The Charlie Kirk Show - 'Don't Be Surprised If They Hate You' —Skillet's John Cooper LIVE from Freedom Night in America
Aired: 2022-09-11
Duration: 01:05:41


=== Welcoming Our New Daughter (01:46) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, today the Charlie Kirk Show.
[00:00:01]  I open up Freedom Night in America to talk about our big news of welcoming a daughter into this world.
[00:00:05]  And then Drew Hernandez carries the program to interview a very special person.
[00:00:11]  No advertisers on this episode.
[00:00:12]  If you want to support Turning Point USA, you guys can get my book for $15, quite a steal of a deal at tpusa.com/slash book.
[00:00:19]  Proceeds go to turning pointusa.
[00:00:20]  That is tpusa.com/slash book.
[00:00:24]  You guys can email me your thoughts as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com and support the Charlie Kirk Show at charliekirk.com/slash support.
[00:00:31]  I want to thank some of you that support the Charlie Kirk Show.
[00:00:33]  We are enthusiastically thankful for you.
[00:00:35]  Andrew from South Dakota, thank you.
[00:00:37]  Kristen from Georgia, thank you.
[00:00:38]  Susan from California.
[00:00:40]  Kathleen from Tennessee.
[00:00:41]  Jose from New Jersey.
[00:00:43]  Ray from Florida.
[00:00:45]  Sharon from Colorado.
[00:00:46]  Lee from Alabama.
[00:00:47]  Olivia from California.
[00:00:49]  Zora from California.
[00:00:50]  And Patty from Colorado.
[00:00:51]  Thank you for supporting us at charliekirk.com/slash support.
[00:00:55]  It gives us the ability to keep on posting episodes and getting the message out.
[00:00:59]  Buckle up, everybody.
[00:01:00]  Here we go.
[00:01:01]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:01:03]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
[00:01:05]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:01:09]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:01:12]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:01:13]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:01:14]  His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
[00:01:22]  We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
[00:01:31]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:34]  Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
[00:01:43]  Hey, everybody, please take a seat.
[00:01:44]  Thank you guys.
[00:01:45]  Thank you.

=== Life Changing Weeks Ahead (03:01) ===

[00:01:46]  It has been a very eventful couple of weeks for us.
[00:01:51]  I'll tell you all about it.
[00:01:54]  First, I just want to reiterate how awesome Dream City is and Choices is.
[00:01:59]  Choices is doing such important work.
[00:02:02]  It really is.
[00:02:03]  And we just had a really nice event just in the other room here.
[00:02:07]  And I'm going to kind of touch on some of the same points I said there, but kind of in a post-Row America, it is on us as Christians and believers to make sure that every single woman who is pregnant in Arizona knows that there are options available that is not Planned Parenthood, that are not these abortion clinics.
[00:02:26]  And Choices are doing such a wonderful job.
[00:02:28]  And so we're going to support them any way we possibly can.
[00:02:31]  And just so honored to be partnered with you guys.
[00:02:33]  You're doing such amazing work.
[00:02:34]  So, kind of on that theme, so, you know, in the world that we live in, almost everything is broadcasted and posted on social media.
[00:02:47]  And, you know, about nine months ago, for those of you that are math majors out there, my wife and I decided to say, hey, what if we didn't tell the world about every intimate detail that otherwise people, you know, put on social media all the time?
[00:03:03]  And again, this is not to, you know, accuse or judge people of, you know, people that do that.
[00:03:07]  It's just, what if you decide to keep one thing private and one thing sacred while you still can?
[00:03:14]  And so you might have noticed over the last four or five months, Erica wasn't at any Freedom Night in Americas here.
[00:03:22]  And, you know, we didn't for a reason.
[00:03:24]  And obviously that reason is two weeks ago, yesterday, we welcomed a daughter into the world.
[00:03:34]  Thank you.
[00:03:35]  And for all the journalists out there that hate us, that's right, there's more Kirks coming your way.
[00:03:41]  You better believe it.
[00:03:44]  We are multiplying.
[00:03:47]  And obviously, Erica did so amazing throughout the entire pregnancy, but it was so special to just keep it private and to keep it quiet for so many different reasons.
[00:03:59]  And the one that was the big takeaway is that we knew that it was something that it wasn't for trying to get other people's attention, wasn't for trying to make it into some big social media thing.
[00:04:14]  And obviously, it was Erica's decision to do it.
[00:04:16]  It was not easy, though.
[00:04:18]  Matt, who helps run Turning Point Faith for Us, does an amazing job, Matt Hay, he kind of came to me.
[00:04:23]  He's like, how did you keep that secret for nine months?
[00:04:26]  And it took effort, honestly.
[00:04:29]  It really did.
[00:04:30]  But it's just a good takeaway that if you have something special and something private, I missed the days before social media.
[00:04:37]  You know, honestly, it could actually kind of refreshing and awesome.
[00:04:40]  And boy, I'll tell you, everyone tries to tell you in advance, it's going to change your life.
[00:04:45]  It's going to change your life.
[00:04:47]  It's going to change your life.

