Pastor Rob McCoy speaks at a memorial service in honor of his friend and former pastor, Charlie Kirk, who passed away this week at the age of 67. Pastor Rob talks about Charlie's life, his legacy, and what he would have wanted people to know about him.
00:01:02.000I was with Charlie about a little over two weeks ago in Korea as he was supporting the persecuted Christians over there as they're raiding churches and imprisoning pastors.
00:01:16.000And he spoke to the youth there that now are chanting on the streets, I am Charlie Kirk standing for freedom across that country.
00:01:32.000In a conversation with Charlie in the green room in Korea, he said something to me that he'd said a number of times.
00:01:39.000He said, he kept calling me his pastor.
00:02:22.000I mean, I wasn't America's pastor two minutes ago, and I won't be after this.
00:02:26.000But for right now, he proved me wrong.
00:02:40.000In a moment, you're going to hear from the most powerful political people in the free world.
00:02:50.000You're going to hear from the who's who.
00:02:53.000And they're going to assemble in this place to talk about what Charlie Kirk did in 31 years on this earth.
00:03:02.000He had more lifetimes in 31 years than all of us have in the entirety of our own.
00:03:10.000And as I was thinking about that, to recount all that he's accomplished in 31 years is quite a feat.
00:03:18.000I mean, I was just telling the turning point staff as I walked in here, everyone is worried that the turning point isn't going to be successful.
00:03:30.000And I looked at each and every one of them.
00:03:32.000And for those of you who are negative, without Charlie Kirk's presence, they pulled off the largest event in turning point history.
00:04:17.000I want to do two things, and then I want to do what I've been called to do.
00:04:21.000First of all, I was thinking of Abraham Lincoln when I was reflecting on Erica and their two children, and for Charlie's parents and his sister.
00:04:34.000Abraham Lincoln said to Mrs. Bixby when she had lost sons in the Civil War, he wrote these words, I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.
00:04:55.000We can't bring him back, but we thank you for raising him.
00:07:36.000Charlie knew this, and at an early age, he entrusted his life to the Savior of the world.
00:07:43.000Jesus came to this earth, was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin, was crucified upon a cross.
00:07:49.000His blood was poured out because blood must be shed for the remission of sins.
00:07:54.000And his death upon that cross was sufficient for all the world's sins, but only efficient for those who, like Charlie, would receive him as their Savior.
00:08:06.000Jesus has come to seek and save that which is lost.
00:08:11.000And I would say this to all of you: the Lord loves you, he wants to save you, he wants to give you a new life.
00:08:26.000He wants to cover the multitude of your sins by the blood he shed upon the cross.
00:08:32.000The Bible says, if you believe in your heart and you confess with your tongue, Jesus is Lord, you will be saved to the glory of the Father.
00:08:39.000You see, Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus.
00:08:43.000He knew if he could get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty, you'd come to its source, and that's the Lord.
00:08:59.000In the time I have remaining, I'm going to ask all who profess Christ as their Savior to remain seated.
00:09:09.000The Bible says, if you profess me before man, I'll profess you before my Father in heaven.
00:09:17.000That's what Charlie did every day on campus with death threats.
00:09:19.000He stood because he knew in whom he had trusted.
00:09:24.000And he wants to give you the gift of the why and what he did, and that is his Savior Jesus.
00:09:29.000While believers are seated, if there's any in this room and across the globe that would desire to receive Jesus as their Savior, as Charlie did as a young man, and now is in the presence of his Savior, I'm going to ask you to put action to your faith.
00:09:48.000And I'd ask you to stand right now to receive the Lord.
00:10:04.000The Bible says, the Bible says that when one sinner gives their heart to the Lord, the angels in heaven rejoice.
00:10:18.000And I got to tell you, there's one up there right now, Charlie Kirk.
00:10:21.000He's stoked and he's excited about your commitment to his Savior.
