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I Don't Have Enough FAITH to Be an ATHEIST
Behind the Scenes at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Service
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Well, more than a hundred million people were watching the memorial service for my friend Charlie Kirk. And as you know, I was honored to be a part of that. In this podcast, I want to tell you what happened that day Sunday and what went on behind the scenes and what an amazing job the TPUSA team did, as you saw from the production. But there was a lot to do behind the scenes. A lot of people I met, a lot of insights I gleaned, and I'm just gonna tell you what I experienced there and hopefully it'll be of some comfort to you, those of you that are mourning Charlie's death, as I still am and will for quite a while. What I wanted to say in my talk, I actually left out. I'll tell you what happened here in a few minutes, but let me just say that that TPUSA team pulled off one of the biggest events in human history actually in seven days. That arena, as you know, was full. There was arena next to it that was full. I think they're the capacity of the State Farm arena there where the Arizona Cardinals play, if you don't include the floor is somewhere around 65,000. But when you include the floor, it can get as high as 75 or 80,000. And just about every seat was taken there. So there probably were 75,000 people in that building. There were another, I don't know, 20 or 30,000 in the building next to it. Several thousand were turned away and there were millions watching on TV and the Internet. We were part of the entourage to get there. Many of the speakers and friends of Charlie, we had to meet at a hotel in northern Phoenix and we met there at 6.45am There was some security, obviously we had a bomb dog come on the bus we were on. We did not leave there until about 8am Remember, this event is supposed to begin at 11am and it's about a half hour bus ride from where we are to the event. So the speaking was to begin around 11am but there was music from about 8am As I understand it, the parking lot was began to be open at 5am but there were thousands of people waiting at 5am to get into the parking lot because it was first come, first serve into the parking lot and then into the arena itself. Anyway, we, we took a bus with the motorcade, including Erica and several others in this long row of vehicles from northern Phoenix all the way down to the arena. And the Phoenix police were very professional. They had a lane for us to go all the way right into the facility, right underneath the Stadium. And when we were approaching the. The stadium, we saw a huge banner that was also hung inside, but it was hung on the outside of the stadium, and it was a banner of Charlie Kirk, remembering Charlie Kirk. Everybody had to, by the way, do all this in about seven days from the time it was decided to the time it was done. This banner covered the side. It had to be several stories high. There was a similar one inside the arena, and there were thousands of signs printed up, thousands of badges that had to be printed up. I mean, you don't think of these things if you're just thinking, okay, I'm going to go to this event. You don't know all the preparation that went into this. And the people that were doing it were in mourning, but they did it. So there had to be 200,000 people there. As I say, not all of them could get in. When we drove into the stadium, we went right down and got off the bus and walked in. This is where, like, loading docks are and where they bring. Actually, the field in that stadium, you may not know, is actually kept outside the stadium. It's on a track. And so they expose it to sunlight outside the stadium and water it and cut it. And for game time, they wheel on a track, that whole. That whole grass field right into the stadium. So that that grass field is outside the stadium. As we pull up and we walk through these loading dock areas and walk right into the floor of the arena. And before we do, we're all looking for restrooms, and I walk into the green room and there's Lee Greenwood and his wife Kim. Very sweet. Came, came up to me and just thanked me for the podcast we did about Charlie. A lot of people said it was healing. Look, I was just telling you what happened, and I didn't know it would be a blessing to people, but thank God it was. And Lee was sitting there. Tucker Carlson was in there. He was talking to other people. I didn't get a chance to talk to Tucker. There were security guys down there. In fact, there were the security gentlemen who were with me and Charlie on September 10th. And of course, I greeted them. They're feeling dejected as to what happened. But as I said from the podium that day, when all of the investigation is done, I think you're going to find that the security guys did everything they were supposed to do. There were other people that dropped the ball, but that's all I can say at this point. That's what I think. That's what I. I have seen. But more on that maybe later. Anyway, I wanted to encourage those guys because they all would have stepped in front of that bullet for Charlie if they could. So when we got into the arena, we were in the very front section. That's where many of the speakers were. We happened to be the avid seats for us in the third row. And the musicians were up there playing, and nobody was introduced. It wasn't about the musicians. It was all about Jesus, and it was all about honoring Jesus and honoring Charles. But as some of you may know, some of the performers there were Brandon Lake, Chris Tomlin, who I'll tell you about in a few minutes. Got to meet Chris behind the scenes. Phil Wickham, Cody Carnes, Kerry Job Carnes, of course, Lee Greenwood. Now, when I was into Christian music, it was way back in, like, the late 80s and early 90s, so some of the more recent performers, I heard their names. But look, I'm an old guy. I'm 63 years old. I. I'm not really connected to the Christian music scene. Of course, I