=== The Great Reset Event (13:32) ===

[00:04:48]  It's one thing to hear that.
[00:04:49]  And then when your life actually gets changed, whoa.
[00:04:53]  Okay.
[00:04:55]  Wow.
[00:05:00]  And it really does.
[00:05:02]  And as for someone who's kind of been in this fight now for 10 years and all the things we're trying to do to save Western civilization, to try to restore the Constitution, all of a sudden, there's a why.
[00:05:16]  Like, oh, okay, now I get it.
[00:05:19]  And, you know, at all these events, you would hear for years people say, we're doing it for our kids and grandkids.
[00:05:25]  And it becomes very real very quickly.
[00:05:29]  And, you know, someone asked me a question the other day on a podcast or something where they said, you know, what are you most excited about?
[00:05:36]  And, you know, I gave some cliche answer.
[00:05:38]  You know, I'm excited for all the firsts and the memories and something.
[00:05:41]  And then they said, Charlie, what are you most worried about?
[00:05:45]  And my answer, I think all of you share, is, I'm really worried about the world that I'm raising a daughter in right now.
[00:05:53]  I'm worried about the country that she has to grow up in.
[00:05:57]  I'm worried about the public schools.
[00:05:58]  I'm worried about the decaying kind of lack of morality in our country.
[00:06:03]  I'm worried about this kind of inverse totalitarianism that we're seeing from our government.
[00:06:09]  And that worry, and I know all of you share this belief, is only going to motivate me more to fight harder and to do more and to win.
[00:06:21]  And, you know, for all of our wonderful fans out there that, you know, send us all of our death threats and stuff, if you think we fought hard before, it's going to be 2.0.
[00:06:32]  Just wait till you see it.
[00:06:32]  A whole new gear is now going to, because the why has totally changed.
[00:06:39]  And so a couple things I just want to kind of keep on hitting with you here tonight.
[00:06:43]  And I'm not going to be doing the interview tonight.
[00:06:45]  First time I'm going back for newborn duty.
[00:06:47]  And I'm not going to apologize for that, by the way.
[00:06:50]  So you're going to have a wonderful host here tonight and phenomenal guests.
[00:06:53]  But just a couple things I want to kind of leave you all with, because we haven't really had a chance to talk.
[00:06:59]  I think it's been five weeks since the last one, if I'm not mistaken, is that one of the defining characteristics of the American system of government, of a free society, is this idea of bottom-up, not top-down.
[00:07:13]  And I truly believe that the elites, the people that are running kind of the worst aspects of the American culture and the American government right now are increasingly worried that there is a reclamation of citizens starting to reclaim power, that there's something that is happening at great momentum.
[00:07:28]  And you see this with the kind of unfounded terminology and accusations of calling half the country fascists and throwing around this term just so kind of loosely.
[00:07:39]  And I just want to encourage all of you, because I know a lot of you are looking for hope, is that there's something very special happening in the country right now.
[00:07:48]  And we are seeing it, forget politics.
[00:07:50]  I'm talking about people that are rising up in record numbers to care about things that otherwise they would not be caring about, whether it be city councils, whether it be school boards, whether it be caring about citizenship.
[00:08:02]  It's a very special thing.
[00:08:04]  And the people in charge, they don't like that.
[00:08:09]  They don't want all of a sudden questions to be asked of them.
[00:08:12]  They don't, I mean, we have an almost packed auditorium here tonight.
[00:08:15]  It's an amazing thing.
[00:08:16]  They don't like that.
[00:08:17]  They don't like the fact that the idea of a citizen is being reborn right now in America.
[00:08:24]  And what makes citizenship different is in America, the idea of a citizen literally means that we are co-ruler of our nation.
[00:08:34]  And the more active the citizen, the harder it is for a tyrant to be able to get away with their deceit, with their theft, with their lying and their stealing and their cheating.
[00:08:46]  Now, most of civilization, human beings, were not citizens.
[00:08:51]  They were subjects or they were serfs or they were slaves.
[00:08:54]  This idea of a citizen is totally unique, but it takes exactly what you being here tonight.
[00:09:00]  It takes you being here tonight, kind of plays into this idea of what a citizen is, which is it takes the consumption of information.
[00:09:07]  You have to always be alert and aware of all the different ways they're trying to rob your freedoms and liberties.
[00:09:12]  Obviously, it takes voting, but that's like the least of it, by the way.
[00:09:16]  That's just the beginner step.
[00:09:17]  It takes praying and fasting for your nation, which we, by the way, going into this election, regardless your political beliefs, guys, you know, tonight is not about politics.
[00:09:27]  It's not.
[00:09:27]  I want to encourage everyone at least once a week, maybe once a month, we got to pray and fast for our nation.
[00:09:33]  We got to pray and fast that righteous decisions are made coming into November.
[00:09:39]  But you can see it in the behavior.
[00:09:41]  You can see it in the language that the unelected, as we call it, the fourth branch of government, the administrative state, they're increasingly nervous and acting out with desperate type last-ditch efforts because there is a mass, I believe, once in a century realignment happening.
[00:09:59]  There's a great book called The Fourth Turning that talks about how generations kind of operate in 20 to 30 year cycles.
[00:10:06]  And I believe we're in the middle of a cycle right now where all of a sudden we could go one of two ways.
[00:10:10]  But every single leading indicator is showing us that it's actually, it's going away that the Davos crowd and the World Economic Forum crowd never would have possibly imagined, which is it very easily could have gone towards the direction of apathy and cynicism.
[00:10:28]  That is so tempting, isn't it?
[00:10:30]  It is so tempting to be apathetic and cynical.
[00:10:33]  I mean, when you watch the nightly news, you say, oh, they're just doing it to get rich and to kind of, you know, serve their own interests.
[00:10:40]  And what good is it?
[00:10:42]  But instead, we're defying the odds with what you're doing tonight, with the organizing, with those of you running for office, with those of you that are leaning in and homeschooling your kids, those of you that are supporting the wonderful Dream City Christian Turning Point Academy, which is just getting started, by the way.
[00:10:59]  All these amazing new projects that are rising up are, dare I say, kind of like a glitch in the matrix.
[00:11:05]  It's an unexpected development where they were counting on you just to stay at home, stop watching the news, stop caring, stop showing up to events like this, and just kind of watch Netflix and Hulu and just say, whatever, what difference does it make?
[00:11:20]  More evil has been done over the last 100 years based on the phrase, what difference does it make?
[00:11:29]  More evil.
[00:11:30]  Apathy of allowing bad people to do what they want to do while good people sit idly by.
[00:11:35]  And the moment that we are in, it transcends politics.
[00:11:38]  You know why I say it transcends politics?
[00:11:40]  Not just because it's true, because after the election, are you just going to stop showing up?
[00:11:43]  And no, of course not.
[00:11:44]  And that's the part, that's the thing, is that it's a long-term fight.
[00:11:48]  It's a long-term cultural, educational, spiritual, religious fight where I think all of us are buying and say, okay, we understand the stakes that are in front of us, that we believe in separation of powers and we believe in consent to the governed and we believe in all these different things and we're willing to do something about it.
[00:12:04]  And so the moment that we're in right now, I believe, is the last gasps of a dying regime, of a regime that is not political.
[00:12:15]  It's something that is much deeper than that.
[00:12:17]  It's people that are in these unelected federal government bureaucracies.
[00:12:21]  It's people that believe that they can steal your earnings and your wages without your consent.
[00:12:27]  And so this realignment is something that people do not get to see very often.
[00:12:32]  In fact, I don't believe this has happened in our country in a very, very long period of time.
[00:12:37]  And we're seeing it in public opinion polls.
[00:12:39]  We're seeing it in so many different ways.
[00:12:41]  And the mass media would like to have you believe to be cynical and to be apathetic and say, what difference does it make?
[00:12:48]  You know who says it over and over again?
[00:12:49]  What difference does it make?
[00:12:50]  That is the poem of Satan.
[00:12:52]  He would love nothing more than to have you say, my action, my behavior, my language means absolutely nothing.
[00:13:00]  And now, as a father, I can say it actually makes a very big difference, actually, because there's a whole different generation that we're fighting for, that we're contesting for.
[00:13:09]  One quick announcement, then I'll close and I'll bring up our wonderful Drew Hernandez, who will lead us through the evening here.
[00:13:15]  We have an event coming up all about the Great Reset.
[00:13:17]  It's a mini-event coming up.
[00:13:19]  It's called How to Defeat the Great Reset or Defeating the Great Reset.
[00:13:23]  It's at the Arizona Grand Hotel on September 16th and 17th.
[00:13:27]  I think I got that right.
[00:13:29]  We have Steve Bannon speaking.
[00:13:31]  We have Michael O'Fallon, James Lindsay.
[00:13:33]  If you don't like to learn, don't come.
[00:13:36]  Okay?
[00:13:36]  This is not going to be a rally.
[00:13:39]  This is going to be educational and very, very information deep.
[00:13:43]  What is the Great Reset?
[00:13:45]  What is the World Economic Forum?
[00:13:47]  What are the 10 kind of tasks of the Great Reset?
[00:13:50]  Lots of notes.
[00:13:51]  Those of you that are lifelong learners, you guys can attend.
[00:13:54]  We have a discount code for all Freedom Square attendees.
[00:13:57]  So if you guys follow that QR code, you guys can scan to register.
[00:14:01]  I think it's discount code Freedom Night.
[00:14:04]  I could be wrong with that.
[00:14:05]  So if you have any problems with that, just email our team directly and Will can help you through that.
[00:14:10]  It's a two-day event.
[00:14:11]  It's literally 24 hours.
[00:14:13]  We put this together in almost no time.
[00:14:15]  The reason being is I believe every Christian and every American out there needs to know about the World Economic Forum and needs to know about Davos and what's happening with these kind of global implications.
[00:14:28]  So we've assembled a team of experts to help you through that, the 16th and the 17th.
[00:14:32]  And you might say, Charlie, why'd you pick that weekend?
[00:14:35]  It's Constitution Day weekend.
[00:14:36]  What a great counter to say we're going to reset the Constitution, not reset the World Economic Forum.
[00:14:42]  So if you guys are interested, we'll help get you guys there.
[00:14:45]  I'll say this in closing before I go back to newborn duty.
[00:14:49]  And thank you to Erica for allowing me to be here.
[00:14:52]  So sweet.
[00:14:53]  And yes, to answer all your questions, not sleeping very much, but it's awesome.
[00:14:56]  And still doing three hours of radio day and all that good stuff.
[00:14:59]  So I'll close on this, which is as we continue this amazing program here at Freedom Night in America, we have to remember and recognize that we as Christians have to be held to a higher standard when it comes to all of these different issues.
[00:15:16]  I said this with the kind of the Roe issue, that in a post-Roe America, I believe that it's incredible.
[00:15:22]  It's amazing what the Supreme Court did.
[00:15:25]  But we also must recognize and understand that not every Christian, not every conservative is as pro-life as we would like them to be.
[00:15:32]  That we have a lot of work to do.
[00:15:34]  We have a lot of education work.
[00:15:35]  We have a lot of things to focus on.
[00:15:37]  But we have momentum and the people are our greatest hope.
[00:15:40]  But honestly, it's not our greatest hope.
[00:15:41]  Our greatest hope is in Jesus.
[00:15:43]  And our greatest hope is in the eternal.
[00:15:47]  The greatest hope we have right now in organizing is in all of you continuing the energy, the enthusiasm, with motivation.
[00:15:54]  And so, we have another amazing guest coming up next month that will be all about the Roe issue.
[00:15:59]  If you have any questions about abortion, next month, is it what's the date, Will?
[00:16:03]  October.
[00:16:04]  Can you double-check really quick?
[00:16:06]  Next month, we have Seth Gruber.
[00:16:08]  If you have, that's what I thought.
[00:16:09]  October 5th, he is, in my opinion, one of the top five experts when it comes to the abortion topic in the country.
[00:16:17]  Bring a pro-abortion friend next month.
[00:16:20]  That's your call to action.
[00:16:22]  Bring someone.
[00:16:22]  I know you're saying, oh, come on, Charlie.
[00:16:24]  No, no.
[00:16:25]  And have them come up to the microphone and they will be allowed to ask any question they want.
[00:16:29]  He is so skilled, so graceful, so compassionate on this issue of abortion.
[00:16:35]  Maybe you have questions.
[00:16:36]  That will be all about next month.
[00:16:37]  And we're also going to be honoring Choices Pregnancy Center through that as we do that.
[00:16:42]  So, in closing, here, everybody, we're at an amazing moment in time.
[00:16:46]  The stakes have never been higher.
[00:16:48]  And Arizona is really where this is all unfolding in more ways than one.
[00:16:52]  I'm so honored.
[00:16:54]  I'm so honored to fight alongside all of you.
[00:16:57]  And the notes and the messages that Eric and I have received over the last couple weeks, it's really touching to know how many people are praying for us, how many people are supporting us.
[00:17:08]  It really has been an amazing moment in that regard.
[00:17:11]  Just it's truly, it's truly awesome.
[00:17:14]  And we're going to win, and the bad guys are going to lose.
[00:17:16]  Join me in welcoming Drew Hernandez as he comes up and continues the program here tonight.
[00:17:21]  God bless you guys.
[00:17:22]  I'll see you next month.
[00:17:25]  How's it going, Dream City?
[00:17:26]  How are you guys doing tonight?
[00:17:30]  Well, my name is Drew Hernandez.
[00:17:31]  I'm the host of Frontlines, powered by Turning Point USA.
[00:17:35]  You guys can watch it on Real America's Voice nightly at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, 10:30 p.m. Eastern.
[00:17:44]  It's an awesome time to get together and just push back on the evil in our culture, in our world.
[00:17:50]  I'm going to tell you, man, the worst thing that could have happened to the evil in this world is Charlie Kirk not only having a baby, but a baby girl.
[00:17:57]  You know, like this guy, this guy's going to be a force to be reckoned with.
[00:18:02]  Well, let's get this night started.
[00:18:04]  I wanted to introduce our guest for the tonight, a man of God, a musician, a man on a mission and pursuit for truth, pushing straight through all the lies, the great John Cooper.

