Qualified by the Call

Payton LaFiette: Holy cow. Hi. So before I introduce myself, I got here
really early, about 10 o'clock. And the reason I got here so early is, one, I'm a guy who likes
to get places early. But two, I really wanted some time to sit and prepare and really pray
about what the Holy Spirit was going to put on my heart before I come up here and speak.
So I'm here at 10 o'clock. Nobody's here. It's perfect. It's great. 1030 rolls around. People
I start seeing old professors that I used to have my freshman year, my freshman and sophomore year.
I start seeing current professors that I have now.
I start seeing coaches that used to coach me or coaches that I used to work for.
I see the president of the school, and I'm about to come up here.
I'm standing right back there, and I'm like, why am I the guy that's up here?
Why am I the guy that's coming up here to speak?
How am I qualified to be up here to speak?
And the answer comes to me almost immediately, and the answer is I'm not.
but you know what's so great, and you know what God does in people's lives, you know what's so
great is that God does not call the qualified to come up here and speak. God qualifies the called,
and so man, I am so grateful for this opportunity. This is awesome. I initially met with David
Fraze and Josh Stevens about this opportunity back in December, and so you would have thought
that I've had a lot of time to pray and prepare and practice, but I'm happy to announce I just
finished it last night. So bear with me here, but we've got it. So again, before I introduce
myself, I have two confessions. This is my first chapel that I've been to this semester.
And before you say anything, Josh, I do have a work exemption and I could have come to another
chapel, but I figured in my mind, it would be easiest to not know how chapel works and just
come up here, get it done. And I wouldn't be nervous at all. But the reality is that's not,
This is terrifying. Number two, I thought this is not really a confession, but something that's
more just funny. I thought, and I think when I think something is funny, I think everyone should
hear it. And so my first, my freshman year, I was sitting up in that corner and I remember,
I remember hearing this guy speak. And I can say this now because he's probably graduated or
whatever. But, and this guy was up here and he was so, he was all over the place. He was nervous,
as anyone should be. I think this is a big stage to be on. But anyways, I was listening to this
guy speak, and I was sitting on that corner over here, and I remember so vividly telling myself,
I am never going to get up there and speak. And we'll see how that worked. And so, man, I am so
grateful to be here today. This is an awesome opportunity. My name is Peyton Lafayette. My
freshman and sophomore year, I was on the LCU track and field and cross-country team,
And then I took over fellowship of Christian athletes with Brooke Hendrickson for about a year.
And so now I'm just here.
I'm trying to graduate.
I will graduate in December with a major in humanities.
And if you ask me what that is, I don't even know if my advisor knows what that is.
But I'm excited and very thankful, very thankful for this opportunity.
I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I lived there for about four to five years, and then my family and I moved to Lubbock, Texas.
And so I love West Texas.
I love Texas Tech, even though what they did on Sunday was not good.
And so I'm just very grateful to be here, and I'm very thankful for this opportunity.
So there's some more pictures.
There's quite the picture.
Chaps basketball.
So when I was a kid, I had a very hard time speaking.
I was a very quiet and reserved kid.
And not only was I quiet and reserved, but I also had issues with my speech.
I would stutter my words a lot when I got nervous.
And you might hear that today.
I would also slur my words a lot when I got nervous.
And so speaking when I was younger was one of the biggest things that I was insecure about.
It was so hard for me.
I mean, for example, if I was in a restaurant with my family and I had to order by myself,
oh, that was the end of the world.
Or literally, it was so bad.
If I saw someone coming up to talk to me when I was a kid, there would be times where I
would go the other direction.
And so speaking was very hard for me as a kid.
And so my sweet mother, she's here, but she told me, do not call on me.
My sweet mother, when I was younger, I'd say right before my teenage years, I went through
speech therapy to help me with my speaking. And so what speech therapy is, is you go and you sit
with a lady, excuse me, a stranger. I hated it. You go and sit with a stranger and you talk to her
for an hour. And it's the worst thing in the whole entire world. You're basically learning how to
talk. And it's just so, I didn't like it. And so my mom put me through these series of speech
therapy appointments. And so there's about five or six of these appointments. And every time I went,
I hated it. I did not like it. And so there was one time we were going to an appointment and my
mom was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat and we're on the way to the appointment. I
promise you, I don't have a good attitude at that time. I'm over it. I don't want to go.
And my mom is driving and I'm sitting in the passenger seat and I look over at my mom and I
say, mom, we're done. And she looks back at me and she's either terrified for her life at what I
just said. Or she's like, okay, we're whatever. And so, and then I, and then I, and then I look
at her and I say, mom, God gave me lips. God gave me a mouth. God gave me a voice, but it is not
meant for talking. And if I ever want to say anyone, anything to anyone ever again,
you're saying it for me, mom. And my sweet mother, she just drove me to the appointment. Now I'm up
here. Now I'm up here talking. And so as you can see from that moment in my life, it's such a small
significant, but significant funny story from that moment in my life when speaking was one of the
hardest things that I had to do from now when I'm up here and I don't have a care in the world.
