Encore Interview: The Faith of Senator Tim Scott

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective.

To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. And he is also the first black senator from the south since reconstruction, and the only African American ever to serve in both chambers of Congress. I first met Senator Scott at the Capitol Club when I was introduced to him by my friend Marco Rubio. It was also at that time I met Trey Gowdy. Senator Scott and Trey are good friends. They've written a book together, as well, that is called Unify, How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Different World.

They are a divided country. So Senator Scott took some time from his busy schedule recently, and we had a conversation about issues that America is dealing with right now. Well Tim, thanks so much for being on with us, and I should call you Senator Scott, but we're friends, so sometimes I call you Tim, so I might go back and forth. I prefer Tim, so that's the good news.

Well Tim, thanks so much. You're so busy right now. Honestly, I was amazed that you still were able to do this interview, or you made time to do this interview with all that's going on, because literally you're in the eye of the storm as you're taking point on a legislation package addressing our country's policing system right now. And of course, the whole national conversation is about the tragic death of George Floyd, and I think pretty much everyone who is sane would agree that that was a horrible injustice, and to describe it as a murder is not an understatement.

And to see this poor man not able to breathe and even calling out for his mother, and this has created a furor in the country, legitimate protests, but then also it's escalated into riots and the destruction of property and even the loss of more life. And now the conversation has morphed into a new topic where people are calling for the abolishment of the police departments and changing the whole thing, defunding the police. So, you know, I read a quote on social media, Tim, where you made this statement, and I quote, What do you mean when you say character-driven law enforcement officers?

I mean the exact opposite of Chauvin, the officer that murdered George Floyd. I mean that when I was a 16-year-old and involved in a major car accident laying on the side of the road, that a highway patrolman came up to me and told me that my mother would be happy that I was alive when I thought all she would have cared about was the vehicle because it was her first new car. And he was teaching me a very valuable lesson. As a character-driven officer, he was teaching me that there's far more important things to your mother than the material possessions that she could live without, but she can't live without her son. And so there are a lot of officers out there that are doing their jobs, and we need those jobs, those folks who are doing their jobs to stand up and be counted because so often and too often what we hear about in the news recently are the tragedies brought about by people who seem to lack that character position. I would say that Romans 13 is another interesting chapter as it relates to policing and frankly having government officials with swords back in that day sounds like law enforcement officers to me. And that just tells me that the importance of order and structure in a society can be seen woven into the Scriptures that we both so love.

That's right. And God has established order. He's established government. He's put you where you are. He's put me where I am. He's put those folks in service in law enforcement where they are as well as those that serve in the military.

And you quoted Romans 13. And I know a lot of people in law enforcement that are wonderful people full of integrity and do their job so well. But you know, when you see an abuse or something that is wrong and with everyone filming everything and we all see it, it's very easy to characterize everyone that way. But I think we need to have a balanced view. I know you struggle with it because, for instance, if you say, I support law enforcement and believe that they've been placed there by God, then someone will say, well, what about racism? Then if you say, I believe racism is real and I believe that racism is wrong and sinful, someone will come back and say, well, what about, you know, what about this?

You know, and they'll come out from another angle. Why don't you talk about the police officers? I believe God has established law enforcement. I believe racism is a real problem in our country. And I think we need to talk about it. And I don't know why you have to be in one camp or the other. And I know you yourself have been attacked for what you're trying to do with all of this. Without any question, I always say, Gray, that the two are not mutually exclusive. I can be pro-law enforcement and pro-communities of color.

You can be both. And the question is, how do we drive ourselves to a position where Galatians 3.28 and 3.29, that reminds me that we are both seeds of Abraham and adopted into the same family. There is no black, no white. There's no Jew, no Jew. It doesn't say black and white in the Bible.

It says Jew, Gentile, male and female. And so from my perspective, when you read that, it's impossible not to come to the conclusion that God is not colorblind. He actually loves diversity.

He embraces diversity. And we should too. And we should treat each other, according to Matthew 22, verse 39, we should treat each other as we would want to be treated. If we found ourselves literally living out scripture, these would not be problems. But when we aren't living in a place of a utopian society, I think that's called heaven, by the way, then we're going to face people who fall short. And we should hold those people who fall short accountable to the level that is necessary to improve the outcome of the society. And sometimes that means being hard on people who abuse their power and authority. Sometimes it means being clear about the challenges that may be endemic to poverty or other issues. So if we're going to treat the subject right, we have to view it not from my view up, but from the Lord's view down.

