WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:57:59.000 Going to be a different kind of video. My notes for this video are 21 words I just hammered out in a word doc about one minute ago. Um, but I've been thinking about this video for quite a while now. At least ever since, basically ever since I first started looking, not just the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but when I started looking into who he was and what he stood for. And all these thoughts have been percolating in my mind. Then I went to the memorial and I saw. Well, I'll tell you what I saw there. This video is going to be doing two things. One, I'm going to share with you guys what that memorial was like, um, and maybe some of my thoughts on it. As you're working through your thoughts as well. You don't have to agree with me on everything, but it'll at least stir up some of your own thoughts. And second, uh, how this is changing me in relation to what it means to think biblically in application to the intersection of my Christian commitments and politics, which they do intersect, and they intersect a lot. And I want to talk about that and how I think we should have more Christians, more active in politics, more active in advocacy, more active in some of these watershed issues in our culture. And, um, I'll tell you, I'm not changing is any of my biblical values. None of those are changing here. Um, there are some who will think, understandably, you're going to think Mike is now becoming political. Uh, what I'm actually going to do, I hope, God willing, is I'm going to take down an artificial barrier that was stopping some of my activity of thinking biblically about everything. So I'll explain. Uh, let's get into it. So let me just start off by saying, yep, this is a random, weird live stream. I just, I just called up, uh, or sent a message to my assistant Sarah, and was like, hey, can you stream today? I got to get this done. There's too much going on right now. I know this is not the best way to start a video to say this, but with the videos I've got on a different subject on Steve Coco and that predatory behavior, um, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that is, it's good stuff and bad stuff and we're trying to manage that and figure out how to handle that properly and other things that are coming up next. So there's too much going on. I don't have time to write out a perfect script for this video or I don't do scripts, but to write out all my outlines. And all my thoughts and spend the next, like, you know, spend 15, 20 hours working on it. I just can't. So here we go. Off the cuff, handful of 21 word notes and livestream. So, um, the Charlie Kirk Memorial. Um, what's my opinion of it? Um, hopefully you'll hear out everything I say, not just one little snippet of it. But, um, the memorial was amazing and complicated and it felt to me. See, this is, I think, a bit of an unhealthy feeling. It felt to me as though I should focus primarily on it being complicated. Uh, when I think the most important part is the part of it that was amazing. Does that make sense? These challenges that I'm about to unpack, they can get you to actually set aside the goodness of what just happened and the amazing thing that's going on. And I'm not going to do that. I want to highlight it. Okay, so I'm going to start with the amazing stuff. The fact that we had so many people gathered together, um, for a Christian memorial. And I do believe it was a Christian memorial. If you disagree with me on that. It's not that I'm not aware of what you think. I just think we don't agree on this. I think that was very much a Christian memorial. It was more Christian than most Christian funerals. That's the amazing part. Okay, you want to talk about Donald Trump, we'll talk about it. Give me a minute. I don't think that takes away from it, actually. I think it kind of provided unnecessary contrast. At any rate, this is an event where the gospel was preached and proclaimed in detail to probably the large. This is crazy to think this probably the largest audience in human history. The probably the loudest, most heard gospel presentation in the history of our world. If not, it's up there, but it's probably the number one. Uh, it broke ratings and stuff. It went all over the place. There's people watching it in other countries around the world. And it was bold gospel. You know, Frank Turek brought a bold gospel presentation. Even Catholics right now, forgive me guys, some of you are going to be offended by this. But even Catholics got up and provided a bold, in some cases like Rubio, a bold gospel, uh, proclamation. They did this and it was awesome. Actually, I might be able to show you guys something on this. I'll see if I can work on that while I'm talking. So, um, the gospel going out, it was complicated. I'll get to that later. Don't take away from the fact that it was amazing because it was complicated. That's one of the first things I'll say. Just that. Just don't take away from the fact that it was amazing merely because it was complicated and there was some bad along with the good. But, um, uh, the event was stunning. You go inside, and I didn't know what to expect. I decided, uh, to travel there. I did not go there to be the seen, uh, to be, you know, a person who was in the mix. I texted a friend, hey, I'm going to be at the memorial. And I didn't even know he had inside contacts. And he goes, I can get you a pass. So he got me on the floor. So that means, you know, I was there on the ground where they had these signs, um, which, uh. Which was pretty cool. I. You know, here I am, I'm 20ft away from, you know, Elon Musk as he walks by and Tucker Carlson as he walks by. And, uh, I saw Ali Beth Stuckey. There's her, actually would have liked to. Said hi to. To be honest, I was like, oh, there's one of my sisters. Um, and then other people, all sorts of. Bishop Robert Barron, uh, was. Was up, you know, up in front, um, in this. In the even more special section. That was like, just in front of where I was sitting. So we're right there. I could have thrown a rock and hit the president. I wouldn't do that. Of course, this is not a threat. FBI. Don't look into me. But. But I was right there. Um, that was pretty cool to have that spot. It was too loud. I may have had. Have hearing damage. You guys have no idea how loud it was. And they, for some reason, raised the volume right at the very end even louder to m. Where you. You ever have stuff that's so loud, you actually hear static in your ears because the volume's so loud your ears can't. And so you're a static sound. That was what I was getting at the end there. It was like, oh, I hope I. I don't lose my hearing now. Um, this event, though, man. Bold gospel proclamation. And yet it was super political, too. Um, that complexity. It wasn't necessarily bad. Uh, it was complicated, but I would not put a label on it as a whole. This was bad. It was just. This is complicated. And if we're going to love our neighbors and if we're going to care about these things, then why wouldn't we want to do political advocacy as Christians? In fact, one of the thoughts that I've had in my mind, um, I'll Tell you more about the memorial. But one of the thoughts I had in my mind is, if Christians don't get engaged in politics and in these issues, then what are we doing as we're abandoning those issues to everybody else to deal with so that us, with our biblical values, with our Christian values, we don't actually engage and we don't actually have an impact on those things. That is bad. Um, that's not healthy. There's a cost to being on the fence. That's what I'm saying. There's a cost to being on the fence where you don't have an impact and your biblical worldview is not being represented and you're not helping to push forward good things. Now, there's a cost to getting involved, too, because you can start dividing unnecessarily over issues that are actually debatable. But, um, many of these issues are not very debatable. Okay, the trans issue, not debatable. Abortion, not debatable. In fact, Christians need. I'll fast forward here. Christians need to get more involved in the Republican Party so they can draw them back on the topic of abortion. That would be one opinion I have here. Um, the Democratic Party is a lost cause on this. That's my opinion. Now, if you're like, mike, I'm unsubscribing. I can't believe you talked about this. I'm talking about the murder of children. If you think you can't believe I talked about this, you're unsubscribing. I'm like, fine, I'm okay with that. You'd be surprised that I don't care that much about the number of people subscribed to my channel. I care about the impact of my ministry. That's what I care about, the impact it has on your Life, whether that's one person or 100,000 or many more. Uh, that's what I personally really care about, is that impact. And when it comes to the murder of children, nobody in the Bible is silent on these topics when they're offering their kids to baal. It's not just that it's pagan worship. It's also that they're killing their children. And so this is railed against. And God talks about the blood of the innocent, cries out to me, and he's speaking through his prophets to rebuke the people. Um, Christians have to scream to our culture that abortion is the greatest atrocity of our time. It is the