That's a big change in someone's life. And so change throughout our lives is inevitable. For
you fresh, I guess a recent change for you freshmen in here. You guys just came from high
school to college. That's a big change. You might have come here from a different city, a different
state, some of you from a different country. You might have gotten here from a different country,
and we might have not spoken your home language. That's a big change. You might have come here
and was faced with the fact, I have to find a job. I have to find friends. I have to pick
between sub-T and alpha-kind. We all know the answer is sub-T, but I'm not even in sub-T,
So I don't know why I said that, but we're faced with constant change.
For us juniors and seniors, we're about to graduate, and we've been working three to four years towards an end goal.
We've been working, some of us, towards a career, towards a job, towards some of us, towards a relationship, towards a family.
We've been working all this time, and we're about to be sent out.
That's a big change for some of us.
Some of us are about to go to Starbucks when we graduate and realize we can't use our munch money there anymore.
And for some of you, that's a big change.
And so change is inevitable.
And I'm going to pivot here for a second.
But also I think God has each and every one of us in our own season.
So if you look to the person to the right of you and look to the person to the left of you, we're all in different seasons.
And God has us all in different seasons, whether that's a season of growth, whether that's a season of restoration,
whether that's a season of building, whether that's a season of loss or sickness or death,
we are all in different seasons. Ecclesiastes 3.1, there is a time for everything in a season
for every activity under the heavens. And it goes on to say there's a time to be born and there's
a time to die and it goes on and on and on, but we are all in our own seasons.
And so when we're talking about change, last year for me, my life changed.
Last year, I got engaged.
And that is an amazing, awesome blessing from God.
But last year, I was a man who was broken and hurt in his sin.
And when you're in a place where you can sin and you can feel nothing from that sin,
that is one of the deepest, darkest places that you can be in.
And so last year I got engaged, but last year I made these plans of becoming a father,
of becoming a husband, of starting a family, of graduating college.
I had all of these plans, but last year I lost all of those plans because of my sin.
and so I had all of these plans, but because of where I was in my sin, I lost all of those plans,
and it, and I remember going through the midst of it. I just, I, I was, I was broken. I was going
through it, and there was one morning where I woke up, and it just happened. I just lost all,
And I was like, God, what are you doing?
Why am I in this specific season that I am in right now?
Why did I just lose everything?
Why did my, you could say my plans did not go to plan.
And so there was one morning where I woke up and I was on the edge of my bed and I was praying.
And I was like, God, what are you doing?
What is going on?
And I remember so vividly God gave me two choices in that moment.
I could have said whatever, and I could have left it, and I could have done my own thing and said, I don't care.
And this, and or, and this is what I did.
I walked up, I got up to the mirror, and I said, Payton, I am never going to be that man again.
And that's what I did.
And so Ephesians 4, 22 through 24 says, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.
To be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
And so from that moment where I had all of these plans and I was doing what I wanted to do and where God completely redirected me, it started a season.
It was a hard season, but it was a season of suffering and pain.
And in James, it says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials, whether it's a trial like mine or whether it's a sickness or a disease, whether it's a death, whether it's bad grades or whatever, whether you're in a relationship or whatever it is.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters.
And a lot of people look at this and say, how can we have joy in this moment?
I'm in a season of pain and suffering.
How in the world can I have joy?
How can I be happy?
It makes no sense to be happy.
And what that pure joy is and what it's talking about in James, that pure joy is hope in the Lord.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
That pure joy is hope in the Lord that through that season, that through that season of suffering, through that season of confusion, God is creating you to become more like him.
And so consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
And so some of you might be going, and again, sorry, Hebrews 12, 11.
same thing as James. No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful later on.
It produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
And so a lot of people, or you guys, might be going through a season of suffering. You might
be going through a season of pain. You might be going through a season of hurt or loss. And what
I see so constantly are people praying, God, deliver me from this season. God, get me out of
this season of hurt. God, get me out of this. I don't like it. But what they don't realize
is that season that they're in is exactly the season that God intended them to be in
to become more like him. And so then people would say, well, do you believe God causes your pain
and suffering. And to that, I would say, no, I do not believe God causes your pain and suffering,
but I do think God allows it because he knows what it will produce on the inside of you.
And it's through that suffering, it's through that pain, it's through those hard seasons that
we go through that we are sanctified, transformed, and developed in what God wants to do in and
through our lives. And let me tell you, I had all of these plans. And when you pray and you say,
God, my plans are not any more than yours. And when you pray and you say, God, I give up all
control and I sacrifice whatever you're doing to you, he will completely change your life. And so
this verse, you're going to look at this and say, this has nothing to do with what I'm saying. But
And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land.
And the waters were divided.
And then it goes and say in Psalm, he divided the sea and led them through.
He made the water stand up like a wall.
And so you're thinking about this.
You have no clue how this relates to anything.
but in this story of Moses and the Red Sea, God didn't remove the Red Sea. God didn't just say
goodbye to the Red Sea. He parted it, and so God may not remove that situation that you're in. God
may not remove that season of suffering that you're in, but God will surely make a way through it.
Thank you guys for, thank you to all of you in this room who has poured into me at my time here
at LCU and I'm just very grateful for each and every one of you. You guys are dismissed.