Proud is the diversity in these graduates. God bless you. Proud to see that tonight. The last thing you would probably expect from a return politicians and guarantee or promise. [laughter] tonight, im going to give you a guarantee and a promise. Just one tonight. No outlines. Im going to give you a promise of this. Each and every one of u. S. Graduates will face one thing. Youarmacy i promise you will face one thing, adversity. Adversity to look at and i will break it down into two categories. The first one is adversity from the world. Enemy is desiring to to destroy gods perfect plan for you this evening. Im not going to spend very much time. Maybe 10 minutes tonight, i wont spend any time on point number one. I know Piedmont International university has given you all that body armor to quench those and get your sword and spear and get ready to go. From adversity from the enemy, you at your center of gravity. You are ready to take that on. I want to talk to you tonight for a few minutes on the second type of varsity. Not from the world, from inside the camp. From your friends. From your family. Even from the church. About ask me all the time my background. In the church, in the ministry. Christ gave his life for the church. It is the most beautiful thing in the world. I could tell you sometimes it is the most painful thing in the world as well. Sometimes i will get asked how in the world did you, with no political career hit the ground running so fast in washington, d. C. . You and i really know the answer, they dont. I could tell you this, for those of you may know. If you could survive a baptist business meeting. [laughter] working with nancy pelosi is a piece of cake. [laughter] maybe that is a little exaggerated. [laughter] this. Tell you many of you can share the same things. I know what is like to be broken. To look up and feel like you have no hope. That kind of pain doesnt come from the world. That kind of pain comes from inside the camp. I had the chance to play quarterback at my small high school. I remember there was this one drill called bull in the ring. Some of you may remember that. It is probably not politically correct to do that drill. I dont know why was in the middle of this ring but the coach thought there was some moral value. You are in the circle and whoever is in the middle of the circle, you are there in the coach will call in number. Number 32 is over here, you get the ball and you just smack the guy. You are ready to go. Number 44 is over here, you are ready to go. Every now and then the coach would say number 30. You thought 30 was over here but number 30 was over here and before you can turn around right in the year whole, bam. What does that matter to this . The toughest kind of pain that you will ever face is when you dont have your center of gravity ready. In most helmets, you get hit in the ear hole and there is eight ring that stays with you for a few plays. I have gone back to the huddle and not been able to distinguish left or right but just said we are running this way. The problem is, many times we are not ready to face that kind of adversity when it is inside the camp. Can get beaten and bruised. I will tell you, i can assure you that once you get to that place where you feel like you have no direction to go, that ground is solid. Have theid because you faith in jesus christ. We can get distracted by the pain that is created from inside the camp. Maybeclarkson sang a song 10 or 11 years ago, i think it was a number one hit that said what doesnt kill you makes you stronger. Some of you may make thats remember that song. Some of that may be true. What doesnt kill you doesnt necessarily make you better. You have a choice. Sometimes i have seen it make people bitter. That adversity, is it making you better . Or is it making you bitter . Whether youre going to fulltime ministry, parttime, whether you are a volunteer or wherever your career may be. Are you ready . Are you prepared . Withur center of gravity jesus christ to take on that adversity . Im a small town preachers kid. My parents taught me early on what it meant to serve the king. To be a lords disciple. We are called in the book of matthew, it tells us that we have to deny ourselves, pick up your cross and follow jesus. The symbolism and across is something of shame. Of embarrassment. That we are actually asked by the creator to carry oh so that others can see him glorified in our lives. I have been blessed in the United States congress, no doubt about it. I was recently looking in january as we had the different appointments to what committee and i was ranked named the Ranking Member on terrorism and counterintelligence. I opened up the member booklet and i was flipping through the bios of the first guy on the list, jurisprudence, doctorate from princeton. Next guy, two degrees from harvard. My friend to my right, undergraduate, notre dame law school. Flip the page, theres me. [laughter] rep. Walker i say that to say god can take you anywhere when you are allowing him to lead the path. That is what he is asking for you this evening, tomorrow, and throughout the rest of your life. In the last 4. 5 years, of the opportunity to travel to many places and many countries. New zealand, australia, romania, lithuania, south korea and north korea at the dmz, ive looked at the soldiers of north korea, ive been in a syrian refugee camp 15 kilometers below the syrian border. There is no place that has moved me that ive traveled than being in normandy. I had the chance to go out there. And i remember standing and looking at the stars of david and the crosses lying perfectly, standing over the grave of a 20yearold north carolinian who was willing to pay the ultimate price, looked out over those hills and as you gaze down from the hill, it is amazing, you can look out across into the atlantic ocean. Some of you from a historical standpoint may remember what happened on that june 6, 1944 day. There were five beaches involved by the allied forces. Great britain and canada took three beaches. The two beaches where the germans were dug in, utah and omaha, was left for the americans. As these young soldiers were put into these boats, more like a shipping container, sometimes for a couple hours in those tumultuous waves, the storm had come in, they begin to get seasick, dehydrated, without being too graphic, throwing up on each other, and by the time the big doors open, the bullets were already lining up. The reason why is because the airdrop that day, because the weather, had missed their support. They had no air support. As i stood there and began to tok with the guide, he began talk about what happened specifically on that day. How these great generals and these military minds i drafted out the perfect plan to take that beach. Get because of the weather, they had faced unclaimed adversity that day. To the five or six members of congress that were there that day, he said, you n by, this battle wasnt wo colonels, kernels it was won by everyday people, 18yearold and 19yearold young man running up that hill, knowing exactly what they might face. So sometimes you may not have the greatest resume, you may not have all the prestige in the let me remind you that god has a specific plan for you this evening. Heres the neat thing. God does not call you anywhere where you are exempt from being a light for jesus christ. Whether it is washington dc, winstonsalem, somewhere internationally, wherever it might be. Here is the cool part on this gods journey that we live, we talk about the adversity, but here is the promise we see played out. It comes out of ephesians 3 20. I love this verse because it talks about how god takes us to places beyond what we could ever hope, what we could ever dream, or what we could ever even imagine. It does not make sense to the world. Because here we are carrying a cross, yet at the same time god is fulfilling everything and more that we could ever be because sometimes that vessel has to be broken. In fact, i will tell you today, im not sure that god can use you to your fullest, until youve been completely broken. If you are willing to take that brokenness and allow god to use he will take you across the threshold of something you cant even imagine. Paul said it best in closing tonight. Wherever you go, whatever you do, do not grow weary in well doing. Fo in due seasonr, you will reap if you do not think. God bless you. Thank you for the opportunity. [applause] journalns washington live every day with the news and policy issues. We will discuss all special counsel Robert Muellers statement on the russia pro, then afghanistans Inspector General will be on to talk about his report about u. S. Reconstruction efforts in afghanistan. Be sure to watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern thursday morning. Join the discussion. Live thursday on the cspan networks. President trump speaks at the air force Academy Commencement in Colorado Springs at 12 30 p. M. That is on cspan. At 2 00 p. M. , a discussion on russias growing role in the middle east. Holds a pro forma session when democrats may try to pass a Disaster Relief bill for the third time. On cspan2, a look at standards and oversight for artificial intelligence. On athletes and activism posted by the atlantic. On cspan3, it look state Budget Priorities and tax revenue. At 1 30 p. M. , the acting deputy secretary of defense talks about the pentagons current 750 billion budget request. Our next commencement speech comes from 1963. In what became known as his peace speech, pren