ongoing holocaust of our world. Now, this is nothing I haven't said before. All I did Just now, uh, how I'm changing is I said, strategically, I think it's healthy for Christians to get involved in the Republican Party in order to draw them back on the issue of abortion so that it becomes more of a necessary thing. Um, I think that that's a good thing for us to do. You can disagree with me on that, and maybe there's something I'm missing there. Fine. But I'm going to speak my conviction here on this topic because I think I'm trying to apply the Bible to all of my life. Okay. But I'll come back to that more as we go. But the memorial, um, here was an event that was blazing worship that non believers were coming to Jesus. Because of this event, people gave their lives to Christ. Our churches had a ton of people that literally showed up that Sunday because of Charlie Kirk and his impact, because he put his Christianity first, foot forward. Now, along with that comes, like, all these political things, and some you might disagree with, some I might disagree with, but I'm not going to ignore that this is a guy who put his faith first, he put his Christianity first, and he boldly went out there and look at the impact his boldness. That's a big word there. His courage had. And, man, I'm just reminded that courage is a virtue and that boldness is what they prayed for in Acts, chapter four. Give us boldness. We need boldness. I think Christians need to apply more boldness. Uh, I don't want to feel like I'm lecturing the world here. There's plenty of believers who do this. I think that as a whole, we want to do it more. Um, the event caused people to go to your church. They went because of the impact of this guy and what God was doing through it. Um, that's amazing. I consider Charlie Crook a martyr. I made a video where I talked about the specific reasons I made a case for it. Um, and I do believe that's very much true. They say the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And I mean, look at the effect of his death. He gets killed because probably most likely, I'm fairly confident, because he held fast on trans issues and had, uh, Christian opinions of homosexuality and things like that. He was killed for those things, and then a bunch of people get saved as a result. There's a lot of people, a lot of Christians who, uh, don't want to. I'm not mad at you guys. Let's just think about it. Who don't want to talk about him or address him. And I Think the reason is because you're worried about the political baggage that comes alongside with that. But my contention is the majority of that political baggage is Christian political baggage. That he had views that were his Christianity playing out the majority. It seems to me now surely there's things to disagree with. Maybe I had a comment on Mormonism that I wouldn't agree with. Duh. Uh, this is real life. We all don't agree with each other. So anytime I mention someone's name online, I always get people in the comments. Do you know they have this one thing you disagree with? And I was like, I don't care. There's always something you disagree with somebody on. Um, but is the general flow of what they're doing in the vein of Christian truth? And I would have said, yeah, uh, yeah, I think it was not only that. It wasn't just like he. He was in a vacuum speaking Christian truth. Oh, good. You said things that I can say are accurate or true. Um, and yep, he was forceful. Uh, and he drew attention and he got a lot of flack. And you will too, if you talk about him. But not only was he just. Yes, that's technically a Christian view there, what you just said about equity. I have a video on this somewhere. But, uh, equal outcomes, which is kind of like a Marxist thing, which is like a woke thing, a leftist thing, is not a biblical version of justice. Equal outcomes is not the primary indicator of biblical understanding of true, I should say, justice, equal treatment. That is not equal outcomes. And there's a significant difference there. And that difference spirals out into major political opinions about how you'll handle things like, um, like dei, which I would say I think DEI is actually unbiblical, even though it tries to come from a place of saying, but we believe that all people are equal and we're all, um, of the same value. And I agree with that. But the proof in your unbiblical attitude is this equal outcomes thing that then causes you to do all sorts of things that end up being oppression and racism. That's everything I said there, I think, is thinking biblically about things. But it's super political to say it. And I think we should just say it anyways. Um, I think I should say it anyways. Why on earth would I not? I've never been one who's totally silent on politics or who totally takes a, uh. Like, let's not talk about that kind of stuff. But I know that I've just had more hesitancy because I fear how it will be perceived not whether it's true or not. And, and that is not right. I want to be aware of how Christians will perceive me and, uh, other believers who have been sort of ideologically captured by leftist thinking. I care about you, but I don't want to withhold the truth that you need to deliver you from things that are false because you'll get upset and chew me out or get upset, whatever. But I also don't want to get ideologically captured by the right in a bad way either. Um, but that doesn't mean that, you know, Christianity is in the middle and the left is, you know, on my left over here, and on my right is over here. So, you know, it's not like Christianity threads the middle and then there's the left and the right over here, and we kind of like find this middle ground. So whoever's saying something on the left, I find a way to slightly disagree. Whoever's saying something on the right, I find a way to slightly disagree. And my commentary on whatever's going on in the world is always pulling back towards the center. Um, that's not thinking biblically. Thinking biblically is. I have my views coming from Scripture, and then I can navigate this web of their views. I put a straight line through the crooked line of their different views. That should be how I operate as a Christian. And the way I do that is one issue at a time and one topic at a time. And I don't have all the answers on those types of things. But, um, anyways, uh, this memorial, the. Let me talk a little bit about. Not the speakers. Let me talk a little bit about what happened out in the stands. Okay. Um, in the stands, I ran into a number of interesting people that were there. Um, I saw, uh, let's see, Greg Locke came up and shook my hands, uh, just kind of glad handing me like, oh, hey, Michael, it's good to meet you kind of thing. And I was like, not ready for that discussion. I was totally not prepared for it for. To just meet him mentally, because I have some major issues with him, even though politically we're going to have many layers of agreement. Um, but there are some major issues there for sure. Then I, um, I saw Patricia king sitting maybe 30ft away from me. There was tons of people between us. We never could have connected if we tried. But I saw that, and it was impossible for me not to notice her, to see me. Awkward eye contact a little bit. For those who don't know, when I did my TA White video, Patricia King came out against it. Um, very Much against it. She'll try to posture herself, like she's just trying to be fair and stuff like that. But it was very much tons of error and mistakes and problems to hold up and do cover up culture for a man who needs to be, uh, put out of ministry. So Patricia King did that. But, um. But, man, it was trippy to see her there, to see these people there. I was surprised and I realized that I wasn't fully prepared to interact on that level with some of those people. And what hit me was that this is not healthy, that I don't know how I'm going to interact with and stand alongside, or more in a complicated way, alongside and against some of these things. You know, it's just. It's just challenging stuff. So I, um, find myself torn. Uh, as I'm sitting there in the stands, I'm like, we're here in what we agree on, and yet there's things we disagree on that are significant. Up in front of me, like I said, was Bishop Robert Barron, who's a Catholic, and he's a Catholic apologist. He's a big apologist for Catholicism. I have a video on how he butchers the gospel when he talks to Ben Shapiro. And I believe that's true. I'm not going to compromise my biblical truths. They're not my truths, but the biblical truth. Because I'm trying to partner, uh, with people. If I partner in some way in the future with people, go to an event, do something that has political connotations, it has to be known that my primary value are all my Christian views. And any engagement in the political stuff is only in order to propagate glorifying and honoring God and serving Christ and blessing my neighbor by expressing those views, uh, in public, which means that I can't grab the hand of a Catholic and act like we have the same view of justification, an incredibly important doctrine of the Christian faith. We agree on abortion, we agree on, uh, family values and trans stuff and so many other things. Although the Catholic Church, there's a significant branch that leans socialist now, it seems. Um, but, you know, that was. That