WWUTT 2470 Q&A Is Charlie Kirk a Martyr, Iryna Zarutska's Murder, Preaching with a Manuscript

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Charlie Kirk was assassinated just a matter of a few days ago. He was bold about sharing his faith and standing on biblical principles.

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Did he die a martyr? How do we think about the murder of that young woman in Charlotte that has been seen by so many?

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And should a pastor have a manuscript when he preaches? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not with me this week. She's actually at a women's retreat, and she's speaking at that retreat.

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So if you would do us both a favor and say a prayer for her, we would greatly appreciate it. Let me begin by reading from Isaiah chapter 54.

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I'm beginning in verse 14. Hear the word of the Lord. In righteousness you shall be established.

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You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

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If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me. Whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.

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Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose.

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I have also created the Ravager to destroy. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

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This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me, declares the

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Lord. And that is the heritage for every one of us as Christians.

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For you and for me, brethren, nothing formed against us shall stand.

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You are eternally secure in the arms of your Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for us, who rose again from the dead, is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

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Whoever believes in him will not perish, but we have everlasting life.

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That is a message that I have been dedicated to preaching through my pulpit, through this ministry, always sharing the gospel because it is only the power of the gospel that can save a person, that can raise the dead back to life, that has the power to forgive sins and reconcile back to God.

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This has been a tough news week for a lot of reasons, reasons we're going to be talking about on this episode of the program.

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This, by the way, is the Friday edition of the program, and we take questions from the listeners and respond to them.

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You can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com or send us a voicemail.

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Go to www .utt .com, click on that voicemail tab, and record a message either through your phone or through your computer.

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And I've got three voicemails that I'm going to be responding to here on this episode. The first one is about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

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Now, I am recording this on a Friday night. Typically, I try to post this program

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Friday in the wee morning hours. So it's there for you to listen to on Friday, when you're heading to work or home from work or whatever you do in your

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Friday. When I get this done, it will probably be posted after midnight, so technically

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Saturday. I'm going to date it for Saturday so that it shows up in your MP3 player, your podcast players,

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MP3 players, your phones or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts.

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It'll show up there. And then sometime later on, though, I'll probably backdate it for September the 12th.

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But this has been two days now. So this is Friday night. It was Wednesday before noon that Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

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I was actually visiting with some some new friends that had just started attending our church and they came over for lunch.

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And so Becky and I are sitting with them at the table and we're answering some questions. And one of the members of my church sent me a private message.

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I probably would not have seen this if I hadn't received it from him. And just pointing to a news article that was talking about how

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Charlie Kirk had been shot. And I was astonished. And we in that meeting right there, we stopped talking about what we were talking about and prayed for Charlie Kirk and for his family.

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We did not know for sure yet that he had died, only that he had been shot. And then I caught up on the news and everything later before I went to class.

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I had to teach a class at a little after two o 'clock. So remembering, you know, everything that happened on that day, probably you remember where you were when you heard the news.

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This could be the highest profile assassination in my lifetime that I can think of.

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The United States right now is awash in it. It's like been the top news story everywhere

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I've been online and everywhere else for the last couple of days. So we're going to consider that the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

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We're also going to I've also got a question or a comment that I'm going to respond to regarding the murder of Irina Zarutska, who was the

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Ukrainian woman who was murdered brutally on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. You probably saw the videos about it.

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I mean, both of these videos, awful, very gruesome. Don't look them up if you haven't seen them.

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But Charlie Kirk being shot and and this was the video that was going around on social media just days after we had seen the the murder of Irina.

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And that one was hard to stomach. That was a video that was difficult to watch. In fact, one of the very last interviews that Charlie Kirk did before he was killed was with Megan Basham.

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And they were talking about that. They were they were talking about that brutal murder that happened on that train in Charlotte and how so many people have seen this video and how monstrous it was that this guy killed her.

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But even that there were people on the train that were not reacting to the fact that she had just been brutally assaulted and hunched over dead right there in her seat.

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So I've got a comment that I received about that. We'll be talking about that also. And then I'll end on something a little bit more lighthearted because I know the things we're gonna be talking about here will be very heavy.

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But how do we as Christians consider these things that are going on in our world right now?

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I addressed my church about this. It was a private video that I made for my church just as a pastor to talk them through how we think about these kinds of things.

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And there are going to be people out there who will try to radicalize you. Like they'll use these events to say this is why we as Christians need to do this or that or or it's time for us to take up arms and fight.

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I've even seen those kinds of comments. There are pastors out there who have said that it is a must for every pastor in America to address the

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Charlie Kirk assassination in our sermons on Sunday. No it's not. We do not have to say anything about that in our sermons.

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I probably will. But it's not a requirement. It's not like God and his word is imposed upon us.

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Every single major current event that happens is something that you have to react to. I think that pastors do need to be wise to what's going on in the culture.

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It would not be smart of a pastor to close himself off in his ivory tower so to speak and only be studying theology and not even realize what's going on in the world out there or how to relate to it or talk people through it.

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We do need to be aware of those things but it's not that this assassination then becomes the bona fide topic that everybody must be addressing in their sermons and we're devoting all time to Charlie Kirk.

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I'm preaching in Romans 7 right now and I'm still gonna be preaching in Romans 7 on Sunday. So there are people you know they try to radicalize you in the midst of all of this.

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They tell you how to think and what you're supposed to do and try to draw you into their movement. This is happening more than ever probably because of social media and people want to create their fan bases.

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We've already got people trying to move into Charlie Kirk's territory and try to grab his audience for themselves.

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So a lot of that is going on. So you got to be careful with what you're listening to. There's always a charge for us as Christians to be self -controlled.

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It's among the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5. It's the last of the fruit of the

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Spirit listed there. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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Self -control is the last one on there but you must be self -controlled and having self -control means that we're not going to fall apart whenever events like this happen in our world.

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Especially when it seems like the news is just escalating to more and more bad news. We've got to keep it together and trust

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God. There's that risk of us overreacting. I think we see that a lot.

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As much as you might see somebody completely fall apart maybe even lose hope in the midst of a bad news cycle.

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There's also those people who overreact and they try to overcorrect the situation and that ends up leading to grave error as well.

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Trust Christ. He is still on his throne. This is not an hour in which suddenly the church is in grave danger of being lost.

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If we were to lose all of our freedoms in the United States of America tomorrow the church would not fail.