knew Chris Tomlin because Chris has been around a while and he. He writes some great music. And I'll tell you why. He was there in a few minutes. But they were serving the Lord. They were not up there showing off or, you know, look at me. They. They played about three hours of music before the speaking began. And on our way over on the bus, my friend Rob McCoy, who Charlie always called Rob, his pastor. Rob, for many years, has been the pastor of Godspeak Church in Thousand Oaks, California. I've spoken there a few Times. And Rob McCoy is the father of Mikey McCoy. And Mikey McCoy was the hero of September 10th and still remains a hero. He is Charlie's chief of staff and is now Erica's chief of staff. And I'll tell you more about Mikey here in a minute. But anyway, Rob, a Calvary Chapel pastor. He and I, I don't know, go back four or five years, and we're sitting across from one another on the bus over, and we were talking about, you know, what are you going to say when you get up there? There's going to be well over 100 million people watching. And he said, well, I've been thinking about it, and people told me, you got to write it down. It's too big of a moment to wing it. And he started to write it down. And then he thought about the passage where God says, I'll told his disciples in this instance, when they were going to go out, I'll be with you and tell you what to say. Now, I don't know if that's the perfect exegesis of that passage, but Rob said, I have an idea what I'm going to say. I'm just going to go up there and give them the gospel. And Rob did. And you remember that he asked people who were Christians to stay seated and those who wanted to become to stand up. And I'll tell you what happened in a minute. But let me just play a short clip from Pastor Rob McCoy. He started the. Speaking of, of that memorial service. He was the first speaker. Here he is.
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Jesus came to this earth, was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin, was crucified upon a cross. His blood was poured out because blood must be shed for the remission of sins. And his death upon that cross was sufficient for all the world's sins, but. But only efficient for those who, like Charlie, would receive him as their Savior. Jesus has come to seek and save that which is lost. And I would say this to all of you. The Lord loves you. He wants to save you. He wants to give you a new life. He wants to cover the multitude of your sins by the blood he shed upon the cross.
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And Rob went on to explain what sin is for people who don't know that terminology. And he correctly pointed out it's like an archer's term. It means to miss the mark. You. You try and hit a target, and you miss the target. So sin is missing the mark. And we all missed the mark. In fact, Rob went on to say, we're all fallen. None of us are righteous. We've all done evil, and therefore we all need a savior. And then he told all the Christians to stay seated. And he asked those who wanted to become Christians to stand up. And hundreds, if not thousands, did. When he said that, I looked around the auditorium, I'm on the floor with my wife, and we're just looking around and seeing hundreds, maybe thousands of people standing. And then Rob said, wisely, if you're a Christian and you see somebody next to you, get with that person who just stood up and try and be there for them and guide them to a future with Jesus. And then, of course, they put up a QR code so those people could get connected with a church and with a Bible. So Rob, from the very beginning comes out rightfully so, talking about the gospel, talking about what was most important to Charlie, which was the gospel. And many people stepped into eternity with Jesus that very moment. Then shortly thereafter, his son Mikey and several other people that work with Charlie were. Came up to the podium and all said a Few words. And let me tell you something about Mikey and his family. Mikey's married to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, no extra charge for this. Not many people know this, but Elizabeth is the granddaughter of Joseph Bondarenko. And Joseph has a book. Joseph is now 89 years old. He came to the memorial. He was, as the book says, the KGB's most wanted. He spent collectively over 10 years in Soviet prisons for his faith. He was an underground faith leader. And so Joseph was there. I got to see him again. I've met him before. In fact, let me just read this. That he actually has a THD from International Theological Seminary. He's beloved in his native Russia and around the world as a pastor and evangelist and the organizer of countless crusades. He is known as the Billy Graham of Russia. Joseph was born and grew up in Ukraine. He attended the Naval Academy, but was expelled because of his faith. Just before graduation, he was condemned to prison three times, serving a total of nearly 10 years of imprisonment for preaching God's word. He is married and has five children and eight grandchildren. And all of his children are Christian believers and serve the Lord. Joseph now lives and ministers in Southern California with his family. He was there with his entire family, including his daughter Lydia, who is a fire plug, and her husband Peter, and of course, their daughter Elizabeth, married to the great Mikey McCoy. And I told you last time that when we were in that emergency room, Mikey just took charge, 23 years old. And one thing I said was that Charlie was a great evaluator of giftedness and talent. And I said that to him. And I said, man, you picked Mikey. You picked so many other great people to work alongside you@tpusa and charliekirk.com in TP USA action. He said, yeah, Mikey's great, but I had to break him for a year. You know, Mikey worked in the basically in the warehouse for a year before Charlie pulled him to his side and said, I need you to be my chief of staff. Let me play you a clip from what Mikey said. Here he is, the great Mikey McCoy.