was what the previous Pope was leaning towards as well. So that's kind of. The Catholic Church has two. Has two sort of. They kind of have their own Democrat, Republican divide they got going on. It's a version of that that's, you know, conservative, liberal. Um, anyways, my realization, when I sat there, I was like, I have so little engagement in this realm that I mostly just sit back and look at it and make opinions about it. But I don't actually do much. And what hit me wasn't that me, Mike Winger, has to go and become super political, like run for office or something like that, which I don't have any intention of doing, at least not at this stage in my life. Uh, no plans or agendas for that, whatever. Um, but rather my thought was that my thinking here represents so many Christians. And when you have this thinking spread across believers all over the place, what you have is a ton of Christians who are taking a observer seat in the realm of political engagement that affects policy, that affects universities, that affects the next generation, that affects, um, people's lives, that affects the poor, the rich, everybody in between. And we're having these real pragmatic issues that impact people's lives that we're all just becoming observers of. I critique, I do not involve. Because if I go to that event, I'll be seen as partnering with politics too much, as picking too much of a side. Do you see what I mean? Like, this is a paralyzing impact that we're having in our lives. I remember being invited to a marriage prayer breakfast in Bellflower, and I've been to a few of them. But thinking, like, do I even want to go? There's all these people from other places and churches and like, are there even all Christians and trying to navigate, like, I cannot do ecumenical gatherings with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. I can't even do an ecumenical gathering with Catholics. But can I do a political one? This is the question I'm having. Is it possible to say I've got this Christian value? I'm going to push in the political realm and, and there's going to be non Christians that are there, or even, uh, Christians who are like Todd White type Christians or some of the NAR crowd who they gravitate towards these people. I'll talk about that. Hopefully I'll remember too, in a little bit. I might be looking at my notes. Where did I even put those? Um, but can I go to these events and advocate for specific values and be a voice so that we're not all abdicating? All the solid biblical Christians are abdicating any involvement in these realms. And here's. I guess I'll talk about it now. Here's what we do is we leave them to the mercy of Paula White and the NAR and these groups that are basically what happens is the pastors and leaders who are power hungry and willing to compromise. They are the ones that get involved and get in the ear of legislators and get in the ears of the people who are making decisions. They're the ones that get up on stage and start speaking at these events because they're willing to get involved in those things. And I think often they're just hungry for power. Now, we can't be hungry for power as Christians. What we have to be hungry for is impact. We have to be hungry for changing the world, not for power for itself. Power for power's sake is evil. It's evil. But impact. I try to increase my reach online, but not because I want reach. It's because I want impact in people's lives. What if we do that in the realm of politics more as Christians, and you get more involved with. We need more Christians running for office. I need more Christians in high positions in politics. We need more believers. And we have to make it so that when they enter into those positions, the only Christians they have access to aren't Paula White. For those who don't know, if you're like Mike, why are you being hard on Paula White? Do a little bit of work on understanding who she is. She's Benny Hinn. Paula White is Benny Hinn. The, um, moral compass of people like that is off, and it's going to be harmful to our leaders as well if that's the people they have access to. Primarily, what we need is people of God who have strong moral convictions, who have strong moral fiber, but who understand how to get in a room with people you totally disagree with on major issues and how to navigate that moment so that you, a, don't compromise your own values, you're not pretending these things don't matter, but B, you're still able to get things done. There's a pragmatic value of just getting things done. And I do this every time I vote. So those of you who pay close attention to my ministry, you already know this about me, but I voted for Donald Trump three times, and I do not regret that. Even though I voted in a sense, and I've said this many times through gritted teeth, because what I did was I look at the options and I go, this is the better option for my Christian values. But don't, you know, he's this and that and this and that? Well, some of the things you say don't, you know, he's this and that. I don't think those things are true. Some of them are very true. And yes, I do know that. And this is the pragmatic value. I don't think it's pragmatism where the pragmatic value is the only thing or the primary thing. But it's a thing. Pragmatic value is, uh, a thing. When you go to the store and you buy steak for your family, you think, how many are there? You're not like, what is the moral quality of steak? There's a pragmatic value. You have to weigh into these things. And pragmatically, it was like, yeah, this is, um, Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump. This is an easy choice as a Christian. Easy choice as a Christian. My Christian values caused me to vote for Donald Trump here. Now many were like, never Trump abstain. Uh, the never Trump attitude. Look, you're my brothers and sisters. If we disagree on this, can we still hold hands in every other area? I hope. But on this issue, I'll suggest the never Trump attitude. Um, it can result in simply sidelining some of the most strong moral fiber believers that we have. Some of those Christians who are, who care the most and who think deeply and who are very like, I want to live out my Christian faith. That is the number one thing I care about more than anything else. I want to live it out in the political realm, in any realm. Wherever it goes, that's where I want to be. It can cause those people to be sidelined so that their voices are out of it. You know what the Amish did for politics, uh, maybe. Well, recently they got involved a little bit, but basically nothing ever because they just disconnected. Um, so that seems to me to not be helpful. If we get enough Christians vocal on these things, maybe we could end abortion. Like, vocal. Vocal from every angle, Vocal on the job, vocal from the pulpit. If every Christian in the US Stood strong on trans issues, it never would have got this bad. Now I know that's not going to happen. Okay? We're not going to get every Christian in the US because there's plenty of Christians who do believe in Jesus, but are ideologically captured by woke stuff. And then they think that loving your neighbor is affirming their harmful self harm delusions. Um, and this is obviously really bad. So what do we do from here? I'm at this event and I'm seeing these people on stage and I notice something. Maybe this will give us a clue. People in the audience, some of them just power brokers and some people of real conviction, like Alisa Childers is there, and I've known her for a few years now, and, um, we aren't close, but we know each other decently well because I've seen her content, she's seen my Content. You do get to know me when you watch my content. Same thing for her. And we've interacted here and there. Um, and I consider her a person of real moral fiber. And she's looking around the room. We're all asking the same question. How do I have this effect that this memorial had? How do I go for it and get involved in more stuff, but in this icky slew of different players, some of whom are like, dude, I don't even want to touch that guy. Like, that's a wolf. He's a wolf. I'd rather hang out with Donald Trump, who's at least not a Christian, and we know it, than that guy who's up there lying in the name of Jesus, taking advantage of people, defrauding them, and deceiving in Christ's name. Um, and so we're having these debates amongst ourselves. I'm talking to them, and three of us at the thing we were talking about this, were saying, I don't know. I feel like maybe I could be involved in TPUSA more than I could be involved in TPUSA Faith. Because the faith one seems like it creates this. We're ecumenical. We're all the same church. We have the same beliefs. And you're like these people. We do not all have the same beliefs, but there are some shared values that are Christian values that we can push forward together, but we can't push it forward as though we're all Christians. And this is a really challenging thing. You know, what do you do? Elisa made a video. I'll put a link to it in the description after I'm done here, where, uh, she talked about this. And her conclusion is that she's going to be willing to go and speak at just about any event, no matter who's there, as long as nobody tells her what she can say. And, um, I respect that. Maybe that's exactly the right thing to