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Jesus said in Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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We will endure even if a nation should fall. I don't think that's what's gonna happen but I'm just saying that if everything were to completely fall apart tomorrow

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Christ's promises still stand. Trust in the Savior. Take hope in knowing your sins have been forgiven and we have our eternity secure with him.

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I believe that was the case with Charlie Kirk. He believed in Jesus Christ.

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His sins were forgiven and now he though dead on earth is as alive as he's ever been with his

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Savior in heaven. And that's about as good a segue as any I think into this first question that's asking about Charlie Kirk and whether or not his murder should be considered martyrdom.

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Here's the question. Hi brother Gabe and Becky. My name is Gonzalo. I'm sending you this message from Costa Rica and first of all

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I want to thank you for your ministry. It's been a blessing for my life. Today is a dark day. It's a terrible day.

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We are suffering for the assassination of our brother Charlie Kirk a couple hours ago and we are praying for his family and his children and this is just a horrible situation brother.

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I'm in so much pain right now but I wanted to ask you brother is Charlie Kirk a

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Christian martyr? I know that he was mainly a political activist but I believe his epistemology and his reason behind his activism was because he trusts

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Jesus Christ as his Savior and he believed in revival and although we didn't agree with everything he said he was a

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Christian. He was moved by his faith. I know in history Christianity hasn't always been persecuted under the name of Christianity per se but people like Marcus Aurelius used them as scapegoats and they use all kind of political and philosophical justifications to persecute

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Christianity so many people will say that Charlie Kirk is not a Christian martyr but he died because of his political opinions but I will say no he was motivated but by his faith.

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I would like to hear your opinion in this and if I'm not completely clear just let me know.

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God bless you. Brother thank you so much for that question and very well asked and stated and I appreciate that.

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My answer of course you asked for my opinion and this is my opinion. My answer to you is yes he is a

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Christian martyr. Charlie Kirk was all about his faith in Christ so much so that since his assassination

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I have never seen the gospel preached or shared as many times on social media in the last two or three days as I'm seeing right now.

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It's astonishing and it's like at least on X it's almost like the the algorithm has been moved into a position of this is what everybody is talking about so that is what is inundating people's feeds with the message of the gospel and Charlie Kirk shared it all the time and I'm seeing clip after clip after clip.

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There's been clips of him responding to various political issues or moral and ethical issues but the vast majority of the clips that I'm seeing from Charlie Kirk right now are all about him sharing his faith.

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Does that make him a martyr in this sense because like you said there are plenty of people who are going to persecute

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Christians they won't do it because like well you believe in Jesus so I'm gonna persecute you that's not what they say of course.

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So how can we know that Charlie Kirk was killed for that reason even if you know we don't know fully what all of the the killers motivations were yet.

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We like I said I'm recording this on a Friday night they just caught him I think when

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I woke up this morning the news had just hit that the guy who killed his assassin had been turned into police so there's still some things about him we have yet to discover but how can we know even not knowing fully the assassins motives that Charlie Kirk was was a martyr is a martyr for the

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Christian faith. Let me just simply ask you this question if you had been sitting in Charlie seat do you think that assassin would have killed you?

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My answer to that with regard to myself would have been 100 % because I not only believe the same things that Charlie believed the stuff that I believed the people who hated him would have considered to be even more radical than Charlie Kirk.

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Yes he was a Christian politically he was actually a moderate I'm gonna explain that in a little bit later but but that's just to say that his his political beliefs were not even as far right as mine are and yet Kirk would be killed for that 100 % the people that either killed him or rejoiced in him being killed would have also wanted this one they would have wanted to see the same thing happen to me as well and to you they killed

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Charlie Kirk for the same things that I believe as we read in 2nd

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Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived now does that verse say all who have perfect theology will be will be persecuted does it say everyone who is so incredibly outspoken about the gospel and stands on the street and preaches it will be persecuted it's all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted people will hate you just because you won't fall in with them in all the sins that they love and participate in we have seen that in our culture how people will hate us just because we're not as depraved as they are

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Peter even talks about this in first Peter chapter 4 verse 3 the time is past that suffices for doing what the

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Gentiles want to do living in sensuality passions drunkenness orgies drinking parties and lawless idolatry with respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you they hate you because you won't do the same filthy sins that they are doing we see that in our culture all the time and it is in our face even if you're not in those circles or anywhere near people would hate you for that you see it on social media constantly we see it in the videos of Charlie Kirk just interviewing people on college campuses just sitting at a table with a microphone to see who's gonna come up and argue with him and you see people hate on him all the time and they call him all kinds of names a bigot a misogynist homophobic

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Islamic Islamophobic you know these are the things that they will say that he is and so therefore this is why we don't like him but at the heart of all of that is his desire for godliness that's what they hate they are haters of God even though they don't verbally say we hate

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God and so therefore we hate you too but even though they utter all kinds of evil against you let me go on in first Peter 4 verse 5 they will give account they will give account to him to God who is ready to judge the living and the dead so we must leave it to the hands of God to judge those who judge us it's earlier in first Peter where Peter says

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Jesus is our example and though he was reviled he did not revile in return but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly

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Jesus did that and so we must as well and there are people who are gonna hate us just because we desire godliness remember the

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Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 verse 11 blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you been reading about that persecution even in our

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Thursday lessons in the Old Testament in Jeremiah Jeremiah was hated just because he warned the people of judgment that was to come and to turn from their sin back to God and people hated him for that message they persecuted the prophets and these things before us they're going to persecute us and hate us as well just because we love and desire godly things now like I said the message that Charlie Kirk has been sharing and he shared over and over and over again he has he has been sharing the gospel and been doing so for years and the video clips that are now going out as a result of what happened as horrible as it is as tragic as it is and I share with you the hurt for his wife and his kids who are not going to grow up with a father the man was murdered at 31 31 and I'll say that I've evaluated my life in light of what he's done by age 31 and I have a desire to get out with the gospel more than I ever have before just being inspired by this man's tenacity

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I'll probably talk about that another time but but coming back to the gospel that Charlie Kirk knew and shared let me play for you three clips so here's here's examples of three videos that have been going around with Charlie Kirk sharing the gospel and it's so on point these videos are so short and yet he summarizes the gospel so succinctly in these three videos here's the first one now often these tik -tok videos and the

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YouTube shorts they get spliced together to go real real fast so in case you missed the question the question at the very beginning is when did you become a

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Christian and Charlie Kirk shares his testimony listen to this when did you accept Christ fifth grade at Christian Heritage Academy remember