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True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want, but pursuing Christ is in doing what is right. Charlie led by example. It's not only seen in the incredible wife, Erica Kirk, his two beautiful children, the legacy he built, his values, his love of God, and true joy he found in his savior, Jesus Christ, but in countless people, especially young people like Elizabeth and I, whose very lives are the fruit of Charlie's example of faith faithfulness. Charlie, it was the honor of my life to serve you as you serve Jesus and now we will all continue to serve you as we continue to serve Jesus.
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You know, Mikey, me and Charlie were at a restaurant in June. No, actually it was in May when I was in town. And Charlie just wanted to have another session where we could talk about how to better answer kids questions. And Charlie got up to go to the bathroom and I said, mikey, you know that as great as Charlie is, he couldn't do what he does without you. And what Mikey said is what he just said there. He said, it's been a privilege to serve him and serve our Lord through him. Mikey is one of a kind. I want to encourage Mikey at some point to go to college campuses and answer questions because Mikey, at 23, obviously, like any 23 year old, still has much to learn in terms of content, but his maturity is much greater than his age and his personality is so joyous. You can't not like Mikey McCoy. So let's pray that if it is the Lord's will, Mikey can step in and do some of what Charlie was doing, because he is one amazing young man. In fact, the whole McCoy family is amazing. The next person I want to highlight is Stacy Sheridan. I told you about Stacy on the podcast about Charlie last week. If you want to know one source of strength for Erica, it's Stacy Sheraton. Let me just review what I said last time. Stacy's been working for TP USA for a while yet. About a year ago, her husband Mike died of cancer. And a few months after that, her house in California burned down in the fires. This woman has experienced some tragedy. When this happened, Charlie called her up and said, hey, this has got to be a sign. You need to be near us in Phoenix. And so she and her daughter moved to Phoenix. But obviously with the trauma of losing a husband and a father and then losing a home and moving to a city you haven't grown up in, I mean, that's one big change after another big change. It's going to cause a lot of stress. And Stacy's daughter Grace, 10 years old, was questioning, you know, why are we here, Mom? Why are we here? I want to go back to California. I want dad back. I want to be back in our house. You understand? She's 10. Well, as I said before, God allows evil because he allows free choice. And he has to allow free choice. If we don't have free choice, then this is an immoral universe. We're not like God in the sense that we can make choices. Free choice allows us to love, but it also allows us to do evil. So God is not going to stop every evil thing that happens. If he did this, we would be a morally trivial world. It would be a morally impossible world. If he stopped everything that we tried to do, our choices wouldn't really matter. But as 2 Corinthians 1 says that when we go through suffering and God comforts us, that gives us also the ability when others go through suffering, for us, to comfort them. And it was Grace, at 10 years old, who figured out why they were in Phoenix and why they are in Phoenix right now. Here's her mom, Stacey, explaining it.
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When Mike ultimately passed away, Charlie and the entire team were there for us yet again. They helped my daughter grow Grace through the unbearable tragedy of losing her father on her ninth birthday. But Charlie's help didn't stop there. This January, I lost my home in the Pacific Palisades fire. Within a few months, we moved here, and Charlie and Erica welcomed us into their family. My daughter Grace would ask me, why would God do this to us, Mom? In my first conversation with Grace after Charlie's death, Grace said to me through tears over the phone, mom, this is the answer to my question. This is our why. Now we can be there for Erica and Gigi and Mac the way they were there for us.
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Stacy was worried when she came off the stage. Did I do okay? Everybody was just welling up. What do you mean? Did you do okay? Yeah, you did wonderfully, and you're doing wonderfully now because you are a big support to Erica and the kids, and so is Grace. Shortly after that, it was my time to speak, and they told me to come backstage, and I said, how much time do I have before we start? Oh, there's probably 15 minutes. So I said, look, let me use the restroom. Well, there's no restroom back there. So I had to go outside to where the bus came down because there were some porta potties out there. And I walk outside, and there's a Secret Service agent there. And I go, can I use that porta Potty? And she goes, hold on. And I said, look, I'm about to speak. She says, okay. So I start walking to the porta Potty. And then the beast starts coming down the road right in under the stadium. What's the beast? That's the president's limo. There were like three or four of them, because it wasn't just the president that showed up, the vice president, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of war, the, you know, on and on and on. So there I am in a porta potty and the whole motorcade is coming right. Right past me. Anyway, I go back in and I'm backstage, and Jack Posobic and Benny Johnson are just before me. And Representative Anna Luna, I think her name is. And people are always asking, are you ever nervous when you speak? Most of the time, actually, not. Maybe a little bit, but most of the time, no. But if you're not nervous before 100 million people, you don't know the gravity of the moment. So, yeah, I was. I wanted. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss the opportunity to present the gospel to millions of people and to honor Charlie at the same time. So I'm standing there as we're about to go out, just before Jack is finished, and I go, I know I have five minutes, but I just want to verify. I got five minutes, right? How much time do I have? Because, you know, they have a countdown clock. And she goes, four minutes. And I always go, oh, sometimes this happens at the last minute. They'll take a minute or two away from you. Now, I already had something prepared, as you could imagine, like, what am I gonna cut out? Anyway, let's go. Here we go. So I walk out there, and I guess some people knew who I was, because there were some cheers. Most people, of course, didn't. And you know how when you're thinking about saying something, your mind can actually think of other things. So I look out and I look to my left and I see Senator Ted Cruz as I'm about to start. And I'm thinking to myself, why am I speaking and not him? Now, why was I speaking and not him? Because in Charlie's life, Jesus came before politics. Not that politics isn't important. It is. Politics affects policy, and policy affects people. And we are commanded to love people. We don't want laws put in place that hurt people. We want laws put in place to protect them from evil. That's the purpose of government. So politics is important. However, our love for people flows from our love for God. If we don't turn from the evil in our own hearts and get forgiveness and transformation from Jesus, we're not going to love people properly. Our politics is not to be good or not is not going to be good. In fact, it was John Adams who said, our Constitution is made for only a religious and moral people. It is inadequate to govern any other. Now, why did he say that? Because if there isn't a restraint on the evil human heart by the Holy Spirit, by God, you could put all the laws in place you want. You're not Going to have a prosperous society. You're not going to have a peaceful society. You're going to have a violent, decadent society. Now we have a bit of both here. We have a violent, decadent society as well as a prosperous society. But imagine if everybody's heart was transformed by Jesus. A lot of violence and decadence would go away. So while politics is important, it's not our first priority. Love God first, and because you love God, then you'll love people. And because you love people, you'll want to love them in a way politically that will help prevent them from being hurt by evil. But it all starts with the love of God, and Charlie knew that. Everybody thinks Charlie was a political animal, and he was interested, obviously, and he was very big in politics, but that was motivated by his love for Jesus. That's why, as I said before, when donors came to him and said, charlie, we love all the conservative stuff, but stop talking about Jesus. He said, give your money to somebody else, because without Jesus, we're nothing. This all flows from Jesus. By the way, I. I hear people still saying, well, Charlie was a Christian nationalist and all this. And whenever they say that, I want to say, define what you mean by Christian nationalists. Will you please give me a definition of what that means? In fact, Charlie asked me to review some of his recent campus events so he could learn from them. You know, how could I answer this better or that better? And he had a Christian, someone claiming to be a Christian nationalist. And maybe I'll unpack this further in a future program, but I'll give you the short answer here. I said, charlie, your first question back should be, what do you mean by Christian nationalism? Oh, that we want to impose laws consistent with the Bible. Okay, what's your point? Oh, separation of church and state. What does that have to do with anything? We're not legislating religion, we're legislating morality. But secondly, how do you think we ought to govern people? You say, you're a Christian. How should we govern people? And in this case, the guy said, the Sermon on the Mount. My next question would be, oh, why is it that when I want to impose something biblically, I'm a Christian nationalist, but when you want to impose something biblically, you're just right. Everybody's trying to impose. If you say you're a Christian and you say the Sermon on the Mount ought to be imposed, whatever that means, isn't that Christian nationalism, too? Why is one Christian nationalism and another isn't when they both come from the Bible? So we're going to have to define our terms here. Everybody's trying to impose a moral point of view. The only question is, whose moral point of view? Where are you getting this morality from? And you can impose morality because that's what all laws do without imposing religion in the sense that you have to say, well, you have to be this type of religion. You have to obey these certain rights and rituals. You have to do these certain things that we say as a religion you have to do. You can impose. Don't murder, don't steal, don't rape, don't kill your children, don't mutilate your children without even reference to the Bible or without imposing a religion on people. But we'll cover that maybe in another broadcast. Let me go back to this, to this event here. Anyway, so I'm up there thinking, you know, I'm up here speaking and Ted Cruz is in the audience and so are many other dignitaries, people that didn't speak. There were senators that didn't speak there. House Speaker Mike Johnson didn't speak. He was there. Kristi Noem was there. She didn't speak. Of course, several government officials did. We're going to get to them here in a minute. And what they said I thought was quite encouraging. But in any event, as Josh Howerton, my friend Josh Howerton said, he said politics can't fix what it didn't break. The heart is broken. It's broken. Politics can't fix it. However, politics does have its place. So once it's transformed, once the heart is transformed, then we can move forward with grace and truth. And that's what Charlie tried to do. He tried to move forward with grace and truth. He gave his opponents the microphone. Take the microphone. Tell me your case. Let's have a dialogue. It's amazing that people call Charlie Kirk a fascist. How many fascists do you know that