do. Maybe that's what I should do. Um, I've turned down so many events, you guys. Usually I'm just too busy. Especially when I got sick several years ago, I was like, I don't have the energy to do a lot of stuff. Um, but I'm getting more energy now, thank God, so I could. I could start saying yes to things. I just got invited to an event, uh, that will be overtly Christian political. It'll be kind of a bigger event. And, um, I might say yes to that. Uh, now, it's not that you should care that much about whether I say yes to that. That's not that important to you, I don't think. But I think you're wrestling with some of the same stuff. As a Christian, do you speak out? Let me give you another. Here's the thing to encourage you to speak out on issues that are not overtly the gospel. Um, I can give a bunch of reasons now. The more I think about it, I've been thinking about this for years. It's just coalescing more. Um, the. The result of what, what has been dubbed third Wayism. M. Right, Tim, uh, Keller, who. I'm not trying to rip on Tim Keller. I think Tim Keller had a wonderful impact in the body of Christ in a number of huge ways. Ministered a lot of people, was super effective. Um, however, exporting his political strategies of engaging political issues to the church at large I think is overall unhealthy. And so, um, we have a mixed. There'll be a mixed evaluation of me one day when I die and someone looks back on my ministry. There's going to be things. People go, man, that was right on. And someone goes, and he was off on this. And they're going to be right. I'm going to be off on some things. Because we all make mistakes and we all get sidetracked. Um, and some of you think I'm getting sidetracked now. I don't think so at all, actually. Uh, I think what I'm doing is I'm unchaining my desire and intentions to think biblically about everything I'm unchaining it from. This idea of Tim Keller is traced to Tim Keller a lot. But this sort of, um. Oh, don't talk about that. So let me give you some examples of why I think this is relevant. All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer what scripture says persecution. It doesn't just say they want to preach the gospel so they'll suffer persecution. Sometimes you can preach the gospel and not suffer persecution, um, depending on how you preach it. But the scripture says all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Now, let me give you an example where this is really interesting. There was a season there where online social media, Facebook, including Twitter, uh, at the time, um, Instagram, TikTok, most social medias, you could get banned from social media if you made the comment, who was that Biden guy that was the. In charge of like, health or something? I forget what it was. And he was, uh, trans. So it was a man with long hair trying to pretend he was a woman. And if you were to say I forget his name now. You know, so and so is a man. Boom, your account is gone. Do you guys remember that? I remember sitting there thinking, I kind of want to say it because there's a part of me, and this is, I think, a healthy part, that wants to charge into the controversy of our world and stand for Christian values in that place. I think this is more of a guy thing than the girls have it, too. But, guys, there's something in us. We want to fight a battle. And I'm just telling you, you were in a battle, and there's a battle to fight, and it's good that you want to fight it. And I'm encouraging you to stand up and fight it. And it'll be messy, and you'll make some mistakes, and you got to watch out for pride. Pride will be the thing that undermines all of this. It's got to be humility, like a confidence and a courage coupled with humility. And you'll be golden. You'll handle these things well. And when you make a mistake, you'll be correctable. But if you're. If here's me thinking on social media, I could post, Jesus is the only way. Guys, you need to repent and give your lives to Christ. I'll get some likes. I'll get some people that, you know, call me names and atheists that go like this, filling spaghetti monster is the only way, because they always parody whatever I put online. They just reword it slightly as if that's cleverness. Um, but I'd post it, and it would be fine. But if I had posted so and so is a man, Boom, I'm gone. Yet. Yet my Christian values. Yeah, Rachel Levine. Thank you, Chaz Whistler. Put it in the comments there. Rachel, uh, Levine. What is that guy's real first name? It's not Rachel. This delusional man who's trying to delude the entire country. And successfully. The Biden administration pushed forward, starting, um, with Obama, and then Biden pushed forward this trans agenda, and it is entirely against scripture. It is against God. God made them male, female. When you rebel against that design, you're actually rebelling against God. So if I say so, Levine is a man. Rachel Levine is a man. If I say this, I'm standing for biblical truth in a way that will be interpreted as political activism. And maybe you know what it is political. It's Christian and political. Okay? But it's my Christianity informing and guiding my political activism. That's what I want. That's what I want. You know, I'VE been out there picketing at abortion clinics before. Like, I don't, uh, I don't have any problem with that. That's a good thing. I've talked about abortion. I made videos about abortion and stuff like that. But I don't think I've ever once on my channel commented on laws that are being passed about the topics. I don't know. Why wouldn't I. Why wouldn't I take the extra step? As a Christian who has a large influence of helping to rally the troops to try to bring Christian political advocacy forward in our country, I can't think of a good reason, but it just trips me out that I could get persecuted for standing for a Christian value, but not for just preaching the gospel, if I'm vague enough. And I'm so tempted not to stand for that Christian value. I think Christians everywhere, whatever Christian value is under the microscope the most. We have to stand for the hardest. And I initially started thinking this with the gay stuff, with the homosexuality stuff. Um, I'm going to play some clips from the. Let me see. I tell you what. Hey, I got to talk real quick to Sarah, Sarah Zimmerman. She's in the. In the chat. So, Sarah, um, you should Peace out anytime you want. I know we have some other mods that are there that can just keep monitoring the chat. So I know at least Hope is in there. Um, and maybe, maybe someone else. Maybe Hope, if you could stick around. If not, I'm fine with just having a reckless chat. I can live with that for a day. Um, but I've just got too much to say. Sorry, this is all off the cuff and I just. I got too much to talk about. But Sarah has a thing she's committed to and you have to go to that. You have to go do the thing. Do not stay here to monitor live chat. It's not that important. Um, and Hope, you can go to. I don't care. You guys can just fight amongst yourselves if you have to in the live chat. Anyways, this, um. Uh. Oh, I lost my train of thought. This. The. Oh, the gay stuff. So the homosexual stuff came up years ago and I think we can learn a lesson from it. Go back to like the 90s. And in the 90s we have the release of this film with Tom Hanks. Um, I forget the name of it right now, but he's like a. He's like a guy that was, uh, uh, wrongly treated because he was gay and he has aids. And, um, some of you guys know it. You'll probably post it in the comments. So this guy, he becomes, um, the sympathetic character. And because of the way this film was done, Tom Hanks is a really good actor and it was well written and well done. Um, this movie starts, it's just one example of characterizing everybody who's against homosexual actions as being bigots and homophobes. And it was incredibly successful. This went across media. You would never see, uh, a solid Christian who's saying, this is something you should repent of. I love you, but I'm calling you to repent of these actions, of homosexual behaviors, because God wants to save you and this is going to keep you from him. You would never, ever hear that, but you would all the time. It would be hillbilly bigot, homophobe who is actually secretly gay. This is what you see all the time. Do you guys remember the movie Powder? That was Powder. That was the movie Powder. It was this hillbilly homophobe bigot who is secretly gay. This kind of thing was just over and over again. And as Christians, we started to realize what we would be viewed as if we spoke openly. So we started getting the apologetic, uh, not apologetics, but as an apologizing, uh, view of homosexuality, where anytime a pastor talks about homosexuality, he's mostly giving caveats. I just want to say I'm really sorry for how the church has handled this issue in the past. That would be the thing. And I'm like, I don't think I've ever done that in my history. Um, but I think it's a really good example of how that's worldly views impacting our Christian witness. When, let me say something extreme. When back in the 90s, in the 80s and the 70s, when homosexuality just started to become more acceptable in our culture and society. And I mean, men having sex with men, men who have same sex attraction, you're tempted with a sin. I'm talking about the behaviors. That's