Ivan Raj and Charlie Kirk talk about how they met, how they became friends, and the importance of the Sabbath in our society. The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold and Silver, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family and friends.
00:00:56.000The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000please put your hands together to give a warm welcome for Ivan Raj and Charlie Kirk.
00:05:27.000And he really challenged me, and I didn't have good responses, to be perfectly honest with you.
00:05:31.000And pairing that with my very good friend, who is Jewish, who right now is going through a very difficult health trial, Dennis Prager, who I believe is the premier Torah teacher of this generation.
00:05:45.000And if you don't know Dennis Prager, on the Sabbath, you guys would really appreciate Dennis Prager because he has brought the teachings of the Sabbath to more millions of people than almost anybody alive.
00:06:32.000And if you believe God is in charge, and if you believe Genesis 1-1, because the Shabbat is a question of whether or not you believe Genesis 1-1, and if you believe Genesis 1-1, then you honor the Sabbath.
00:06:44.000If you have questions about Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, which is bare sheath, right?
00:06:48.000It's the first truth claim of the scriptures.
00:06:52.000Then on the seventh day, you rest because God created the heavens and the earth.
00:06:56.000It is the longest standing celebration of time of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
00:07:02.000And so that realization changed my life.
00:07:06.000I could talk about this from many different dimensions, what it's meant for me personally, what it means on the macro.
00:07:12.000I also go to churches across the country.
00:07:15.000I speak at hundreds of churches of all different denominations.
00:07:19.000And I will challenge the Christian church because I believe this is the most ignored commandment of the decalogue to our own detriment, which is that I believe that honoring the Sabbath is the commandment that allows you to honor the other nine commandments and that the enemy has gone after the honoring the Sabbath because then it is easier to weaken the other nine.
00:07:46.000If you're honoring the Sabbath, it's definitionally easier to honor your mother and father because you're not working that day and you're with family.
00:07:54.000If you're honoring the Sabbath, it's easier not to covet your neighbor's wife because you're not around your neighbor's wife, you're with your family.
00:08:03.000And you're filled with gratitude that day.
00:08:06.000When you're honoring the Sabbath, it's easier to have no other gods before God because that day is built in time as a temple, as a sanctuary to put God first, to not have idols, to not take the Lord's name in vain.
00:08:18.000The other nine commandments are made easier, are made more accessible for our broken, fleshly, depraved nature if we prioritize the Shabbat.
00:08:33.000You mentioned about this one commandment has been ignored.
00:08:37.000Interestingly, God wrote the word remember.
00:08:41.000That's why this panel is called as remember.
00:08:44.000And that being said, I would like to invite Dr. James Markham, cardiologist, and he's going to share with us his research on worship and how it affects the human body.
00:10:38.000Our bodies, our brains, remember, everyone knows about dopamine, right?
00:10:43.000We're getting dopamine hits from everywhere.
00:10:45.000The neurostructures in the brain, all of that was perfect.
00:10:49.000But all of a sudden, things started falling apart, and we started looking for other ways for pleasure.
00:10:55.000We started getting our dopamine surges from, you know, in the hospital.
00:10:59.000I see cocaine, I see fentanyl, I see all sorts of dopamine surges, and we try doing that.
00:11:05.000And after a while, it changes our brain.
00:11:08.000And if our brain changes, our relationship with God changes, our decision-making changes, everything's messed up.
00:11:15.000So we start turning on this fight or flight.
00:11:19.000We make chemicals like epinephrine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, everything starts bad happening in the body that downshifts our brain so we can't think as well, so we can't relate to God.
00:11:30.000So the whole way we deal with the world has changed when this starts to occur.
00:11:37.000And then when we start looking at the Bible, you know, I tell them, you know, the Bible is far ahead of science.
00:11:45.000You know, when they said that, you know, there's weight in the wind, that was long before Torricelli said that, or that the earth was round.
00:11:52.000That was long before Copernicus or even Daniel.
00:11:55.000You know, that the original, one of the original health studies in Daniel, he starts talking about, you know, they ate a plant-based diet.
