The Charlie Kirk Show - May 25, 2023


Thriving in the Belly of the Beast with Pastor Russell Johnson and Pastor Jurgen Matthesius


Episode Stats


Length

37 minutes

Words per minute

195.31628

Word count

7,256

Sentence count

610

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

18

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Pastor Jürgen and Pastor Russell Johnson join us in Nashville, Tennessee for the TPUSA Faith Pastors Summit. Pastor Juregen and Russell Johnson are the co-founders of Turning Point USA, an organization dedicated to fighting for freedom on campuses across the country.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Danny Charlie Kirk Show live from our TPUSA Faith Pastors Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
00:00:07.000 Super thankful and proud of the work that the team is doing at TPUSA Faith.
00:00:12.000 You guys can check it out at tpfaith.com.
00:00:16.000 That's tpfaith.com.
00:00:18.000 Fabulous team and organization.
00:00:20.000 They're doing such a great job.
00:00:22.000 God bless them.
00:00:23.000 Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:25.000 We have a couple of guests.
00:00:27.000 We have Pastor Jürgen and Pastor Russell Johnson.
00:00:30.000 If you go to a church and your church is not speaking out, this is the episode for you.
00:00:35.000 And I think it will really hopefully compel you to speak out more boldly or have your pastor speak out more boldly, especially for such a time as this.
00:00:45.000 Subscribe to our podcast.
00:00:46.000 Open up your podcast app and type in Charlie Kirk's show and support the Charlie Kirk Show.
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00:00:56.000 I want to thank Brian from Colorado.
00:00:59.000 Thank you.
00:00:59.000 Marshall from Oregon.
00:01:01.000 Thank you.
00:01:01.000 Jennifer from New Jersey.
00:01:03.000 David from Arizona.
00:01:04.000 And Cynthia from Arizona.
00:01:05.000 CharlieKirk.com slash support.
00:01:09.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:01:10.000 Here we go.
00:01:11.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:01:13.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:01:15.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:01:18.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:01:21.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:01:22.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:01:24.000 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.
00:01:32.000 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.
00:01:41.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:44.000 Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at AndrewandTodd.com.
00:01:52.000 We are live here in Nashville, Tennessee for our TPUSA Faith Pastor Summit.
00:01:57.000 Joining us now is Russell Johnson.
00:01:58.000 Again, welcome back to the program.
00:02:00.000 Hey, thanks so much for having me.
00:02:01.000 I think I told you this.
00:02:02.000 I first became aware of you in your videos.
00:02:04.000 My wife saw your stuff on Instagram.
00:02:05.000 She's like, you got to get involved in this funny.
00:02:07.000 So she's a big fan, and I am too.
00:02:10.000 And it's kind of, I got to be very honest with you.
00:02:12.000 If you were to just kind of stereotype, you're not supposed to do it.
00:02:14.000 You look like a wokey. 1.00
00:02:15.000 But you talk like a based biblical.
00:02:17.000 So you got to explain that one to me.
00:02:19.000 Well, listen, we're in Seattle.
00:02:21.000 So there are still a few believers left in Seattle, Washington.
00:02:25.000 And we're in the belly of the beast with a tip of the spear in the Northwest.
00:02:29.000 And we're having a lot of fun causing a lot of trouble.
00:02:32.000 But yeah, you know, we're going for it.
00:02:34.000 In fact, I was just on the phone with the Seattle Times this morning.
00:02:37.000 We're getting ready to take out a full-page ad next month to celebrate Roe v. Wade being aware of.
00:02:42.000 Oh, wow.
00:02:42.000 Praise God.
00:02:43.000 We're going to be doing that in the Seattle Times.
00:02:45.000 And we just have fun harassing everybody in the Northwest.
00:02:49.000 So, yeah, I mean, look, you're in an ideological, theological, and spiritual minority in the Northwest.
00:02:55.000 There's some great people there.
00:02:57.000 But, you know, I hear from pastors all the time.
00:02:59.000 They say, I can't speak out on these issues.
00:03:00.000 It's too controversial.
00:03:02.000 How do you navigate that?
00:03:03.000 Because I'm sure there's always somebody in your ear, positive, negative, somewhere in the middle.
00:03:07.000 I mean, it isn't, you've decided to not take the easy way, but the biblical way forward.
00:03:12.000 How and why did you come to that decision?
00:03:14.000 You know, the Apostle Paul calls the church the pillar of truth in society.
00:03:18.000 And so it's my conviction that when the church loses her voice, the world loses her mind.
00:03:23.000 And that is evident in our world and in our culture today.
00:03:27.000 And so for me, I just refuse to buy into kind of the ideological narrative that the church best serves society by blending in, not rocking the boat, not saying anything controversial.
00:03:38.000 God forbid, we got to protect our platform and our influence.
00:03:41.000 And, you know, the net result of that is we actually do a disservice to the people that, you know, we're called the reach and we're called the shepherd and steward.
00:03:48.000 So, you know, for me, there's a battle going on for worldview, and it requires competent people to speak in both an intellectual, but also an unashamed and unafraid way to address some of these cultural issues.
00:04:00.000 And, you know, if we don't speak up now, we're going to find ourselves, you know, really, like Reagan said, one generation away from losing the freedom and the values that we enjoy here in this part of the world.
00:04:10.000 So what I maybe you can help navigate it.
00:04:13.000 Why is it most pastors don't have the clarity that you have on this?
00:04:16.000 Most pastors are silent.
00:04:17.000 They're unwilling to talk about anything.
