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Special Episode
56 Plays11 days ago
Join us as we discus the impact of the events around what happened with Charlie Kirk on 9/10/2025.
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Transcript
Introduction: Special Episode on Recent Events
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome to what we're calling special episode of the Grove Hill podcast. We're excited to be here with you today. Unless you've kind of been out of the country or out of touch with news, you are very aware of what's been going on here in the United States. Much of the news centered around the events of September the 10th and what happened in Utah and Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Polarization from Charlie Kirk's Assassination
00:00:29
Speaker
Charlie Kirk is an icon. um a representative of conservative and as well Christian thought. And his death has spawned lots of different conversations, has created all kinds of debate back and forth on social media as well as within organizations and probably more than anything has divided this nation more than anything.
00:00:52
Speaker
In recent history, complete trans transparency, I'm 58 years old. I've seen a lot of things in my life. I've seen the the explosion of the space shuttle. I've seen the whole Iran hostage thing.
00:01:05
Speaker
Just a lot of events in life and, of course, nine eleven being the biggest one. But this is probably the one thing that has... polarized our country more than anything else that I can remember in my lifetime. And so we thought it was worth giving an episode to talk to a little bit about this.
Impact on Students and Role of Church Guidance
00:01:24
Speaker
I'm anxious to hear a little bit from Kyle, from his perspective on what our students are facing.
00:01:29
Speaker
um And maybe even the the what that does to them psychologically, mentally, those kinds of images. And of course, from John, just hearing a little bit about our church's response to those things, what we're doing to try to help help.
00:01:45
Speaker
engage the community in helpful conversation in ah and those regards and of course as we always say we're going to bring it back to scripture we're going to talk a little bit about this and of course uh the story of good versus evil which is what this is all about so um kyle why don't you start off a little bit some of your thoughts initial thoughts about what we have seen and watched the years Yeah, I want to touch on the the division part real quick. yeah The country was divided. It revealed that division. um Everybody has a stance in their brain and maybe they're not bold about it. But when something like this happens, it kind of clarifies that line. And you see you see the battle. You see the the war there.
00:02:22
Speaker
As far as the students, I was... fortunate that when it happened on Wednesday, I had Wednesday night with the students. They were all just getting introduced to the news.
00:02:35
Speaker
They were all just getting introduced to the video um and it impacted them heavily. There was a buzz before youth group, just a common conversation about Charlie Kirk. And so
Young Adults' Reaction and Ideological Alignment
00:02:45
Speaker
um I knew I had to address it and we went right into it. We hit it full force um and really focused on what we do as Christians in light of this information.
00:02:55
Speaker
Assessing the evil, seeing what was happening and then how we're supposed to move forward. And we just approached it as we're supposed to continue in the gospel. If Charlie was sitting there with us in that room, ah he wouldn't say, slow down.
00:03:10
Speaker
He would say, hey, we're We're moving forward with the gospel. And so spread the light, spread the word. And that's kind of the the approach I took with the students. um As far as the video, most of our students have social
Spiritual Warfare: Demonic or Societal Issues?
00:03:24
Speaker
media. Most of our students have Facebook, Instagram. And so this one's going out to the parents. If your student has the social media, Instagram, Facebook, ah they saw things that a 13, 14, 15 year old should not see. Exactly. Most people don't see that in their lifetime. yeah
00:03:41
Speaker
Typically it's military people that see that kind of carnage or law enforcement. And so for that to be put in front of their eyes in a very common way, I'm not sure why Facebook and Instagram did not, um,
00:03:55
Speaker
Censor most of that um but the the content of the how graphic it was was Shocking and so if your student has those things they've seen those things That's something you absolutely need to discuss with them um Walk them through that and if they need it send them to talk to somebody That's not something the normal mind should see at that age. Yeah Based
Cancel Culture and Free Speech
00:04:19
Speaker
on everything we're seeing and hearing, obviously it's impacted people across the spectrum of the the population in the United States of America. But you work a lot with young adults, and that's an area where it's really hit home because that that was Charlie's place, the American campus here. Have you heard much from our young adults and what's going on that way? Yeah, I think that there's been a just a heightened awareness of...