00:10:32.000For this remaining moment, if you've given your heart to the Lord and someone is seated next to you, I want that person who's a believer to stand and pray with you.
00:10:41.000And please, up on the screen, I want you to take a picture of this QR code.
00:10:46.000We are going to give you everything you need to walk this walk with Christ.
00:10:50.000Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.
00:10:53.000And it's time to get into a Bible-believing church.
00:10:56.000And pastors, if you didn't want to give Charlie Kirk the time of day, these folks are going to be showing up at your church and they're there because of his life.
00:11:03.000God bless you and may the Lord keep you.
00:11:14.000Please welcome to the stage, Rebecca Dunn.
00:11:29.000Charlie Kirk was scheduled to speak at my husband's upcoming memorial.
00:11:38.000Instead, I am here speaking at Charlie's memorial.
00:11:49.000Almost 12 years ago, I met this bright young man filled with optimism about his plan to reach young people.
00:12:01.000I was so impressed that I invited him to come to our home and tell my husband and me more about his organization.
00:12:10.000That young man, of course, was Charlie Kirk, and his organization was Turning Point USA.
00:12:27.000Charlie told us how he wanted to start two chapters in North Florida.
00:12:33.000When asked how much money it would take, he told us he thought it would take about $50,000.
00:12:41.000Not knowing anything about this young man, except that he sounded impressive, we told him that if he could raise the first half, we would give him the remaining $25,000.
00:12:59.000Two days later, Charlie called to say that he had raised the money.
00:13:26.000He was 20 years old, and yet he met our challenge.
00:13:33.000I laughed and I told him, I said, well, Charlie, I guess we owe you a check.
00:13:43.000That was Charlie Kirk's first challenge grant.
00:13:49.000After that initial grant, we followed suit with multiple challenge grants, each one larger than the previous, eventually growing into the millions.
00:14:05.000In the early days, Charlie felt like a son to me.
00:14:11.000More recently, I was the one looking up to him.
00:18:30.000I thought I'd never hear from him again.
00:18:33.000Within a month, he got hold of my cell phone number and he texted me a copy of a certificate of completion of a Hillsdale College online course.
00:18:49.000I keep a list in my head of the six or eight young people, and I'm very privileged I get to know many inspiring young people who are the best I ever saw.
00:19:02.000Charlie is the only one who was never a full-time student at Hillsdale College who was on that list.
00:20:11.000And this May the 9th, Erica doesn't know this yet, we are going to give Charlie and Erica the greatest respect a college can give, an honorary degree.
00:20:36.000Charlie, you see, has suffered enough.
00:21:49.000I had the unique honor, blessing, and privilege of a lifetime to not only call Charlie a precious friend, mentor, but to travel with him literally everywhere.
00:22:02.000The first time I met Charlie was when I was driving him and his then-girlfriend Erica to the airport after he had spoken at my father's church.
00:22:10.000The entire car ride, he was grilling me on Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, American history.
00:22:16.000At the end, he said, don't go to college.
00:22:22.000At 18, I canceled my college plans, moved to Arizona.
00:22:27.000My life was forever changed by Charlie.
00:22:30.000All of us in this room have that in common.
00:22:34.000My first day working at Turning Point, I met an incredible girl who Charlie was interviewing on his podcast, sharing the story of her family who had survived a totalitarian regime, whose grandfather was imprisoned in the gulags for 10 years for preaching the gospel.
00:22:54.000Elizabeth and I were married a year later.
00:25:32.000It's not only seen in the incredible wife, Erica Kirk, his two beautiful children, the legacy he built, his values, his love of God, and true joy he found in his Savior, Jesus Christ, but in countless people, especially young people like Elizabeth and I, whose very lives are the fruit of Charlie's example of faithfulness.
00:25:55.000Charlie, it was the honor of my life to serve you as you serve Jesus.
00:26:03.000And now we will all continue to serve you as we continue to serve Jesus.