00:04:19.000 I mean, for example, the fact you have the boldness and the courage, say, I'm going to send out a full-page advertisement in the Seattle Times celebrating, thanking God for his intervention in our land, which I believe was a miracle and was a divine intervention to give us grace so the unborn can live.
00:04:35.000 I'm sure you have a lot of pastor friends that disagree with your approach.
00:04:38.000 Can you just give me a little bit of insight of what their argument is?
00:04:43.000 Yeah, I think, you know, for some folks, you know, they have developed an entire value system around being liked by people who don't share their values.
00:04:50.000 And then they have made that kind of the ultimate apex of what success looks like.
00:04:56.000 Success in the pulpit looks like being liked and affirmed by people who don't share our values.
00:05:01.000 And I'm not trying to go around and intentionally be disliked.
00:05:03.000 I mean, nobody likes to be disliked.
00:05:05.000 I mean, you're disliked more, you know, in this position than maybe you've ever been in your entire life.
00:05:09.000 But the reality is, is that you have to, you've got to, you've got to crucify your need to be liked by people who don't share your values.
00:05:18.000 And so for me, like the altar we bow at is not influence.
00:05:21.000 The altar we bow at is truth.
00:05:23.000 And I felt like the Lord spoke to me and he said, if you will be a truth teller and if you will guard your heart, I will guard your influence.
00:05:30.000 And so we've got to get the order of operations right as it pertains to our role as ministers in the nation.
00:05:36.000 And so for me, it's my conviction that if I will do and be what God has asked me to do and be, then he'll open doors no man can close and he will establish my way.
00:05:48.000 Scripture says, if you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of the Lord, he will promote you in due time.
00:05:51.000 God's promotion is permanent. 0.90
00:05:53.000 Man's promotion is temporary.
00:05:55.000 And so for me, it's just like, it doesn't matter how much influence you have if you're not willing to use it on stuff that matters.
00:06:02.000 And the devil doesn't care how big your church is as long as you stay inside of it.
00:06:06.000 And so for me, I'm like, what are we here to do?
00:06:10.000 I'm trying to make a dent on the world around me.
00:06:12.000 The culture is going to hell in a handbasket.
00:06:15.000 And the church is the canary in the coal mine of culture.
00:06:19.000 And if we don't find the strength and the resilience to be voices that point people in the right direction, then we are nothing more than echoes of whatever culture's most popular heresy is.
00:06:31.000 And I just refuse to do that.
00:06:32.000 Well, praise God for your courage and your conviction on that.
00:06:36.000 How has this been received from your congregation?
00:06:40.000 Yeah, you know, during COVID, we made a decision to stay open.
00:06:45.000 The attorney general came after us.
00:06:46.000 The governor came after us.
00:06:48.000 Labor and industries came after us.
00:06:49.000 They said, we're going to lock you up in jail for 90 days.
00:06:51.000 We're going to find you, do all these types of things.
00:06:53.000 You know, we decided that Caesar is not the head of the church.
00:06:56.000 Christ is.
00:06:58.000 And it was that conviction that led the church to grow about 6X in like 18 months.
00:07:04.000 And so we went from a church of 500 to a church of 3,500.
00:07:08.000 And so, you know, at the same time, we've lost a lot of people on the way to it.
00:07:13.000 We've gained more than we've lost.
00:07:14.000 But I think that there are, you know, people that are in the region who are looking to be a part of something that was bold, audacious, and unapologetic in our approach to the public square of civic engagement.
00:07:25.000 And so, you know, we've got a lot of folks who have come out of the woodwork to say, hey, we're with you.
00:07:31.000 We're cheering you on.
00:07:32.000 At the same time, some of the most resistance that we have gotten have not been from secularists.
00:07:36.000 No, no, no.
00:07:37.000 It's been from religious folks.
00:07:39.000 Yeah, so let's go through.
00:07:40.000 Sorry to interrupt.
00:07:41.000 Can you just go through one or two of the top objections you get from other religious folks?
00:07:44.000 This is helpful for our audience to hear and how we should respond to that.
00:07:48.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:07:49.000 You know, I think that the probably top objection we get is: well, if we were just more winsome, and if you were just nicer, and if we would just kind of play it safe, and you don't have to say things the way that you say them, we don't have to comment on the issues of pro-life, LGBTQ plus, so on and so forth.
00:08:08.000 If you would just package this in a less abrasive, non-offensive way, you know, we'd be able to win more people.
00:08:15.000 But I think oftentimes people are making that commentary based on a cultural era that is no longer existing in the West.
00:08:23.000 You know, this is not the Sunday school generation of the 80s.
00:08:26.000 This is not the evangelical generation of the 90s.
00:08:29.000 This is an all-out ideological cultural conflict for the future of the nation.
00:08:35.000 And so for me, I'm just like, yeah, you know, of course, you use wisdom in the way that you say things.
00:08:40.000 And of course, you know, you want to cast a wide net and bring in as many people as possible.
00:08:45.000 But the reality is, is that if our value system is built around the idea of every time the boat is rocked, something must be wrong, then what you develop is a bunch of people who are scared to death of their own shadows.
00:09:02.000 They never say what's right.
00:09:03.000 They never step out.
00:09:04.000 They never give voice to some of the crucial cultural moments.
00:09:07.000 And in doing so, what happens is our people go underdeveloped.
00:09:12.000 And we actually wreak havoc.
00:09:14.000 Silence in the pulpit is dysfunction in the pews.
00:09:18.000 Dysfunction in the pews is chaos in the culture.
