Special Guest Speaker | Former U.S. Congressman Trey Gowdy

you know the last thing dr. young said to me before he walked up here was your home home is such a beautiful word and he's right it is hard for me to believe that it was over 30 years ago that I first came to this church when Ben and I were at Baylor in this church and by the way I told dr. young this last night y'all would be amazed at the number of people in my home state of South Carolina that follow your services and follow your church online or on television but this has always felt like home to me and the young family has always been so good to me and they've held me accountable and you'll get when I was in Congress I'd get periodic phone calls from dr. young helping me understand issues that I thought I understood before he called but but I didn't understand them so Thank You dr. Young and thank you all for welcoming me to what really does feel like like home our country is going through a really challenging time period from a health standpoint from from an economic standpoint from a racial justice justice system standpoint I just want you to know we're gonna make it through it we've been through tough times before as a people and my hope my hope my fervent hope is that not only do we make it through it but we make it through it more unified and we're perfecting this union I mean democracy is the state of perfection what we are constantly trying to make it better and it is my fervent hope that we do emerge on the other side of these challenges a more unified better people when you're home you get to act like your home and you get to talk about things you ordinarily wouldn't talk about out in public and this is no exception there's something I want us to talk about this morning but before we get to that I want to share something that happened to me several months ago I think it was dr. young our country seemed like it was on the verge war with either Denmark or Norway or Sweden or someone you all remember that some fight over Greenland and we there was and I was nervous a what in Congress anymore but I was really nervous you see these news accounts about about us having difficulties with Norway and Iceland and Denmark and I was nervous I was primarily nervous that someone would ask me to find one of those three countries on a map because I couldn't do it and I was also nervous because I was powerless to do anything about it not in the house anymore just a regular old lawyer in the Upstate of South Carolina and Lord has a sense of humor and he sent me a dream that included some of my former colleagues and look if I didn't feel like I was at home I wouldn't share this dream but I do feel like I'm at home so I will in my dream which Lord sent me and included three of my former colleagues John Boehner Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham were taking a hot yoga class at a strip mall in Georgia good luck getting that image out of your mind but this is my dream I'm the lawyer you can trust me so they're taking a hot yoga class and it struck by lightning and tragically all three of them die and go to heaven which could happen two of them for sure but in my dream all three of them went and they were met by st. Peter and Saint Peter said look your big shots on earth but this is heaven and we have rules and you're gonna follow the rules or they're gonna be consequences well John Boehner was the first one to violate the rules of heaven he broke into a CVS and stole some cigarettes and some self-tanning lotion and in my dream he is confined to this prison cell and forced to watch uninterrupted for all of eternity with no commercial breaks the Hallmark Channel and in a voice as loud as thunder I hear John Boehner you violated the rules of heaven and this is your punishment all of eternity and then I'll see Marco Rubio and Marco violated the rules of heaven he broke into Mary Magdalene's apartment and stole those high-heeled boots he wore when he was running for president and then all his way out of the apartment stills a case of San Pellegrino sparkling water in case he's ever asked to give a response to the State of the Union again come on now y'all remember that y'all remember that simple water he took on national television he may have forgotten it but God has not forgotten it neither have I but in any event he's caught and he's chained a Roseanne Barr with a 5-foot long chain and I hear and a voice is loudest Thunder Marco Rubio you have violated the rules of heaven and this is your punishment for all of eternity and this is where I get emotional because whether you like Lindsey or not it's not important he's been a friend of mine for 25 years since I was a district attorney Lindsey's been a friend and he will frequently come over on Sundays and play golf with my son in me now it is after church for my son in me I have no idea whether it is after church for Lindsey or not my suspicion is that Lindsey has been a lifetime member of bedside Baptist with the Reverend easy pillow but I do not know that for sure in any event he's a friend and I get emotional as I reflect upon the fact that I see him in my dream and he has changed in the former supermodel Cindy Crawford with a 3-foot long chain and I hear a voice as loud as thunder of Cindy Crawford you have violated the rules of how [Applause] so for those of you who have asked me will I ever be a federal judge Lindsay is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee so the answer to that as of about 30 seconds ago will be known now will not happen we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and less than a week our country will celebrate our day of independence the day that we pronounced ourselves an experiment in self-governance July 4th 1776 it's the day we declared our independence and I want you to have a great July 4th I want you to have a great Independence Day and I want you to celebrate what our country has been what it is what it can be more importantly as we seek to perfect this union but I don't want to talk to you about that independence day I want to talk to you about another independence day I want to talk to you about your Independence Day and whether you've had one and whether you want one and what you've done with it life liberty and the pursuit of happiness those are the three seminal words us the phrase that most of us and it's okay some people may think that's in the Constitution it's in the Declaration of Independence it would have been wonderful had we codified that into the Constitution but we did not that is the phrase from our Declaration of Independence life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and what I want us to do for the next couple of minutes is apply that to ourselves and ask ourselves have we had our own day of Independence and how do those words apply to us not anyone else not to us corporately as a country but to us as individuals