00:12:03.000And then after a period of time, they looked at the control group and they were a lot better off.
00:12:53.000We're starting to get our dopamine from other sources, our inner connections of change.
00:12:58.000In fact, one of the better research things that I've read recently has come from Andrew Newberg.
00:13:04.000And we're actually now we have the science to look at what the brain's doing, PET scans.
00:13:10.000And he used an intervention of worship, one intervention of prayer, one of just 12 minutes of worship, and people that never worshiped before, ever.
00:13:19.000He looked at their brains and the part of the brain called the anterior single cortex started getting bigger.
00:13:32.000And all of a sudden, he looked at the physiology of the brain.
00:13:36.000Oxytocin, you know, dopamine, serotonin, all these were changing.
00:13:41.000But one thing interesting you notice in his research is that the part of the stress brain, the amygdala, was turned off.
00:13:49.000You know, all those stress chemicals, adrenaline, cortisol, the inflammatory markers, all this inflammation was starting to turn down just by worship.
00:14:01.000We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.
00:14:04.000And today, I want to point you to their podcast.
00:14:06.000It's called Culture in Christianity, the Alan Jackson Podcast.
00:14:10.000What makes it unique is Pastor Allen's biblical perspective.
00:14:14.000He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today: gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.
00:15:47.000And because when I hear that someone is honoring the Sabbath and they still have their phone on, I'm like, at least for me, my phone is a portal to work, first and foremost, and it might be 1% family.
00:16:06.000And so even if it's on Saturday, they're constantly asking me about certain stuff.
00:16:10.000So for me, my stress goes down significantly.
00:16:13.000What I even find, everybody, is that when you turn off your phone on Friday night by Saturday afternoon, your habits slightly start to change where you don't miss the phone as much.
00:16:24.000You're not like reaching for it all the time.
00:16:26.000You're not like, oh, wait, no, it's not there.
00:16:28.000You're not kind of just pushing the button and you start to become much more present and much more, let's just say, connected to the people around you.
00:18:04.000And even if they aren't, I say, so what?
00:18:06.000The creator of the universe told you to unplug for a day, told you to not work for that day.
00:18:12.000That's more important than just being on the constant corporate hamster wheel to try to get the next bonus and return the next text message.
00:18:25.000So he's changing where he's getting his dopamine from.
00:19:57.000So the next step is going to be in the research is to take biblical worship.
00:20:01.000So Charlie, if I can study your individual genetics, I can say for Charlie, 15 minutes of Bible study, 10 minutes of prayer, one quarter of football, a couple laughs, a couple praises.
00:20:16.000This is what your genetics looks like if you do this.
00:20:18.000And then I might be able to say in a few years, the science is catching up with the Bible that maybe if you did this a little bit better, why don't you try this for a while?
00:20:27.000Maybe we can tweak it a little bit more.
00:20:29.000Maybe you can get more of these good neural pathways.
00:20:32.000Maybe you can grow this God brain, you know, that we have in there, the anterior cingulate cortex that got big in the studies, and turn even down more the amygdala, the stress part of the brain that's really the selfishness that's going on in this world.
00:20:47.000So that's when you say the Sabbath is so fundamental to health, it's fundamental to disease reversal.
00:20:52.000You know, we can put a stent in or do a bypass, but that doesn't heal us eternally, does it?
00:20:58.000But this not only heals us eternally, but it gives us short-term genetic changes so we make better decisions, we have better pathways.
00:21:22.000How did you connect Sabbath with Jesus?
00:21:27.000Well, in Jesus, we find our rest, and that's the critical thing, is that we're promised that the Sabbath will give, we should find rest in the Sabbath, and on the seventh day, God rested and saw that it was good.
00:21:40.000But we know that our ultimate rest is in Christ Jesus.
00:21:44.000Secondly, though, and I think this is important, I don't want to get too deep into this.
00:21:49.000My new friend here can answer this far better than I can.
00:21:52.000But there, I think, is some sloppy and misleading Christian teaching at times that says that Jesus does not want you to honor the Sabbath and Jesus broke the Sabbath.
00:22:03.000I'm not going to get too far deep into that.