00:09:20.000 We are in that moment now.
00:09:23.000 And so I'm just not willing to, you know, for the sake of being winsome, you know, not tell the truth.
00:09:29.000 I just, I just refuse to do that.
00:09:30.000 Yeah, look, and there's a shallow, there's a shallowness to that if you don't speak out on it.
00:09:35.000 And again, we can name names on it.
00:09:37.000 And kind of the, I actually, I love your take on it if you've seen it or not, this Hellsong thing on Hulu, where, you know, I'm not a fan of Carl Lenson at all.
00:09:46.000 But I actually think some of the, if you actually, have you seen it?
00:09:48.000 Have you seen it?
00:09:49.000 No, I haven't yet.
00:09:49.000 No.
00:09:50.000 But part of it is that they think that the church wasn't woke enough.
00:09:52.000 That was Hulu's whole thing, is that they didn't go far.
00:09:54.000 It's hilarious because they're obviously one of the woker places.
00:09:57.000 But there's almost an expectation from the culture that if you're even going to be a church, we're not going to attack.
00:10:02.000 You have to be full BLM, full LGBT, full trans, full whole thing. 0.89
00:10:05.000 They're never going to like you.
00:10:07.000 So stop trying to win them over, right?
00:10:09.000 You have to follow the word.
00:10:10.000 I want to talk about that because I feel, and again, we have an audience that is very engaged and very communicative and unbelievably honest.
00:10:17.000 And they call me out when I'm not as precise as I should be in my language or whatever I'm doing, is there is a hunger.
00:10:23.000 Would you agree that I've never seen the church population congregation so hungry for truth?
00:10:29.000 And I think there's a famine happening right now.
00:10:32.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:10:32.000 You know, it reminds me of the era in which Samuel lived, where scripture says the word of the Lord was rare.
00:10:39.000 And people are starving for somebody who will just be bold enough to tell the truth.
00:10:44.000 In a culture built on lies, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
00:10:50.000 And we are committed to being revolutionaries in this era.
00:10:54.000 And that requires you to be able to tell the truth.
00:10:56.000 And the reality is, is that culture is always going to have another heresy and another sound, another hashtag, another flag that you must bow at to gain their approval.
00:11:07.000 This slippery slope is proved to be true, especially on the social issues.
00:11:13.000 If you want to bow on the BLM, that's not enough.
00:11:15.000 You want to bow on the LGBT, it's not enough. 1.00
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00:11:58.000 Now I know two good churches in Snohomish, Washington.
00:12:01.000 Is it called the House?
00:12:04.000 There's the rock.
00:12:06.000 The house, the rock, the shack.
00:12:07.000 Yeah, you know, there's a couple different things.
00:12:08.000 Good guy there.
00:12:09.000 And then your church pursuit Northwest, which is great.
00:12:12.000 Okay, so are you preaching in Sodom or Nineveh?
00:12:14.000 Man, you know, it's week to week, a little bit of both.
00:12:17.000 You know, I mean, I'm hoping for Nineveh in the sense that there's a saves the city. 0.66
00:12:22.000 That's what we all want.
00:12:24.000 You know, but Seattle and Portland are in a competition on who can be, you know, more leftist and broke and dysfunctional.
00:12:32.000 And so, you know, depending on the week and what legislation they pass, it's an ever-growing challenge there in the Northwest.
00:12:39.000 So you're going to be speaking here at our pastors conference, TPUSA Faith, here in Nashville.
00:12:44.000 You're going to be speaking to pastors that agree with you, pastors that need more encouragement, and then some pastors that are not yet speaking out.
00:12:52.000 What is your message going to be?
00:12:53.000 What are you planning on sharing?
00:12:54.000 Yeah, you know, for me, I think we need to reframe our pastoral roles in light of scripture and in light of historical moments by which God has used members of the clergy to stand up, speak to some of these great cultural issues, and in doing so, shift the spiritual landscape of the nation.
00:13:12.000 You know, in the midst of a lot of darkness that's happening in our nation, there are bright spots of moves of God, revivals, reformations, things that are happening that are really incredible.
00:13:20.000 And so I haven't lost hope by any means.
00:13:23.000 But my encouragement to some of these pastors and leaders is that really the church in America functions as the neck of the nation.
00:13:30.000 And as the church goes, so goes the culture.
00:13:33.000 And so for me, it's like I want to encourage people to begin to see themselves in light of the scriptural authority that they have to help instruct, teach, develop, and disciple this nation.
00:13:44.000 And in doing so, take that role seriously because it has never been more crucial than it is right now.
00:13:50.000 Yeah, and so there's, so some Christians say, but this world is not our home.
00:13:54.000 Why should we even care?
00:13:56.000 Yeah, you know, and I think that type of like fatalist eschatology has led us to some of the problems that we have today.
00:14:02.000 And so really, you got two choices.
00:14:04.000 You can build a bunker.
00:14:05.000 You can buy a bunch of canned food.
00:14:07.000 Which you should do at mypatriotsupply.com, but that's a separate.
00:14:10.000 That's a sponsor.
00:14:11.000 But anyways, you know, you can live in a bunker and try to outlast and wait for the apocalypse, or you could operate with a mandate that as long as I got breath in my lungs, I've got purpose here on the earth.
00:14:22.000 And so, you know, we have this kind of redemptive mandate is for the redemption of regions and cities.
00:14:28.000 And I believe that when a church prospers, a city can prosper.
00:14:32.000 And so, you know, I know that there is a blessed hope and there is a reality beyond this place.