give the microphone to their opponents and say, please let me hear what you have to say? No, Fascists are the ones that kill their opponents. The guy that shot him was a fascist, not Charlie Kirk. It's amazing how the people who are complaining about Charlie Kirk are doing the very same things they're complaining that Charlie did when in fact he didn't do it. They're doing it. So anyway, I had everything planned out as to what I was going to say. And then when I got up there, I didn't even really look at the notes, and I said some things that I wasn't necessarily planning to say because I knew I had only four minutes. But the main point I wanted to say, of course, was to point out that Charlie Kirk was saved, not for any of the good works he did. And so I wanted to communicate the gospel to the millions of people who were watching. I'm not going to play you the whole clip. We'll put it in the show notes. But here is the central message that I wanted to communicate. Here it is. Now, I want you to know that Charlie right now is in heaven. Not because he was a great husband and father, not because he saved millions of kids out of darkness on college campuses, not because he changed minds and chased votes to save the country, not because he sacrificed himself for his Savior. Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his Savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk. I wanted to get the substitutionary atonement across. And then I went on to explain there's only two things you can get in the afterlife, grace or justice. Does anyone here want justice from an infinitely just God? Nobody should want justice. You should want grace. And the only way to get grace is for God. If he's going to remain just to punish an innocent substitute in our place, where can he find an innocent substitute? Not in any one of us. We're all fallen. He can only find an innocent substitute in himself. That's why he came to earth and allowed the creatures that rebelled against him to torture and kill him so he could take their punishment, our punishment, upon himself. And then, if you trust in him, you'll not only be forgiven, but you will be given his righteousness. Look, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is the only way. Not because it's an arbitrary claim. Jesus is the only way because there's no other way to reconcile an infinitely just God with an infinitely loving God and allow sinners to go unpunished. If he's infinitely just, he has to punish sin. But since he's infinitely loving, he doesn't want to. So what does he do? He punishes a substitute in our place. That's why Jesus is the only way. In that way, God can remain just and then justify people who are unjust sinners. This is what Romans 3:26 says. That's why Jesus is the only way. It's not an arbitrary. It's not an arbitrary claim. Now, there's one thing I wanted to say up there. Well, a couple things I wanted to say that I couldn't. I wound up, I think, going maybe two minutes over. And I hate going over because I want to respect the people that invited me there. And, you know, I don't think speakers should just take liberties. But when they cut a minute out of me from the very beginning. And I don't know who did that, you know, but sometimes there's miscommunication. But I left some things deliberately out because I didn't want to go too far over. And I didn't know. I didn't anticipate people clapping and stopping and, you know, but I. I wanted to talk about. To the enemies that, that opposed Charlie, those enemies who say that Charlie was a hater because he didn't approve of them or approve of what they did. I wanted to say, newsflash. Love does not mean approval. Love doesn't mean you agree with everything somebody does. In fact, the very same opponents of Charlie didn't agree with Charlie. But they might say, oh, yeah, we're all loving. No, love doesn't mean approval. Love means seeking what's best for the other person according to the will of God. Every parent knows this. If you approve of everything your child wants to do, you're not loving. You're an enabler. You couldn't hate them more. If you don't discipline them, if you don't correct them, if you just acquiesce to everything they want to do, you're not loving. You're enabling them to do evil. So I wanted to make that point because Paul, as you know, says in Great Passage that everybody reads at their wedding, but nobody obeys that. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. Love rejoices in the truth. Love always protects. Love always perseveres. That's what Charlie was doing on a college campus. He didn't need to do it for money or prestige or any of those things. Charlie loved people and wanted them to know the truth. That's why he said, let's have a dialogue. Come up and talk. Prove me wrong. That's what love does. As I said on Megan Kelly Show, I said that Charlie, in order to love people, knew he had to risk a certain amount because you can't love people very well from a distance all the time. The same thing is true in romantic love or even love for a child. You can't keep your heart in a box. If you do, yeah, you won't hurt your heart, but if you don't give it to anybody, you're not really going to love somebody. The problem is, if you give it to somebody, they can break it and hurt you. But love risks. Love takes chances for the loved one. And Charlie took chances. As I mentioned last time, when we walked into that place, actually, we were driving and we had some drone footage. I said, charlie, I don't like this place. There's too many buildings. But Charlie kind of shrugged it off. He, he loved people and he would take the risk. By the way, Megan, I love Megyn Kelly. I mean, she's such a brilliant legal mind. I told Charlie once we were going on one of our walks and he said, oh, I got to get up early tomorrow to be on Megan. I said, I'll tell you, if there's one person I would never want to debate, particularly on a legal matter, it would be Megyn Kelly. He said, totally. She was, she's brilliant. And anyway, we had a very good, maybe hour long conversation. You can see it on her podcast last week. And then I've done some other programs. We'll put