00:22:05.000I'll allow my new friend to comment on that.
00:22:08.000But here's what I will say: is that we believe in a triune God, and therefore that it predated the law, and creation was mentioned by Christ several times and emphasized all throughout scriptures.
00:22:21.000In fact, I believe that there are miracles all throughout the Bible.
00:22:26.000But the two miracles that we as Christians must remember on a daily and weekly basis is the creation of the world and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:22:35.000Those are the two biggest of all the miracles.
00:22:56.000The first type, they believe that our existence is a mistake, that we are a happy accident.
00:23:03.000A bunch of evolution cells came together and we happen to get consciousness and reason and all these different variables from the tilt of the earth and the axis and carbon dioxide and oxygen all came together.
00:23:16.000The second category believes our existence is a miracle.
00:23:20.000And you believe that there is intentionality.
00:23:23.000By honoring the Sabbath, whether you realize it or not, you are pushing against all the dark nihilism that has infected our world.
00:23:32.000Nihilism believes that there is no purpose and there is no meaning to your existence.
00:23:36.000By honoring the Sabbath, you're stopping what you're doing, saying, no, everything we do matters because there is intentionality behind our creation.
00:23:45.000And we honor the Creator because there is creation.
00:23:49.000And the final thing I'll say is this, is in the book of Romans, in Romans 1, this is very important.
00:24:51.000I will say, do you believe that given the option, this is my best answer, because this is how I think, do you think that God would prefer you to turn off all your devices and stop working and worshiping him for 24 hours with your family or running around town, going to bars, doing, you know, continuing in corporate work?
00:28:33.000Why I put that title, The Ten Commandments Twice Removed.
00:28:37.000I think you'll agree with me that our government, for one thing, has removed the Ten Commandments.
00:28:42.000But secondly, and very important on what you were saying, is that the churches, the Christian church, has removed the Ten Commandments.
00:28:50.000I completely agree, and it's a tragedy, and I think it's against God's commands and his wish for us.
00:28:55.000So there you have the Ten Commandments twice removed.
00:28:59.000So what's happened is God created, and you've already said much of this, so I won't spend much time going over it, but God said on the creation week, it wasn't when the Ten Commandments were people say they're given to the Jews, they were given to Moses.
00:29:13.000Now here you understand that they from creation, God rested the Sabbath.
00:29:18.000People say, oh, well, they didn't keep, you know, the commandments up till Moses.
00:29:23.000Well, actually, if you look at Genesis 26, you know, it talks about Isaac and Jacob.
00:29:28.000They kept the laws, the precepts, the promises.
00:29:31.000When Cain killed his brother Abel early on, he knew he sinned.
00:29:36.000So what I do is we start at not just the Sabbath, but I believe one of the biggest enemies of God's commandments is the Christian church today.
00:30:07.000I was at a big Baptist church several years ago, and the preacher said to me afterwards, you're one of those old Seventh-day Adventists, he said, is that right?
00:30:19.000And he said, man, you mean you're under that old law?
00:30:22.000And I said, which law are you talking about?
00:30:25.000He said, well, that old Ten Commandment law, well, what had happened, they had taken up a Sunday morning worship, tithes and offerings, and then they took up a separate one for me.
00:30:35.000I was in the back room with the pastor, and I saw that the Sunday morning tithe and offering of this big church was a lot more money than what I would be getting.
00:30:45.000So he said, oh, I'm not under the old law.
00:31:19.000People say, oh, I'm not under, we're not under.
00:31:22.000The reason that the Christian church is so big on the commandments were nailed to the cross, they're not valid, is because of the one commandment, the one commandment, the fourth commandment that Charlie's been talking to you about.
00:31:36.000Because if I have to keep that, well, if I can say, well, these commandments were nailed to the cross, nowhere in the Bible does it say the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross.
00:32:03.000Okay, if we have to understand sin, sin is the Bible definition, 1 John 3, 4, sin is the transgression or the breaking of God's Ten Commandment law.
00:32:15.000So some people say, how do you know it's God's Ten Commandment law?