=== Pushing Back Against Evil (15:47) ===

[00:18:21]  What's up?
[00:18:21]  What's up?
[00:18:22]  Here's the thing.
[00:18:23]  See, I was hoping Charlie was going to be here for a second because I prayed about this.
[00:18:27]  I got something for him.
[00:18:32]  Hey, I could give it to him.
[00:18:34]  I could give it to him.
[00:18:35]  I'll give it to the team.
[00:18:37]  I have one too.
[00:18:38]  It's awesome.
[00:18:39]  John, let's just get straight into this.
[00:18:41]  I don't want to waste any time tonight.
[00:18:43]  Let's let the people hear a little bit of your story, your path, how you got on this path, kind of where you are now and where you're going.
[00:18:52]  Sure.
[00:18:52]  Okay, great.
[00:18:53]  Well, it's really cool to be here.
[00:18:54]  Thanks so much.
[00:18:55]  My name is John.
[00:18:56]  I played a band called Skillet.
[00:18:57]  That's what this ones is.
[00:18:58]  That's my band.
[00:19:00]  Oh, some people.
[00:19:01]  So we have some people with good music tastes here.
[00:19:03]  I didn't know, but now I better not be listening to Toby Mac or something.
[00:19:09]  Anyway, JK, JK.
[00:19:12]  Shots fired.
[00:19:13]  Yeah.
[00:19:14]  He's not here, isn't he?
[00:19:15]  Anyway, but I played a band called Skillet.
[00:19:18]  We've been, this is our 26th year as a rock band.
[00:19:22]  We're a Christian rock band, but we do about 70% of our business in the mainstream rock world.
[00:19:28]  So these days we're probably known more as a rock act, even though people know that we are Christians.
[00:19:34]  And I'm married.
[00:19:35]  My wife, Corey, is of 25 years, is also in the band.
[00:19:39]  Some people know that, some people might not.
[00:19:41]  So if people clapping have probably seen us live because she's amazing.
[00:19:47]  She's awesome.
[00:19:48]  That guy right there with the big beard was like, yeah, I've seen it.
[00:19:51]  Exactly.
[00:19:52]  Exactly.
[00:19:53]  I can see that thing from here, man.
[00:19:55]  Yeah, that's space.
[00:19:56]  It's a pretty intimidating beard he's got going on.
[00:19:59]  Anyway, I have two kids.
[00:20:02]  My daughter is almost 20.
[00:20:04]  My son is 17.
[00:20:06]  And I became a follower of Jesus as a kid.
[00:20:08]  My mom was a Jesus fanatic and taught me about the Bible.
[00:20:12]  And I've just had the privilege of knowing Christ since I was a kid.
[00:20:16]  Wanted to play music to share this amazing hope I have in Jesus Christ.
[00:20:21]  My mom passed away when I was 15.
[00:20:24]  And my relationship with Jesus is what brought me through that.
[00:20:28]  And so I thought music was a great way to do that.
[00:20:30]  And then a few years ago, probably about eight years ago, I got quite deadly serious about the Bible.
[00:20:40]  I was already a Christian.
[00:20:41]  I loved God.
[00:20:42]  I think I liked the Bible and stuff.
[00:20:44]  Eight years ago, I got deadly serious about the Bible because I was like, I don't understand what's happening in the world.
[00:20:50]  I'm confused.
[00:20:51]  People are saying the weirdest stuff I've never heard before in the church.
[00:20:55]  I don't think that's exactly right.
[00:20:57]  And so I came out very, very hard against what we would call the deconstruction movement, the Christian apostasy movement, progressive Christianity, false Christianity that is selling a false lie of secular social justice to the church that's replacing the one and true salvation through Jesus Christ.
[00:21:17]  So I came out really hard about those things.
[00:21:20]  And that's why we're here now.
[00:21:21]  I have a podcast called Cooper Stuff.
[00:21:24]  And I wrote a book that I have here today called Awaken Alive to Truth, which was basically the intent of that was basically to write a book to where teenagers and college students could hear just Bible theology 101 in a way they can understand it.
[00:21:40]  And that's my truest passion, teaching Bible truth, cultural apologetics to people who might not want to sit through a thousand page John Calvin book.
[00:21:51]  Yeah, amen.
[00:21:51]  So let's let's talk about that, right?
[00:21:53]  Because I think that's definitely the elephant in the room, right?
[00:21:56]  All of us are seeing on social media.
[00:21:58]  We're seeing in the mainstream news.
[00:22:00]  I don't even know if we can call it this, but it's woke Christianity.
[00:22:04]  And you see all this SGA.
[00:22:05]  We can definitely call it that.
[00:22:06]  Right.
[00:22:07]  But I mean, it's almost blasphemous to even call it that, right?
[00:22:10]  It's just Christianity, right?
[00:22:13]  So what has your experience been going head to head inside of the music industry?
[00:22:18]  Because obviously the Christian music industry at some point will clash with the secular world, right?
[00:22:24]  So how has your experience been kind of combating these things with the truth, engaging it head on?
[00:22:31]  Because I think when people think about it or they watch it from afar, it's like, that's awesome.
[00:22:35]  But behind the scenes, how has it really been just kind of engaging that stuff?
[00:22:38]  Have people tried to cancel you, silence you, slander you?
[00:22:43]  How's your experience been?
[00:22:45]  Yeah.
[00:22:46]  They've definitely tried to cancel me, but they can't.
[00:22:50]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:22:52]  I don't know.
[00:22:54]  It's kind of weird.
[00:22:55]  It's been a weird time, though.
[00:22:56]  Let me ask you this because I'm guessing a lot of people will know what I mean.
[00:22:59]  How many people remember like the time?
[00:23:02]  Maybe this is three years ago.
[00:23:04]  It might be five years ago.
[00:23:05]  It might be eight years ago.
[00:23:06]  I don't know what 2012, 13.
[00:23:08]  I don't know.
[00:23:09]  How many people remember the time when you started hearing your Christian friends saying things about the Bible that you did not understand?
[00:23:19]  Like, does anybody know what I mean when I say that we see some hands?
[00:23:23]  This started happening for me.
[00:23:24]  And I started going, wait a minute, you're saying you're pro-life and you think the best way to be pro-life is to be pro-choice?
[00:23:32]  It was like these kind of arguments, right?
[00:23:34]  It was this, no, no, no, no.
[00:23:36]  Jesus died on the cross, but it wasn't a literal death.
[00:23:40]  Like, I was hearing these kinds of things, and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.
[00:23:46]  And so, I think what I started recognizing was this: this is what I believe anyway.
[00:23:50]  In the Christian music world, I think is not that much different.
[00:23:53]  You guys know that Jesus said, Hey, don't be surprised if the world hates you, they hated me first, right?
[00:24:02]  That's what the Bible says.
[00:24:04]  Well, guess what?
[00:24:04]  There is a workaround to that, sort of.
[00:24:07]  The workaround to that is just to find out what the culture does not like about Christianity and then shave those parts off, shave them off, and trim it down and trim it down, and then present a Christianity to the world that the world is like, Oh, you're one of the good Christians.
[00:24:29]  Now, this doesn't work, but people think it works.
[00:24:32]  So, they shaved off all the things that the Bible says that might be inconvenient to us, like Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, the life, right?
[00:24:42]  He's not a way, he's the truth.
[00:24:45]  No one comes to heaven except through the Father.
[00:24:48]  That's what our Lord said.
[00:24:49]  That's just the truth of it.
[00:24:51]  Well, maybe we could shave that off a little bit.
[00:24:54]  We all know people that would say, I can like the Bible a little bit better if there wasn't all these impositions on my sexual life, on the things I think, on the things I watch, on the people that I love, on the people that I want to have sex with.
[00:25:09]  It'd be a lot easier if we shave all of that.
[00:25:12]  In the Christian music world, it's just like the Christian church world.
[00:25:15]  People started saying, Okay, then just shave it off.
[00:25:19]  We still have Jesus, but that's obviously a lie.
[00:25:22]  You cannot separate the word of God, the written word of God, from Jesus, the word become flesh.
[00:25:29]  You can't separate these things, right?
[00:25:32]  So, in the Christian music world, there is a unfortunately, let me say this: there's a lot of Jesus freaks in the Christian music world.
[00:25:42]  I do want, you know, there are some people that love God, but there are a lot of forces now, especially in the higher ups, because they, a lot of the Christian labels are not owned by mainstream secular labels, just like Christian book books.
[00:25:56]  You know, the Christian publishing agencies now are owned by people who do not love God.
[00:26:00]  In fact, lots of them hate God, right?
[00:26:04]  So, that is happening, and there is a little bit of a price to pay.
[00:26:08]  But I have seen something happen in some young musicians when I meet them, Christian musicians, who said, Dude, you're like bombastic for Jesus.
[00:26:17]  Maybe I could be like that.
