Happy Independence Day! Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What does it mean to be an American born on July 13th, 1776? In this episode, we read a portion of the document that was written on that day in 1776.
00:00:53.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:01:00.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:58.000And so I'm going to do similar to last year.
00:02:01.000You know, I was very, someone earlier said, Charlie, you could just give the same message as last year if people forget.
00:02:05.000But no, no, I hold myself to a higher standard.
00:02:08.000So we're going to read part of the Declaration today.
00:02:11.000We're going to talk about what it means to celebrate independence.
00:02:15.000And before I go any further, though, I just want to make sure that everyone here understands and realizes.
00:02:21.000We're going to talk about this tonight.
00:02:23.000We should just be in a constant state of gratitude these last couple of days, especially.
00:02:28.000Because think about where we were a year ago and where we are now.
00:02:35.000And on July 13th, you all remember where you were.
00:02:40.000I hope on July 13th or just a couple millimeters determine the future of our country.
00:02:45.000And I think for much better and for far worse, we can say that it's all about how hard we worked or what we did.
00:02:53.000God is not done with America, everybody.
00:02:55.000God is at work in this country, and God is not done with this country.
00:03:00.000So this weekend, we celebrate Independence Day, and that is the signing of our birth certificate.
00:03:06.000Now, far too often, we talk about the Declaration, but we don't actually read it.
00:03:11.000Now, at Dream City Christian and at Turning Point Academy and at real schools in this country, they're learning the Declaration of Independence.
00:04:11.000And we weren't even sure how long this was going to continue.
00:04:14.000The Battle of Bunker Hill that we all remember learning about growing up, that was in June of 1775 before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed.
00:04:24.000Now after that, our founders were so pious and they were so Christian, blessed are the peacemakers, they wrote what is called the Olive Branch Petition.
00:04:33.000So they sent a letter to the king trying to end the war in August of 1775.
00:04:39.000The king responded and said, nope, you guys are in rebellion and I'm going to crush you.
00:04:44.000So the founders were like, okay, I guess we have a war on our hands and we didn't invite it.
00:05:22.000And they're in a room with no air conditioning.
00:05:25.000At any moment, the British Empire could have arrived because it was a port city.
00:05:29.000They could have went into Independence Hall and they would have arrested all 56 men and they would have hung them, every single one of them, for treason, one by one.
00:06:52.000That was how the odds were stacked against it.
00:06:55.000The British Empire, they were well trained.
00:06:57.000They were bringing in Prussian mercenaries from Germany.
00:07:00.00036,000 British troops had already occupied New York and Boston.
00:07:05.000This thing looked like the rebellion was about to be quelled.
00:07:09.000It was, if you were like looking for all the young men out there, if you were looking at like the draft kings or the, you know, let's just say the polymarket betting odds, it was like 99.9 to 0.1 that America or the colonies were going to survive.
00:07:25.000The guys that were kind of taking wages didn't look good.
00:07:28.000Again, some of the older folks, like, what are you talking about?
00:08:12.000This is the part of our birth certificate and our birthday as Americans that's not talked about in the media.
00:08:18.000It's not talked about in our public schools.
00:08:19.000They'll only maybe talk about the founding, and they'll be, oh, they were a bunch of slave-owning, terrible people.
00:08:24.000But they don't talk about the 10 years before the founding.
00:08:27.000Did you know that there were 25,000 sermons given over a decade to the population of the 13 colonies, delivered by people like Whitfield and Jonathan Mayhew and Jonathan Edwards?
00:08:40.000So Jonathan Edwards had a sermon that he delivered thousands of times.
00:08:44.000The title of the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
00:08:49.000That's not exactly a prosperity gospel.
00:08:55.000That's not exactly, hey, give me $10 and you're going to get very rich.
00:09:35.000I'm excited to tell you that I'll be speaking at the Culture and Christianity Conference at World Outreach Church just south of Nashville, Tennessee this September and I'm inviting you to join me.
00:09:46.000My friend Pastor Alan Jackson organized this conference so we can address the issues we're facing in today's culture, but through the lens of God's truth.
00:09:54.000We'll talk about what's happening in the church, the media, and with our help.