them all in the show notes. I was on Sean Hannity's TV program and then his radio program. I was also on Kevin Cork. He was filling in for Trace Gallagher one night, I think it was Friday night. We had just gotten to Phoenix last Friday just for the event. And I did that program with Kevin, who's a believer, and then just did Fox and Friends Yesterday morning at 4:30 in the morning at Phoenix right after the event. That's with Ainsley Earhart. We all know Ainsley is a Christian. I did Greg Kelly last night on Newsmax and I'm scheduled to do Martha McCallum today. We'll see if that happens. Sometimes these shows don't go through and what I'm trying to do in all these shows is just present the gospel just to highlight how great our Lord is and honor Charlie as well. And so we'll put those shows in the show notes. Keep an eye on our crossexamine.org website because we're putting all these interviews up once they're done. Anyway, I wanted to get the gospel out there and people say that I was able to do that clearly. So that's I wanted to do that while honoring Charlie. And the way I could do that in such a short period of time was to list some of Charlie's accomplishments, how great he was, but say they weren't the things that actually get him in that got him into heaven. And by the way, President Trump needs to hear that the gospel is not about doing good things to get into heaven. Just before the election last year, he was on Laura Ingram saying, I got to do good things, so I get into heaven. Thankfully, he was in the audience by the time I spoke. In fact, my sister in law sent me a screenshot of me on the TV and they had a cutout of Trump who had just gotten to the booth. So who knows if he was listening? I mean, the man's busy. He's got a lot going on, obviously. But Elon Musk was in the audience. He heard the gospel and many others did, thankfully. And I'm just praying that the gospel sinks in, that people realize it's not about doing good works. We do good works as a result of being saved. And that's why Charlie was going out and risking himself to love people, to bring them into the kingdom. But they don't get us into heaven. They may get us rewards once we're there, but you don't get into heaven based on your good deeds outweighing your bad. That's impossible anyway. That's not how our. Our justice system works. Right? If you're guilty of a crime, you're going to pay for that crime, even if you did a hundred other good things. That's not how justice works. So we have the complete. The Complete speech on our YouTube channel if you want to see it. In case you missed it and there are many others, you go tpusa. You'll see all the speeches. Then when I went back, Chris. Chris Tomlin was very complimentary about, wow. When you said that Charlie didn't get into heaven because he sacrificed himself for his savior. Charlie's in heaven because his savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk. He said, that was. That was great. That was the center. So I started talking to Chris. I said, chris, how did you get invited to this? You know, how did all this come about? And he said, well, Erica reached out to me and. And said that How Great Is Our God As One is one of his favorite songs. So would you come? And Chris said, of course I'll come. Even though he was in Richmond the night before and had to take a red eye or some crazy flight to get there in time. And so Chris has always been just a wonderful worship leader. It writes some great songs. So we exchange contact info. And I said, chris, if. If we ever wanted to do a, say, a college event together, you know, you play, I speak, and then you play again. He goes, yeah, I'd love to do that. So I don't know if it'll ever happen, but we're talking about it. Chris is just. Writes some great stuff and seems to be a great guy. First time I've ever met him. But one of the most amazing things about this whole event were how many political figures are now boldly talking about Jesus, even though, personally, they may not be believers, evangelical believers themselves. I don't Know any of their hearts? All I can tell you is that they're, they're talking about the gospel. And Paul said, I don't care what motivation people have, as long as the gospel's being preached, I'm happy about it. I'm paraphrasing. But he says it in one of his letters. I mean, for example, Don Jr. By the way, if you got to watch Don's entire talk because it was actually really funny. He's a funny guy. He started impersonating his father, which just cracked me up. And, you know, he took a couple of political shots. You know, he said, I know Charlie knew much more about the Bible than I do. You know, for me to say I knew about as much about the Bible as Charlie would be like Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton saying they knew about as much about being president as my father. You know, he just had to put that in there. But he was kind of, it was kind of self deprecating humor as well, because, you know, I really don't know all that much about the Bible. But here is one of the things Don said from that pulpit. Here we go.
- [42:43]
E
But when Charlie was asked in an interview how he'd want to be remembered, he said, I want to be remembered for my courage, for my faith. And let me tell you guys, those were not empty words. Last week, Charlie joined a long line of courageous men and women who were martyred for what they believe. According to the book of Acts. The first martyr in the early Christian church was Stephen, who was stoned to death. And as Stephen was being killed, he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. I like to think Jesus was standing to welcome Stephen, the courageous martyr into heaven. Today that gives me great comfort. I'm betting Charlie saw the son of God standing tall to welcome him home.
- [43:39]
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Well done, good and faithful servant. Also Tulsi Gabbard, who last I read wasn't a Christian. Some kind of New age belief, that kind of thing. But she was speaking as if she was a Christian. And maybe she is, maybe she isn't. But again, elements of the gospel are getting out. Here's Tulsi.