00:04:42
Speaker
this really, really polarizing figure in from high school all the way to college and young adult, but they're being faced with an opposing culture. Obviously, Charlie Kirk is working alongside Christian believers sometimes in those turning point, uh, organizations from, you know, the West coast to the East coast.
00:05:04
Speaker
But what he's
Church's Role in Societal Issues
00:05:05
Speaker
walking up on is I would even say more of a majority of conservatives than we really even think. Uh, I know that you and I talked the other day and sometimes I think media and culture wants to position this, ideology that is really radical as man, there's so many people that believe in this one thing that is radical and really it's,
00:05:26
Speaker
I would say maybe a minority, but man, are they loud? Yeah. They are super loud and they are loud enough and they have enough influence in areas like media and gaming to make this radical ideology rampant. And what I'm hearing from young adults and...
00:05:46
Speaker
kind of in conversation walking alongside them in is hearing that man we need to respond swiftly but respond with resolve and that needs to be an evident thing that we don't just sit back that that's the one thing that keeps coming to the forefront is don't be on the sidelines but when you go out into the game go out with a game plan don't just go out guns a blazing kind of deal so yeah So, you know, I'm one of those that really I'm very cautious about labeling things as spiritual warfare, you know, heaven versus hell, kingdom of God versus kingdom of evil, those kinds of things.
00:06:25
Speaker
But you guys weigh in. Do you think this is what we're seeing here? The response to this? Is this really, ah i mean, let's just call it what it is. Are some of these responses demonic in the way people are responding to what happened with Charlie and their desire to see more of it happen and people calling for more violence on on social media? What do y'all think?
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, so there's obviously a
Teaching Effective Communication
00:06:45
Speaker
lot of violence and evil involved in it. the The same evil that stepped into the world when Adam and Eve sinned is the evil that killed Charlie Kirk.
00:06:54
Speaker
um Evil hates the truth. And so when when Charlie was speaking truth, biblical truth, it caused rage in people. And so some of that rage is absolutely demonic. There's Satan has his play in that.
00:07:07
Speaker
And then others is just hurting people and their response to something they don't want to hear. And so maybe they have an identity crisis. And when someone challenges that, it's just a, it's from their internal side, but there is a spiritual battle that's absolutely going on there because truth is involved. If truth is involved, evil is trying to attack it. Right.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's spiritual warfare, especially with it being such a broad topic. And there's so many different people that are reacting and they've come out of the woodwork. It doesn't matter where, what forum. It's not just social media. It's sometimes even person to person.
00:07:40
Speaker
ah By the way, I like that method a whole lot better. I wish it would happen a whole lot more in this for sure conversation because what happens is you don't get the emotion, the genuine sit down dialogue and hear someone out.
00:07:53
Speaker
But I do believe there's both. I do believe sometimes humanity is just dumb. We we think that ah everything is spiritual warfare, and I believe it is.
00:08:05
Speaker
But, man, we've got to give some of ourselves, or we've got look at ourselves and say, hey, we're contributing to the factor. I don't even think Satan sometimes has to worry about some people because they just do dumb all on their own.
00:08:18
Speaker
ah It's one of those things that I think... plagues, and I would say this, American culture, because we've been so privileged, been given so much, and some of these other societies, countries throughout the world don't have the even privilege to just be dumb with what they've got. And I feel like sometimes that plagues us pretty hard.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah. Going back to something you just mentioned, too, I think we see more of this in our culture today, obviously, for a lot of reasons. But one of them is that the keyboard warrior, that ability to do that has dehumanized yeah our interactions with each other.
00:08:53
Speaker
There are lots of cases where I know for a fact the person I'm reading their post, I'm going, you know what, if you were sitting face to face with that person, you wouldn't be nearly as mean, would be nearly as hateful. In fact, you you probably would realize, hey, this is just another human being I'm talking to has value there.
