Michael W. Smith - Liberty University Convocation

what's that flipper day hey guys ready to go in for a little bit like you might know this song [Music] here we go before I spoke Cooper you will see in over me you were so so good to me before I took a breath do you read your life and me but you know they're so so kind to me let me hear ya [Music] you know I don't deserve it still you get away [Music] the redness of God [Music] [Laughter] [Music] when hours your phone still in love so so good to me [Music] you paid it off for me but your bass also come on [Music] and I don't deserve it still you get [Music] there's a shadow you own lighter Mountain you won't climb that coming after me no all you won't kick down now you won't tear down coming after me this will shatter you won't light up now - you won't climb up coming up [Music] you won't kick down by your channel coming out no-show [Music] No good answer [Applause] [Music] come on No [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] the register girl [Music] what's up you guys to be see you in a second I'll come back and leave in a second hey yeah man it's great to be on this campus I've heard I've been here before it's been probably a 10 years since I've been back but hearing gods on the move great things are happening let me tell you what I love the Word of God I love it because it tells about all the promises of God and they're all true and we all kind of got our battles this is a battles you know we all got our battles and sometimes you just feel like gosh that just you just don't know where to go you don't know what to say in order to pray you just feel empty so what do you do you just pray the Word of God just pray the word I'll never forget my pastor Don pinto years back took me on a walk and we went up on this Ritz called Radner lake in Nashville Tennessee and it's awesome place and we sat down on the bench the only time we've ever sat down for the 35 years we've been walking together and he started talking to me and I realized oh my gosh he's not just talking to me because he's a hey Michael dad died and all the sudden here he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn among all creation for by him all things created I realized he was quoting Colossians he quoted the whole book of Colossians by memory the whole but I've got to learn how to do that I barely passed English in high school how am I going to do that and and so I went to my my little duplex that night and I memorized Colossians 1 9 through 16 and it's changed my life and I've memorized Rome lots of Romans and some 139 some 138 and the Proverbs and psalms and so when I'm empty I just pray the word I just pray the word one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible was Oh Lord you have searched me and you know me you know when I sit when I rise you perceive my thoughts from afar you discern my going out and my lying down and you're familiar with all of my ways you know what Psalm that is 139 it's amazing and it goes on it's amazing things that you created most being you knit me together in my mother's womb and I praise you O God from fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful and I know that full well my frame my frame was not hidden for me when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body all the days are dating for me were written in your book for one them came to be and here's my favorite scripture I think which is always hard let me ask you what's your favorite bible verse it's hard but I always come back to this with always how precious are your thoughts about me O God how vast is the sum of them and if I were to count them they would outnumber the grains of the sand anybody been to the beach all those grains of sand every time I go to the beach I sit there and just put in my hand a good God God your thoughts about me outnumber the grains of the sand that blows my mind cuz I'll tell you what I just know beyond a shadow of a doubt wake up every day and I Know Who I am I pinch myself I wake up but God forgive me let me just let this day be filled with all good things just and lord thank you Lord more than anything for your love for me and I learned a lot about the love of God believe it or not for my mom and dad my dad this is gonna sound odd my dad taught me a little bit of what God is like my dad has been forming my whole life I never heard my dad say one ill thing against me my entire life I did get the belt one time for throwing rocks I never threw rocks ever again he was for a long time I ever saw my dad get upset was when my song didn't go number one and I'm going dad all my songs can't go number one and he'd say why not son you're the best he'd say that to me Oh all my life he became my PR agent he would embarrass me really it's like he would just we'd be in a grocery store or something and he brag on me and going dad you don't have to do that all the time but he was just like that and my mom and dad had this impeccable reputation in Franklin Tennessee after they moved from West Virginia followed me hey come on West Virginia but I live in Tennessee now so but yes your roots West Virginia they moved and then four guys for 20 years my mom and dad were bigger celebrities an hour or I'm telling you for 20 years I would get sucked in a store I get stuffed into Walgreens or a Whole Foods or Kroger and and is there's tons of celebrities in Nashville it's no big deal I live a normal life I love it but you know you always know when someone's following you you know and you're walking in the aisle and there they are again and they're kind of looking at you and you go to the next aisle and they're kind of like you know they kind of doing that and going you finally just let them catch up and they come up there they go you're Michael W spend well yeah it's nice to meet you what's going on and say oh we love your mom and dad and it would sit there for ten minutes and talk about my mom and dad and help mom your mom break this bread she's a cook and cater and she came over and your dad fixed my carburetor I mean it's just incredible for 20 years this has happened in my life my dad went to heaven in November of 2015 I still miss him terribly he taught me so much about how to do life the way he loved my mom the way he loved my sister and I my dad came from that great generation he would be 86 this December he came from that great generation if you were sick or he had the flu you went to work you went to work you just do it you trudge do it my dad was my baseball coach baseball coach all growing up and he and he was the guy he was the kindest men I'd ever known in my entire life who happened to be my dad now let me just back up and say this I know beyond a shadow of a doubt in this room there are those of you who didn't have a good dad I'm not gonna pretend to know your pain it's I know it's complicated with so many things so many mysteries in life I do know one thing if you didn't have a good dad gawking father you if you didn't have a good