00:32:18.000And I say, well, what other laws did he give that we don't know about?
00:33:14.000Under the Old Covenant, we were saved by what?
00:33:19.000You know, we were saved by, sure, the old covenant, it's always been by grace, but God had to put up a temporary thing called the sanctuary, where we shed, they brought it to the sanctuary of the lambs and shed the innocent blood.
00:33:34.000And so what happened is that was a shadow of things to come that so man could still be saved without Jesus' shed blood.
00:33:43.000So when Jesus died on the cross, he gave his life.
00:34:20.000James, this was after the crucifixion, after the resurrection.
00:34:25.000So this could have been 30, 40, 50 years later.
00:34:28.000He's still saying that if you keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, you're guilty of all.
00:34:33.000Nowhere did Jesus say, and nowhere did the disciples, with writing scriptures in the New Testament after the death and resurrection of Christ, nowhere did anyone say, oh, but since the resurrection of Christ, you don't have to keep the Sabbath anymore.
00:35:21.000It's the only difference, the only difference, everything identical, is that Moses says, honor the Shabbat, and it goes on, because you are no longer slaves like you were in Egypt.
00:35:31.000Only slaves work all seven days, everybody.
00:35:34.000It is a commandment that keeps you free.
00:35:37.000You know how many wealthy slaves there are in Scottsdale, Arizona that work seven days a week, that have big mansions.
00:35:45.000Moses is telling the people, understand the context.
00:36:08.000Moses basically five times goes to God, like, these are the worst people ever.
00:36:12.000Can you just take me out of my misery?
00:36:14.000And so, Moses is finally getting to the point where he's like, This is my farewell address.
00:36:19.000Now, as we know in American politics, farewell addresses are really important: Washington's farewell address, Eisenhower's farewell address, Lincoln's, the very, very important stuff they say.
00:36:29.000So, Moses is getting to the end of Deuteronomy, and he wants to remind these former slaves: hey, slaves, you're about to go into the land of milk and honey, you're about to go into Canaan.
00:36:38.000Remember, if you actually want to be free, you don't work for seven days.
00:36:44.000In fact, if you go back to ancient Roman literature, ancient Greek literature, even during the Inquisition of ancient Spanish, not ancient, but like 500-year-old Spanish literature, every place where the Jews honored the Sabbath, they would get made fun of by the occupying force.
00:37:03.000The Romans would be like, Who are these Jews that don't work all the time?
00:37:07.000Like, would they think they're better than us?
00:37:09.000They take one day just about their family and for their people.
00:37:14.000The Jews are still around, and the ancient Roman Empire is not.
00:37:18.000Because, and this is the more macro point, and I just want to say what Moses was saying in the book of Deuteronomy is that if you want to be a free people, you must honor the Sabbath.
00:37:45.000Jesus also in Revelation, at the end of Revelation, made a farewell speech, and that's blessed are they that do his commandments, that they might have right to the tree of life and enter into the gates of the city.
00:37:58.000So, again, as we were talking about the commandments, I think one of the biggest enemies of the Ten Commandments is the Christian church because they insist upon saying the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross.
00:38:12.000But again, I would ask them: if someone steals from you, there are preachers who preach against LGBTQ, they preach against the abortion, but they say the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross.
00:38:24.000And I say, Well, if the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross, why would that be wrong?
00:39:42.000So if somebody doesn't know something, they're not going to be held accountable for it because we serve a loving God who gave his life, no one took his life, who gave his life on the cross of Calvary so that his death would not be in vain, that everyone has the chance of eternal life because of his great love for a fallen man.
00:40:02.000And I'm so excited to meet you, Charlie, and to I can't.
00:40:07.000I look forward to your book on what you're doing.
00:40:10.000It sounds very profound and will help us tremendously.
00:40:14.000And Ivor, thank you for what you're doing for the cause of God.
00:40:18.000And so we can talk, I'll leave that book with you.
00:40:20.000I'd give you this one, but I've scribbled on it.
00:40:24.000I've written three books on the Ten Commandments twice removed with Shelly.
00:40:28.000This is called The Truth About the Ten Commandments.