00:14:36.000 And yes, we are citizens of heaven, but we have responsibility and authority below.
00:14:41.000 And so Jesus tells the disciples, all authority I have given you.
00:14:44.000 Now go and make disciples of all nations.
00:14:46.000 And so for me, there's a reason why you didn't immediately die when you got born again and go to heaven.
00:14:51.000 You were left here on earth for purpose, with purpose to do something.
00:14:55.000 So I'm not just going to complain about the darkness around me.
00:14:57.000 I'm going to do something, light a candle, spread the truth.
00:15:01.000 And ultimately, when you get people born again, when you get people spirit-filled, when you get people on track in their relationship with Christ, watch how it transforms their decision-making process, their ability to engage in public policy, the way that they think about issues they're framing.
00:15:15.000 If we can win the war for worldview, getting people born again, watch how that will have a downstream effect on all of these issues that we talk about in culture.
00:15:24.000 Final thought here.
00:15:26.000 Somebody's in the audience and say, wow, I wish my pastor was as courageous as Russell.
00:15:30.000 What advice do you have for people attending churches to influence their pastor?
00:15:34.000 What is persuasive to pastors?
00:15:36.000 Yeah, you know, for me, engaging them in dialogue and then being able to use case examples, because I think a lot of pastors are scared to death.
00:15:45.000 Like, if I speak out on this, I'm going to lose the little that I have left.
00:15:49.000 And hey, we're barely hanging on.
00:15:51.000 We're barely making budget.
00:15:52.000 The church is declining.
00:15:53.000 And if I position myself in a more controversial fashion, you know, I could lose what I have left.
00:15:59.000 And, you know, for me, it's that type of kind of defeatist mentality that keeps people silent.
00:16:05.000 It keeps people held back.
00:16:06.000 It keeps people reserved.
00:16:07.000 And so, you know, one of the things that I love about what God is doing in the Pacific Northwest is it's proof.
00:16:11.000 If God can do it in Seattle, he can do it anywhere.
00:16:14.000 And so if God can see it fit to raise up a church filled with young and old alike, led by a pastoral team of people who are unafraid to speak out on these cultural issues, if it can work in the Northwest, I promise you it can work anywhere.
00:16:29.000 And so, you know, I love the idea that the church that I lead has, in one sense, become like an encouragement and an example to other churches and other communities around the nation who are saying, hey, you know what?
00:16:41.000 Actually, if we speak out on this, I think God will honor us and I think God will bless it.
00:16:44.000 You're doing six services now?
00:16:46.000 Yeah, we are.
00:16:46.000 Yeah, we're doing six.
00:16:47.000 We're about to add a seventh.
00:16:48.000 And so don't burn out, man.
00:16:49.000 That's true.
00:16:51.000 You got to stay, you know, you got to stay, make sure you have endurance for the race.
00:16:56.000 So, I mean, hundreds of people at each service.
00:16:59.000 Is that where you're at now?
00:17:00.000 Yeah, you know, we were run about 3,000 on the weekend and it's just, you know, it's just growing.
00:17:04.000 You're now one of the biggest churches in Seattle at those numbers, if I'm not mistaken.
00:17:08.000 You're right up there.
00:17:08.000 Praise God.
00:17:09.000 Well, I hope to visit one day.
00:17:11.000 Look forward to your message here.
00:17:11.000 You do a great job.
00:17:12.000 Thank you for being here, man.
00:17:13.000 Thanks, Bob.
00:17:14.000 God bless you.
00:17:16.000 I want to tell you guys about something every single one of you can benefit from, and you guys need to change.
00:17:22.000 It's who we use when we go to get mortgages.
00:17:24.000 Look, I balance a lot of stuff.
00:17:26.000 I'm traveling all the time, my show, and I recently needed to get a mortgage to get something figured out.
00:17:31.000 And it was a tough one.
00:17:32.000 And I didn't want to go to those woke banks. 0.98
00:17:34.000 I, you know, I did previous, my last mortgage we did, it was with a woke bank, and they were just, they were bureaucratic and they donate the BLM and the gay agenda and all that stuff. 0.94
00:17:44.000 And I said, what can I do to actually, and I said, of course, duh, hello, andrewandtodd.com.
00:17:50.000 They're Christian.
00:17:51.000 They're conservative.
00:17:52.000 Our worldviews are aligned.
00:17:53.000 They're fabulous people.
00:17:54.000 When I needed a mortgage, of course, I went to my friends, Andrew Delray and Todd of Aiken at Sierra Pacific.
00:18:01.000 And look, there's the first time I used them because, you know, we were just recently started doing stuff on the show and partners.
00:18:06.000 I said, okay, let's see how it is.
00:18:07.000 You know, we do a lot of things together.
00:18:08.000 It's blown away.
00:18:09.000 They respond within minutes.
00:18:11.000 They walk me through everything.
00:18:12.000 They took care of all those details I didn't have time for.
00:18:14.000 And I said, boy, guys, I now see how great you guys actually are.
00:18:18.000 Responsive.
00:18:19.000 And yes, no more of this woke stuff.
00:18:21.000 Stop using the woke banks.
00:18:23.000 Oh, I want to refinance my home and I'm going to go to a bank that hates me.
00:18:26.000 Stop doing that.
00:18:27.000 Instead, go to andrewandod.com.
00:18:29.000 So if you or someone you know is moving from blue states to red states, androidtodd.com.
00:18:33.000 Have an aging family member that needs financial relief because you may be a reverse mortgage, andrewandodd.com.