[00:26:18]  I'm like, Yes, you can be like that.
[00:26:20]  The devil is a liar, and he is trying to tamper you down so he can make you ineffective for the gospel.
[00:26:28]  But that's but if you preach the word of God, you cannot lose.
[00:26:32]  It's an impossibility, right?
[00:26:34]  Because the word of God is living and active, the Bible says, right?
[00:26:37]  So, the word of God is going to go forth, it is going to accomplish what God wants it to accomplish.
[00:26:43]  Don't let these people shut you down, and that's my mission.
[00:26:46]  Absolutely.
[00:26:47]  What would you say right now if you just take a look at the world, you take a look at the culture here in the United States of America from a biblical perspective?
[00:26:54]  I know we could pick anything, but you, your own heart, through your own eyes, what do you see that is concerning you the most right now in this moment in time that you see the culture just opening up their arms to from a biblical perspective?
[00:27:07]  How are you addressing that?
[00:27:10]  The biggest thing I see happening, I think I'm gonna tell it from a church perspective if I can, because I believe that if the church gets the truth of Christ right, then we will be a prophetic voice to the world.
[00:27:23]  That's what we have to do, so it's got to start here.
[00:27:26]  And what I see happening is the church wanting to dumb down.
[00:27:31]  Maybe I should say it like this: the church no longer believes in absolute truth.
[00:27:35]  That's what I'm trying to say.
[00:27:36]  Don't believe the Bible is authoritative.
[00:27:39]  We don't believe that the Bible is inerrant.
[00:27:41]  We think the Bible has got some really good ideas.
[00:27:43]  But guess what?
[00:27:44]  The world's got some good ideas too.
[00:27:46]  But according to total depravity, that's wrong.
[00:27:49]  The world does not have good ideas.
[00:27:51]  They are anti-Christ.
[00:27:52]  They are anti-truth because they set themselves up against the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?
[00:27:59]  So they actually, we don't hate them, but they don't have good ideas.
[00:28:04]  The truth of Jesus Christ will win.
[00:28:06]  So what I see happening is the church getting like, we don't want to offend people.
[00:28:12]  We don't want to make them mad.
[00:28:14]  It's going to give people the sads.
[00:28:16]  Just be nice, be happy.
[00:28:20]  And in the end, what is happening is that now we've got like, what is it, 8% of professing Christians believe in objective truth?
[00:28:29]  That's really not good.
[00:28:31]  And I think another way that it is outworking itself, if you guys don't mind if I preach a little bit, because you guys care here about sex trafficking, you guys care here about abortion.
[00:28:42]  You guys care about a lot of things that I care a lot about too.
[00:28:46]  So we just need to mention it now.
[00:28:47]  It is a travesty that the church just doesn't look that much different than the world.
[00:28:53]  It's remarkable to me.
[00:28:56]  And I think if we're going to lump all these things together, sex trafficking, abortion, we have to lump pornography in with this.
[00:29:04]  When are we going to see some godly men say, enough pornography?
[00:29:09]  It's evil.
[00:29:10]  It's wicked.
[00:29:11]  No, it's not okay.
[00:29:14]  It's all a part of the same thing.
[00:29:16]  And we have just, you know, if you look at the statistics of people in sin in the church, people that sin in the world, they're not really that much different.
[00:29:25]  But I believe that if we were to flip that around, I think the world would then see something different in us.
[00:29:32]  I think that we would have women in the world looking and say, well, how come those men are different than those men?
[00:29:40]  That'd be pretty powerful, right?
[00:29:42]  How come those guys are different?
[00:29:43]  How come those men protect their family a lot better than those men?
[00:29:47]  Maybe I want a little bit of a taste of that.
[00:29:49]  That's what the kingdom of God is: righteousness, peace, joy, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:29:54]  And when you live in that life, it's like the pool.
[00:29:56]  And people that aren't, they don't get to play in the pool, but they get to be around the pool.
[00:30:01]  And sometimes somebody jumps in the pool and it splashes off into somebody that does not know Jesus Christ.
[00:30:07]  And they get a little bit of taste of righteousness, a little bit of taste of peace, a little taste of joy in the Holy Ghost.
[00:30:14]  And they say, maybe I want to jump into that pool, baby.
[00:30:18]  Yes, you do.
[00:30:19]  Absolutely.
[00:30:20]  Yes, you do.
[00:30:21]  It requires total boldness.
[00:30:22]  You know, right now I've been telling people, I've been doing interviews, and people have been asking me the same question.
[00:30:27]  Like, where really are we?
[00:30:29]  You know, and right now, there literally is no room for any lukewarmness.
[00:30:35]  I mean, they're like when Jesus made it very clear, either with me or against me, right now that rings true more than ever.
[00:30:42]  I mean, the way that you could take the temperature of a culture and where they're really at is how they treat their children, right?
[00:30:48]  And right now, this whole groomer agenda, these people literally want your kids.
[00:30:52]  They tell you out in the open.
[00:30:54]  Disney is coming out and saying we have a not-so-secret gay agenda.
[00:30:57]  These people want to mutilate the genitals of your children.
[00:31:00]  These people literally want to take your kids away from you.
[00:31:04]  This is the society that you live in right now.
[00:31:06]  And they want to normalize that.
[00:31:09]  That's where we've gotten right now.
[00:31:11]  Where, yes, this has been happening in society for thousands of years.
[00:31:15]  But right now, here in 2022, you're living in a time in society where they are trying to normalize this out in the open in the culture.
[00:31:24]  I mean, if anyone's going to come out and say no, it has to be the church.
[00:31:30]  If anyone's going to come out, If anyone's going to come out with the loudest voice of righteousness against these doctrines of demons, it has to be the church.
[00:31:45]  It has to be those filled with light.
[00:31:47]  It has to be those filled with the Spirit of God.
[00:31:49]  That's every single one of you.
[00:31:51]  If you are born again tonight, that is you.
[00:31:55]  That is you right now.
[00:31:57]  Let's transition because speaking of the church, I'm pretty sure you guys are seeing this all over social media.
[00:32:03]  There's this attack.
[00:32:04]  There's this Christian nationalism, right?
[00:32:08]  Christian nationalism is such a horrible and bad thing.
[00:32:11]  As if thou shalt not kill, to kill is a bad thing, right?
[00:32:15]  Oh, to love your neighbor as yourself is such a horrible and evil thing to implement in society, right?
[00:32:19]  It's quite the opposite.
[00:32:20]  If you ask me, what's your take on this Christian nationalism thing and people coming out in the mainstream and saying, oh, this is a horrible fascist dictatorial takeover here in the United States of America?
[00:32:30]  Yeah, the Christian nationalism thing is a complete boogeyman.
[00:32:36]  It's not real.
[00:32:37]  It's a red herring, right?
[00:32:38]  Now, that's not to say that there isn't anybody that is involved in idolatry of America.
[00:32:43]  There are people like that, but it's not actually that many.
[00:32:46]  What they want to do is they want to tie anyone that says, well, I have an opinion on morality.
[00:32:53]  I have an opinion on politics or something like that based on the word of God.
[00:32:56]  Anybody that says that, unless it's pointed in one direction.
[00:33:02]  If it's pointed in the direction of conservatism, they want to say it's Christian nationalism.
[00:33:07]  But if you say, hey, I actually think we need 70% taxes because Jesus cared for the poor, that's not considered Christian nationalism.
[00:33:15]  So it only goes one way.
[00:33:17]  So it's a complete red herring.
[00:33:20]  The reason I started speaking up so much about this stuff is really precisely what you're saying right now.
[00:33:25]  It has to be the church to say something.
[00:33:28]  It has to be the church because we believe in truth that is grounded in something.
[00:33:32]  Our feet are on something solid.
[00:33:34]  They're not just ideas, right?
[00:33:36]  They're not just, well, that's kind of how I was raised.
[00:33:38]  Our feet are grounded in something extremely solid.
[00:33:42]  The reason I started speaking up was like, all right, you know what?
[00:33:44]  If I don't speak up now, I might lose the right to ever speak up again.
[00:33:49]  Absolutely.
[00:33:50]  Right.
[00:33:50]  Now, that might sound, you know, to some people, they go, oh, John, that sounds crazy.
[00:33:55]  But I got to tell you what, I looked in 2020 when we started to have a country that said, California, I got some friends from California, some of them are over here.
[00:34:06]  You're from California.