00:40:31.000And we have the truth about the commandments.
00:40:33.000So hopefully, today what people will see is that God in his infinite love and wisdom and love for fallen man is making a way that we can get out of this life, right?
00:40:47.000Death, eternal death, to eternal life with him in heaven forever.
00:40:52.000So thank the Lord for his mercy, his grace, and his love.
00:41:02.000We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.
00:41:04.000And today, I want to point you to their podcast.
00:41:07.000It's called Culture in Christianity, the Allen Jackson Podcast.
00:41:11.000What makes it unique is Pastor Allen's biblical perspective.
00:41:14.000He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today: gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.
00:42:11.000So, in the scriptures, it says Christ used the word ecclesia.
00:42:15.000And this is the other important thing, which is that we say separate your church and state, but I don't want to belabor the prior conversation without his ability to defend it.
00:42:23.000But Christ did not use the word synague or temple.
00:42:26.000Ecclesia was actually a secular Greek term that meant political gathering.
00:42:31.000And so, Christ called us to get involved in politics.
00:42:34.000He called us to get involved in the public square, intentionally in the Koine Greek.
00:42:39.000So, by the church, we mean, and there's lots of interpretations, but I believe if you subscribe to the basic teachings of the Nicene Creed, which is if you believe in the death, burial, resurrection of Christ Jesus, the inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth, right?
00:42:54.000You believe in the creation of the world, you believe in the Decalogue, then you are part of a collective church.
00:43:01.000I speak out more than almost anybody else on what I would call heretical teaching when people say that, well, you don't need the Old Testament, or they'll say that the Old Testament is flawed, or they'll say that, you know, Christ Jesus, he committed some miracles, but not all miracles.
00:43:16.000So I wouldn't necessarily put them in the church, but when I say the broad church, there is, in the Nicene Creed, it uses the term Catholic Church.
00:43:24.000It's actually a small C Catholic, not a big C Catholic church, and that means more the universal church.
00:43:30.000I'm not here to say who's a Christian and who is not.
00:43:33.000I'm going to allow Almighty God to basically make those final judgments and those determinations.
00:43:39.000But here is what I will say, is that if Jesus is king of your life, And if you honor his commands the best ability you can, and you believe in the inerrancy of scripture, and you are teaching that, I would consider you as part of the broader Christian family.
00:43:54.000You know, that is such a wonderful point that Charlie Kirk brings up.
00:43:56.000And it's something that we should definitely be thinking about when you have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
00:44:04.000And this is something very fascinating because when you have a relationship, now I was born and raised in the church.
00:44:09.000One of the first things I learned was you have this list of things you're supposed to do, but until it actually became Jesus in my life being my Lord and Savior, I began to realize that keeping his law is not a burden.
00:44:22.000You brought up a wonderful point about how you have to integrate it into your lifestyle.
00:44:27.000And that's really what God is trying to bring.
00:44:29.000He's trying to integrate himself into your whole lifestyle from day one to day two to day three, and he wants you to rest on that Sabbath day.
00:44:36.000I think I came into one of the most fascinating discussions that are going on right now.
00:44:39.000And Charlie, first of all, thank you again so much for being here.
00:44:42.000Second of all, it's amazing that you yourself honored the Sabbath, and we are so very happy for that also.
00:44:48.000No, and I just want to say, everyone here has been so cheerful and so amazing and awesome that my message to churches is you are missing out so sorely by not honoring the Sabbath.
00:45:01.000And my advice to all of you that care about the Sabbath, we need to become better evangelists for the practice of honoring the Sabbath, how it strengthens your marriage, how it deepens your connection to God.
00:45:12.000And I think for some Christians, not all, that it might be the missing link of what they, you know, they're like, Charlie, I'm going to church, I'm tithing, I'm singing the songs, but there's something missing, and I think it might be not honoring the Sabbath.
00:45:27.000And let's even dive a little bit deeper into it, especially when it comes to the culture.
00:45:30.000So when the church was a little bit more stronger in the American culture, we look at the early 1900s.
00:45:34.000We go in to look at such directors as Cecil B. DeMille.