00:18:39.000 Are you self-employed and finding it hard to qualify?
00:18:42.000 Or first-time homebuyer?
00:18:43.000 AndrewandTodd.com.
00:18:45.000 Again, what I love, again, I'm just friends with them.
00:18:47.000 So I could tell you, I have no other reason to say this except that it's true.
00:18:51.000 They're fabulous.
00:18:52.000 They work hard.
00:18:53.000 We go out to dinner together.
00:18:54.000 They're great people.
00:18:55.000 So don't depend on those woke banks, the big banks.
00:18:58.000 They do a terrible job, by the way.
00:19:00.000 They're funding all the destructive stuff.
00:19:01.000 They want centralized bank digital currency.
00:19:03.000 They're all part of the great reset.
00:19:04.000 This is a group of guys.
00:19:05.000 They do a great job.
00:19:07.000 And stop depending on woke banks for what I needed.
00:19:10.000 I saw it firsthand.
00:19:11.000 They got it done for me.
00:19:13.000 And it was very complicated.
00:19:14.000 It was a ficket.
00:19:15.000 It was a maze.
00:19:16.000 It was a labyrinth.
00:19:17.000 And they said, oh, you got to do this and this.
00:19:18.000 And I'll make this phone call.
00:19:19.000 We'll do this and this paperwork.
00:19:20.000 And again, these other banks that I deal with, it's like, here's 955,000 pages to sign and they don't call you back and they don't work weekends.
00:19:28.000 I had a problem with one of the things on the process because it was one thing that wasn't filled out.
00:19:32.000 And they respond on a Sunday within minutes.
00:19:34.000 You're trying to get a response from a woke bank on a Sunday.
00:19:36.000 You'll say, sorry, no response.
00:19:39.000 So check it out.
00:19:39.000 It's AndrewandTodd.com, AAA, 888, 1172.
00:19:43.000 That's how you call them and say, Charlie Kirk sent you.
00:19:45.000 You might actually get them on the phone.
00:19:47.000 Again, they're value-aligned, honest, trustworthy, wonderful people.
00:19:51.000 I use them.
00:19:52.000 You should use them too.
00:19:53.000 Super responsive, blown away.
00:19:55.000 And I could say, if they're good for me, they're good for you.
00:19:57.000 Love these guys.
00:19:58.000 AndrewandTodd.com, 888, 888, 1172.
00:20:01.000 And finally, some of you might say, oh, Charlie, bad time to buy a home.
00:20:05.000 I don't know about that.
00:20:07.000 You should look what's happening.
00:20:08.000 Commercial real estate is one thing.
00:20:10.000 Private single-family home ownership, it might actually stabilize and go up in the next year.
00:20:16.000 If you're young, it might be the time to get in.
00:20:19.000 Think about it, pray about it.
00:20:20.000 But most importantly, go to AndrewandTodd.com for all your mortgage needs.
00:20:23.000 Great guys, AndrewandTodd.com.
00:20:28.000 Joining us now is Pastor Jürgen, who is the man behind Awaken in San Diego and now in Idaho and Utah.
00:20:35.000 So Jürgen, you were saying in the break that you guys are growing so fast and you ignored all the advice.
00:20:39.000 Tell us about it.
00:20:40.000 Yeah, it was so funny.
00:20:41.000 It's literally when people say, How have you grown?
00:20:45.000 Like we were five campuses in 2020 with about 6,000 people showing up on a Sunday.
00:20:53.000 And then when the lockdowns shut down, everything, you know, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, like you name it, when all of that hit, we took a biblical position and lost probably 95% of our friendships, relationships in the ministry circle.
00:21:10.000 People would, you know, it was close to begging us to not be strong, not be open, not stand for biblical values, take the safe road.
00:21:20.000 This is no time.
00:21:21.000 It's a pandemic.
00:21:22.000 It's an epidemic.
00:21:24.000 The nation is divided.
00:21:25.000 It's crazy.
00:21:27.000 And so we did the exact opposite.
00:21:29.000 We literally felt like because, you know, I grew up, my dad was an atheist.
00:21:34.000 So I had an encounter with God, and I just knew I couldn't forsake him in this time.
00:21:40.000 So I said, you know what?
00:21:41.000 And I said to my staff, I said to my wife and my team, I said, we may lose everything, but I cannot back up from the God who has stood with me through thick and thin all these years.
00:21:54.000 And so we stayed open.
00:21:57.000 We preached truth.
00:21:58.000 We preached, we lost some people, but we gained people.
00:22:01.000 So today we have nine campuses.
00:22:03.000 Unbelievable.
00:22:04.000 12 to 14,000 people coming.
00:22:07.000 We had 16,000 people at Easter.
00:22:10.000 It's just crazy.
00:22:11.000 It's just what God is doing.
00:22:12.000 Bigger than you could ever imagine, right?
00:22:14.000 Beyond.
00:22:14.000 And I can tell you, I speak at a lot of churches, and I divide churches between the healthy and the unhealthy.
00:22:19.000 Awaken is one of the healthiest churches.
00:22:21.000 They're engaged.
00:22:22.000 The spirit is there.
00:22:24.000 They're committed to the word.
00:22:25.000 They love on people.
00:22:26.000 Jesus is the center of it all.
00:22:28.000 It's a great church.
00:22:29.000 And Jürgen, so let's go back to that period of time.
00:22:31.000 Not only was it the lockdown pressure, but it was also the wokey pressure, right?