the wicked sin. That's the sin. When that happened, the Christians who started apologizing for all of the, sorry for how we hurt you guys in the past, they were probably on a scale less biblical than the ones holding up signs that were like, homosexuality is a sin. Now, I'm not talking here about that one church. Is it Westboro Baptist Church who holds up signs that says, like, uh, I'm going to forget my language here, guys. I don't use this language. But just so you know the terms God hates fags, this is the sign they would hold up. Um, they would go to a funeral and they would hold up signs at that funeral so and so is burning in hell right now. Things like that that I consider to be, um, not only hateful because they actually don't care about the salvation of these people. They're just expressing their frustrations. That's it. They're just using Christian faith to, um, get their frustrations out. We see this a lot in the woke right and the woke left. They just are trying to get catharsis for their angers. Um, but, um, this act, not only was it unloving and hateful and carnal, it was also stupid. It was like really dumb. It's a really dumb way to try to convince anybody of anything. Um, but the ones who were just, I do love you, but I will not compromise on this. This is a sin, guys. This is a sin. We're hurting all of society with this thing. That person was actually more biblical and doing more to preserve the people of our country than the pastors who got up and apologized but never took a firm stance. Now there's that middle ground, the one who apologized, but then they took a firm stance. But I think the apology was unhelpful. I think what you could have said is something more along the lines of maybe in the future. Um, there's a lot of hate coming at Christians because of our view of homosexuality. Can I explain it to you accurately so you'll understand it? I don't think you'll hate it once you know what it is instead of I'm sorry for the way we've treated you. Because what we've done is we've validated these hateful attitudes towards God and we've become ashamed. We become ashamed of hell. We become ashamed of homosexuality, ashamed of our views on trans issues. And it's all in the name of compassion. And this is, this is a left issue. This is reality, guys. The left uses compassion as a lever to get us to compromise our moral values. And love can never do that. Love needs to exist. It has to be present. The response isn't, of course, hate or lack of love, but it uses compassion as a lever. So you're saying this guy has to live alone the rest of his life just because he's attracted to a different person than you think he should be? Yes. Uh, you want to put it that way, you can, but I'm m saying as a Christian, all you're doing is recharacterizing my views to make them sound mean. And fine, I accept it. You can try to make me sound mean. I'm not going to be ashamed. I'M not going to spend the next 20 minutes apologizing. I'm not going to pretend like you don't know what you're doing. That is a better view, I think, as Christians, is, let's not pretend the culture doesn't know exactly what they're doing when they demonize us for our views. And let's just hold fast to our views, our views on all that stuff. And because our views intersect with things like DEI is unbiblical diversity, equity, inclusion is unbiblical in its very values and its very premises. It has a false view of justice and a false view of equity. Um, and a false, uh, understanding of the value of diversity. That's not a biblical value. Now, on the flip side, am I saying, oh, so we should just be a white nation? Is that what you're saying, Mike? No, that's dumb. I'm just saying I reject the particular way diversity is valued in a DEI worldview. That's what I'm rejecting. So, for instance, um, I believe this is what you'll hear from the same people have that view of diversity, are going to say, we believe that there should be equal representation of all different kinds of people on media, which means we need more gay people, more lesbians, we need more trans people in media, in movies and TV shows. There has to be like a quota for how many we get on there. And I'm like, no, no, no. See, this is. We don't have the same value of diversity. This is what you call diversity is actually destruction of people's lives. Um, and so we can stand against that as Christians. I can stand against DEI and go, hey, this is actually bad. This is actually partialism. This is preference. I think now maybe you think I'm wrong on this. Um, but can you say this hypothetically, Mike? If you are right about dei, then at least you're right about this as a Christian. You could openly and publicly stand against it as a Christian and not just get on the fence in principle. Is that not true? I don't want a barrier where I don't allow my biblical values to push me out to stand for things. This is where I think a lot of the persecution comes up. It's not just when you say, um, repent and believe the gospel. It's when you start telling people the things they have to repent of. That's where the persecution arises. It's not just believe in Jesus, it's the repent stuff. It's the values. It's the life change, and it's the Standing up for those things. Man, this stuff is complicated, though. I don't know how to intersect. How do I get on stage with someone who preaches a false gospel? What if, um, I go to some event and there's a Mormon that's there, and they're going to, um. And God help. All the Mormons who had that horrible. Were targeted for violence and murder and arson. Horrible, uh, and wrong and evil would happen to them. I feel bad bringing them up as an example during that time, because I'm not trying to. I would only be hugging and supporting and trying to help those people, um, and defending them with my own life if I had been present. But, um, so I'll use a different example for this, then. Uh, let's say political, um, advocacy. There's a Buddhist who gets up on stage and he starts talking about the Buddha, and then I'm up next. I don't know how to navigate that, except that I'm like, now I got to talk about Jesus. I got to be like, you know, Buddhism is not the way. Jesus is the way. And then I don't get invited back and then ends my advocacy. Maybe that's what happens, and at least it's because I put my Christian values first. But if there' sweres a thought, if there's so many of us Christians who are doing that, if there's so many who put Jesus first and put the gospel first, but get involved in politics, if there's so many of us doing it, that ousting us, kicking Mike off the stage, means that you're going to be losing millions of people if you have that same policy and you apply it widely because you just can't shut these Christians up and there's too many of them voting that you just. You have to include him. And that's what happened at the memorial. At the memorial, we watched people who would never have talked about Jesus get up on stage and talk about Jesus. You saw, um, Marco Rubio. He gets up there, and I was like, who is this guy? This is what I was saying. I was sitting next to Mark Spence at the memorial, uh, who works for Living Waters, and he was with Ray Comfort and stuff. And, um, we're sitting there, and I was like, who's this guy? Who's this Marco Rubio guy? Look at what he just shared was amazing. And it was basically the same thing a Protestant would share. It was nothing uniquely Catholic about it, actually. Um, and I thought, is this someone? I think it was Joe Rigney wrote an article, and it was a little Bit hyperbolic, but it was. The impact of Protestantism could be seen in the fact that even the Catholics that got up, they spoke effectively what a Protestant would say. Um, and people will debate that now. M. But, yeah, that was amazing. Tulsi Gabbard got up and she shared stuff that was her attempt to try to be spiritual. And I hope she moves closer to Christ. But, um. But it wasn't things you could agree with. I could agree with. Erica Kirk got up. She shared the most amazing thing. You guys have all heard it. I forgive him. I was crying. Uh, uh, that was amazing. There's people ripping on her, trying to. Well, that's fake. It's not. You guys are just being stupid. So dumb. Man. I can't believe the low level thinking there is about Erica Kirk right now on these things. Like, oh, she plotted to have her husband killed because the other side is shaking in their boots because they're going, oh, my goodness, there is way too much movement. We have to assassinate her character somehow. And they did it to her husband. Before Charlie Kirk, there was all these rumors about him. You could say, oh, I wouldn't have said it that way. Or I think he was too harsh here. Um, or maybe I even disagree with him on some of his views. But what you can't do is call him a racist or a bigot or a guy that's trying to go out and spread hate. These are complete lies, Complete and utter lies. Well, they're doing it to Erica now. So Erica Kirk gets up there and she says, I forgive him. Donald Trump gets up next and he goes, I could never do that to me. Now, some people try to rescue this a bit by providing a true biblical truth. Yes, it is Christians individual, private, member society to forgive. And it is government's job to give that guy the death penalty. I said this in my video, previous video on Charlie