00:45:37.000For those of you that remember the name, that is going to be the gentleman that wrote, that made the movie The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, Oscarworthy, blockbuster bestsellers.
00:45:46.000And there's something very fascinating when you bring up about how we're supposed to approach and be in the culture.
00:45:50.000I feel like in Christianity, we sort of took our foot off of the pedal, especially in Hollywood, in music and everything.
00:45:57.000And as the old saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum.
00:46:00.000And it seems like secularism and consumerism and many other things filled that void to the point that now that we are here in 2025, we can't even recognize Hollywood.
00:46:10.000It feels like anytime we see an Oscars or something like that, there's a diatribe against not just Christianity, but America and everything else under the sun.
00:46:52.000How many of you have sometimes been ending a long business trip and it's been a tough week, but you're like, oh, I have this beautiful little mini heaven waiting for me around the corner, right?
00:47:03.000I think we can do a much better job of just talking about how, and this is what won me over.
00:47:09.000Remember, it was Dennis Prager, a religious Jew, who would go on his radio program and talk about that I do not have to do the Sabbath.
00:47:50.000Half of our kids are in antidepressants by the time they reach 18.
00:47:53.000These screens are just destroying and frying our kids' brains.
00:47:58.000And here we have, there's a whole chapter in my book dedicated to this.
00:48:01.000Here we have this ancient gift waiting for us.
00:48:06.000And it doesn't require mapping the human genome, of which I agree with everything the doctor said.
00:48:11.000It just is, just honor God's commands.
00:48:13.000You know, that is such a great point, especially when you want to bring up the research and data.
00:48:16.000It was Dr. Tim Reisenberger that was speaking just yesterday, and he actually brought up the data to show that there's another denomination out there that doesn't use coffee, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, but they don't live as long as Seventh-day Adventist.
00:48:29.000Mormons, they follow the same almost dietary laws, but they don't live as long.
00:48:33.000And one of the primary reasons that we would argue is the fact that we have the Seventh-day Sabbath that we keep, and that ability to rejuvenate your life and reset the whole week and just have a relationship with God and your family.
00:48:44.000You get to honor Christ and you get to honor the church and get to honor your family.
00:49:20.000Because the man and the woman together, as they are joined in one unity in Christ, the husband submits unto God, the wife submits unto the husband.
00:49:27.000It should be rest for the whole unit, is what I'm getting at.
00:49:30.000Because in Shabbat, it's a very serious meal preparation that has to undergo on Friday and then Saturday night.
00:49:36.000And the old joke is that I'll finally get some rest when Shabbat is over.
00:49:59.000So our pastors and our eldership, meaning the laity that is a part of the church, when it comes to the Sabbath, we tend to delegate who is going to do certain functions on the Sabbath.
00:50:07.000The pastor will speak, but there's a whole function and form of the church that gets to pitch in.
00:51:15.000It is the first time in the ancient world that there's a recognition from the Almighty that animals are not simply just to be used all the time for your purpose.
00:51:24.000That they're not the same as human beings, but they deserve a time of rest.
00:54:25.000And I believe that all of humanity, whether they're in Tokyo or New Delhi or in London, would be blessed if they honored the Sabbath.
00:54:33.000If you are currently watching this online and you're not honoring the Shabbat and you are feeling depression and exhaustion and fatigue, there is something that costs you nothing.
00:55:00.000In the Hall of Faith of Hebrews, we see here that faith will drive you and it will strengthen your faith.
00:55:08.000If you say, oh, I'm too busy, I need to work that day, I will challenge you that God will bless you immeasurably.
00:55:14.000It might not be a bigger bank account, but you'll be more at peace, you'll have more rest, and I believe that our country, our nation, our civilization will be enriched the more that we can return one day, the seventh day, back to the Lord.
00:55:27.000The peace that passes all understandings.
00:55:52.000So how did you manage flying during Sabbath or did you not fly during Sabbath?
00:55:57.000Well, it was really interesting because my job, I got a month roster in advance.
00:56:04.000Most of the time, I was senior enough to be able to keep the Sabbath off.