00:22:34.000 Of Floyd Apalooza and that racial nonsense. 0.99
00:22:37.000 I think you had me speak that summer, if I'm not mistaken.
00:22:41.000 No mass, no social distancing, none of that.
00:22:43.000 And we were talking about CRT and all this.
00:22:45.000 And it was really received well.
00:22:47.000 Jürgen, our audience is very engaged.
00:22:50.000 And I'm sensing from the American church, the population, the congregation, a huge hunger.
00:22:56.000 And they're not being fed.
00:22:57.000 Most of their pastors are not feeding them.
00:22:59.000 And yet what you're saying, Jürgen, is that you stood out and you've been blessed because of doing everything people told you not to do.
00:23:05.000 Yeah, it's amazing.
00:23:07.000 You know, the Bible says, and it's in 1 Samuel chapter 2, that God will honor those who honor him.
00:23:16.000 And because we honor God, the whole mess of the world goes all the way back to Genesis 3.
00:23:23.000 Has God really said?
00:23:25.000 And when Eve kind of bought into and then introduced Adam into that, everything got divided.
00:23:30.000 So everything is a theology war.
00:23:32.000 Has God said or has God really said?
00:23:36.000 So I love when Jesus came because Jesus just doubles down on the devil.
00:23:39.000 First temptation doubles down.
00:23:41.000 You know, hey, if you're the son of God, turn these stones into bread and I love Jesus.
00:23:45.000 He goes, Let me just tell you something.
00:23:47.000 It's written.
00:23:47.000 He doesn't even say God has said.
00:23:49.000 He says, Let me tell you, you know who you're speaking to?
00:23:52.000 You're speaking to a Jew. 0.99
00:23:53.000 You know who we are.
00:23:54.000 We're the people that didn't just believe what God said, but we wrote it down in the Torah, the Tanukh, and we meditate on it.
00:24:00.000 According to Deuteronomy to Satan, yes.
00:24:02.000 He quoted Deuteronomy.
00:24:04.000 And then he says, Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds.
00:24:08.000 In other words, I ain't moving unless God speaks.
00:24:10.000 And so we literally just took that kind of position that people right now are confused.
00:24:16.000 They're wondering, has God really said, you know, that race does not exist in the Bible.
00:24:23.000 The Bible talks about nations, talks about peoples, but the Bible says that God has made all peoples from one blood.
00:24:28.000 So there's no such thing as racism or race in the Bible.
00:24:32.000 That God has made all people from one blood. 0.95
00:24:35.000 And so we just took biblical, we just kept standing biblical, standing biblical.
00:24:39.000 And we found that we needed to.
00:24:41.000 The chaos, the confusion, the fear, the angst.
00:24:46.000 And we found that as we stood strong, yes, the first wave was persecution, but after that, it was freedom, it was deliverance, it was salvation.
00:24:56.000 You know, we had 31 people in 2019 in our drug, alcohol, porn recovery program.
00:25:03.000 In 2020, with the lockdowns, it went from 31 to 380 people just because people weren't doing well isolated.
00:25:12.000 People weren't doing well separated.
00:25:13.000 First thing God said wasn't good, man, to be alone.
00:25:16.000 So we found that if we side with God, it's amazing how God sided with us.
00:25:21.000 And so, Jürgen, you're definitely in the minority, right, of most pastors.
00:25:27.000 We have a pastor summit here, and it's going to be different groups of people.
00:25:32.000 There's some people that are not yet speaking out, some people that are speaking out quite a lot.
00:25:36.000 And so we have to get more pastors to speak out, though, right?
00:25:39.000 Jürgen, how do we do that?
00:25:41.000 At this point, if they're still not speaking out, I'm perplexed at what it's going to take.
00:25:46.000 Yeah.
00:25:47.000 And again, Charlie, first of all, I love you.
00:25:50.000 Thank you for you.
00:25:52.000 Thank God for Erica.
00:25:53.000 Thank God for your beautiful little princess.
00:25:56.000 Thank God for Turning Point.
00:25:57.000 Thank you for Turning Point Faith.
00:25:59.000 There's over 1,100 pastors who are going to be here.
00:26:01.000 It's the biggest in the country that we know.
00:26:04.000 Biggest in the country.
00:26:05.000 And I think that there's an awakening definitely happening.
00:26:09.000 And, you know, I would just say that where we are today is the result of the last two decades.
00:26:17.000 Over the last two decades, we, as the church, really switched out a discipleship mantra, an empowering of people, a standing against, or standing up for truth, standing against the spirit of the world.
00:26:33.000 What we did was, hey, Jesus is coming back.
00:26:35.000 It could be by 2020.
00:26:37.000 You know, the Y2K thing, everything's going to collapse. 1.00
00:26:40.000 Jesus is probably going to come back.
00:26:41.000 So let's just do away with discipleship and let's just do everything we can to get people saved.
00:26:47.000 And then what happened is we began to, the church began to ask itself, well, hang on, what's keeping people from getting saved?
00:26:53.000 Well, you speak out on abortion or you speak out against homosexuality or you speak out against this. 0.55
00:26:58.000 And so we, so the church began to remove all these things.
00:27:01.000 So we thought, and then we had, you know, the pop-up churches and literally some of these churches, it's like, you know, you don't even need God.
00:27:08.000 You know, you just need clever marketing, a really slick logo, you know, a great team, a beautiful haircut, CrossFit.
00:27:14.000 CrossFit always helped.
00:27:16.000 And you could have this pop-up church, but they were powerless churches.
00:27:20.000 And I think what happened in 2020, the church got caught with its pants down because she had no power.
