>> DR.
MICHAEL HAMLET: … to be at Liberty.
Because God is doing such great things here
and it's a privilege for me to be here today
really for a number of reasons.
First of all, just to be in this environment;
this is a place that is electric and God is
using it in a great way.
Recently--and I'm certainly no physicist--I
read a little, I guess a preacher's description
of what happens with a laser and they said
that a laser is really waves of light that
are piled on top of each other and then focused
those photons that are there.
And as you do that, you have that together.
Well here at Liberty, you have an excitement.
You have a commitment to the Word of God.
You have a fellowship that is there and leadership
that comes together to make Liberty University
a place that is focused.
You're a laser.
You're a laser in this country, and so, we're
grateful for what God is doing in your life
and I want to tell you the impact that you
have as a student body, as you just heard,
goes far beyond this campus.
It goes across the nation and around the world.
So it is really a privilege for me to be here,
and also to say to you that as you come together
in this place God has given to you such an
opportunity, just a wonderful opportunity
to make a difference, to do something in the
world that the need is so desperate, the need
is so desperate to touch the hearts and lives
of people.
Here, you have week after week, the chance
to hear probably the finest set of leaders
that any institution--in fact, you're going
to hear, here at Liberty, more great leaders
in this country than probably any other institution
in America.
And in a few moments you're going to hear
one of those today.
That is an incredible opportunity.
So I want to say to you as we begin today,
that there are two things: first of all, you
have a great privilege.
You know stuff, you hear stuff the rest of
us don't hear and we don't get the opportunity.
What a great privilege that is for you, but
also with it comes a responsibility.
You're able to look, you're able to hear,
you're able to see, and your influence makes
a difference.
You know, the Bible says that we are to honor
our leaders, and the Bible also says that
we are to pray for our leaders, and I would
encourage you in that today and over these
weeks and months and years that you're here
that as you hear all of these leaders that
you will not just hear what they have to say
but you will lift them up and their families
and that you will pray for them that God would
watch over and protect them.
And the truth of the matter is, you know what?
Some of our leaders are easier to pray for
than others.
That's always the case, that's the way it
is with pastors and friends and everybody
we know.
But you know what?
The Lord still gives to us that opportunity
and that responsibility.
So as you sit here today, Liberty University,
you have a privilege and you have a responsibility.
Don't turn around and think, "Well, somebody
ought to be doing something about this," or
"Somebody ought to be making a difference,'
because God gives you that opportunity right
here, today.
It's my privilege to introduce to you Trey
Gowdy.
I have known Representative Gowdy for a long
time, and have known him in a lot of different
venues.
I've been in Spartanburg a long time and known
Trey and known his family, and Representative
Gowdy is a leader, a man that is recognized
across this country.
I doubt today if there is any political leader
in the state of South Carolina that is more
popular than Trey Gowdy.
I would tell you there is no leader that is
more well respected than he is and it's for
a number of reasons, it's not just because
of his ability.
It's because, I want to tell you, this is
a man who is not putting on a mask, ever.
He just lives out his faith.
I've seen him as a prosecutor.
I've seen him be tough because he is protecting
the public, but I've also seen him being compassionate.
I could tell you stories of people that have
come back - that he's convicted - that would
come back to him and say to him, "You were
fair with me."
I have seen him be compassionate with people,
and care about victims.
I have seen him take care of people; I've
seen him go out of his way.
I've seen him as a man who walks in his community,
and you always get the same thing from Trey,
and he is well-respected and well-loved.
He has a wonderful family--Terry, his son
Watson, his daughter Abigail--and they are
known throughout Spartanburg and the upstate
and the state of South Carolina as a family
who loves the Lord.
Even in his own church, he is there, he serves,
he is respected, there is nothing about him
that is in any way duplicitous.
God has used him in a great way, and several
years ago when he became our Congressman there
in the fourth district, we were honored and
privileged to have him serve us, and now as
a man who is entrusted with tremendous responsibility,
I want to tell you, I know of no one that
does a better job of balancing responsibilities
they have with their walk with the Lord, and
seeking to serve Him.
We are proud of him, grateful for him, you're
going to hear a man today who is extremely
intelligent, who has great ability, and is
focused on doing what is right.
I've had the opportunity to see Trey in a
lot of different situations and have a lot
of different conversations with him, but I
have also known him as somebody who always
has time for someone else.