=== Authority Above All Else (08:10) ===

[00:34:08]  I was there.
[00:34:08]  That's right.
[00:34:09]  When they start saying in California to Pastor John MacArthur, for instance, hey, you can go to a strip club.
[00:34:17]  You can go to an abortion clinic.
[00:34:20]  You can go buy weed.
[00:34:23]  You can go buy liquor, but you may not go to church.
[00:34:27]  You got to back off.
[00:34:28]  You do not have that kind of authority under the Constitution.
[00:34:33]  But more importantly, don't just back off.
[00:34:37]  You need to be rebuked because there is a king who is an authority above you.
[00:34:42]  The world is owned by King Jesus.
[00:34:44]  It is not owned by you.
[00:34:47]  I couldn't take it.
[00:34:48]  But what made me even more upset was the amount of Christians rebuking Pastor MacArthur.
[00:34:57]  Christians saying, oh, you shouldn't be making such a stink about this and this and this.
[00:35:01]  And I just think...
[00:35:02]  You're making us look bad.
[00:35:04]  You're making us look bad.
[00:35:05]  For righteousness' sake, fine.
[00:35:07]  It's like they already hate you anyway, bruh.
[00:35:10]  They don't like you anyway.
[00:35:11]  Nothing you do is going to make them like you.
[00:35:13]  You know that, right?
[00:35:14]  Absolutely.
[00:35:15]  So they're coming after you one way or the other.
[00:35:17]  That is when I just said, okay, you know what?
[00:35:21]  I'm writing a new book right now.
[00:35:23]  Maybe I will, for the first time, announce the name of the book tonight.
[00:35:27]  This seems like the right audience to do that.
[00:35:29]  Breaking news.
[00:35:30]  Let's do it.
[00:35:31]  Yeah.
[00:35:32]  The name of the new book I'm writing is this, Wimpy, Weak, and Woke.
[00:35:38]  That's the name of the new book.
[00:35:44]  And the subtitle is, How Weak Christianity is Destroying America and How Truth Will Save Her, not can save her, how truth will save her.
[00:35:57]  And the reason I'm writing is because I see so many churches afraid to stay.
[00:36:02]  They think that if we just do this and this, the world's going to like us.
[00:36:05]  What they don't understand is this.
[00:36:06]  If they can shut your church down, they can shut you in your house.
[00:36:11]  If they can shut you in your house, they can force you to get a jab.
[00:36:15]  If they can force you to get a jab for this, they can force you to get a jab for something else.
[00:36:19]  If they can force you to get a jab, they can force you to have a one-child policy.
[00:36:23]  If they can force you to get a one-child policy, they can force you to let your 10-year-old kid transition and mutilate their body, or you just might have to go to jail.
[00:36:35]  We are not that far from that.
[00:36:37]  And that's not fear-mongering.
[00:36:39]  That's just watching the news.
[00:36:41]  But there is a call for, I believe, for the people of God to rise up in love and say, no, you do not have that authority.
[00:36:48]  Jesus Christ is the king of the universe.
[00:36:51]  Absolutely.
[00:36:52]  Absolutely.
[00:36:53]  Praise God.
[00:36:54]  Amen.
[00:36:54]  I think we got some time to start setting up for our Q ⁇ A.
[00:36:58]  But as they get set up for the Q ⁇ A, John, what is your message to this current generation right now?
[00:37:05]  What is your message to the church?
[00:37:08]  What is your encouragement?
[00:37:10]  What are you imploring to the church?
[00:37:12]  Those that are possibly watching online, those that are here sitting here tonight, if this was your last night alive, what would you say to the church?
[00:37:21]  Yeah, you know what?
[00:37:22]  I think I would love to answer that question directly to young people, maybe college age, high school, junior, high school age.
[00:37:30]  I think what I would just say is this, like, a lot of young people today believe, and I'm not making fun of you, you believe it because you've been taught it in your schools and your whatever.
[00:37:42]  I don't know.
[00:37:43]  But you've been taught that humans are good.
[00:37:46]  We are good people.
[00:37:47]  We can fix all of our own problems.
[00:37:50]  These things are not true, by the way.
[00:37:52]  We need Jesus so bad and we need a fresh dose of mercy every single morning.
[00:37:57]  Thank God that his mercies are new every single morning, but we are not born good.
[00:38:02]  And I guess what I would say to young people is just this.
[00:38:05]  One simple question.
[00:38:08]  How's it going?
[00:38:11]  How's it going?
[00:38:12]  Do you feel like you have peace in your life when every single day you get new rules for what you're allowed to say, what you are not allowed to say, who you have to call by a new name or a new this, or you're going to get canceled?
[00:38:30]  How's it going?
[00:38:31]  How's it going when you don't even know what is actually moral and what is immoral?
[00:38:36]  Our young people are being taught right now, for instance, you should never feel shame about anything.
[00:38:42]  I don't think that's actually accurate.
[00:38:45]  Actually, I think that shame can be a good thing because it could just be the Holy Spirit in your heart saying, hey, you're not supposed to be doing that.
[00:38:54]  But good news, there is a God who will forgive you and empower you to say no the next time.
[00:39:00]  Shame is not a terrible thing.
[00:39:03]  I would say to young people, how's it going?
[00:39:07]  Wouldn't you love to have something under your feet to plant your feet into?
[00:39:15]  So first of all, so you even know that you matter.
[00:39:19]  Because without Jesus, without God, without a God that created this world, how do you know that you matter?
[00:39:26]  I believe that you matter, but how do you know that you matter?
[00:39:28]  Why would you matter?
[00:39:30]  If all of this is random chance and just a chaotic universe and it just spit us out magically, then maybe you don't matter.
[00:39:39]  That's my question.
[00:39:40]  How do you even know that you matter?
[00:39:42]  What do you want to live for?
[00:39:43]  Wouldn't it be great to know the creator of the universe?
[00:39:49]  Wouldn't it be great to find out that with all this stuff that we see, all this, all this galaxy, wouldn't it be great to know that he also knows your name?
[00:39:59]  And he knows your pain.
[00:40:00]  He knows what you're going through at school, your anxiety and your depression and your friends that don't like you and all the pressure you're under at school.
[00:40:07]  He knows those things and he cares about those things.
[00:40:11]  Wouldn't it be great to have something to put your feet in that you say, this is the word of God and it is right and it never changes and it is alive today and it is going to give me not just hope for the future when I die.
[00:40:26]  It's going to give me hope for today to order my life that I can live in a way that's going to not only please my creator, but it's going to cause me to flourish.
[00:40:36]  And that's what the word of God is.
[00:40:38]  When you go to the word of God, you have come to God himself.
[00:40:41]  That's what I would tell young people.
[00:40:43]  Absolutely.
[00:40:44]  Amen to that.
[00:40:50]  You know, the Bible says always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you.
[00:40:53]  One thing I will say is we have an entire generation that is being lied to on a grand mass scale to the point of mutilating their own bodies.
[00:41:05]  You know, at some point, they're going to come running looking for answers.
[00:41:09]  And when they come running looking for answers, they're going to come looking for truth, absolute truth, because they're going to be so disillusioned that everywhere they went to, their closest friends, even their own parents, doctors that they look up to that told them to do this kind of stuff.
[00:41:24]  They're going to realize that everyone around them has lied to them.
[00:41:27]  But when they come looking for the truth, they're going to find it.
[00:41:29]  This is why you are the light of the world.
[00:41:32]  Because when darkness is at its all-time high, the church is always going to shine brightest in the universe itself.
[00:41:41]  That's right.
[00:41:42]  So I'll leave that with you guys.
[00:41:44]  Let's get started with this QA.
[00:41:45]  If you guys have any questions for myself or for John as well, let's transition into a time of that.
[00:41:54]  We got some right here, John.
[00:41:56]  Hi, I'd like to ask.
[00:41:58]  What's your name, buddy?
[00:41:59]  Micah.
[00:42:02]  Welcome.
[00:42:04]  Hi.
[00:42:06]  I wanted to ask, are you going to come visit our school?
[00:42:13]  Am I going to come play your school?
[00:42:15]  Yeah.
[00:42:16]  I don't know.
[00:42:17]  I don't think I am.