00:27:28.000 She had no answers.
00:27:31.000 One of the most powerful stories is when the Queen of Sheba comes to Solomon.
00:27:36.000 And the Bible says, When she came and she saw the house that he had built, the entryway by which he went up from his house into the house of the Lord, when she saw the seating of the servants and their apparel, there was no more spirit in her.
00:27:50.000 And the Bible says she tested Solomon with hard questions, and there was nothing so difficult that he could not answer her.
00:27:57.000 And then she responds and she says, You know, what I heard in my country, I didn't believe, but truly the half of it was not told me.
00:28:05.000 Your excellent, blessed is your God.
00:28:07.000 And she gives him an offering, like an honorarium.
00:28:11.000 It's about between six and a half and seven billion in today's terms because she was so blown away.
00:28:16.000 In fact, she then takes Judaism back to Ethiopia. 0.85
00:28:20.000 And to this day, there's Ethiopian Jews.
00:28:23.000 Ethiopian Jews because of that encounter.
00:28:25.000 But what I love about that, Charlie, was when she came to the house of God, every difficult question that the world couldn't answer, the house of God answered.
00:28:35.000 And I think in 2020, what we got caught because we'd so backed up, so lowered the bar, so diluted the gospel that we had no answers.
00:28:43.000 We had no answers for gender reassignment, we had no answer for gender dysphoria, we had no answer for, you know, when does life begin and should we stand up for it? 0.79
00:28:51.000 We had no gender for all the LGBTQ and what if a man feels like he's born in the wrong body and you know, if a man identifies as a woman, can he follow a little child into it? 0.99
00:28:59.000 And so, and the church was just silent.
00:29:01.000 The church was like fearful and afraid.
00:29:03.000 And God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, so he cannot bless fear.
00:29:07.000 He blesses courage.
00:29:09.000 He says to Joshua, you know, three times, be strong and courageous, then you will divide, then you'll enter, then you'll conquer.
00:29:16.000 And the fearful churches are falling apart and they can't keep their doors open.
00:29:20.000 Yeah.
00:29:20.000 And so I want to talk about this article here.
00:29:22.000 I love it.
00:29:23.000 Rollingstone.com.
00:29:24.000 Charlie Kirk's turning point pivots to Christian nationalism.
00:29:27.000 They do call us a right-wing powerhouse.
00:29:29.000 Jürgen, what do you make of this?
00:29:30.000 You know what?
00:29:32.000 It's the scream of a very, very frightened devil.
00:29:36.000 So the great thing about this article, Charlie, is you have the devil afraid.
00:29:41.000 Because what they're trying to say, and who gives them the measure?
00:29:47.000 So when you read through the Bible, Charlie, it's only ever angels that have measuring rods.
00:29:53.000 If you read through the book of Ezekiel, book of Revelation, angels measure, angels measure.
00:29:57.000 Why angels?
00:29:58.000 Because they're not prone to corruption like humans.
00:30:02.000 So why would I let Rolling Stone, why would I let the spirit of the world tell me what I should and shouldn't preach?
00:30:10.000 So let me just say this: Christian nationalism, what they're saying is, hey, listen, you guys should only preach about heaven. 0.52
00:30:16.000 Heaven is secured.
00:30:18.000 If you die, heaven's a guarantee.
00:30:20.000 Or if you live and Jesus splits the sky, heaven's a guarantee.
00:30:23.000 But the earth, Satan says that the earth belongs to him.
00:30:26.000 He's a prince of this world.
00:30:27.000 Exactly.
00:30:28.000 And the contention is for the earth.
00:30:29.000 The contention is for our cities.
00:30:31.000 It's for our schools.
00:30:32.000 It's for the people that live here.
00:30:34.000 The battle is in the earth.
00:30:35.000 So Jesus says, you know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:30:40.000 Revelation says that Michael threw Satan out of heaven and now he's in the earth and woe to the inhabitants of the earth and see.
00:30:48.000 But we're meant to on earth as it is in heaven.
00:30:50.000 We're meant to drive the devil out of every college, every high school, of you know, every facet of society out of our government, out of our Congress, out of our Senate, out of our FBI, DOJ, wherever we recognize the devil, our job would be given authority, drive him out so that people can come out of darkness.
00:31:08.000 I was saying to one of my pastors, Pastor Samuel, I said, the reason we need to do this is because people are in darkness.
00:31:14.000 And if we don't preach the word, the word is light.
00:31:17.000 Thy word is a lamp and a light unto my.
00:31:19.000 If we don't preach the light, people are going to be in the darkness.
00:31:22.000 And in the darkness, people make terrible choices.
00:31:25.000 We need to preach the light.
00:31:26.000 We are hated for it, but that's what this is all about.
00:31:28.000 And I'm so proud of you.
00:31:29.000 Thank you.
00:31:29.000 And we know that this conference, this pastor's conference, is going to change lives, God willing.
00:31:36.000 It says here they are kicking off.
00:31:39.000 This is the Rolling Stone article.
00:31:41.000 TPSA kicks off another Christian nationalist party this week, hosting its second annual pastor summit in Nashville, Tennessee, that touts the aim of equipping and empowering both pastors and their churches to stand for biblical truth.
00:31:52.000 Continues by saying that I want to read this one quote for you in particular, Jürgen, because I've been looking for it here.
00:32:02.000 Most of this is just kind of the typical nonsense.
00:32:08.000 They pick, or they want to say, ah, here it is.
00:32:11.000 You ready?
00:32:13.000 The focus on fundamentalism represents a clear and present danger to democracy.