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Charlie was fearless, but where did his fearlessness come from? The answer lies in Corinthians. Therefore be always of good courage and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Therefore we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. So our call to action is now every one of us needs to be a warrior like Charlie, to take shelter in God, to draw strength and fearlessness from the Lord who sits within every one of our hearts.
- [44:46]
A
When we were in Utah the day after Charlie was murdered and JD Vance came in to take Charlie's body home. We're standing under the wing of Air Force Two. I look next to me and there's a gentleman standing there. He looks like a Secret Service agent. And I shook his hand. His name turned out to be Mike Jensen. Great guy. Got to know him over the past ten days or so. And he works directly for Marco Rubio. He's a former Air Force officer himself. And now he's working for Marco Rubio's. And as you know, Rubio is not only the Secretary of State, he's also the National Security Advisor. And even he was marveling at how many politicians were talking about Jesus. Marco's a Christian. Yet Marco, as you'll see here, gave a very succinct summary of the Gospel. Here he is, the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio.
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One of the things he wants us to take away from this, from all of this, is the following. His deep belief that we were all created, every single one of us, before the beginning of time by the hands of the God of the universe. An all powerful God who loved us and created us for the purpose of living with him in eternity. But then sin entered the world and separated us from our Creator. And so God took on the form of a man and came down and lived among us. And he suffered like men and he died like a man. But on the third day, he rose unlike any mortal man. And then, and to prove any doubters wrong, he ate with his disciples so they could see and they touched his wounds. He didn't rise as a ghost or as a spirit, but as flesh. And then he rose to the heaven. But he promised he would return. And he will. And when he returns, because he took on that death, because he carried that cross, we were freed from the sin that separated us from him. And when he returns, there will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will all be together. And we are going to have a great reunion there again with Charlie and all the people we love. Thank you and God bless you.
- [47:24]
A
Marco Rubio, ladies and gentlemen. That. That was great. And both Mike and I were just rejoicing that Marco said that. And millions are rejoicing as well. And then, of course, you got Pete. Hegseth the Secretary of War. Now check out what Secretary Hegseth said. Only Christ is king, our Lord and Savior. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. Fear God and fear no man. That was Charlie Kirk. That was Charlie. He knew his life was in the Lord's hands. And if the Lord wanted to call him home, allowing an evil assassin to take him out, the Lord could even bring good from that, and he was going to be secure. In fact, I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that if Charlie Kirk was offered the opportunity to give up his life to save millions of people, he would take that immediately. Of course, he wouldn't want to inflict pain on Erica and his children, but he would also know that the greater good, the greater good that appears to be happening now would be worth his earthly life. We're all called to die. We're all gonna die. And if we die absent from the body, present with the Lord, this life is short. Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 4, he talks about our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a greater weight of glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, for what is seen is temporary. We fix our eyes on what is eternal. What is eternal? You're eternal. I'm eternal. Human beings are eternal. The only question is, are you going to be eternal with Jesus or without Jesus, with grace or with justice? Which do you want? Look, either you're going to pay for your sins or Jesus is going to pay for your sins. Who would you rather have pay for your sins? An infinitely just God has to punish sin, otherwise he's not infinitely just. If you haven't sec. If you haven't accepted Jesus, why haven't you? If you haven't turned away from your sins, turned away from just thinking about you all the time, thinking about, what can you get out of this? What can you get out of that? Turn. Turn away. Turning away from your rebellious heart. If you haven't turned away, why wouldn't you. Why wouldn't you turn to Jesus? Not only will you avoid punishment, you'll get your creator. That's what you were made for. To be with your creator forever. JD Vance Vice President, United States. JD's very honest here. Here he is.
- [50:52]
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You know, I was telling somebody backstage.
- [50:58]
A
That I always felt a little uncomfortable.
- [51:00]
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Talking about my faith in public. As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I Have my entire time in public life.
- [51:17]
A
He's talking about Jesus Christ. Even the President of the United States is. Here's President Trump. But what was even more important to Charlie than politics and service was the choice he made in the fifth grade, which he called the most important decision of his life, to become a Christian and a follower of his savior, Jesus Christ. He's not just Charlie's savior, he's the savior of everyone, at least potentially. It's up to you whether you accept what Christ has done, because God is not going to force you into heaven against your will. If you don't want Jesus now, you're not going to want him in eternity. Now, for me, the highlight, and I think for many people, probably most people, the highlight, was the amazing and wonderful Erica Kirk. Erica, I mean, this can only be explained by her strong faith in Jesus and her yielding to the Holy Spirit. Because you really can't do this on your own power. What she did. Regarding the killer, here's Erica.
- [52:41]
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My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man, that young man on the cross, our Savior said, father, forgive them, for they not know what they do. That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.