=== Avoiding Compromise With Managers (02:24) ===

[00:42:18]  What if I sing something now for you?
[00:42:20]  I'll do this.
[00:42:21]  You make me feel invincible.
[00:42:24]  Earthquake powerful.
[00:42:26]  Just like a title wave.
[00:42:28]  You make me pray.
[00:42:29]  Joe, my titanium.
[00:42:32]  Fight song raising up.
[00:42:34]  Like the rock of victory in a stadium.
[00:42:38]  Who can touch me?
[00:42:40]  Cause I'm.
[00:42:42]  Who can me?
[00:42:44]  Cause I'm.
[00:42:46]  You make me feel.
[00:42:50]  That was for free.
[00:42:51]  You don't have to pay me for that.
[00:42:53]  You do not have to pay me for that.
[00:42:58]  I know a lot of parents are like, what?
[00:43:00]  Is that singing?
[00:43:01]  That's my voice.
[00:43:02]  I'm sorry.
[00:43:04]  My mom doesn't like it either.
[00:43:08]  Okay, who's next?
[00:43:10]  Hi, my name is Anderson.
[00:43:12]  So I want to like do music as a career.
[00:43:14]  I want to be a singer as well.
[00:43:16]  And I was wondering, how did you kind of like stay strong with your faith and also kind of like navigate through the music industry when there's a bunch of like deceit and deception in it?
[00:43:26]  Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:43:27]  Good luck to you.
[00:43:28]  I hope it goes really great.
[00:43:30]  I think for me, always knowing who you are on the front end is so important because the entertainment industry does not care about you.
[00:43:40]  They just want to make money off of you.
[00:43:42]  They want to chew you up and spit you out as long as they get some money at the end of the day.
[00:43:47]  So you have to know who you are.
[00:43:49]  And I think there's some practical things you can do with that.
[00:43:51]  I have a Christian manager.
[00:43:53]  I'm telling you, it's really hard to find Christian management.
[00:43:56]  And I'll tell you what.
[00:43:57]  I'll tell you what the devil can do in case you don't know.
[00:44:00]  The devil will say a lot of things that sound true, but they are lies.
[00:44:05]  But they sound really kind of like something God might say.
[00:44:08]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:09]  But did God really say?
[00:44:10]  That's from the Bible, by the way.
[00:44:12]  But that's what the devil does.
[00:44:14]  And I've had lots of Christian friends and bands, and they have not had Christian managers, and their managers have taken them in bad situations.
[00:44:22]  And one little compromise takes you to the next compromise, takes you to the next.
[00:44:26]  And before you know it, you don't recognize yourself anymore.
[00:44:30]  So know who you are.
[00:44:32]  Do something wise.
[00:44:33]  Get a Christian manager and make decisions on the front end so you're not in the situation going, I don't know who I am.
[00:44:40]  You got to know who you are.
[00:44:41]  Be rooted in the word of God.