And that's the best way for us to make progress in this nation. And unfortunately, most of us are picking sides. You have to remind me on this one, because in Joshua, where the angel comes down and the army say, are you on my side or are you on their side? And he's like, dude, seriously, I'm on the side of the Lord.

That's it. Choose his side. And I don't mean to be overly religious, because in my opinion, this is not about religion. This is about a personal relationship that transformed the way I see others, because it first transformed how I see myself. And if I will take that new transformed self, who before I was saved, I was filled with iniquity, driven by sin, driven by my instinctual love, so to speak.

Now as a born again believer, I'm driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I don't look for a black solution or a white solution or a blue solution. I look for a God solution. And that means I have to start there, end there, and in the middle, stay there. Well, that is the greatest statement.

Not a white solution, not a black solution, not a blue solution, a God solution. That was not being a Christian wife God wanted me to be. I was unkind and selfish. In the fall of 2012, God got a hold of me, and I realized what kind of wife I'd become. I asked for forgiveness. Happily ever after, right?

Not so much. Soon after, my husband decided he didn't love me anymore, and my life and marriage went into a downward spiral. Having heard your program many times, I remember sitting there wondering if you had a message on marriage problems.

It was the same week that you were doing a message on marriage, divorce, and adultery. I tuned in. It was like God used you to talk directly to me. I listened and re-listened to those messages to help me get through. I prayed and asked God to take control. That Saturday night, my husband came home and said he wanted to work on our marriage. It took a period of months and some counseling from our pastor and his wife, but God saved our marriage. Pastor Greg, I thank the Lord for your message right when I needed it and when I was losing hope. Happy ending.

Now we have two amazing little boys and are so much in love with each other. Thank you for letting me share, and God bless you. What an encouraging story of God working in this woman's marriage and family.

Do you have a story to tell? Pastor Greg would love to hear from you. Just email him at gregatharvest.org. Again, that's gregatharvest.org. Pastor Greg is talking with U.S.

Senator Tim Scott today on a special edition of A New Beginning. You know, I kidded you. I remember the last time I interviewed you with Trey Gowdy. I said, now Tim, are you sure you're not a preacher? You know the word of God.

You're applying it to your work, and I love this so much about you because it's all integrated together. But you mentioned the word saved. When did Tim Scott come into this relationship with God? You know, I was 11 years old. I was at Baptist Church, Morris Street Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. When I gave my life to the Lord, He became my Savior. He did not become my Lord until I was a freshman in college on a small football scholarship at Presbyterian College when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, not just my Savior. Because at 11 years old, I knew I needed a Savior. I didn't realize that the delineation between a Savior and a Lord, a Lord is how you live your life. A Savior is where you go when it's over.

I needed a Lord, and I wanted an earthly father, and I found in Scripture at 18 years old that Jesus Christ could lead me to my heavenly Father, and I could read the Scripture to understand who I am in Christ. That became my journey, and that's one of the reasons why if you read my legislation, if you focus on my agenda, it's not about helping fill in the blank people. It's not about conservatives. It's not about Republicans. It's not about blacks. I'm a conservative. I'm black. It's not about me.

It can't be about me. I have been called to serve a greater good, and that greater good is helping people. The least of these first, Matthew 25 talks about certain groups of people that need help. You help widows, prisoners, the naked, the hungry. How did I treat him, Jesus, is how I treat my fellow brothers and sisters. And so if I do that in my legislative priorities, I think the country is going to be better off, and maybe I'm only called to reach one-tenth of the country or one percent of the country.

Do your job. I might just be the toe. You're obviously the heart or the head. On the body of Christ, I'm simply the toe or the finger or the pinky.

Count me in, though. I want to go all in for what the Lord has given me, and when I do that, I know that Matthew 25, 21, Well done, my good and faithful servant, is what I will hear at the end. But if it's all about me, if it's all about black people, if it's all about politicians, if it's all about conservatives, if it's all about Republicans, I don't know that God looks down and says, Man, I made you an African American alive and healthy in 2020, and the best you can do is just help yourself.

I think he wants every characteristic that he's given each of us to serve other people and to do so in a way that attracts people not to ourselves, but attracts people to the God in us, to the Lord in the world. And when that happens, I can walk up to a police officer who happens to be white and love him because when my house was broken into when I was a kid, he responded. I can say to the police officer who happened to be white who pulled me over for driving while I was black and had no other reason for pulling me over, I can be righteously indignant to that. I can be both.