Kirk before even going to the memorial. Um, that. That is right. Yes, I forgive, which means I extend the grace of forgiveness. But you don't receive it until you repent. Okay. You don't actually get to open the gift until you repent. So think of this as forgiveness is like a gift I offer, but repentance is what opens the gift, and then you get to receive it. Um, that might be a good way for people to formulate it really simplistically. But she offered that gift. Um, and then Trump got up and he said, you know what he said? I thought, um, uh, it was cool seeing if you see him from my perspective. Here's Trump, a guy that desperately needs the gospel. Um, he's actually done a lot of good and other stuff, too, but he's done a lot of good. Um, um. And he needs Jesus. And here he's hearing Jesus over and over again. And then what Erica said was, so the gospel was preached at this memorial, and then Erica, she showed. And wherever she goes from here, maybe she does amazing, wonderful things. What great woman of God. Maybe she goes off the rails. I have no prediction on that. But at that moment, at that moment, I will absolutely 100% celebrate. She got up and she. After the teaching of the gospel, she did the showing of the gospel. She showed the grace of God. She showed faith and confidence of her husband's eternal life, the sorrow of the difficult moment of the loss, as well as an offer of forgiveness to the guy who killed her husband. That was her showing the gospel to the world. And Trump got up after, and, um, you know, the event could have ended right there, which is great. But he got up after, and, uh, I'm glad he attended. I'm glad he attended. But he got up after and he said, um, I could never. I don't. I hate my enemies. And I thought, he's just being honest. And I sort of appreciated that he was just being honest, that he was just saying it as it is. That was a good thing. That was a positive thing. Just, this is the truth. Why was it good? Because if I'm going to, as a Christian, intersect into the political realm, I have to make sure that this doesn't turn into acting like everybody around me is Christian. I can never act like Trump is Christian. And those who try to get involved in politics and you think you have to pretend Trump's a real Christian. You're being silly here, okay? He just is what he is. And that demonstrated that difference. He saw Trump, showed that he himself knows whatever this is, I think there's something good here. And I'm obviously on the outside of it. I can't do that. And I thought that's healthy, too. I kind of want people to recognize there's a difference there. Um, but the overall room and the people, the love of the idea of forgiveness and grace and mercy, we brought that into a political space, and it was amazing. The event was strange, in a sense. Like, you've got all these fireworks and things like that, and I don't think those things are terribly important one way or the other. They're a little strange to me because it was very much a religious event. Um, but it's not that big of a Deal. Okay. The fireworks, if you're focused on, oh, there were fireworks, it's actually not that big of a deal. Just like a church using smoke machines might be an example of something you think connects to a problem they have, but it's not the actual problem itself. I learned this years ago when I was very young, and I thought, uh, churches that had incense were compromised. And it was as though I had started thinking incense was a compromise. And then I'm reading the Old Testament and I'm like, oh, there's incense. They're using incense. Nothing's wrong with incense. What you're saying is there's a group of churches I feel have some compromise they also happen to have. So there's a group of churches that happen to do, like, showy, big stuff on stage, but that's not the core of their problem. Their problem is the doctrine, the theology, the presentation of the Gospel, the way they disciple. It's not that. The stage stuff, that's a symptom. At worst, it's a symptom. And if this. If these people got super on fire for serious discipleship, total gospel, they might still do that stuff because it's a remnant, but it wouldn't be that important anyway. That's my opinion on that. Um, I want to play for you guys some of the footage of the actual event and just talk about it. So this is like a series of clips, and let's just walk through this. But yeah, if you click away at some point here, maybe you tune out, because we're going to do this. Fine. I hope that you find some benefit in what I've shared. I am convinced. Summary here. I'm convinced that Christians should move forward in political advocacy, that they should be more involved, not less involved, and that. That trepidation of. But people are going to disagree with me. People even in my own church are going to be like, I think you're off the rails here. I think what you should do is listen to them, see if there's something to learn and grow from, try to find if there's common ground, but then go forward and do the best you can to serve the Lord in these things. Don't turn into infighting where you cut off members of the body of Christ because they're maybe getting it wrong on these issues. Please don't do that. People are like, quit going to your church if your pastor didn't talk about it on Sunday. This is really reckless. This kind of, like, shibboleth stuff is really reckless. For those of you who know the Reference. Um, my encouragement is don't over react, but get your Christian values and views and stand strong in them. But there's a lot of voices who are extremists. The extremist voices are rising up. This is one of my concerns. Right? If all of the wise and balanced pastors get convinced to go silent on these issues, you're only going to get the unwise, unbalanced pastors. You're only going to get uh, the uh, right response ministry to guide you in these things. Who tweets after those things you don't want? Charlie? You get Nick Fuentes. I'm like, are you insane? How are you doing this in the name of Jesus? I don't understand. Uh, you don't want that? So what we need is the thoughtful, careful, serious, convicted, moral fiber Christians to stand up and thread the line so that we can show we can get up here, we can advocate, but we can also maintain our Christian values, even if that eventually gets us deplatformed for doing it. But maybe if enough of us do it, they wouldn't want to deplatform us because there's just too many Christians around here, at least in the US let's watch some of this. I'm going to, I'm going to set this up now. Um, this will just take a moment to set this up. NDI local capture. Is that. That doesn't seem right. Display two Google Chrome. Maybe if I bring it down here. I'm just going to play you this series of videos. Let's try. Okay. Okay, so I think I can get it on camera for you, but can I get you to actually see it? This is just going to take like a full minute for me to do this, you guys. If any of you, Peace out. I just hope that you've received benefit from this already. I've kind of. I, uh, do have more to share. I want to actually go through some of the examples like of the stuff that we saw on stage and like, how do you process this? How do you process this? This? You can process it obviously on your own. You're intelligent people. I've always thought you were. I've always treated all my audiences. They're intelligent people who can process their own thoughts. Um, but it can help sometimes to have somebody doing it alongside with you. All right, so that's that. And then I need to add myself. Okay, let's see if I can get this on screen for you. All right, now the tricky bit is getting the audio to work. It's not working. Okay, I'm going to try this a different way. So let me mention, um, to you guys, like, what are some other issues that we have as Christians that, like, we already know we can stand on? So I've talked about this before as I'm preparing this. The death penalty is one of those issues. I think as a Christian, you are biblically forced to support the death penalty in principle. Um, now I say you have to support it in principle. Do I mean, you have to support it pragmatically? Yeah. Like, otherwise, all you have is a principle. So I know there's believers who I still love, and I just disagree with you on this, um, and think that there's a problem with your view here. Um, there's believers who would say, well, okay, so maybe in a perfect world, the death penalty could be like, uh, the right thing to do, but not in the real world. Like, in the real world, this is something that we can't ever do. Um, that's a position I don't think you can hold as a Christian. You can't go. God commands governments through the death penalty. But I think they should all stop. I think they should all stop because I think that, um, ah, they don't do it right. They're just going to keep doing it wrong. So I just think they should all quit. That doesn't work to me as a Christian. I don't think m. Can you do this in other areas? Um, Christians should preach the gospel, but I don't. I actually, in principle, but I don't think they should in real life actually preach the gospel because I don't think they do it very well. You could say this about political engagement. In fact, I kind of have acted this way. I've never said it, never thought it, but if I look at my actions, I sort of acted this way a little bit, is that Christians should get involved in politics. But I always feel like they're not good at it. And so, uh, I don't want to see it happen. All right? You know, I don't encourage it and don't do it as much myself, because I'm just worried that the people I see do it are so bad at it. You guys, I'm talking about there's examples who are really vocal and you're like, oh, you're really bad at this. Remember Kenneth Copeland advocating for Donald Trump after Biden got, uh, the election? And then he was trying to say, you know, that Biden didn't really win. He was like, laughing and cackling, ha, ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha. Just. Just nuts, man. Just nuts. So that's, you know, that's Kenneth Copeland. Um, okay. Oh, wait. Here's a way to do this. I have the. I have the ultimate way to do this. Just figured it out. 2 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:00.000 The guest of honor. 