00:09:08
Speaker
What do we do as a church? What do we do as parents? What do we do as a culture to try to get people back to that place where you can look somebody in the eye and even disagree with them? And I'm not saying we always have to agree. We can't always disagree i mean come to agreement.
00:09:23
Speaker
But how do we do that and
Proactive Church Mission
00:09:25
Speaker
and respect people enough to love them and not dehumanize them in such a way? I think a lot of times it comes down to just general conversation. a lot of your students, teenagers, don't have the ability to have a general conversation with anybody.
00:09:37
Speaker
um One thing that's been productive for my family or even the youth group is to take them somewhere and make them engage in conversation with people. And a lot of times that's the the assisted living home to take their phones away, to go in a place like that and just teach them how to communicate.
00:09:52
Speaker
um If they disagree with someone and they don't know how to communicate, there's no way there's going to be any a resolve. And so basic communication is incredibly important for someone to even start that conversation with someone they disagree with.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah. ah I thought about this the other day because I'm working with this with my kids right now. There are times to where them understanding from a young and early age being you know under the age 10, both of them,
00:10:20
Speaker
that when people talk, you talk back, you know, and sometimes you look at families, family dynamics, they haven't been made to talk in any other forum than online. Right. And so the keyboard warrior, that's the only forum that they know
Biblical Inspiration and Bold Faith
00:10:35
Speaker
and that's familiar.
00:10:36
Speaker
But those personal conversations like you were saying, Kyle, I think are very important. Another element that I would say i think is really good and I think is a very scriptural element to be, to be slow to speak. I think we need to,
00:10:49
Speaker
look at the area of listening to a person, even if they are vehemently wrong, even if they are way off base, listen to them because in listening, you love people and you could still have a response back and say, i think you're wrong, but I'm going to listen to you. And then I'm going to respond because so many times we're like, all right, let me formulate my response. Like I'm going to get out of it. Okay. Maybe I'll adjust it based on the last thing they said, but just listen and then respond. And I think we would be better off in some of these dialogues if we go that route. Yeah, that battle was in my household the other day. I didn't listen to my wife. so
00:11:28
Speaker
yeah i mean smith doesn't have to me It doesn't have to be a religious battle or a political battle. It's it people in general. So taking that one step further, we have for the last you know decade dealt with this question of cancel culture, you know, where somebody loses a job or gets, you know,
00:11:48
Speaker
unfriended or whatever the case blocked on social media those kinds of things because we don't agree with the opinion of somebody and I feel like right now we're dealing with it in a reverse way we've seen it just in recent weeks everybody's watched with interest as teachers are losing their jobs people being removed from hospitals because of what they're saying so speak to that a little bit because my wife and I have gotten into that conversation about does this apply to the First Amendment why is it different if it's not and and what do we need to be wary of as Christians knowing that 10 years down the road, it may be a Democrat in office who's choosing to act this way. So, yeah, I think, uh, looking at this from
Substantive Faith Actions
00:12:25
Speaker
two perspectives, first of all, as the church, uh, talking about the big C, not just Grove Hill church, but I think the, the church universally, ah there's a lot of things that we could lose liberties, obviously in the States may lose, you know, our tax exemption status. Uh, there may be other areas where, ah the church in the Western,
00:12:45
Speaker
uh society you even go over into europe there may be some freedoms that get stripped away because of you doing certain things so i would say look at two things um doesn't matter so whenever you speak and those things of cancel culture uh don't look at uh the ramifications of cancel culture look at And what I speaking is, is it something of substance?
00:13:09
Speaker
Uh, because if it's not, if it's just a whole lot of opinion, it's okay to give your opinion, but just make sure that when you're going out in certain forums that man, you're making it count as a believer. Cause sometimes we can just do this and we're not really accomplishing anything. So
Sustaining Spiritual Momentum
00:13:25
Speaker
I would say, make sure that there's substance and make sure that we're doing it with compassion and love. But At the end of the day, be bold.