I should be both. And that's what we're missing. I'm not on someone's side.

And it's painful when you're a black conservative Republican to speak out when you see wrong on the conservative side and when you hear wrong on the black side, you get a tie down from both sides. But once again, whence comes my strength? It comes from above.

That's right. You know, when you were a young man, you mentioned your father wasn't there. I didn't have a dad growing up.

My mom was married and divorced seven times, so I grew up in a fatherless home. And I came to faith at 17, very close to your age. Yeah, 18. Wow.

18, so very close there. But a mentor stepped into your life. And it's interesting that you were standing in line at Chick-fil-A, and all you could afford were the french fries and a glass of water. But you had another motive for standing in line at Chick-fil-A, and then you met a man that worked at a movie theater who for the next four years impacted your life, and it turned out to be the last four years of his life.

So tell us about the influence of a mentor in a young person's life. Well, this is one of the beauties of God's love. The agape form of love is unconditional and doesn't see anything other than the purest form of love. And that's why pure love casts out all darkness.

It's a form of light. And for me, that came in the form of the Chick-fil-A operator that you just described when I was working at the movie theater after I stood in line because he had really cute girls working there and I wanted the french fries as well. He came down and brought me a Chick-fil-A sandwich and started the conversation.

This is 1981-82. A white guy, I'm a poor black kid, and he started a conversation. And one of the most important things he taught me over the next four years was that what you think is possible is way too limited. He really started weaving into my consciousness this notion that with God, all things were possible. And then after he passed away, I became far more familiar.

He was 38 years old when he died. I was 19. And I realized that I had a responsibility to teach the lessons of John Moniz, the lessons he taught me about having a job is a good thing, but creating jobs is a better thing. Making an income will make you have a good quality of life, but having a profit gives you equity in this amazing country. And that really, for a poor kid who flunked out of high school as a freshman, was like manna from heaven.

It was just enough to sustain me, but it made me hungry for more. And what I learned was Ephesians 3, 20, and 21, that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or imagine. So at 19, I started dreaming about the craziest things like one day being governor of my state or being mayor of my city. And for some reason, even then, I knew I wanted to be in public service because one of the lessons of John was a poor kid can make a huge difference. You just have to find your path. And so what I'm trying to say to people who may be listening to us is that mentoring is transformative. Do not think you need to have a black mentor to help a black kid.

You need someone who loves unconditionally without any other motivation to make the kind of difference that leads a poor kid flunking out of high school, who failed civics, the study of politics, to one day be a United States senator writing the laws for our country because God has a sense of humor. Well, I think, you know, I think that man saw with your potential and they got out a special plan for your life. And I wonder, Tim, this is probably not a question you want to answer, but would you ever consider running for the presidency? Wow.

That is a question maybe of my homeowner association. Who knows? You know, Greg, I've been watching you for, I think I told you this last time I was at your church, since the 1980s, 83, 84. You had a little longer hair than you have now. It's down to your shoulders. And I thought you were the coolest dude who loved the Lord and he was doing what God had called him to do. My hope is that my future will look like your entire journey, which is I will do what God has called me to do.

And it may be a higher office running for it. I may lose. Or it may be entering into the ministry and becoming an evangelist where I get to go around and share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the land of the living. So whatever he calls, I hope I have ears to hear and a heart that is soft enough to respond. Well, just for the record, I think you'd be an amazing president if that was God's plan for you. And I think you're an amazing evangelist, too, so there's a lot of options out there. But I would like to pray for you if that works. Please.

That would be wonderful. So let me pray for you. Father, I thank you for Senator Tim Scott, how that poor boy with an uncertain future, with no father, was touched by you. And that man took an interest in him and how you've guided him and how he has served in this position that he is in. And we know that you have a plan for him yet in the future. The thoughts that you have toward him are good. And we pray that he will find that plan and walk in it, that you will protect him, that you'll guide him.

And give him the wisdom he needs as he navigates political issues, racial issues, social issues, all issues. And our faith is in you and our trust is in you. And I thank you for him.

Bless us, Senator Scott and his staff, and use him for your glory. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. God bless you. Thank you for your ministry for all these years. And I thank God that he called you when he did.

And look what God did in your life. And I gotta say, it's exciting to see and to learn from you, even to this day. Bless you. God bless you, Senator.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D dot org.