3 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:49.000 His resume is long. Yeah. You guys hear that? I know you do. Okay, so, um, let me, uh. Let me just add myself in here, and we're gonna listen to some of this. Some of these clips. This is not the normal. Not the normal, more prepared stream, at least, uh, that I usually do. So if I crop down a little bit there that I'm not as in the way. Okay, so this is, um, Charlie Kirk's pastor. And he shared. And I thought it was, uh, mostly great. He's the King of glory. He's the Prince of peace. He's the Savior of the world. I'll turn the volume up. 4 00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:51.000 He's the living God. 5 00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:53.000 He's the God of all mercy and. 6 00:58:53.000 --> 00:58:58.000 Grace, the total embodiment of love, the. 7 00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:00.000 Total embodiment of truth. 8 00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:05.000 And he's here today to call his children back to him. 9 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:54.000 Yes. I mean, those things are all true. Um, what he shared was, uh, this is a Calvary Chapel pastor. Remember, I'm technically still a Calvary Chapel pastor. I don't call myself pastor because I'm not pastoring in a local church, uh, but I'm ordained, and I've served many years as Calvary Chapel guy. So we would have a lot of agreement there. Um, so he shared, and I thought it was powerful and great, and I was stoked because right from the beginning, we're seeing, okay, this is very much overtly a Christian event. There was no attempt to water down those values or those things or those truths. So he shared, and it was. I thought, um. I thought it was pretty good. We had other people share. These are some of the young people that Charlie was bringing around him and helping to kind of train up to everyone here today. 10 00:59:54.000 --> 01:00:04.000 Live free. True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want, but pursuing Christ in doing what is right. 11 01:00:04.000 --> 01:01:01.000 So, friends, look around. Do you know how he just. Just throws it out there, pursuing Christ and doing what is right? We're going to disagree with some of what that looks like in real life, but that is a great message to have out as a open political advocate. I am so used to politicians. They have a private faith that is very deeply important to them, but it is not actually driving them. Remember when Bush was running for office and they were like, do you think that God can speak to you? Or something like, that they asked him some kind of question like this. And then the Democrat talking point from then on out was, this guy thinks the guy that's going to have his finger on the nuclear bomb thinks he can hear from God. That was their talking point. It just makes you afraid to be a public Christian in politics. But we need more of that. We need more moral fiber and courage and open. I'm a Christian. First, as their treatment of politics. 12 01:01:01.000 --> 01:01:08.000 We've been worshiping, we've been singing, we've been joyful. Our hearts are grieving. But we do not grieve as the. 13 01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:11.000 World grieves. 14 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:23.000 Because it says in scripture, o death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Christ has overcome death. 15 01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:54.000 Amen. I mean, I would play more of this clip, but we're going to move along a little quickly here. Frank Turek did awesome. So maybe I'm biased. I know Frank, and I like Frank. Um, and he's one of those guys where he has such a stage presence that this is just natural. You just wonder, what is he like behind the scenes or what is he like in private? And he's basically the same. Um, but he's just more of a humble guy than you would expect, um, to be honest. And that's an entirely compliment to him. But here's some stuff he shared. 16 01:01:54.000 --> 01:02:15.000 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. 17 01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:33.000 Frank knows that one of the biggest barriers to people really receiving the gospel is them thinking that their good works are going to help them get to heaven. And so he's highlighting this fact that it is. It is not your good works. It is not because of anything Charlie did. He. It's because of Jesus, who died and suffered for his sins. He's highlighting the heart of the gospel here. 18 01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:46.000 Not because he sacrificed himself for his savior. Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk. 19 01:02:46.000 --> 01:04:13.000 Frank was in the vehicle with Charlie. He was there right by him when he got shot. And he was one of the few men who got into the car with him. And he was. They were trying to help, and it was too late. Charlie was already gone. But he was. He was there. He was that close. Right. Um, tough thing for him to do what he did there. I don't know if I would. I hope I would be able to. I don't know if I'd be able to get up on stage, even at all at this event. Um, it's good if you can. It's courage if you can. I hope I could would be able to do that. Powerful. And he preaches the gospel. And Frank, probably one of the best, in my opinion, one of the best statements, one of the best speakers there because he so highlighted exactly the thing that people get wrong when they finally go, okay, maybe I do need some Jesus in my life. And then you go, no, no, you need. You need Jesus to cover your sins. You need to be forgiven. You need to offer nothing to God but your sin. And he offers you all of his grace and righteousness. Like, you have to know that it's not works, man. It's all by grace. So he highlights this, and it's great. There are people applauding and excited in that room who don't even fully understand what he said, but they're catching this idea of, like, there's something here, there's something true in this Christian thing. And this is why, you know, people have been getting saved as a result of this. This stuff. It's not just political guys. It's Christian first and also political. Frank shared a lot. He shared really good. Oh, here's Tucker Carlson. Let's talk a little bit about this. This is why I say it was complicated, right? 20 01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:17.000 What are you going to do now? But the main thing about. 21 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:24.000 I got to say ahead of time, I don't watch Tucker Carlson. Um, I've only hear clips here and there, so I don't have as much knowledge about him as some of you guys do. 22 01:04:24.000 --> 01:04:39.000 Charlie and his message. He was bringing the gospel to the country. He was doing the thing that the people in charge hate most, which is calling for them to repent. 23 01:04:39.000 --> 01:06:23.000 I don't know how I get a sense that Tucker would. Would want to leverage what he just said in some ways that I would not agree with. But the thing he said itself, true. Good. This happens a lot in this realm. I would agree with the statement, but the way you're leveraging it, I would have to argue against, fight against, even sometimes, um, not violence. You know what I mean? Uh, so you've got here Tucker Carlson proclaiming the gospel was the thing. The gospel was the thing. You see, I don't think Charlie Kirk had the gospel as a secondary thing at all. And I think that his memorial was just evidence of that and that we, as we do political engagement, we should follow that example. And even if you don't follow in line everything he said, you won't. I won't. Either. But to put the gospel forward, but then vigorously advocate for the benefit of your neighbors, that's an amazing witness. And to not feel embarrassed or like, as a Christian, you can't do it, or as a pastor, you can't talk about it. Uh, I think we're losing a lot when we get on the fence there. And it's reckless. If we step forward, it's going to cause problems. There's going to be people who say it wrong or misunderstand people who leave the church. And you're like, no, I don't mean. I don't even mean what you think I mean. You've just been brainwashed by people so you can't hear what I'm saying. But I don't want to just allow them to remain brainwashed and not say anything. And this includes the people on the right. There are people on the right who will leave your church because you will take a bold stand that goes against the popular right view on something. Um, m. But I think we have to do it, Figure it out and do it. 24 01:06:23.000 --> 01:06:46.000 So how is Charlie's message different? And Charlie was a political person who was deeply interested in coalition building and in getting the right people in office because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically, but he also knew that politics is not the final answer. It can't answer the deepest questions. 