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I heard a hot gospel and I heard what happens if you don't give your life to Jesus and it's very important that when we share the gospel the modern gospel is

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God has this beautiful amazing wonderful life for you and if you give your life to Christ your life will infinitely improve that is somewhat true but it's very misleading because you're basically trying to sell people in Christianity of a life without difficulty where the better way to teach the gospel is here's the

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Ten Commandments how many of these are you violating oh you deserve to go to hell and you probably will unless you give your life to Christ that is the proper way to evangelize and so I realized the stakes in fifth grade

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I was like oh my goodness I'm a sinner I'm selfish I'm broken and only thanks to Jesus's perfect sacrifice coming and living a perfect life that I get something

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I do not earn but has been given to me this free gift of eternal life that is awesome that video was what less than 60 seconds of course it's spliced together to move real quick but still in less than 60 seconds

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Kirk shared the gospel as clearly like more clearly than I hear many preachers in America ever share the gospel and that's tremendous that was on a very popular podcast and this is among those videos that are going around this video right here that I just played has already been viewed nearly a half million times that's one video here's another one this one's even shorter than that one so the question that's being asked here of Kirk is what would you tell someone who has 30 seconds to live and this video happens to be 30 seconds okay person's about to die in 30 seconds what's

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Kirk gonna do listen to this in 30 seconds you're about to meet eternal judgment and so you got 10 seconds left you're dying from a gunshot wound and there's only one way that you can get bailed out of that that's not all the good things you did with a moral scorecard it's whether or not you have

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Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior I want to be

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I want to be remembered for for courage for my faith that would be the most most important thing okay that last one

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I forgot that that that there were actually two clips there so we shared the first one in less than 20 seconds and there was another clip that I that was gonna be the next clip

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I forgot that that was in that video but there you have it person's gonna die in less than 30 seconds he says you're about to meet your judge the only way you're gonna live and have eternal life is by believing in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and that notice the way that question was framed you're dying as somebody's dying of a gunshot wound they have 30 seconds to live what are you gonna tell him

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Kirk when he was shot died instantly I've seen the video like I said it's horrific and I've been around that enough

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I won't go into details how I know this but I've been around that enough to know that when

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I saw the shot on the video he was already gone so he didn't suffer you may not have 30 seconds after you get shot it might be now and you've got to trust in Jesus Christ now you've got this opportunity right now to turn from your sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ believe in him and you will be saved pray to him ask him to forgive you of your sin and it's only through faith in Jesus Christ that we are reconciled with our

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Creator we have sinned against a holy God and what we deserve for our sin is judgment eternal hell but by faith in Jesus Christ there those sins are forgiven and we are clothed in his righteousness and even if it's a deathbed conversion you've not had the chance to do anything in your life to try to make up for all the wicked things you've done it wouldn't matter you could have ten lifetimes you'd have a thousand lifetimes you'd never be able to make up for all the sin that you've committed against God our good deeds are not enough it's the perfect righteousness of Christ and by his wounds we are healed as said in Isaiah 53 here is here is that that clip that was at the end it was kind of covered up with music but here it is a little more clearly this is just 15 seconds the question asked of Kirk is how do you want to be remembered listen to this how do you want to be remembered if I die everything just goes away how would you if you could be associated with one thing how would you want to be remembered

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I want to be I want to be remembered for for courage for my faith that would be the most important thing most important thing is my faith in my life again awesome and that video right there at least the one that I'm looking at has been shared 15 ,000 times so this is the message that's been going out after Kirk's death the gospel that he believed in and thousands upon thousands possibly even millions upon millions of people are hearing this message some for the very first time

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I just saw a comment right before I hopped on here to record this episode

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I saw a comment from a gal who was a journalist I won't mention her name but she said the following and I looked at her profile her profile in her bio says she's

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Catholic but here's what she said following the assassination of Charlie I picked up my

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Bible and haven't been able to put it down for the first time in my life

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I'm reading the Bible I'm reading it front to back and the answers to all of our questions are there the thing that Kirk wanted most to be known for his faith is the thing that people are remembering and I'm just gonna say this briefly without going on a on a tear but shame on Christianity today as that magazine is often been called

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I think John MacArthur referred to it as Christianity astray did not present

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Charlie Kirk as a man to be remembered for his faith but just tried to attach him to a MAGA doctrine anyway

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I'm so ashamed of that magazine I mentioned John MacArthur so there was an interview that Charlie Kirk did with John MacArthur and this was about three years ago this clips about a minute and a half so we just lost

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John MacArthur two months ago that was that was in July so here is this interview between John MacArthur and Charlie Kirk listen to this because faith in the truth comes by hearing the truth and just talk for a moment just the hope of Jesus Christ I know for some you know people watching this they've already given their life to the

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Lord but we have a lot of followers pastor that follow our organization that are getting closer they're starting to drink from the streams of Liberty but they want to find its source they know there's something that isn't quite fitting in their life but they're looking for salvation you do it better than anyone else tell about the hope of Jesus Christ when we're talking about Christ we're not talking about ethics although he is the most ethical human who ever lived we're not talking about being compassionate although he was the most compassionate person who ever lived we're talking about one who died to pay the penalty for all your sins and having paid that penalty can offer you forgiveness forever and the promise of everlasting eternal joy and life in his presence that's what

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Christ is about it it's not about an ethical model though he is that he is a

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Savior and what you need more than anything else is to be delivered from eternal death to be delivered from the power and the presence of your sin and that's what

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Christ offers and that's why he died and proved that he accomplished it because he rose from the dead triumphant beautiful and that video has been seen a quarter of a million times and that's just the link that I have it's probably been shared in other places through other accounts and the this is the message that's going out right now across social media again

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I've never seen anything like this before how many times I'm seeing the gospel being shared over and over again the

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White House the White House shared a video let me this is this has already been seen four million times and they just posted it nine hours ago according to what

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I've got right here so let me play this video that was on the White House account on X watch this only in America is it possible to say you know what

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I don't like the way the country is going and to do something about it that risk take that leap of faith stay involved trust

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God and act obediently Romans 12 to verse that God will use all things all things for good for those who love him it's bigger than you

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I want you to remember it is bigger than you it's bigger than me you are here to make somebody else's life better the pursuit of Liberty and freedom you know what gives me strength the hundreds of thousands of you that say

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Charlie keep going first Corinthians 5 and 15 so that's all pretty amazing evidence not just intra biblical evidence but extra biblical evidence that Jesus Christ was a real person he lived a perfect life he was crucified died and rose on the third day and he is