00:32:19.000 Jürgen, your reaction.
00:32:22.000 Oh, my gosh.
00:32:23.000 It's like whenever they disagree or whenever they're, whenever truth enters, truth is a threat to democracy.
00:32:32.000 I mean, every time we watch the Democrats, especially on the news media, anything that is truth, you know, wanting to defund or do a deep dive into the FBI, DOJ, it's a threat to democracy.
00:32:46.000 People protesting a stolen election, threat to democracy.
00:32:49.000 So I actually take that as another compliment.
00:32:52.000 But what they're afraid of is they're afraid of people seeing the truth.
00:32:57.000 Jesus says, you know, you shall know the truth, and the truth that you know shall set you free.
00:33:04.000 Satan's entire kingdom works on lies.
00:33:08.000 And a lie can only exist in a vacuum of truth.
00:33:12.000 When the truth comes, it not only exposes the lie, but it dissolves the lie.
00:33:17.000 And the reason that this spirit, it's an antichrist spirit, is so threatened and claims that it's a threat to democracy is because Satan has so many people bound today with all kinds of perversions and confusions.
00:33:32.000 Whereas when the truth comes, light comes, clarity comes, and freedom comes.
00:33:36.000 The reason that we preach the truth isn't because, like, you know, they try and say, oh, Awakened Church spreads hate.
00:33:41.000 We had this Christmas production down at the Radies.
00:33:41.000 And it was amazing.
00:33:45.000 It's an amazing story.
00:33:46.000 It's an amazing story.
00:33:47.000 And we had, you know, the LGBTQ crowd come up with these banners, you know, Awakened spreads hate.
00:33:53.000 And they're waving the banners with the songs.
00:33:55.000 And then the banners came down, and all our people are loving on them, giving them drinks.
00:33:59.000 And they ended up disbanding halfway through and leaving because it's the exact opposite's true.
00:34:04.000 But basically, what they've been told is because we preach truth, we must therefore be a threat to democracy.
00:34:10.000 But what happens is when we preach truth, people get free.
00:34:14.000 People get free.
00:34:15.000 You cannot have freedom without truth.
00:34:17.000 In closing here, Jürgen, you're a Donald Trump supporter.
00:34:20.000 Yes, sir.
00:34:21.000 And you are a pastor?
00:34:22.000 Yep.
00:34:23.000 Riff on it.
00:34:24.000 Tell us why.
00:34:26.000 Can I do the real honest?
00:34:28.000 Of course.
00:34:29.000 I can.
00:34:30.000 Hit it hard.
00:34:30.000 The real honest is Donald Trump is David.
00:34:34.000 Donald Trump is the David today.
00:34:37.000 He's the Lord's anointed for such a time as this.
00:34:41.000 And people, you know, got, oh, well, you know, the mean tweets and all that kind of stuff.
00:34:44.000 Right now, we're in a time of war.
00:34:46.000 America has never been under an attack like she's under right now.
00:34:50.000 We don't need a peacetime president. 0.74
00:34:52.000 We need a wartime president. 0.58
00:34:54.000 Donald Trump, when you look at his track record, the end of Roe v. Wade, that was initiated and empowered by Donald Trump.
00:35:04.000 The championing of the church and the local church, Donald Trump.
00:35:08.000 Freedom, Liberty, America great again.
00:35:10.000 So I honestly see Donald Trump as a gift from God sent from God for such a time as this.
00:35:17.000 He's under a Davidic anointing. 0.72
00:35:19.000 He's a giant slayer.
00:35:20.000 That's why they fear him.
00:35:22.000 The more the left hate him, the more I revere and love him.
00:35:26.000 And so, yes, our whole church, like, I mean, look, I wear these bands, Trump 2020, Trump 2024, make America great again.
00:35:34.000 And your church is increasing in attendance like crazy every week.
00:35:38.000 Every week.
00:35:39.000 You are defying the odds, Jürgen, and I love it.
00:35:43.000 And look, some pastors say, I don't like Trump because you have Russell Moore come out and he says he's awful. 0.96
00:35:51.000 He's terrible.
00:35:51.000 He's all these things.
00:35:54.000 And your response, Jürgen, is.
00:35:56.000 Yes, I mean, people say, oh, I don't like him because of A, B, and C. Dear Jesus, it's like, number one, if you're perfect, you cast the first stone.
00:36:03.000 Oh, you're not.
00:36:05.000 Number two, they miss the big picture.
00:36:07.000 And look, it's very easy to dislike somebody, especially when they're strong and when they're a leader.
00:36:13.000 And so, yeah, so I like Donald Trump because he's gruff, he's strong, he's truthful.
00:36:18.000 That's what we need right now.
00:36:20.000 Pastor Jürgen, everyone, check out his church, Awaken.
00:36:23.000 He also has some terrific books I encourage you guys to look at.
00:36:25.000 It's terrific.
00:36:26.000 And we are here now wrapping up our broadcast at our TPUSA Faith Pastor Summit, the largest in the country.
00:36:33.000 Our goal is to activate and equip the church and pastors to speak out against the heresy of wokeism and be able to articulate courageously and boldly the need for a revival and a restoration of American values in our country.
00:36:47.000 God bless you, Jürgen.
00:36:48.000 God bless you.
00:36:49.000 Everybody, we'll see you soon.
00:36:50.000 Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:36:52.000 God bless you guys.
00:36:53.000 We'll see you tomorrow.
00:36:55.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:36:57.000 Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:37:01.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.
00:37:05.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.