00:27:04.000I was the CEO of Charing Point USA and now the CEO of Turning Point Action.
00:27:09.000You may know me from the Charlie Kirk show or our weekly podcast, Thought Crime, with Charlie, Jack, Blake, and Andrew, but I'm also the longest tenured employee at Turning Point.
00:28:03.000We went to work every day on a 24-hour clock.
00:28:06.000When Charlie turned 21, he didn't have a home.
00:28:09.000Turning Point USA was in his first year of raising real money.
00:28:14.000He was just a kid to me, but donors would ask him where he lived, and he took personal offense to the suggestion he still lived in his parents' basement.
00:28:23.000Although his parents probably wanted him to be there all the time.
00:28:28.000He was a grown 21-year-old man, after all.
00:28:32.000He lived on a plane and zipped back and forth as Turning Point USA became his life.
00:28:37.000All his personal mail came to a little detached garage at 217 and a half Illinois Street, whereas Charlie would constantly remind you, like every good startup, Turning Point USA was founded.
00:28:49.000So anyway, as we worked 24-7, he would tell every supporter of ours between me and him, we were a team that was never off the clock.
00:28:59.000I would usually stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning working on the next big Turning Point USA project and text Charlie reports of what our team that day had accomplished.
00:29:09.000Work, report, and wait to see my text messages to Charlie flip from delivered to red as soon as he woke up on the East Coast so we can be firing away feedback, thoughts, and a flurry of brilliant Charlie Kirk ideas as soon as he opened his eyes.
00:29:24.000I'm not kidding you, this was every single day.
00:29:27.000And it takes his, all it takes is two dudes to dream up big stuff and talk each other into really insane ideas, which Charlie and I did often to one another.
00:29:35.000We would go back and forth with those ideas, perfecting them, turning into bigger, more insane, and impactful things, and of course, expensive concepts.
00:29:45.000It was a round the clock problem solution chat that worked to dream big for the conservative movement.
00:29:51.000Come up with new ideas, plan new things, fix all problems.
00:29:55.000My job was to turn them into proposals and presentations, and voila, we would work to execute.
00:30:00.000Charlie would take red eyes from coast to coast, going all over the country like a crazy man on any and every possible donor, meeting with every possible donor who would take a meeting so our ideas and fixes for the conservative movement could help young people once and for all.
00:30:17.000I oftentimes would go with him and marvel at the deranged 22-year-old lifestyle of bathing in airport bathrooms, eating full plates of vegetables and meat at 10 p.m. at night after a long day's work.
00:33:07.000We decided to move it to Swing State, Arizona, and hope and pray that this would work after the world shut down for so long.
00:33:14.000Charlie, like all our 24-7 ideas sessions, texted me and our VP of events, Lawrence Honsich, late at night, and he showed us and said, this is my vision.
00:37:39.000It's our turn to say yes, to speak boldly, speak honestly, to fight for our families, to love our country, to honor God, and to wisely use the time that we've been given.
00:37:55.000And it's to do for the next generation what Charlie did for us.
00:37:59.000Because this, all of this, right here and right now, is our turning point.
00:38:04.000We love you, Charlie, and we won't let you down.
00:41:00.000This January, I lost my home in the Pacific Palisades fire.
00:41:06.000Charlie's response was very clear and very direct.
00:41:12.000This is a sign you and Grace belong in Arizona now.
00:41:21.000Within a few months, we moved here and Charlie and Erica welcomed us into their family.
00:41:29.000While enduring our various tragedies, my daughter Grace would ask me at least once a day, why would God do this to us, Mom?
00:41:40.000My honest and only answer was: someday we will look at each other and instantly know why all of this had to happen.
00:41:49.000And it will be for something far greater than we can ever imagine.
00:41:55.000In my first conversation with Grace after Charlie's death, Grace said to me through tears over the phone, Mom, this is the answer to my question.
00:42:44.000Erica, Grace and I will support you and your babies the way you and Charlie were there for us in our darkest days.