00:09:57.000When you'll attend, you'll gain insight and valuable perspectives on what's happening in the world today.
00:10:02.000Learn how to recognize truth from deception.
00:10:04.000Find boldness so you could defend your faith with confidence and compassion.
00:10:08.000Join me, Pastor Alan, Sage Steele, Dr. Bill Lyle, and many more.
00:10:59.000And we're going to give the colonies, our people that are fighting, their why.
00:11:04.000We are going to now form and birth a new nation founded on ideals that are totally incompatible with what the monarchy believes.
00:11:12.000And this is our nation's birth certificate, but it might be our death certificate.
00:11:18.000And I'm going to build that out for a second because it's lost on so many of us, including myself when I was doing research for this, just how much these men and their families and their wives were risking.
00:11:29.000Because the wives also don't be talked about enough.
00:11:31.000These wives understood they may never see their husbands again, that their sons and their daughters may never be raised by a father.
00:11:39.000And so they decided, like, hey, who's, you know, they looked around the room and here was like, I think he was 27 or 28, Thomas Jefferson, like, hey, he's smart.
00:12:15.000It's very easy for us in the year of the Lord, 2025, to look back at 1776 and enjoy our pool parties and our burgers and our hot dogs, which you should, and our fireworks and our ice cream.
00:12:25.000But I want you just today at church to just imagine what it would be like to sign a document against the world's largest power and your house, your kids, your livelihood, your 401k, your second home, whatever could be snatched away from the world's largest power.
00:12:41.000And for some, it meant that's exactly what happened.
00:12:44.000Like William Ellery, not a name that you would hear very often, signer of the Declaration.
00:12:49.000He watched the British burn his home and destroy everything he owned.
00:13:42.000He got so depressed by all of it, he died in debt and never saw the end of the war.
00:13:46.000Thomas McKean was hunted by the British, had to move his family five times and died penniless.
00:13:52.000Five times in the span of three years with no cars and no planes, constantly moving, being hunted by the British.
00:13:59.000Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, two of his sons were captured by the British and brutally treated and tortured in prison ships and one nearly starved to death.
00:14:11.000Or John Hart fled into the woods to escape the British troops.
00:14:15.000His wife died while he was on the run and his 13 kids were scattered.
00:14:20.000His farm was ravaged and he never saw his kids again.
00:14:32.000His wife was imprisoned for months, tortured by the British, and died shortly after release.
00:14:37.000He died with nothing, totally impoverished.
00:14:39.000Or Richard Stockton, captured by the British, imprisoned, abused, starved, and released only after swearing never to fight again.
00:14:46.000He never recovered and died before the war ended.
00:14:48.000Or John Morton, alienated by all of his friends.
00:14:51.000Understand when you signed this document, almost two-thirds of the entire colonies were against this war.
00:14:58.000One-third were neutral, one-third with the British, only one-third were support, only 3% ended up fighting, and a small percentage of that actual fighting force were like the ones that drove it forward.
00:15:09.000So imagine if you think you were outnumbered for not taking the vaccine, if you think you were outnumbered for not wearing a mask when you showered, if you think you were outnumbered, I want you to imagine what it was like when everyone around you, this guy lost all of his friends, when you signed the declaration, you were not met with pomp and circumstance and a parade.
00:15:32.000You were not met as like a hero's welcome.
00:15:38.000You became someone that all of a sudden you were, and we in 2025, I want you to understand, signing your name back in the ancient world was as, there was almost no equivalent in the modern era.
00:16:42.000And we should honestly just remember these founding fathers that died and gave up everything.
00:16:50.000And I want you to understand, it'd be one thing if you go and die for a war and you still have your land, you could die at least somewhat at peace that your kids are going to be okay.
00:16:58.000These kids that all entered into poverty, this guy, 13 kids, nothing.
00:17:28.000This was not, by the way, this was not like them skimming it.
00:17:31.000This was not like a docu sign or the terms of service on Apple when you get a new iPhone and no one reads that stuff and you go all the way to the bottom like, okay, great, yeah.
00:17:45.000I'm going to focus on a couple elements I didn't in the previous service, but I'm going to say just one, I'm going to repeat one.
00:17:51.000It begins with when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them.
00:18:06.000A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.