life makes sense that you would begin with life everything else Springs from life life is one of those words we use from time to time but I wonder how often we have stopped and thought what does that word mean and it's Folsom Ness and its wholeness what does the word life need sure there's a biological component but it's got to be more than that I learned a lot about life in the job that dr. young reference being a prosecutor particularly a homicide prosecutor surrounded by death teaches you a lot about life death is the perhaps is perhaps the most life-affirming thing you can be surrounded by because as a prosecutor I figured out there is no retreat from death there is no bargaining with death there is no compromising with death whatever the last thing you said to the person you love the most is gonna have to suffice for all of time whatever you wanted to do in life but never had the chance to do or never got around to doing you're never going to do there's a finality about death which means there has to be a primacy a fundament a lady of a life it is that thing from which all else flows life the most life-affirming case I handled as the district attorney was the murder of a ten year old who could not walk she could not talk she could not feed herself she was confined to a wheelchair for the entirety of her short precious life that is not in existence any of us would choose for ourselves it is not in existence that we would choose for those we care about but that was her existence that was the way she was made that was her life couldn't walk couldn't talk couldn't feed herself was completely and totally reliant upon others if you ever visited my office in Washington you would see a picture of my family on my desk and my beautiful wife and she is beautiful and our two children that are thankfully healthy and then the picture right beside them the only other picture on my desk was of that 10 year old in her wheelchair with the most radiant beautiful smile prosecuting her murder helped me understand just how fundamental and primary life is that she could smile her way through an existence that we wouldn't choose for anyone we cared about but that was her life and it was my job to assign the same value in the same worth to her life as I would my own children so I kept that reminder of how she used the gift of her life to remind me to ask myself what are you doing with yours life is more than just some esoteric concept it's been discussed I mean it dis discussed in the Constitution the due process clause you cannot be deprived life without due process it's discussed in Scripture I am the way the truth and the life dr ben young and i like to dabble in philosophy from time to time we both fans may not be the right word we enjoy reading a philosopher named Albert Camus who by the way spent most of his career trying to figure out whether life was worth it or not he was an absurdist he really struggled debating whether life was meaningful enough to pursue but even camu concluded and let me paraphrasing this is what he concluded even in the middle of winter I find within me an invincible summer dust of yeskey who is my favorite author if you've read crime and punishment or The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky tells the story of this man confined to a cast-iron chair with void and nothingness on either side of him to his left who is right in front of him and behind him he is just just picture the image of this this person confined to a cast-iron chair with nothingness surrounding it and dust of yeskey would argue it is better to get to live a thousand years like that and begin it all again than to not have life but it's more than just a concept by a Russian author or an existential philosopher I want you to bring it to a more particular eyes level to a more granular level what have you done with your life if you acknowledge that it is a gift what have you done with this gift what do you hope to do with the time that you have left what will your legacy you may say well that's a big word tre I mean I'm not gonna necessarily leave a legacy I'm not a famous Russian author or a philosopher yes you will you will leave a legacy whether you want to or not what will it be life the way I view life is I have been given a canvas God gave me a canvas and their paints that I have at my disposal and sure I can lament the fact that he didn't give me the paint of being able to sing or any other talent for that matter I can lament that fact or I can be thankful that he gave me more paints and a better brush than he gave that 10 year old sitting on my desk what have you painted on your canvas and what do you want to paint before you run out of room or the paint dries life liberty and the pursuit of happiness liberty is another word we probably don't spend a ton of time thinking about it but it'd be good if we did what does Liberty mean to you you may say that's freedom fair enough freedom to do what what does it mean what does it need to be free and you may say well the freedom of speech the freedom to worship the freedom to assemble freedom to express myself that's all part of it of course but Liberty has to be bigger than just my ability to say whatever I want to say so as you reflect on your own independence well what do you believe the word liberty what are you free to do what does it mean to you so that's the affirmative way of looking at it I'm free to do certain things I like to look at what things are not it helps me to define what something is by looking at what it is not and if you ask me to pick an antonym for freedom I would pick prison physical confinement physical restrictions the inability to move as I want to move the inability to kind of set the own my own course for my life I would say the antonym of freedom is present and as soon as I say that I am I am reminded of all of the people and the old and the New Testament who made an impression on the world and on us even while they were in prison Joseph Daniel Samson Peter Paul Jeremiah so you can be physically restricted and still be free I wonder if the converse is true can you be physically free and still restricted of course you can I served with a powa man named Sam Johnson who passed away this year from the great state of Texas John McCain was appealed of you there are other POWs so when you think about the antithesis of liberty or freedom you may think about prison you may think about being a prisoner of war but yet we know that there can be a Liberty there can be a freedom even when you are physically constructed prison whoever tells you that prisons are not that bad or their country clubs has never been never been I went to him when I was a prosecutor there the coldest starkest places in the world but prisons are more than a razor wire concrete and steel so my question for you today as we contemplate your Independence Day is what is the name of your prison