00:56:08.000And when I realised that there were times when I couldn't do that, most of the time I was able to give it to somebody who wanted to work the overtime.
00:56:16.000And I thought to myself, you know what, I'm giving flying.
00:56:19.000I'm giving work to somebody who's going to take it.
00:56:23.000So I'm actually creating work by not going on it.
00:56:26.000And then there were thoughts when I thought to myself, if I don't work on those days, then I'm going to lose all that income.
00:56:34.000And that's going to be quite a significant amount.
00:56:36.000But I'm saving up for my inheritance in heaven.
00:56:42.000So at several occasions, about 10 occasions over 10 years, I had the call from my boss saying, if you don't go to work on the Sabbath, we're going to have to cancel flights and people are going to be disrupted all over the place.
00:57:01.000And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I thought, well, I could go sick, but what's the point of breaking one commandment to keep another?
00:57:26.000So I was always into welfare when I was flying.
00:57:29.000I had a reputation as being somebody who could be approached.
00:57:33.000And every time I went to work, there was somebody I needed to minister to, whether it was a member of the crew or some ground staff or whatever.
00:57:42.000I always felt good when I came back that I actually did good for God.
00:57:45.000Then when the rallies came up, because people might know that I'm sort of fairly active in that scene in Australia, most of the rallies were conducted on a Saturday.
00:57:57.000I was asked, because I was one of the main speakers during that whole campaign, I was asked to attend the rallies on a Saturday.
00:58:04.000And I said, no, I can't do it on a Saturday.
00:58:18.000And they said, at least pray about it, because your words might encourage other people.
00:58:22.000And so lo and behold, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed.
00:58:25.000And I sat upright in bed one morning at 2.30 and God had impressed me, you're not going to a rally, you're going to church.
00:58:35.000So I went to that rally in Sydney and I spoke about the Sabbath and I prayed for the people and I went up there in front of 350,000 people and I said to them, and I was asked not to pray and not to mention God before I went up, but I went up to them and I said, look, today is my Sabbath day.
00:58:53.000I'm a Sabbath keeper and I'm not actually at a rally.
00:58:58.000You guys don't mind, you are my church for today.
00:59:15.000The largest rally I ever attended, we believe, was 1.2 million people.
00:59:20.000So we have, as a result of speaking on the Sabbath, I can tell you that almost a million great controversies have been given out in Australia at these rallies.
00:59:30.000I can tell you that we have baptised 350 people in the last year and the message of God has gone out loud and clear to the extent that my beautiful wife Michelle and I have been praying for thousands of people at these rallies.
00:59:43.000We sit there for four hours taking this stream of people, many of whom are atheists, who say to us, can you please pray for me?
00:59:52.000I don't believe in God, but can you please pray for me?
00:59:55.000So I believe God has a work for us to do.
00:59:57.000And one of the most profound ⁇ I'm cutting you out of having something to say.
01:00:05.000One of the most profound things that happened on the, I think it was the last day that I worked on a Sabbath at Qantas, Australia's flag carrier.
01:00:15.000It was a trip of fly from Brisbane to Sydney on a Friday evening, get there at close of Sabbath, go to the hotel, come out the next morning at 8 o'clock, fly from Sydney to Alice Springs and back to Sydney, and then I would get back to Sydney right on close of Sabbath.
01:00:32.000I'm thinking, sure, there's got to be someone I can minister to, right?
01:00:35.000So I'm flying along down to Brisbane and I said to my co-pilot, hey, how you going?
01:00:50.000And I'd asked all the cabin crew as they came up, I'd ask the same question.
01:00:54.000And I thought to myself, I hope this improves tomorrow, because if I don't find anyone to minister to tomorrow, I'm going to feel really bad about myself.
01:01:01.000And the whole day I went to Alice Springs and back to Sydney, nothing.
01:01:07.000I was so dejected as the sun was going down behind the terminal.
01:01:11.000I got off the aeroplane and I said to my co-pilot, I don't want to stay in this cockpit any longer.
01:01:16.000He knew that I was really angry with myself.
