to allow him to disrupt your plans even if what he wants to do makes absolutely no logical sense do you have enough faith to trust a god like that who works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform do you have enough faith to trust him when he wants you to be somewhere that may not be on your itinerary but it's been on his itinerary before the day that you were born so here I am I'm on the USC campus I decide to major in business and a minor in film and being not you know rejected from the film school didn't feel good but what was happening was God was creating space for the real film school that he had planned for me when I was 18 years old I got an internship interview to go become an intern at the management company that managed Will Smith anybody heard of Will Smith okay a few people all right well I went in and they said hey you know we're looking for an intern we just started this management company was called handprint entertainment at the time they managed Will and Jada and and Maya Campbell and babyface they had all the hot talent at the time so I go in I sit down and this was around the time when color printers were a new thing I know that now everybody everything's printed in color but back in the day if you had a color printer that was like a big deal and here on campus the color printer was a new thing and so I had sent in my resume via mail in color with my picture on it okay why did I do that so the lady that I'm interviewing with who was a general manager she gets my resume and I come in I sit down for the interview and she turns the resume around and she has my face crossed off she said this is not a modeling agency she said don't put your photo on your resume let your work speak for itself because some people won't hire you based on how you look so I said okay all right well why'd you bring me here then you know it's starting off on such a bad with you know foot so long story short after I got over that hurdle we start talking about entertainment she said why do you want to be an entertainment and I thought about it for a moment and I said you know I really want to be in entertainment because I want to make change and she said you want to make money I'm like no I mean that's cool too but I'm not talking about money I'm talking about change in the world because I believe that film and TV and media is the most one of the most powerful influential industries in the world and if I can make content for this industry I believe I can change the way people perceive themselves and what is possible in their life and she was like wow okay okay so we started talk we start talking out here here's where the faith comes in now it's really easy to get into a situation where you know it's all good and you can just walk out and be good but she asked me a question before the interview ended she said is there anything else you want me to know anybody ever had God tell you something before am I the only one not only crazy one in here let's go I'll be the crazy one that's alright okay there's a few other crazies in house okay all right a few of you a few so she said anything else you want me to know and God said tell her what you believe I said Lord I'm gonna tell her after I get the internship once I get what I got then I'll tell her what I can and can't do well you know growing up as a Christian I observe the Sabbath so Sabbath was very very important to me and I had you know never gone to school dances and didn't even play basketball on the Sabbath because I wanted to dedicate that time to God so here I am do I compromise what I believe to get opportunity to for advancement in entertainment or do I have enough faith to see if God is actually in it by being vocal about what I believe as a test to see God can I walk through this door and be everything you called me to be or do I have to crouch down and become smaller and not talk about what I believe in order to fit through a door must I submit to you right now it is important no matter where you are especially graduates if you are trying to Crouch through a door I would argue God did not open that door the door that God will open will allow you to put your back back your shoulders down your chest up and walk through boldly standing tall in everything he's called you to be don't be so obsessed with an open door that you will do anything to just creep through because when you get on the other side you're going to need your faith and if you left it outside on the door you're going to realize you won't be able to do what you thought you could do once you get on the other side go through the door the right way not just getting through the door it's not about multiple opportunities it's just one one one one I'm tired of living in a time where we multitask everything let me tell you something you cannot multitask your God and your faith sometimes you got to just focus on the one thing God is doing and let him do it so back to the story I told her I said I I observe the Sabbath I said if you need me to work on Sabbath I will not be able to take the internship black and white this is me this is what I believe I want to be here but I don't want to be here if it's less than what God wants for me but I didn't know what God wanted I had to taste and see you can't you can't taste God just looking at the plate say Lord oh man you so good that's all that's not that's good no you got to actually put something on your fork and taste it and there will be some things you taste you say that's not God that ain't God God's not in that I'm not gonna eat that I'm not gonna do that so after a moment of silence she said divine don't worry we can work around that and every single job that I have had in entertainment that has been one of my my points of hire and every single job has not only honored it if there was ever a time where they thought I was going to break it they say no no no Devon you got to go home because if you if you compromise and what's that gonna mean for all of us right why do I share this with you because it is vitally important to not wear your faith like it's a stigma for a less than life you know how we are it's like oh yes I have faith yes yes no I got faith I'm doing great I serve an abundant amazing God he's gonna do exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ever ask or think and I'm gonna walk in the fullness