00:42:53.000Charlie, we will miss your words of wisdom, your high-pitched laugh, just kind of awkward, and the way your voice would always soften when you spoke to Erica and your children.
00:43:12.000And I promise we're going to make TPUSA so big that it reaches you in heaven.
00:43:31.000Everything Charlie prayed for in his life, a restoration of faith, a rebirth of patriotism, is coming to fruition in his death.
00:43:42.000And right now, he is beaming at us from heaven.
00:43:48.000The fact that we pulled this off in seven days is a miracle that only Charlie Kirk can deliver, by the way.
00:43:57.000So in Charlie's words, let's get to work, everybody.
00:44:53.000We try to raise the level of excellence because we are constantly trying to push the conservative movement and the country to a place it's ever been before.
00:45:01.000You guys know this: Turning Point USA is the most important organization in the country, period.
00:45:05.000Find me another organization that's been able to move millions of people the way that we have, that does the events, that does training.
00:45:12.000Nobody does what we do at Turning Point USA, but it starts with all of you.
00:45:16.000We're building something bigger than you, bigger than me.
00:45:19.000We're building experience to help save the country.
00:45:22.000And if this type of intensity bothers you, well, then don't go work for Turning Point USA.
00:45:27.000You can go work for the Department of Labor or something, okay?
00:45:30.000Because here we do excellent things, we do big things.
00:45:33.000We make history here at Turning Point USA.
00:45:36.000It's going to be early mornings, it's going to be late nights, but you all get to know that you're doing something rewarding that is not just, oh, a career, you check the box, but lives will be changed.
00:45:46.000How blessed are we that we get to be here celebrating the country and this is our job?
00:47:23.000I am the executive producer of the Charlie Kirch Show.
00:47:27.000But most of all, I'm a longtime friend of Charlie's.
00:47:32.000Charlie and I built the show over eight years, brick by brick.
00:47:40.000And I'm so proud of what we accomplished together.
00:47:45.000And these wonderful people standing behind me are the geniuses, the camera ops, the board ops, the producers, the editors, and the social media team who made the show happen every single day.
00:48:09.000You preempted my applause line, so we're going to do it again.
00:49:25.000It's remarkable that in the midst of everything else Charlie had going on in his life, fundraising, traveling, speaking, running two organizations, that he even had time to fit in a daily radio show and podcast.
00:50:40.000At the end of every show, I had a little ritual of my own.
00:50:44.000I would go into the sent folder of freedom at charliekirk.com, and sure enough, every single show, I would find debates that he was having with his audience that disagreed on some minor point.
00:50:58.000There would be email chains six or seven emails long, all why Charlie Kirk was hosting his own show.
00:51:20.000When he met fancy elites who tried to take him off course and try and tell him what regular people really cared about, he knew better because he knew all of you.
00:52:12.000We call it the Charlie Kirk Show, but it was really just Charlie confronting the lies in the culture and pointing to the truth day in and day out, and millions of you tuned in.
00:52:25.000You see, I see it now clearly, that Charlie Kirk was a prophet.
00:52:31.000Not the fortune-telling kind that could predict the future, but the biblical kind.
00:52:36.000He confronted evil and proclaimed the truth and called us to repent and be saved.
00:55:31.000What man intends for evil, God intends for good.
00:55:36.000Evil thought that there would be a funeral today.
00:55:39.000has created a revival right here in this house right now Charlie always had that revival energy didn't he When Charlie first met me, I was a degenerate loser.
00:56:00.000I'm still a loser, but I was addicted to alcohol.
00:57:44.000Who's seen the full churches, the full parking lots?
00:57:49.000Who knows somebody now who's a Satanist or an agnostic who's now looking at Charlie's life in this revival moment in our country and going, maybe I got it all wrong.
00:57:58.000Maybe I do need to Christ-center my life.