01:01:18.000I'm going to stand up against the back wall of the terminal and I will wait for you to come off the aeroplane and I'll meet you there and then we'll go to the hotel from there.
01:01:30.000So I'm standing up against the back wall and all the passengers are coming off the Aerobridge and everyone got off the aeroplane except for the last two, a couple.
01:01:40.000And as they walked past me, the lady said, happy Sabbath.
01:01:45.000And I said, happy Sabbath, how did you know?
01:01:48.000She said, I've seen you give your testimony on television.
01:02:13.000And I said, of course you can come along.
01:02:15.000And he looked at me as white as a ghost.
01:02:18.000So the next Sabbath they came to the church and I gave my testimony in the church and I sat up the back with him and I said, what's going on?
01:02:26.000Why are you so nervous and shaky about all of this?
01:02:30.000He said, well, we went to Alice Springs for a holiday in the red centre of Australia and we had planned to fly out on the Monday and we got a call from the airline two days before saying that you have to fly out on the Saturday because we've cancelled the Monday flight and if you don't fly out on the Saturday you're going to have to go on the Wednesday and it's going to cost you another $800.
01:02:58.000They said, well, they're your options.
01:02:59.000They decided that they were going to take the trip that was offered.
01:03:04.000While they were getting ready in the motel to pack up and come to the airport to join the flight that I was operating, this gentleman had gone to have a shower and his wife had had a shower previously and she was packing his bag while he was having a shower ready to depart the hotel.
01:03:22.000She opened his computer to turn his computer off and she found pornography on his computer.
01:03:28.000He had had an issue ever since he was in puberty with pornography, like I did and like most other men do.
01:04:04.000Why don't we find a way to contact him?
01:04:06.000He said, how would I know how to contact him?
01:04:09.000if God wants me to talk to Graham Hood, he'll send me a sign.
01:04:17.000And so as it turned out, I was the pilot operating the flight from Alice Springs to Sydney and therefore it was my job to make the PA announcement to the passengers.
01:04:28.000He got on the aeroplane and we departed.
01:04:31.000When we departed, I picked up the microphone.
01:04:32.000I said, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain.
01:04:37.000And I felt the aeroplane trembling down the back.
01:04:41.000Anyhow, as a result of him coming to the sermon that I did the week after, we talked, we got them into a marriage boot camp that my wife Michelle and I run and we believe they're still going today.
01:05:19.000And I lead a lot of people to the Sabbath by keeping it really simple.
01:05:23.000Another way I look at it is this, that if your earthly father, who you love and adored, if you have a father that you adored, you know how I feel.
01:05:31.000My father died many years ago, but I loved him, even though he wasn't the world's best dad.
01:05:36.000But if he gave me a precious gift that he put a lot of time into giving me, and he went on to Facebook Marketplace two or three weeks afterwards and saw that gift for sale on the internet, it would break his heart.
01:05:52.000I see this as how God would look at that.
01:05:55.000I believe when the Sabbath was changed, we said, hey, God, we really love that idea of the Sabbath, but you know, it doesn't quite fit into our schedule.
01:06:02.000So if you don't mind, we'll change the day.
01:06:28.000I love that, because sometimes I have to break the Sabbath and it's hard.
01:06:32.000We're doing an event or a conference or it's tough.
01:06:35.000I mean, you know what that's like, where if people are counting on my appearance, that's where it gets very difficult, because then I don't want to lie, I don't want to mislead.
01:06:45.000But remember that the commandment, as much as it is to honour the Sabbath, is that for six days you shall work.
01:06:51.000It's also a commandment to work and to be fruitful and multiply the other six days.
01:06:56.000What I have found is that it creates healthy urgency, those other six days, to be more productive because there is an end in sight.
01:07:06.000Whereas it's not just this cyclical motion, you know, perpetual motion machine of seven days of work and no respite, but God wants us to work.
01:07:16.000And that is what's critically important: if you shall not work, you shall not eat, the scriptures say that it doesn't want you to rest for seven days, and vacations are fine and all of that.
01:07:26.000But to work for God's purposes is an equal part of that commandment that is sometimes missed.