=== Standing Up For What Is Right (15:47) ===

[00:44:43]  That's what I would say.
[00:44:51]  Hi, John.
[00:44:52]  Just like you, I'm also from Southeast Wisconsin.
[00:44:54]  And as I'm watching all these things like what happened in Kenosha a couple years ago, I'm kind of wondering how as Christians we can approach people who are involved in things like that, people who are involved in these kind of horrific events and how we can still show love amidst all that.
[00:45:15]  That's great.
[00:45:16]  Yeah, you know what?
[00:45:17]  I was so nervous when I first came.
[00:45:19]  I'm not used to having a guitar and singing really loud, so this was a little weird.
[00:45:23]  I forgot to say, I live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where you are doing the thing.
[00:45:28]  So Kyle Rittenhouse, that was three blocks from my house.
[00:45:32]  All right.
[00:45:33]  So that was a very unusual time.
[00:45:35]  My city got destroyed.
[00:45:38]  I saw Christian people supporting the violence, frankly.
[00:45:43]  I saw Christian people mad at people like me that were saying, you can't go burn buildings down.
[00:45:49]  It was a really difficult time.
[00:45:51]  And I will not lie to you.
[00:45:53]  I do not always handle this the right way because I get really riled up when it comes to truth.
[00:45:59]  And I just get kind of John the Baptisty.
[00:46:03]  I mean, which can be good, but it's not always the best.
[00:46:06]  So I will be honest.
[00:46:08]  I'm working.
[00:46:09]  I'm trying to be a better me, Pastor.
[00:46:11]  Anyway, I don't always do the best.
[00:46:15]  So let me tell you the one thing I think that I am good at.
[00:46:19]  And then I'll just be honest with me and you're going to have to figure that out together because I don't know.
[00:46:22]  But I will tell you what the answer is not, I believe.
[00:46:26]  I believe the answer is not being so polite that we don't say stuff that's true.
[00:46:32]  Not being so nice that we don't stand up for what's right.
[00:46:36]  So truth is truth, right?
[00:46:39]  You know what I mean?
[00:46:40]  John the Baptist probably could have said stuff a little nicer to Herod.
[00:46:43]  Maybe he wouldn't have had his head on a plate at the end of the day.
[00:46:47]  He probably could have found a nicer way to say it, but you know, the prophet doesn't always go that way.
[00:46:52]  I'm not saying I'm a prophet, John the Baptist was, but I'm just, you know, making, you get it.
[00:46:57]  I'm not.
[00:46:58]  I'm just saying.
[00:46:59]  If I were, no, I'm kidding.
[00:47:04]  I know I didn't even answer your question.
[00:47:06]  I'm being honest and say I'm not nice enough to know the answer to that.
[00:47:10]  Actually, that's not true.
[00:47:11]  I will tell you one thing I am trying to do now is to not always assume that I know what that person thinks.
[00:47:19]  I'll say this.
[00:47:20]  You guys know that right now there's a lot of words we all use.
[00:47:24]  Systemic racism.
[00:47:25]  That's a good example.
[00:47:26]  We all use these words, but we don't all mean the same things when we say those words.
[00:47:31]  Like, for instance, when Joe Biden says democracy, he doesn't mean what I mean when I say democracy.
[00:47:36]  I'm not being rude.
[00:47:38]  I'm just saying, yeah.
[00:47:42]  He's kind of into the French Revolution.
[00:47:45]  I'm kind of into the American Revolution.
[00:47:47]  It's a thing.
[00:47:48]  But we don't always mean the same things.
[00:47:50]  So if somebody's said, blah, blah, blah, blah, and systemic racism, I don't need to automatically jump and go, oh, okay, they've been reading Ibram Kendi.
[00:48:01]  And what they mean by that is this and white privilege and this and critical race theory and Stokely Carmichael.
[00:48:07]  You know, you don't have to do that.
[00:48:09]  And I do that because I just like to get to the foundation.
[00:48:12]  So what I've been trying to do with people is be like, okay, that's interesting.
[00:48:16]  And inside I'm like, and on my face, I'm like, what do you mean when you say systemic racism?
[00:48:27]  And then I make notes.
[00:48:29]  No, kid, I don't mean.
[00:48:31]  But you know what I mean?
[00:48:32]  That's what I'm trying to do.
[00:48:34]  I don't always do the best.
[00:48:35]  I think I'm probably nicer than him.
[00:48:36]  That's the feeling I got.
[00:48:37]  I heard him doing his podcast.
[00:48:38]  I might be nicer than you.
[00:48:41]  It's not for everyone.
[00:48:42]  I'll tell you that right now.
[00:48:43]  But, you know, I watched Kyle Rittenhouse shoot and kill in self-defense when I was in Kenosha.
[00:48:53]  And so as a Christian watching these things and the 2020 riots, it was really kind of like a test on my heart and my faith and learning how to deal with certain people like this, being undercover in Antifa, literally hunting me on Twitter, trying to find me and not to have a polite conversation with me.
[00:49:11]  So it's kind of like this balance, right?
[00:49:14]  Because you take a look at the Bible, and on one hand, you are called to be a righteous light exposing darkness.
[00:49:21]  On the other hand, you're called to love the world as Christ gave his life for us at the same time, right?
[00:49:27]  So as you are casting out your seed, as you are casting out the word of God, you might be having an interaction with one person.
[00:49:35]  It might be an unbeliever in your home.
[00:49:36]  It might be an unbeliever at work or it might be an unbeliever.
[00:49:40]  Who knows, right?
[00:49:41]  But your behavior and your character never changes.
[00:49:43]  This is why you have to be above reproach, right?
[00:49:46]  So as you're having these interactions, you never know.
[00:49:48]  And I'm just telling you guys what's happened to me.
[00:49:50]  I've had one-on-one interactions with people at leftist protests who hate me.
[00:49:55]  And then all of a sudden there's like 20 other people standing around me actually listening to what I'm saying and their minds are just like unlocked.
[00:50:04]  So you never know who your audience is.
[00:50:06]  You never know who's watching.
[00:50:07]  You never know who's listening.
[00:50:08]  Your character, your message, and your heart should never change.
[00:50:12]  Amen.
[00:50:13]  That's good.
[00:50:18]  Hey, so I was wondering, how do you take a leap of faith to just like, if you don't have that platform, so how do you take that leap of faith to just proclaim that truth?
[00:50:31]  You know the truth, but you like, how do you proclaim it without like being shut down?
[00:50:36]  Sure, sure.
[00:50:37]  Yeah, I think that, you know, I think it's one of those things when not everybody's maybe called to the same thing, right?
[00:50:44]  You know, some people are called to do this public thing, whatever.
[00:50:47]  You know, I have two kids that are both teenagers.
[00:50:50]  My daughter's almost 20.
[00:50:52]  And I just try to encourage my kids, like, you just need to stand for truth where you're at.
[00:50:56]  You stand with truth with your friends.
[00:50:59]  You love them.
[00:51:00]  And if they don't agree with you, you hang out with them still.
[00:51:02]  You love them.
[00:51:03]  You're the friend.
[00:51:04]  But you begin to stand for radical truth telling wherever you're at.
[00:51:08]  And that's usually what I encourage people to do.
[00:51:10]  It's not for everybody to jump on those public platforms.
[00:51:14]  And, you know, people get really mad and stuff like that.
[00:51:17]  You know, I think Skillet was, I'm proud to say, Either the first or the second band, and one of the only bands in the world that went on social media and I said, I refuse to play vaccine-mandated shows.
[00:51:31]  Will not do it.
[00:51:32]  It's a matter, it's conviction, will not do it, right?
[00:51:36]  And at the time, we didn't know if that means we would ever get to play.
[00:51:42]  In other words, we don't know if there was going to be a time when those shows would open up.
[00:51:45]  Is this going to cost you money?
[00:51:46]  It definitely costs you fans.
[00:51:48]  That's not always a great thing to do, but you'll know it in your heart.
[00:51:52]  You'll know when that time comes in your heart where you go, ah, this is the moment that God wants me to say something.
[00:51:58]  This is the moment I'm supposed to say it now.
[00:52:00]  And that's what I believe anyway.
[00:52:05]  Do I stop or do I stay where I'm at until God says, go?
[00:52:11]  I would always stop until God says go.
[00:52:14]  That is a great way.
[00:52:15]  Keep praying about it.
[00:52:16]  Because if God wants you to do it, I believe he's going to lead you.
[00:52:20]  It would be counterintuitive for his spirit not to do so.
[00:52:23]  So I would think that if he wants you to speak, he's going to put it in your heart.
[00:52:27]  And maybe it's hard to describe, but that kind of burning feeling when it's not out of anger, but you're like, oh, I just feel like God's just, he's doing something and I got to get it out.
[00:52:37]  To me, I've found that that's usually the voice of the Lord.
[00:52:41]  Amen.
[00:52:42]  All right, guys, we got about 10 minutes left.
[00:52:44]  So let's get our questions quick and to the point.
[00:52:46]  Okay.
[00:52:47]  Hi, I'm in.
[00:52:48]  Good evening, by the way.
[00:52:49]  And I would like to get both of you guys' opinion on this question.
[00:52:54]  What is your outlook and your position on this neo-radical moment for the underage kids to get sex changes and things like that?
[00:53:05]  I'll take this one.
[00:53:06]  I hate it.
[00:53:07]  I hate it with every righteous fiber inside of me.
[00:53:10]  I'm just going to be honest.
[00:53:14]  And when I say that, you know, you take a look at the book of Proverbs.
[00:53:18]  There are things that God hates.
[00:53:19]  You look at Proverbs chapter 7.
[00:53:20]  There's this righteous indignation and despising towards these things.
[00:53:25]  I mean, I could take it as far as even Jesus saying, for anyone that causes one of these little ones that believes in me to stumble, let a millstone be tied around their neck and thrown down into the middle of the ocean.
[00:53:38]  Is that offensive to you?
[00:53:44]  So this targeting of the youth, this targeting of children, their bodies to sexualize them, whether it's gay, straight, or trans, is from Satan himself to take a child and prop them up like that.
[00:54:02]  Right now, like I said earlier, my personal opinion is I righteously hate it because I see it for what it is.
[00:54:11]  And what pisses me off the most as a Christian is that you see kids buying into it.
[00:54:17]  And at the same time, it breaks my heart and it shatters me on a daily basis because you know exactly what path this is going down that's going to take them, right?
[00:54:26]  You know that how abusers work.
[00:54:28]  Abusers gain the trust of their victims.
[00:54:31]  They isolate them.
[00:54:32]  They put them in a corner.
[00:54:33]  They get them to believe that everything that they're saying is true.
[00:54:36]  And then they turn on them, they violate them, they destroy them and they cast them by the wayside as if they're a piece of trash.
[00:54:43]  That is what is happening.
[00:54:46]  Am I too aggressive for you?
[00:54:47]  Because I'm talking about children being violated.
[00:54:58]  I pray.
[00:55:00]  I pray that every single one of you, I pray that every single one of you gets so loud and so righteously angry at this agenda that's targeting the innocence of children on a daily, on a nightly basis.
[00:55:13]  So these people know that it's not okay and it will not be tolerated in the United States of America or the world.
[00:55:35]  I think that says it.
[00:55:36]  I told Charlie I'd be a little reserved tonight, but, you know.
[00:55:40]  They asked the question, Charlie, okay, you know, you know.
[00:55:43]  I wasn't listening.
[00:55:46]  No, I wouldn't mind adding one quick thing if I can, because for people who know my music, you probably won't be surprised to hear this, but Skillet has a load of transgender fans.
[00:55:59]  It's probably to do with the emotion of our music.
[00:56:02]  And I don't know how, I say hello.
[00:56:04]  I don't know how many transgender people I've met at concerts.
[00:56:07]  And the truth is, I really love them.
[00:56:09]  They're great.
[00:56:10]  They're sweet.
[00:56:11]  I shake their hands.
[00:56:12]  I hug them.
[00:56:13]  And I think that what happens is sometimes people think that the, for how evil we think this is, for how evil we think, it's translated into a hatred of a person, which is not accurate in any way.
[00:56:28]  As you said, it breaks your heart.
[00:56:29]  It breaks my heart.
[00:56:30]  What I have noticed, and I think what's so frustrating about this is that the medical institutions, our institutions are all in this together.
[00:56:38]  They know the statistics.
[00:56:40]  This something like 80 to 85% of all people who suffer gender dysphoria will naturally stay with their biological sex by the time they turn, what, 18 or 19 years old.
[00:56:51]  The medical institutions know this, and that's what's so very frustrating about it.
[00:56:55]  What I have found with a lot of people is when I've met them is that they just feel lost.
[00:57:01]  And I'll tell you, my mom died when I was 15.
[00:57:04]  Me and my dad started fighting.
[00:57:06]  I hated my dad for a long time.
[00:57:09]  I felt lost.
[00:57:10]  I know what it's like to feel lost and feel like not a single person's listening or knows what I'm going through.
[00:57:16]  I know what it's like to pray in my room at night and say, God, I'm praying.
[00:57:19]  And you're not listening because nothing's changing.
[00:57:21]  Where are you?
[00:57:23]  I know what that's like.
[00:57:24]  And that's why it's so infuriating to meet these precious people at the concerts that we meet and to say, these people are lying to them for what, who knows what godless agenda has you just, what godless agenda?
[00:57:36]  Is it money?
[00:57:36]  Are they trying to make, who knows what is going on?
[00:57:39]  But they know the same statistics that we do.
[00:57:42]  And so I do think for the church to reach out, create a community.
[00:57:46]  My daughter just said to me last night, she went to this thing, this college group thing.
[00:57:49]  She came back and she's like, Dad, there's so many people here suffering, transgender people.
[00:57:55]  There's so many people like this.
[00:57:56]  She's like, I just don't think they have community.
[00:57:59]  They don't know what family is like.
[00:58:01]  And she's like, we're going to try to create a family where people feel comfortable and we are going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives you an identity, a God that knows who you are.
[00:58:12]  And it was really a special night for me.
[00:58:14]  So I just wanted to throw that out there.
[00:58:19]  Hi.
[00:58:20]  I just had a quick question on what your take would be with a 20-year-old young man grew up in a Christian home and is now saying he does not believe in organized religion whatsoever.
[00:58:32]  There's a lot of that going on right now, isn't there?
[00:58:34]  I mean, it's an epidemic.
[00:58:36]  It really is.
[00:58:37]  I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime.
[00:58:41]  And I think what you're seeing in America, no, no, no.
[00:58:44]  What you're seeing in the world, in the Western world, is just revolution, right?
[00:58:48]  It's just revolution against anything that came before us.
[00:58:51]  That's what progressivism is anyway.
[00:58:53]  It's just like a denial that anything in the past matters.
[00:58:57]  And I think what you're seeing with a lot of young people, they follow a lot of influencers.
[00:59:02]  And a lot of influencers have been burned.
[00:59:04]  Or maybe somebody gave them the SADS at a church meeting.
[00:59:07]  I don't know what their thing is, but they get really like, and then they go online and they just bash the church.
[00:59:15]  And they don't just say, like, I came to church and you were mean to me, but I'm not mad at you.
[00:59:19]  I'm mad at the church, everybody in Christendom, the visible and invisible church, all of them.
[00:59:25]  And it's really unfair.
[00:59:26]  And so I think what we have to do is just keep preaching the truth of the word of God.
[00:59:31]  They're trying to find a third way option.
[00:59:33]  A lot of people, which is, well, no, I still kind of believe in God, but I'm done with that, you know, yada, yada.
[00:59:39]  In the end, it's not going to be tenable because God has ordained his church to be an institution in the earth to proclaim the good news of Christ, right?
[00:59:50]  The church is the vehicle for the power of God on the earth, really, I believe.
[00:59:54]  So it's not going to be a tenable solution, but we do have to really keep fighting to keep those people tethered to truth because as soon as they kind of move out of organized religion, we're going to call it, they just end up drifting away.
[01:00:08]  But this is an epidemic right now, you know?
[01:00:11]  So that's what I think.
[01:00:14]  Thank you for your question.
[01:00:15]  I think we have time for maybe one more.
[01:00:18]  Hi.
[01:00:19]  I was wondering, how do I deal with kids and teachers at my school bashing me and hating me for me being a Christian?