- [54:53]
A
That can only be the Holy Spirit, ladies and gentlemen. What other worldview loves their enemies? What other worldview could forgive? No other religion teaches this. Now, forgiveness doesn't mean that there are no consequences. I'm praying that this man that killed Charlie accepts Jesus and then is executed. At least he'll be with his Savior, but he'll lose so many rewards for the evil that he had done. You say, how can a killer go to heaven? How can you go to heaven? Not on anything you've done. It's on what Jesus has done. So Erica displayed once again that Charlie. Charlie outdid himself marrying Erica. Charlie was a great judge of talent, a great judge of character. And now, now that everyone's gone home, now the real difficulty begins. I'm so glad Stacy is nearby. Erica is strong, but she's going to need our prayers and support, and she is not going to let this movement die. So we're going to do whatever we can to support her. Support TP USA and the great people that are part of TP usa, notice that what God creates is good and Sin destroys what is good. Evil is essentially anti creation. Charlie created in the image of God and was doing the Lord's will. And evil destroyed what is good, destroyed what God wanted to be done. But of course, God can even redeem that, just like he can redeem you and me. He can take people with evil hearts and redeem them and forgive them and bring them to himself. So continue to pray. Continue to work hard. The folks at TPUSA have had no break for 10 or 11 days. No chance to mourn. They're mourning now. Pray for them. We are going to continue doing what we had planned to do before this tragedy. So tonight, Lord willing, we'll be at McNeese State University in Louisiana. I'm speaking on Tuesday. Then tomorrow we're going to be at a high school in Orange, Texas. It's Little Cypress Mauriceville High School in Orange, Texas. Tonight, 7:00pm Central, 8:00pm Eastern. It will be live streamed. Lord willing, the high school is 6pm Central, 7%, 7pm Eastern, and then Lamar University on Thursday in Beaumont, Texas. That's 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern will all be live streamed. And we're doing if God, why Evil? A tribute to my friend Charlie Kirk. Why would God allow this to happen? We're going to talk about it and take a lot of questions. Hopefully we can be a blessing to people who are in pain over this. So pray we have the strength to continue. We will have security, so you may want to get there early. In fact, security is the new reality. And I won't get into details now, but when we go to a college campus, it's costing us much more than it has financially. So anything you can do to help us is greatly appreciated. The world has changed and it's not just for my safety. It's for the safety of the people in the audience as well. So thank you for the support that you've given us and continue to give us. And I want to end by talking about what's been going on. Well, one thing I want you to do before I forget, you need to pray for my friend Christopher Yuan, who had an accident and is in the hospital right now. Looks like there could be paralysis. I want you to pray for Christopher, that he would be healed, that the surgeons would know what to do and that the Lord's will would be done. So please pray for Christopher Yuan. But I was having a conversation with my friend John Stonestreet on he's with the Colson center, does break point. And I'm just going to read you the text I sent him, said John, we need more men Christian apologists to speak up on cultural issues. The women are Lisa Childers, Natasha Crane, Ali Beth Ducky, Megan Basham, Melissa Doherty. Where are the men? John, other than you, any ideas? Men, you're being put to shame by women apologists right now who have more courage than you have. Why is that? Now we're not talking about getting political, which connotes blind loyalty to your preferred candidate or party. We're talking about getting biblically political, which, as I mentioned earlier, which means advocating for laws and policies that protect innocent people from evil. Because politics affects people, policy and policy affects people. And we're committed to love people. And not just Christian apologists. We're a small group, but every Christian. You know, the purpose of church is to equip the saints to do ministry. That's Ephesians 4. The pastor's not supposed to do all the ministry. The people in the pews are supposed to do it. Pastors, if you don't lead, if you're not a Christian 24, 7, 365 on every. In every area of life, then step down and find something else to do. The time for all this timidness while people are perishing is over. We're called to be salt and light in every area of life. If you can't do that, why are you in the pulpit? Why? If it's a paycheck, move on and do something else. Sorry. I know being a pastor is hard, but don't make it harder by doing it halfway. If you love people, you're going to seek what's best for them, even if they hate you for it. We're not called to be comfortable. We're called to be salt and light. We're not called to be tax exempt. We're called to be salt and light. So, as I said in my short time at the memorial, what are you doing with your life? You, the viewer, right now, my friends who are watching and listening, what are you doing? What's the purpose? Are you trying to make heaven crowded? Or are you just lying around waiting for your body to break down so you can have a reunion with Jesus and your loved ones? This fig tree isn't producing any figs. Why let it live? What are you here to do? You're here to know Jesus and to make him known. So get at it. Thanks for your prayers. Lord willing. This weekend, my warrior friends, Alisa Childers and Natasha Crane are going to be on this podcast and they're going to give you some insights on what you can do. So let's go. See you next time. God bless.