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Lord and God that was shared by the

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White House account on X now what's funny is he got a reference wrong in there he said it was

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Romans 12 2 and it's actually Romans 828 you know that right that for those who love

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God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose he referenced it as Romans 12 2 and and what's funny is there's another video

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I had this one queued up too but I don't know where I've got it I'm not gonna look for it now but anyway there was another video where he did the same thing he said

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Romans 12 2 says this and he was actually quoting Romans 828 so that appeared to be a common a common error of his

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Romans 12 2 says and I'm sure he would love this verse 2 and has probably also shared it do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to see and approve of God's will his good pleasing and perfect will don't be conformed to the world be conformed to Christ and that too was a message that Charlie Kirk shared now if you have listened to me talk about major religious figures before who have recently died and gone to be with the

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Lord like when I talked about James Dobson a few weeks back or even a few years ago when

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Becky and I talked about Billy Graham you know that I don't pull punches and even in their death

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I will still call out where their theology was problematic and I'm gonna do that now with Charlie Kirk as well some of you are aware that I've actually been pretty hard on Charlie Kirk I've never met the guy

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I've never had a face -to -face conversation with him or anything like that but I have called out some wrong things that he said and done there's a what video and even since his assassination there's been people that have come across that video and have sent me messages going brother what's this one person even said do you think this is appropriate to have up in light of everything that's happened and I said to that person truth is still the truth and it was a video that I did at the end of 2023 it was the last video that I did at the end of that year where I was talking about how what we call conservative well the the common view of conservatism in America right now even by conservatives is fairly moderate it's more leaning to the left on certain policies ideas even ethical considerations

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Charlie Kirk had homosexuals working for him and he even platformed openly gay men as major speakers through TPUSA there was something that happened a few years back at a

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TPUSA event which by the way stands for Turning Point USA that's the name of Charlie Kirk's organization and it's gonna continue on even without him it's gonna continue strong I believe that it will the purpose of this organization was to rally young people in America to become more politically involved so he had high school chapters he had he had college chapters you know when he was assassinated he was on a college campus in Utah when he was killed and this is what he was doing traveling the circuit visiting college campuses all over the

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United States estimated over 3 ,000 students were in attendance on that campus mall when

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Kirk was assassinated and by the way he talked for only 10 minutes it had it was only 10 minutes into the thing when he was killed he addressed one subject and then on the second topic which had to do with we had to do with trans shooters and like mass killings by by trans persons with guns and while he was talking about that he was assassinated by a gunman but the question that he had responded to right before that was about Mormonism so the last theological subject that he addressed before he died was actually giving approval to Mormons let me play this for you this is this is a clip that was recorded by somebody who was there so it's not the audio is not real clear you're hearing all the crowd around him as well but this is what

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Charlie Kirk was saying about Mormonism minutes before he was assassinated we're gonna have fun with this but I'm not one of those guys that hates on Mormons so I don't know what the question was that was asked of him right before that so something probably something about him hating on Mormons and then he says

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I love Mormons I love Mormon missionaries how the Mormons and missionaries all around the world my friends

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I do not Mormon missionaries going around the world are spreading a

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Christless message of a false Christ the Jesus that Mormons believe in is the invention of Joseph Smith it is not the

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Christ of the Bible and Jesus warned Matthew 24 that false prophets and false

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Christs would arise and the Apostle Paul even rebuking the Corinthians in 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 11 you you put up with false Christs readily enough people who come to you preaching another

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Jesus and of course you're familiar with the rebuke that he gave to the Galatians about the

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Galatians believing in another gospel there is not another gospel he said but they had turned away from the sound words of the

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Lord Jesus Christ into some other message about a different Christ about a false

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Christ and that's Mormonism Joseph Smith believed in a

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Jesus who was the brother of Satan not even making that up that's exactly who the

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Mormon Jesus is he is the literal offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother who had celestial sex and had children you and I are among those children incidentally that were born of of actual procreation and Jesus was the firstborn and then

38:09

Lucifer or Satan was another one the brother of Jesus according to Mormonism it's a different Christ it's a different atonement therefore a different gospel and a different gospel cannot save Mormonism is not

38:25

Christianity you cannot be a Mormon and a Christian and so Kirk's praising of that oh my heart breaks because I I do believe

38:36

Kirk was a Christian and as I said I believe that he was martyred for his faith and the things that he believed and what he proclaimed and the truth that he stood upon and what everybody is remembering about Kirk right after his death is his faith and I mean it is it's everybody from sound teachers to teachers you would not want to be associated with at all but people are recognizing that Charlie Kirk was a

39:01

Christian and he stood on the true gospel of Jesus Christ which is being shared all over the place so it breaks my heart that he had such problematic issues with his theology but like I said nobody's theology is gonna be perfect when we enter heaven there are going to be people who will walk through heaven's gates who will have thought that Mormons believed in the same

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Jesus that we did Charlie Kirk did not believe in the Mormon Jesus he did not but there are people that will still enter through heaven's gates thinking the

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Mormons did believe in Jesus because they proclaim Jesus they just did not look into Mormon theology and they did not realize it was a false

39:44

Christ and yet just because they didn't know that about Mormonism does not disqualify them for the kingdom so it troubles me that Kirk was saying that and those were among the last words that he said before he died but nonetheless

40:00

I believe that the man was indeed a Christian shared the true gospel was an evangelist in that sense he shared it all the time it was the thing he wanted to be known for when he died this was a man who loved his wife loved his children wanted people to know

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Jesus and to know the wonderful things the wonderful blessings that you can have in Christ in this life it was why that it was why he believed in the

40:26

American dream because he believed that America was even founded upon this upon the principles that were taught us by Christ in the scriptures so the fact that he was welcoming of homosexuals and would even platform them and would call them conservative they see that was that was another thing or just such a struggle so it was not that it was not that that Kirk believed that somebody could just be struggling with homosexuality and so we should welcome them into the conservative movement no he believed that homosexuals could be conservative he believed you could be gay and be a

40:58

Christian Ali Beth Stuckey was a friend of Kirk's had said there's no way homosexuality can be included in conservativism because it is exactly contrary to what we are attempting to conserve now

41:12

Kirk has said Kirk has said and at least going back to 2019 probably even earlier than that but Kirk has said that he believes marriages between one man and one woman one man and one woman did

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I say that right yeah he believed in what the Bible said about marriage and I've heard him say even on college campuses