00:13:33
Speaker
Don't man shy away from whatever it is because you're looking at the consequence. Make sure you got substance with takes it back to the the sermon of this past Sunday where in our church services here we dealt with this this conversation about what's going on, but we we built it around the story of Daniel and the lion's den.
00:13:50
Speaker
And by correlation, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
00:13:57
Speaker
especially the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Fiery Furnace relates to three young men who said, we're going to be bold regardless of what happens in our lives. Of course, Daniel was much older by that point, but he made just as bold a stance and said, you know, i hear what you're saying, but my first allegiance is to my God, and I'm going to continue to do what God has compelled me to do.
00:14:17
Speaker
How do we help our students? How do we help our young adults and and our people see that importance of making that stand now before the pressure comes? Yeah, for sure. Throughout this week, I realized not a lot of the older generation even knew who Charlie Kirk was. right Whereas the the younger generation, my high schoolers, the college age students, they do. And so they're feeling this in a way that...
00:14:41
Speaker
we don't and they're actually getting fired up around the country and yes i've heard it said numerous times this week that you you took down one but you reborn a thousand right and the idea is there's this there's this fire behind the truth of the gospel now and so with a a student moving forward with like uh charlie kirk i would say is the closest to what the original church was designed to do and uh because if you remember paul he was he was preaching and he said he proclaimed
Opportunities for Ministry in Current Climate
00:15:05
Speaker
the kingdom of heaven yeah he preached the name of jesus christ and he did it with boldness and without hesitation And so it's like, that was the church.
00:15:12
Speaker
And so that's what Charlie was doing. He was pushing the gospel. And, um, I think if we, like you said, if we can get that to click in students' heads now, that that is the purpose of being a Christian. That is the purpose of, of who we are created to be. yeah um now would be better than when they're 40, 50 or 60. Right. Just go go ahead and grade that. Put it part of your practice. It's interesting you bring up the book of Acts because last year we preached through the book of Acts. Took 7,000 weeks, I think, to get through the book of Acts. But it's a great book. great
00:15:45
Speaker
To me, it's an inspirational book because it helps us see what that early church endured. and I think is kind of a practice run for what we may endure. But consistently, if you remember going through the story, Paul would get a synagogue fired up, get them turned to Jesus, Satan would come in, there would be a riot behind it. and Then he would go somewhere else and he would preach and then there would be a riot that would follow it.
00:16:05
Speaker
And it seems like that same practice is going on in our country today, well around the world even, that when the Spirit of God starts to move in any capacity, Satan's gonna be there to show up and it cause a noise.
00:16:17
Speaker
it kind of goes back to John chapter 10 verse 10, a famous verse. We we usually quote the last half of it because it it's a great promise. But the first part of that verse says that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.
00:16:31
Speaker
That's his sole intent. When we embrace the world, when we embrace the choices of our way, our lifestyle, those kinds of things with disregard for God and his principles, we invite we invite Satan into to
Bold Church Leadership
00:16:45
Speaker
our families.
00:16:46
Speaker
So, um, I feel like that what what may have happened this past week is that God used an event. that God didn't cause it. God used it.
00:16:59
Speaker
But He used an event to draw a line in the sand for many people to say, okay, are you in or are you not? Are you in or are you not? And you go back and read the book of Acts. That's kind of what Paul called those people to.
00:17:10
Speaker
He said, you got to be different or you're not in. um So how do we keep that momentum going? You and I both, we've been watching the feeds this week. It's been really encouraging the number of people who showed up on Sunday for church for the first time.
00:17:25
Speaker
We're hearing the stories about people reading the Bible for the first time, getting their families up, getting them ready to go to church. That's all encouraging. But how do we feed that fire so that Charlie's life is not in vain?