01:00:24.000God has given them power over our nation and our land.
01:00:31.000God saved our president, President Trump, from an assassin's bullet for this moment.
01:00:52.000And what does the Apostle Paul in Romans say about a godly leadership?
01:01:00.000He says that rulers wield the sword for the protection of good men and for the terror of evil men.
01:01:15.000May we pray that our rulers here, rightfully instituted and given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in our nation in Charlie's memory.
01:01:41.000I want to live in a country where the evil are terrified and where the good and the faithful and the moral people of our nation can live in peace, debate in peace, disagree in peace, and start families in peace.
01:01:57.000And so we want to thank the administration for being here and carrying out that godly mission of wielding the sword against evil.
01:02:11.000In conclusion, I'd be remiss if I didn't say this to all of the young men in the audience, and I can see so many young men out there.
01:02:19.000Charlie really reached young men and women.
01:02:21.000But this is the advice that Charlie gave me: center your life on Christ.
01:03:34.000It's wonderful to see so many people out here for such a sad but also a wonderful purpose.
01:03:41.000You know, we at the American Cornerstone Institute grieve with everyone as we think about the loss of our friend and partner, Charlie Kirk.
01:03:51.000But did you hear a political figure last week saying that Charlie Kirk was ignorant because he didn't have a college degree?
01:04:02.000I've seen him run circles around people with college degrees.
01:04:07.000You know, I wonder if that political figure realizes that most of learning in life comes outside of the classroom.
01:04:22.000And I am delighted to see the young people of our land merging with the older people like me and moving in the same direction and understanding that our nation was founded upon the kind of principles that allowed us to rise from nothing to the pinnacle of the world in record time.
01:04:46.000That was because of what we believed, including our Judeo-Christian beliefs, that our rights come from our creator and not from government.
01:05:02.000Now, for many decades, there have been people who are trying to fundamentally change who we are.
01:05:11.000And there was a man by the name of Cleon Skousen, who wrote a book called The Naked Communists in the 50s.
01:05:23.000And he exposed the things that were being done by the Marxists to gain control of our country.
01:05:30.000Such things as gaining control of the public education system and the teacher unions so that you could infiltrate and indoctrinate our young people.
01:05:42.000It was a radical leftist who said, give me your children to teach for four years and the seed that I sow will never be uprooted.
01:05:58.000They also had a goal of gaining control of the media and Hollywood so they could change the culture in America, making sexual perversion normal, natural, and healthy.
01:06:10.000And speaking of that, pushing God out of our society and changing the gospel to the social gospel.
01:06:20.000Have you noticed that a lot of preachers don't want to talk about what's in the Bible if it's counter to the social gospel?
01:06:28.000Well, I challenge the ministers out there to talk about what the Bible says and not what the leftists say.
01:06:44.000And get on board, get on board of the revival that is coming.
01:06:52.000We are not going to be able to stop it.
01:06:54.000You see evidence of it right here in the stadium.
01:09:06.000I'd like to offer you a job as TPUSA's National Hispanic Outreach Director.
01:09:11.000Charlie believed with every fiber of his being that the youth of this nation would save it.
01:09:17.000His fierce patriotism, his unyielding boldness, his prophetic foresight, these were the sparks that lit the path for me on the eve of my departure to medical school to decide to change course and join TPUSA where I could help Charlie battle the socialist indoctrination on college campuses.
01:09:38.000The year I spent at TPSA traveling with Charlie is where I honed my voice in the crucible of politics and ultimately forged the path that led me to Congress.
01:09:48.000I saw Charlie grow from a young man with conferences of a few hundred people to one of the most powerful men in the world walking alongside presidents and titans.
01:09:57.000I saw him grow a beautiful family, all the while remaining a humble leader who quietly raised up others to forward the movement.
01:10:05.000Today, we honor a patriot whose love of this nation burns as brightly as the founding fathers during the birth of our republic.