41:33

I don't agree with your lifestyle but what said welcome to the conservative movement to that person anyway so he believed marriage was between a man and a woman

41:43

Stephen King got himself into trouble I'm talking about the author Stephen King the the author of satanic horror smut but but he made a comment online in which he said

41:55

Charlie Kirk believed that gays should be stoned so he's trying to like speak against all of the the the well wishes that have been going out to Kirk's family and the way that he had been elevated because of his faith and everything else and and King said no he wanted to stone homosexuals to death no he did not he didn't he wanted to include them in his movement and King had to eat his words and issue a public apology

42:19

I think that I think that Kirk was wrong in saying that a gay person could be a

42:25

Christian and a gay person can even be a conservative so this is why

42:30

I say that he was moderate on his views these are views that that even

42:36

Republicans were not holding 20 years ago it's only been since Obergefell and and things like that since gay marriage was legalized in America that the

42:47

Overton window has shifted for the Republican Party or for the right and now you don't have to go as far right to be right as as you used to at least as far as you know the the public perception of these things

42:59

I still wouldn't call that conservativism so Kirk's theology Kirk's even his his politics weren't perfect and that's not an excuse because where his errors were could lead people astray we have to be very very careful with where our doctrine and our lives are there are souls that are at stake and it's not enough to become conservative you have to be a

43:26

Christian it's not just enough to move to the right you have to be right with God which only happens through faith in Jesus Christ so as I said

43:37

I've been hard on Charlie Kirk but it's warranted for the job of a pastor according to Titus 1 9 is that he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it but nonetheless what people are remembering and what circulating is not that what's going around that Charlie Kirk believed and stood upon is the message of the gospel and I am so very grateful for that you know you would ask the question you had said like when we're persecuted it's not really going to be for Christianity you brought up Marcus Aurelius how you know he persecuted

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Christians on the basis of other things not because they were followers of Jesus Christ listen to this message from Paul Washer this is something that he shared almost two decades ago now but he talked about how persecution was coming and and persecution often precedes a great awakening listen to this from Paul Washer the church in America is going to suffer so terribly and we laugh now but they will come after us they will come after our children they will close the net around us while we are playing soccer mom and soccer dad but we are arguing over so many little things and mesmerized by so many trinkets the net even now is closing around you and your children and your grandchildren and it does not cause you to fear you will be isolated from society as has already happened anyone who tries to run for office who actually believes the

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Bible will be considered a lunatic until finally we are silenced we will be called things that were not and persecuted not for being followers of Christ but for being radical fundamentalist who do not know the true way of Christ which of course is love and tolerance you go down as the greatest bigots and haters of mankind in history they've already come after your children and for most of you they got them they got them through the public schools and indoctrination in the university and indoctrination and then you wonder why your children come out not serving the

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Lord because you fed them right into the devil's mouth so little by little the net is closing around and then it's not little by little look how fast things are going downhill just in a matter of weeks matter of weeks but at the same time know this persecution is always meant for evil but God always means it for good and is it not better to suffer in this life to have an extra weight of glory in heaven you must settle this in your mind this is the one thing

46:30

I want to say over and over do not believe down through history you have a wrong idea of martyrdom and persecution you think that these men were persecuted and martyred for their sincere faith in Jesus Christ that was the real reason but no one heard that publicly they were martyred and they were persecuted as enemies of the state as child molesters as bigots as narrow -minded stupid people who had fallen for a ruse and can contribute nothing to society your suffering will not be noble so your mind must be filled with the

47:13

Word of God when all people persecute you and turn on you and the Spirit of God in common grace pulls back and you see even your children and your grandchildren tossing in the lot that you should die this is no game you want revival and awakening but know this for the most part great awakenings have come only preceding great national catastrophes of the persecution of the church

47:39

I believe God is bringing a great awakening but I believe that he is raising up young men who are strong in trust in the providence of God to be able to wade through the hell that's gonna break loose on us and it will be on us before we even recognize it unless unless in God's providence he is not done that's powerful and totally relevant in whatever decade you might listen to that it is applicable you know where he talked about there the you fed your children into the universities and they were indoctrinated you know that's that could very well describe the man who killed the young man who killed

48:23

Charlie Kirk his name's Tyler Robinson again we don't know a whole lot about him yet but he came from a very conservative family and it seems like he was indoctrinated by something else that radicalized him into thinking that he needed to kill

48:38

Charlie Kirk and and again I believe Kirk is a martyr because of what he preached because of what he believed pointing people to Jesus Christ standing even upon the godly principles that are taught us in scripture and he was killed for it and there are people that are even celebrating his death because they hate the message that he stood upon those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived but my friends we must not lose heart

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God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of self -control that's also from 2nd

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Timothy chapter 1 verse is that verse 7 let me go back and look yeah for this reason

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I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands as Paul said to Timothy for God gave us

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God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self -control let's not lose our heads let's continue to trust in Christ praise

49:59

God for the years that he gave to Charlie Kirk and the message that he shared and may the gospel continue to be proclaimed in his memory he is still pointing people to Christ even in his death and we can rejoice in that let me shift gears now and go to the other bit of violence that we saw in the news just in the days preceding

50:25

Charlie Kirk's assassination and that was the murder of Irina Zerutska the

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Ukrainian young woman in her young 20s had fled war -torn

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Ukraine came to the United States and was murdered by a dark satanic individual on a train it was recorded on camera clearly and that murder has been broadcast around the world ever since Chris who has messaged us before and is also from North Carolina sends us a message to talk about that here here's what he says no one took out the assailant no one did anything she sat there and then she crumbled to the floor and no one helped her that's a shame that is a shame we must do better I know the men the folks listening to this podcast generally agree and are believers in Christ and know these things are true but our culture has become so self -absorbed we must fight against it we must fight against the temptation to be isolated and keep our heads up and looking out

52:29

I just wanted to put that encouragement out there we've got people to protect our own families and others thank you for that message

52:37

Chris I think because the voicemail limits you to a minute and a half it probably cut you off there at the end but that's that's a good word that's a good thing to consider and you know in order to stand up for others when you see tyrants and evil people like this that would that would try to harm others in order to defend others then you have to be prepared for that because as much as we want to say hey in that moment when that guy attacked that young woman