I would tell you this, I don't think we've
ever had a conversation--we have never had
a conversation, many times I've gone to him
and said, "Listen, I know you have a lot of
stuff.
I don't want to bother you; I know this is
going on.
Trey, I want you to know that I'm praying
for you."
And I do pray for him.
I carry a little card to pray for him regularly.
But he always ends up being an encouragement
to me, and every person that he knows would
tell you that's exactly what happens.
Not only is he a leader in our nation, but
he cares about people.
We believe, those who love him, seen him work,
who we have been the beneficiary of having
a Congressman like Trey Gowdy, we really do
believe he is a guy that God has brought for
such a time as this.
And so I'm so delighted you get to see him,
hear him, know a little bit about him; I want
to ask you to pray for him in the days to
come as he serves in our United States Congress,
and just to lift him up, because we can be
excited about what God has done, is doing,
is going to do with him.
I want you to welcome Congressman Trey Gowdy.
>> TREY GOWDY: Thank you very much.
I need to take you with me everywhere I go,
that is the nicest introduction I think I
have ever had.
Every time I'm introduced, I'm reminded of
what a difficult time I have had keeping a
job throughout my career.
I also want to--so thank you, Pastor Hamlet.
Thank you more than anything else for being
a source of accountability and encouragement
to me, even since I was a young fellow.
And I want to thank Liberty for your very
warm, gracious, hospitable welcome to me.
I am a member of the world's least popular
body, so I am grateful that anyone would be
willing to be seen in public with me.
We are at seven percent in the public approval
polls, and if you're wondering who that seven
percent is, it's for the most part family
and staff.
I used to say that, and then somebody told
me back home that my mom now tells her friends
that I am unemployed rather than risk telling
them where I work, and my father no longer
introduces me as a member of Congress, he
tells people I'm a trial lawyer.
So if that gives you any idea where we are.
But there is a wonderful member of Congress,
who actually happens to represent this very
district, and his name is Bob Goodlatte, and
I want you to know, Chairman Goodlatte is
in Florida today, but he has been wonderful
to me.
He's the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Well before he was the Chairman, he was somebody
that I respected because of his legal abilities,
I had been to other parts of this district
with him, so next time you run into him, tell
him how grateful I am for his kindness and
his leadership in the House.
For those of you who are interested in watching
NCAA basketball today--are any of you going
to watch the game?
All right, I promise to have you out of here
by half time of tonight's game.
Most of our fellow citizens think that our
country is headed in the wrong direction,
and I am not here to make a political speech.
You may or may not agree with that, but the
polling indicates that most of our fellow
citizens think that the country is headed
in the wrong direction.
You may think that our country is headed in
the right direction but you think we ought
to go at a quicker pace.
So, what I want to share with you this morning
is equally applicable no matter what.
If you're a part of that seventy percent that
has an angst and an uncertainty about the
direction and the future of our country, than
I have a word for you.
If you're in that thirty percent that think
we're headed in the right direction but think
maybe we ought to head there a little quicker,
than I have a word for you.
"If my people, who are called by my Name,
shall humble themselves and pray and seek
My Face and turn from their wicked ways, than
I will hear from heaven and forgive their
sin and heal their land."
The first time I saw that passage it was sent
to me by a friend of Pastor Hamlet's and mine,
Doctor Ed Young in Houston, Texas sent that
to me and my eyes immediately went to the
very first part of that verse: "If my people."
Note that it does not say, "If John Boehner,"
"If Mitch McConnell," "If President Obama,"
"If the United States Supreme Court," "If
the governor of Virginia."
It says, "If my people."
That verse is directed to the very same people
who founded and defended and furthered and
nurtured this country.
It is directed to you.
So if you think that that call to action,
that that call to arms, is for someone else;
if it's for the politicians, if it's for your
professors, if it's for people on city or
country council, than you're wrong.
It's directed to you, and I want you to do
something for me.
I want you to think right now in your own
lifetime, has the influence of the government
gone up or down and has the influence of the
church gone up or down?
Because from my vantage point the influence
of the government is going up and the church
is going down.
Just ask yourself, are there sick people in
your community, either here or at home?
Who do they look to for help?
Yes, we have charitable hospitals.