=== Privilege To Suffer For Christ (03:08) ===

[01:00:30]  Well, that just makes me angry and proud.
[01:00:33]  Mixed emotions, brother.
[01:00:35]  You keep being a Christian.
[01:00:43]  That's right.
[01:00:45]  That's right.
[01:00:46]  You love.
[01:00:47]  You go for it.
[01:00:47]  Go for it.
[01:00:48]  No, I didn't mean to rub you, brother.
[01:00:49]  No, I just think it's just, man, I know it's hard to say, especially at your age.
[01:00:57]  And I know you probably hate when people say that.
[01:00:59]  And I'm not that old.
[01:01:00]  I'm like 22.
[01:01:01]  Listen.
[01:01:05]  What a privilege it is.
[01:01:08]  I am telling you.
[01:01:09]  What a privilege it is to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.
[01:01:13]  You will never, ever, you will never be like, I wish I hadn't done that.
[01:01:19]  It is such a privilege that Christ would count you worthy to suffer for that, for him.
[01:01:26]  And so I would just say to you, hey, you know what?
[01:01:28]  Do not stop for an inch.
[01:01:30]  Let that be the fire.
[01:01:31]  What did Charlie say earlier now that he has a kid?
[01:01:34]  You thought it was bad before, and now I got a little girl, son.
[01:01:37]  You know, it's about to get real.
[01:01:38]  And I would just say, let it drive you.
[01:01:40]  Let that drive you.
[01:01:42]  It's a privilege to suffer for Jesus Christ.
[01:01:44]  That's what world changers do.
[01:01:46]  Some of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the only Christians in Germany saying to the church, how come you're not saying anything about Hitler?
[01:01:54]  This guy's pretty bad.
[01:01:56]  And the rest of the church is like, dude, Dietrich, Dietrich, Dietrich, you're getting a little too crazy.
[01:02:04]  It's not that big of a deal.
[01:02:05]  And he's like, yes, it is.
[01:02:06]  We got to take this guy out.
[01:02:08]  He suffered for the gospel.
[01:02:10]  So you know what, man?
[01:02:12]  Let them do their thing.
[01:02:13]  You just keep living.
[01:02:14]  And I will tell you one more thing.
[01:02:15]  You said it earlier, which I loved.
[01:02:17]  You raise the standard in your life so that you make yourself a Teflon when people look at your life.
[01:02:23]  This is what I believe.
[01:02:25]  The Old Testament, God says this.
[01:02:27]  Covenant, when you keep God's law, let's say it like this.
[01:02:31]  When you keep God's law, he commands a blessing on your life.
[01:02:35]  If you do not keep his law, he commands a curse on your life.
[01:02:39]  That's what the Bible teaches, right?
[01:02:41]  So guess what?
[01:02:42]  If you keep God's law in your life, people will end up noticing, how come you're more blessed than me?
[01:02:50]  How come you have more peace in your life than I do?
[01:02:52]  How come your relationships are not tainted with sexual immorality and all of mine are?
[01:02:57]  How come you can sleep at night and I can't?
[01:02:59]  Because I got so many demons in my head.
[01:03:01]  There's going to be a blessing attached to the, not just you, the people of God.
[01:03:05]  This is what I believe.
[01:03:07]  The people of God that begin to live out the moral law of God are going to become so blessed in the earth, it's going to be super bright and super dark.
[01:03:16]  And eventually, the dark is either going to turn to the light or they're going to try to imitate the light so that they can receive the blessing.
[01:03:25]  But, but, but God commands a blessing on your life.
[01:03:27]  So, what I believe is that you keep doing what you're doing, people will end up noticing there's something about you that I don't have, and I want a little taste of it.
[01:03:36]  Don't stop.

=== Cultural Apologetics In Action (02:02) ===

[01:03:38]  Amen.
[01:03:39]  Amen.
[01:03:41]  All righty, ladies and gentlemen, we want to thank you guys.
[01:03:43]  Tonight was awesome.
[01:03:44]  Praise God.
[01:03:45]  Amazing conversations.
[01:03:46]  John Cooper, man.
[01:03:49]  Give it up for John, you guys.
[01:03:56]  Incredible night.
[01:03:57]  John, is there anywhere that the people could continue to follow your work?
[01:04:04]  Anything specific, your book that's about to release?
[01:04:06]  Is there anything that you would like them to know to be on the lookout for?
[01:04:09]  Sure, I'll do it really quick.
[01:04:10]  So, if you want to follow skillet music, that's where all my music is.
[01:04:15]  Some of you, if you've never heard skillet music, you heard me sing tonight, which means you probably won't dig it.
[01:04:19]  But, but, um, but if you want to follow my podcast to hear more things, we talk about like this, I talk about cultural apologetics, theology, and how that works out into life.
[01:04:32]  And I think that I do it in a way that you could watch with your kids.
[01:04:35]  There's never any cussing on it.
[01:04:37]  It's this: I meet parents, I meet men with their sons that listen to my podcast because we talk about the things that matter.
[01:04:44]  So, Cooper stuff podcast.
[01:04:46]  You can find it anywhere that you like.
[01:04:49]  And other than that, that's it, baby.
[01:04:51]  Awesome.
[01:04:52]  You guys could follow my show, Frontlines, powered by Turning Point USA.
[01:04:56]  It's daily Monday through Friday on Real America's Voice.
[01:04:59]  You can watch it.
[01:05:00]  Thank you guys.
[01:05:01]  Thank you for the RAV family.
[01:05:03]  You guys could watch it at 7:30 Pacific Standard Time.
[01:05:06]  That's 10:30 Eastern every single night.
[01:05:10]  Follow me on Twitter, Drew HLive, and in the link in my bio on Getter and Truth Social, you can find the show links all there.
[01:05:16]  Definitely going to get this guy on the show.
[01:05:17]  I'll tell you that right now.
[01:05:18]  Thank you guys for having us.
[01:05:19]  Pastor Luke is going to come up and lead us in a time of prayer.
[01:05:27]  Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
[01:05:28]  Email me your thoughts as always.
[01:05:29]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
[01:05:31]  Thanks so much for listening.
[01:05:32]  God bless.
[01:05:37]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.