00:18:13.000Now, some of that is written in a little bit of old English, so it's hard to quite understand what Thomas Jefferson is saying.
00:19:16.000Now, I want to emphasize one thing he said here, which drove King George crazy.
00:19:23.000The laws of nature and nature's God entitle him.
00:19:27.000We as Christians believe that there is a God-given moral law that is discernible by reason and conscience, and nations must govern in harmony with it.
00:19:38.000This is a perfect connection to what Pastor Luke said earlier.
00:19:42.000Why is it that in Los Angeles, a bunch of bums can walk into Starbucks and take as much food as they want, and no one says stop.
00:19:52.000When you refuse and you reject God, all of a sudden stealing is not wrong.
00:19:57.000When you reject God, abortion is not wrong.
00:20:01.000When you reject God, there's nothing wrong with the transgenderism nonsense.
00:20:05.000Here are five things of which the natural law says in great detail.
00:20:09.000And by the way, it's connected to something that comes later in the Declaration.
00:20:12.000Number one, we believe, because the Bible teaches it and it's in the natural law, human life is sacred and every single life matters regardless of how small or how big that life is.
00:22:45.000Yep, you might have more money, but that doesn't mean you have more rights.
00:22:48.000Yep, you might have a nicer car, but I'm the same in God's economy, and both of us are going to have to go in front of God the judge one day.
00:23:05.000And this is where it gets so profound.
00:23:08.000That among these, oh yeah, it's up here, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:23:14.000You cannot have liberty, and you cannot happiness, have happiest if you do not protect life.
00:23:19.000Let us be a state and a country again that values life at every possible stage, from the unborn to the boring to the elderly.
00:23:28.000And the founders articulated this beautifully.
00:23:31.000So I could go in all the different elements here, but let me just repeat something I said earlier.
00:23:37.000That a rejection of the universal moral order, the natural law that was talked about in our birth certificate, the laws of nature and nature's God, we are seeing the consequences of what happens when you do not have that.
00:23:50.000In the words of G.K. Chesterton, it's not that when you have no God, people believe in nothing.
00:23:56.000It's that they'll believe in anything.
00:24:00.000That men can give birth, that borders don't matter, that you could change your sex on a whim, that life does not have any value.
00:24:07.000You see, the founders, they were able to build the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world upon eternal biblical scripture and truth.
00:24:16.000And that is not just Charlie Kirk saying it.
00:24:18.000Today, this Independence Day weekend, we need to also just look at what the founders themselves said.
00:24:24.000This stuff you will not hear on CNN, I guarantee it.
00:24:28.000Patrick Henry, who is, let's just say, one of the more outspoken people of the founding generation.
00:24:34.000He was a little bit of a rabble-rouser, if you will, kind of.
00:24:36.000He was a little bit of a bomb thrower.
00:24:38.000I know no one in politics that would probably fit that mold.
00:24:41.000But anyway, he famously said, give me liberty or give me death.
00:24:45.000It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:25:43.000I'm sorry, in the Ten Commandments, God says, thou shalt not steal.
00:25:47.000There was not a parenthetical that said, however, it's less than $1,000, I think it's okay.
00:25:54.000Private property is robustly defended throughout the Bible and throughout the scripture.
00:26:00.000John Adams says, quote, the general principles on which the founding fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.
00:26:11.000John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in June 28, 1813, we posit that there is a transcendent moral order above us.
00:26:22.000And what we are saying here is really at odds with a lot of the modern world.
00:26:29.000James Madison said the only sure foundation for civil liberty is the Bible.
00:26:36.000Not the teaching of Aristotle, which I love, or Plato, or of Immanuel Kant or Thomas Hobbes, but it is the Bible.
00:26:46.000And so what I want you to understand is when you see those fireworks go up this weekend, is that under the surface of all the liberty that we now enjoy for 249 years, it did not happen by accident.
00:27:28.000I'm excited to tell you that I'll be speaking at the Culture and Christianity Conference at World Outreach Church just south of Nashville, Tennessee this September, and I'm inviting you to join me.
00:27:39.000My friend Pastor Alan Jackson organized this conference so we can address the issues we're facing in today's culture, but through the lens of God's truth.