of that every single day you may not see it all I need is one person to see it let us have more boldness and excitement about what God is going to do but now as a leader of faith going into uncharted territory I did not know where God was going to lead me but I had to follow him every single day being on this campus trying to find out God where are you was every day getting up and saying Lord you have to show me today now have I seen treacherous waters you better believe I've seen the treacherous waters and if you think a faith walk is the easy walk that you have the wrong understanding of what faith is all about but here's the great thing about faith when you know that you have done this thing the way God has called you to do it there is a peace that allows you to sleep at night that allows you to wake up in the morning and I would argue beyond whatever position you're aspiring to graduates whatever money you're trying to get whatever grant you're trying to achieve whatever position you're trying to hold I would argue that finding peace is the thing that if you can not have that and you get all the other stuff it ain't go matter because if you don't like who looks back at you in the mirror if you don't love who God has created in you you will never love anything that he actually gives you so as leaders of faith I challenge you and I ask you please do not allow your traditional understanding of what God has previously done to stifle your current understanding of what God is going to do now you say Devon what does that mean I'll tell you exactly what it means I have an iPhone anybody have an iPhone there's a powerful anointing on this iPhone I'm trying to tell you Android users it's all right now the thing that annoys me to no end is that almost every week when I turn on this phone there's a message that says we got an update on the software am i right when am I going to you know download this and how long is it going to take and you're not connected to Wi-Fi so you got to wait till you can connect to Wi-Fi because it's the upload the the the upgrade is you know really big every week they keep upgrading the system upgrading the system and I said well why do they do that because every upgrade allows the functionality to improve so if you are relying on an experience that you had with God and you've had with Jesus not just last year yesterday and you aren't submitting your ideology and the way that you think and live to a current upgrade from him that you're going to miss what he's doing in this current moment because you're going to try and treat it like it was yesterday and it wasn't please stay up to date on what God is trying to do in your life I currently have my own company called Franklin entertainment it I have a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment in the world of entertainment getting a first-look deal as a producer with a major Hollywood studio is incredibly rare in entertainment there are probably only five African American producers with first-look deals with studios and I'm one of the five and I'm the youngest of the fact amen and and I articulate that to say that that the thing that people know me most about the films that people associate me most with are films of hope and inspiration and faith from pursuit of happiness to the Karate Kid to heaven it's real to my new mirror movie called miracles from heaven which you'll be on Easter now my early concern as a kid can I go into Hollywood and find success would the industry accept me as I was having the faith to go after it the way God called me to do it it wasn't about their acceptance it was about what he had already ordained even if you are in an industry where people don't know and understand who you are and what you do I promise you if you commit yourself to the path that is preordained by him they will know your name because they will know that you serve him people that don't even believe what I believe still respect the fact that I have enough faith to believe what I believe in an industry where everything is up for grabs so I want you to know not only is it possible for God to do what he told you that he can do he will do even greater when I was here at 18 years old I never saw everything that has unfolded I didn't see it I only saw a glimpse of it but pursuing the path pursuing with faith what he had has produced a life well beyond anything that I could have ever asked for or thought about I share this with you to encourage you allow your faith which is a real superpower I work in Hollywood we make all kind of movies and special effects Spiderman cannot fly through the city of New York that is a special effect it's all green screen but our faith can knock down doors that people thought were removable can open up accounts that people said we're closed can make a path where people said would never happen so I want you to know as leader of faith you are a leader of the supernatural you are the leader with a superpower that will allow you to go faster than a locomotive oh you better watch out now don't play with me my Superman fans come on now and I want you to be empowered today it took a lot of faith to get to this moment it took a lot of faith when you look at you know Reverend dr. Cecil chip Murray and what he has done in his legacy when you look at what this man has done and to be able to have an institute that can begin to at least put people on a similar path we are blessed and highly favored y'all we need to know that and accept it and believe it and before we leave I just want you to know that every challenge you faced and every doubt you currently have don't allow that to depress you but if you would just look a little bit deeper buried in the problem is the promise the promise that you're going to be okay the promise that he would never leave nor forsake you and the promise that if you walk by faith and not by sight you will see glories you never thought possible god bless you God keep you may his countenance always shine upon you you

Channel: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Views: 30,337

Rating: 4.9411764 out of 5

Keywords: DeVon Franklin, Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, faith, leadership, faith leaders, Christianity, black church, inspiration

Id: 9oKSNoG9ZB0

Length: 21min 12sec (1272 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 24 2015