53:09

I definitely would have stood up and confronted that guy or I would have run over to her and tried to stop the bleeding and all that we can say that but then you end up in the moment and and it's scary and so you you kind of have to prepare yourself for that right courage is not something that comes in a moment that courage is something that you even work yourself up to that you prepare yourself by doing hard things not by shrinking back and getting lost in screens watching television all the time but actually putting yourself out there and and engaging with people on a regular basis if you just try to keep yourself secluded and closed off you're gonna end up like those people on the train not caring about whatever's happening to anybody else just leave me alone

53:56

I'm not trying to mess with your life you don't try to mess with mine and then they don't even care for this young woman who was stabbed there on a train this actually happened something like this happened with with a member of my church and I asked her permission to be able to share this so she was okay with this though I'm gonna leave any names out it wasn't that she was assaulted by anybody but just this neglect the spirit of neglect that kind of exists in our culture right now so as a member of my church who was her mother was having some sort of breathing attack in which she could not get any air it she didn't have asthma so I don't know if that was it but she just could not breathe and it felt like her heart was stopping because she could not get a breath this was happening at their apartment complex and so they're outside and the young woman who was a member of my church started yelling for people somebody do something somebody give me some help help help my mother's not breathing and nobody did anything they just stood there and gaped and watched as this woman was dying struggling to get a breath so this member of my church has to make the phone call on her phone while she's trying to help her mother and thank

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God the paramedics got there and were able to help her but nobody did anything and as connected as we are in our culture right now through phones and Facebook and and you know social media and all manner of things we are more connected with more people than any group of people in the history of the world have ever been and yet we're so despite that connectivity we're so isolated from each other and so uncaring uncompassionate about the same time that happened with that member of my church there was a story that I read of a woman in Phoenix which is of course just up the road from me she was working in her office in her cubicle she had died in her cubicle and no one noticed for three days that's in a place where she's working around people they pass by her cubicle every day all the time dozens and dozens of people probably passing by all the time she died in her cubicle cubicle probably heart attack or something like that had a heart attack and died and no one even noticed no one looked

56:34

I looked in on her checked on her called her I was curious why she hadn't checked out or checked in you know however they did their hours there at that office and it was it because she started to smell is that the reason why finally somebody noticed that something really bad was going on in that cubicle and it was through an autopsy that that they figured out she had died three days earlier and no one noticed or did anything this is how disconnected we are in this culture and that's not how we're to be is it let me just go to the very basic simple second greatest command that Jesus gave love your neighbor love your neighbor and neighbor as I've said before when

57:24

I've taught on this passage neighbor is everybody it's not the person that is living immediately next door to you neighbor is anyone even your enemy is considered your neighbor

57:36

Matthew chapter 5 you've heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you right there

57:45

Jesus is putting your enemy in the category of your neighbor love your neighbor now there are passages that tell us to love our brothers and those brother passages specifically have to do with the love that we show to one another in the church our brothers and sisters in the

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Lord with whom we go to church even missionaries that we support people who attend other churches that's what's meant by the brethren but when we have that instruction to love your neighbor that's everybody having just a general sense of kindness and compassion and consideration for others remember what the

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Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 6 verse 10 as we have opportunity let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household at the the household of faith so of course we have a very special and unique love that we share with one another in the church just like you would love members of your own family in your own household more than you love anybody else so it is the same for us in the church we're going to give a special kind of love to our brothers and sisters in the

58:55

Lord but then beyond that we still need to show compassion and kindness to unbelievers especially that we would have those opportunities with them to share the gospel with them

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Colossians chapter 4 where it says let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer each person when we have those opportunities to do good for others let's take that opportunity and sometimes that doing good will mean to stand up for and help those who are defenseless those who have been attacked

59:31

I had that poor woman on that train you know what what what crossed my mind when

59:37

I watched that video and I saw that one along with the one that of Charlie Kirk being assassinated both videos very very difficult to watch very brutal but when that woman was stabbed she was stabbed three times by this murderous psychopath this demonic individual who then just walked past her blood dripping from himself because of how many times he stabbed her in the throat and is muttering to himself

01:00:06

I got that white girl and she's sitting there in that chair probably not aware of the severity of her wounds but knowing that she had been stabbed and was bleeding and then a few seconds pass by and then she just hunches over and falls out of her seat onto the floor and you see blood in the seat from where she was and then everything even gets worse from there but as Chris mentioned in his voicemail nobody got up to help her was there a possibility that the bleeding could have been slowed and stopped to save her life maybe but those are precious moments you've got seconds to react and nobody did anything

01:00:45

I think somebody told me it was two to three minutes before someone else on the train finally came to her aid there was a man who took his shirt off and and wrapped it around her to try to stop the bleeding but at that point it was too far it was she had lost too much blood and if somebody had cared earlier it may have saved her life you know there's always going to be these wicked people in the world there will always be until Christ returns consider these words in Revelation chapter 22 let the evil doer still do evil and the filthy still be filthy and the righteous still do right and the holy still be holy so there are going to be wicked people all the way up to the time of Christ's return there are gonna be wicked evil people praying upon the helpless and the innocent just like that that's gonna happen and yet what needs to be our response let the righteous still do right we're still loving our neighbor and showing compassion and caring for every life as an image bearer of God even though there are murderous people out there who do not see every life as valuable we as Christians must and we're out there even fighting for the rights of the unborn who are being murdered by the thousands every day in America even though Roe v.

01:02:17

Wade has been overturned the number of abortions that are happening in America every year have not gone down in fact they've increased so we're still even speaking up on behalf of those who are unborn to end this

01:02:33

Holocaust in America of the of the murder of the unborn this is another way that we love our neighbors great comment from you

01:02:42

Chris and may we be prepared and brave and courageous enough to stick up for others and help others when they are preyed upon by the wicked all kinds of verses about that especially in the wisdom books in the

01:02:58

Psalms and in Proverbs let us in the love of Christ show love to our neighbor all right

01:03:07

I said I was gonna end on something a little more light -hearted so this question comes from Adrian I was listening to an up -and -coming preacher who broke down during a service saying he couldn't preach that morning because he felt his mind wasn't right and he didn't want to bring bad teaching to the to the people which

01:03:33

I can respect but then he said something that kind of took me out of the moment he said that he felt that God forbade him from taking notes into the pulpit his outline into the pulpit and I know this is more of a stylistic choice but it was he got giving fresh revelation this is something that we should all kind of look at or am

01:03:56

I just thinking too much about it curious on your thoughts what do you use I tend to go full manuscript but I know others say no notes very few notes is there a happy medium that you go with or what are your what's your preferred style well thank you