00:27:47.000We'll talk about what's happening in the church, the media, and with our help.
00:27:50.000When you'll attend, you'll gain insight and valuable perspectives on what's happening in the world today.
00:27:55.000Learn how to recognize truth from deception.
00:27:57.000Find boldness so you could defend your faith with confidence and compassion.
00:28:01.000Join me, Pastor Alan, Sage Steele, Dr. Bill Lyle, and many more.
00:28:47.000There is still a remnant that should be admired and encouraged of Bible-believing Christians and churches like this that love God and love people and work for his purposes every single day.
00:29:00.000And we don't do a good enough job teaching our kids how great of a country that this is.
00:29:04.000We are the most generous country ever to exist in the history of the world.
00:29:08.000We give more to the poor, more to poverty.
00:29:13.000We finance more Christian missionaries and more ministries.
00:29:16.00070% of all the Christian mission work is originated by 5% of the population here in America.
00:29:22.000When there's a tsunami, when there's a flood, when there's a civil war, they don't call the French and they don't call the Belgians.
00:29:27.000They call the Americans because there's something different about this country.
00:29:31.000And it's because what we believe is American values in liberty, in e pluribus unum, go anyone pull out a dollar bill before they try to have a centralized bank digital currency.
00:29:41.000On the American dollar bill is the American Trinity.
00:29:45.000In the American Trinity are three things.
00:29:47.000Of course, we as Christians have the Christian Trinity.
00:29:49.000God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
00:29:51.000On the U.S. dollar is the American Trinity.
00:31:14.000Jesus and the church is a covenantal relationship.
00:31:17.000Throughout the Bible, there are covenantal relationships, the Abrahamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the covenant with Israel, and of course, the new covenant with Jesus Christ.
00:31:28.000When you enter into a covenantal relationship, here is what makes a contractual relationship versus a covenantal relationship.
00:31:35.000First of all, a covenantal relationship says that this will last as long as we are faithful.
00:31:42.000A contractual relationship is, here's the terms.
00:32:31.000But America was a covenantal relationship.
00:32:35.000At the end of the declaration, very similar to the book of Nehemiah, as in Nehemiah 9, when the Jews were in exile, King Cyrus sends them back, they were just a complete mess, right?
00:32:45.000And Nehemiah restores the covenant in Nehemiah 9.
00:33:21.000Here's a fun trivia question for all of you this weekend on Independence Day.
00:33:24.000You guys can tell your friends, where does Jesus appear in the Declaration?
00:33:28.000Right there, the Supreme Judge of the World.
00:33:29.000It says in the book of Revelation, Jesus will take the seat of judgment as the supreme judge of the world at the end of the age.
00:33:35.000The founders knew what they were saying.
00:33:37.000Do you know every single founder was fluent in Greek, fluent in Hebrew, and they were taught the Bible as a primary text document from a young age?
00:33:45.000So they knew what they were saying when they said supreme judge of the world.
00:33:51.000They were praying to Jesus at the end of this.
00:33:54.000And here is the kicker as to why we are all here today.
00:33:59.000They said with great prayer and reverence that at any moment their house could be burned, their wife could be kidnapped, and their kids could be tortured.
00:34:06.000And for the support of this declaration, who are they relying on?
00:34:40.000And all of a sudden, they've created a triangular covenantal relationship.
00:34:44.000Everybody, that's why we beat the British.
00:34:47.000It's because when all of a sudden the British, they were paid mercenaries, our guys pledged to each other and to a higher power.
00:34:54.000And I'll be honest, the fact that our nation has lasted in its current form for 249 years, it is the longest lasting political document ever written in the history of the world.
00:35:05.000We are under that covenant and we will stop being under that covenant if our faithfulness wanes.
00:35:12.000If we become a secular nation like Los Angeles is.
00:35:14.000If we go away from God, as the prophet Isaiah says, woe unto those who call good evil or evil good.
00:35:21.000In Isaiah 33, 22, it says, For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, and he will save us.
00:35:38.000We should be on our hands and knees kissing the ground and thanking God we get to live in this great nation, which is the inheritance, not of luck, not of chance, not of Buddhism, but the inheritance of courageous Christians who put everything on the line so that we can live free.