25 01:06:46.000 --> 01:07:16.000 Uh, I think we have to view it this way. Christianity has to answer our political questions and for. So Christians have to be more open about what that means. Now, there's times, I agree with you in the comments right now you're thinking this. Aren't there times, Mike, when Christianity genuinely doesn't split the difference between these different views and we're not really sure what the right answer is? And you have to say, hey, some Christians go this way, some go that way. Let's just agree that we're not sure and we're all trying our best. Yes, absolutely. That's part of applying our Christian faith in these areas is, uh, recognizing those. 26 01:07:16.000 --> 01:07:22.000 Times, actually, that the only real solution is Jesus. 27 01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:49.000 Man, that was amazing to hear him say that. He also talks about hummus eaters. That was a weird comment. I remember hearing him say it thinking, uh, oh, I thought it was kind of nothing. And the more I thought about, the more I was like, Tucker was, this is the kind of guy he is. You're like, was that a slap against Jews in general or something? I just had hummus two days ago. I thought it was really good. Anyways, I won't. I won't get into all that. I mean, you guys know. You guys can all debate that stuff. So Marco Rubio said some interesting stuff. 28 01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:54.000 But on the third day, he rose unlike any mortal man. 29 01:07:54.000 --> 01:07:58.000 And then. 30 01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:04.000 And to prove any doubters wrong, he ate with his disciples so they could see and they touched his wounds. 31 01:08:04.000 --> 01:08:34.000 That's apologetics. Entering into his. Into entering into his. What is a gospel presentation. And good job, Marco Rubio. Good job. We probably disagree on some. Some other important things, but this was like. I was like, this is amazing. It's really good. I'm not gonna denigrate what he said because we have other areas of disagreement. It was fantastic. I'm assuming we do because he's Catholic, but I don't know Catholic. You know, you don't really know what it means until you talk to the individual Catholic. I've talked to some Catholics, and I'm like, you're Protestant. You just don't know it. 32 01:08:34.000 --> 01:09:04.000 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. 33 01:09:04.000 --> 01:09:34.000 Wow. Now, I don't. I think based on actual Catholic doctrine, Charlie is anathema, um, because of the dogmas he rejects and because he doesn't attend Mass and he doesn't submit to the Pope, I think he's actually anathema. Now, some Catholics would disagree with me on that, but I think your documents and your dogmas and your councils, um, and the Papal bulls all have more authority than you on that stuff. Um, but I've no disagree with anything Marco Rubio said was amazing. It's awesome. 34 01:09:34.000 --> 01:09:44.000 He was a true believer. Only Christ is king, our Lord and Savior. 35 01:09:44.000 --> 01:10:16.000 I'm not really sure what people mean by the phrase Christ is king anymore. I kind of wanted to get to. Yeah, honestly, guys, I could play for you. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. I don't want to watch again. It's just heart wrenching to watch Erica Kirk say, I forgive you, and to give her speech. And it was amazing. And all support to her. Uh, that was so great. Um, yeah, I can't. I cannot watch this again. I want to show Trump I can watch him without Crying. Here, let's check this out. 36 01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:23.000 The best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don't. 37 01:10:23.000 --> 01:10:28.000 Want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica. 38 01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:31.000 But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince. 39 01:10:31.000 --> 01:10:33.000 Convince me that that's not right. 40 01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:37.000 But I can't stand my opponent. 41 01:10:37.000 --> 01:15:25.000 Okay, Trump. So, yeah, good contrast of showing the gospel. Erica forgiving after teaching the gospel, including Marco, Rubio and people you've never heard, at least I've never heard talk about that stuff. Maybe they do, and I just was unaware. So I don't want to take. I'm not. Maybe he talked about a bunch of times. Um, but just unexpectedly there, and it was amazing. Um, and then Trump shows up and he says, I hate my enemies. Now, some thought, well, he's acting as the magistrate, right? He's the authority. Romans. Romans talks about this in chapter 13. And it's like the government bears the sword for very good reason. They're supposed to enact the death penalty and punishment on evildoers. They're to terrorize the wicked. 100% agree with that. But I don't think that's exactly what Trump was doing. The law does that. Trump was saying, I and my enemies, not the government. My enemies. I don't love them, I don't like them. I want the worst for them. Um, he's just showing you that he has an unregenerate heart. He needs Jesus, he needs salvation, and I pray he finds it. That contrast is okay to see, and it's healthy as Christians that I resist the temptation to sanctify Trump just because he is actually standing for a lot of things that I want him to stand for as a Christian. He is. Now, some stuff is messy, and I don't really know how to parse it out. Um, I'm not sure where to draw all the lines on immigration. I'm not telling you that you. That you have clear answers on all of that. I think there's some answers. And I did a video where I talked about immigration months ago, you know, and where the immigration should involve assimilation, that that is an important value for immigration based on scripture. That alone is completely opposed to the Democratic agenda. Um, so, yeah, that's a political position I have that's very much conservative. In fact, most of my political positions, if not all, are just conservative positions, Biblically informed. Okay, what's the bottom line? Because I gotta go. I have a meeting in two minutes. Um. Uh, I don't know. Where this is heading. I don't know what I'll do next. Maybe you'll see me at events, uh, or speaking out on topics that I normally don't. I just want you to know something. I'm not signing up with Trump no matter what. I'm just not going to put any kind of cage or limit on thinking biblically about everything and trying to push forward advocacy for the benefit of my neighbors in the name of those biblical values. As a public Christian, I'm not going to muzzle that. I'm going to try to handle it graciously with Christians who disagree. I don't want to be cutting people off because we disagree on one of these types of issues, but I'm not going to stop being an example of what I think is biblical and solid on those things. I hope that makes sense. Um, yeah, I'll probably do this event coming up, uh, in October and I'll be over at. Actually I'm going to be at, um, Cal State Fullerton on. It's Thursday. Thursday I'll be at Cal State Fullerton. Ray Comfort's actually going to be there to do a TPUSA event. One of those tables, you know, and he texted me, was like, hey, you want to come? Just support. And I'm like, yeah, let me see what this is. Like, let me get a little more understanding about this. So I'll be at that event. So, um, this is going to increase hate for public Christians if we do this. You know, Ben Shapiro has had more death threats than I've ever had. And it's not just because he's more well known. There's definitely a part of it. Right. But another part of it is that he's just. There's just people who will persecute you for standing for Christian values, who will not persecute you for standing for Christ in a more general sense. They will persecute you for standing up for a Christian value, like on trans issues, homosexuality, um, uh, abortion, or a bunch of host of other issues. But they will not persecute you if you just ignore those issues while trying to talk about Jesus. Now what someone like Ben Shapiro does is he stands for so many of those issues that are biblical values, but he doesn't stand for Jesus and he gets the persecution. And I'm going, I think we need to do a lot more. I think I need to do a lot more. So I'm still figuring it out, but there's the update. I gotta go, I have a meeting. God bless you. God give us wisdom and yes. God bless America. God help our country. Um, not just turn back to the past, but to find our Christian roots, which do exist, and to, uh, water them again. It.