pride is a prison guilt is a prison pain can be a prison substance abuse can be a prison racism is a prison this belief that you are somehow better than someone based on immutable qualities you may think that you are hurting the other person that you are killing yourself and it would be amazing if our foundational document had taken the virtue espoused in the Declaration of Independence it would have been amazing if we had codified all men and women are equal in the eyes of their Creator and as we seek a more perfect union that's what we should aspire to what was in the Declaration of Independence shouldn't be what we were living all along for these last 200 years and maybe our country would not have some of the challenges that we have but racism as a prison anger as a prison what is the name of your prison mine was anger I remember as a teenager no one went to see a pastoral counselor at our church to be quite candid about it I'm sure I was made to go to see a pastoral counselor at our church and our most telling dr. young I remember vividly his first question to me and it wasn't how are you doing how do you feel you know you had this images of this image of laying on a psychologist office couch and he or she's gonna say how do you feel that's not what he asked he and I said first question to me is why are you so angry I didn't know I don't know I don't know I had a great childhood other than having to grow up with three sisters I had a great childhood I don't know but it doesn't always make sense does it the prisons are not always the ones that you choose the question is what is the name of the prison you were in and are you tired of serving the citizens you've been pardoned somebody else to serve the sentence are you ready to walk away are you ready to free yourself and I know the good theology is for me to tell you that God freed me from that prison called anger that's the right theology that's what I should tell you but the reality is God gave the keys to that prison called anger to a 5 foot 4 inch brunette with the most beautiful blue eyes you have ever seen in your life and the most radiant smile you have ever seen in your life that I have lived with for the past 31 years so maybe you need to ask him to help you escape whatever prison has been constructed for you or you have constructed for yourself and perhaps he may send someone else with the keys but you should identify what is the name of the prison it keeps you from filth from feeling and living this life of freedom life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and what I would ask you I want you to be happy I want you to laugh I want you to be full of joy I want you to be contented but I would ask you respectfully to substitute a word for happiness as you kind of h out your own Independence Day I would ask you to substitute the word significance pursue a life of significance and you may say well what does that mean I mean finding something or someone bigger than you something bigger than you something worthy of you investing this gift of life and your own liberty in significance I was stuck in an airport travel was all put to a screeching halt I wouldn't going back home I was not speaking to anger I wasn't all that happy about it and I look out of the corner of my eye and I see two nuns and they're staring up at the board and when I mean stare and I mean they're like memorizing the board and their flights not going anywhere either so I had this voice of my wife in my head you should go help them well honey I'm just gonna scare them I mean if I walk up to two nines I'm just gonna scare them but I went and one didn't speak English at all the other spoke a little bit of English Spanish was their native language and so I I see a colleague Joey Kennedy from Massachusetts and now remember he was in the Peace Corps in a spanish-speaking country and I bring Joey over there and he communicates with them they're trying to get to Argentina by way of Houston and they're stuck in Washington so I think to myself oh what am I gonna do I mean should I rent a car and drive them to Charlotte and then I got the optics of me in the car with two nuns and I just tell you for ten hours my wife listens to contemporary Christian music that's the New Testament I'll listen to country music and hip-hop cuz that's the Old Testament and you need both but I wasn't sure these two nuns wanted to listen to the semi what are we going to talk about but I stayed with and we finally made it to Charlotte and then I finally got them home and I got my email and they invited me to their convent Northern Virginia so I went and how am I gonna go an entire day without doing anything wrong but I went and visited the convent now walk in and there's no television so I said what do you all do for fun they said we pray and we go to church and I fall I'm still mad at my dad for making me go on Sunday nights and you got to go every single day and then I said you know do y'all ever watch movies oh yes yes yes yes we watched one the other night you would love it they called the name of it I've never heard of it before in my life think hallmark channel but worse that's what this movie was what the Hallmark Channel is a perfect man and a perfect woman overcoming a small obstacle in life and living happily ever after this was to perfect people and no obstacle in life it's just boring but they were so content wearing the same thing tomorrow that they wore today in the day before and totally relying upon other people but they had found something and someone bigger than themselves and then I thought the other happy people on no one like my wife I have two co-workers that I would describe as just content their content they have found their against they are actually living out Matthew 6:33 but seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you significance and if you're wondering where that roadmap for significance is how can I find a roadmap for it I would invite you to something called the Beatitudes the blessed or you want a life of significance start with following the blessings you've been given life you either have Liberty or you should now feel empowered to get out of whatever prison has been constructed for you or you have constructed yourself and I would encourage you to pursue a life of significance so you can look back when the canvas is full and the pain is dry and you can know you had your own Independence Day if the son sets you free you shall be free indeed if you're looking for freedom start with the person who uttered the Beatitudes who serve the prison sentence for you who gave you life

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

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Keywords: second baptist church houston, trey gowdy, congressman trey gowdy, woodway, west, north, south, cypress, 1463

Id: X93c4yVzy80

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020