00:17:37
Speaker
I think two different messages to two different people. Those who are finding what it is that Christianity is all about, come find out more. yeah Go ask a local Bible believing church that has some of these things in place of God first, not the entertainment message. If they're throwing nothing but you know lights and smoke shows, ah just be careful.
00:18:03
Speaker
If you're trying to figure out what kind of substance we're talking about, this tells all about who God is and where God designs for humanity to go. And then on the other side of that, on the church side, i would say, what are you going to do about it?
Connecting with Genuine Church Communities
00:18:20
Speaker
What are you going to do? Because ah you've mentioned this. I know we've all have talked about, you know, around the water cooler, so to speak. But what are we going to do about it? What are we going to, what substance and action are we going to put in place in those personal conversations?
00:18:36
Speaker
Because we know that the the relationship between us and the social media aspect, really, if you put ah an effective pull on it, There's not much change going on there, but it's in the personal conversation and it's also in the personal rhythms that you follow Christ with. Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker
That's where you say, this is where I'm going to draw the line. This is where I'm going to make a change and really dig deep, dig where, where am I setting my mark at? And I think that's what we got to do as believers.
00:19:04
Speaker
think we need to get out of the norm. The church has become a place where we just add Jesus to our current life. And scripture says that, no, Jesus is life. And then you build on top of that. And so instead of bringing Jesus to the baseball game, because we play baseball, you are a follower of Christ and you go play baseball to spread the word. And so it's flipping everything upside down and Jesus being the foundation of everything.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then not just adding him as an additive, but to make him the core. Yeah. Um, I believe, I think I said this Sunday, i believe that this is a unique opportunity that God has given us, uh, where the door is open to a lot of hearts that we might not normally have an opportunity to, um, to minister to. And so we've got to be, as you just said, we've got to
Conclusion: Invitation to Church Community
00:19:50
Speaker
be ready. Um, we've got to be ready to respond, um,
00:19:54
Speaker
If we got any pastors that watch this and are, you know, tuning in today, me encourage you. Be bold, be courageous, be strong. Do not apologize for preaching the gospel word. For people who are watching who are are simply church members or serving in churches, don't be afraid to speak truth, but do it in love. um Because true love, the way God designed it, speaks truth because you want to save people from the destiny they are are are headed towards.
00:20:21
Speaker
but you want to do it in such a way that they're open, they're ready to hear it, ready to receive it. ah Next few weeks, it's going to be interesting to continue to watch this unfold. We pray that people continue to find Jesus Christ, that people continue to open up the word of God, seek the truth that is there.
00:20:36
Speaker
um Man, we'd we'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If there's something about this that you have questions about, places you want to go back and unpack these things, we'd love to do that in the coming weeks. This is not something that's going to go away very quickly.
00:20:50
Speaker
i hope I hope the repercussions of this, the positive repercussions, go on for decades, ah for generations, because I think it has the potential to do that. But man, the church of Jesus Christ has got to be ready to do it.
00:21:03
Speaker
And if you're out there today and you're ready to get back to church, you haven't found a church and you're in the local area, man, we would love for you to come be a part of what's going on in our congregation. We feel very blessed to see how God is working on a weekly basis.
00:21:14
Speaker
um So we would love for you to come be a part of that. If you're out of the area and you just need help finding a church, again, just reach out to us. We can help you connect. um He's from California. He's from Oklahoma. I'm from Georgia. You didn't have to say that. Yeah.
00:21:28
Speaker
Sorry to bring up a source. But no, we have contacts network around the country. We can help you find a place. um You don't want to walk into just any church because sadly not just any church is going to feed you Jesus.
00:21:40
Speaker
And right now you and I, I think all of us recognize that the real answer we're all looking for is found in that person, Jesus Christ, not in anything else. So I hope you'll join us back for our regular podcast coming up next. We're excited about what God is doing and want to use this podcast to bring him glory. So Again, give us your feedback.
00:21:58
Speaker
Click like and follow. And we'll see you next time.