mom gaku mother you my mom was eight years old Barbara her younger sister d6 Pat five bill four in a car with my real grandmother and one block from their house my real grandmother says get out get out they all got out and walked the one block home my real grandmother never came back split done awful just awful just awful and my mom at some point in this journey in her life had this massive encounter of Jesus and said you know when I get married one day I'm never gonna do that to my kids my mom is the bomb she's amazing she's amazing she exudes the goodness of God cuz she knows who she is she didn't play the victim card she just says I'm gonna let God mother me and that's my mom back to my dad my dad also from that great generation he had nicknames for everybody he had nicknames for all his friends he called me bubs my whole life he called my sister soos her name's Kimberly crazy and that was this my daddy and he smiled every day and he laughed every day he just had this thing about him that was just you just wanted to be around him because the joy and it was so contagious that was my dad in 2010 forget that a little place called pucketts in downtown Franklin Tennessee my dad wanted to go to breakfast with me and he said to me that son I need to ask you something confidential and I thought oh my gosh is he sick it's just I've never had this bit look it was really serious he said I feel like the same Barbara that I married is not the same Barbara living in our house your heart sinks and you go oh my gosh my dad is developing dementia six years of dementia that finally took his life really didn't take his life he just crossed to the other side I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt crazy story about my dad when I told you my dad taught me about what God is like it's crazy this is 2013 he sort of continued to decline but he still knew who I was and he still would always embarrass me telling that people how great I was and crazy and here's the crazy story you know and and I'm going somewhere with this and I'll in with this story my mom calls me so grateful I wasn't on the other side of where my mom calls me and said son your dad's fallen I think we're gonna lose him and my mom's always even keel never gets rattled and she is weeping on the phone get in my car from my studio I'll run every red light every stop sign I pulled in front of my mom and dad's house and there's six emergency vehicles in front of my mom and dad's house I jump out of the car I run inside my dad is in a chair leaning against the wall drooling and he's white as a ghost I'm going oh my gosh but dad's dying that's Diane still remember every little detail of it and my moms crying of oh my mom I'm crying it guys just awful you know you just you're praying and you know your emotions are running rampant and filing a long story short they put my dad on the stretcher they take him outside I think we're going to the hospital we don't go anywhere six paramedics working on my dad now let me back up and say also the crazy traits about my dad not only did he have nicknames for everybody but he had these sayings like he'd look at something on the news need he it was like he couldn't believe it he go what the wide world of sports are going on he would say that often or if he had something to say he would say hold the phone hold the phone and we all go okay dad you got something to say hold the phone and that was a big thing of my dad's when he had some sort of revelation well here's the hold the phone story it's crazy so there they take my dad they're working on him and I'm watching these six guys work on my dad I'm not moving I live in the south guess what the South does they all come out there's 15 people in the street loving on my mom praying for my mom they're all lined up cars can't get through the neighborhood it's a flash mob of love in the street I'm watching those guys work on my dad less than ten minutes later the color starts to come back into my dad's skin I'm going thank you God thank you God I just got back you believe it he's gonna make it so I'm thinking everything's cool I'm gonna go back and greet all these people loving on my mom I don't get five steps away and I hear hold the phone and it's not like this guy's I'm not making this up this has really happened it happened like this it was like hold the phone hold the phone hold it folks hold the phone my dad is shouting from the stretcher and I'll run back over there to find out what's going on ever paramedics like nobody's moving this is what happened my dad leans his head and back off of that stretchered says do y'all know who that is out there that's my son Michael W said I'm going McFly dad what do you do it's embarrassing again oh god yeah what are you doing and literally guys I promise you it was like I was laughing in ten seconds later I had an epiphany and it buckled my knees and I heard Abba Father sin that's how I feel about you you know who that is out there you know who that is out there and I think in this room in this arena this morning there's no exceptions I think God's looking down here and going you know who that is out there you know who that is out there Oh Betty I got a call God in your life Billy you got a destiny on your life Chuck your stud muffin well maybe we wouldn't say maybe wouldn't say that he loves you and the wind is at your back because it's a call of God in your life and when you get this whole thing guys when hey do you know who that is out there he loves you he loves you he loves you he loves you it changes everything it changes everything because then it's not about you anymore so I'll give your life away this will be a conduit god you'd wake up every day going to God your grace and I'm such a mess and you just continue to love me that's amazing so I just want to reflect that to the world I want reflect that to people who don't know that guys there's no plan B there's no plan B we're it one thing I know for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt after saying all that about my dad he is a good good father it's who you are who you are who you are and I'm loved by you true I am using that true by you it's Who I am you're a good good father tell him tell him and I'm loved you tell yourself [Music] you are perfect [Music] come on good father you tell him [Music] she - I [Music] you're a good good father - you are - you - you [Music] [Music] could have all the ladies in the house no offense guys but these girls sing like angels can you sing the first verse ladies [Music] [Music] everyone [Music] yes you are yes you are [Music] [Music] you [Music] we worship your God [Music] [Music] worthy worthy see it again [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] oh man [Music] you

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 9,719

Rating: 4.9186993 out of 5

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty, Jerry Falwell, Michael W. Smith

Id: DF91zInv5yk

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019