01:04:19

Adrian for asking that question that's a good setup to that as well you know when you were when you were first talking about that when you were when you were first setting that up and sharing that story about that guy

01:04:32

I had the thought of well that guy just needs to write a manuscript but then you said that he felt impressed upon by God to not bring notes into the pulpit well that which is silly that's dumb

01:04:45

God is not gonna tell us not to take notes into the pulpit forget that so that is just a this is really more of a delivery preference do you need to have notes then take notes can you preach without notes the majority of the sermons that I have ever preached have been without a manuscript so it's just my

01:05:06

Bible open in front of me and I know a basic outline in my head these are the points that I'm gonna draw out and so I'm able to do that without notes

01:05:13

I can preach a one -hour sermon with virtually no prep and I don't recommend anybody do that that is just the training that I've received over the years it's what

01:05:24

I did in college so I competed on a national level in college in what's called impromptu speaking and in impromptu speaking you're given a topic and you have to just basically make it up on the fly so you're given a topic and then you have to be able to speak on it now they would give you two minutes to prepare and five minutes to deliver that's the way impromptu speaking would work but I wouldn't even take the prep time

01:05:47

I got that good in it if I can toot my own horn so I could just read the topic and then just turn around and start talking and I actually lost points because of that because they thought

01:05:59

I was coming in with prepared speeches so my coach told me no you actually have to sit there and pretend you're preparing something even if you already know how you're gonna take this topic and run with it all of that comes from my experience in radio as well so I just was raised to be a public speaker

01:06:14

I can I can open up any passage as well as I know the Bible I've even got the cross references in my head so I can open up any passage and just deliver an hour -long sermon on it

01:06:25

I don't do that though like I like I can do that but I'm telling you

01:06:31

I don't because I do need to give the time as a pastor to those passages in preparation leading up to my sermon on Sunday I give hours in the week to reading the passage and reading other authors about it listening to other sermons even developing my outline drawing examples pulling that into the text and things like that I give it the time because I'm gonna be feeding this people and so I need to be very very intentional in knowing what the passage says the needs that my congregation need to hear or need to have answered and that's what

01:07:05

I'm speaking into when I come into the pulpit now I've been writing my manuscripts a lot more lately so I've been going into the pulpit with a manuscript the reason why

01:07:14

I do that is because I want the written record of it I had been trying to deliver sermons and then writing them down afterward like just putting down a thousand words on paper or something like that to kind of summarize what it was that I preached but it was that was difficult kind of like retroactively to write my sermon

01:07:33

I wasn't as engaged in it anymore once I had delivered it so it helped me in my preparation for the sermon to write the manuscript even if I didn't use the manuscript when

01:07:45

I preached so I write my manuscripts a lot more and that way I can now use the manuscript to publish something if I want to I actually want to do a different book on each chapter in Romans since I'm preaching through Romans right now

01:07:59

I'm gonna be in Romans 7 on Sunday so I'd like to take what I've preached thus far and do like 40 days in Romans 1 and there will be there will be like 40 short devotionals through Romans 1 taking from those sermons that I had written and delivered when we were in Romans 1 just to kind of use that as that as an example so that's where a manuscript is beneficial and it it slows you down it makes your thoughts intentional you're writing them down on paper it gets them into your head a little bit more and and so I'm not just haphazardly walking into the pulpit and preaching about anything it's very deliberate and I have given my mind to Christ throughout the week and let him by his

01:08:41

Holy Spirit work on me his word into my heart so that I may know how to deliver it in a way that doesn't sound like Gabe but I'm pointing people to the

01:08:51

Savior so that's kind of a little bit about my own particular methods with this guy it sounds like even if he had a manuscript that doesn't necessarily relieve him of the trouble that he felt he was in that Sunday when he comes to the pulpit and says

01:09:07

I don't feel like I'm equipped to preach to you today because his heart just wasn't in the right place so even if he had a manuscript he still probably should not have been preaching because it was a heart issue not really a preparation issue so it's perfectly fine for anybody to preach without notes like I said

01:09:28

I've done it and the majority of sermons I have preached have been without notes but you still need to do the prep work and I have to wonder if the lack of prep work may have contributed to his heart being in the wrong place because he just had not given the time to it and let the

01:09:48

Word of God get into his heart that's kind of speculative but just based on what you shared there and sharing with you my own experience that's where I come from when it comes to sermon preparation and what

01:09:59

I've got with me when I go into the pulpit to preach thank you for your question and for all of you sent in questions and I'm sorry if I wasn't able to get to everything but you can email a question to when we understand the text at gmail .com

01:10:11

or again voicemail go to www .tt .com click on that voicemail tab record a voicemail from either your phone or your computer before totally closing out here

01:10:22

I came across this clip and this is a clip of Ben Shapiro and Bill Maher I don't know if you know who either of those people are

01:10:32

Ben Shapiro from the Daily Wire and Bill Maher from the Bill Maher show that he has on HBO and has been doing this show for a few decades now hasn't he been think

01:10:42

I seem to remember my dad watching it when I was a kid I don't know that it was on HBO then at that time because we never had

01:10:48

HBO when I was a kid so I did he have something that was like more on basic cable back then anyway this is

01:10:55

Ben Shapiro and Bill Maher having a conversation about morality and ethics in America and I found this fascinating so let me go ahead and play it

01:11:04

I'll make some comments at the end it begins with Bill Maher talking about how he just doesn't believe the Bible is divinely inspired and he considers it to be a silly book so the first voice is

01:11:14

Bill Maher here we go it's always such a silly argument because if God wrote the book how could there be things we don't agree with it either got to be perfect because it's written by you -know -who or it's just not perfect well written by people which it was obviously and it's full of nonsense and wickedness and things that are everything but virtual you and I agree on morality

01:11:35

I'd say like 87 % morality not from the Bible I have a question why because the because it's for slavery why do you and I agree on morality like 87 .5

01:11:47

% I'm a religious Jew you're an atheist why do we agree on those things I'll tell you I mean I give you my answer please because we probably grew up a few miles from each other in a

01:11:55

Western society that has several thousand years of biblical history behind it and so you can think that you hit that triple and you formed your own morality but the reality is you were born morally on third base no we okay that is a great point and these are two men who are not

01:12:17

Christians Ben Shapiro is a practicing Jew doesn't even believe the

01:12:24

Bible is divinely inspired by the way Bill Maher is an atheist two men who don't believe in God don't even believe the

01:12:33

Bible is the Word of God and yet they understand how did we arrive at the morality that we have because this was a nation that was built upon the truth of the