Yes, we have free clinics, but who do most
of your fellow citizens look to when they're
sick?
Who do they look to in retirement?
Do they look to the church?
Do they look to family members?
Do they look to the government?
How about if your kids aren't being educated
the way you think they ought to, who do they
blame?
The teacher, the principal, the school board,
or themselves?
So what concerns me more than any other issue
right now, and you can pick, there are lots
of important issues going on right now.
But I want you to think more globally about
the influence on our culture of the church
versus government or other influences, and
I want you, depending on how you answer that
question, whether or not you think the influence
of the church is going up or down or whether
you think the influence of government is going
up or down, I want you to do something.
And I know you're sitting there thinking,
"Come on, old man, we have enough reading.
Don't assign me extra reading."
I want you to read something.
I want you to read something called "The Melian
Dialogue."
And if you're looking for it, it's in a book
by Thucydides, called "The Peloponnesian War,"
and it's conversation, it's a dialogue between
the people--the Melians, the people from Melos,
and the Athenians.
They were about to wage war against each other.
Athens was huge and powerful; the Melians
were small.
And there's a dialogue; it's a debate between
the Athenians and the Melians, and the Melians
were having to decide whether or not to surrender
and capitulate or whether or not to fight
even though they knew they were going to lose.
There was no way the Melians could beat the
Athenians.
Every common-sensical notion told them to
surrender or partner with the Athenians, so
there's a dialogue back and forth.
The Meilians were purer; the Melians were
idealistic, and then the Melians were destroyed.
What do you believe in enough to lose?
What do you believe in enough that you would
march forward even if you knew that you were
marching forward to a certain defeat?
I want you to read “The Melian Dialogue.”
It's short.
I made every employee of the District Attorney's
office read it.
Some of them have not forgiven me for making
them read it, but I made every one of them
read it, and then I asked them two questions:
which do you value more, truth or freedom?
And every single person in my office said
freedom.
And I said, "Okay, which do you value more:
unity or diversity?"
And every one but one said diversity.
Look, truth and freedom are both really important,
but at some point you and your generation
have to ask yourselves what is the benefit
of the freedom to be wrong?
Do you really value freedom more than truth?
Do you really think there is a truth?
Do you really value diversity more than unity?
I am so happy we all don't look alike and
we don't dress alike and we don't eat at the
same restaurants and we don't pull for the
same sports teams, I'm thrilled about that.
But we are, after all, the United States of
America.
So what is it that unites us?
Do you really value diversity that much more
than unity?
Is there anything we have in common?
Is there anything we can celebrate that we
share?
So I go back to the verse, and I think, "Well,
is there an answer in that verse?"
"If my people who are called by my Name shall
humble themselves and pray and seek My Face
and turn from their …" what?
"Wicked way."
Well maybe there's a start.
Can we at least agree that there is something
called "wicked"?
Can we at least agree that there is something
that is bad?
Can we at least agree that there is something
that is wrong?
That's a place to start.
If you are in search of a unifying force in
our culture, can we at least agree that there
is good and bad?
Or is everything relative?
For sixteen years I never once stood in front
of a jury and tried to convince them that
murder was wrong.
Never once.
Oh, we had plenty of trials over whether or
not a person did it, whether it was self-defense,
whether it was manslaughter, but I never once
had to convince a jury that murder was wrong.
Why?
Because we accept that.
I never tried to convince a jury that robbery
was wrong, that discrimination was wrong,
that mistreating children was wrong.
So there is a source of unity.
There is a code by which we all have agreed
to live.
What is the source of that code?
Is it science?
Is it morality?
Is it God?
You want to move this country in a different,
better direction, what is the source of our
unity?
And if you are in that group that wants a
better than the present you are experiencing;
if you don't like this disunity, if you don't
like this sense of angst, if you don't like
what seems to be forcing you to be detached
and cynical about your country and your government,
than you got to do something about it.
I'm going to tell you what I would do if I
were sitting where you're sitting.
You got to figure out what you believe and
more importantly, you got to figure out why
you believe it.
It is never enough in politics or any other
sphere of persuasion to simply tell people
what you believe.
You have to tell them why you believe it.
Do you believe in personal responsibility?
Why?
It's easy because if you're going to free
there has to be a corresponding responsibility,
right?
If you're going to have the freedom of the
press, there has to be a responsibility to
print the truth.