01:10:23.000Like George Washington, who sacrificed his peaceful life at Mount Vernon to lead a militia and a small army against the mightiest empire on earth, risking everything, his fortune, his family, his very life, to secure liberty for generations unborn.
01:10:40.000Charlie poured out his youth, his energy, and his unshakable resolve to awaken America's youth from the slumber of complacency and to mobilize millions this past election cycle to reclaim the principles of truth and self-governance that define our exceptional nation.
01:10:57.000His name will stand etched in the history besides the likes of JFK, who boldly challenged a generation to ask what they could do for their country amid the shadows of the Cold War, and Dr. King, who marched into the jaws of hatred, sacrificing his safety and ultimately his life to bend the arc of history towards justice.
01:11:16.000These giants, Washington forging a new nation from revolution, JFK inspiring the innovation and resolve, and MLK redeeming it through moral courage, changed the outcome of eras just as Charlie altered the trajectory of our modern fight against cultural decay and ideological tyranny.
01:11:45.000He didn't just speak of patriotism, he lived it, giving everything to ignite a movement that turned the tide for conservatism, empowering young voices to challenge a status quo and to secure a brighter future for America.
01:12:00.000And as I stand here today, looking at thousands of young people in this crowd, I realize that Charlie's vision is ablaze in every single one of you.
01:12:10.000The generation that he entrusted to restore the soul of this nation.
01:12:15.000So I ask you: will you live boldly as Charlie did?
01:12:21.000Will you rise to the challenge as Charlie did?
01:12:25.000Will you speak truth without fear as Charlie did?
01:12:28.000And will you pray with unwavering faith as Charlie did?
01:12:33.000If one man can awaken a generation and save a nation, imagine what 10,000 can do.
01:12:40.000And we are all Charlie Kirk now, and his legacy has just begun.
01:12:53.000God bless all of you and these great United States of America.
01:14:42.000The Bible tells us that on his last day, Moses climbed to the top of the mountain and he looked across the River Jordan and he saw the promised land.
01:14:58.000He led the people there, but he did not cross himself.
01:15:04.000For he was taken and he died on that mountain and he was brought to God's kingdom.
01:15:15.000On his last day, Charlie Kirk was on the top of a mountain.
01:16:11.000And Charlie Kirk's gift of his sacrifice means that Charlie Kirk will live forever.
01:16:21.000Not just for all of us, not just for his family and Erica and for his children, but for all future generations of Americans.
01:16:40.000And the question of our time, will Western civilization endure?
01:16:49.000Or will it fracture in two like so many predict?
01:16:54.000Well, I say to you that a century from now, when they write of the two or three pivotal moments that led to the saving of Western civilization, They will write that the sacrifice of Charles James Kirk was the turning point.
01:17:28.000And the ugliness that has been revealed by Charlie's murder will be and is already being overcome by the beauty of the outpouring of love and prayer around the world.
01:17:44.000Seas of a thousand candles that have been litten from coast to coast for Charlie's sacrifice for all of us.
01:18:42.000We are done with all of it, and we will now stand and fight.
01:18:46.000Because if you took Charlie Kirk off that line, then every single one of us will rise up and we will replace that line and we will be there and we will remind them what they did for Charlie, what they did to Charlie, and we will never ever let them forget the name Charlie Kirk.
01:19:41.000We will come to find that in the final moment that Western civilization was saved through Charlie's sacrifice in the only way possible by returning the people to Almighty God.
01:20:05.000For greater love hath no man than this than he who laid down his life for his friends.
01:20:14.000Are you ready to continue the mission?
01:24:33.000Now, 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.
01:24:55.000Not because he sacrificed himself for his savior.
01:25:01.000Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk.
01:25:18.000Now look, there's only two things you can get in the afterlife.
01:25:24.000You can get justice or you can get grace.
01:25:28.000Ladies and gentlemen, does anyone in here, does anybody out there watching around the world want justice from an infinitely just being?