01:12:45

Bible and so that I love that analogy love the analogy that Shapiro had just shared there with Mar you think you think that you just swung the bat hit the ball hit a triple and you ended up on third base and now you're congratulating yourself for the morality and the ethics that you had because you discovered them and that's why you have them but the reality is

01:13:08

Shapiro points out you were born on third base you were born in a culture that already held to these moral ethical views because of what the

01:13:20

Bible there are a lot of evangelists out there that when they talk to atheists will say to those atheists you're borrowing from my worldview you have no objective moral truth to stand upon you actually cannot say this is right and that is wrong on any objective moral standard it's just people's opinions whereas we as Christians can point to the

01:13:46

Creator who established truth it is true because God says that it's true and it's true therefore for every single person it is always wrong to murder just like it was wrong for Charlie Kirk to be murdered and by the way everybody knows that even

01:14:02

Bill Maher has been out there saying how wrong and evil it is for Charlie Kirk to have been murdered this way how can

01:14:11

Bill Maher say that because he knows has written on his heart as said in Romans chapter 2 that killing people is wrong

01:14:19

God's objective moral standard is written on the heart of every single person though they may suppress the truth in unrighteousness as said in Romans 118 but we all know deep down killing somebody is wrong and that is because these objective moral truths have been established in all that has been made this is natural law that we're talking about here even if a person doesn't know what

01:14:44

God's Word says they still have a conscience that has been fashioned by the

01:14:50

Creator who made them and I guess I've got one more clip that I could play here in closing this out this is

01:14:56

Bill Maher again but this is Bill Maher talking to Charlie Kirk listen to this risen he is risen indeed

01:15:02

Bill why do we say that in the present tense because it is a it is a constant truth in our life he is risen

01:15:09

I always noticed that that was interesting to me that it was really important question actually it is tell me well because the fact that he is risen transcends time it's not just in the present sense it's that of all time that promise is accessible to all of us and so it's a proclamation to all people because if you said a he was risen yeah it's like it's just merely a historical event it almost underplays the metaphysics of it

01:15:35

I'm just always fascinated the way really really fine intellectual minds employ themselves for the purpose of arguing things that are so inarguable it's almost it's almost it does because it's it's almost like it it's almost like a challenge like I'm so smart that I can make this thing which is so stupid it's like a real

01:16:04

I'm not no no it's fine no but you get where I'm coming from look I'm gonna take something that is so anti intellectual even though I can argue like an in however but you have to acknowledge even the greatest minds of history have been mesmerized by the scriptures

01:16:19

Isaac Newton Thomas Aquinas well Isaac Newton wrote more about biblical prophecy than even physics and so there's something about the scriptures that are intellectual that does push your limits and that's what

01:16:32

I think is so beautiful about our faith is it can be accessible to everyone but also infinitely nourishing and exploration that's beautiful that's him talking to an atheist about Christ being risen from the dead and all

01:16:44

Bill Maher can do is sit there and deny it for as is said in 1st

01:16:49

Corinthians 1 18 the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God and I believe

01:17:05

Charlie Kirk believe that message and was killed for it and may

01:17:11

God grant me the courage to stand upon the truth no matter what I love you my friends

01:17:18

I thank you so much for listening let me take a moment here to pray I want to lift up Charlie Kirk's family and pray for them as they are grieving in the midst of this great loss also frankly the family of Irina Zaruzka who was killed on that train in Charlotte and I pray that her family also is being comforted and that somebody is sharing the gospel with them

01:17:41

Heavenly Father we thank you for the kindness that you show to us all the time that we do not deserve and yet as said in Romans 2 your kindness and forbearance and patience is meant to lead us to repentance there is a common grace that is upon every person so that they would turn from their sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live but they won't know to turn to Christ unless there are people out there sharing the gospel with them as talked about in Romans chapter 10 how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of the gospel of peace making peace between us and God and so Lord let us be out there with the gospel boldly sharing it as Charlie Kirk did and was killed for it we do not fear we do not shrink back we're not even losing our minds about this and becoming so overly radical but we are energized in knowing that it is through the gospel our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life do we believe that then we don't need to fear any of the weapons that they form against us no weapon formed against us shall succeed we have the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ and so knowing that we share the gospel boldly with everybody there is a way that you can be saved and have everlasting life with God you will not perish under his wrath but you will be forgiven and reconciled to your

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Creator believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will live and I pray that message would continue to go forth even in the wake of this horrible tragedy that happened just a matter of a couple of days ago

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Lord I lift up Erica Kirk and Charlie Kirk's two young children and just how utterly devastated they might be the kids not even really understanding what's going on but Erica of course has shared her tears publicly has shared the gospel publicly even in light of her husband's murder

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Lord I pray for the man who murdered him I pray that he would be convicted of heart and he too would repent and come to Christ before he stands before you in judgment he's about to be tried in a court of law but even greater than this is the judge that he will stand before at the edge of eternity and only by faith in Jesus Christ can even this wicked deed be forgiven and he have everlasting life and even

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Charlie Kirk would be there in heaven welcoming him in if he were to turn to Christ and I pray that does happen for him once again

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Lord comfort the hearts of his family and give Erica courage even in these times she's demonstrated it already but that she would continue to have courage and a tenacity to share the gospel with others in memory of her husband who gave his life sharing the gospel of Christ Lord I also want to pray for the family of Irina Zerutskaya the

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Ukrainian woman who came to the United States believing that she was getting a better life and her life was taken from her so unjustly and monstrously

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Lord may her family be comforted in the midst of this and there be somebody to share the gospel with them

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I hope she knew the gospel may they hear the truth of Christ and put their hope and trust in him the man who murdered her seemed to be out of his mind though he was though though he is still a man who knows what he did and he's going to have to answer for this crime that he did so publicly in the eyes of so many people who have seen those videos what a wicked monstrous person but even he

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Lord may he be convicted of heart and repent because it is going to be a hot day in hell for him if he does not may these things strike fear into our hearts the fear of God a reverent fear of you knowing that you are the judge of all things and because you sent your son to die for us and we've been bought with a price by his blood shed on the cross for our sins rising again from the grave so that we would be justified as said in Romans 425 he was raised for our justification in light of this we are servants of Christ in these days give us the courage to go forth with the gospel the courage to love one another and care for each other especially with the gospel of Jesus Christ it's in Jesus name we pray amen this is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes there are lots of great

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Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family find a good gospel teaching