If you're going to have the freedom to keep
and bear arms, there has to be a corresponding
responsibility to use those arms in a responsible
way.
What do you believe?
Do you believe in respect for the rule of
law?
Why?
Because I'm an old prosecutor and I just like
getting people in trouble?
Cause I want to see a bunch of new prisons
built?
Let me tell you something about the Law: it
is the most unifying and equalizing force
that we have in this country.
It is the only thing that makes the richest
person in this county drive the same speed
limit as the poorest person.
It is what makes the richest person in Virginia
pay his or her taxes on precisely the same
day as the poorest.
Do you believe in respect for the rule of
law?
Can you tell anybody why?
Do you think that we ought to have a safety
net in this country below which the indigent
and needy and the poor do not fall?
Why do you believe that?
And if you believe that, do you also think
a country as good and great as ours can do
a little bit better than eight-hundred billion
dollar's worth of waste, fraud, and abuse?
Can you have both of those?
So if you don't like the direction of our
country or you want a better future, what
do you believe and why do you believe it?
Secondarily, you can be the smartest person
in the world, and if you can't communicate
what you believe, you're not going to be very
successful.
So you need a message, and that message better
be "Why," why you believe what you believe.
But you also need a very effective manner
or method of communication.
In other words, you need to learn how to persuade.
How do you persuade in life?
Facts, authenticity, sincerity, credibility,
you want to persuade, change people's minds
to come around to your way of thinking on
whatever issue it is, and I don't care about
your politics they’re none of my business.
You have whatever politics you want.
But I will tell you what doesn't work: insulting
people.
Any of you been married for more than a week?
Any of you aspire to be married at any point
in life?
Let me give you a piece of free advice after
twenty-five years of marriage: insulting people
does not work if your objective is to persuade.
I am terrified of my wife so I have never
tried to insult her into changing her mind,
but I have seen plenty of my friends try it,
and it does not work.
Look, I did not vote for President Obama.
I didn't--no, no, no, I didn't vote for him.
But you know what?
A majority of my fellow citizens did.
So when I see a bumper sticker that says,
"Don't blame me, I didn't vote for the idiot,"
do you think that's persuasive?
So you think anybody that voted for President
Obama is going to be persuaded?
"Yeah, maybe I possibly made a mistake because
this person called me an idiot."
Life doesn't work that way.
You know what happens when you're insulted?
You become even more dogmatic in holding your
incorrect belief than you were before you
were insulted.
So if your goal is to persuade, you shouldn't
be insulting people.
Let me tell you what else doesn't work: hypocrisy.
Telling other people how to live their lives
while you live your life a different way.
Telling people that they ought to be doing
X while you're doing Y, and trust me, I work
in a line of work where I see a lot of it.
And yes, we're all hypocrites to a certain
extent.
Every one of us.
But there are different gradations of hypocrisy,
and if you are going to say that the Lord
called you to go into politics, you better
act like it, and if you're not going to act
like it than leave His Name out of it.
Furthermore, I want you to ask yourself this,
these candidates that are called by God to
run for office: are their campaigns any different
than the people who weren't called by God?
Do they engage in negative campaigning?
Do they launch unfair attack ads?
Can you tell anything different about them
than you can the candidates who just say,
"I'm running ‘cause I felt like running”?
They claim to serve a God that used a stutterer
as a spokesperson, they claim to serve a God
that let His own Son lose a race to a guy
named Barabbas, but they don’t act like
it.
You want to persuade people?
Hypocrisy doesn't work.
Insults don't work.
What does work?
A relationship.
The person has to know that you care about
them.
They have to know that you care about them.
There are two people in politics that I think
do a wonderful job of that, and I don't care
whether you support either one of them.
One is Marco Rubio.
Marco Rubio 
was raised by a woman that cleaned other people's
hotel rooms, but she had hope that her son
would have a better life, and now he's in
the United States Senate.
And the other person who does a wonderful
job of communicating hope is a guy named Tim
Scott, who is my best friend in politics.
And Tim Scott's grandfather, who's now ninety-four,
would hold a newspaper up every morning at
breakfast, wanted Timmy to see him read the
newspaper because of the value of education,
the power of education; wanted Timmy to be
informed, wanted him to be up on current events.
So he held the newspaper up every single morning
except he couldn't read.
Can't read to this day.
But he wanted to communicate hope to his grandson
about the power of education.
You want to persuade people?
Do you speak in hopeful terms?
Do you communicate hope?
Are they convinced that you have their best
interest at mind?
Last fall, my wife made me go to a wedding
with her--let me rephrase that: my wife and
I went to a wedding last fall, and I was watching
a football game on my iPhone but I--that's
the only way I agreed to go.
Look, you want me at your wedding?
Don't plan it in the fall in the South.
So I'm watching the football game and I hear
that same verse I hear at every other wedding:
"These three things remain: faith, hope, and
love.
The greatest of these is love," we already
knew that.
I knew that.
Comes right before the "unity" candle.
But I started thinking to myself, "Okay, love
wins.
I get that.
I know that.
But hope must be really powerful to even be
in the final three."
Do you talk in hopeful terms to the people
that you interact with and you're trying to
persuade?
Do you communicate hope?
Do they think you care about them?
So you got a message, you got a manner of
communicating, now all you need is a messenger,
right?
You're just waiting on whoever that is, whether
it's President Obama, whether it's Ronald
Reagan, whether it's Abraham Lincoln, we're
just waiting around on that great messenger,
right?
If you are waiting around for another Ronald
Reagan, or another Martin Luther King Junior,
or another Abraham Lincoln, you are going
to have a long, miserable wait.
It's not going to happen.
If you're waiting on a knight or knightess
to ride in on a white horse and change whatever
you think ails our country or your school
or your community or your family, it's not
going to happen.
You know who the messenger is?
It's you.
It's not me.
I don't know you; I don't know where you come
from, I don't know your friends, I don't hang
out with you, I'm not going home with you
for Spring Break, I'm not going to work with
you this summer, I'm not in class with you,
and neither are any of the other people that
you may be thinking about that are going to
do it.
It's you.
You're the messenger.
You're the leader.
I work in a town that is named for Washington,
I fly into an airport named for Reagan, I
pass monuments to Jefferson and Lincoln and
King and every street is named after somebody
famous and there are statues and portraits
in every one of the office buildings.
I don’t even--they're so famous I don't
even know them.
Lots of famous people, and when you fly in
on an airplane into Reagan, the pilot usually
says you may want to look off to this side
to see this monument or, "You want to look
here and see the Washington Monument," or
the White House.
I don't lean forward for any of that, not
anymore.
Seen it.
You know what I think about when I fly into
Reagan?
I think about a guy you've never heard of.
You've never heard of him.
I was about your age--I was exactly your age--watching
television with my father.
February in the throes of a terribly frigid
winter in Washington, and a plane crashes
into the Fourteenth Street Bridge, and all
the passengers except a half-dozen were killed
on impact, and those half-dozen were in the
icy waters of the Potomac River.
And I'm watching this on television with my
dad.
This is before twenty-four hour news, but
it was captivating the country.
So you got these people in the icy waters
of the Potomac, and you got the whirl of the
helicopter coming, and that helicopter lowers
a rope ladder into the waters of the Potomac
and it falls into the hands of a man you've
never heard of before.
If I called his name right now, you don't
know him.
So he has life in his hands, and he passes
it to a stranger, and that person is hoisted
to safety and the helicopter takes her away
and it comes back and the same scene repeats
itself four more times, and every time, he's
got his hands on a rope ladder.
He is this close to saving his life, and every
single time he passes it to a stranger - not
his wife, not his daughter, not his best friend.
A stranger.
And when the helicopter came back for him,
he had succumbed to fatigue and drowned.
His name was Orland Williams.
I'm not asking you to be Reagan.
I'm not asking you to be Lincoln.
I'm just asking you to live a quiet life of
conviction and virtue and actually live out
what you profess to believe, and if you can
do that, you'll be a leader, you'll be persuasive,
and your generation will get this country
headed back in the direction that you want
it to be in.
Lord, I pray that you would give these young
women and men wisdom and courage; there are
difficult challenges in life.
Help them know what they believe, why they
believe it, help them to communicate in a
manner that is reflective of Your attributes,
and I am reminded that You only describe Yourself
one way: You said that You were low in spirit,
humble.
And I pray that you would give them the courage
to believe that they can be that messenger.
In Christ's name, Amen.
